Best Man · Short · about 2 minutes · 261 words
Best Man Speech When You Barely Know the Bride (Short, 2 Minutes)
Childhood friend of the groom who lives out of state and has only met the bride a handful of times
Given by Obinna, the best man, for Calloway and Astrid. The names are made up.
The speech
Hi, everyone. I'm Obinna. Calloway and I have been friends since we were eleven, when he lent me his bike and I brought it back with a flat. He still brings that up.
I want to be honest with Astrid's side of the room. I have met Astrid four times. I live two time zones away, and life has been busy. So I can't tell you stories about her. Her friends can, and I've heard a few tonight, and they're great.
What I can tell you is what I saw the second time we met.
It was last March. The three of us went to a diner after their flight got in, around eleven at night. Calloway ordered pancakes, and when they came he did what he has done since sixth grade: he cut the whole stack into neat little squares before eating a single bite. I've watched people tease him about it for twenty years. I've done it myself, plenty.
Astrid didn't say a word. She reached over, took one square off his plate, ate it, and went back to her eggs. And he slid the plate an inch closer to her.
I had never seen him do that. Calloway is generous, but he likes his systems, and nobody touches the squares. Watching him make room on that plate told me most of what I needed to know.
Astrid, I'm looking forward to knowing you a lot better than four visits' worth. I already know you're good for him.
Everybody, glasses up. To Calloway and Astrid. Save her a square.
Why it works: Admitting he barely knows her buys trust instead of costing it, and one small moment over pancakes says more than any invented praise could.
Make It Yours
Borrow the shape, not the sentences. This one is built on a single story that only its speaker could tell, and the room can hear a borrowed story from the back. Keep the order of the parts, the length, and the way it turns from the story to the partner, and put your own detail in each slot. The how to write a best man speech walks through each part.
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