On Monday (18th September) my brother got married and I was his best man. I'm terrible at speaking in public so I thought I'd share my experience with you.
Apart from the terrifying feeling of standing in front of a room full of people and talking about the happy couple I was also worried about the content of the speech.
I wrote my speech the night before the wedding, I had been up until 04:50 and had to get up for a boys breakfast down the pub at 07:30. I was knackered on the day.
The ceremony was fantastic, Claire looked stunning and they both got their words out apart from a moment where my brother got choked. The usual photos were taken and it was onto the reception.
As I sat at the head table I realised that the women clearly out-numbered the men. This didn't help as my speech contained extracts from the "Good Wife Guide", cue the shakes.
Another issue was the stories I had chosen to embarrass my brother, which featured him injuring a part of his body that the older guests may not have appreciated. It all seemed so funny the night before.
Finally the Speech
The speeches followed the meal so I had a lot of time to think about what I had gotten myself into. I couldn't have a drink because I had to drive my daughter Katie home after the reception.
I could see the wedding coordinator in the corner of my eye trying to get my attention to start the speech. Nervously I stood up and picked up the microphone, at this point I was shaking so much that it probably looked like I was waving at the guests.
All of the thank yous were covered in the first minute of the speech so I moved onto the bride. I gave some compliments, joked and then moved onto my finale for the bride. The Good Wife Guide.
Now considering I was bricking it I pulled it off pretty well. The men laughed and the women "ooooed" (not quite booing). It was well received. One down and one to go!
Talking about my brother was easy and I had gotten enough laughs to build my confidence so the story about my brother’s injury wasn't such a problem. Everyone seemed to enjoy the speech and more importantly I wasn't mauled by women, the elderly or my brother.
Job done.
...well not quite. The night before the wedding I had printed 4 embarrassing photos 15 times and handed them out to the tables. It filled me with so much joy when my brother opened the envelope to find the first photo. It was a photo of my brother skinny-dipping in
You can check out the speech material on Picasa, hit the image below.
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