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Nice one Chad!
He did a good job there. I particularly like him disciplining a youth outside WH Smith!
What a good sport!
Hi Terence,
Good question.
Let me start by congratulating you for thinking about the speech this far out. You are one of the more dedicated best men out there to be giving it some good forethought. It’s not uncommon for some guys to leave until the weekend, or even night before.
How long it takes to write a best man’s speech depends on a number of factors which include, but are not exclusive to:
1) Whether you are one best man or part of two. If there are two of you, it takes longer to write and work out the running order.
2) If you’ve written a best man’s speech before. Like everything that’s new, it takes longer first time around than the second.
3) If you plan to use additional props or material. If you’re looking to make a video for example, which is a growing trend, then this will take a lot longer.
4) If you are planning to write it yourself. The majority of best men do write their own speech but not all. There are professional speech writers who can compose one for you which obviously speeds things up considerably.
5) How confident you are at public speaking. You should be looking to build practice time in to your speech as well. This is something far too many best men underestimate. They focus almost exclusively on writing the speech and then forget that they have to deliver the thing! To do it properly I recommend saying it out loud a minimum of three times, and at least one of those should be in front other people, to get you used to speaking in front of an audience, even if that audience is just one person.
6) How much free time you have to spare. If you’re a busy guy who rarely has a moment to himself then this is obviously tricky. Everyone works differently but experience tells me that best men tend to make better progress by working in 3-4 hour chunks over a single occasion than 3-4 one hour sessions over several days. This is particularly the case when in the research mode.So your nine weeks depends a little on some of the above but should be sufficient time.
Thanks,
OliverThe advice I always give to best men regarding to speeches to deal with the nerves is to ensure you have put the sufficient practice in. Whilst you don’t need it entirely by heart, you do need to get to a point where you’re not a million miles off. If nerves kick in, this is your safety net as you can go on auto-pilot to a certain extent. The other thing is to get him to practice in front of other people who are supportive – a few close friends and family. This might feel a bit forced at first but after a while he’ll get used to it and be able to use the experience not to practice speaking publicly, but also to get some feedback on the delivery.
With regard to your pals who are taking the mick. It’s fairly normal for the best man to get a bit of light banter in the run-up to the speech as long as it’s well intentioned and not overly persistent. Most guys will realise that it’s not an easy job and will generally be supportive. If there is anyone in particular who you think might go too far with it then I think it might be a good idea to have a quiet word and ask him to be a little more supportive. At the end of the day everyone wants the best man to succeed so let’s get behind him!
Hey Matt,
As with a lot of things, it depends on what you’re looking for and to a lesser extent when you go. If you’re going on your stag do around May time then there are cheese rolling championships going on about 40 miles outside Bristol which are reportedly a good laugh. Bristol is also awash with West Country style stag do games which are good fun to get involved in – think a cross between old school TV favourite ‘Gladitors’ (aawooga!) and even older TV show ‘Its a Knockout’ (best not go there on the presenter of that one).
Newcastle is bigger, has more stag friendly bars, particularly around Quayside and more hen dos as well. You can also reportedly get the hottest curry in Britain there – but name a curryhouse that hasn’t laid claim to that old chestnut. Anyway, if you want more info, check out our Newcastle Stag Do Guide for a wealth of information.
Hope that helps, Oliver
In one of the more controversial stag do pranks of 2014, a car boot sale loving groom-to-be agreed (we’ll use the term loosely) to get his past time passion permanently inked on his forearm following a heavy drinking session. I’d say that is probably too far… Although he didn’t seem that bothered!
Anything that causes undue stress is also too far IMO. Take kidnapping for example. This has got a lot of press, most notably the case of Ollie McAninch, who got shingles as a result of the stress. He wasn’t allowed near his fiancee for a month and almost missed his wedding poor bloke!
If you want a list of stag pranks that go from mild to extreme check out our Stag Do Pranks and Jokes guide
I’d allocate blocks of time that are categorised in to one of three categories:
• Free time where there is no obligation other than guests do what they want to do
• Social related activities for the group e.g. sightseeing/ excursions, dinners, stag night etc
• Specific wedding related activities/ meetings e.g. dress rehearsal, best man duties briefing etcIf you have time slots for these then everyone knows where they stand on particular days and get in to holiday mode
