A best man speech for a long-time friend that actually does the friendship justice.
Long friendships produce too much material, not too little. The skill is choosing well.
Free preview included · No credit card required · Full speech from £4.99
On this page
Long friendships are both the best and hardest source material for a best man speech. You have everything — decades of shared history, a complete picture of who he is — and the challenge is choosing what serves the speech rather than cataloguing everything you've witnessed.
What a Speech Smith speech looks like
A short sample — your speech will be personalised to your stories and people.
Three opening lines: 1. "Good evening. I'm Nick — Pete's best man. We've been friends for eighteen years, which means I have enough material for the full running time of this wedding. I've been asked to keep it to five minutes. I'm going to try." 2. "My name is Luke. Tom and I have been friends since 2004. In those twenty years, I have been to four of his birthdays, two of his house moves, and one disastrous camping trip that I promised I wouldn't bring up. I lied." 3. "Good evening. I'm Rich. Will and I met in 2006. We were both terrible at something, which I won't specify because this is a family event. We've been close ever since."
Sample only. Your speech is written from the specific details, stories, and names you provide.
How it works
Tell us your story
Names, your relationship, a few key memories, and the tone you want — honest details make the best speeches.
Get your free preview
Your personalised speech is written in under a minute. Read the opening for free, no account needed.
Unlock the full speech
Pay once to unlock the full speech, short version, printable cue cards, and three ready-to-use one-liners. From £4.99.
What makes this speech work
Every detail you share becomes part of your speech. Here's what to think about.
Edit ruthlessly — the speech needs a story, not a history
The biggest risk with a long friendship speech is trying to include too much. Choose three moments that are genuinely the best of twenty years, and let them carry the whole arc.
Show who he was before, and who he is now
Long friendships have the unique advantage of demonstrating real change over time. The contrast between who he was at twenty-two and who he is today — told specifically — is more moving than anything you could say about either period alone.
Name what the friendship has given you
Long friendships shape people. Saying specifically what you've taken from this one — a quality you've adopted, a perspective you'd never have had — gives the speech a dimension that short friendships can't.
Find the defining story, not the funniest one
The best story in a long-friendship speech isn't necessarily the most hilarious. It's the one that most accurately captures who he is. That story might not even be funny — but it should feel inevitable.
Make the wedding feel like the latest chapter, not the conclusion
The best long-friendship speeches don't treat the wedding as an ending but as the latest and best development in an ongoing story. That framing is warm and forward-looking in a way that suits the day.
Frequently asked questions
Give the speech a shape. Open strong, build to one key story, and close with something true and heartfelt. The anecdotes should serve that structure — not be the structure.
Very briefly, if it illustrates something about his character and you're sure it won't land awkwardly. When in doubt, leave it out. The wedding is about the couple in front of you, not the path that led there.
Four to six minutes. Long friendships create pressure to go long — resist it. A 5-minute speech with a clear arc is more memorable than a 10-minute summary of someone's adult life.
Yes, briefly. Showing that the friendship has evolved and deepened rather than just continued gives it texture and makes the warmth feel earned rather than assumed.
Give it your best three or four stories, the key qualities you want to highlight, and the emotional tone you're aiming for. It will shape all of it into a speech with a proper arc.
Start writing your speech today.
Free preview. No credit card. Full speech unlocked in seconds.