A maid of honor had the bride and groom in stitches after delivering what one viewer online described as “literally the best wedding speech I’ve ever heard.”
Good wedding speeches require preparation and practice. But even the best laid plans can go awry should you decide to inject a little humor into proceedings. Telling jokes during a wedding speech is something of a balancing act. They need to be funny but in a way that isn’t going to leave the bride’s father furious or the groom’s grandparents feeling uncomfortable.
As Laurie Battaglia, a keynote speaker and workplace strategist, explains, it’s also important not to embarrass the happy couple.
“It’s okay to look back at childhood and refer to something funny but ask yourself if you’d like 200-plus of your closest friends knowing that story about you,” she told Brides.
But poking fun at the bride and groom in a speech that is both funny and heartfelt is achievable —just ask Tina Sieben. The New York-based comedian went viral this week after sharing a clip from the speech she delivered at her sister Melissa’s wedding.
Sieben may be a professional funny person, but her speech served as the perfect showcase of how to mix humor with sentimentality while leaving the bride, groom and assorted guests in stitches.
At the time of writing, a clip from the speech shared under the handle wnbagf has been watched more than 3 million times on TikTok, where it has already garnered a glut of comments from amused and impressed viewers.
Sieben sets the tone from the off.
Tina Sieben brings the house down with her Maid of Honor speech. The bride was so impressed she told her the speech could count as her “wedding gift.”
wnbagf
“Thank you to my dad for starting off the speeches,” she says. “It’s really nice to have someone go first who can kind of set the bar low for the rest of us.”
Cue uproarious laughter.
“Most people aren’t able to say they have the smartest, most beautiful, caring sister in the world,” she continues. “But Melissa, I am so glad that you can say that.”
No one is safe, with Sieben going on to roast her other siblings and the groom.
“I already have three brothers,” she says. “But I know they would agree with me when I say Johnathan is the brother I always wished I had.”
After delivering a few sweet lines about how the groom has made her sister the happiest she has ever seen her, Sieben turns to him and admits: “Johnathan, I didn’t know you before Melissa so I’m honestly not really sure what she does for you.”
Cue even more laughter.
Sieben told Newsweek her sister instructed her, as maid of honor, to “give her a good speech” and she was only too happy to oblige.
“It was nice because I’m not great at the regular maid of honor duties like fluffing dresses and doing hair but I knew I could give a killer speech,” she said.
Sieben has performed in front of any number of audiences, including a few hostile ones, and said it was “a lot more fun” to do it at her sister’s wedding.
“It’s a big party, and you can really feel the love in the air,” she said.
Plenty of work went into the speech though, with Sieben admitting she was “jotting down ideas for weeks” ahead of the big day and only “put all of the pieces together the night before.”
It all worked out though, with Sieben saying the speech got some “funny reactions” from those in attendance.
“The officiant was their friend and he said if he wasn’t already married he’d marry me for that speech. My dad said I’ve always been his favorite kid but that really sealed the deal,” she said. “My sister loved it and said I could count it as her wedding gift.”
They weren’t the only ones who were impressed. On TikTok, Ashley Harrington662 commented, “That this is how you do a wedding speech,” with Stoobs saying it was “Literally the best wedding speech I’ve ever heard.”
Flipthelyd wrote, “This is the only wedding roast I’ve ever seen that’s genuinely funny without making anyone feel bad or anything,” while Gabzilla_rawr called it the “best wedding speech ever!”
Sieben said the speech has definitely boosted her visibility as a comedian, to the point where she wishes her sister “could get married every year.”
More than anything, she’s just happy that everyone has been so nice.
“There’s like no negative comments on it anywhere,” she said. “Anytime something goes viral there’s always someone who wants to say something rude but the response has really been so genuine and nice.”
