Though typical maid of honor speeches aren’t meant to be funny, you can always find a way to give a funny wedding speech no matter who’s giving it.
This post applies to all people that may have to give a wedding speech soon. Some speeches are funny, some serious and some just plain old boring.
I would recommend that you keep your speech from being boring. In fact, do anything in your power to keep it from putting the audience to sleep, even if it means having corny jokes.
The last thing you want to happen are people falling asleep during your maid of honor speech. How do you expect people to remember your speech for years to come if you’re putting them all to bed?
Whether the wedding is outside, on the beach, in a church or in some sort of hotel room, your speech should have some sort of humor in it even if you’re not that funny of a person.
You will want your speech to be from your heart first of all – the speech is catered towards the important person of the day so you should always have them first in your mind when giving the speech. Give a speech to lift and amuse, to celebrate and honor the bride and groom.
Once you know what you will write about, you can begin to add humor into your speech – and the best kind of humor are life events that you two shared together that resulted in either disaster (which can be funny looking back on the event) or a situation that resulted in craziness!
So, here are some tips that you can incorporate into your speech to keep things fun. Now, this doesn’t mean you make your maid of honor speech just a long joke. This would definitely not be a speech that people will want to remember. Sprinkle in a few of the following methods and keep the audience entertained.
Now, I can’t give you exact lines to say and memorize because that would be useless. But what I can offer are ideas to get your head spinning.
When it comes to stand up comedy, the one thing that separates the best from the worst are the guys that know how to make everyday situations funny.
So, brainstorm some everyday situations that you had with the bride and groom that resulted in some funny things happening.
People love to laugh at things that they can relate to and you can add these into your bridesmaid speech. This is key to telling a great joke and it’s actually a pretty simple method.
Another tip that I can offer you for your maid of honor speeches is to refrain from vulgar. Using vulgar to tell a joke distracts people and if you’ve ever followed stand up, the most popular stand up comedians never rely on vulgar to get their jokes across.
They rely on typical everyday situations, such as golf, cleaning, cooking, shopping, etc. where funny occurrences happened.
Try to keep a straight face when telling a joke and slowing down your speech. When you slow down your speech, people begin to listen closely.
It’s ok to talk about inside jokes – remember that this speech is for the bride and groom not the audience. If you are making the couple laugh, then your speech was an absolute success.
Last but not least, watch stand up comedy! I cannot stress this enough – these guys know what they’re doing so watch them and learn.
One tip however – don’t memorize their lines. Instead, watch their body language and their vocal tone. Watch their eyes, their mannerisms. See what they do that makes the joke funny and then practice these techniques yourself.
I hope these tips have helped you out. Feel free to comment below if you’d like more information!
Sarah
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Make sure to keep jokes short,witty one-liners ideally.
My wedding joke punchline was the lyrics of a famous song and then used that song as my first dance. It had everyone laughing again, which was great.
I agree with Dave. Keep your speech to around three minutes or so. Also, probably most importantly, don’t consume alcohol before you make your speech lol
I’m with Lucas! Maybe ONE drink to keep the edge off, but not much more than that… always a recommendation I make!
The last wedding I went to the best man tried to be funny and it was a disaster. Felt sorry for him. It takes some practice to get it right. Thanks for the post.
Making a funny wedding speech is often a very fine line…if you cross it it ends in disaster line Angie mentioned, if you get it right its a massive success. Ive seen both types of speeches, the tips on this page are a definite help so thanks for the information.
Its not an easy job to give a funny wedding speech. Always a short and sweet but quite humorous speech works out. Keeping the speech funny throughout can be monotonous, so a bit of romantic quotes along with will work out well I guess so. Interesting post, bookmarked it.
My brother did a good, but short, best man speech at my wedding.
Then I had to speak too to welcome everyone and thank them for comining and I tried to be funny by including a funny saying that my Grandpa used to say, but of course it was an inside joke that only my family got, so it didn’t get the reaction I hoped for. :)
Have you seen the YouTube video of the best man speech that starts out with “Fornication”, then he clarifies that he said “For an Occasion” such as this. :) It was a great speech.
I wish more people giving speeches read this post!
I’ve photographed a lot of really bad speeches in my time, I just wish people would know there limitations, get up give something short and sweet and sit down.
Having said that when the are good they can be really GOOD, especially taking into account the fact that you don’t know the people. Shame I only get the still images and not the audio!
I have only given one best mans speech in my life which was at my brothers wedding. I used probs and it went down a storm. I got really embarrassing photos enlarges to A1 size and went through a kind of life story revealing the posters as I went along. Everyone was laughing. Having something to fall back on such as enlarged photos etc takes some of the focus directly off you. It worked well for me.
Great tips, all of them. I think the biggest tip of all would be to keep OFF the alcohol until after the speech…even if you think it may be a good idea at the time!
A perfect blend of selected humor and a fine touch of emotions certainly goes a long way in making a great wedding speech.But of course we shouldn’t over do it and hurt somebody’s feeling :). A great site with valuable information.
It can be such a disaster, make sure you relax and enjoy yourself and remember you are with friends, and the humour will flow.
one thing to remember is that you should not laugh at your jokes please wait until other people are starting to laugh yeah it is a very simple tip but many seem to miss it and ending up with a disaster.
Well said, When it comes to funny wedding speeches, it is important to keep it relevant to the audience too. Try to involve them in the situations you are describing
Giving a funny wedding speech goes a long way in cheering up the moods of the crowd there.The stiffness will be visibly reduced.There are lots of reward which you can get from an effective humorous wedding speech.
You’ve got to be a “natural” at this or else you might just end up making a jack ass outta yourself on stage :(
I have never been in the situation where Ive had to give a wedding speech but have often contemplated using a book to help me plan it…On one hand I think I could pick up some gems in a guide but on the other hand it might not sound natural…any thoughts?
I ageed too, that sometimes it can be such a disaster when making the speech. Just need to make sure we relax and enjoy ourself and enjoy the wonderful night.
My maid of honor at my wedding completely waited till the last minute to write her, she then wrote it out at the last minute on the back her of bridal shower invitation however it turned out great.
It is not uncommon for the bride’s chosen “best friend” to give a speech or toast and like the Best Man it is important she does a good job.
Of course, the maid of honour will want to ensure she is prepared and her speech is relevant to her relationship with the bride. Although for some, standing up and talking about their friendship will come easily for thers they’ll need help in getting a sensible structure sorted out.
Preparing a funny wedding speech with some good quotes would be the best any maid of the honor should do
Just be yourself. Don’t panic. Don’t be afraid of stage fright and you’ll give a great maid of honor speech.
Hello,
Can anyone give me some wedding speech examples or tips?
Really great post, enjoyed reading it. Thanks
A great tip with the everyday situations. It’s important to keep a wedding speech (or any other form, for that matter) funny. It doesn’t have to be hilarious all the way through, but it definitely needs something spicy.
As you say, making everyday situations funny is a great skill to use in wedding speeches. It’s amazing how you can make even the most basic things funny, with a little twist in the story telling. Also note: I say that it’s a skill, not a talent, because in my opinion it’s something that can be learned.
I love wedding speeches, that recall a funny or embarresing event from the bride past,
these are always a hit at any wedding, and i love seeing their faces!
but make sure it is not something that is too private!