On being a best man

I have had the honour and priviledge of being co-best man to a friend I've had since our school days. I shared the honour with another friend from that time. Being best man is one of those things I believe every man should do once.

The duties of a best man come down to 3 things.

Support; both during the preparations, and on the day itself. Helpful words of advice, willingness to take on any task to help things procede smoothly. This is an on-going duty, although not an onerous one. Our groom had the benefit of a best man who had got married himself, and a best man who had done the job before, so there was support for anything. Not that we were called on much. Tasks alloted were sorting out some music before, between, and after the band sets; and creating a hundred favour boxes from a lot of empty boxes, some tissue paper, and thousands of iced jems. Other than that, helpful, and un-helpful advice as and when required. That, and having to sleep in a room with no curtains the night before the wedding!

The stag do; there can be little doubt that this ritual is a major part of the best man's duties. For this stag do we went to the Lakes, got the groom extremely drunk, put him in a dress and walked him up and down a hill, put him in another dress and took him to the pub, and generally provided camraderie, banter, and, from those already married, a whole host of useful tips.

The speech; if you mention that you're going to be a best man, invariably the first question asked is, "Have you got the speech ready?" The best man speech is a time honoured way of sending the groom up on his wedding day, of entertaining the guests, and a chance to praise the happy couple. So no pressure then. Ours went well, and was received in the spirit intended. We were pretty easy on him, but raised a few laughs. For the record, the groom did thump a sheep, sang guest vocals on the ace of spades (not with Motorhead), but gave up half way as he couldn't hear himself, and did relieve himself in a drawer at a friends house after arriving uninvited during the early hours of the morning.

So that's it. The happy couple are married, the weekend is over, and I'm on my way back to work. Would I do it again? Yes, if I cared about the groom as much as I cared about this one. Congratulations to the two of you, and thanks for involving me in your big day.