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You've agreed to propose the toast to the bride. Even though you've known her for years, when you start to consider what you might say, you draw a complete blank. You've never been great at public speaking. Where do you start? Gary Drevitch at Freelance Dad consulted with experts as Toastmasters International, and came up with these tips:

Brainstorm. Jot down everything you can think of about the bride. List her good points, special memories you have, why she and her beloved make a good couple. The brainstorming will give you a general outline for your toast. Research will fill in the gaps.

Know your audience. Don't say anything to annoy or embarrass the bride and groom, and keep it clean.

Write it all out so you can practice it, but when the time comes, use short notes. A cue-card or two should be enough; ten typed pages is too much!

Sound like yourself.

Start with a joke, end with sentiment. As Drevitch notes, "One of the classic rules of wedding toasting is to end by tugging on the heartstrings. If you can't be sentimental at a wedding, where can you?"

Keep it short. Toastmasters suggests three to four minutes, but we can guarantee that if you want to make it shorter than that, your audience will not object!

The wine-kind, not the kitchen appliance.

One of the traditional duties of the male contingent, toasting can be done either by a specially-appointed (or even hired) MC, but most often it's done by the best man.

Anywhere you look, you can find a list of who toasts whom, in what order, and with what. Thing is, all the lists are different. Who toasts whom, in what order? Who knows?

This can be a good thing. With so many possibilities, you can do it any way you like! Another piece of even better news:

Most venues offer a set of champagne flutes for you to use for your first toast and there are plenty
of Web sites that offer engraved and personalized flutes you can purchase and, therefore,
keep for years to come. But there is also a store -- with a location in your home city, most likely -- where you can go and pick up classy and inexpensive toasting flutes. Crate and Barrel is one of my favorite go-to places for kitchen must-haves, and my shelves are stocked with C&B barware (including my own toasting flutes) that I snatched up on sale or at incredibly great prices.

I bought red champagne flutes from Crate & Barrel for $2.95 a glass last summer, and my best friend borrowed them for her upcoming May nuptials. She has lovely flutes to use and she was able to check off "something borrowed" as well.

If you're not crazy about re-using the venues flutes or if you don't want to spend a crazy amount of money finding glasses that are perfect for you, try crateandbarrel.com or stop in your local store. And, just to be safe, buy one or two extra so if one is dropped or cracked, your champagne sipping won't suffer.

Anyone who appreciates fine crystal knows the name Waterford. Waterford has been leading the industry for years, and their pieces are great for high end gifts of all kinds.

For a formal wedding, or any wedding with some fancy touches, you can't go wrong with Waterford crystal toasting flutes, and you have a huge selection to choose from. The flutes are engravable, so you can put your monogram or wedding date on them and turn the set into a cherished heirloom.

You can order the flutes directly from Waterford online, or you can find their pieces available in retail stores all over the world. Flip through the gallery below for some examples of these toasting flutes and champagne saucers.

There will be toasts at the wedding, maybe only a couple, maybe dozens, and it is traditionally the responsibility of the best man to see that everyone who wishes to gets their turn. If you're the best man and you haven't a clue who comes when, not to worry, we have a list!

There are only two that are pretty much carved in stone: Yours to the bride, which is the first toast given, and the groom's to the bride, which comes second. After that, there's a lot of variation. Bearing that in mind, here is the official line-up of toasts:

1. You start things off by toasting the bride. (Not sure how? Find more information here.)

2. Groom to bride (and maybe her parents)

Public speaking is one of the top five most common fears. Not surprising, then, that proposing a toast is a common cause of wedding anxiety. If you are one of those who are expected to propose a toast, though, you'll know in advance and have time to practice.

Here are some pointers to help you present a polished toast:

1. PREPARE. Know what you want to say, and practice.

2. Call people's attention to yourself by standing up. Do not ring your spoon against your wine glass: expensive crystal has come to a dramatic end when a nervous toaster whacks it just a little too hard. Stand tall, with your glass held at chest height ,and glance around the room; wait a moment for people to look your way.

3. Make eye contact. If it makes you too nervous to look out at the guests, do at least make smiling eye contact with the person you're toasting. Look at them, and you encourage others to look at them (and not you!).

4. Talk about the person you're toasting, not yourself. Avoid inside jokes, and be careful with humor: the idea is to honor the toast-ee, not humiliate them.

The best man is primarily a behind-the-scenes go-to guy. He sees to the rings, the passes information between groom and ushers, he arranges the car. However, he is also traditionally the MC at the reception, and it is during the toasting that he is most public.

It is the best man who proposes the first toast, and orchestrates the others. In some weddings, toasting is a simple affair of two or three short tributes, but in others, it can go on for a while, with everybody and their uncle vying for a chance to raise their glass to someone or other. The best man choreographs this. More challenging, he must move along the long, boring toast-ers (and are possibly too drunk to notice the yawns and glazed expressions).

Just because he's your best man doesn't mean this role will be easy for him. If your best man is a quiet type, it's quite all right to choose a more outgoing friend to be MC. Your best man will probably thank you!

When it comes to making the all-important toast, there are several things that couples forget or simply don't think about that can turn a traditional time of well-wishing into a jumbled disaster.

My husband and I lucked out. Without any kind of plan to speak of, our best man took the reins and gave a lovely, humorous and kind speech. However, things would have gone much smoother if we followed some guidelines, such as the following eight tips from Darcy Miller, the editorial director of "Martha Stewart Weddings."

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