Oliver Lucas founded iamthebestman after doing the job three times and realising nobody had written the manual. Each time, there were wedding sites and stag do sites, but nowhere that gave straight, non-biased advice on the speech, the stag and everything in between. So he built it.
Fifteen years on, it’s still built on the same rule: everyone who writes for iamthebestman has been a best man. It’s the one qualification we insist on.
What Oliver actually does around here
- Writes speeches for best men who’ve run out of time. Through our speech writing service, he works from a questionnaire about the groom and turns it into a speech that sounds like you. One best man was expecting a wait of a few weeks and had his speech in 48 hours.
- Mystery-shopped the stag do industry. Between 2016 and 2019 he put on a fake name, invented a stag and asked the UK’s biggest stag companies to quote for the same weekend, then scored them on speed, honesty and how much they actually knew. The results are all on our stag do company reviews page.
- Talks best man duties on the radio. He spent 15 minutes walking radio DJ Dave Grimshaw through the job (Dave turned out to be less prepared than he thought), then did it again for the BBC. Both are on the Best Man Podcast page.
- Gives speech advice to the press. Esquire came to him, as a professional speechwriter, for tips on how not to ruin your best mate’s big day.
Where to start
If you’ve just been asked, these are the pages Oliver would point you to first:
- Best man speech jokes and one liners, with his quick picks at the top
- The best man speech guide, from blank page to standing ovation
- The best man checklist, so nothing gets forgotten on the day
- Organising a stag do, without falling out with half the group
Get in touch
Stuck on a speech, or weighing up a stag do? Drop Oliver a line at oliver@iamthebestman.co.uk or use our contact form. He’s heard it all before, so don’t be shy.