Comedy writing is a lucrative business, but you do not have to be a professional to come up with a sweet and amusing speech for your wedding. There are a few basics you can include to get the audience appreciating your effort and your bride confirming that you have a sense of humor.
You need to decide if a funny wedding speech is appropriate – if you’ve just had an Orthodox wedding and your guests are fairly solemn religious types then you might need to be careful. Any jokes you write must be sweet and essentially complimentary of the bride, without any crass humor or information about your personal life included.
The absolutely worst thing you could ever possibly do is insult your new in laws. These people have welcomed you into their lives and family, and have allowed you to marry their daughter. You need to tread carefully and if you do use humor don’t use it with your in laws. Perhaps you can mention that you have heard horror stories from others, however your own in laws are fantastic – this is about as humorous as this part of your speech should get.
Try to avoid clichés if you can, unless they are perfectly true to your situation. Don’t try any obvious jokey comments – especially those that might ask questions of your audience – they won’t know how to respond.
The best way to bring humor into your speech is to look for funny moments in your relationship that are family-friendly and have a positive and/or sweet outcome. These will both entertain and warm the hearts of your guests and give insight into your relationship without revealing too much. If you’ve had bad advice you can use it to show how perfect your bride is and how good it was you didn’t follow it. It’s best to avoid anything that reflects negatively on anyone except yourself.
