Wedding speeches can make or break the reception so you need to be very careful about whom you allow to make speeches at your wedding.
You must remember all the time that you and your partner are running the show and you get the full and final say on what happens at your wedding and that includes who speaks and to a certain extent what they say.
Generally, as you know the personality of the person who will be giving a speech, you will know whether you can trust them to refrain from saying anything embarrassing.
It has happened many times at weddings where a speech can get a bit out of hand if the person enjoys the limelight and talks too much or says the wrong things.
Jokes can often fall flat at weddings unless the person delivering them is adept at making other people laugh and in most cases it pays to err on the cautious side when adding too many jokes to the wedding speech.
Of course you want to keep your wedding a happy and fun event but it can get quite embarrassing when one joke after another falls flat.
Where possible discuss the topics that the person giving the speech will be covering beforehand and let them know if there are any matters that you would prefer them not to talk about and ask them to respect your wishes.
You don’t want to have anything on your day that causes you any anxiety in any way and if everything else has been well planned and executed then the wedding speeches are the only area where you don’t have full control apart from who you choose to allow to talk.
Many people are very uncomfortable at public speaking and even though they might be surrounded by friends and family it can be a harrowing event so you need to discuss this with anyone who you have asked to talk on your wedding day to ensure that they don’t get stage fright at the last moment.