Speech by James Symonds
Dear Hitched.co.uk Your site was invaluable in helping me write my speech for Nick & Clare's wedding on 4th September 1999. The confidence you gain from having a well prepared speech really does pay off compared to having just a few rambling ideas. My advice to anyone writing such a speech is to have a good beginning - if you can get a laugh or cheer in the first few seconds then it sets you up for the rest of the speech. Also, don't worry - before the wedding I was fairly apprehensive about the event, but after a few beers and the atmosphere of the evening kicked in the act of speaking w
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Speech Type: Best man
Speech Creator: James Symonds
Speech Date: Sep 1999
On behalf of the bridesmaids thank you Martin for your kind words.
I am quite glad that the bride and groom got to the church on time as they are not always known for their timekeeping. In my role as best man I tried to ensure Nick got a good night's sleep so we had a couple of beers after which he slept like a baby – he kept waking up every half hour crying and asking for his mum.
I think we all agree that Clare looks like one in a million today, and that Nick looks like he was won in a raffle.
I'm now going to give you a history of Nick's life to date and then we'll get onto the juicy stories about him.
Nick was born, went to school, became an accountant, met Claire and got married – right onto those stories.
Having know Nick for nearly 30 years I have a large library of stories to tell you that will leave him embarrassed and humiliated, but out of respect for him on his big day I have decided NOT to tell them.
So I'm not going to tell you about the time he vomited over a cash machine in Wimbledon, nor about the time he left me comatosed in a field one evening and then didn't ring me for five days. I certainly won't tell you the story about the doner kebab because that's just way too disgusting.
Now onto Clare. When writing this speech I actually got a bit of writer's block at this stage. In desperation I reached for Roget's Thesaurus and looked up the word "lovely". There I found five words that describe Clare perfectly – beautiful, charming, delightful, enchanting and dry white wine!
As we know Nick is an accountant and has shown his head for figures by choosing Clare as his wife. Nick also has a great love of music and has certainly hit the right note with Clare.
But seriously Nick and Clare are the best friends anyone could ask for – I'll stop before I get too emotional – look even the cake's in tiers!
It was once said that being asked to be a best man is like being asked to sleep with the queen: it's a great honour but nobody wants to do it. But in my case it has been an honour and a joy.
All that remains for me to do is to ask you to stand and raise you glasses …………….… as I say – "to Nick and Clare".
