There are a lot of things that can go wrong on a wedding day—but these disastrous ceremonies and receptions go way beyond the regular snafus.
1. Buzz Off
I attended an outdoor wedding as a bridesmaid. The setting was gorgeous—a gazebo in a garden. However, there was one disastrous issue. I'm not sure the issue was addressed at the rehearsal, but there was a beehive under the gazebo.
Loud music and sound equipment, lots of hairspray and perfume smells, people stomping on the gazebo taking pictures, and such. The bees were not happy. The whole wedding party was swatting and cringing. The officiant was rushing things as much as he could to get us out of there.
I never saw the wedding video, but I'm sure it was a complete mess.
Wikimedia Commons, Virginia State Parks
2. Trailer Park Meets Game Of Thrones
The bride’s parents were very messily and bitterly divorced. The father of the bride was a heavy drinker. Even worse, he didn't even try to hide the fact that he despised the groom. The father/daughter dance number said it all. It was set to “I Loved Her First” by Heartland, with her father glaring at the groom and flipping him off the entire time.
The room was totally silent and no one was making eye contact. Super awkward—but it didn’t end there. During speeches, her dad went on an angry rant about how his new son-in-law was lucky there were so many witnesses or he’d have already been dragged out back and shown who the real man in the family was.
This was before the father was literally wrestled to the ground by some groomsmen and had the mic taken away. While still yelling insults. The bride spent most of the wedding in tears. It was full of creepy vibes and people were literally leaving before the food came because it was so uncomfortable.
3. Bad Omens
I attended a family wedding where the groom messed up BIG TIME. He told his mother-in-law about an hour before the ceremony that he didn't like her. There were a lot of tears but the bride married him anyway. After the reception, he tossed his wedding ring into a field and a wedding guest found it the next morning.
Somehow they are still married, but I don't have a lot of hope for their future.
4. The Grudge
I worked this one. It was a dramatic shift but everyone left, so I got off early and the bride left a big tip to apologize. I’d rather have worked late and gotten a smaller tip if it meant she had had the wedding of her dreams.
The father of the bride got into quite an aggressive argument with best man—the best man was the brother of the groom—because he had hit on his niece, who was 17. The best man didn’t know she was 17 and was actually only 19 himself, but understood it definitely not ok as she was still a minor.
He was mortified when he found out and was confronted with it. It was awkward but they agreed it was a misunderstanding and the night went on. I thought the ordeal was over—but it was just the start. A lot of drinks later they were all on the dance floor.
I was collecting glasses so I happened to be in the center of this. The best man was chatting to the 17-year-old on the side of the dance floor and I could I hear he was apologizing to her for what had happened earlier. Because it was a genuine apology, the following events were completely unnecessary.
The father of the bride saw them talking and without hesitation came over and punched the best man square in the face. Upon seeing this, the groom ran over to the father of the bride and punched him back. This ended up in a full on brawl between multiple members of the family.
The bride got in between them to break it up and she unfortunately got hit and her eye started to swell. I managed to swoop in and take her off as my manager came running out of the kitchen to break it up. The bride was in tears, her day ruined.
The bride, her mother and stepdad hung around to the pay the bar tab and clear their belongings. That’s when I learned the dark truth about all the drama. They explained to me that she hadn’t wanted to invite her dad. He always causes problems and was very aggressive and argumentative and she knew he would somehow ruin her day, but she invited him to save drama before the wedding.
She also explained that her husband punching him wasn’t just because he hit the brother but was from years of him having to sit back and see her deal with his behavior. The dad was ruining her day just like she thought he would and then managed to assault his brother.
The authorities were called but nobody pressed charges unfortunately.
5. History Lesson
The one I’ll never forget was when the best man decided to give the worst and most thoughtless speech imaginable. He stood right in front of them. To really rub salt into the wound, his speech consisted almost entirely of vivid descriptions of the grooms extensive bedroom exploits.
Unsurprisingly, the bride walked out and locked herself in the toilet.
6. Backwarmer #5
I used to photograph weddings. This one took the cake. The bride was doing shots at 8 am in the bridal suite getting ready. She then has the maid of honor call one of the guys to make sure they get plastic bottles for the drinks, not glass.
They were riding on motorcycles and she didn’t want to take a chance of the bottles breaking if they fell off. The guy she was marrying, she knew for about two months. He had four different kids by four different women. How do I know this?
He has all of their names tattooed on his arm. Nothing is crossed out, just their names in a row. She told me the significance and then bragged she’d be the fifth on his arm.
The reception was a real show. They passed through a Harley dealership and were an hour late to the reception from the ceremony. A squad of bikers with bride and bridesmaids on the back of their bikes. It was a disaster all the way through.
One guy hit a car in the parking lot because he was so blitzed. By the end of the night the bride was passed out on a table while the groom was doing shots with other ladies at the reception.
I took great photos for them.
7. Moving Up The Rankings
I went to a dry wedding in August. We were in a tent with no circulation. I was sweaty. Speeches were done before the dinner. The maid of honor had a 45-minute slideshow of pictures of her and the bride.
It was legitimately the worst wedding I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been to a wedding where the bride had a camo dress on.
8. Two For The Wedding, Please
My friend's wife came up with dumbest idea. She thought it would be great if guests had to pay an entrance fee/ticket for their wedding. It wasn't cheap either. And the reason why was seriously ridiculous. She thought that if people spend that much for concerts why shouldn't they spend it on seeing "two rockstars" getting married?
They had a love for music and they didn't hire wedding singers for the reception. So basically it was a wedding/concert because the newlyweds put out a performance for us. The ticket was like $100 for a country where $150 was the minimum monthly wage.
For the record, they sent out the invitation for like 10 months or a year in advance so people had plenty of time to scrounge up for the ticket. And I had to bring a gift as well. The entrance fee was paid in advance because the wedding had "limited seating". Good thing my friend was loved by everyone because I did not see a single friend from the bride, except for her family.
Her bridesmaids were her sisters. They had good voices but it was still awful because it was like being forced to pay for a 30-minute concert that I didn't want to go to. I love my friend though, so it was great to hear him sing and I don't regret going even for a second.
Freepik, ASphotofamily
9. When Doves Cry
The ceremony was nearly two hours—but this couple was a walking red flag. They not only hadn’t hooked up while dating, they had never even kissed. So the whole thing was this big build up to the “greatest kiss ever”.Awful. Both were pastors’ kids, and both pastors gave insanely long sermons. Both did altar calls. Then releasing doves etc, etc, etc.
I just couldn’t believe how self-indulgent everything was. I’m annoyed just recalling it.
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10. Good Intentions Gone Wrong
The groom’s mother came to the bride's room where we were all snacking and getting ready and generally having a good time, listening to music and doing hair and makeup. She wanted to say some heartfelt message to the bride.
Now, the bride's father had passed not long before, so we were doing everything we could to keep things upbeat and positive. The mother of the groom proceeds to tell her all about how her dad is looking down from heaven in happy tears and how he hates to miss this day.
Sure, it was heartfelt—but it backfired horribly. The bride starts crying. Not just crying—full on ugly crying. Her makeup is now in her décolletage and her nose is red and running. The MOG hands her back to us by saying, "Oh dear, she can't walk down the aisle like this!" and leaves the room.
For the next 30 minutes, we try to quickly calm the bride down—fixing up her smudged makeup and cooling down her face. The ceremony started late and the maid of honor had just a basic ponytail because we had to spend so much time on damage control. The bride spent most of the reception just sitting and looking exhausted.
The mother of the groom danced her socks off.
11. That Takes The Cake
At the reception, the groom and bride cut the cake. The groom thought it was funny to smash cake on bride's face, right after she told him not to do that. She ran out of the reception and never came back. It was uncomfortable. I never heard how long the marriage lasted.
12. Name Two Things That Shouldn’t Mix
This was a wedding reception. There was a swingers group that would host parties at a bar inside a hotel. Well the hotel also booked a wedding reception for the same night as the swingers party. Big mistake.
The groom ended up sleeping with an older lady there and was caught leaving her room. Groom was slapped and punched, bride was raging crying and screaming. Groomsmen had zero idea what to do and were similarly plastered.
Groom was fairly inebriated and got a bloody nose after she punched him in the face a few times. Both families were screaming at each other and bridesmaids were being held back by staff and other family members.
They looked more than ready to rip that guy apart. The authorities got called and everyone was kicked out. That night was the talk of the town and group for a while.
The hotel made sure to not book receptions and swingers on the same night afterward.
Freepik, cookie_studio
13. One Wedding And The Remnants Of A Funeral
The wedding started an hour late because at the last minute, the couple decided to wait until the sun was down. But that wasn't the worst part. The reception was at the bar where the groom worked. It was a cash bar and didn’t have assigned seating, so a big group of us were left without a table and had to stand at a standing half-table area where an “In memory of…” display had been set up.
We snuck out the door before any speeches or dancing and got burgers down the street.
14. Hurry Up And Wait
It was my brother’s wedding in December in the northwest. For some deranged reason, he had all of his guests show up to the church two hours early. It would have been fine if we had places to sit, but we weren't allowed into the building.
No seats, no protection from the elements, no bathrooms, no food or drink. People dressed in their absolute best wandered on the lawns in the cold wind for a while before just getting back into their cars to avoid freezing while the wedding party took photos.
We watched in our cars in the parking lot as they took photos around the grounds. Eventually an hour and half later, someone from the wedding party had to go car to car and tell people they could go onto the heated church for the ceremony. But it was too late. Some left instead.
The bride’s side is from money so a lot of her guests were furious beyond reason and spent their time “looking for a manager” and spreading hate and discontent. The groom’s side hunkered down, stayed silent while polite and supportive, and built the foundations of a grudge that will never go away.
The ceremony and reception were beautiful but everything was tainted with resentment for being disregarded like that by the couple. Everyone was angry but pretending to be happy and polite considering how much money it obviously all cost.
Then people starting drinking. The energy got dangerous. We left before the fights broke out. It was crazy to learn they spent enough money to buy a house on their wedding but didn’t consider their guests enough to provide a warm safe place for their families to wait while they did their own thing.
It made everyone feel like a pawn in their wedding game.
15. Isn’t It Ironic?
One of my uncle's weddings was a disaster. I know that it's supposed to be a good thing to have rain on your wedding day, but that day it POURED. Like a typhoon was coming through. The tablecloths and decor for the outdoor bar area were soaked. Guests were huddling underneath shelter and trying not to get hit by gusts of rain. They're divorced now.
16. Say My Name
I was a bridesmaid at a wedding. The bride was a friend from college. With hindsight, she was always pretty self-absorbed but in a more subtle way. She showed everyone who she really is the day of her wedding.
She snapped her fingers at me and barked “Dresser!" in front of all the guests because she wanted her train adjusted for the photoshoot. She didn't even have the courtesy to look me in the eye, just snapped her fingers and pointed.
There was an audible intake of breath from the guests, but I'm not sure she noticed.
17. Hypocritofficiant
My wedding had its moments.
We (the groom's side) arrived to find the church closed and in darkness. The minister “forgot”. We had to go to his house to remind him.
He was a colorful character who moved from his previous parish for having a number of affairs with his female parishioners, then did the same in this parish and then was moved up to Inverness and did the same.
This is the guy who performed the ceremony and spoke with a straight face about the sanctity of marriage and how important fidelity was. Since my wife's family were active in the church and a lot of people were from that church, there was a good chance that some of his harem were listening to him say that.
The rest went well and we are still married so not a really bad wedding, although the groom's speech was rubbish.
18. A Cursed Family
I used to work as a wedding DJ. One reception was unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. The families booked a resort for the reception—complete with hotel rooms. The father of the bride used his 20-minute-long toast to recap the highlights of his business success and name-drop.
Not to be outdone, the mother of the bride danced on tables and lifted her dress up enough so that everyone saw her undergarments. Even the bride and groom were a nightmare. The groom flirted with my friend who had come along to help me. He tried to get her to go back to his room with him and the best man less than two hours after saying "I do".
The bride walked up to the groom in the middle of the dance floor and loudly sent him to his room like he was a child. Zero class.
19. Best To Sleep Through That One
The bride was a wreck the whole day and the family kept feeding her pills to keep her from bolting—valium or some such. She was so out of it that after the first dance she just sat down on the dance floor, leaned over and fell asleep. Her family’s reaction was truly deranged.
They dragged her to the wall and left her there while they partied. The mother of the bride’s speech ended with, "And if you ever lay a hand on her in anger again I will kill you myself”.
The groom tried to convince the DJ to go "party" in the parking lot, and when she firmly declined, he went and got a bridesmaid instead. She found them going to town bent over the hood of a car in the parking lot when she was packing up.
Pexels20. He Saw It Coming
Mine was my brother-in-law’s wedding. The wedding itself was bad as events go, but that's not what made it bad. It was that literally none of their friends or family thought the wedding was a good idea.
It was awkward to attend, knowing half the bad things he told me about his many, many reservations about their relationship. It lasted just over two years.
21. Stand Clear Of The Newlywed Couple
I went to a colleague's wedding and the marriage didn't even survive the reception. She caught the groom with a bridesmaid in the toilet. Lebanese families. All downhill from there but like watching WWF for those of us seated far enough away.
22. Jumping The Shark
These friends of ours were set on a destination wedding so insisted they were gonna have a non-wedding wedding for paperwork reasons. I figured they would do that with a couple of witnesses, but I was so wrong. Even though it wasn’t the real wedding, they invited a hundred or so people.
The ceremony was petty great, all the bells and whistles you would expect of a wedding. The disaster came after. As it wasn't the "real" wedding, we had been invited for a glass of fizz and a canape in a back yard, with the intention it was for an hour or two.
Naturally, everyone hasn't seen each other in ages as they had invited people from all over the country, so this turns into a plastered mess quite fast. What little food there was got zoomed up in seconds, everyone was pretty hammered and going to get more drinks.
I offered to order a bunch of pizza in, but was told no it wasn't the real wedding and people would go home soon. Nope. Ten hours later it's a lot of inebriated people, and then the groom got a bunch of substances delivered, upsetting the bride who went off and spent the rest of the night crying.
The maid of honor was messed up and throwing up everywhere. Another person asked awkward questions about the necessity of destination wedding after the day’s events, which made an argument happen between other guests and groom's parents.
People went home that night stopping off at McDonald’s and no one had booked the next day off work, because they were told it wasn't a party, so dealing with work the next day was not great.
Spoiler alert: only a handful of people did the destination wedding, which has led to me and a dozen others not seeing the couple anymore.
They had a huge engagement party before this non-wedding too, and I just got done with the whole thing, as did others who had spent a lot of time off and money on them already.
23. Bridesmaid-Zilla
One of the bridesmaids made a speech about herself that dragged on. Not only that, but it was so CRINGE. She told the bride that she was the princess because she, herself, was really the queen, and she should be thanking her for taking her under her wing. It was truly laughable.
She also didn’t wait in line for drinks or food. She went behind the bar to get her own drinks (there was a bartender), and cut the entire line to eat. She wouldn’t let the bride get dressed to show us the first look and refused to leave the room. She complained about pictures and stopped doing them altogether.
She demanded the groomsmen lift her up like in Dirty Dancing when they came in and got introduced. She cut a slit in her dress because she had to look sexy. And, at one point, she threw my purse out of the room.
Oleksandr Berezko, Shutterstock
24. Oversharing
At my cousin's wedding, her husband made an awkward speech, which was absolutely brilliant. He stumbled and expressed how his new wife was a great lay, whilst her dad sat next to them with his head in his hands and horrified grandparents.
I was overjoyed, it was hilarious.
Wikimedia Commons, Phil Hawksworth
25. It Never Ends
I was in a wedding as a groomsman for a childhood friend of mine this past summer. There were ten groomsmen and ten bridesmaids, and you could tell that everyone involved had no experience managing such a large group of people.
This was coupled with the fact that half of the bridal party had children with them that they had to wrangle and take care of, and the rehearsal/pre-wedding orders of business took FOREVER. And that was just the start of the nightmare.
The wedding itself: It was a church wedding, which isn't bad in and of itself, but this wedding was the day after Roe v Wade was struck down by the Supreme Court. So, of course, the minister made the homily very much about that. During a WEDDING.
The church had NO A/C, in peak summer heat, so everyone was sweltering. With how long it took for the bridal party to get ready, there was NO time for anyone to stop at a gas station on the way to grab water or anything, and there wasn't any at the church for guests in the form of a water fountain.
After communion was given out, the groom went around to every single guest in attendance—all 180 of them—and shook their hand/hugged them and talked to them for a few seconds. Everyone just had to watch him do that for like 20 minutes.
After the wedding was over, we had to run over to the reception venue to help set up and get photos out on the golf course. The spot where we were going to do photos was on the other end of the event site, and with golf carts only seating two people and three golf carts given to our bridal party, we had to drop people off one at a time by this bridge.
Once all 27 of us were there, the photographer made me so furious, I nearly blew up. They informed us that the sunlight was too bright for that location, and we had to GO BACK TO THE RECEPTION HALL TO GET PHOTOS THERE.
Keep in mind, those who'd gotten to the original photo spot first had been standing in the direct sunlight, with no shade available and in full three-piece suits, for about 40 minutes, with again no water being made available to us throughout the day.
So, we repeat the whole process again and by the time everyone is at the new photo spot (which is right by the reception hall, so this whole charade was pointless) two bridesmaids have passed out from heat exhaustion.
We take care of them and rush through photos, because of course there's not enough time to get all of them done now. Oh, and this new photo spot was also IN THE MIDDLE OF THE 18TH HOLE, so we're also dodging multiple golf balls and dealing with angry golfers.
A few of us tried to get the party to move, but we were shot down. At this point it's about 5 PM, and the original plan was to go offsite to grab SOMETHING to eat or drink before dinner was served at 8 (because, again, nothing's been available to eat or drink all day at this point).
That's when the bridal party is informed that they have to be back on-site by 5:30 to "wait and make their grand entrance when the reception starts at 6:30". This wasn't in the original itinerary.
So, we're stuck there, waiting behind the reception hall for an HOUR, in the sunlight once again, for people to start showing up. We make our venue entrance once the other guests have been seated.
Dinner eventually gets served (and, on a positive note, the food was actually great). We're all chugging down waters like we've just crossed the Mojave Desert and have been eating nothing but sand for two weeks.
The bartenders can't bring us pitchers of water fast enough. But the ordeal wasn’t over yet. At around 8:30, one of the groomsmen, Ian, suddenly becomes super sullen and isn't talking to anybody.
I've since heard afterwards that this may have been due to beef with another groomsman. But at 9 PM, once it's like almost fully dark, the best man comes up to me and tells me that Ian disappeared into the woods behind the golf course.
The wedding party has now come to a halt as half of us are scouring the woods, inebriated and in the dark, looking for this guy with a history of some bad mental health. We find him, and he's safe, but the mood of the wedding reception has been irreparably soured after this.
Things mostly proceeded as normal after that. The lead bartender, who I've been chatting with on and off throughout the night, has provided great service all night. At around 11:30, right before last call for drinks, I thank her for dealing with such an insane wedding party and for all the rowdier guests.
Her response was the cherry on top of the worst day ever. She told me: "Oh, you guys are no problem at all. It's when I have to serve the help that I start to lose my mind”.
As she said this, she nodded towards a group of Black wedding guests behind me—including THE FATHER OF THE BRIDE. What a horrible person she was.
By far the worst wedding I've ever been to, or in.
26. Stuck With The Bill
My brother's first wedding was a situation. We turned up to the registry office suited and booted, but no bride or groom is in sight. Fine, running a little late. Everyone takes their seats and the bride's family take up the front seven rows, leaving only the back two for the groom's family. That was the first slight, but not the last.
The registry office pull me aside and start asking for the payment before they can start. Confused, I phone my brother for the 10th time. He answers asking if we have paid yet as they gave the money to his future mother-in-law.
Well, she was a raging alcoholic and she drank it all. I pay the fee and what-not so my mom can watch her first born sacrifice himself to his new bride.
The wedding continues as planned. During the photos he pulls me aside and asks me to pay the venue as well as another $700 for drinks. I did and paid by card over the phone. That’s when the wedding party told me something that ruined the whole thing.
Due to “space”, I was told by the wedding party I wasn't able to attend, as it was at capacity. The only groom's family was best man, his plus one, and parents.
When they arrived, there were no decorations and the catering was a finger buffet. My parents were fuming. Five days later, there's a charge on my card $1,500 from drinks. The mother-in-law promised an open bar, and my brother was too stupid to tell them no.
27. Telling On Himself
When they got to the part of the ceremony where the groom was supposed to say "...As long as we both shall live," the unthinkable happened. The groom’s throat just closed up and all he could do was make strangled, croaking sounds.
This went on for what seemed like eternity while everyone in the church shifted forward in their seats listening intently. Finally, he managed to get out "As long as we both shall LOVE".
It lasted seven months.
28. Payback Is A…
The wedding was beautiful, the food was great, everyone had a great time. But just after midnight when everyone had their late night pizza bar snack, someone hit on bride's mom. It was a bad move.
Like this dude put his hand on her hip and kinda pulled a bit towards the elevator with not so much a question as, "Hey come on beautiful". She was offended and said no. The guy gently pulled on her hip a second time. That’s when he got what was coming to him.
The brother of the bride came out of left field and punched the guy in the hotel lobby. Like, one punch and the guy went night-night. And a lovely wedding ended with an ambulance coming. The knocked-out guy's wife yelling at everyone and calling the family trash. The bride and groom yelling at the brother.
It just became a massive mess filled with yelling and recriminations.
29. The Best Things In Life Aren’t Free
We had to get up before dawn, drive up a mountain, and stare into the rising sun while the minister read a passage from all of the seven major world religions. Then the bride and groom threw rice on us. Even the reception was awful.
The wedding cake was gluten-free, wheat-free, sugar-free, and tasted like a wax candle.
30. Grow Up
I was the organist for a wedding. It was a hot summer day, and the church did not have air conditioning. Packed sanctuary. To top it all off, I had the flu, but I figured I could handle the one hour it usually takes me for a wedding. I had no idea what I was in for.
As usual, I start the music about 20 minutes before the wedding. The time for the start of the ceremony comes and goes. I keep playing, and playing…
About 40 minutes later, they finally start the ceremony. Bride looks ANGRY. Thankfully, the ceremony was short. Later, we found out the bizarre truth. The bride had a fit because one of her bridesmaids was wearing dark pantyhose instead of white.
Note: bride was white, but most of her bridesmaids were Black (as was the groom). She literally had a temper tantrum—as in on the floor pounding her feet and hands and screaming.
So glad I wasn’t part of that family! The groom seemed pretty nice, though.
31. Too Little Too Late
I went to a wedding a couple of years ago that I will never forget. It started at 7 pm on a Friday night. Once the wedding was done there was a 150-person receiving line, then a 20-mile drive on local roads in the dark to the reception, which served dinner at 10 pm.
By 11:30 the cake wasn’t cut yet, and we just left…along with most of the guests by that point.
32. The Hunger Games
I went to a wedding that had speech after speech. After an hour and half or more, they took a break to play a game where they ask questions and if you got it right your table could go eat. So everyone got hangry.
Then, round two of speeches. Some of these people were like 80 and took all day to say a single sentence. But it didn’t stop there. Then we had a game the bride and groom played...then we had to wait until the bride got changed into her second dress for the dance floor to open up...at this point we just left.
You could see in everyone's faces that this was the most boring wedding of their lives. The only people who could literally sit through like hours of speeches was the wedding party, who all were friends since kindergarten and the speeches all involved them.
No word of a lie, like three hours of speeches not including the games to eat. On the bright side, we truly learned from this experience. We had our wedding coming up a couple of months later and because of this wedding we made rules regarding speech length and amount.
So ours was short, sweet, heavy on snacks, drinks, and dancing. Everyone had a blast. So I guess we should thank them for showing us what not to do.
33. Escape Plan
I traveled to NY for my cousin's wedding, along with about 30 other relatives and maybe 100 guests. We all had a huge rehearsal dinner and partied pretty late into the night. Around 8 am, my sister woke me up with some crazy news.
She said our cousin had gotten cold feet and snuck away during the night. The bride and her family were furious, not the least because they had spent tens of thousands of dollars on the reception. He wasn't missing. He called and said he was on his way to the beach.
I felt sorry for the bride. It was so messy—lots of hurt feelings and yelling. I snuck out to the airport and flew home. Needless to say, they never did get back together.
34. Welcome To The Family
I once had a co-worker who was into Asian women. He was on his third mail-order bride and had invited us all to the wedding. It was in the back of convention center and there was a poker tournament being held in the front.
One of our co-workers left to enter the tournament. So we waited in this smoke-filled place while the bride was late. He had had her flown in that morning. Several of my co-workers had shown up already drinking to enjoy the show.
She finally arrived and she was really small. He was a 300-pound man and pretty tall, and it was a bizarre sight. She quickly got ready in a broom closet. I'm not sure who the minister was but he had obviously never performed the ceremony before and he might have also started drinking early.
During the vows, the groom's behavior was appalling. He actually said to move things along so he could get to the buffet. He had insisted on a waffle bar and his mother and sister were furiously making waffles for everyone. There was also a rotating hot dog thing like you find in a 7-11 or something.
The following night, he was back to work talking about being exhausted from not sleeping his wedding night—wink, wink. Well, it turns out he had slept on his couch because his new wife had taken over the bedroom with her cousins.
35. Good Plans, Bad Execution
My cousin's wedding was a hot mess...literally. First of all, it was an outdoor wedding in the summer. It had to be at least 90 degrees, humid, and we were at a park on top of a hill with very little shade.
There was an air-conditioned building but it had a capacity of 24 and there were well over 100 people in attendance. They did rent tents to extend from the building for additional tables and chairs, but the rental people put them in the wrong place and no one corrected them.
Despite the bride insisting she didn't want any help, on the day of everyone's running around trying to decorate the venue, set up the food, I even had to go to the store to pick up the shoes for the flower girl about two hours before the ceremony was supposed to start.
She had this vision of tulle and fresh flowers everywhere, lanterns strung through the trees. It was just too much to do with not enough time or help. They spent so much money on this beautiful venue with a view of the city, food trucks, charcuterie boards with hundreds of dollars’ worth of fancy meats and cheeses, candy buffet, etc and didn't get to enjoy any of it.
Her and her husband spent all of their time getting their pictures taken. They never mingled with the guests and only got something to eat when the food truck people said they were getting ready to leave.
And in all that time she barely got any pictures with her side of the family. There's a group photo of all the cousins that her and her husband, the guests of honor, are not in. But they have pictures with every guest of his that was there.
She's never shared her wedding photos. Supposedly she hates them according to my grandmother and the only picture she has with her dad from that day is one that I took. But that’s not the worst part. There was no music, no dancing, no toasts...nothing you'd expect to find at a reception.
Someone eventually hooked their phone up to a speaker so there was some sort of entertainment. Her husband comes from this highfalutin family in which she does not feel adequate. The first thing she said to me after telling me about her wedding plans, was that her future mother-in-law thought it sounded tacky.
It just felt like the wedding was a giant photoshoot for the couple with a party to impress his family, and she wouldn't have cared if her family was there.
The whole thing lasted maybe three hours tops. Towards the end, someone started tearing everything down, throwing away food, decorations, and even people's personal property away without care.
36. The Loneliest Time
My own wedding. It was the beginning of lockdown. Over the course of the last days before the wedding, we first were allowed 10 people, then four, then two, then no one other than the official and my husband. We had to wait for half an hour, because we were early and the official was late.
Ten minutes of ceremony and we were married and out of the door again. I still wish I hadn't done it. I wanted my family and friends to be there. When I told him I wanted to postpone it, he said: "If you don't marry me now, you don't need to marry me at all, because then you don't love me enough".
I endured him for two years before it finally clicked. I can't believe I put up with that horrible man for so long. Now I am happily divorced and starting to pick up the pieces.
37. No Room For You
The worst wedding i ever attended so far was a wedding of an old friend and neighbor. My sister and I were excited to attend because not only is she a twin, her twin brother got married about four years before she did and her family kept mounting pressure on her to get married.
Keep in mind, this is Africa of course, everyone expects you to get married when you get to a certain age, especially after attaining a degree and already working. The wedding venue was her village, I had no problems with that, so we traveled down to her village, but it was a remote village with no guest houses let alone a motel.
My sister and I were her bridesmaids. Some of her friends also traveled far like we did. We had no place to sleep after her traditional marriage ceremony. And she was no where to be found. This was around midnight, by the time I found her she was already lying down on the bed with her sister-in-law and just abandoned us in a village we barely knew and there were no motels.
She felt a little embarrassed when she saw me and asked where my sister and her friends were, I told her we were all sitting outside since we don't know where to sleep. Every part of the house was occupied, the only space left was what looked like a village pantry with no shelves, but there were huge aluminum three legged pots of food every where.
She managed to get a ten-spring mattress for us, mind you, we were four. So we lay vertically on the bed with half of our bodies hanging. We were all tired as we traveled a long distance to attend this wedding and also participate in the traditional marriage, while the next morning was the church wedding.
We had barely closed our eyes when I saw something that made my blood run cold. Giant rats strolling into the room/pantry. Oh my GOD. What are we going to do? What if they chew on our feet? The sleep cleared really fast, the rats weren't even bothered by our presence, they just kept coming in and were nibbling on grains of rice and bones on the floor.
We sat up and watched them till daybreak, and were really tired during the wedding the next day, and could not wait to leave that place. To worsen it all, we did not get food to eat the next day even if we were the bridesmaids. Worst wedding ever.
38. See You Later, Alligator
This was at my mom and step-dad’s wedding. I was around 7-8 at the time and was one of my mom’s many flower girls, a group that consisted of me, my older cousin, and my younger cousin.
After the ceremony, we headed to a large cabin in the mountains, with a small lake next to it. Of course, being children we all stopped hanging out with the adults to have fun at the lake.
We were kicking rocks off the dock and just talking about random things, when my younger cousin asked “Do you think there are alligators in there”? Me and my older cousin thought about it and said yes (there weren’t), then just casually moved onto a different conversation.
Then, I spotted a rock, sitting at the very edge of the dock, and my little child brain immediately thought “Oh yeah that rock will fly so far when I kick it”. So I confidently told my cousins to watch as I kick this rock.
I stand at the edge of the dock, aiming my leg, then SWING! That’s when disaster struck. I completely missed the rock and the momentum of my leg caused me to fall forward into the water. Face first.
As my cousins are freaking out and I’m trying to swim back, they decided to yell “ALLIGATOR”, which then freaked me out and I started to cry trying to swim to safety. Luckily my aunt came outside right at that moment to come and help. But my ordeal didn’t end there.
She was also the wedding photographer, and thought it would be funny to take a photo of me before helping. That really made me angry and I was petty for years about that, but looking back at it I would have done the same.
Since I didn’t have a spare dress I was then forced to use my younger cousin’s dress while she got to use a spare, more comfortable dress. For the rest of the reception I was stuck wearing an itchy tight dress and was really annoyed.
39. Are You On The List?
This happened back in 2014. I'm invited to my best friend’s wedding, taking place in the middle of July. It was a very hot, dry summer to begin with and I'm expected to wear a tuxedo—something she was aware that I hated wearing, but I figured "Eh, it's a wedding, so why not”?
I show up to the reception. People are being let in, and I show the dude I assumed was the best man my wedding invitation. Then my friend shows up.
Her: “Oh, hey. Sorry, I have to tell you something”.
Me: “What's up”?
Her: “You're not allowed inside”!
Me: ...
I stared at her for a good ten seconds before asking why the heck not.
Her: “Oh, because no one knows you here”.
Me: “You invited me...I have the wedding invitation right here”.
Her: “Yeah, but you can just stay outside and wait”!
Me: “You realize I had to go halfway across the country to get here, right”?
Her: “Yeah”.
Me: “And now you're telling me I'm not invited inside. Is anyone else not invited inside”?
Her: “Nope, just you! Sorry about this mess”!
So, I'm there. It's about 25 C (~77 F), I'm wearing a black tuxedo and I’m expected to stand outside in the blazing sun. I asked her if I could just go home instead of wasting my time. Her reaction was infuriating. For some reason, she took offense to this suggestion.
She started saying that if I did leave, our friendship meant nothing to me. I had known her for 12 years at that point.
Me: “Fine. But I'll need food and something to drink”.
Her: “Oh, sorry, we didn't factor into you coming so there won't be enough for you”!
I left then and there. Thankfully, I did have a friend who let me crash at his place until I could leave the following day.
Her marriage lasted about eight months. She's now on marriage #3 and I've turned down the invitations to both her other weddings (which were also during the summer) because no way am I re-living that.
40. Awkward Is Putting It Mildly
My wife and I got dragged to her friend’s mother’s wedding. I think it was her third marriage. It was undoubtedly awkward but it also went quite smoothly. The reason for it being awkward was that the son of the bride was involved in the murder of the groom’s nephew.
He went with some friends to buy some substances but turns out they didn’t have any intention of paying for them. He was charged and plead down to something that got him multiple years of probation...before he showed up again at the wedding.
41. Take A Picture, It’ll Last Longer
I was playing for a summer international traveling soccer team as a senior in high school. Four of us were with a host family in Costa Rica for a two-week stint. The hosts were a couple whose kids had grown and moved out.
Ahead of time, we were invited to a wedding on the weekend we were there. I thought it sounded pretty cool so I and my parents in the US agreed. I’d soon seriously regret it. It was at a place called Vista Verde, which is like a jungle retreat with lodge and bungalows.
We thought it was pretty cool at first. It was a nice normal wedding with about 200-300 people I would guess. At the reception, I was flirting with a beautiful girl a little older than me. It helped that I was American and nobody really knew me. I was having as much fun as a 17-year-old kid could have.
Everyone was having fun, actually, until we hear gunshots. All of a sudden a swarm of black fatigue-wearing armed guys stormed in. They were yelling to get down and “manos arriba” (hands up).
Of course we all freaked out, but I was a little slow in translating and was still standing to see everyone else go down. I got a nice little push, then apparently hit my head on the ground and blacked out. When I woke up, I was greeted by a horrifying sight. I was zip tied and thrown in a bus.
I spent nine hours in a school gym along with most of the other guests. Luckily once they got to processing me and saw my passport, they called the US embassy. I finally found out that the authorities believed the wedding had members of a local gang.
I was immediately moved to the embassy along with my other teammates as our hosts were detained for days. I had a nasty headache and my parents spent a lot of money on the trip. We didn't get to play in the national tournament.
I never found out what happened to the host family or what was found at the wedding. I also never got my camera or film back that had pictures of the previous week where we got to sight see. It had rolls of film from Mexico and San Diego where we also played.
That to me is the worst part 20 years later. Having nothing in way of memories of one of the best two months of my life.
42. I Don’t
My own wedding was by far the worst wedding I've ever attended. I had been having doubts about going through with it. I was dressed and my mom was doing my hair when I had the sudden "cold water thrown over me" realization.
I didn't want to marry this guy. I was stuck. I had family there that traveled cross country to support me. I will never forget walking towards him and seeing his face. He didn't smile or cry. Just blank.
After, at the dinner and reception, he decided to spend his time out on the patio of the church. He had two friends at the wedding and apparently they were more important to him than I was. I was dancing alone, talking to guests alone, and all the while feeling wrong.
So yeah. Mine.
43. The Devil’s Tiki Drink
Two years ago, one of my cousins got married and had the reception outside at my grandparents' house. They live on two acres of land, so there was plenty of room. And yet, things still went so wrong.
There were about fifteen tables and a bunch of Tiki torches put up since it was nighttime. My cousin Drew decided to take one of the ice buckets from the bar area, dump the ice out, and pour a little of everyone's drink into the bucket while everyone is busy dancing.
He then attempted to drink the mix inside the bucket. Of course, since there were all kinds of drinks and champagne and wine in it, about half way through he doubled over and began to spew EVERYWHERE.
To right himself, he tried to grab a nearby Tiki torch—which was already kinda leaning towards him—thus pulling it the rest of the way over and setting himself aflame. He then stood there like a burning geyser of vomit for a second before everyone flipped out and mobbed him to try and extinguish him.
44. Who’s Cutting Onions In Here?
I went to a wedding of a family acquaintance recently and during the reception, I was fortunate enough to experience an extremely emotional scene. After the first part of the ceremony, the bride’s family gathered around to take pictures with the groom’s family.
This was an outdoors ceremony and the sun was shining brightly on the garden where the pictures were taken. One of the bride's uncles comes out of a small building with a paraplegic elderly man in a wheelchair.
It turns out to be the father of the bride, and he is unable to move a muscle due to some spinal injury he suffered years ago. I was told they told him numerous times that his daughter was getting married and he did not respond at all, he couldn't.
They decided to bring him out for one picture with the family before bringing him back inside because he could not stand the bright sun for too long. The father was placed in front of the bride and she gave him a hug on his wheelchair.
They then began to take pictures and during this, the old man began to cry. He could not move and he didn't make a sound but tears were rolling down his face.
Apparently this had been one of the few times he had shown any physical response and everyone began to cry. Unfortunately, there was an even more heartbreaking end to it all. At the dinner later, the bride was late. Turns out the father could not take the physical toll the wedding brought to him and he ended up in the hospital.
45. Kissing Cousins
I went to a wedding with my ex. It was his cousin’s wedding and outside on a couple of acres. A hundred or so people milling around and luckily, a few of our close mutual friends.
I had never met the bride's stepfather, but he was close with my ex. He started getting pretty tipsy and vocal. He first told my ex that he should've been the one marrying his daughter that day—yes, my ex’s cousin—in front of me and our friends. But it gets worse.
He then (during the speeches) told EVERYONE that the guy his daughter is marrying is an idiot and that my boyfriend at the time should be her new husband. Not to mention everyone knew they were, again, cousins...
46. You Can Pick Your Friends, But You Can’t Pick Your Clients
I work as a caterer, so I've seen more weddings than I ever thought I would. All of these weddings are basically your story book, picturesque, $20-40K deals. Each one is carefully, and artfully prepared. The only thing we can't hand-pick are the people.
I've seen EVERYTHING, from people stripping down and going to the bathroom in bushes, to skinny-dippers in retention ponds. Though out of all of my stories this one is the best.
Two 20-somethings were getting married, I'd say around 29 or so. They have their reception in a chapel that's all glass. We have to wipe down this thing before every wedding, so you can imagine...it's spotless.
In all of our venues there's always at least one bar. This wedding party however was excessive in their drinking. More so than usual. While the party is still going strong, and about halfway through the wedding the groom walks away from the bride and steps outside.
The bride is pretty out of it, so she doesn't notice at first. When she sees her man is gone, she looks around and spots him outside. Trying to be cute, she runs towards him, and there's a deafening sound. Turns out, she'd run straight into the glass door, splitting her nose down the middle.
There is blood everywhere, she's in pain, and an ambulance is rushed to the scene. I don't really know what happened afterwards, but MAN it was a sight.
47. There Are Evil Plans—Then There’s This
One of our guests at our wedding had recently been through a really, really ugly divorce. Like, his ex lied about him to the courts as a divorce tactic. It was completely untrue, and he was 100% exonerated, but that kind of thing will mess you up—especially since he was still totally in love with this woman.
Needless to say, she wasn't invited. My wife and I had, however, met her before all the stuff went down. Well, his crazy ex decided it would be a good idea to mail a letter to the venue—the divorce was happening during the months before our wedding, so she saw the invite—asking the manager to secretly find a friend of ours to read a letter from her to us at the reception, as a surprise.
Yeah, sounds nice. It wasn't. It was clearly a "I'm gonna mess with my ex" thing she was doing, and it rattled our friend, our guests, AND the poor friend of ours who innocently said "Sure, I'll do that"! thinking the letter really was from an actual friend of ours.
48. Can’t Win Em All
I got married in May. It was great—except for two things.
A female friend of mine from high school was invited to the wedding and she flew out for it. At the rehearsal dinner, she went to my mother and my female cousin—who my fiancée (now wife) is very close to—and told them her twisted secret. She said that she wished she were dating me.
This information got back to my fiancée, but fortunately after the wedding was over. But I got told before the wedding by both my mom and my cousin. It stressed me out.
This lady was a friend in high school and I had never dated her. She had also never shown any interest ever in dating me either in high school or afterward. We are 39.
She bought us a very nice sauce pan as a wedding dish. My wife refers to it as " and your sauce pan" which makes me sad. Before this came out, my wife and I were hoping we would get to be better friends with her and that she and my wife could be good friends.
The other unfortunate part was that my wife's oldest daughter (who is 9), had a freak-out moments before the wedding due to her dad having a weird reaction to the news that his ex-wife was getting re-married. They had been apart for about three years and I had been dating my fiancée for two years.
Prior to all of this, the 9-year-old child had been the biggest supporter of the idea of the two of us getting married. She had been drawing pictures of us in "wedding clothes" for about a year (we never mentioned marriage and were not living together).
She had been referring to me as "like a step dad" (we actively discouraged this) and calling my two daughters her "sisters" (we didn't discourage that) for a long time. I was living next door to my fiancée with my two daughters.
My wife had two daughters as well. It was seriously heartbreaking. The 9-year-old was crying and refusing to come out. Her part in the ceremony was fairly big. She was co-maid of honor, so changing the ceremony at that point—while possible—would not have been super easy.
Also, we knew that it was her personality to have very temporary freak-outs for short periods of time, usually like an hour. Unfortunately, we had our guests waiting for us and couldn't wait an hour for her to pull it together.
So instead she is frowning in our pictures. About 10 minutes after the ceremony, her mood had returned to normal and she was great the rest of the evening.
49. Plot Twist
I went to a wedding that my wife and I said will not last more than two years. The wedding was in the backyard of the bride’s house. They had all the chairs and wedding "arch" setup outside.
They setup a plastic tarp running down the aisle to walk on. Just before the wedding starts, there are darkening clouds appearing. It should have been a sign to move the wedding inside, but they invited too many people to the thing.
Just as they start the wedding, it begins to rain lightly. That’s when it all began to fall apart in the most hilarious way. The father of the bride is walking the bride down the lane and slips on the wet tarp and falls on his behind.
The bride is now at the front, and it's raining harder. People start to cover up with whatever they have. Some people start to get up too. I’ll never forget what happened next. The bride turns around and says to all, “THIS IS MY WEDDING, NO ONE IS GOING TO RUIN IT, YOU BETTER ALL SIT DOWN”!
We all sit back down and the wedding resumes. It is now raining pretty good. The grass is now turning into mud. A few ladies in the crowd and the bridesmaids' makeup is now running down their faces.
My wife has taken my jacket as a cover from the rain. They finish the vows and kiss, and then everyone runs to the house and garage to get out of the rain. Oh, remember how I said the grass was now mud? Yeah, lots of people slipped and fell in the mud on the way to the house.
We got to the house, many people look terrible from the running makeup, muddy clothing, and soaking wet. A few of the women had to cover their chests and waists due to wet clothing becoming see-through.
Most of the men were loaning their coats to the ladies to cover up. Dirty looks all around. The wedding cake was outside, and now brought in. The rain made the decorations on the cake turn all runny and it looks horrible.
The bride and groom began to cut the cake and feed each other. Cue the next disaster. They smashed the cake pieces into each other’s faces...then began a food fight with each other. My friend’s wife got hit in the face with purple icing cake.
The priest got hit with it too, putting yellow icing on his white robe. There was nothing left of the cake to serve. The food being served was still frozen in the middle, and the stuff that was not frozen was burned.
The dessert was supposed to be the cake, but as said above, there was nothing left. There was a goodie bag that people got on the way out. It had a lollipop, a coupon for ice cream cone at McDonald's, a pencil with the bride and groom’s name on it, and Halloween-size M&Ms.
My wife, whose dress was filthy, makeup was out of whack, and hair was a mess, said to me that she does not want to see those people again for six months, she was so mad—but the story doesn’t end there. The couple divorced 11 months later when the groom came home from work and found his wife getting it on with two guys.
50. Tell Me How You Really Feel
I went to a wedding once where the bride’s grandad hated the groom for some reason. In the middle of the groom’s speech, he answered his phone to a guest arriving for the evening. Everyone could hear the horrible things he said.
“Hello? No it’s been a bit trash so far, the lad’s doing his speech, no that’s not very good either, I’ll come and get you when he finally stops talking”.
51. If At First You Don’t Succeed…
My schoolfriend's first (and technically second) wedding. It was the early 90s.
The bride wanted to drive herself to the wedding in an open-topped Porsche. It had been a dream since childhood and she refused to change her mind.
She left her house followed by her family in a limo. Apparently the wind whipped her expensively done hair and her veil all over the place. That’s when disaster struck. She lost control of the car and ran into the back of a bus.
The car was not driveable and she broke her nose, ruining the dress with blood, and then broke her thumb. The wedding was canceled. It was before cell phones, so we sat for almost an hour in the church waiting for news.
The reception and honeymoon were canceled, then it turned out that they didn't buy insurance and had to pay for everything out of pocket. It cost a fortune. The Porsche, at least, was covered by her car insurance.
Wedding two was smaller, much cheaper, and 100% Porsche-free.
They divorced a couple of years later.
52. Dragged To The Altar
I realize now that this wedding was terrible. I was 8 at the time and had to go because my cousin 20 years older than me was getting married to a complete idiot. We got to the wedding and she was greeting everyone instead of getting ready.
The groom was nowhere to be seen, which was sort of understandable, since they aren't supposed to see each other until she walks down the aisle. We walked past the bar to get into the area where she was, but we see him getting drinks with his friends.
When the ceremony starts, he looks extremely bored and is whispering things to his friends/groomsmen. He is still doing this when she walks down the aisle. She had to PULL HIS SLEEVE to get him to say the vows.
Later at the dinner, they are both not at their table but in the main hall and he is yelling at her for pulling his sleeve at the altar. Needless to say, they are now divorced but were married for a month until he divorced her because she wasn't meeting his expectations about what she should be doing instead of working a full-time job. Good riddance, Mark.
53. Maid Of Dishonor
A friend of mine’s first wedding. I was friends with both the bride and groom. From what we'd seen over the two years they'd been together, their relationship was fun and happy. She’s super sweet and just the most genuinely nice girl, a bit sheltered but fierce and ready to make the most of life.
He was quite funny and chill, could be moody at times but he would bounce back quick and was smart and fun to talk to. We're all a bunch of nerds so we met through extracurricular competitions held between our schools.
They started with a very formal religious ceremony that took FOREVER. When we got to the reception, while the bride seemed happy, I could tell something was off.
The groom was very cold and indifferent to everyone. We found this odd as we'd all been friends since grade school and it wasn't normal for him. The bride was still only 20 so too young to drink but the groom was 22 so it wasn't a dry reception, thankfully.
I left right after they dipped out of the reception for their honeymoon...I didn't hear from her for six months. When she came back, she told me the twisted truth. They’d got divorced a month later.
The groom had been sleeping with the maid of honor for MONTHS, because my friend had wanted to save herself for marriage. He confessed this on their honeymoon, after they consummated, by handing her his phone with texts from the maid of honor while he went to shower.
Nobody talks to the groom anymore, myself included, honestly I'm not even sure where he lives now. There's a happy ending though. She met a wonderful man about a year later, they have been married for like six years now and THEIR wedding was a blast!
The best one I ever attended hands down—and I despise weddings just in general.
