Speech by Steve Arthur

Speech Type: Best man
Speech Creator: Steve Arthur
Speech Date: Jun 2002
Awhile back, I asked my friend Mike for a little advice on writing this speech. He said its simple and that there are three things that I should remember. He told me to say something funny, say something sincere and get out before I started stuttering. So here it goes:

First, I'd like to thank everybody for attending this wonderful occasion on Shane and Debbie's wedding day. I'd also like to congratulate the bridesmaids on looking so nice and for doing such a great job in making sure that Debbie went against her better judgment and didn't change her mind.

For those of you that don't know me, my name is Steve and Shane is one of my two best friends. Now, according to tradition this is where I'm supposed to tell all of those wild stories about Shane in his bachelor days. Well, I'm not going to throw Shane under the bus because most of those stories I was a part of and they wouldn't just implicate him alone.

I will tell you that we were pretty inseparable throughout are twenties and spent our fare share of time going out to Pleasure Island and the like every weekend. And every weekend we would get the same speech from Mr. Letterio. It was “If you guys don't pick up girls tonight you had better at least pickup doughnuts for breakfast.” Well, for those of you that don't know us very well we weren't exactly outgoing when it came to approaching girls. Needless to say we have had our fill of doughnuts.

Fast forward to October of 1998. Our good friends Kelly and Kris were getting married. Little did we know that this day was not only special for them but it was the day that Shane and Debbie would meet. Shane and I were the groomsmen and Debbie was the maid of honor. I think Kris saw it first because she paired them up in the wedding party. Anyway, something happened that day because soon after that, the planets aligned and Shane did something he had never done before and that was that he asked a girl out before being approached by her first.

We knew there was something special about Debbie because he hadn't acted like this before. At first he would call Kelly every other day and end up talking to Kris for an hour. After awhile Kelly was out of the loop. He would call just hoping that Kris would answer the phone so that he could get the dirt on how he was doing. It was funny; there was a point where he was so adamant about telling her the things that might embarrass him, first, so that we couldn't embarrass him later. I guess it worked, because she chose to keep him anyway.

On a more serious note, Shane has been a great friend to me over the years, we are like brothers and have had some great times together and I hope we will continue to do so in the future.

(Look at the groom)

Shane; today you're the groom getting married to a wonderful bride and I have been bestowed with the honor of being a best man. But today you truly are the best man and I hope that your love is modern enough to survive the times and old-fashioned enough to last forever.

Ladies and Gentlemen. It gives me great pleasure, not to mention relief, to invite you all to stand and raise your glasses in a toast to Shane and Debbie.

"Let us drink to love, which is nothing – unless it's shared by two."

Congratulations to the Bride and Groom, Mr. and Mrs. Shane Letterio.