Recent surveys have indicated that some men fear public speaking more than death.
Many best men will have little or no experience of giving a speech to a relatively large group of people. This lack of experience can cause discomfort even dread of the upcoming wedding speech. Such stress can physically manifest itself and further increase the best man’s perceived embarrassment.
You’ll notice I said perceived, the fear of giving a wedding speech is understandable but is all in your mind, identifying the negative thoughts and refusing to let them dictate your being will ultimately give you the confidence to perform and enjoy delivering your best mans speech.
The groom asked YOU to be his best man, he selected you because of who you are, and he will not expect you to be a professional public speaker or a stand up comedian. He wants you to be you. You are his best friend (or closest family member) and he chose you to be his best man because of the qualities you posses, so do not direct your thoughts to the qualities you think you need to have.
“Friends are the ones that bail you out of jail
best friends are the ones that are right there next to you saying, damn that was fun”
Author Unknown
Many best men have tried too hard to make their wedding speech a solid five minute stand up routine. While humour is great in any speech, trying too hard to be funny can degrade the quality and meaning of your speech. With many a best man trying to be “the funniest best man ever” they can tend to tell offensive or “in” jokes that only some people may get or even worse begin a character assassination on the Groom or Bride and their families.
When creating your wedding speech, try to inject your personality into it, you know the Groom better than anyone and your relationship and your shared experiences have greatly influenced the people you have become today. These stories will form the basis of the main part of your speech as you demonstrate to guests what a great guy the groom is and in doing put yourself in a positive light.
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