The risks we check for
- Ex-partners and dating history — the single most common wedding speech mistake.
- Humiliation, as distinct from teasing: does the laugh depend on them being embarrassed?
- Bachelor and bachelorette party material.
- Alcohol, drugs and wild-night stories.
- Family conflict, divorce, estrangement and absent relatives.
- Sexual or crude content of any kind.
- Money, jobs and status comparisons.
- Appearance, weight and health.
- Jokes implying the marriage will not last.
- Material only a handful of guests could follow.
- Professional or legal risk — anything that could genuinely damage someone.
The room you are actually speaking to
The mistake almost everyone makes is writing for their own friends. The room at a US wedding reception typically contains the couple's parents and grandparents, both extended families, several colleagues, at least one boss, some children, and a number of people who have never met you.
A joke that is affectionate among six friends can read as cruel to two hundred strangers who have no context for the friendship. That gap — between how well the room knows you and how well it needs to in order to find the joke funny — is what this checker is really measuring.