The Best Man's Almanac

Within a year of being a best man twice, I got married, made an offer on my first house, and began trying to start a family. It’s not a coincidence. Acting as a best man comes at a pivotal time in a man’s life, usually in the sweet spot when anything from your professional career to love life has finally started to take off (If your best man is single and his greatest achievement to date prominently involves an arcade machine or eating contest, you might want to rethink your options). For most guys, the experience of being a best man can be a defining moment and a chance for a man to enjoy transitioning into adulthood with some of his closest friends. It feels good to be reliable. It’s what a man should feel like.

When I was searching for my responsibilities as best man, I talked to brides and looked at a lot of bridal magazines and websites- I even sat for several minutes in the relationship section of my local bookstore. It was a struggle, but I endured it because bearing the yoke of relationships tests and didactic articles exhorting me to remain sober was the price I believed I had to pay to succeed. I am still visited by nightmares of hurricane globes amid wedding centerpieces. Over time I found bits of the information I needed and cobbled the rest together from common sense and the sage advice of romantic comedies. But what I couldn’t find was a text that was authored by a guy in my position- someone offering frank advice from the perspective of a best man in a way that I wanted to read.

And so THE BEST MAN’S ALMANAC was born. It is a collection of those stories, male intuition, and historical moments that have defined the role of best man. This work is the happy result of a career spent writing for Hooters Magazine and Bust Magazine, which despite their similar nomenclature, have radically different editorial missions. Yet, it is not written at the expense of women or from a crude male perspective. It’s an honest and funny look at what you have to do in the weeks leading up to a wedding as a best man. It’s the book for men who want to help make sure a wedding goes smoothly and would ask for advice if they only knew who to ask or where to look.
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Some Ideas For Your Best Man Speech

Every wedding is not complete without a speech by the best man. A best man is usually the best friend of the groom or he's the groom's brother. The best man is required for a best man speech and the speech can vary between five to seven minutes.

As the best man has a lot of happy memories with the groom & is very close to him as well, giving a speech shouldn't be too difficult a task. Remember that the key to a good speech is originality.

If you are the best man & have no idea how to prepare that speech that's expected of you, fear not! Just follow these best man speech ideas.

1. It always helps to talk to the groom in advance & know their feelings. So you can talk about some of the grooms feelings in your speech.
2. When you stand up to give the speech, smile, it helps a lot if you start positively.
3. Introduce yourself, just a brief introduction will be sufficient and you will not need to go into long details. We don't have much time.
4. Start by thanking the groom to have chosen you as best man.
5. Thank all the people who could make it to the wedding. Remember some of them might have traveled a long distance just to be there, so it'd earn you brownie points for making a special mention of them.
6. Thanking all the people who helped you out with wedding preparations would be great thing to do.
7. Thank the maid of honor and the bridesmaids, as they've played an important role too.
8. Praise the bride; talk about her beauty & how lucky your friend to be married to her.
9. You can tell about some incidents you & the groom had. There will undoubtedly be many memories that you both shared together, choose 1 of them.
10. While picking any event, always keep in mind that many people listen to you, you must respect your audience & try not to embarrass the groom.
11. You can use a some jokes and funny one-liners as long as they're in good taste.
12. If there are any funny incidents of your friend who you can name them too. But make sure that you are not embarrassing him. For example, you could tell about his tendency to drum his fingers when he becomes impatient.
13. Let newlyweds know that you are happy for both of them.
14. Wish the new couple luck
15. You may then end your best man speech with raising a toast.

Always remember that the best man speech should be timely, so it'll help you a lot if you're sure about how much time should be assigned to the speech. The best man speech ideas will help you go that extra mile.

The Best Mans Handbook

The wedding book market is a crowded one, but it focuses largely on the needs of the bride. This fun, practical, and informative guide details the duties, etiquette, and potential pitfalls of being a best man, from the pre-ceremony events to the after-hours party. It's the most comprehensive book on the subject, with wisdom culled from many sources, full of essential tips for everything from planning the bachelor party to making the toast. The elegant trim size makes it a perfect gift for the best man-to-be, but this is more than simply a gift book-it's a valuable tool for an important day.
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