Best Man Toast: 15 Short Toasts You Can Steal (And How to Deliver Them)

The toast is the last fifteen seconds of your best man speech. The room is on its feet, a hundred glasses are in the air, and your only job is to say one short, well-shaped sentence that ends with the couple's names.

It is the easiest part of the speech to write. It is also the easiest part to fluff. I've watched best men spend six brilliant minutes building goodwill, then ruin the landing by saying something rambling, or worse, forgetting the bride's name.

So let's get this nailed. Fifteen toasts you can use as-is or adapt, sorted by mood, plus the three rules for actually delivering them.

Need the full speech, not just the toast? The generator will draft you one in about a minute. The toast at the end is fully editable — paste in your favourite from this list.

The three rules of a good toast

Before the list, three things that separate a good toast from a flat one:

1. It must end with their names. Not "to love." Not "to the future." To Mark and Emma. The room knows when to clink glasses because they hear the names.
2. Keep it short. One sentence, two at most. Anything longer and people's arms get tired.
3. Pause before you raise your glass. Half a second. Look at the couple. Then raise. The pause is what gives the moment weight.

Right. Now the toasts.

Classic / safe (use any of these and you won't regret it)

These are the toasts that have worked at every wedding for fifty years. Boring isn't bad — boring is reliable.

1. "Ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding and raise your glasses. To the bride and groom — to Mark and Emma."

1. "Please raise your glasses with me, and join me in wishing the happy couple a long and joyful marriage. To Mark and Emma."

1. "To Mark and Emma — to a lifetime of laughter, patience, and shared dessert. The bride and groom."

If you remember nothing else from this article, remember toast number one. It is the safest landing in wedding history.

Funny (when the speech has been comedic)

If you've been getting laughs all the way through, ride that into the toast. Don't go fully sincere out of nowhere — the room will whiplash.

1. "To Mark and Emma — may your love be deep, your arguments short, and your wifi strong."

1. "To the bride and groom — may you never go to bed angry, but if you do, may you have a really comfortable sofa."

1. "To Mark and Emma — may every year together feel shorter than the last, except the bits at IKEA."

1. "To Mark and Emma — may your marriage be like a fine wine: gets better with age, occasionally needs to breathe, and is best enjoyed with friends."

Heartfelt (when the speech has been more emotional)

If you've leaned into the warm stuff, the toast should land in the same key.

1. "To Mark and Emma — to two people who make each other better. May the rest of us be lucky enough to watch you do it for the next sixty years."

1. "To Mark and Emma — for choosing each other today, and for getting to choose each other every day from here. The bride and groom."

1. "To Mark and Emma — there is no one in this room who doesn't believe you're going to be brilliant at this. To the bride and groom."

Short and modern (under ten seconds)

If you want to break the third-rail rule and skip the "ladies and gentlemen" preamble entirely, these are the toasts that work in a more relaxed reception.

1. "Glasses up. To Mark and Emma."

1. "To my best mate and the woman who finally sorted him out. To Mark and Emma."

1. "To the two best people I know. Mark and Emma."

These work especially well at smaller weddings, registry-office receptions, or when the rest of the speech has been conversational.

With a callback (when you've built one in)

Advanced move: take a recurring joke from your speech and land the toast on it. This kills if you've earned it.

1. (After a speech full of jokes about the groom's terrible cooking.) "To Mark and Emma — to the woman who saved this man from a lifetime of beans on toast. The bride and groom."

1. (After teasing the groom about how long it took him to propose.) "To Mark and Emma — to a marriage that, in his timeframe, will get really good around 2034. The bride and groom."

Callback toasts feel custom because they are. The room will laugh harder at one of these than at any standalone toast above — but only if the callback has been properly set up earlier in the speech.

How to actually deliver the toast

Memorise the toast. Just the toast. Not the whole speech.

Walk through it now:

• Read your last paragraph of the speech.
• Pause. Look up. Look at the couple.
• Say: "Ladies and gentlemen, please raise your glasses…"
• Raise yours, slowly. Wait half a beat.
• Land the names. Loud, clear, not rushed.
• Hold the glass up while people clink. Then sit down.

That's it. The whole sequence is fifteen seconds and it is the moment everyone in the room will remember tomorrow morning.

If you're unsure how to lead into the toast from the rest of your speech, the toast endings guide has the four or five best transition lines.

One last thing

If you're tweaking your speech the day before and you suddenly hate your toast — don't panic. Pick number one from the classic list above. It has never lost a room and it never will.

You've got this. Glasses up.