Best Man Speech Examples: 5 Full Speeches, Start to Finish

Sam once drove four hours to return a library book. Not because it was overdue. Because he had promised the librarian he would bring it back in person, and he could not stand the thought of her waiting.

I'm Theo. I lived on the other side of a very thin wall from Sam for three years of college, which means I have heard him rehearse every phone call he has ever been nervous about, including, eventually, the one where he asked Nadia to dinner.

We met in the first week of freshman year, when he knocked on my door at two in the morning to ask whether I knew how to get a fitted sheet onto a mattress. I did not. We spent forty minutes on it together, failed completely, and slept on bare mattresses until October. That was the foundation of the friendship: two people, confidently wrong about the same thing.

The story I am allowed to tell tonight is the camping trip in our second year. Sam planned it. Sam packed it. Sam forgot the tent poles. When we realised, around sunset, he did not panic. He looked at the tent, looked at the trees, and said, 'We have rope and we have ambition.' We built a tent out of rope, ambition and a canoe paddle, and at about three in the morning it came down on both of us in the rain. Sam's only comment, from underneath the wet nylon, was, 'Structurally, that was always the risk.'

But I want to put the jokes down for a minute, because there is a reason I am the one standing up here. When my dad was in hospital in our final year, Sam did not ask what he could do. He just started turning up. He drove me there every Sunday for two months, sat in the car park doing his coursework, and never once made me talk about it on the way home. I have tried to thank him for that more than once, and he always changes the subject. So, Sam: you cannot change the subject tonight. Thank you.

Nadia, I noticed something the first time the three of us had dinner. Sam, who rehearses every hard conversation through a wall, did not rehearse anything with you. He just talked, the way he only talks to people he has decided to trust. It took me about three years to get that version of him. You got it at the first dinner.

What I see in the two of you is two people who keep their promises in small ways, library books included, and who have each found someone who keeps them back.

So would you all please stand and join me. To Sam and Nadia: may your tent always have poles, and may you always keep turning up for each other. To Sam and Nadia.

When Ravi was seven, he announced at dinner that he was running away from home. He packed a backpack with two bananas, a torch and a dictionary, and made it as far as the end of the driveway, where he sat for an hour, because he was not allowed to cross the road on his own. That is Ravi in one picture: dramatic plans, and enormous respect for the rules.

I'm Arjun, his older brother, which means I have been responsible for Ravi, in one way or another, for thirty-one years. Tonight I officially hand that job over. Jess, I'm sorry. There is no manual.

Being the older brother means I did everything first, and Ravi got to watch me get it wrong. I learned to drive first, and he watched me reverse into our dad's car. I went to university first, and he watched me come home after one term with a suitcase of laundry. He took notes. By the time it was his turn, he did every single thing better, and he was very kind about only mentioning it once a week.

The story I have been asked not to tell is our cousin's wedding, where Ravi, aged fourteen, was put in charge of the rings and lost them for eleven minutes. I will only say that they turned up inside a bread roll, and nobody has ever explained how.

But here is what I actually want to say. Somewhere along the way, the little brother I was supposed to look after started looking after me. When our mum was ill three winters ago, it was Ravi who made the spreadsheet, booked the appointments, cooked the Sunday dinners, and rang me every night to tell me how she was, even though I was the one who should have been doing it. He never once made me feel like I was letting anyone down. That is who he is.

Jess, you have been part of this family for four years now, and I think you already know this, but I will say it in front of everyone: we are so glad it is you. You make my brother laugh at himself, which is a service to all of us, and you are the only person I have ever seen win an argument with our mother.

So please raise a glass with me. To Ravi and Jess, and to a marriage where the rings never end up in the bread. To Ravi and Jess.

Luca and I have been friends since we were eleven, which is long enough to remember his haircut in 2009, and wise enough not to describe it. I'm Ben.

I have two minutes, so I will spend them on one story. When we were twenty, we tried to drive to the coast in a car with a broken fuel gauge. Luca said he could work out the fuel from the mileage. He could not. We ran out on a hill, in the dark, eleven miles from anywhere, and Luca got out, looked up at the sky, and said, 'Well. Now we have a story.' Then he pushed the car for a mile so that I did not have to.

That is Luca. He gets things wrong with enormous confidence, and then he is the first one out of the car to fix them.

Amara, the day Luca met you, he rang me and talked for forty minutes without mentioning himself once. That had never happened before. You have made a very good man even better at paying attention, and we are all grateful.

So please stand with me. To Luca and Amara: plenty of fuel, and good company when you run out. To Luca and Amara.

I'll be honest with you. I asked Tom if I could just email this speech to everyone. He said no. So here we are.

I'm Will. Tom and I have worked side by side at the same garage for nine years, and in nine years I have heard him say maybe four hundred words about his feelings. About three hundred of them were about Mei.

I'm not going to tell you a wild story, because Tom is not a wild-story man. He is the man who stays late. When my house flooded two winters ago, he turned up at seven in the morning with a wet vac and a packet of biscuits, and he stayed until the floor was dry. He did not make a thing of it. He never does.

That is what I know about Tom. If you need him, he is already on his way.

Mei, I've watched him since he met you. He hums at work now. He never used to hum. He talks about the things you two are planning like they are jobs he cannot wait to start. I don't know how you did it, but thank you. The garage is a better place with a humming Tom in it.

I'll keep this short, because I promised myself I would, and because my hands are shaking. Please join me. To Tom and Mei, and to a house that never floods. To Tom and Mei.

I would like to begin by taking full credit for this marriage.

I'm Hannah. Marcus has been my best friend since we were seated together in a chemistry class and set fire to a paper towel, and yes, I am the best man tonight, and yes, I have the suit to prove it.

Six years ago I threw a birthday party in a flat so small that guests had to take turns standing in the kitchen. Marcus was in the kitchen. So was my friend Chloe from work. I had invited them both on the understanding that they would absolutely not get on. Marcus plans holidays eighteen months in advance. Chloe once booked a flight while standing at the airport. I thought I was being generous, giving each of them someone to complain about.

They spent four hours in that kitchen. Other guests had to pass them drinks through the doorway. At one in the morning Marcus came to find me, looking slightly dazed, and said, 'Your friend has a completely unworkable approach to holidays.' Then he asked for her number.

For the record, they have since been on eleven holidays together. Marcus plans the first half. Chloe improvises the second. On every single trip, someone has ended up somewhere that was not on the spreadsheet, and every single time, it has been the best day of the trip.

And that is what I want to say about them, with the jokes put down. Marcus taught Chloe that you can plan for the things that matter. Chloe taught Marcus that the best things are usually not on the plan. I have watched each of them become a braver and calmer version of themselves, and I got to be in the kitchen when it started.

So please stand with me. To Marcus and Chloe: may you always leave room in the spreadsheet. To Marcus and Chloe.