Best man speeches of the future

There is a temptation to think that Coronavirus will forever change the people we are and how we interact with each other. Very early on in the pandemic, a media that just didn't have anything to write about - nothing it was good at anyway, decided that we'd all be living in the middle of nowhere, working from home and walking about with fish bowls on our heads for the rest of our lives.

This is of course nonsense. Speak to anyone normal who's been working from home for the last 9 months, and the one thing they want more than anything is to get back in the office. Being at home when it's a balmy summer's day and the pub is just a short walk with the dog is one thing; working from home when it's a grey November, rain sodden day that barely gets light, and you'll be craving a sushi bar in no time.

It's also been suggested that weddings will never look the same again. Never will we see 120 people sitting on the floor in a chain pretending to row, wearing far too much of their dinner and other people's hats...that it's a goodbye to wholesale massed debauchery. This is of course, bollocks. We all want nothing more than to get back to normal.

The suggestions earlier in the year that weddings could reinvent themselves is slightly missing the point - weddings are forever reinventing themselves. Thirty years ago I don't think a week long stag do was a thing, I don't think candles in jam jars existed, couples didn't have their own websites and weddings didn't generally last for 3 days and involve a hog roast.

So, the idea that best man speeches are going to be a thing of the past is also total rubbish, usually perpetuated by the kind of people that think standing up once in your life and saying something is akin to DIY open surgery. It's not. Yes, many people struggle with the idea of public speaking, but if you prepare, and preparation is everything, then nailing a really great best man speech is a completely unbeatable feeling. Hearing the laughter and applause is such a departure from your everyday life, that it should be viewed as an unmissable, once in a lifetime opportunity, rather than something to be phased out.

Forget the imminent evolution of weddings. Look forward to your best man speech like never before, because now more than ever people really want to laugh and enjoy themselves, and you're the guy to do it!