Speech by Simon Pearce

Speech Type: Best man
Speech Creator: Simon Pearce
Speech Date: Aug 2001
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, for those of you who don't know me my name is Simon, and Iam Kevin's best man for this afternoon.
Now as most of you know, this wedding has been carefully and meticulously planned with military precision, but my formal request for an autocue was denied. I will therefore be consulting my notes as I go, so please bear with me.
On behalf of the bridesmaids I would like to thank Kevin for his kind words. As I'm sure you'll agree, the bridesmaids look absolutely wonderful today.

I Read a Best man's duties book prior to this and it says as a pointer “Give speech to bride and groom” Now, in all honesty I thought it meant just the bride and groom with the 3 of us maybe having a nice cup of tea etc.
But looking around to see that so many people have turned up only make me realise the lengths people will go to for a free meal and an all day bar. But anyway, I don't want you to feel as If you've spoiled it for the 3 of us, so I'll press on.
When I was thinking about what to include in my speech I was going to include a number of stories where Kev has basically not been the sharpest knife in the drawer. But, I'm not going to do any of that as It would just be poking fun at Kevs expense….and to be honest, we've doing that for years anyway.
So, I won't even begin to tell you about..…
Crashing his mothers Escort into a tree,the hanging form the wardrobe with a tie, the kitchen utensil necklace fetish he has, the tendancy to walk away with girls purses, his famous page3 collages.
Anyway…
I have known Kev nearly 14 years , we met for the first time at 11years old dressed in our best dufflecoats and snorkels at Caldicot comprehensive school We were in the same tutor group and became close friends.
Soon we were 16 years old Full of hormones, energy and a highly developed interest in girls and beer. To fund our newly found interests we launched our careers by working in the local supermarket. Incidently, this was Kev's first and last real job.

After A levels were out the way Kev went off to University in Cardiff, and I soon found myself a weekend residence on his lounge floor.
In the first year of University Kev met Gail for the first time. Sparks didn't fly to begin with but Kev demonstrated admirable perservierance in pursuing her for 3 years and finally winning her over and now marrying her.… well it's either that or she got fed up of his nagging.

The stag night took place in Cardiff, where we visited many places of interest and explored the local culture. I would like to tell you a few drunken stories of the night but for some unknown reason I can't seem to remember very much of it. Suffice it to say we all had a great time and, by the way Kev…I need the dress back for weekends.

On a more serious note, I'd like to offer my sincere congratulations to the bride and groom. I was honoured to be asked to be Kevin's best man and I'd like to thank him for being a great friend for the years I've known him. He's a very lucky man to be marrying someone so beautiful, smart, funny and caring as Gail who, I'm sure you'll all agree, looks wonderful today. She deserves a good husband, and Kev you should thank God you got to her before she found one.

On behalf of the bride and groom I'd like to thank you for sharing their day and now it gives me great pleasure to invite you all to (once again) stand and raise your glasses in a toast to Kevin and Gail because I think they were made for each other. May your love be modern enough to survive the times and old fashioned enough to last forever. To the bride and groom's future happiness…

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Finally, it just remains for me to thank you all very much for coming and I hope that everyone enjoys the evening.

Thank you.