Best man wedding toast

[jaybird2001wi]

Hello all. I have been given the honor as co-best man to give the wedding toast to my brother Saturday and have been trying to be creative with it and I want it to be a slam dunk speech.

I should know how to do this since I did study public speaking and my minor is speech, and don't want to steal a quote off the internet or something.

Both the groom and bride are diehard Brewer fans and I was thinking of something a Brewer player once said during a retirement speech or something or a tearful press conference to lead off with.

[MrAgro]

Use some Bob Uecker quotes.

[jaybird2001wi]

Bob Uecker? Hmmm..... I guess if I had a top 3 as to who to look for, I would either want a quote from Uke, Yount or Molitor.

[sbrylski]

Say:

The great Bob Uecker once said, "The easiest way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling." And I think that's true with marriage as well.

 

Then go on to say how so. Does that help?

[MrAgro]

Finish with something from Teddy Higuera quote: "Salud, dinero, y amor, y tiempo para gozarlos."

 

Health, money, and love, and time to enjoy them.

[brettac1]

I always thought Buscemi's in The Wedding Singer was just great.

[jaybird2001wi]

I am officially at a loss now as to what to say. The pressure!

[MrAgro]

I typed my speech up and made sure I knew it. If you plan to say something that takes a couple minutes, make sure you think it through and it's not a big drunk slurring of nonsense.

 

Also, nothing wrong with saying a couple nice things, keeping it short, and ending with some toast. There are a lot of good Irish toasts to pick from - at least if you pick a proven toast to end it, you know you end with something that has been used successfully before.

[stoops17]

you've already started doing what I didn't...plan

 

I ended up writing most of my speech the morning before the wedding and putting the finishing touches on it in the church during pictures, I knew what I wanted to say I just didn't like the way it was worded and pieced together

 

it ended up going good but another piece of advice, don't read off paper, and if you have to, type it up, I lost my place on my hand written note and muttered "crap" in front of 450 people when I got lost in the editing I had done, everyone laughed which helped I guess

[bando1234]

I just said what came to mind. It lasted about 3 or 4 minutes.I made fun of the groom , I made fun of myself, told an embarssing story but not too bad. The crowd laughed. I then gave a toast in all seriousness. wished them all the best & then called it a night.

[Brian the Automator]

"It?s easy to grin / When your ship comes in / And you?ve got the stock market beat. / But the man worthwhile, / Is the man who can smile, / When his shorts are too tight in the seat."

[trwi7]

Go for "Love will keep us together" just change a couple words.http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[PKBadger]

Crap....Brian stole my post.

 

Plan B should be, "There once was a man named Enos...."

[GAME05]

i remember seeing a toast on a tv clip a long time ago. the guy said that since the bride was beautiful, she naturally had a lot of boyfriends over the years (in a nice enough way). He put a bucket in front of the main table and said that any guy who still had a key to her place could now turn them in, since she's spoken for now. He'd obviously handed out keys earlier, and every guy in the room walked forward and put a key in the bucket.

 

Then he said that any woman there could now do the same for the groom. And only this one very old lady walked forward and put her key in the bucket.

[JumpinMacFlash]

"Here's to you, and here's to me,

And to the friends that we may be.

But if by chance we disagree,

To hell with you and here's to me!"

 

A funny anecdote about the two of them that you know may be a good way to get into reasons they belong together or why they may last. If nothing else, there's nothing wrong with toasting to love and happiness.

[EsoxLazer]

I don't think I was ever as nervous as I was before I got up to deliver the speech at my best friends wedding. I wrote a few different speeches but I didn't like how they looked on paper so I decided to wing it. I had a general idea of what I wanted to say and figured it would probably come off better if I wasn't reading directly off of a piece of paper. I figured that with the help of a few cocktails, the nerves would be calmed down a little bit and I would be loose enough to deliver. We got held up at the church and didn't get to the reception hall with enough time to hit the bar. I pretty much sat down at the head table and had a mic handed to me within minutes. It came out alright, you could just tell that I was nervous as I used a bunch of "uhhs" and "ums". I knew pretty much everyone there and they know that I can't speak in public so it wasn't so bad. I made fun of the groom a little bit, complimented the bride, told a few humorous stories about some childhood shenanigans, and finished up with one of my favorite old-school quotes about life. As long as its heartfelt you can't go wrong. I probably should have prefaced this by saying how deathly afraid I am of public speaking to begin with. With your knowledge and history in speech, you will be just fine.

[gregmag]

I've done a couple of these, and I just sort of wrote them in my head while I watched what was going on. I think it worked out okay, but I don't remember much of what I said. One sentiment that seems to amuse and please everyone -- assuming you believe it -- is to say that you always wondered if your friend would find anybody who deserved him, but after you got to know his new bride, you started worrying that he didn't deserve her.

 

Actually, the funniest line I ever had was when my college roommate got married. During college I had urged him to go out with this girl we knew, but he never did. I ended up marrying her, and years later, she and I went through an unpleasant divorce (as opposed to all the fun ones), and shortly after that he married this very cool woman. So in my toast I gave him some crap about it -- like, Thanks for all the help. But that bit doesn't work in all situations.

 

Greg.

[dannyjnoonan]

Okay, here my recomendation. The first one only works if you're the younger brother and single (like I was when I said it).

 

Start with something like this: "When we were kids growing up, I always looked up to Brother....

 

Then list a few things that he taught you how to do or was better than you at: "He taught me how to throw a curveball..." or "Whenever I brought home a B in school, he brought home an A..." or "When I caught an X inch fish, he caught an X+4 inch fish..." or whatever. Personalize it to fit you and your brother, but stick to the theme of "Brother was better than me at stuff."

 

After this, you say, "now that we've grown up, I have a much better curveball than Brother, I'm much more intelligent, and I'm a way better fisherman (or whatever your items were). But today, by marrying Brother'sWife, Brother has set a precedent that I can never hope to top...."

 

Then basic "here's to Brother and Brother'sWife!"

 

This is is good because it takes a friendly shot at the brother and gives a huge compliment to the wife.

[Jimbo]

Quote:

---

would either want a quote from Uke, Yount or Molitor.

---

 

"I'm the luckiest man on the face of the Earth." or whatever it was Gehrig said. Substitute He's for I'm.

[Mike Felder]

"True love is something that's hard to find. Sometimes you think you've found true love and then you catch the early flight back from San Diego..."

 

My only advice is to keep it short. My best man is a dear, dear friend, but I think he had one too many glasses of champagne in the limo and ended up rambling for about 10 minutes. It wasn't bad; he didn't say anything that was dumb or embarassing, on the contrary, it was very nice. But 10 minutes is just too long...he's been taking good-natured crap from everyone that was there ever since.