The best man on the wedding day: right hand to the couple and to the photographer
The best man carries half the day on his shoulders: he gathers the guests, keeps the rings and raises the toast. What a good best man should know before the wedding.
Lazar Mihajlović
Published: 11 September 2026
At Meldina and Mirza's wedding the best man was at one point holding the bride's bouquet, a phone with the photo list and a glass for the toast, all at the same time. He still looked like the calmest man in the room. Best men like that are remembered, and for good reason.
Here the role of the best man is an institution older than any trend in wedding planning. He is a witness, but also a host, a logistics manager and first aid for everything that goes off plan. From a photographer's point of view, a good best man is the difference between a day that flows and a day that gets pushed along. So feel free to forward this text to yours, it was written for him.
The link between the couple and everyone else
At their own wedding the couple has time for nothing except living it. Someone else has to know where the rings are, when the procession leaves and who to find when something is needed. That someone is almost always the best man or the best woman.
For me as a photographer the best man is the first address in the room. When I need someone from the family for a frame, when we are looking for five minutes for portraits or when the walk outside needs a discreet nudge, I do not interrupt the couple in the middle of a conversation with guests. I ask the best man and it is settled. That is why I always meet them at the start of the day: one handshake in the morning saves ten negotiations in the evening.
Family photographs: a best man calling names saves half an hour
Group photographs after the ceremony are the point where the timeline breaks most often. Ten or more combinations of relatives, everyone is looking for everyone, someone has just walked off to the car, and the couple stands in the sun and waits. The solution is simple and proven at every wedding I shoot: a list agreed in advance and a best man who calls the names.
He knows both families, he knows who belongs to whom and he has the authority to bring an aunt into the frame without a single hard feeling. I set up the light and the composition, he brings the people, and we finish the whole block in about fifteen minutes. What that list should look like I described in the piece on family photographs.
The toast: the moment every camera turns to the best man
The toast is the emotional peak of the dinner and one of the frames couples ask for most in the album. A tear that starts in the middle of a sentence, the laughter of the whole room, an embrace after the speech, those are photographs that get sent around the family for years afterwards.
A tip for best men: do not learn the speech by heart down to the last word. Say what you actually mean and look at the two of them, not at the paper. Emotion photographs easily, reading does not.
The best man through the lens: the frames that stay
In the end the best man gets his own small story inside the album. The morning preparations with the groom, the last minute check of the rings, the look they exchange during the ceremony, a hand on the shoulder when the emotions start. Couples later give those photographs to their best man, and they regularly draw more tears than the official portraits.
So I always tell best men: do not spend the whole day on tasks. Stop for a moment, hug them, raise a glass without a phone in your hand. We will manage the logistics, but a frame in which the best man is honestly happy cannot be replaced by anything.
What the best man should know before the day itself
Everything the best man needs fits into a short list. Half an hour of conversation a week before the wedding is enough for the day to pass without a single panicked phone call.
- The timeline by heart: who is where and at what time
- The list for family photographs and the order of calling names
- Where the rings are kept until the exchange
- The contacts of the photographer, the venue and the band in his phone
- Which guests need extra attention, from the grandmother to the youngest
When the best man has all of this at his fingertips, the couple can truly leave the day to themselves. And that is exactly what shows in the photographs: two people who are thinking about nothing except each other.
Lazar Mihajlović Photography
Putting together the team for the big day?
Send me the date and the location of your wedding. I will gladly go through the timeline with you and your best man, so the day flows the way you imagined it.
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