Bride Speech Jokes – Advice & Tips On Writing Original Jokes

‘Humour’ To Avoid

THE OBVIOUS STUFF – A Googled joke or a joke recycled from another wedding you’ve been to is never a good idea. Sure they’re easy, sometimes even a little bit funny. But, basically, they’re cheating. And no wedding gets off to a decent start by cheating.

Now, considering the average adult attends two weddings a year, by the age of 30 most people have sat through a fair few speeches. This means if you think a joke seems vaguely familiar, chances are your guests will too. And once they recognise just one recycled gag they’ll assume the rest are too.

So avoid search engines at all costs! You want to have your audience giggling not groaning.

THE BAD STUFF – It’s not just the popularity of internet ‘humour’ that’s a problem, it’s the fact the jokes are really BAD.

Some of it’s stupidly sexist – and, yes, at a same-sex wedding, taking the proverbial out of a groom for being pathetic at domestic chores is a bit stereotypical trope even if it is true.

THE GENERIC STUFF – At Speechy, we have a rule… if a joke could be inserted into another bride’s speech (with just the names changed), then it doesn’t make the cut. It’s simply too generic which makes it meaningless and a waste of everyone’s time.

How To Create Your Own Funny Lines

The best wedding speeches don’t rely on tired jokes or recycled cliches. They dish the truth.

A good bride speech gives the guests an opportunity to laugh at some classic stories, highlight some quirks and eccentricities of the couple getting hitched, and smile at the reality of everyday romance.

The key to finding the source of your comedy is to retrace your relationship past and observe your relationship in action today.

No matter how many generic wedding gags you read, you’ll never find one as funny as the time your partner cried the first time they watched Pretty Woman with you. Or how, every night, they get frustrated about your poor dishwasher loading technique.

These things are funny because they ACTUALLY happened. So grab a pen and pad and make a note of all the great stories and anecdotes you can remember about them.

Ask yourself lots of questions. Every couple has weird relationship habits so what are yours? Do you have a scoring system to decide which Netflix series you’ll watch next? Do you put on a Friday night disco for two every week? Does he send you Dick-pics in the form of famous Richards?

Reveal your couple-quirks by taking the time to notice them!

Package Up The Punchlines

Next, it’s time to package up your humour into a proper speech.

Like a good, old-fashioned story, your speech needs to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. It also needs a narrative arc so work out which stories and insights can be threaded together so they don’t seem like a random add-on.

At Speechy, we suggest finding a theme for your speech; a narrative that brings all the anecdotes and observations into a coherent form. This will help you filter out your content. Read our general Bride Speech Advice for a better idea of how it works.

Cut out any stories that take too long to set up and explain. Roughly, a good speech length is between five and ten minutes (and depends, slightly, on whether your partner is also speaking).

Once you’ve written the first draft of your speech, the next stage is editing it. As Ernest Hemingway said ‘The first draft of anything is shit’.

Speeches and jokes are better if they’re punchy. Your speech never needs to be longer than 1,300 MAX.

Practise Those Punchlines

Comedians make standing in front of a bunch of people and being funny look easy, don’t they? But in reality, us normal people know… it’s not. But the good news is even the best stand-ups weren’t always as polished and there are ways of making this as pain-free as possible.

STEP 1 – REHEARSE

First of all, it’s more than acceptable to use notes when delivering your speech but it still pays to know your speech really well.

It helps you understand the flow of your speech and know where to leave a pause for laughter or add a suggestive eyebrow raise.

But how do you get your speech stuck in your head?

Well, simple.

• Start by reading it out loud to anyone who’ll listen: your mum, your mate, your cat. Experts say vocalising something gives us up to 10% better memory retention.
• So does writing your speech down (old school, in pen).
• And reciting it just before you go to bed. (Though be careful not to let your fiancee hear)

STEP 2 – DELIVER LIKE A PRO

On the big day, the most important thing is to take your time. You know the material. You know the speech is funny. The only thing holding you back is nerves.

So adjust your delivery to slightly slower than normal. This makes you sound naturally more confident and also gives all the jokes room to breathe. By the time you’ve got your first laugh, you’ll naturally relax.

Another quick-win is simply to smile. It’s proven to be infectious, so make sure you’re beaming ear to ear before you even stand up. It’s impossible to look someone who’s smiling in the eye without mimicking them. FACT.

From then on it’s all about eye-contact and performing to your crowd.  And ENJOY!