There is a well-known engineering concept that the more parts a machine or contraption has, the more likely it will be prone to breaking. Same goes for weddings.
Because there is so much potential for something going wrong in a wedding, it’s also likely that the guests will catch wind of it, if not be affected by it. And once they do, you’re sure to hear about it online, like in this AskReddit thread answering the question what’s the worst wedding experience you ever had? And, well, some of them are definitely doozies.
#1
The music for the wedding was recorded by the bride and groom, neither of whom were singers. Basically prerecorded karaoke.
Image credits: thismorningscoffee
#2
My daughter’s wedding. No one showed up to the bachelorette party night before. Groom had the flu day of wedding and was vomiting all over the restroom. Bridesmaid had a seizure during the actual ceremony. Groom’s ex shows up and ruins the first dance. And someone forgot to invite grooms birth mom to the ceremony and she missed it. T O T A L D I S A S T E R
Edited to add something else I forgot. The groom didn’t book anywhere to stay the wedding night. When we realized it (the afternoon of the wedding) he opted just to sleep in his mom’s basement. HELL NO. I found them a hotel room.
#3
The groom didn’t like the music so he proceeded to smash all the bands equipment, I really don’t like being around drunks.
Image credits: Designer_Twist4699
As mentioned above, the concept of a wedding is complex, no thanks to social, cultural and economic factors (among others). And the more complex a wedding is, the more potential there will be for something to go haywire. Does it have to do that? Not necessarily, but there are some aspects that are common inevitabilities.
#4
Mine. My sister in law announced her pregnancy during a toast. No one supported her decision to do it, but it was ruined. We’re getting remarried in Alaska by ourselves for our 25th anniversary ❤️.
Image credits: Cannelope
#5
They ran out of food for the last 2 tables, who just happened to be the coworkers of the bride. We had to order pizza delivery and pay for it ourselves. The bride’s family refused to pay for it. You never remember the good weddings, but you never forget the bad ones.
Image credits: shockingRn
#6
The groom’s grandfather had a heart attack on the dance floor and died.
Image credits: ShinyLyleen
One of the bigger threats to a happy wedding day is something that actually haunts us on the daily—running behind schedule. And it’s not just because you’re late. Guests can be late. Staff can be late. Things might take too much time.
This is, however, easily resolved with an MC who can herd everyone into a schedule and make sure your schedule has time dedicated to transitions and logistics between things.
#7
The priest called the bride by the wrong name the entire 2-hour long Catholic ceremony. The poor bride corrected the priest each time the first 10 times or so. The priest was the groom’s uncle. The groom never corrected him.
Eventually, the bride looked like she had tears in her eyes and was going to start bawling so she stopped correcting him. The priest just kept using the wrong name through the end of the ceremony. Afterwards, I wondered if the couple was even legally married since he never got her name right.
Image credits: RuggedHangnail
#8
My father’s step sister’s wedding. I was 5, it was hot, the groom smushed cake in her face even after she told him not to, she smushed cake in his face and broke his nose. Blood everywhere, we left as the ambulance was arriving.
When I was in my 30s, at my cousin’s wedding, his wife had asked him not to smush the cake, and he didn’t, the best man who was a massive ahole, did it instead. We left. Didn’t get any cake at either wedding.
Image credits: dararie
#9
The wedding was to take place on the east coast. It was huge, expensive, and had been planned for two years. The wedding party traveled from all over to participate. The bride announced her apologies at the rehearsal dinner the night before that there would be no wedding.
Six months later, friends are told that the couple is going to try again. To avoid any stress, they’ve decided on a courthouse wedding, and specific friends from the old wedding party were asked to visit. The day of, the bride announces she can’t get married at a courthouse.
One year later. The couple announces that they have proudly gone through intensive therapy, and they are planning a destination wedding in Hawaii! They expected everyone to fly out to support them in their regenerated relationship. Family members and a subset of the wedding party (from #1) fly out. As everyone is assembling on the beach, the bride announces that there will be no wedding and encourages everyone to, “enjoy your vacation in Hawaii!” The groom ended the relationship shortly afterwards.
Image credits: SharonWit
Needless to say, the more organized the wedding is, the less problems you’re gonna have. Sure, there’ll always be that one aunt who needs to phone you on the details the morning of your wedding, but there’d be more people if not for good communication. A wedding planner can help with that.
#10
A long time ago was invited to a wedding of a college friend. Invitation was very fancy so we dressed up in suits to attend. Had a difficult time finding the place, arrive and find out that it’s in a literal horse pasture. Smelled of manure and was an extremely hot summer day so that made it worse. Looking for the groom to offer congratulations and find him dressed in shorts and a T-shirt playing football with some buddies. The Bride? nowhere to be found, they had already gotten married earlier in the day and she was inside taking a nap. We had arrived a good 45 minutes before the time listed on the invite? anyways for the reception they set up a potato bar in the pasture and there were millions of
flies covering the food. We excused ourselves and never saw or heard from him again.
Image credits: patofu82
#11
My uncle got so drunk at my sister’s wedding that he confessed to having an affair and completely ruined the family?.
Image credits: Bhinzoh
#12
I was roofied (drugged) at the reception by a woman I never met before. I didn’t know anyone at the wedding. I was the plus 1.
Image credits: LacyGray
In fact, there can be heaps of problems that having a dedicated person to help plan and manage would resolve: having your playlists in order, guests suddenly deciding they’re vegan, heck, even if the weather decides to be a pain, they probably won’t perform a ritual to cast the rain away, but they could compensate for it with added logistics.
They will, however, likely have trouble with family drama.
#13
My sister’s wedding. It was outdoors in South Texas in the summer, and the heat was awful. My sister had picked the venue when it still had water in the ponds, but at the time of her wedding, everything had been drained for repair, so it looked like an old quarry with some mud puddles here and there.
The night before, we met at the venue for a rehearsal. My sister decided all the bridesmaids had to wait in the bathroom, but the bathroom smelled like a large dead thing and a lot of poop. One of the girls pulled perfume out of her purse and started spraying it everywhere. I had an asthma attack and was trying to take my inhaler and step out of the awful bathroom for some fresh air. My sister was screaming, “Do you have to f*****g do that now? Can you f*****g process down the f*****g aisle and worry about your f*****g breathing when it’s not my f*****g wedding eve!” Her new in-laws drove me to the ER because my mom refused, because I was being dramatic and trying to steal my sister’s attention on the eve of her big day.
#14
My mother, sat in the front row, was crying so hard she was escorted out of the room by my sister while I said my wedding vows. she was devastated I was marrying a woman (I’m a lesbian). yes, I’d come out to her, three years before this; I’d told her I met someone I’d like to marry, two years before; I told her I got proposed to, half a year before, and invited her to the wedding; politely uninvited her because she was upset; she begged to be re-invited; she attends and LEAVES DURING MY VOWS. she walked back in about ten minutes later. I’ll never forget this lol.
Image credits: 77201
#15
It was the 4th of July and fireworks were going off. 3 scared local dogs came running in the church down the aisle and the brides family was freaking out. No one thought it was funny. I did though.
Image credits: Dwesal
Family drama can be kinda sorta avoided by finding a good seating arrangement, but families might still cross paths on the dance floor or on their way to the bar. Or maybe Uncle Tim will decide to share an embarrassing story that makes everyone think that you just married your cousin. Wait… Did you?
#16
I was supposed to be in the bridal party and was told that things were casual, and to just show up the day of wearing something “dressy casual” I felt good in. I showed up, saw the wedding party in coordinated outfits with their corsages, bouquets, and the whole 9 yards, and realized they hadn’t had the guts to tell me they didn’t want me in the bridal party after all. We took our gift, checked out of the hotel we’d paid for at their specific recommendation (and that they cancelled the shuttle for because “we forgot you were staying there”), and drove 800km back home with our wedding present.
I am not friends with any of those people anymore, and thank god.
#17
The grooms dad made a speech that started with ‘When we first met we thought she’s not much to look at, but then we got to know her’
Idk if it was his idea of a joke or what but it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
#18
The married bride’s dad went behind the reception hall for a make out session with her maid of honor. They got busted by his 9 months pregnant niece, who had a massive blowup in front of everyone. Meanwhile half the groomsmen were in the parking lot fist fighting a bunch of guys next door.
Oh, but there’s more to the human factor. Someone can most definitely be ill and hence drop out at the last minute. There might be some uninvited guests because someone didn’t understand what plus one means. And maybe that plus one will cause a domino effect that will ruin your dress. And then Uncle Tim is sure to get involved.
#19
SIL got married in Wyoming. She’s a tad crunchy. Her bro and I lived in NYC.
Hotel Block: she gets married the weekend of graduation at U of Wyoming and doesn’t have a hotel room block. Same town for the wedding and the college. We are forced to stay 45-60 mins away.
Rehearsal Dinner: it’s in a cabin at the state forest. Groom’s mom is cooking green chili for dinner (he’s from Arizona/NM). I’m not the pickiest eater but I do not care for that and there is nothing else to eat. Not even chips and salsa. We had to drive an hour back and find a drive thru.
Wedding Day: we were told it was outdoors in May. I thought 50s for weather. Nope! Up in the mountains and it was about 35 degrees. I basically froze.
There is almost a 2 hour gap between the ceremony and the reception (not Catholic) so we had to drive an hour to the reception town and since it was lunch time we stopped at Denny’s for food. I think my MIL got a grand slam.
We get to the reception at a church undergoing renovations. THERE ARE NO STALLS OR SINKS IN THE BATHROOMS. Their mom was very overweight and I had to hold her arm for balance/be the lookout while she peed. We then had to go to the kitchen (where Groom’s mom was cooking dinner) and use the prep sink to wash our hands.
Her cake was decorated like mountains bc they love the outdoors. THERE WERE REAL ROCKS ON THE CAKE FOR DECORATION! I almost cracked a tooth.
It was also a BYOB wedding but no one told us to bring anything so I was forced to drink lavender lemonade (it was gross).
That was the worst wedding I’ve ever experienced.
#20
My own.
Trapped in an elevator with the groom for hours the night prior. Was mistakenly sent a red hummer with no AC on the hottest day of the year instead of the limo I rented. Wedding commissioner was 2 Hours late and didn’t have a phone. Almost got fake married. Rented a boat to get married and cruise around on. It was an old ice breaker with lots of character and I planned all my decor around it. On the day the boat didn’t work and we had to ask all the guest to grab whatever was on their table and re-set it up on the new boat. Which had maroon everything and my colours were teal and coral. That boat was just coming back from a bar party cruise so they hosed it down. As soon as I got on it my entire dress soaked up the water to my waist. Had to change into my friends sundress. There was not enough food and it was disgusting. The new boat had used all the fresh water on board on the last cruise so they hooked up the lines to some nasty slat water and were making drinks with that until people realized. There was no water on board and no gun drinks. The only thing to drink was palm bays. Even kids. Again on the hottest day of the year. Then we danced to 2 songs and they shut the music off as it had to be off by 12 even though we’re started hours late after the first boat didn’t work. I was so pissed I stormed off the boat. In the boat move one of my bridesmaids lost her keys and ended up having to come to our hotel room at the end of the night. Didn’t get refunded a dime. There was honestly so much more but I think I’ve blocked it all out.
#21
At my dad’s wedding, having to run around to find my brother for toasts, found him upstairs hooking up with our new step mom’s daughter.
Image credits: Emieosj89
As you might have noticed from the answers that Redditor had, things can be a lot worse: your brother might be hooking up with his new step-mom’s daughter (knowingly or not); your sister might decide to announce her pregnancy, stealing your thunder (and likely the lightning too); and someone getting so drunk, they smash the band’s instruments because they didn’t like the music.
#22
On my wedding day my alcoholic MIL got absolutely hammered, fell down stairs and went unconscious and stopped breathing. I was 36 weeks pregnant at this time and had to do CPR. She came around after a few compressions, when the paramedics arrived she verbally abused them. The worst day, still happily married to my beautiful husband though, he’s had a tough childhood as you can imagine.
Image credits: skewbis
#23
Probably the wedding where my whole family and a bunch of other guests got food poisoning from the reception. Missed the first day of Grade 5 after spending all night throwing up. We each got a cheque for $50 from the venue a few months later. $50 seemed like big money at the time lol.
Image credits: rob448
#24
The bride was wearing a $10k dress but didn’t feed her guests. The wedding was in the afternoon in a church with the reception “to follow immediately after” at a ball room nearby. The wedding party went to take pictures and everyone had to wait for them to get back and go through the line first.
One tray of appetizers for 200 guests went pretty quickly. There was only 2 buck chuck white wine or water to drink. No soda, no iced tea, no beer.
The bridal party spends 2 hours taking pictures while we wait to eat. They had set up a “stations” buffet but didn’t spring for plates at each station so the line moved through a snails pace at every station. We finally got something to eat 5 hours after the ceremony.
Sure, all of these can be resolved (more or less) by having a good wedding MC who will keep tabs on everyone, but there’s also another, simpler (again, more or less) option. The wedding experience is definitely a challenge for everyone. For some, more so than others. So why not embrace it?
#25
My husband picked up a shift at work on our wedding night. Don’t worry, though — he didn’t actually end up working on our wedding night; he was just cheating.
I found that out way later. It was COVID, and I discovered later (by going through his phone finally after the most sus behavior in the world) that he wasn’t actually going to work like a third of the time he claimed, and actually he hadn’t been faithful, ever, with anyone he was with. Yeah. He’s the ex. Funny enough, recently he tried to beg me back, and I just sent it all to his current girlfriend,the main side, who actually blew up her own marriage to be with this fool. It’s only been a few months, and he’s already trying to backwards cheat on her. What even is that?
Image credits: anon
#26
It was held in the couples backyard and all of the guests brought dishes and essentially catered for them. When the ceremony took place, no one sat down because the “officiant” didn’t tell anyone to. When it was time to eat, the groom went and sat at a table with his friends and the bride sat at a table by herself. We had to invite her to our table. At the end, they opened and read everyone’s cards containing money in front of the guests. Thought that was tacky as hell.
#27
Saw a bride give a very well thought out vow and remembrance, and the groom said
>”wow, that’s a lot. Ditto”.
Sometimes, everything goes wrong in a wedding. And then you feel bad that parents (and maybe even more) invested so much into it but it left you feeling negative about it. And when you finally reach that “oh, well, it was kind of a disaster, but we’re married now, so that’s all that matters!” phase, it still feels like it might upset some people. But it has to be let go.
#28
The bride got chickenpox a week before the wedding and still had her scabby spots the day of. Minister didn’t show up. The whole church waited a half hour before they found out he had forgotten and went out to play golf instead. They got someone else from a church directory who took another twenty minutes to show up. Meanwhile, the groom’s mother was going around giving odds on how long the marriage would last.
They’re still happily married 42 years later.
Edit: My husband just read this and said “are you nuts? It took more like an hour to figure out the pastor wasn’t coming and at least 45 minutes for the replacement to show up.” In my defense, it was over forty years ago!
#29
My father’s speech (which he was asked not to do) included saying “I (the bride) and my sisters had always been a disappointment.
You could have heard a pin drop. It was devastating. I actually left my own wedding, went home and watched tv trying to compose myself, then stuck on a smile and went back. It depressed me for months.
#30
At the reception, a drunk lady was beating the s**t out of her date, some scrawny, snaggletoothed dude about a foot shorter and 150 pounds smaller than her. Dude kept yelling, “Stop, stop!” But the lady kept wailing on the guy. Wild stuff.
Image credits: 8inchSalvattore
So, what are your thoughts on any of this? Have you ever experienced a wedding so crummy, it made you sick on the spot? Share your stories and takes in the comment section below!
And if you don’t even want to remember, well, then why not forget with more?
#31
At a cousin’s wedding reception, at an ultra swanky private club, one of my cousin’s friends got really drunk and accused one of the (all black) serving staff of stealing her purse. She was screaming racial insults and insisting that the police come and arrest the whole staff. Eventually, she was dragged out of there. Her purse was later found in her car. I have never been so ashamed of being born white in my life.
#32
This happened a very long time ago. I was dating this guy and his sister sent out wedding invites to Hawaii. His mother offered to pay for us to attend. So,the two of us and his parents flew out. At the airport the happy couple greeted us and we all went to dinner. Lots of toasts, happy memories, and quite a few of her family attended this dinner. The next day all of us were left to wander the island while the couple were busy with last minute things. The day of the wedding… my then-boyfriend and I were woken up to frantic banging on our hotel room door. It was his Mom, crying. Long story short, the groom-to-be let the bride know that he would not be attending the wedding. Turns out, dude never sent his family invites because he knew LONG before the wedding that he was gonna bail. He just finally did it on the wedding day itself. What a wild trip that was!
Image credits: fortuitous_squeegie
#33
Buckle up for this one.
A friend of mine had asked if I would DJ for her wedding. We grew up and lived in an area that was riddled with poverty/crime/etc. So her wedding wasn’t big or fancy, but she was a good friend and a very sweet and lovely person. Anyways I guess you could describe her and the grooms families as white trash. They had the event in a small community center, and the food layed out was dollar store canned ham dumped on potato chips with mustard on top. During the ceremony, after she had walked to the alter, her step dad stumbled in wearing dirty jeans, a leather vest without a shirt underneath, and reeked of stale beer and cigarettes. During the reception, her step dad got extremely drunk and punched her mom in the face. The groom started to beat him up in the middle of the hall. Her step dad’s father, who was babysitting their kids, left the 2 children (both under 10) at his house and came to grab her step dad and take him away.
I felt awful for her.
#34
My auntie’s wedding to her second husband.
Her son and new husband don’t get along especially after a few drinks, so early into the reception a fight kicks off between them, drunk angry men from both sides of the family rush in.
Eventually police march into the reception decked out in riot gear (there was a brawl of about 20 people duking it out, the few members of staff that tried to break it up got hurt by both sides for their troubles) and dragged a majority of them (including my cousin and new uncle) to prison.
My auntie didn’t care, she found the whole thing hilarious when she told my parents (who had wisely left early because they know what they are like) the next day.
This is the 3rd wedding I’ve attended on my dad’s side of the family over the last 10 years and there has always been a fight, but that by far was the worst.
Made me and my now wife chuckle when we told them politely but firmly they are not invited to our wedding, and lo and behold we had a perfect wedding because those drunken cocaine sniffing twats weren’t there to ruin things.
#35
My ex husband turned up to our wedding in an ancient baseball jersey, jeans, and trainers, when I had gone for the full white big dress. Then he f***ed off 2 hours into the reception because he’d arranged to play video games with his mates that night.
No, the marriage did not last, but that was mostly because he got a kick out of beating the c**p out of me.
#36
At my rehearsal dinner, my mother planted herself in the middle if the room, sobbing and telling anyone who would listen, (family, friends, wedding party) that I’m making a mistake, my fiance is a loser and the marriage will never work because he’s “low income”. I’ve never been so mortified in my life. Although this is her typical behavior, I guess I thought she’d at least act normal for my wedding events. All my guests left early and after the dinner, I went to their house and FLIPPED OUT. They blamed me for her behavior. ? Typical.
The next day my dad called to tell me to beg my mom to come to my wedding because she wasn’t coming after I yelled at her. I told him no. Tell her to stay home. This is my day, not hers. Her attendance isn’t needed. She showed up and told people how she wished I looked as good as her that day ?
Sadly this behavior isn’t the worst I’ve received from her. I’ve been no contact for a decade now. And my marriage she claimed wouldn’t last – we’re celebrating our 20 yr anniversary this year. But sadly, people STILL talk about her behavior at my rehearsal dinner.
#37
Found out my dad had Parkinson’s at my brother’s wedding (last in the entire family to find out, they had been hiding it from me for a while), my grandma was newly confined to a wheelchair and pooped her pants at my brother’s wedding.
At my ex friend’s wedding I showed up prepared to be the maid of honor and found out from the makeup person that there was another maid of honor. We found out she had two of us working as maid of honor secretly. We both quit.
I lived 7 hours away, in college and worked multiple jobs so it was hard for me to get away and do wedding stuff. She constantly texted me and called me to tell me how horrible of a friend I was. So she ended up telling this other person (turns out it was a distant cousin or something) that I was no longer the maid of honor and she was now on duty. Well I was never told this, but I continued to do what I could from far away. It was really awkward, the other girl was so sad and hurt but I just wanted to get out of there.
Image credits: SoggyxFingers
#38
It was in the yard of a post office. The groom wore a red sweatpants material, shorts suit. It was the bride’s 5th wedding and the groom’s 3rd. They are divorced now.
Image credits: redmooncat15
#39
Outside wedding in June in South Carolina. It was hot as s**t and I was an usher. DJ ended up passing out from the heat and the ambulance pulled up right on the dance floor. Good times.
#40
The groom was hammered and instead of feeding the bride cake, launched it layer by layer across the room.
My sister was the MOH in a wedding where the bride’s father didn’t like the groom. A fight broke out and the bride’s father, uncle, brother, the groom and his father and brother were arrested. The bride spent her wedding night at my house crying her eyes out. They divorced about two years later.
Image credits: Stinkeye63
#41
When i was a kid the first wedding i went was my dad’s friend and his wife brought a stripper to strip for him on the dance floor and dad told me not to look.
#42
I do wedding videography. A few years ago, I was covering a wedding in this incredibly formal cathedral. So much formality that I had rules where I could and could not be (not super typical with most venues)
All morning, the groom had been slamming beers with his groomsmen. Everyone celebrates in their own way, right?
The bride and groom meet at the altar and begin to exchange vows. Mid bridal vow, the groom begins to burp. Everything turned slow motion after that. The groom projectile vomited all over the altar and the bride, before running away while continuing to vomit. It was so silent that his upchucking echoed throughout the cathedral.
The groom returned wearing his best man’s suit jacket, and the bride had magically blotted away the vomit stained on her dress.
Although the vows were never finished, they still got happily married. True love prevails.
Image credits: cocoapooop
#43
The vicar forgot he was doing my sister in laws wedding. We all rocked upto the church. No vicar. Then the bride was late of course. Still no vicar. Then the best man had to go and do physically wake up the vicar who was asleep/passed out.
S**t wedding. Doomed from the very start.
#44
Was at wedding where bride was preggo and they rushed into it.. she broke down uncontrollably sobbing during the vows, not out of joy.
The second thing I remember was a giant bowl of mac n cheese set out on a sad buffet table. The mac had corn in it.
#45
The groom got very, very drunk before the wedding. He could barely stay standing up during the ceremony and ended up passing out in the bathroom during the reception. The bride had no idea he was in the bathroom until he was dragged out of the bathroom by venue staff who then called an ambulance for him. They are still married.
Image credits: bbbbbthatsfivebees
#46
I found out I had Covid 30 min before my own wedding ceremony and everyone had already arrived.
#47
One of my good friends from high school got married in December. The couple gave the DJ a list of accepted music. You want to know what was NOT on that list? Dogs barking Christmas carols.
This guy played three songs of dogs barking Christmas carols in a row and the groom was PISSED. He asked after the 2nd one for the guy to stop. He didn’t. By the third, I thought the groom was going to fight the guy. Who does that to someone’s wedding? WTF?
It’s the most annoying thing…
#48
The food was terrible. I usually go for the filet since generally speaking I don’t go to many weddings that mess that up. I ordered and it took forever to be served, and when it was it was a hockey puck. Completely inedible. I had asked for medium rare.
Then turns out there were multiple weddings at the venue and the groom and groomsmen got into a fight with the other wedding’s party. A glass door was shattered and cops were called. My family had to have cereal when we got home shellshocked over the situation.
We no longer talk to that family for a myriad of reasons but the wedding was a red flag in retrospect.
#49
I’ve been to two weddings where the Christian ministers went off the rails. One decided he needed to go on a diatribe about how the (cis-gender heterosexual) couple getting married was fighting the “good fight” against gay marriage. The other one decided he needed to discuss his personal sex life during the sermon. Nearly walked out of the first, nearly threw up in the second. Absolutely bizarre.
#50
During my wedding vows, a fly landed on the minister’s face… near his lip. Using his tongue like a lizard, he pulled it into his mouth and swallowed it. It was horrifying.
Image credits: Huge_Lizard_Eyes
#51
My cousin was married in NYC 9/23/2001. One of the guests was missing her fiancé, a firefighter reported then as missing. God Bless America was played, and it was a pretty rough moment….
Image credits: Ok-Lavishness-7904
#52
Had to go to an indian auspicious wedding that started at 10pm and the actual marriage was at like 3am bc that’s was when the moon aligned with saturn or smth. wasn’t bad just felt like a fever dream.
Image credits: Sunflounder
#53
Mine-I wanted to do a small courthouse wedding and weekend getaway. My husband and his mom changed our plans from North Carolina to Arizona so that all of her friends and family could attend. He was a huge mamas boy and did as his mom asked. The ceremony was mormon and creepy, and jam packed with ppl I did not know. I had to wear the ugly temple garb on top of my wedding dress. It was so ugly. Even tho we were mormon, I had originally planned a courthouse wedding for just the two of us and to get sealed later. We had a reception in my Mil’s backyard, filled with the same fkn ppl. We ate imitation crab and sheet caked baked by granny. I ended up getting my period too. Instead of a weekend getaway I got to hang out with my husbands family and play cards. Bonus points-everyone was “concerned if I had married my husband for a greencard”. I kept replying “I am a US citizen”. According to my husband, his mom bribed him with $3000, which she then took back to pay for the reception she had in her backyard.
#54
Close friend’s wedding. Flew internationally to attend. Got my nails, hair, makeup done. Bought a $500 dress. Made it through the ceremony. Immediately after went to the bathroom and was uncontrollably vomiting and s******g. It was everywhere. I had to ask staff for help. They ended up closing off the bathroom because vomit was all over the walls. I had to exit the party covered in my own filth.
#55
My cousin got a d**k pic from her father (my uncle) on her brothers wedding night.?
He drunkenly was sexting some lady he met online and accidentally sent it to her.
True story.
Image credits: Dorothy_Gale
#56
I was all set to be best man for my friend’s wedding. It was going to be a small wedding at their church with a lunch afterward. At 7:30 the morning of the wedding, the groom called me and told me the wedding was cancelled, and he said that he “would call me and explain later”. He didn’t call me the next day, or the next, or the next…
After that, he just dropped off the face of the earth and I never saw him again. The bride “didn’t want to discuss it”. I called his dad, and he said that groom had left town for boot camp. It was a really weird situation.
#57
I was a bridesmaid in a wedding where the couple chose to DIY much of the event. I flew red eye across the country to be in the wedding and got assigned tasks for the 2 days leading up to the wedding with the rest of the bridal party- like all day, for two days. We hand-made all bouquets and flower arrangements, decorations, etc for the day, cut veggies/fruit and prepared all food for the cocktail hour AND drove it to the venue, stuffed it in the fridge there and got it sorted out, set up the tables, chairs, place cards, everything for the reception. Like we set the entire wedding up. The worst part though was that the bride was so overwhelmed by this that when you asked her a question she would lay on the floor and not answer. Simply ignore you.
The day of the wedding we helped with everything too (like people approached me the entire reception if there were missing chairs or flatware to get them things), helped set up all the food (which was ordered from a restaurant and dropped off), drinks, dessert, everything. It was madness. Oh and in the middle of it the bathroom at the venue stopped working.
#58
I watched my husband’s brother and his new wife (who are by nature, very shy and typically introverted) MAUL one another at the altar. Their kiss was so weird and uncomfortable to watch, it was exactly like that one couple from Virgin Diaries on TLC. It was trembly, and robotic but also full tilt and awkward as all hell. They weren’t virgins either, and had been together for years at that point.
#59
Danced so hard, I threw my back out.
Image credits: nevertricked
#60
My cousin’s ceremony was a 45 minute sermon, with the sun in our eyes, that ramblingly covered topics including making fun of people who believe in climate change and shaming anyone who doesn’t have kids. Many members of the audience were audibly and visibly uncomfortable at many points.
They’ve been married 2 years and still haven’t popped out any babies, wonder how that’s been received by their pastor…but I do get updates from her about how hard marriage is but how blessed they are to be making it work. Yikes.
#61
This happened before I was born but a great story.
Cousin was getting married, everyone gets to the reception, all ready for the bride, she walks down, absolutely stunning and BAM! A dude runs into the church with blood all over him screaming that someone’s trying to kill him. The cops in the family barricade the front door, the place gets locked down, police are called, apparently the guy had gotten into an argument at the pub and had been stabbed. The other guy is found and taken to the police station and dude covered in blood taken to the hospital.
During this time the groom was so overwhelmed that he drank most of a bottle of whiskey, managed to make it through the vowels before he threw up in the church.
They all get to the reception and begin to party, some more heavily than others. One uncle get absolutely shitfaced and decides to do a striptease on the bride and groom’s table, went full Monty before some of the men grabbed him and made him go home.
My family is absolutely wild.
Another story of the other side of the family was a couple of cousins got married back in the 70’s-80’s, I was told that ‘it was so funny because none of us knew if we should sit on the bride of grooms side. That should not be a conversation that ever happens.
#62
Several years ago now we went to a wedding that ended at, let’s say 1pm. The reception, well cocktail hour, started at 5 with dinner listed on the invite at 6. Dinner was not served until nearly 8pm…with no explanation or reason. The newly weds took an extra long time with their post-ceremony photos is the theory we had. MANY people started to leave long before dinner was served.
#63
The bride neglected to tell anybody the ceremony was outside…in November. Most of the women including me were shivering in cocktail dresses, except for the ones who stayed inside for the ceremony (the back wall of the venue was all glass so you could still easily see) which upset the bride. The bars were also outside because the bride thought cocktail hour with the fire pits would be fun. Except there were two fire pits and 300 people. Everybody was doing a shot and taking a drink with them back inside the reception hall, which upset the bride.
There weren’t enough passed appetizers to go around (at least the people I were with and I never got any) and dinner took an hour to be served *after* the planner had us all sit. When the food finally came the outside was hot but there was still ice in the middle. From there, a lot of people just straight up got up and left. Some went to McDonald’s right down the road and came back (with their food), others went to raid the dessert wall they put out. Which also upset the bride since it was all gone before she got to try any. I would be more upset that my guests were cold and hungry than the fact I didn’t get a cookie but to each their own….anyway, the wedding had ~300 people there, but only ~100 made it to the dancing portion of the night. The first hour of which the bride spent crying in her suite about how people were being rude.
#64
I have a few moments that stand out:
My stepbrother’s wedding.
As the bride was walking down the aisle, Grandma(sitting in front of me) says “well it looks like you CAN dress up trash”. I had to work so hard to hold my s**t together through the ceremony.
My uncle’s wedding.
They did a choreographed interpretative dance to illustrate their love. It ended with them both on one knee doing jazz hands.
My husband’s cousin’s wedding.
It was a Mormon ceremony performed outdoors so us heathens could attend. The man officiating it spoke about the importance of them balancing their checkbooks. The corker was when he said “now that you are married, you can have children who are blessed and will be welcomed into heaven”. Cousin’s son, from a previous (non married) relationship, was his best man.
So so f****d up.
#65
My cousins wedding. Our grandfather was slowly dying of heart disease in hospital. Between the ceremony and reception he passed. So the grooms side of the family all left the reception before it even started while the brides side just sat there. Should’ve taken it as a sign. They divorced a while later.
#66
My cousin’s wedding.
For context, there had been some family issues about some inheritance and the relationship was cold, but we still got an invitation.
He had booked a hall and a cook but not a catering service, and we found out when the reception started.
The friends/sisters of the bride banded to serve the courses, and me and my brothers (cousins of the groom) doubled as waiters to take them to the tables.
We managed to eat in installments, taking g a couple minutes here and there to wolf down some food before we got back to serving tables.
He didn’t thank us. He didn’t even acknowledge us.
At the end of the reception he passed to every single table to toast with the people there and thank them for coming. He completely ignored us.
It’s been over ten years since the last time I’ve talked to him.
#67
Wedding Officiant here. Bride was short chubby plain and sort of frumpy. But she was smiling, happy, and a beautiful bride because every bride is beautiful on her wedding day. MoB was just the opposite. Tall, blond, overly made up. For the reception she changed into an off white, backless sheath with a thigh slit up to her waist and heels that were more suited to the pole, not a wedding reception. She pre-flighted on the way, so she rolled in drunk and loud. First one on the dance floor, going table to table working the room. Flirting with every man in the place. Including me! Did I mention the part about Minister?
So it went on, she got drunker and louder. All eyes on her. As her daughter slowly withdrew and shrunk back into herself. Eclipsed by her mother. On her wedding day.
#68
Catholic priest went on a rant mid-ceremony about The Jews. He had a strong accent and the AV was a bit c**p, so there was a lot of confused people looking around going “are you hearing what I’m hearing?”
The reception that followed had the worst food and drinks I’ve ever had at a wedding, at what was ostensibly an upscale venue.
The groom’s Irish family were supposed to play a few folk tunes to start the dancing, then the DJ would follow. They played for two hours. They weren’t great.
#69
One of my military buddies was getting married to a girl who was also in the military – pretty big wedding, to include maybe some 100+ people who were either still active duty or veterans.
In the middle of the reception, after playing a handful of the upbeat hits, the band had everyone on the dance floor. They’d just run through Mr. Brightside, Valerie, Shout, etc. and as they rolled out of All The Small Things, the singer said something to the effect of “hey, we know this is a big military wedding so this next song is for you!”
And so began a slow and downbeat rock rendition of the national anthem. Like.. Aretha Franklin slow.
For those who aren’t familiar, common protocol for military members and veterans is to stand at attention (straight and still) and salute or place their hand over their heart as the national anthem played. We were all pretty drunk and had spent the past fifteen minutes jumping and shouting and singing and dancing before, on cue, standing stiff as a board for five f*****g minutes while trying not to fall over.
The band IMMEDIATELY recognized the issue but like…once you start playing the national anthem you can’t just stop because it’s awkward, right? Think of the troops! Anyway. The only thing that’s worse than being really f*****g hammered and trying to not fall over while some bloke in his late forties takes some artistic liberties with the national anthem is when that bloke doesn’t commit to the bit and tries to half-a*s the performance.
F**k, that was weird. Would never think to put the national anthem on the “do not play” list, but I think it’s not a bad idea..
#70
At the end of the night the bride stumbling around with a plastic carrier bag full of open budweiser bottles that were spilling everywhere while she frantically asked had anyone seen the groom. Apparently the groom was busy upstairs with her friend. All confirmed afterwards. Obviously divorced now.
#71
The country club didn’t put alcohol in any of the cocktails, which were served before anything else. There were no canapes. The appetizer was mulligatawny soup served ice-cold in tiny espresso cups. The entree was a 3oz portion of meat, a few asparagus, and some cheese potatoes. One of the couples at our table ate kosher, which resulted in their meals being served late and not plated, revealing them to be some kosher TV dinners the country club held on hand. All of this was directly after a 4 hour long Catholic wedding ceremony.
We stopped at Whataburger on the way home.
#72
Was in the wedding ceremony one if my best friends. During the reception part of wedding my then wife goes off for around 30 to 40 min. I started to wonder where she went off to, figured she was off talking to friends, we knew a lot of people there and this was 1995 so. She come up to me and I’m like where u been I was starting worry about u. She said off talking to so in so and brushed my concern off. I had a strange feeling as she seemed kinda flushed and disheveled like she’d been dancing for a while. Come to find out she’d been F’ing a guy at the wedding who the bride had introduced to my wife a few days either when they were hanging out.
2 months later she leaves me and a year later she married that same guy. So good for her right? 15 years later she dumps the guy and crushes him. We had been married for only two years so I dogded a big time bullet.
#73
Well, at my wedding my friend’s dumb girlfriend fell asleep on the couch by the dance floor in the middle of the reception. No medical issue, it was maaaaybe 9pm? Just had too many margs and needed a nap.
Image credits: Dylan619xf
#74
Catholic wedding. Had all the celebration and joy of a mass funeral held for children after an orphanage burned down. The priest quoted Revelations. If you want to know what part of Revelations seems appropriate for a wedding, none of it is.
#75
Couple got married at a 5 star resort. After the reception everyone went down stairs to get pictures by the fountain and running through the sparklers. We all went back up to find the banquet staff eating the cake. If the bride had gotten any redder her dress would have changed colors.
#76
Drove 150 miles to a family wedding that we were invited to, but not in the wedding party. Hot, humid, summer day. Sun at highest point. Held in a converted barn with no air conditioning next to a freshly plowed field. No bathrooms-only one port a potty. The handwashing station next to it was broken. The groom was already drunk. Several groomsmen and the legal drinking age bridesmaids were drunk. The bride was tipsy. The only drinks were sugared soda (Pepsi, Mtn. Dew, etc.), Coors (original tall yellow cans), and liquor. No water. We asked for cups (plastic only) of ice and waited for them to melt. *They ran out of ice.* The bride made the food. She’s known not a great cook. They ran out of vegetable platters. There was no other fresh food. There were deviled eggs on the tables, unchilled. The best man had recently married, and he and his wife really needed to leave and get a room. There were not more than 50 guests, but it was set up for at least 250. There was an emcee, but it was a family friend, and their microphone audio was not good. The music sounded fine, but they kept cutting off songs right after they started to play. They decided to play “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus (odd choice for a wedding?), and the kids were screaming for one of the brides friends to replicate the video by taking a swing on the chandelier-type flower arrangement in the middle of the barn. We could have done it by Zoom and had a much better time.
#77
I was voluntold to come to this wedding because my friend didn’t want to go by himself. It was his old buddy and GF that as I learned had just been busted for cooking m*th in a cheap motel room. They were only getting hitched to the judge might go easy and they could get conjugal visits. It gets worse. The “preacher” was the girl’s stepfather. Imagine a white bread hippy dressed like a TV Hollywood Injun with a feather in his headband and streaks of lipstick on his cheeks to look like war paint. The wedding procession song was an old Maxell dub tape with some s****y R&B song crammed into a single speaker tape player. I got tapped to be the guy that had to stop and rewind the f*****g thing during “rehearsal” where it took them 12 tries to walk from the sidewalk to the porch before they didn’t f**k that up. The “reception” was two cases of Schmidt beer and some kook that juggled flaming torches. We just called him flame twirler guy. The brides mom called him Pigpen because he was filthy. A few days later they both were sent up for 5 years prison. The girl got out early because she claimed she was forced into it by an abusive relationship. Pinned everything on the guy and ran off with some dude she had been banging behind her now ex-husband’s back. I’ve told people about how abyssal this was and they think I’m lying. .
#78
The couple’s officiator did not show up for the wedding. We later learned that the couple failed to pay them. The officiator sent the couple an email saying they were not going to show up. It was awkward waiting for hours for the officiator when the couple KNEW they were not going to show up. Finally they had one of their friends officiate.
On to the refreshments. Probably the worse food I ever had at the wedding. Everything was bland. Also much to my dismay it was a dry wedding. I couldn’t even get a mimosa.
On top of that the AC at the venue went out the morning of. It was June with the temp of 90 degrees in Atlanta. The venue thought it was a great idea to set up a big industrial fan but it was useless. All it did was circulate hot air. What a hot mess that was.
#79
Nothing too crazy but for one wedding I went to it got very awkward when the bride’s cousin started making racist jokes against the groom’s family during toasts/speeches. Technically the bride and groom were both Asian, but if you know about Asian culture you know that East Asians commonly look down on South East Asians. The cousin’s jokes did not land and I recall one of them not even making sense. My whole table cringed.
#80
This happened October of 2016. My SO at the time didn’t look at the wedding invitation that had the location, and only relied on me to look at it. I looked at it and thought it was a hotel since it said go to the hotel which has a shuttle service to the ceremony. Turns out, reception (that we were invited to, not ceremony) was at the same location as the ceremony and not at the hotel. My SO lost his s**t on me, said he’d never marry meh, said I’m illiterate, etc. again, he never looked at the invite with the directions. We get there, and he just spends the time flirting with another woman, ignoring me the whole time, not talking to me and we don’t even dance. We leave, he yells at me more in the car. He makes me sleep on the couch.