You thought you had seen it all. You thought you knew everything after attending countless weddings. You thought you were prepared for every possible scenario — but then you stumbled upon some wedding horror stories and realized that you were, in fact, wrong. Welcome to the wild world of ruined weddings, where love and joy collide with drama and disaster!
The internet is home to endless lists of what you should know about weddings. But even those lists don’t prepare you for all the unexpected events during the ceremony and beyond. Some moments you get to witness are so special, you’ll never forget them — but others… well, let’s just say they’re not going to be winning any awards for Best Day Ever for the bride(s) and groom(s).
There’s no shortage of wedding stories, but we’ve got our favorites. When we stumbled upon this thread on Reddit where people shared the worst weddings they attended, we were immediately hooked — and not just because we could relate to many of the stories shared by Redditors. The thread is filled with tales of all shapes and sizes: cringeworthy, hilarious, painful, just plain bizarre, and truly epic wedding fails that will make your jaw drop.
From nightmare buffets to a bride who didn’t know how to spell her groom’s last name, we’ve got a disaster story for just about every kind of wedding scenario you can think of! Without further ado, these are the worst wedding stories told by the people who were unlucky enough to be invited to them.
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"Not the worst wedding, but a wedding which changed how I prep to be a guest at a wedding for the rest of my life...
Beautiful outdoor summer wedding at a vineyard, on a sunny afternoon, with a lovely meal served on the veranda after the main event and then everyone moves inside for dancing and whatnot until late into the night. Open wine bar. Hosts graciously arranged shuttles back to the hotel so the only people who drove themselves to the venue were those who planned to leave before the reception - ie there isn't a sober guest in sight after the first hour. The day has been hotter than hell with beautiful blue skies...
No water. The venue absolutely does not have cups, or carafes, or even an orange gatorade jug on standby. Wine glasses and rieslings sure, but water? They're inexplicably stymied by the demands of the guests for simple hydration.
At one point, a couple of hours into the reception, as I stood with my face shoved under a bathroom faucet gulping water, so I didn't, you know, die or something, I made two promises to myself 1) from this day forward, I'm smuggling a liter of water to every wedding I attend, and 2) if ever I wed, water availability is point one on my to-do list. I will forego a cake if necessary, but never water."
"My uncle’s fifth or sixth wedding (I honestly don’t remember which because he’s been married and divorced so many times. He’s even about to remarry a past wife for the second time soon) and he fully expected wedding gifts of cash only. During the reception, he gathered all the envelopes and set himself up at a middle table with a notebook and calculator and counted all the money he got. Instead of enjoying his reception, he was greedy, seeing how much money people gave him. I was barely 20 and I had scrounged up twenty bucks to give him. But when I saw him counting everything up with his damn reading glasses and calculator, I just kept it."
"After the dinner, where the groom got trashed and made a speech about getting the bride pregnant in her parents' basement, we had to go up the the ballroom and watch a slideshow.
It was 45 minutes of slides of the couple growing up individually, when they met, their animals, their child. All set to emo music. The bride's sister really put her soul into this.
This was THE activity. For 45 minutes. The bar was blocked, my drink was empty. Never have I suffered so."
"I went to a wedding without a bride. The groom’s family belong to a family that has a tradition to not allow the bride to come to her wedding. We had to go upstairs to greet her and wish her a happy life. She looked sad, dressed beautifully in a gorgeous white gown. She was sitting alone in a dim room listening to the far away music of her wedding. It was the strangest wedding ever! The guests and the families were having fun eating and dancing the bride was deprived of all that!! The groom never showed up too."
"Mine... I was 20. My ex convinced me to do it 'because I want to take care of you, sweetheart.' I had to take care of literally everything except the $400 venue and his suit.
We ran out of food, it rained but the wedding was outside, everybody left. His immediate family on his moms side showed up, but the rest of his family 'didn’t approve' since we lived together before being married. Also, he had already been cheating on me the whole almost 3 years we’d already been together. Most of the pictures and videos got lost.
I blocked most of the memory out. Honestly I felt traumatized by my own stupid wedding. Happily divorced for a couple years now."
"It was over 100° out in an open lot…The drinks and 'donut wall' were melting… No ice for drinks… Alcoholic and non alcoholic served in the same cups (no ice) and the cake was on of those hipster 'Naked Cakes' which was dry as a bone… Well at the tables my 3 year old granddaughter drank out of what she thought was her cup... I smelled it and discovered to my distress it was NOT hers and had vodka in it. So we had a buzzed 3 year old. About 80% humidity (which I forgot to mention earlier) and hot sweaty people with no ice, stale donuts and dry cake... No... It was miserable."
"12 groomsmen, 12 bridesmaids, 3 flower girls, 2 ring bearers, no alcohol, and no dancing."
"An eastern-culture wedding in the US. The bride wasn’t allowed in the main room of the venue until after the wedding ceremony was performed. Her dad was representing her.
I respect all cultures but I thought that was really antiquated and sad. I reserve the right to say so because it’s my culture.
Plus the energy was so off. It was an arranged marriage and it was just so depressing. No love no joy.
The marriage didn’t last long either."
"Day before the wedding, the groom had made several remarks to my husband about not wanting to marry this girl, said he was getting married because his friends were so obviously it was time, etc.
The wedding itself was held on the shore of a reservoir, which sounds lovely except there was a dock for wakeboard and wakesurf boats directly behind the ceremony spot, and boats were going in and out and driving by loudly during the whole thing (I don't blame the boat drivers at all, this is a recreational spot for people to do that stuff). Between the noise and the glare off the water (sun was at just the wrong angle) and the heat (August), one of the groomsmen turned green and lost consciousness. They carried on with the ceremony while my husband awkwardly helped the groomsman into a chair.
We didn't hang around terribly long after that, basically long enough to eat dinner and have the groomsman seen by EMTs.
The "happy" couple is still married and still hate each other to this day."
"The worst for me was a friend of mine; she absolutely brow beat this poor man into Marrying her. He went from sliding into her DMs to being forced to propose in a matter of under a year. She decided she wanted to be Married and he just happened to be the poor schmuck she was dating. So she orchestrated his proposal to her; she got the ring, she told him how and when to do it.
Then comes the day of the wedding; she’s a Disney girl and this Wedding was Disney Princess themed. It was embarrassing to be honest; there were zero traces of them as a couple or any nod to the Groom being there at all. It was HER day; HER Disney Princess Party. The Grooms Mother gets up to make her speech and she says what everyone in our friends group has wanted to say “this was rushed. You need to take a moment to get to know each other before you have babies… etc.” I can’t remember it all exactly but it was a combination of awful and it’s what needed to be said. So that ends. We eat “dinner” by 3:30 and everyone is out the door by 5:30. No dance, no party, nothing. The Bride and her Groom head to the local mall in their wedding attire and she shops at the Disney Store for the rest of the night. Awful."
"I'm a wedding videographer, and at one of the weddings I shot, the bride's father collapsed with a heart attack on the dance floor before dinner had been served and died."
I know someone who was at a wedding where the brides father had a heart attack right after the ceremony but before the reception. An ambulance took him to the hospital where he died later. The Brides family decided to not tell the bride until the next day (with the support of the grooms family), and just to tell the couple the father was at the hospital. As to not ruin their wedding night, and for them to have their first married night without worry. The Bride was upset the next day when she heard, but later forgave them and understood why they did it.
"They won a free party on the radio at a showing of Batman vs Superman, so naturally they used it for their wedding. Their baby cried like half the movie. Nobody ever believes me when I tell this story."
"My cousins wedding. She got engaged to her ex-boyfriend before his divorce was even finalized (and after less then a month of speaking to each other long distance) and then got married 2 months later. It was a Mormon wedding so I didn’t see the actual ceremony but after the ceremony she had her bridesmaids and family decorate the reception hall while in dresses and heels and the bride was yelling at everyone. They did a second ceremony for the non-Mormon crowd where the vows included something like “the groom messed up in their previous dating experience by breaking up with the bride to marry another woman, but through the atonement/forgiveness of Jesus Christ the bride was able to forgive him for his past transgressions”. The other speeches also eluded to the groom messed up but how they are still meant to be due to “signs” they have seen. I still feel bad for making my ex sit through the cringiest wedding ever."
"My mum's ex-friend. She's about 10 years younger than my mum.
A theater troupe performed some kind of mime life story about the woman. It took over 30 minutes and all the kids (I was 16ish but there were many small children) were expected to pay attention to this entirely silent display of literal clownery. After that, no fewer than THREE people did an ABC (a is for awesome, and Bride is awesome because... Etc.)...
Worst of all, my mum's ex was there. A guy who emotionally tormented me when my mum and him were together. He kept trying to make conversation with me (didn't have the balls to go talk to my mum) and eventually I couldn't ignore him any longer so I told him something along the lines of "your energy is so unruly and dark right now, I cannot be in your presence" (homie was a bit of a self-proclaimed shaman). At least he shut up after that.
Also, I had a blast with the kids because it was a petting zoo wedding so we just went and vibed with the goats. My mum is no longer friends with this woman."
"It wasn't the worst in terms of actually being horrible, but the style and refreshments decisions were... questionable.
It was a Hawaiian-themed wedding, in that the guests were asked to wear tropical/floral prints, and the wedding party was in red hibiscus-print attire. But also the groom wore a replica of the Prince Charming outfit from Cinderella? The bride wore this huge ballgown with big puffy sleeves and heart-shaped cutouts down the back-I'm all for people making their own style decisions and owning it, but it looked like a dress someone would have worn to a Halloween party as a parody of an 80s bride. The dinner was the bride's favorite foods: Chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese (not, like, gourmet stand-ins for those things, I mean straight up Kraft boxed mac and cheese and chickie nugs that came out of a microwave). It was also a dry reception.
And it's not like this was a casual backyard wedding--this was held at a really lovely (and probably very expensive) venue. All told, though, I think everyone had a pretty good time. And the couple had exactly the kind of wedding that they wanted, which is the most important part."
Chicken nuggets and mac n' cheese sounds good to me.🤷♀️ My brother did taco-salad at his wedding. It was quick, cheap, easy, and everyone got enough.
"It was the wedding of my friends mum (I was there as my friends friend)
During the speeches the bride's dad had a stroke. An ambulance came and he was rushed off to hospital. The wedding came to a very abrupt stop and the family was devastated."
"I attended a wedding where they had an Elvis impersonator officiating. He’d. never done a wedding before, and it showed. They didn’t even do a rehearsal walkthrough. The timing was so awkward. And the groom stood starring at Elvis the whole ceremony instead of the bride lol."
"Mormon wedding reception (I'm not a Mormon so I couldn't be in the temple to see the actual ceremony). It was in their church building, in the not decorated gym. No meal, just cookies and punch. No fun games (my husband and I played the Shoe-ly Wed game and it was a hit). They did a receiving line so it felt like waiting in line at the DMV. The DJ was definitely just their uncle with Spotify, and everyone awkwardly danced in a large circle.
It probably didn't help that we were all like 18-19 years old."
"My cousins wedding. They’re in a « church ». The pastor was the one deciding who was invited and he invited random people. I did my cousin’s make up. My sister helped her get her dress and was a maid of owner. We helped her that day to get dress and all that wedding thing.
At the reception, she decided to not give food to all her cousins but instead give it to the pastor’s people.
That was 5 years ago and I have seen only once since then. I stopped caring about her, her sisters and her parents. They’re new family is the 'church'."
"At cousins wedding we were all standing outside in costume getting ready to go inside the hotel when she comes out and says "the wedding is off and he is calling the cops if our family doesn't leave." Turns out she slept with his best friend so it was her fault. I agreed with the groom though-my cousin and my family can be crazy so threatening cops was a good call.
Years later he married my sister... We love him and ignore my crazy cousin."
"My bf’s friend was getting married and they did it in someone front yard, in the middle of no where. The only music that played was from a old boom box that sat in the window sill inside the house so no one could really hear it and it only played music when the bride came out. I was told that 3 bridesmaids quit the day of and a girl that barely knew the bride was asked to be her maid of honor within 30 minutes of arriving. The bride was a 'bridzilla', she flipped out on someone for eating a cupcake before her, she screamed at her now husbands family for wanting to take a couple pictures together before the wedding bc they all live in different states and never get to see each other. Then she got upset and started yelling at her uncle bc she wanted to take pictures in the middle of the woods but her uncle who was in a wheel chair couldn’t get there... She threw a fit calling HIM selfish when he physically couldn’t get there even with someone helping him. It was all super awkward and we left right after the ceremony lol."
"Not a horrible wedding, but a reception with bitter guests who left the bride in tears. A friend from church was getting married and her friends from the singles ministry were bitter about it. They spent the whole reception making loud, rude comments about her, the groom, the ceremony, and the reception. I was so disgusted they couldn't keep their sh*t together for a single afternoon to be happy for a friend. If they were too upset to watch their friend get married while they were still single, they should have stayed home rather than bringing everyone around them down with their bad attitude. I felt so bad for her and reconsidered my friendships with them. There's really no excuse to be mean like that."
I woulda had them escorted out, gently but firmly, and made them aware they were no longer welcome in op's life
"Bride and her mom got into a fistfight in the church parking lot. The priest tried to break them up and the mom punched him. The reception was in the basement of the church (no food other than the cake, no music or anything) and the bride & groom never showed up. People sat there awkwardly for several hours waiting for them to show before they went home."
"They made it into a whole weekend thing. That Friday, everyone travels and starts getting set up at the lake that the event is taking place. Everyone is drinking that night. The groom, who was known to beat his wife-to-be, decided he wouldn't just keep it an open secret. He let the worms out the bag by beating tf out of her in front of everyone then attempted to strangle her in front of her family. The bride's brother and dad stepped in and they decided to beat the sh*t out of the groom and locked him in a RV for the night.
Crazy right? The worst part was they still got married. The very next day. With almost everyone still there. Most of her family left. They couldn't support it. The groom and bride were both bruised up. I can only imagine the wedding photos."
At least her family defended her, I know others that didn’t in similar situations bc they are also wife beaters. How to completely avoid these awful men?
"My sister's wedding. The wedding was held in my parents backyard. Instead of coming over days before the wedding to set up, she chose to set up the day of her wedding. She was supposed to arrive before all the guests, but instead she arrived after all the guests arrived and then pretty much demanded the family and guests help her set up. Her husband tried to comfort her, but she just pushed him away. They're divorced now."
"Husband’s family is super religious (I forget the denomination but it’s the one where you can’t dance or listen to music that’s not “Godly”). The bride is still super religious but not the same brand. Anyway, we went to the wedding and the bride wanted a father daughter dance. But then during the whole thing, the grooms entire family walked out… so awkward! Plus, the food was absolutely disgusting. They obviously also had zero alcohol and the only form of entertainment was some people singing without music up on stage. At some point a few of the grooms friends raised their hands up and were swaying but we’re told by the family to stop because that was making the groom’s family uncomfortable.
It was awful! After we left, I went straight to Whataburger because I was starving. Plus, had a nice cold beer for making out of that mess."
"The people couldn’t afford the choices they made for their wedding, so instead of picking less expensive things, they took a ton of shortcuts.
The wedding was outside on a 20 degree day with no heaters. The sun went down before the bride walked down the aisle and there were no lights so no one could see the ceremony. They didn’t have waitstaff so the bridesmaids had to bus the tables. And after the wedding, they asked certain guests to stay after and break down all the rental tables while they went back to their honeymoon hotel.
My ex husband’s family thought this was totally normal, and I looked like a b* for not wanting to haul chairs through the grass, in the dark, with heels on and a brand new dress bc no one told me to pack other clothes. One of the many reasons I’m glad he’s an ex."
It took me longer than I'd like to admit to realize OP meant degrees Fahrenheit :) in Celsius, my default, 20 degrees is nice and warm weather, no need for heaters
"I went to a pagan handfasting outside in the groom's parents' yard. The bride's brother showed up in a ripped Sonic the Hedgehog t shirt. All the groomsmen and the groom were in like bad cosplay Jedi robes that were supposed to look 'witchy' and the bridesmaids were in really weird looking brightly colored, idk, milkmaid dresses, also to look 'witchy', bride was in a normal wedding dress. The officiant was a friend of the family, in their USMC dress blues, but instead of the normal ceremonial sword thing they can have, he had a mall ninja katana. There was no music. The food was a whole roasted pig, but whoever roasted it hadn't seasoned it at all, not even salt. They couple divorced about a year later because she was cheating."
Pagan weddings can be the best! I went to a few Ásatrú-weddings and the best one was pretty much like this (it happened in a forest): 1. A wagon filled with sodas and beers 2. A bon fire at the center of the ceremonial circle. 3. The ceremony was nice and with a good spirit. 4. Then there was live (viking/folk) music with lots of chain-dances and just... well, dancing in the forest. 5. After the band stopped playing the guests slowly began to leave the party so in the end we were the wedded couple and a few close friends just hanging around the bon fire and drinking what was left in the wagon. 6. At some point a stranger came by on bike and was curious as to what we were doing. He ended up spending an hour and a half with us before he remembered he had to go home to his wife. Lol. It was so nice! And in all seriousness: you guys really should say yes to go to Ásatrú/Pagan weddings and other ceremonies. You are not obliged to believe in whatever faith is worked with at the ceremony.
"The one where they didn't do assigned seats for the dinner, and they had a buffet. Neither are bad if done well, but this was not. The family couldn't be seated together because by the time the receiving line was over the tables and chairs were mostly taken so they had to be all split up. There were no servers for the buffet, so it was basically a free-for-all and they ran out of some dishes before everyone even made it through the line the first time."
"My uncles wedding to his second wife. She wanted to sing a duet at the alter and my uncle refused so she just sang to him. Ceremony was way too long with roses being handed out like it was the Bachelor. I got one for "being a wonderful niece". So weird. Then they spent so long taking photos that we got booted out of the cocktail area for another wedding to move in and they still weren't done. We were all sitting in the ball room with no music, no food for another hour. We were all starving at that point. I think there was something like 4 or 5 special dances that my uncles wife had to have. Food finally came out and right as I'm about to eat the dj comes over and says my new aunt wants me to pass out bubbles to everyone. I said I would do it after I ate. New aunt's daughter was a total B to me because her boyfriend was sitting next to me at the table we were assigned to sit at and talking to me. He was totally fine, nothing remotely flirty and was talking to everyone in my family at the table. They got in a mini fight about this. Then to top it off at the end of the night my new aunt said to my mother "it's too bad your mother couldn't find a way to make it today. It is her son's wedding". To which my mom replied "she's going through chemo and is too sick to travel this far right now". For Christmas we all got DVDs of their wedding. My uncle just let her plan how she wanted to plan because he didn't really care about the wedding details but I could tell he was annoyed by the over the top picture taking and the surprise duet at the alter. They're divorced now."
"My then boyfriend's sister's wedding.
The father of the groom spent the entirety of his rehearsal dinner speech talking about how the bride was 'knocked up' (a secret she had been attempting to hide from her super religious parents) and it was going to be a boy because his family were 'winners'.
The wedding wasn't too cringeworthy, but the reception was a train wreck.
They had some sort of massive blowup during photos. When they got to the reception, the bride danced with her friends, while the groom sat at the bar pounding labatts. He had to leave the reception, before dinner, because he took a swing at one of his groomsmen and was rage screaming.
They are still together. I, thankfully, got as far as I could from the boyfriend and the families."
"The wedding wasn't bad, it was so fun actually! Ceremony though was super cringe. The pastor decided it was a good time to go on and on about how marriage is between a man and a woman ONLY. We have a large number of gay men there. We worked in theater production. He also went on to bring up current politics, abortions and a woman's job to please a man.
This was a destination wedding so used that church because back when the bride was a baby her family went there. Well the pastor that took over was f*cking crazy.
He cornered me after to find out if my soul was clean or not and was telling me to get baptized before leaving the church."
"One of my college friend’s wedding. It was over an hour’s drive away on a Saturday night. The bride had talked up her caterer to an extreme, making a point to tell everyone they paid a ton of money for a gourmet meal since they were foodies. We were expected to drag our chairs from the ceremony all the way across a meadow to the reception area (hard in heels and a dress and in the summer heat), where we had to wait 30 minutes for the food line to open up. All they had was a dip and rolls with sliced Turkey. Biggest disappointment EVER, so much for a gourmet dinner. I had to get fast food on the way home. It’s one thing to have a small meal, but don’t talk it up and don’t have your wedding on a Saturday night at dinner time. The groom’s cousin also sprained her ankle in a very dramatic fashion and screamed for 5 minutes straight. The ambulance had to be called."
"The wedding venue was in an area with no hotels nearby and too far away to order an Uber/Lyft at a non astronomical price. They also charged for soda but beer was free. If you’re going to have your wedding in a place too far from any hotel or town maybe at least make the soda free to encourage people to drive sober?? They also had about 5 different themes (all nerdy stuff) and it did not mix together well."
"My friends wedding during the pandemic. Had to be done at the groom's parents house over zoom, everyone in the house was loud during the ceremony, walking in and out. She started crying tears of frustration during the ceremony. I felt so bad for her."
"I had never met the bride or groom, he was my then-SO’s coworker. The bride was 18 and the groom was 29, her math teacher.
The ceremony was scheduled to start at sundown, but the bride was late getting ready and taking photos, and it started when it was already dark. It was the middle of winter, on a grassy open space, and it had rained the whole week before. Everybody was freezing and muddy, the women wearing heels were holding onto men to be able to walk, and the bride’s something blue were her poor bridesmaids. The whole ceremony was a big ball of cringe, with loads of se*ist remarks and the groom implying in his vows that he had taken the bride’s virginity.
Then they had McDonald’s for dinner because that’s where they went on their first date (of course, because the bride wasn’t old enough to go anywhere else). She spent the whole night dancing in a circle with her teen friends like it was her sweet 16 or something, while he drank with his 30+ buddies.
It’s been 5+ years and they’re still married, against all odds!"
"of course, because the bride wasn’t old enough to go anywhere else" - uhhhh, younger people can eat at any restaurant they like as long as they or someone else can afford it.
"An outdoor wedding in November by a lake… it was freezing and chilly. I felt bad for elderly guests who had to walk that. During the ceremony, the officiant bumped into their sand bottle where they had just both put in their sand to represent unity or whatever. Bottle broke and sand went everywhere. Reception was in a tent and was freezing. Everyone wore their coats the whole time."
"Wedding for a coworker. Ceremony was at a nice farm style venue. There was an open cocktail bar outside prior to the ceremony. Afterward was lunch and cake. That was it! It was a “you don’t have to go home, but you have to get the hell up out of here” kind of thing. I was expecting a reception, drinking and dancing, so I booked a hotel for my date and I. We were available at 3pm."
Simple and quick I guess. They had lunch and cake so I'd be happy lol
"During the wedding party some of the family of the groom planned/“pranked” the party by dressing in Teletubby costumes and running around to the theme music. Instead of Teletubby masks (that would match the costumes) they had plain cheap white plastic masks from the costume store. It was complete nightmare fuel. Children were crying and it was all I could do not to leave on the spot."
Whenever I hear Telletubbies mentioned I think of when they first came on. I was 5 or 6 and neither of I or my brothers liked them. My mum was in nursing school and was baffled when she found out some of the younger students (mum was a mature age student) were part of a Telletubby cult-following.
"My cousin had a 'destination wedding' probably three hour drive for all the guests. Close enough to drive but far enough to not be able to run back home. Wedding was at like noon, reception wasn't until almost 6pm. She wanted to go on a drinking bus tour of the city with the wedding party and take her wedding photos before the reception. The entire slew of guests all hung out in the hotel lobby for 5 hours, and there was no food. Eventually we had some people run and get a bunch of taco bell just to tide us over."
"A cousin's 2nd or 3rd weeding. Back then I was still younger, so I didn't know yet that she was just living off of child support, but I understood that the vibe was not good. Like I understood that nobody but the bride wanted to be there, even her parents were not really feeling it. By then it was clear to them I guess that she just wanted to breed for money, so I don't even know why we even had to show up. The sequels I did not attend, but she had a few."
I don't remember my second or third weeding either. In fact, I don't remember most of them.
"My BIL. His wifebride decided that a wedding party table was tacky because she and BIL were stars and should have a sweetheart table. So no one approached them assuming they wanted to be alone.
Then when people tapped forks on glasses we play "wedding couple trivia". So that stopped immediately.
The photog, an artiste, waited to take the pics and then interrupted the reception. And the bride kept arguing with him to the point where I had to deal with him to get the photos.
It was hot. The San Fernando Valley. No ac at a country club with a swimming pool and bar available to members, so kids in swimsuits.
Bride cried at the end about what a disaster it was (it wasn't actually that bad). It was the only wedding I've been to that had any negativity...
Wait. Not true. A friend's grandfather had a heart attack. But he survived and the party went on."
I was in a wedding in the SFV in the early 90s. No AC at the venue and it was over 100F. I was a bridesmaid wearing four inch dyed satin shoes to match a floor length, long sleeved satin gown. Nearly fainted a few times. The couple were friends of mine from high school. Bride's family were sketchy as hell but had money, so the reception was dry but pretty posh otherwise. Nobody danced, the whole thing was over in like two hours, and the divorce a few years later rattled everyone's world when the bride came out and the groom landed in prison for theft.
"The bride had zero family there because they did not support the marriage at all (not sure of why) and it was mentioned several times throughout the ceremony (at one point she mentioned it during her vows and started crying talking about it which kind of broke my heart). When he said his vows he sat down at a piano and full on sang them while playing piano and it was almost like a bad joke. The pastor was really intense and excited and jumped around a lot and I had a hard time taking any of it seriously. There was no alcohol at the reception and it was really stark and depressing (like under full on fluorescent lighting type of feeling). They divorced less than a year later."
"I love my aunt and uncle so much, but when they got married when I was in high school it was on the same day as a major football game. So all the football fans were outside at the bar watching the game, and the rest of us were sitting inside twiddling our thumbs."
"My cousins wedding, where the officiant announced during the vows that the bride (who I was meeting for the first time that day) had kept herself "pure" for her husband. I asked my cousin during the reception if he had also kept himself pure, hahaha. They were both in their 30s. There was also a LOT of language in the ceremony about how marriage is only true marriage when between a man and woman. Reader this was in 2018. I had also assumed this was going to be a large wedding, as I hadn't spoken to this cousin or their parents or siblings in several years, but it was quite small. Don't know why I was invited. Very awkward. Regret not saying "gross" and walking out."
"A wedding in Las Vegas in a cramped meeting room. The bride and groom dressed in Renaissance Fair costumes. The reception was held in their hotel room. They were in their late 30s."
I don't get the "late 30s" part? It's their wedding they can dress however they like. The space on the other hand might be a bit too small if its a lot of people.
"It was for the daughter of my stepmom's best friend.
The day before the ceremony, I was helping (along with others) put together the reception hall: setting tables, chair covers, table cloths, etc. and everything had to be a certain way. That took at least 12 hours. If I remember correctly, while we were doing all of this, the sister of the groom was trying to talk him out of the wedding. Why? Because the bride is black. So to the actual wedding, the bridal party was late to ceremony, I can't quite remember how late, maybe 30 minutes. But they ended up divorcing because of his family."
"Cousin's wedding. Ceremony was in a small church. The people behind us were talking about us blocking their view after my aunt and uncle asked us to move up two rows to be closer for the rest of our extended family (the talkers were non-relatives that were churchgoers at that branch... and I happened to go to school with one of them).
THEN, we get to the reception and my aunt seated other people at our table while telling us that we should just "give them a few minutes" while they set up a table for us. We waited over an hour standing in the lobby, then went home."
"There were several 'jokes' about domestic violence in the speeches (groom did a speech, best man did a speech, etc.)"
"The last wedding I was in was an outdoor wedding in the valley on a 90+ degree day. The whole outdoor wedding trend needs to die. You spend hundreds of dollars on makeup, dress, hair to look like a wilted, oily bedraggled cat within minutes. I think I may be really biased about this but I absolutely hate outdoor weddings and roasting in the sun."
As someone who has to deal with this while working at a state park, I agree
"There was a Quinceañera going on next door in the same building during an hour long ceremony. They had loud bass music playing causing reverberations throughout the whole time. The officiate was old, long winded, and soft spoken and insisted on giving a long speech that no once could even hear. The father of the bride kept going over next door to ask them to turn the music down. They would turn it off while he was there and turn it back on when he left. The bride and groom did not have an easy going reaction and clearly looked upset."
"It wasn't bad in the sense of cringeworthy for the couple but it was bad because they were just terrible.
It was held at a goth club, I was one of the wedding party kind of filling in as mother of the groom and bride because I was the oldest by 5 years. An old hippie was the official. It was held on the dance floor with the remix of Wish by NIN playing. The wedding party stood in a circle, arms interlinked while a frenzied moshpit circled the couple, the flower girl and the hippie. When they got to the kiss the bride part, we lifted the flower girl out of the circle away from the pit, we broke the circle and it became a whirlwind of limbs and bodies.
I just sat to the side because I don't mosh.
They didn't last long. Wasn't surprised."
"The one where I went alone to at 22, and was considered an old maid because I wasn't married or had kids like the other women my age who were there. I was actually asked why I never had kids. I caught the bouquet among a crowd of little girls and had the pleasure of teenaged boy putting the garter up my leg. The groom had the hard on while dancing with him. I felt horrible and got insanely drunk and had a one night stand with the groom's single friend. You live you learn u guess."
"Ones with children or animals, it’s noisy and both times my dress has gotten stained from one of them."
At my son’s wedding, we provided ribbon wands for all the kids during the ceremony. We also had a children’s table at the reception and they all happily colored bride and groom placemats, played with Legos and plastic dinosaurs, etc. (they got to keep the little toys). After it got dark, we handed out glow sticks for the dancing part - the adults loved those as much as the kids. Honestly the kids were really sweet and several came up to the bride and told her how beautiful she was. If you have kids come, you have to give them something to do. I used to teach elementary school - I planned for kids!!!
"Didn’t attend it, but had walked back to my hotel after dinner to see a suited groom running out the hotel foyer with the bride running after him and crying. Wearing the full dress and veil etc.
He turned around and screamed at her, pointed at some of the wedding party who were following behind and yelled at them too, before jumping into a taxi and sped off. Leaving the bride outside crying and being comforted by awkward wedding guests.
I couldn’t pick out what he was shouting, it all happened quite fast. Wish I knew what that was about."
"Went to an acquaintance’s wedding, knew the bride from high school and despite not being particularly close she invited me via Facebook message.
The wedding took place at a popular local state park in the summertime. The reception and ceremony took place in the same tiny enclosed park shelter with no AC and no fans, in 90° weather. It was also BYOB and BYO Chair. No decorations to speak of outside of a simple balloon arch.
The only table was reserved to place their wedding cake, which looked like something off the cake wrecks website. The reception was cake, Bartles and Jaymes for the wedding party in a plastic cooler, and a friend with a laptop and a couple of amps/speaker system for a 'DJ'. On top of all that, the groom showed up late to the ceremony and drunk to boot. It was a memorable event, to say the least."
"This was the rehearsal dinner the night before. It was an out of state destination wedding so if you came the night before you were welcome to come. This is my husband’s cousin F. The grooms grandfather (clearly in his 80s) got up and basically said we all thought he was gay and we’re so surprised he is marrying a woman. The bride and groom were both in their mid 30s. They then showed a slide show of both of them growing up. Most of the grooms pictures were of him with makeup and in girls clothes... We thought the groom was gay before that but this was the icing on the top. They’re still married with 3 kids now and seem happy. Maybe he’ll wait until the kids are grown to come out..."
"My fiancé's good friend and coworker got married to his highschool sweetheart. We aren't religious and we respect all faiths, but we didn't expect the wedding to be as faith-based as it was.
Picture my fiancé, tatted to the nines, although dressed respectably, and me in a shoulder-baring dress, in a church not knowing ANYONE besides the bride and groom, struggling to recite prayers and fit in.
Then we moved to the reception hall, where we unexpectedly found out it was a dry wedding. So we're stuck in this space with a bunch of devout Christians with no booze at an empty table watching the married couple very awkwardly play those gimmicky newlywed games like "who's who in the relationship" and other weird stuff.
We were happy for them and still are, but it was just an extremely awkward situation. Immediately poured some alcoholic beverages when we got home to wash away the four-hour cringefest."
"Catholic wedding service was the worst I've ever attended. Interminable and unintelligible. Stand up, sit down, parrot some words or a hymn, rinse and repeat ad nauseam."
Attended Catholic church for a few years as a child. What I remember most was sit, stand, kneel multiple times and passing the donation plate around. Followed by me being sick the rest of the day from all the perfume. Had a snowstorm one Sunday so couldn't go. Never went back, guess my parents enjoyed Sunday off more. Still very religious though.
"I went to one where they served appetizers as dinner. Imagine being served a salad bar and a few trays of sliders that you have to share among 75 people then being told that’s dinner.
I’m probably being a snob but the way I see it is that if a bunch of people are coming together on a Saturday night and gifting you serious cash, you should give them a real dinner."
Depends what the invite says. If there is no mention, so you expect a full meal, that's bad. If they can't afford to have a full meal for the number of people they want to share the night with and have on the invite that it is finger-food only, then you just eat beforehand and no worries.
If I ever get married, I’ll just cut a small cake with a few of my close friends and family members. I’m not going to have an expensive one
Half of these are “they didn’t serve alcohol :(“ it’s not their responsibility to get you wasted at their wedding. I’m having a dry wedding since there are recovering alcoholics in my family. Stop hating dry weddings
Dry is fine, but I'm getting the impression the guests weren't let in on this fact. Letting them know ahead of time is common courtesy (IMO)
Load More Replies... My sister's second wedding was held in her suburban Southern California backyard on a hot, sunny day. The preacher was late. Guests hit the wine punch and started passing out, laying wasted on the lawn. The preacher finally arrived and held a hasty service. Bride and groom were just sober enough to say "I do" groggily. The preacher ran off; the rest of us finished the punch and got sunburns. At least no cattle stampeded through. 8-)
My other sister's first wedding was to a guy born the same hour in the same little hospital as me. Coincidence? The groom-to-be showed up totally swacked -- he had to be held up by friends in order to mumble his vows. Their honeymoon was brief. A few weeks later, he was busted for felony drunk driving and quickly tried, convicted, and imprisoned. A quickie divorce followed. Her second wedding, to a unicyclist, worked out much better. Good thing. 8-)
Load More Replies... If I ever get married, I’ll just cut a small cake with a few of my close friends and family members. I’m not going to have an expensive one
Half of these are “they didn’t serve alcohol :(“ it’s not their responsibility to get you wasted at their wedding. I’m having a dry wedding since there are recovering alcoholics in my family. Stop hating dry weddings
Dry is fine, but I'm getting the impression the guests weren't let in on this fact. Letting them know ahead of time is common courtesy (IMO)
Load More Replies... My sister's second wedding was held in her suburban Southern California backyard on a hot, sunny day. The preacher was late. Guests hit the wine punch and started passing out, laying wasted on the lawn. The preacher finally arrived and held a hasty service. Bride and groom were just sober enough to say "I do" groggily. The preacher ran off; the rest of us finished the punch and got sunburns. At least no cattle stampeded through. 8-)
My other sister's first wedding was to a guy born the same hour in the same little hospital as me. Coincidence? The groom-to-be showed up totally swacked -- he had to be held up by friends in order to mumble his vows. Their honeymoon was brief. A few weeks later, he was busted for felony drunk driving and quickly tried, convicted, and imprisoned. A quickie divorce followed. Her second wedding, to a unicyclist, worked out much better. Good thing. 8-)
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