“That Marriage Lasted For About Two Hours”: 75 Wedding Moments That Aged Exactly As Expected
Aggressively smashing the cake in the bride’s face, saying the wrong name at the altar, and flirting with the best man on the wedding day — these are not scenes from a romcom. They’re real moments people say they’ve witnessed at weddings, and they often stood out as red flags for the relationship.
While rounding up the most shocking responses from an online thread, we noticed clear patterns in what people picked up on and remembered from those weddings. See if you can spot them too.
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My sister's new husband made out with a bride's maid on the dance floor of the reception.
The groom looked drunk and the bride seemed incredibly angry. Then there was this woman walking around during the reception placing bets on when they would divorce. I later found out she was the mother of the groom.
Wonder if that's why the groom was drunk + the bride was angry? Mom/MIL?
If you’re on social media, you’ve probably seen clips of newlyweds aggressively smashing the cake into each other’s faces. It’s becoming especially popular on platforms like TikTok, where the #cakesmash hashtag has racked up millions of views.
Some experts trace this trend back to ancient Rome, where a groom would crumble pieces of sweet barley cake over a bride’s head for good luck. There was nothing aggressive about it though.
It is unclear exactly when the practice switched to smearing it onto the face.
These days, the cake on the face ritual doesn’t really carry much deeper meaning or symbolism. It’s more about fun — assuming, of course, the person getting smashed is actually on board with it.
Some people see this as a major wedding red flag. “If you smash cake, I don’t know what it represents, but for some reason, none of my brides and grooms that did that are still together,” wedding planner Robin Yarusso said in a TikTok video.
Grooms mistress found out he was getting married and showed up at the wedding, in the middle of the i-do's, walked right up on stage and smacked him in the face.
The groom invited his female friend, she was in the early stages of pregnancy. Towards the end of the night, the bride asked aforementioned friend who the father was. The friend cheerfully said the groom's name.
Talk about quickie marriage! Married one day, annulled the next! (Hopefully.)
Groom got caught getting frisky with a bridesmaid. That marriage lasted for about two hours.
Let’s break down why some of these signs matter, starting with the cake-smashing trend.
Brides spend an average of $2,982 thousands on their dress, hair, and makeup just to feel their best on the wedding day, according to a survey done in the US.
So, it’s safe to assume that most don’t want it ruined with cake or anything else.
This kind of moment can also feel like public humiliation. Experts say that it can point to a bigger issue around respect and boundaries in the relationship. “The cake incident often becomes evidence of a long-standing pattern where ‘no’ doesn’t mean ‘no,’” says Michelle T. Dellino, the CEO and founding attorney of Dellino Family Law Group.
Her clients often report that non-consensual cake-smashing at their wedding turned into decades of dismissed boundaries, regarding “finances, parenting decisions, and major life choices.”
I went to a wedding where the wife-to-be told the groom-to-be about 10,000 times in my presence (before the wedding, obv.) that she did not want the cake smashed in her face and if he smashed the cake in her face They Would Have Serious Problems.
He smashed the cake in her face.
She had it annulled.
Hope she sued him for whatever money she paid for the wedding, for that little stunt.
Bride refused to kiss the groom no matter what and would reluctantly hold hands with him in front of people and photos. As soon as people's backs are turned, she yanks her hand off. They divorced a month later. Bride then remarried within a few months. Turns out it was an arranged marriage the moms forced on them. The groom and bride never really liked each other but went through with the wedding anyways. The bride was already in another relationship behind the groom's back long before the wedding.
I was the groom.
From OP: "I fell into depression for a few years after my fiance a few years earlier passed away. Most friends pretty much cut off from me after knowing I was depressed. So at that point, I pretty much was convinced with my lack of much friends, I wasn't gonna meet any one else. So I figured I give the relationship a shot or be alone forever. Few times of meeting her, not only did I have zero attraction for her, but she didn't even seem like someone I could have a compatibility with as simple friends. With my mom's convincing that we will grow to be compatible, and according to her mom saying she liked me a lot, i gave it a shot. Went through with the marriage. Honestly, the moment she confessed to me of her affair and that she wanted a divorced, I was more relieved (maybe even some joy) than disappointed. I was just angered that she went through with the marriage in the first place, all the wasted money and effort, when she was probably seeing the other guy already."
Her vows.
They were friends of mine who dated for nearly two years before their wedding. He loved her more than she loved him, obvious to all our friends, and we suspected she begrudgingly said yet to his proposal.
He said his vows first and went on and on about loving her for the rest of his life. During hers, she started with "438 days... that's how long I've loved you." It seemed sweet until she ended her vows with, "And I promise to love you for at least 438 more." Most thought nothing of it and some friends called me a [jerk] for saying it was a subconscious sign she wasn't in it for the long haul.
She left him exactly that amount of days after the wedding with a note that said 'I kept my vow to love you for 438 days more, but I can't for a single day more.'
Called it.
Robin Yarusso, whose TikTok video went viral last year and was liked by close to 270,000 people, said she can recognize a bride and groom that are going to get divorced before they even get married.
“So I’ve planned like 100 weddings and probably like 25, 30 proposals, and there are certain things that happen that I’ve seen time and time again with my brides and grooms that have divorced later on.”
According to her, some of the biggest red flags show up in how couples handle the wedding planning itself. One is when one partner is careful about the budget, but the other ignores it or secretly goes behind their back to add extra expenses. She describes these as the “don’t tells” — patterns that often lead to divorce.
During the ceremony when the priest started asking the bride "Do you take this man to be your...", she started laughing uncontrollably and couldn't stop. Is was cute for about 10 seconds and then things got real uncomfortable. They lasted a year and change. We all kinda knew the only reason they were getting married was because she got pregnant.
At the rehearsal dinner, the groom's mom is in tears, because "he looks miserable" and he was, we all knew it. During the vows they had written for eachother, the bride starts with "I know I can be a pretty terrible person, and I don't know why you've stuck around, but that's all going to change starting today!"
They were divorced a year later.
Another warning sign, Yarusso says, is when a parent of the bride or groom oversteps during planning and the partner doesn’t set boundaries.
She also points to cases where one partner seems disengaged from the wedding altogether.
While these small moments may seem like they're all part of the planning process, they are indicators of deeper issues. “We all know there are common reasons for a divorce. Money, trust, contempt, boundaries. If I have a bride that is hiding the true cost of flowers from her future husband, that falls right into money and trust,” she told Newsweek.
I was working at a "wedding factory". On Monday we got a call the Saturday wedding was cancelled. They were told that they would lose the deposit ( around $7,000). Then on Thursday they said it was back on. When the guests arrived every one was pissed off. It seems they told everyone was it was off, then two days later that it was on. The ceremony was about 3 min. The bride then changed into sweat pants and then everyone got angry drunk. "Well this won't last long" I thought. Then on the following Monday the bride walked into my (then) wives divorce attorney's office.
Does he mean "then-wife's," unless he was in a plural marriage?
Two:
1) At what I've dubbed "The worst wedding ever," the bride and groom were an hour late, argued with everyone at the wedding, ran out of food at the reception, and made the groom's mom cry by yelling at her.
2) When the bride cried through the entire ceremony, it clicked in my head that she wasn't just room-mates with the guy she lived with (not the groom). They were an actual couple. She married the groom because her mom wanted her to do so. A year later, she was making up this story about the husband being a control freak (like that crummy Julia Roberts movie where she runs away from the freaky husband). Meanwhile, the guy was just nice and quiet and didn't do anything that she said he did.
At Demi Moore's wedding to Ashton Kutcher, the bride was "given away" by her ex-husband, Bruce Willis.
Maybe Bruce just wanted to ensure she was actually going to go through with it lol.
Experts believe that wedding planning can bring up relationship issues because it’s usually the first important joint event of a couple’s life.
“You’re potentially seeing your partner in a new light and different aspects to their personality that aren't just there every day,” Amy Parfitt, co-founder of Wedshed, explained.
Another major red flag, experts say, is when the wedding becomes more important that the marriage.
Groom was caught in the closet with the maid of honor. Yes at the reception. Yes they stayed married for a bit.
She went nuts later and was picked up running [bare] down the street claiming to be Jesus. Her sister legally adopted their children.
When the bride asked to crash in my room on the wedding night since the groom ditched her to hang out with the guys at a male club. They were both nice people but he was getting married to 'prove' to his mom that he wasn't gay.
The groom's vows:
"Dear Bride, we've had our ups and downs -- mostly downs -- "
.....
Edit: No, the groom did not call her Bride, I just used that as filler. I realize this makes it significantly less funny and I'm sorry you are disappointed.
With the average wedding in the US costing around $36,000, many couples feel that financial strain even before married life begins.
A study found that couples who spent more than $20,000 on their wedding were about 1.6 times more likely to divorce than those who spent between $5,000 and $10,000.
My cousin (the bride) told us, as she was going from table to table thanking the guests, that she didn't think it would last. We were stunned. They lasted about a year.
What do you do if, God forbid, you notice these signs at your own wedding, or at the wedding of a loved one?
First off, do not panic. What might feel like a red flag to your maid of honor, could actually be a small misunderstanding or the stress of the day.
One of the most common suggestions is to talk about it early and directly. Increased conflict during wedding planning can be a signal to step back and have an honest conversation, rather than pushing through the stress.
Another step is seeking couples therapy or a neutral third perspective. Experts point out that wedding stress can amplify existing issues. Support can help couples figure out whether they’re dealing with temporary pressure or a deeper mismatch.
And finally: trust your instincts.
“If the marriage isn’t going to work, most people know that before they get married. You get a feeling. So, if you’re seeing these, and it’s a red flag indicator, and you’re suppressing it down because you can’t call off a wedding; it’s much easier to call off a wedding than to go through a divorce,” Yarusso says.
The groom, groomsmen, groom's friends, groom's father, etc., (all males, just for clarification) kept making "jokes" about being tied down, having a "nagging" wife", the end of being single, not being able to flirt with other women. Basically everything was about how marriage "actually [blows]."
This is something I will never understand. If marriage sounds THAT awful to you, why even get married?
My cousin's wedding. The groom invited his ex, who was also the mother of his one year old son (he and my cousin had been dating for longer than two years), and my cousin (who was then very pregnant herself) got into a loud screaming match with him over it in a bathroom. They eventually came out and got married, my cousin with puffy red eyes from crying that you can see in every wedding photo that was taken.
Weddings don’t create new relationship issues. They expose the problems that are already there.
If things are already feeling difficult, even before the vows are exchanged, there’s a chance they might get worse once the wedding is over and the decorations are taken down.
The day of her wedding, I asked my sister in law if she was enjoying her day and all she said was "It's a nightmare. This is the worst day of my life."
Sister's wedding. Husband ends speech saying, "Thanks for settling for me." 18 months later agree to divorce.
At my brothers wedding his bride gave him the cheek at the "you may kiss the bride" part. Yeah she ended up cheating on him with some guy online in less than a year.
The bride invited her ex bf of 7 years to the wedding.
I have been to two of my ex's weddings. I don't see this as a problem unless there is a question mark about the 'ex' part.
Groom got so drunk at the reception he passed out in the honeymoon suite by himself, but not before he latched the door so it couldn't be unlocked from the outside. Seeing the bride kicking the door and hollering at the top of her lungs to be let in at 3 am was not encouraging.
They divorced like two years later.
The groom said in his speech "when I joined a dating agency I never thought I'd be so lucky as to find my own personal cook, dishwasher, and washing machine."
Not only is that a [trashy] way to describe ANYONE, he's in for a nasty surprise when he realizes his wife is actually a complete diva and will expect him to do all those things for her! Bad relationship all round.
My aunt told her husband to be that she would marry him for 5 years, then divorce him and take everything he had. He laughed. She did just that. Their song was Paradise by the Dashboard Lights by Meatloaf.
Groom mashed the cake into the (pregnant) brides face so hard she went down backwards. Groom and his father ended up fist fighting in the bathroom, cops were called, fun times....
I wasn't there but my neighbour is a wedding dj, apparently a couple of weeks ago she was at a wedding where the bride did her first dance with her ex (who for some reason was invited) because he was a better dancer than her new husband, and she didn't want to get in her words 'shown up'.
They reconnected on Facebook almost a decade after their first breakup, she moved across country in the middle of the night without telling anyone, a few weeks later they went to the courthouse to get married, 6 months later she moved back home without him or the uhaul full of everything she owned. Pro-tip: if you feel like you have to hide something from everyone you know because they will think it is a bad idea and try to talk you out of it, you're probably doing something really stupid.
The bride, whom I didn't even know, apparently designated me to help decorate the reception hall prior to the wedding. I went to do so, and her mother was there, telling me in a hushed, scared whisper that I better not mess anything up because the bride would be FURIOUS. Everything was to be a certain way, and if it was wrong, there'd be hell to pay.
I gave her the benefit of the doubt (chalked it up to wedding anxiety) and during the reception I tried to chat with her a bit and she literally rolled her eyes at me. I also didn't see her look at the groom once at the wedding or the reception.
They were split less than a year later. Later, the groom confided to me and my husband that the morning of the wedding he'd been filled with an overwhelming feeling of dread and spent several hours just sitting on his lawn, thinking, "I shouldn't do this." But it was paid for, tons of guests were waiting, lots of family (including us) had come in from out of state, and he felt he had to go through with it. Apparently the bride had a history of being awful and controlling. No clue what made him propose to her in the first place.
Edit: Just Facebook stalked the (ex) bride. Her latest status update is announcing her wedding date with a new guy. Someone "jokingly" asked in the comments if they've set a date for the divorce. Oh snap.
While saying the classic "I do", instead of looking deep into his bride's eyes, the groom was peeking at one of the bridesmaids.
The groom would not. stop. crying. He cried through the entire ceremony and most of the reception.
Wedding was going ok until the bride and groom got hammered, groom's baby-mama ex showed up, then the bride proceeded to lock herself in a room crying and continuing to drink by herself... It was a show to say the least.
The groom saying the bride looked really chubby in her wedding dress.
The groom making fun of the deaf grandmother.
The groom existing.
Bride had cold feet prior, but decided she was into it. At the ceremony she freaked out when priest/whoever said they'd handle sending the license stuff in instead of her being able to handle it later (her way out?).
My mom was at a wedding where the groom said in his vows, "I'll love you as long as it's convenient."
When I was 17, I was a bridesmaid in my 19-year-old cousin's shotgun wedding. After the ceremony, we got into the limo to go to the reception, she turns to me, and says "God, I wish I was single!".
My cousin's wedding. They had been together for about 2 years, had a baby together. The whole day was about my cousin (the groom) every speech that was made was about how great of a guy he is, etc (spoiler: cousin is not a great guy, he's an annoying pest. He held me down when I was younger and tried to get another cousin to kiss me). His mother even forced the bride to make her daughter (groom's sister) the MOH. The speech she gave was borderline incestuous.
Anyway, during the ceremony, the priest said something about being together forever and the bride said "Maybe we'll stay together..." my family immediately started taking bets. 6 months won.
At the reception the groom introduced his wife to a friend by saying - i'd like you to meet my first wife...
I work night audit at a hotel that does a lot of weddings. Last weekend the wedding ended at about 11pm, rather early for most weddings we get but it wasn't a super big affair.
The bride went to bed, the groom went out drinking. At about 3 am the best man and groom tell me his key isn't working, and he can't get into his room, I remake the key and tell them if that doesn't work his wife must have bolted the door.
He was positive she never would do such a thing.
Well guess who locked her husband out of the room on their wedding night.
The bride smashed the cake in the groom's face. He put the piece he was holding back down and walked quickly out of the building. The DJ awkwardly transitioned back to music and dancing but everyone was just standing around talking about what just happened. She followed him a few minutes later and they came back to the reception for a bit, but it was weird and uncomfortable. They held on for a year before getting a divorce.
It was super cheesy and had all the cheesy trappings of "romance". Gushing vows, a horse drawn carriage. The bride wore a crown and exclaimed nonstop she was a "princess!!!" Reception Included a narrated 30 minute slide show of the couple. It was ridiculous and nauseating.
If you want cheesy then watch an episode of Kath & Kim and see what happens when one has to have a horse drawn carriage... series 1, episode 8.... it's a hoot.
Bride danced all night with her friends like it was her private party while the groom sat with his parents.
My uncle red faced and screaming at 14 year old me on his wedding day to make sure I wear condoms so I don't have to marry some [woman] I knocked up.
Edit: This was thirty years ago when having children out of wedlock still carried a stigma. I'm sure my grandfather told my uncle to "do the right thing" and marry her. My mother who is older than my uncle got kicked out of the house at 18 for being pregnant with me and I'm sure that influenced my uncle's decision.
A bunch of my family members are betting on how long one of my cousins' marriage would last. It's definitely going to end in divorce, but we just don't know when.
Here's all that happened:
Pre-Wedding
* The couple can't even agree on invitation card designs, so they decided each would have their own. Some people received 2 invitations.
Wedding
* They're both from different races, and the groom's family insisted on having a wedding ceremony from their culture too. The bride refused the part where she has to kneel before her husband and wash his feet clean. The groom's family insisted and she was stuck doing it.
* The bride got tired with all the photo taking and refused to pose for anymore photographs....even though she hadn't taken photos with the groom's extended family. Meanwhile, she had already taken photos with her entire family, extended family, and parents' friends.
* The groom's cousin told the bride she walked inelegantly and she spent hours crying and refusing to come out for the wedding dinner.
* Half the groom's family boycotted the wedding over the bride's race & religion
Post-Wedding
* The bride insisted they should fly first class for their honeymoon, the groom insisted it's a waste of money, even though they both come from money. The bride flew first class, the groom stuck to economy.
They spent $50k on a Disney wedding and the bride spent zero time anywhere near the in-laws for several hours. She ran off a week later.
Our friend was the girl who had spent a whole year setting up for the one day. They had taken 6 months of dancing lessons and she has spent a ridiculous amount of time looking good and dressing up her bridesmaids for the wedding of which my wife was one. So come the night of the wedding, the groom meets up with his old friends and starts to get blackout drunk. He got so drunk he didn't even recognize us, rather just pushing us aside to get to the bathroom.
The worst part was the dance itself. It was really heartbreaking to see them stumble around and watch the Panic on her face as he realized he had no idea what was going on. I gave it 6 months at the time, but they ended up 3 years. She ended up marrying another woman.
The bride got black out drunk and asked me to [end] her husband. He was busy fighting one of his groomsmen in the other room.
They divorced 2 years later.
It was a shotgun wedding-they proudly proclaimed it as such. Overheard the bride's mother saying that the bride was such a later bloomer for waiting until 19 to "trap herself a man." The child is three years old and they have been separated (don't know if divorced) since she was 1.
My own first wedding. 21 year old pregnant bride. Extremely hungover groom. 10 family members in my aunt's backyard on a muggy August morning. An officiant named Tim "Rip" VanWinkle.
I am so glad I got out of that one alive with my kids.
4 people made speeches: The bride joked about the first time she dated the groom when she was 16 and he was 26. The groom was wasted and spoke about how each of the previous times they broke up didn't count and that they would do it right this time. The maid of honor talked about how even when they were broken up they still got along, and the best man made [bad] jokes. Groom's brother didn't attend because he too had banged the bride before...
My cousin got his casual hookup pregnant and somehow they came to the conclusion that they needed to get married.
Instead of going and getting quietly married, they decided they needed a gigantic expensive wedding. Like, 5 course meal, 300+ guests, 12 bridesmaids, kind of wedding. Obviously, something like this takes awhile to plan and as a result, she was about 7 months pregnant.
Now, nothing wrong with going down the aisle while expecting, but she chose this corseted dress that was cinched so tight it nearly flattened her bump out. (As someone who has been pregnant I can't imagine how uncomfortable that must have been.)
The fact that they had only known each other 8 months and she was 7 months pregnant was like the elephant in the room the entire wedding. She refused to acknowledge the fact that she was pregnant . She had been out of college for 10+ years and invited all her sorority sisters. They got up and all sang this weird sorority song together.
Very odd for an over 30 woman, I'm probably not explaining it very well but it was like she was trying to act like she was much younger.
They were married about 4 years, way longer than anyone thought it would last.
At my cousin's wedding, they were under a carved wooden arch intertwined with white roses. When the pastor uttered the words "If any of you has reasons why these two should not be married, speak now or forever hold your peace," a rose broke off the arch and bounced off the pastors head. Everyone laughed.
They ended up getting divorced.
It was an Indian wedding and it was only the bride and her side of the family there. Something had gone kinda wrong and she says "Oh it's fine, we'll do it right next time" whilst loads of old Indian women look at her with disgust. The couple ended up having a massive argument after the wedding because they both had been cheating on each other and it was on a public Facebook post...
One that I'm surprised has lasted at least 10 years:
The bride and groom were so pretentious about everything about the wedding. When we arrived for the reception, we were kept waiting outside in the hallway for two hours. The reason? They were having the photographer print 8x10 photos from the actual wedding to put on each table in the reception venue. Then, during the reception, they were asking everyone what they thought of the pictures.
I was seated at the table with a guy who the bride cheated on the groom with a few months earlier.
They stood a good 4 feet apart from each other at the altar. The groomsmen speeches were about their kid and how the day was great with free wine, nothing about them and my brother was one, he couldn't think of anything good to say about them as a couple so he just didn't.
They aren't divorced yet but we are all just waiting.
It was her 8th wedding, and he was 18 years older!
Best man did a speech mentioning that the groom came to him discussing if he should break up with her when they were dating. Bride later locked herself in the bathroom crying. Surprisingly 2 years later they're still together.
The groom skipped the wedding rehearsal and dinner because he is a musician and took a gig with his friends instead. When I confronted him about it he said I knew he was a musician when we got together and it was part of being a musician's wife.
The long drunken speech by the flamboyantly gay best man, during which the groom's eyes never left him and he forgot all about his new bride.
*I attended a friends wedding at a winery. I thought things went swimmingly and even made out with one of the bridesmaids near a lake on the property.
After some time by the lake we look back at flashing red and blue lights coming down the road to the winery. We head back over to see what had happened.
Turns out one of the groomsmen had gotten hammered and punched the father of the bride!
They were done within 2 years.
1. The bride and groom got so smashed at their wedding they never consummated the marriage. They came to stay with me as part of their honeymoon (they were German, I'm Scottish) three weeks later they still hadn't sealed the deal so to speak.
2. Friend married a Canadian lass so she could stay in the country as opposed to going home and waiting two years to get back in. They were married four - five years I think.... Even if you love someone... Don't marry for convenience sake. She can now stay in the U.K. without needing to be married.
3. Another friend married a Canadian lass for the exact same reason as above. As they were in the uk and they bride apparently had no friends in the uk who could attend the wedding (despite living here for at least four years as a student) the groom was not allowed to have his friends their as she didn't want to be sad.... Lasted 4-5 years with about three year separation in the middle with her going home for uni/werk and him living with his parents/trying to be a rock star. She can now stay in the u.k. without needing to be married. She now has a family baker business in Canada for gluten free vegan pish and he works In some guitar shop in London.
My uncle (the groom) got smashed and tried to attack the wedding band because they were playing some polka song that goes "I don't want her, you can have her, she's too fat for me."
The bride choose what pictures to display. There were a bunch of pictures of her and none of the groom.
My cousin. Married a Marine with one kid from a previous relationship. The kid is a sweet little girl but its obvious (just from the time spent at the wedding) how much my cousin prefers her own child over the little girl. Its really sad to see it unravel on facebook every now and then.
My brother married a girl after being together for less than a year. What was funny was that no one thought they would get a divorce, I was about 13 when it happened but I tried talking him out of it. No one listened to me, and 4 months after the wedding she left him.
We had to continually drag the Bride and most of her family away from the bar. Which visibly agitated the gromm. The ceremony started about 15 minutes late because we were still rounding them up and a couple of them actually got up and went back during the ceremony.
Stepsister and hubby got engaged and married within a week. I didn't find out until the day of and I received angry texts/calls and wasn't there because the way they invited everyone was through Facebook, which I don't use. A little over a year and still together. Turns out they never even sent me the Facebook invite to a private event.
