7 Best Man Speech Examples (That Actually Sound Human)
Real best man speech examples, funny, heartfelt, and short, with notes on why each one works. Use them as a starting point, not a script.
Part of the Best Man Speech Guide : examples, tips, and structure for every best man.
It's midnight. The wedding is in six days. You've opened a new Google Doc, typed "Best man speech examples," and you're now reading something that opens with "Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor and privilege..."
Close the tab.
That's not what you're looking for. You're looking for something that sounds like a real person talking about their actual friend. Something that would make him laugh in the third row and make his new wife cry in the best way and make his dad put down his phone for the first time all evening.
That exists. It just doesn't come from a template.
Here's what does: specificity. Most speech examples feel hollow because they're built on generic sentiment, "he's the most loyal person I know," "she makes him so happy," when the thing that actually moves a room is concrete detail. The specific story. The exact thing he said. The particular way he changes when she walks in.
The seven examples below aren't scripts. They're extracts. An opening, a middle section, a toast line. They cover different relationships, different tones, different challenges. Use them the way a musician uses a reference track: as a direction, not a destination.
Your speech will have different stories. Different jokes. Different silences. That's the point.
1. The Old Friend (10+ Years, Shared History)
Opening:
I've known Marcus for seventeen years. Which means I have been waiting seventeen years to stand up in front of people who love him and tell the truth.
The truth is this: he is one of the best people I have ever known. He is also one of the most infuriating. These two things are not unrelated.
Middle:
There's a story I've been telling for years, and it goes like this: in 2014, Marcus and I drove from Chicago to Nashville in a car with no AC in August because he'd bought festival tickets from someone on Craigslist and couldn't get his money back. We did not get in. We sat in a Waffle House for two hours, split a coffee, and then drove home. He made a playlist for the drive back. It was only songs about failure.
I laughed for four hours straight. That's who he is. He doesn't get embarrassed by the things that don't work out. He just makes them into a story.
That's also exactly who you want in a marriage.
Toast:
Jamie, he is a lucky man and he knows it. To Marcus and Jamie, and to all the playlists still ahead.
This one works because the story earns the compliment. "He is one of the best people I know" is a claim; the Waffle House is the evidence. By the time the speaker says "that's exactly who you want in a marriage," the room believes it because they've seen it, not just heard it.
2. The Brother (Family Dynamic, Gentle Ribbing)
Opening:
There are two things I should tell you upfront. One, I'm his brother, which means I have a legally distinct category of embarrassing material. Two, our mother is in the front row, which means I'm going to use almost none of it.
Middle:
Growing up, Danny was the one who got the compliments. Charming, people said. Natural with people. And I'd watch him work a room at family parties at fourteen years old and think: I genuinely don't know how he does that.
Then I watched him meet Priya for the first time. And I understood something I hadn't before. He wasn't performing with people. He was actually interested in them. He wanted to know what they thought, what they cared about, what made them get out of bed in the morning.
Priya, I think you found that out pretty quickly. And the rest of us got to watch it happen, which was its own kind of gift.
Toast:
To my brother, who deserved this, and to Priya, who clearly has no idea what she's gotten into but is going to be just fine.
The brother relationship has a built-in credibility and warmth that other friendships don't. This example leans into the sibling dynamic without being mean, and the turn toward the partner feels earned, not tacked on. The toast has a light comic sting without undermining the sincerity.
3. The Work Friend (Shorter Relationship, Less History)
Opening:
I should warn you: James and I have only known each other for three years. Which, at a wedding, is basically the guy who showed up late. But in that three years, I've seen enough.
Middle:
We met at a job that tested people. Long hours, high stakes, the kind of environment where you find out fast who someone actually is when things go sideways. James, it turned out, was the person who stayed calm. Who made the call nobody wanted to make. Who then went home and apparently texted Sophie about it for an hour because he trusted her with that side of himself.
I didn't know Sophie then. But I knew, from those texts he'd accidentally read to me while searching for something else in his phone, that he had found the person he could be the whole version of himself with.
That's not nothing. That's, actually, the whole thing.
Toast:
I may not have known him longest. But I've seen the version that matters. To James and Sophie.
A shorter friendship doesn't have to mean a weaker speech. This example addresses the constraint directly in the opening, which disarms the audience, then compensates by going deeper rather than broader. Quality of observation over quantity of years.
4. The Funny One (Actually Funny)
Opening:
I was asked to keep this under five minutes. Ryan said, and I'm quoting directly, "please don't make it weird." Ryan, I have known you for twelve years. I'm going to do my absolute best.
Middle:
Now, I have to tell you about the trip to Portugal. Ryan will know what I'm talking about. Ryan's face right now confirms that he does.
We were there for a long weekend, five of us, and on the second night Ryan decided to order something off a menu without using the translation app. He'd been studying Portuguese, he said. He'd downloaded an app. He was, he said, pretty confident.
What arrived was a plate of chicken feet.
He ate them. That's the part I want you to understand. He looked at that plate and said, "Okay, yeah, this is fine," and he ate them, because he would rather eat chicken feet than admit he'd gotten it wrong. That stubbornness, right there, is either his greatest flaw or his most lovable quality. Hannah has now spent three years figuring out which.
Toast:
Hannah, I don't know how you do it. But you seem happy. To Ryan and Hannah, and to never ordering blind again.
The humor comes from a real character observation dressed up as a story. It's not a punchline. It's a portrait. The best man isn't just performing jokes; he's using comedy to show who the groom is. That's the difference between a funny speech and a roast.
5. The Heartfelt One (No Jokes, Pure Sincerity)
Opening:
I've been trying to write something funny for two weeks. And every time I try, I come back to the same thing: I don't want to make you laugh. I want to tell you what I've watched happen over the last four years.
Middle:
I've known Tom since we were nineteen. And there is a version of him from that era that I could describe for you, and it would get laughs, because he was very young and did young-person things. But that's not the version I want to talk about.
I want to talk about the version that called me the morning after the third date and said, "I think this is actually it." And then was quiet for a long time. And I said, "What does that feel like?" And he said, "Like I can stop looking for something."
He'd been looking for a long time. I watched him do it. I watched him be lonely in ways he never admitted and patient in ways I'm not sure I could have been.
And then he found Claire. And that call happened. And I knew.
Toast:
To Tom and Claire. I knew.
Stripping out the humor entirely is a gamble that only pays off with genuine honesty. This works because it stays close to a specific moment, the phone call, rather than trafficking in abstract emotion. "I knew" at the end is earned because we've heard exactly what the speaker knew.
6. The Short One (Under 2 Minutes, By Request)
Opening:
Will asked me to keep this short. Which is the only instruction he's ever given me that I intend to follow.
Middle:
Here's what I know about Will and Adaeze. He is not a man who says the big things easily. He's more the type to show up with dinner unannounced because he figured out you'd had a bad day. To fix the thing without being asked. To be there in the way that doesn't announce itself.
The first time I met Adaeze, she said to me: "He doesn't say much, does he? But I always know exactly where I stand." She said it like it was the best thing she'd ever found. Maybe it was.
Toast:
To Will, who shows up. And to Adaeze, who saw him. To both of you.
Brevity forces you to find the one true thing and say only that. This example doesn't try to do too much. A single character observation, a confirming moment from the partner, a short toast. Under 300 words. Still landed.
7. The One Where You Don't Know the Partner Well Yet
Opening:
I want to be honest with you: I don't know Mei that well yet. I know Marcus. I know his version of her. And then I spent this weekend watching the real version, and I have some thoughts.
Middle:
Marcus has talked about Mei for two years. And the thing he always comes back to is this: she is direct. She says what she thinks. She doesn't let things sit and fester. He says this like it's a revelation, like he discovered a new technology for existing in the world.
And watching them together this week, I get it. She makes him actually say the thing. And he makes her laugh in a way she doesn't quite see coming. Which is probably the most Marcus thing possible, and apparently it works.
I don't know Mei well yet. But I know what Marcus is like when things are right. And I've watched him be that version of himself all weekend.
Toast:
To Marcus, who finally found someone worth saying the thing to. And to Mei, for making him do it. Welcome to the family.
Not knowing someone well is an honest starting point that the room will trust more than a fake familiarity. The speaker acknowledges the gap and then uses secondhand knowledge creatively, reporting how the groom described her, then confirming it through direct observation. Honesty about the constraint becomes the strength.
What these examples are not
They're not scripts. Swapping in your names and reading them verbatim would produce exactly the thing this post opened by telling you to avoid: something that doesn't sound like you.
What they are: a set of techniques. Character revealed through story. Constraints addressed rather than hidden. Humor as observation, not performance. The turn toward the partner. The short toast that earns its brevity.
The only thing no example can give you is the specific story you have. The camping trip that went wrong. The text he sent you that you still have in your phone. The thing she said that made him call you immediately.
That's what makes the speech yours. And that's the part that makes rooms go quiet.
Keep reading
- How to Write a Best Man Speech That Gets Laughs and Tears
- Best Man Speech Opening Lines
- Wedding Speech Jokes: What Works and What Doesn't
The hardest part of writing a best man speech isn't the words. It's knowing which stories to tell and how to connect them.
SpokenVow interviews you the way a professional speechwriter would, drawing out the specific moments, the voice that sounds like you, and three distinct draft angles to choose from. You bring the stories. We'll help you shape them.
