Free Best Man Speeches
You can use these free sample speeches as is, or you can cut and paste sections to make your own. If you have an original best man speech you would like to submit then please email it to sales@gunthergifts.com and we will send you a free gift as a way of saying thank you if we use it on the web. Enjoy!
Best Man Speech #1 (Funny)
Everyone – please raise your glasses and join me in toasting Joanna and Kevin. As I begin this wedding speech one of the first thoughts that come to mind is… if I’m the best man… than why is Joanna getting married to Kevin? (Pause when people laugh) I guess because today, I am just an average man and Kevin is the best man. (pause) In my extensive research to find out how to deliver a great best man speech, I learned that I am expected to sing the praises of the groom and tell you what a wonderful guy Kevin is. Unfortunately, I’m a bad singer and a bad liar. (Pause when people laugh) Kevin… Joanna is a wonderful, beautiful, kind and good hearted person who deserves a great husband. Thank goodness you snapped her up before she found one. (Pause when people laugh) All kidding aside – I’m honored to be here today… I love you both and wish you many years of happy marriage. Cheers!
Best Man Speech #2
Ladies and gentlemen. It takes a strong and intelligent man to realize his dreams and achieve his goals in life and love. A man that is not afraid to live life to its fullest and embrace what is truly important. But enough about me… I’m here to talk about John and Katherine. Two people who have come together today to form a union that will surely last forever. [raise your glass and face the bride] Katherine… you look absolutely beautiful. John is lucky to have found such a wonderful gal to share his life with. John is my best friend and I’m honored that he chose me to be his best man on this most important day in your lives. I wish you both peace and happiness in your new life together and may God bless your union.
Best Man Speech #3
Ladies and gentleman. I met John in 1990. We have been friends for over 17 years. In that time, he has proven himself to be not only a great friend, but a truly good man as well. I value my friendship with John and I look forward to having the same great friendship with his lovely new bride Katherine. I know one important thing about Katherine. She has made John happier then I have ever seen him. Today is a day of joy and happiness for all of us. But it is not just a day… it’s the very special beginning of a new life between John and Katherine. I wish you both health and happiness and may God bless your marriage.
Best Man Speech #4
To my friends – old and new. It’s an honor for me to be here… to celebrate this very special day for John and Katherine. Dale Carnegie once said: “Don’t ask a man what is important to him. Watch how he spends his time.” I’ve watched John spend his time, and I can see what’s important to him. It’s Katherine. She has made John a happy man… a man with a new focus… a man with a new appreciation for love and life. I’ve known John and Katherine for 8 years and I can honestly say that they are perfect for one another. They were both fantastic people when they met. Now as a team, they will embark on a new adventure together as man and wife. John and Katherine [raise glass) I toast you, and wish you both peace, health and happiness.
Best Man Speech #5
John & Katherine - I stand here today to toast you. To celebrate your new union together. You have now become part of the most important team. Team McDonald [bride & groom's last name]. All your joys will now be magnified by two because you can share them together. All your trials and tribulations have now been halved – because you can now solve them together. In marriage, you promise to care about everything. The good things, the bad things and the mundane. You promise to each other that life will not go unwitnessed, because you will witness it with each other. John & Katherine…this is just the beginning. The best is yet to come.
Best Man Speech #6
John & Katherine. The truest meaning of marriage is the magic of being needed by just one person. The two of you have come together to share your lives and realize your dreams. Today you are husband and wife. This is day one of a great adventure and I’m honored to be able to share it with you. Remember that great opportunities to help each other seldom come… but small ones will surround you everyday. I toast you… and wish you a long marriage filled with love and above all, laughter.
Best Man Speech #7
Karen & Jim – every great relationship starts with rings. In the beginning, the phone would ring and the just the thought of speaking to one another was exciting. Your love grew and so did your commitment to each other. The engagement ring soon came after. There were no doubts… your love was true. The engagement ring has now turned into a wedding ring and we are all here today to celebrate your marriage. Now of course… the suffer-ring begins. (smile and raise your glass) Peace and happiness to the new bride and groom!
Best Man Speech #8
Bill & Mary – What a great day to get married! Marriage carries new responsibilities. Mary – from now on, you should never argue or disagree with Bill, because he is now the head of the family and the king of his castle. You will be expected to keep your hair and makeup perfect at all times – to dress in a way that pleases Bill. You should cook his favorite meals every night and encourage him to go out with his friends on a regular basis. Do these simple things and your marriage will be blessed with many years of happiness. Mary – I know that Bill loves you very much… because he spent a long time writing this speech for me. Congratulations to the both of you!
General Advice:
Keep your speech as short as possible. Talk about the bride and groom, not yourself.
DO’S
If you have a story that compliments the bride or groom then by all means include it in your speech.
If you like the bride or groom’s parents and know why, then mention it – but keep it short.
If the bride looks stunning or beautiful then mention it – but don’t say: “You look beautiful today” Saying “today” implies that she does not normally look beautiful.
DON’TS
Avoid telling stories about you and the groom going drinking or partying.
Never mention the brides body in any way. Whether she is large, skinny or otherwise do not mention weight. Never make comments on the bride’s anatomy such as cleavage or legs or anything that may be considered a sexual reference.
If the bride is pregnant – do not mention it.
Never mention past relationships of the bride or groom in your speech.
Avoid telling too many jokes. Although you may think something is funny, chances are there will be dozens of people that did not think it was amusing.
Follow these simple rules and your best man wedding speech will be a hit! Thank you for visiting Gunther Gifts. We hope that you found these free best man speeches and tips to be helpful and hope that you return to our website if you should ever need high quality personalized gifts.
Hot Groomsman Gift Idea – Zippo Lighter
Engraved Zippo Lighters are traditional groomsmen gift ideas that never go out of style. Both smokers and non-smokers have use for Zippos. Light candles, BBQ’s, start a campfire, wave them at concerts, Zippo lighters are always cool. They’ve been around for decades as an iconic part of American culture. It’s one of those gift items that also lasts forever too.
While supplies last, every Zippo lighter you purchase from Gunther Gifts comes with a free genuine leather belt pouch. You don’t even have to request it. The free Zippo pouch comes with your order automatically. You can order your lighters plain or go the extra mile (well, we do all the work for you!) and have them customized with the names or initials of all the guys in your wedding party. A personalized gift is a cherished gift.
There are 28 unique, custom templates that allow you to personalize your Zippo lighter. Go with initials, a name, a couple lines of text or a unique spiral engraving of a whole sentence. Gunther Gifts has been online since 1999 and our master engraver has come up with some attractive, unique engraving options that you’ll not find anywhere else. Get that Zippo engraved like no other engraver can. Shop Gunther Gifts for all your groomsmen gift needs today.
Halloween Style Personalized Shot Glasses for your Gothic Themed Wedding
Some brides and grooms aren’t into traditional. Those that want a goth themed wedding will definitely want to party it up with wedding favors that are unique and have a dark twist to them. An imprinted shot glass at each place setting at your gothic wedding reception is a nice way to add a personalized touch to your wedding. Your guests will love taking home such a fun keepsake of your wedding day. Customize with your names and wedding date. You can leave “as is” so the glasses are ready to be filled with shots when the party really gets started. Or, fill with M&M’s, mints, or confetti. It’s up to you. Throw your goth wedding your way and run your theme all the way down to your wedding favors for all your guests.
Who Are the Groomsmen and Why Buy Groomsmen Gifts?
Groomsmen Gifts Glass Mug (comes with free keychain flask)
Over the decades, one of the most popular groomsman gift choices is liquor flasks. But, when you or part of your wedding party doesn’t drink alcohol, that is not an appropriate gift choice. It’s especially not the best idea to give someone a personalized liquor flask that may have had a drinking problem in the past. That may be too tempting or viewed as quite insensitive and thoughtless on your part.
If you’re searching for a personalized gift for your dad, best man, each groomsman, and the ushers, and you don’t have a huge budget, then mugs work perfectly. A big, manly 25 oz glass mug made in the United States is a thoughtful choice. Think about it… a mug will get daily use. And, the gift recipient can fill it with beer, ice tea, water, soda pop, fruit shakes, root beer floats, sports drinks or whatever. It works for all your groomsmen whether they drink alcohol or not.
For $20 per glass, it’s extremely budget friendly. The $20 price includes engraving of a title (such as Bride, Groom, Groomsman, Bridesmaid, Best Man, Best Friend, Dad, Mom, Usher, Father of the Groom, Father of the Bride, Mother of the Groom, Mother of the Bride, Brother of the Groom, Brother of the Bride, Sister of the Groom, Sister of the Bride, Grandfather of the Groom, Grandfather of the Bride, Friend of the Groom, Friend of the Bride, Master of Ceremonies or Photographer); name of who you are giving the glass mug to; and the names of the bride and groom and the wedding date. That’s a lot of customization! For a limited time (well, actually, as supplies last), a free 1 oz. keychain flask is included.
Engraving time is anywhere from 2 to 5 business days. Gunther Gifts can even do last minute rush jobs for the procrastinating groom. But, why do that to yourself? Typically, you should aim to get your groomsmen gifts on order at least a month ahead of when you’d like to hand them out. That being said, we always have grooms calling on a Monday or Tuesday that need their gifts in hand by Friday. We can do it! Check out that awesome mug: Click here to view Engraved Glass Mug.
Austin’s Proposal Story – Sheri Said “Yes!”
Austin was kind enough to provide a really sweet story on how he proposed to his girlfriend Sheri. Here’s the story:
- Austin’s Proposal Story
Back in May, I noticed a customer of ours at Formstack was using our software to create online contest forms for the Indy 500 and it got me thinking about ways I could propose to Sheri. She’s a huge race fan, loves cars and we had gone to the Indy 500 the past couple of years. I wanted to come up with a unique way to propose to her that incorporated some of her biggest interests.
The cute couple: Austin & Sheri
I contacted the Director of Digital Communications at Hare Chevrolet, the customer using our software, and asked if I could get involved in one of their events to propose to my girlfriend. He responded in minutes and was immediately on board. Receiving the go ahead from the owners, he secured an invite for their Corvette owners-only event where we’d get to go by police escort to the tract. He gave me a Corvette to drive for the weekend and helped me get permission to propose on the bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
I had to have a cover story for all of this so I called Sheri one day at work and told her a client of ours gave my boss tickets to a Corvette event, but he couldn’t make it. I also wrote a fake email explaining the event and had my boss send it to me so it’d look like it came from him. It mentioned that I would need to take the Flip camera to record some video so I could write a customer spotlight for our blog and put up a video of it.
Sheri was under the impression that this was all for work and didn’t have the slightest clue what was going on. She was just incredibly excited about getting to go to the event and didn’t even know we’d get to drive a Corvette. I told her we’d be driving my Jeep and doubted they would let us on the track with it. I said we would most likely just meet everyone at the track for the dinner. She was still incredibly enthusiastic about it all and talked about it to her coworkers and friends during the two weeks leading up to the event.
Throughout the whole planning process, I really came to appreciate the tight-knit community we have here in Indianapolis. I sent a few emails to complete strangers hoping for a response, and within hours I was connected to executives at the IMS, Chevrolet, Andretti Green Racing, and even Sheri’s favorite driver, Tony Kanaan. It was amazing how excited everyone was to help out and go out of their way for someone they had never met.
I was even fortunate enough to be approached by the Vice President of Marketing at Chevrolet, Jim Campbell, during the event where he congratulated us and mentioned how they were talking about my proposal idea at dinner the night before. He was genuinely interested to hear about how it all happened and it was exciting to get to share it with him. Rather than give you the long story like I did with him, as if this wasn’t long enough already, you can see it for yourself in the video.
Spoiler alert: she said yes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0QuuWjRdmk
Free Best Man Speech Ideas
Those of you that have the honor of being a best man in a wedding know that you are pretty much required to give some sort of speech. Once it’s time to sit down, relax, eat and drink, you are expected to give a short speech about the happy couple.
Don’t start getting sweaty hands and those butterflies in your stomach. This is no big deal at all…. but only if you come prepared. Do NOT wing it! You might say something that will embarrass yourself, the groom, or even worse… the bride!
Check out some best man speeches here: Ideas for Best Man Speech.
Anyone have any great best man speeches that you’ve used? Please post them here so we can help other guys! Help out a brother with some more best man speech ideas.
Free Wedding Catalog Available
Hot off the press! Gunther Gifts is happy to announce a new 88-page catalog that every bride and/or groom should have. It is a great resource for your wedding planning. Items are presented in a start-to-finish manner to help you stay organized. As soon as you are engaged and have set your wedding date, you should be sending out “Save the Date” announcements to your friends and family so that they reserve your special day on their calendars . You’ll guarantee the biggest turnout to your big day.
Then you can take a look at our helpful “Wedding Checklist”. This checklist gives you a useful timeline as to what should be done and when in the long list of tasks that make up planning a wedding. Once you’re engaged, you’re off and running! You’ll see useful suggestions as to what to do 9-12 months ahead, 6-9 months ahead, 4-6 months ahead, 2-4 months ahead, 1-2 months ahead, 2-4 weeks ahead and even 1 week ahead, down to the wire!
From there the catalog goes into a sampling of different styles of wedding invitations, from formal, to whimsical, to tropical to flowery. We dedicate 2 full pages to “Etiquette Guidelines for Wedding Invitations” so you know how to even address your wedding invitations when you are ready to send them out to your guests. Divorced families, remarriages, and special titles such as Doctor or Reverand call for special consideration when addressing envelopes. You’ll get it right if you follow our suggested invitation etiquette guidelines. We even show you the proper way to assemble the parts of your wedding invitation packet and the proper stacking order for all items to be stuffed into the final mailing envelope.
Bridal shower invitations, thank you cards, and “be prepared” items help keep you organized and on top of thanking people along the way and after the big day. Speaking of the big day, we have specific wedding day checklists for you to go through so that you have every situation covered: wedding attire for the bride and groom, wedding day emergency kit, honeymoon checklist, and updating the bride’s name after the ceremony.
We then present items that will be handy at the ceremony and reception: flower vases for decoration at the reception hall, ring holders, gift card holders, flower girl gifts, garters, flower girl baskets, ring bearer pillows, pen sets, guest books, alternatives to the guest book (pictures, platters, or vases your guests can sign), wedding collections, unity candles, and unity sand sets. Whew!
Be sure to capture all those special memories with photographs. Your photographer will have this one handled. But what do you do with all those beautiful pictures of the bride and groom and various members of the wedding party? After the wedding, it’s a beautiful gesture to give someone a framed picture of them or the bride and groom in a picture frame. That makes it ready-to-display. That’s the best way to give a picture! And, you can add personalization for that special touch. In fact, most items in our wedding catalog can be personalized to add customization to your wedding. It’s an important day in your lives, and yes, it is all about the bride and groom. So, revel in it!
Unique wedding signs are available for the reception hall. You’ll definitely want a table runner that has the name of the bride and groom on it. Everyone will know which table is reserved for the happy couple and wedding party. This is a great visual so that the bride and groom know exactly where they are supposed to take their seats so they can relax a little bit. A wedding banner is a nice touch for the outside of the reception hall. Why make guests guess if they are headed the right way? Put the names of the bride and groom right on this banner and hang it at the entrance door to the hall. Everyone will feel comfortable knowing they are headed in the right direction. A customized aisle runner works well for the church. Walk up to the altar on a custom printed aisle runner that highlights the names of the bride and groom and wedding date. Later at the dance floor, throw on a dance floor decal with a custom message like “Get out and dance!” or simple restate the names of the bride and groom and wedding date.
No reception would be complete without a cake cutting ceremony and toast. Be sure to have your own special champagne toasting flutes and cake server set. The great part about these wedding accessories is that you’ll be able to use them again and again as each anniversary comes up. Also, be sure to pick out a cake top with a heart theme or your initials for further personalization.
At the reception, at the place setting themselves, you can further add your own custom touches. Personalized glassware such as wine glasses, champagne flutes, shot glasses or candle votives serve as holders for candy, decorations or simply as glassware to be used once the reception is underway. These are then kept by your guests as mementos of your wedding. Or you can pick for many cute wedding favors such as coasters, tealight holders, candles, mint tins, kissing bells, bottle openers, keychains, soaps, placecard holders, mini picture frames, measuring spoons, purse holders, corkscrews, bottle openers, bookmarks, fans, luggage tags, and more. There are so many fun ways that you can add some excitement to each and every place setting at the reception. Guests love wedding favors. These little goodies are so fun to take home and remind everyone of the great time they had at your wedding.
Of course, a wedding doesn’t just happen by itself. Your bridesmaids and groomsmen are critical people that help everything run smoothly. Not only that, these wonderful people spend a lot of time assisting you or listening to you as to go through your wedding planning. Be sure to thank them with some bridesmaid gifts or groomsmen gift ideas.
Congratulations on your wedding. We wish you many happy days to come. Be sure to request your free wedding catalog today. Catalogs are sent out weekly. You’ll definitely want to get ahold of one as soon as you can. You’ll be able to see everything you need, from start to finish, for your wedding. The only thing we don’t cover is the bride’s dress or the groom’s tuxedo! Get all the little accessories and wedding party gifts out of the way so you can really focus on you. After all, the bride and groom are the stars!
