Maid of honour speeches has unleashed funny women everywhere, allowing them the chance to show off all the funny and highly embarrassing stories they’ve racked up on the bride over the years.
So what makes a good maid of honour speech? In general, as with any speech, some solid jokes, a couple of stories and a touch of sentimentality will help it fly.
Sounds simple right? Well, not always… But to help you on your way, here are five of our favourite maid of honour speech videos.
As maid of honour speeches are a typically American feature of a wedding which we’ve inherited, it makes sense that most of this list stem from the States.
This is the quintessential Maid of ‘Honor’ speech. One college friend to another – telling everyone in the room just what makes the bride so awesome.
It’s cheery, gently funny without going overboard, tearful at times and always delivered with a smile. It’s all very polished – because it’s true. It’s the story of their friendship, with the story of the bride and groom meeting interwoven in. And if you’re delivering the truth, you can’t go far wrong.
As we mentioned at the beginning, we all know how the best man speech works. And – as a maid of honour is effectively the bride’s ‘best woman’ – it makes sense that these speeches follow in their tradition i.e. making as much fun of the bride as possible.
This speech is fast, funny and, often, pretty brutal. In five minutes, she mocks both the bride AND her husband (poor guy, as he’s probably getting a double whammy from his best man too!), in a way which is just as funny as most best man speeches we see.
Sure, there are some fairly familiar jokes scattered in there at times. But it’s funny. And manages to be both uncompromising and self-deprecating, making the five minutes an enjoyable and unpredictable journey.
And if you want to deliver a speech in style just like her, maybe check out Speechy’s all-new delivery coaching service?
Taking the above one step further is this Maid of Honour turned five-minute roastmaster. She has years of dirt on her sister and is not afraid to air it.
Again, there are some familiar jokes – with the ‘keeping the bar low’ joke almost identical to the speech above. But many Best Men or Fathers of the Bride will resort to trusty, crowd-pleasing lines too, so who can blame her!
The speech gets better as it goes on and becomes more and more personal. But if we were to really nitpick – don’t read off your phone! You don’t have to memorise it, but at least print it off. It just looks better.
Here over at Speechy, we don’t ‘believe’ in singing your wedding speech. Good jokes and funny stories are much more personal and far less risky than a song. Particularly if you can’t sing.
HOWEVER. This family clearly all grew up performing together and competing for attention – as a lot of their lyrics suggest. Immediately, we’re given a great insight into their family life in a ten minute, Disney tour de force.
Good parodies, a great choice of Disney songs and even well-written jokes – which is surprisingly unusual for a parody song. Plus – how good are their voices? Snap them up for Frozen 2!
Finally, if you want to make fun of the bride but don’t want to go too far and end with them breaking down and crying in the toilet, this is a perfect balance.
The maid of honour starts by getting EVERYONE in the room on her side with a slew of great jokes and perfectly encapsulating their sisterly relationship.
Then – BAM! The speech hits you with all the sentimental stuff. Things that, perhaps if it hadn’t been for all the jokes, would otherwise be a little soppy. However, this speech is so well-structured that that’s never the case.
It even finds space for some advice at the end. And all in five minutes! Bravo.
So there we go! Watch the above videos, make a note of the tips and then spend an hour digging through all the dirt you have on the bride. You can’t go far wrong. But, for more expert advice, head over to Speechy’s dedicated Maid of Honour Advice page.
