The best manspeech templatethat actuallyis one.

Give your name and explain your connection. A small recognisable detail can help people picture the friendship, but you do not have to earn a laugh in the first twenty seconds. A clear, friendly hello is a valid opening.

If you are going for a laugh, get it in early rather than saving it. Our own builder aims to land the first one inside the first sixty words, because a room that has not smiled by then tends to settle in for the polite version of the evening.

The detail gives the introduction some personality without needing a long backstory. You can keep it completely straight if that suits you. Make any agreed thanks here or later in the speech; they do not need to be squeezed into a joke.

Choose a memory that helps someone understand him. It might show persistence, generosity, enthusiasm or a habit his friends recognise. An ordinary incident with a clear ending is often easier to tell than the most dramatic thing that ever happened to you.

We know the setting, what Jamie did, and the detail that makes the story his rather than anyone's. The last line can be left to land without an explanation after it. It is also fine for a story to be warm rather than funny.

If you add a second memory, give it a different job rather than repeating the same point. Two extended stories is the ceiling, and that is the limit the builder works to as well: anything else earns a sentence rather than a paragraph.

Check sensitive details with the people in them. Avoid private relationship history, humiliation, and anecdotes that need someone's embarrassment to work. A story you got from another friend should be attributed and checked, not retold as your own.

Give the partner space as a person. They are not just someone who has improved the groom, tolerated him, or taken him off anyone's hands. A quality you have seen for yourself is the most useful thing you can bring here.

If you barely know the partner, say less and keep it honest. "Morgan, I'm looking forward to getting to know you better, and thank you for including me in today" is enough to be going on with. You do not need to invent a personality, a first meeting, or a change in the groom.

Use the names and the relationship terms the couple use themselves. The five parts fit any couple; they do not need everybody squeezed into a bride-and-groom script.

Whatever you say, do not make it about how they look. That is not squeamishness: a compliment about someone's appearance is the one line in a wedding speech that can only land badly, and it is on the banned list for exactly that reason.

You can follow a story straight into what it means, or give this a short section of its own. A real moment makes the praise easier to believe, but a plain sentence of affection is welcome too. You are not obliged to manufacture an emotional reveal.

Prove the sentiment instead of asserting it. "They're perfect together" is a claim the room has no reason to believe; "he's turned up on time twice this year, both times to see her" is the same point with the evidence left in.

Choose something you and anyone else in it are comfortable sharing. You can take the personal circumstances out and still keep the point. There is no rule that sincerity has to arrive at the end, and no need to apologise for it with "but seriously".

A closing wish and the couple's names give the room somewhere to join you. Confirm any particular toast with the couple or the coordinator first. You do not need an elaborate quotation, a new story, or an instruction that everybody must stand.

Guests can join in however they are comfortable. Keep the invitation straightforward, allow a pause, and finish. If nobody has asked you to lead a toast, a warm closing sentence is enough on its own.

Ask the room in your own words, though. "Raise your glasses" is on the banned list here, along with "the happy couple", because both turn up in almost every speech and neither sounds like a particular person saying it.

Put the five parts together.

Fill the framework with rough notes first. The worksheet has room for the starting points, not for an entire finished script. Expand those notes in your own document, then read the whole thing aloud.

Check that each paragraph follows from the one before it. Take out repeated praise, a second introduction, and any explanation the story no longer needs. Keep enough context for a guest who has never met you to follow it.

A final check before the wedding

• Replace every bracketed prompt, and check the names and the facts.
• Make sure the stories are yours to tell and the couple are comfortable with them.
• Give both people room without inventing closeness you do not have.
• Time the whole speech aloud, inside the slot you have agreed.
• Prepare readable notes and a backup, then rehearse using them.

A printed script, numbered cue cards or a reliable device can all work. Choose something you can read comfortably, and practise looking up and finding your place again. If you use a device, keep an offline copy and silence the interruptions. There is no required number of rehearsals.

If two of you are sharing the speech, agree who covers which parts and rehearse the handovers inside your combined slot. If the couple want a shorter contribution, use one memory and fewer sentences. If they want something different again, that is a conversation to have with them rather than a rule to break.

Need help finding the words?

Bantered's speech builder is another way to work from your own memories: you answer questions about the groom and it drafts the speech around what you tell it. Read anything it writes for accuracy and for whether it sounds like you before you stand up with it.