12 Tips on How to Deliver Funny, Warm, and Entertaining Wedding Speeches

Wedding speeches are a cherished tradition, offering a unique opportunity to share heartfelt sentiments, lovely or funny memories, and humorous anecdotes.

Delivering a wedding speech is both an honour and a challenge. Whether you’re the groom, best man, best woman, or bride, mum or dad, you have the unique opportunity to share precious memories and expressions of deep friendship or love, using stories, and humour with the guests.

Crafting a speech that is funny, warm, and entertaining is a really special way to show your love and appreciation and engage friends and relatives.

Here’s how to create an inclusive wedding speech that resonates with everyone there.

1. Understand Your Role

The Groom/Bride: Your speech should express gratitude, love, and excitement for the future. Mention your partner, thank your families, and acknowledge the guests – especially 90 year old Aunt Gertie, as the effort she will have made to be there, probably out strips all others.

The Best Man/Woman: Your speech should be a blend of humour and sentiment, focusing on your relationship with the groom or bride, sharing anecdotes, and toasting the couple.

Mum / Dad – the chances are, if you’re making a speech, you know what you want to say!  So for you this will be more of a guide on ‘how to’ deliver your heart felt words…

2. Know Your Audience

Before you start writing, consider your audience. A wedding guest list often includes a wide range of ages and relationships to the couple.

Your audience is a very diverse group of family members and friends, meaning that they will probably be of all ages, possibly different cultures and countries.

Your goal is to connect with everyone, so avoid inside jokes that only a few will understand – and if you can’t resist – add a few key words to help the rest of the room to access what on earth you are talking about!

Technically, add the key words that open up the joke to a wider audience before you say the actual gag, or pay off line ie the phrase or sentence that is going to get the laugh.  Never do it afterwards – you will kill the joke.

The set up needs to explain and describe the situation – and the pay off is the one liner so to speak, the phrase or the sentence at the end…. cue laughter.

If you do this you will create humour that is inclusive and reach a greater part of your audience – who – please do remember – want to find your jokes funny 🙂

Remember this: you’re not appearing at one of the notoriously difficult comedy clubs in Glasgow.

Your audience want to laugh at your jokes.

3. Wedding Speeches Like All Speeches Need A Confident Opening

Whilst everyone is milling around, you can secretly practice your walk up to the podium or the position.

Ideally you would suss out the ‘geographicals’ before the day, or at least before the reception begins,  but if you can’t, do it while everyone is milling around at the beginning of the event. They will not notice what you are doing.

This means that when all eyes are on you, you can walk and / or stand up to or  into position, with more confidence and start your performance – before beginning your speech – with a huge smile facing the audience..  and beam!

And remember to pick out your best supporters to give yourself a boost…  You can always check out where they are sitting/standing before you go into position.

4. Posture

Practice ‘ balancing your weigh’t: feet hip width apart, knees and ankles aligned – feet perpendicular to your knees – and your weight predominantly on the balls of your feet. This will stop you swinging and make you look strong and confident.

So, into position, balance your weight .. and smile!

Once you have begun – keep your eyes moving around the room so that everyone feels included – and keep remember to smile!

5. Share Heartfelt Stories

Balance humour with warmth by sharing personal stories about the couple. Reflect on moments that highlight their personalities and the journey they’ve shared towards meeting each other, the journey they have shared coming together, staying together and leading up to this very special day.

Stories that reveal their quirks and strengths can be both touching and entertaining.

For the Groom and Bride: Share personal stories that highlight your journey as a couple. Mention your partner’s qualities that you admire, and include light-hearted anecdotes that won’t embarrass them and that they can laugh at too.

For the Best Man/Woman: Recall memorable moments with the groom or bride, mixing humour with heartfelt reflections and describe your favourite personality traits that illustrate why they are such great people to be friends with and to marry!  Ensure your stories celebrate their character and your friendship.

6. Use Humor Wisely in Wedding Speeches

Ensure your stories are sensitive to the situation:  not about their ex’s or anything they’ve done that is universally acknowledged as really bad behaviour.

The aim isn’t to embarrass in a humiliating or disapproving or disloyal or shaming sort of way, but in a humorous, ‘slightly embarrassing perhaps but not disparaging’ sort of way.

Rather than something that demeans or discredits them the anecdotes must be something the subject/s themselves would consider funny.

However drunk you may be…

and actually on that note – do your main imbibing AFTER your speech.

Alcohol doesn’t enhance, it deludes and will definitely make you perform less well.

We all need a little adrenalin to give a performance that extra oomph and sparkle, so it’s a fool’s paradise to think dampening yourself down with liquid depressant will oil the wheels:  it won’t.

It will loosen the nuts and bolts and your speech will fall apart.

7. Incorporate Quotes and Props

Quotes from the couple or their nearest and dearest about the couple, can be very funny.

Props can enhance your speech too and used cleverly could be very funny.

And probably make it more memorable!

8. Practice, Practice, Practice

Rehearse your speech multiple times to improve your performance.  Anthony Hopkins used to say read a script outloud as you would say it, 100 times.

That’s a lot.

For corporates I only ever managed up to about 40, but it really does help consolidate the text into your brain to allow freedom and apparent spontaneity.

Practice in front of a full length mirror, look into your own eyes and you will soon find the difficult sentences to say; the superfluous words more appropriate for an article to be read silently and… whether you are entertaining or boring yourself!

9. Don’t Think It Has To Be More Than Ten Minutes 

A good wedding speech is not too long winded. Aim for around five to ten minutes, enough time to eulogise about whoever, tell a funny story and thank the people you nee to thank… without losing the audience’s attention.

Nobody will complain your speech was too short – just make sure you mention and thank the ones necessary.

Remember, there will be people desperate for the loo, others trying to keep small children quiet, someone else keeping a taxi waiting, or a myriad of other problems being experienced by your audience, so sweet, funny, warm,  appreciative and not too long is the way to go.

Write everything you want to include and then start the magic of editing.

10. Edit, Edit and Edit, Until Everything is Easy to Say.

This is best done standing and staring into the full length mirror mentioned above in Tip 7.

This will enable you to pare down the speech to the best, easiest to say phrases for you and this also helps you practice your style of delivery.

You are saying your speech – so the words, phrases or sentences need to be easy for you to say ie ‘deliver’.

Confidence and familiarity born out of practice and repeated editing to pare your words down to your natural vocabulary and natural speech rhythms,  will help you connect so much better with your audience.

11. Remember A Speech Isn’t A Declaration –  it’s a conversation with your audience

Your speech is a conversation between you and your audience – it’s just that they mostly respond non-verbally – so focus on them, watch their reactions and their body language like you would a friend or a colleague and tell them what you need them to know – so they can enjoy what you’re saying, enjoy you enjoy your personality and enjoy themselves 🙂

12. Wedding Speeches Need To End On A High Note

Conclude your speech with a warm and positive toast and invite everyone to stand if they can and raise their glasses.

A positive and inclusive ending ensures your speech ends on a high note and the physical and vocal involvement of everyone else makes everyone feel, included and cheerful and energised.

“Here’s to a lifetime of love, loyalty, laughter, support, fun and loads of money!  Ladies and gentlemen, to Name & Name/s!”