A wedding is supposed to be one of the most memorable days in a couple's life—but sometimes the dream gets squashed by completely unforeseen circumstances. From runaway brides to guests yelling "I object", these trainwreck weddings never had a dull moment:
1. Too Close For Comfort
My buddy had a wedding about 15 years ago. We thought he had found the perfect woman, she was so nice all the time, hot as a bonfire, and from what we understood from manly banter as well as her own jokes at the poker table, amazing in bed. Wedding time comes round, "Does anyone have a lawful objection?" From there, everything unraveled.
His dad objects because he hadn’t found a way to tell everyone that he cheated on my buddy’s mom decades ago. But get this: the "other woman" was the bride's mother. And guess what? The bride was my buddy's half-sister. Apparently, only the parents knew the truth. A DNA test later confirmed it. Now my friend is in therapy because "the best love and lay of my life was my sister!"
2. Bad Reputation
My best friend's mom got remarried and had an expensive, beautiful wedding; but for some reason, she didn't hire a DJ. Last-minute, her mom asked me to manage the CD and gave me a list along with verbal instructions of when to play each song. I tried to warn her that I simply did not follow what she was trying to say, but she told me she had confidence in me.
Apparently, all her life, she wanted to walk down the aisle to some specific song, but I just couldn't figure it out. They had to get walking to match the sunset, so she went ahead down the aisle while I flipped through a series of incorrect songs to the horror and amusement of the crowd. For years afterward, when I called my friend's house and her stepdad answered, he'd say, "Is this the guy who screwed up my wedding? How are ya?"
3. She Was A Gold Digger
My cousin—who’s not a very nice lady—married some poor sucker rather quickly into their relationship. He was a super smart and successful accountant for an aerospace company and she was a nobody. Although that shouldn’t matter In love, in her case we knew what was up. We all knew the real reasons for this unholy matrimony, mostly because she was following in her mother’s footsteps, who was a raging forest fire of a magnum gold digger.
We took great pity for the pain, time, and large amounts of money this guy was sure to suffer. During the ceremony, this guy spontaneously developed a tick. He started throwing his head back and forth, almost as if the Good Lord himself was smacking him. His jaw must have started to lock up because he kept opening it as wide as he could and sticking his tongue out.
It was as if he had this sudden cramp in his entire speak-hole area, and he wouldn’t be able to utter the solidifying words. At the “I do” part, when it was his turn, he took three big violent shakes side-to-side and stretched his jaw super wide. A couple of months later, she was banging at least one other guy, accusing hubby of beating her and of being emotionally taxing, but we all knew better.
4. No Means No
My pastor once officiated a wedding. He had done all the premarital counseling for the couple, and they seemed good to go and fine. When they got to the altar, he did his opening prayer and welcome. Then he gets to the part when he says, "Do you take this woman to be your wife" and the guy looked at her, back to him, and said "No".
The pastor laughed a little and repeated the question, thinking he misunderstood, but the guy stopped him and said, "No, I don't". So the pastor took the groom aside to a back room, where the guy essentially said that he couldn't do it, that the bride and her mother had manipulated the whole wedding, and he had been too chicken to stand up to her before, but that he couldn't throw his life away.
They brought in both families and had a very real conversation, and then the pastor had to go back out and explain to the very uncomfortable congregation that there would indeed be no wedding today, that the guests could help themselves to some refreshments, but that the rest of the evening’s events were canceled. Big ouch on that one.
5. Tone Deaf
Sometimes the speeches and toasts of the bride and groom can be a good predictor of wedded bliss...or marital misery. The husband's toast was about how excited he was to start a family with her, and what a great mom the bride would be. The bride, however, had been admitted to medical school and would be starting in the fall.
She had no intention of having kids until after school was finished, another four years from then, and by no means was she willing to be the stay at home mom. This man clearly had a dream that she would give up all her hard work and goals to be his wife. They got divorced a year later.
6. Together Again
I once attended a wedding in the United States. This was both the bride and groom's fourth marriages. To each other. Yes, they got married to each other four times and divorced each other three of those times. They picked a dirty motorcycle bar for the venue of their fourth wedding. They were openly giving young children adult drinks, then laughing at them for being intoxicated.
Things were weird enough to begin with. They soon reached a whole new level of insanity. I asked my friend if I could leave after the bride pulled a knife out of her dress and tried to stab the groom with it for having slept with another woman while they were divorced. I'm not sure if this is common in New Jersey. Other weddings I attended were not like that…
7. A Scheduling Conflict
I once witnessed a bride show up almost two hours late to her own wedding. Maybe it could happen to anyone, but as it turned out this was a huge red flag. When she finally showed up, it got more tense. She's not in a wedding dress, she's in yoga gear. The groom got very angry and shut the whole thing down when she refused to change. But the plot thickens...
I spoke with my uncle and it turns out that the groom had been having some suspicions that his fiancé was sleeping with her personal trainer. When she showed up to the wedding in her yoga outfit, it was all he needed to see to call off the wedding. She ended up getting married to her personal trainer shortly after, and then they got divorced soon after, too.
8. Childish Behavior
I was invited to the reception of one of my good friends. They had been courthouse married for months and were living happily. When I arrived at the location and saw the big crowd, I knew something was wrong. My friend's wife is prone to panic attacks and is extremely agoraphobic to the point of breaking down if she is overwhelmed.
I immediately called my friend and ask what was going on and if everything was okay. It turned out, out my friend's parents invited everyone possible to be there without my friend knowing. After I sent him a picture of the crowd, he and his wife thought it would be better to go on a second honeymoon than have a reception. He sent a message apologizing to everyone and told them to leave without telling his parents. His parents had a meltdown as we left.
9. Happiness Is Key
I had a destination wedding. The night before, another couple was getting married, and they had to pass through the restaurant we were in to get to the reception area. The looks on their faces said it all. They looked miserable. They weren’t holding hands, not excited, nothing. It was like the ending of The Graduate. I originally gave them some slack, thinking that having a wedding is hard and exhausting.
However, the next night, at our wedding, we didn’t stop smiling for a second. When we were alone, passing through the restaurant to get to our reception space, we were both giddy, excited, and nervous, but we were happy.
10. Think Of The Children
So this wedding took place in an Episcopal church. The priest had all his finery on and the church itself was decorated very nicely for the occasion. The bride and groom had made a point of asking everyone to wear casual clothes. We all took that to mean "semi-formal". Nope. They and their kids all came out wearing overalls and white t-shirts.
He then launched into an impromptu twenty-minute speech explaining about how he and the bride had gotten together. There were plenty of parts in the story where the groom was like "I wasn't sure she was right for me," but his son was pressing him because "he wanted a mom". It was a sad story actually, as his biological mom passed when the kid was only four and this was eight years later.
So, his speech was basically this long and unfocused story that boiled down to "I'm marrying this woman so that my kid can have a mom". That, and some more confusing Bible references mixed in here and there for good measure. Not a good sign when that's your main reason for getting married to someone. Nevertheless, I knew it, probably half the attendees knew it, and the priest definitely knew it.
11. Young And Dumb
I was invited to a wedding of a friend’s friend because she didn‘t have enough of her own people to get the reception as big as she wanted it to be. Also, the bride and groom were super young—she got pregnant three months after hooking up with him and were marrying for all the wrong reasons. When the party started, the whole atmosphere was forced and strained.
Everybody knew the whole thing was fake in a way, so I decided to spend my time outside instead. I was having a wonderful time…until I heard screaming inside. The bride then ran past us very Hollywood-style, all teary and dramatic. It turned out that the ice cake wasn‘t stored properly, so it melted and came out a little lopsided. The bride didn‘t come back, even though the cake was still really nice. The couple got divorced nine months later...
12. It Never Hurts To Bring A Back-Up
My sister addressed my invite to me and a male friend I had known for about 10 years. A male friend whom she had always had a huge crush on. Even better was that I had been dating my boyfriend for 2 years at this point, and my male friend was engaged. When I asked my sister why she put my friend as my plus-one and not my boyfriend, she said that she didn't want some random guy in her wedding pictures. I went to her wedding solo.
13. The Bride Wanted A Frisky Frolic
My friend got married to his baby mama after their kid was a few years old. Their wedding had a good reception and the bride was a great wing woman, so the bridesmaid and I left to have a party of our own. We came back and joined the after-party and everybody was feeling pretty good. Soon enough, the bride was sitting at the bar by me, started making comments, and getting pretty grabby.
I tried to get away, as things were getting awkward. So, I waved my buddy—the groom—over and told him what was up and he should probably get her out of there. She told him she just wanted to feel my willie but I wouldn't let her, and they proceeded to get into a fight. Years later, they were still together, but there is no way she's been faithful, and he refused to see it. I wish him the best of luck.
14. Leaving So Soon?
When I was in college studying photography, I got friendly with a fellow student who had a wedding photography business but was still studying to get his qualifications. After seeing my work, he asks me if I want to assist him at his next wedding. I agree to do so. The big day finally comes and I'm all prepared to go in and see the groom, the best man, the ushers, and a bunch of other participants. That's not what happened at all.
To my surprise, the groom refused to be in any pictures, stating that he was feeling under the weather. I kinda thought he should just suck it up. It was his wedding day, after all. Nevertheless, he was insistent, so no pre-event photos were taken of him. A little while later, the ceremony comes and goes. It’s now time for the bridal party photos at the church.
Once again, the groom refuses to be in any photos, much to everyone's annoyance. We all get to the reception, the speeches begin, and, midway through the father of the bride’s speech, the groom just straight up leaves. He once again repeats the fact that he was feeling a bit ill. This is where the bride drew the line—she went into a full-on rage.
She started pulling the small groom and bride figurines off the top of the cake and stomping on them. She shouted, "I knew I shouldn't have married him!" There was a lot of hullabaloo at this point, with guests trying to console her. Everyone agreed that he was being dramatic and was basically a huge jerk. We got paid in full even though at that point we were done. Then we found out the disturbing truth.
I go home, put my feet up, drink a few beers, and then answer an unexpected phone call from my friend. I was expecting him to just be calling to joke around a little bit more. Not even close. In reality, he was calling to inform me that the groom had passed shortly after leaving the reception hall, and that our photo job would now be turning into a two-for-one wedding and funeral service.
15. Time For A Change
When my cousin met his wife-to-be, she gradually chipped away at him by molding his personality to how she wanted him to be. In the end, gone was the cheeky lovable personality, his friends, and his hobbies. I barely saw him anymore, and neither did most of his family. The last I saw him was at our grandad’s funeral after they had been married for about a year.
Aside from the fact it obviously was a sad occasion, he was a completely different person. Even at the wedding, he was noticeably miserable. They divorced another year or so later. Apparently, he was boring and not the man she fell in love with, so cheating on him was the logical thing for her to do. I haven't seen or spoken to him since the funeral but I hear he's doing okay.
16. Speaking From The Heart
I was the best man at this wedding, so I had a front-row seat for the entire thing. The couple was marrying young after the bride had fallen pregnant. It obviously wasn’t planned, but they clearly loved each other and it was the right thing for them to do in their eyes. Anyway, come the wedding day, I’m sitting next to the bride's father at the reception and I can see he’s looking at his prepared speech repeatedly.
I can see phrases like "not ideal," "would’ve preferred not to welcome you into the family under these circumstances," etc. Just before the groom gets up to give a speech, the bride’s father excuses himself to use the washroom, leaving his "speech" behind. I knew that something needed to be done before he turned the entire wedding into a nightmare.
I’m not ashamed to say that I swiped the speech and then pleaded ignorance when he returned and asked what had happened to it. In the end, he stood up and muttered a few generic words about love and then sat down without any issues. I never told the groom, and I’m happy to say that they’re still happily married twenty years later.
17. Online Offer
A bride and groom that I know had their wedding in a beach house and got their guests to pay for it in exchange for staying in a room. Invitations were sent out via the bride's Facebook statuses. Basically, she just posted a status of "Who wants to come to our wedding? message/text me and Paypal me for your part of the beach house!" every couple of days for a while.
The whole thing just stank of two teenagers playing wedding. We did not attend, as I knew that there would be copious amounts of drugs and really creepy people with guns. I think they actually lasted almost two years before she fled the state with another man. He still posts sad stuff about her on Facebook.
18. Head Games
This was one I worked at. After the ceremony, right at the start of the reception, the photographer was taking “jumping” photos of the bride and bridesmaids, so they were all jumping in the air while wearing heels. The bride landed and dislocated her knee, then passed out and kept going in and out of consciousness. We called an ambulance, who turned up and fixed her knee, but she wanted to continue with the wedding.
She then had the first course of the meal and threw up down her dress, and had to sit with her mother in another room while everyone else danced, etc. I felt so bad for her as she spent the rest of the evening crying.
19. Just Making A Quick Stop
For me, the question of the weirdest wedding I’ve ever attended is a tie between my sister breaking her knee at her own wedding while dancing to "Cotton-Eyed Joe" and my stepsister having her reception at a truck stop while six months pregnant. In my stepsister’s defense, the food was really good, but wow! Was it ever weird walking through a gas station in formal wear!
20. The Groom Became Texas Toast
My best friend was getting married. I met the bride-to-be about six months before the wedding. She was the southern Texas “treat me like a princess and I’ll tolerate you” type. I was the “loud obnoxious city slicker that will say things to see how you react” type. She started to disallow him to see me, even when I drove two hours just to see him for the day.
By the time the wedding happened, I walked down the aisle of the wedding party bus taking bets on how long the marriage would last. No one, including the bridesmaids, said over three years. The bride got mad at me for undoing my tie at the $30K reception. I looked at her and just shook my head. A year and a half later, I found out the dark truth about her. She was banging the marriage counselor her father was making them go to see because he couldn’t have his clients knowing his daughter wanted a divorce.
I ended up helping my friend pack all of his stuff in a box truck and driving him across the country for a new start. I ended up being his best man in his second wedding and they are perfect together.
21. Party Pooper
I was at a wedding when..".If anyone here has any objection, speak now or forever hold your peace—" Woman in the back stands up and says, "The groom can't get married, as he is my husband". Turns out, the woman who objected and the groom were in fact married and tried to get divorced, but the divorce was never completed. The wedding did not proceed.
22. A Little Help Here?
My good friend was marrying a guy who we will call Ned. Ned definitely had a drinking problem that everyone swept under the rug. He promised my friend (the bride) that he would keep it under wraps for the wedding; he made it down the aisle sober, but by the reception, he was binge drinking; by then end of the night, he had completely disappeared. No one could find him.
A few nervous laughs turned into mild panic when the lights were turned on in an effort to find him that turned out to be fruitless. My husband decided to go look for him in the parking lot—and made a disturbing discovery. He found him–face down in the dirt. He had apparently done some drugs on top of drinking and had got the spins. My husband tried to talk sense into him by reminding him, "This is your wedding dude!"
He got Ned to come inside and accompanied him on the most cringe-worthy walk of shame I’ve ever seen, past the bride's family members. The worst part about the whole thing? Ned was supposed to be the designated driver! He was supposed to drive himself and the bride 11 miles from the venue to their hotel in the bride's grandfather's vintage Corvette.
Ned was too drunk to drive, so the bride’s grandfather drove them. The bride had to sit on the middle armrest with no seatbelt. Grandpa dropped them at the hotel, and the bride barely got the groom up to the room before he passed out on the bed. The bride had to wander the halls looking for someone to help her out of her wedding dress, since her groom was passed out drunk and she couldn’t reach to do it herself. The word “annulment” was definitely floating around that next morning. As crushed as the bride was, she stuck it out. Three years later though, they are separated and divorcing.
23. Grooming Him For Success
My buddy was engaged to be married, and everything was going great up until about two months before the wedding. The bride freaked out about something very minor during a family vacation and stopped speaking to him. They would text once a day so the other knew they were okay, they would say "I love you," and she would assure him she still wanted to get married.
One month before the wedding, she called it off. They still hadn't talked except for the texts. So he called all his people and told them the wedding was off. Only, he forgot about one of his friends who had been on his fiancee's list, as he was a mutual friend. So the mutual friend still went to the wedding—and witnessed a jaw-dropping sight.
He found...a wedding. The woman had been seeing someone on the side, and still went through with the wedding but to a different guy, all on my friend’s dime. He had left her in charge of cancelling everything.
24. Not A Good Look
The groom got so sloshed the night before that he couldn't make it to the altar at the ceremony. They still had the ceremony with only the bride and her party, plus one of the groomsmen, who apparently didn't get wasted. Everyone was shaking their heads the entire time. The groom did make one singular appearance for a few seconds at the reception.
He looked like a zombie and was wearing street clothes, which made things worse as it was no trashy wedding. The bride was a professional dancer for a major label pop star, so that gives you an idea of the type of people that were in attendance. 200 plus people were at the ceremony alone, and probably double that was at the reception. They divorced within six months.
25. The Odds Were Stacked Against Them
I was at a poker table in Las Vegas over Labor Day weekend; it was late Saturday night. Next to me was a lady in her mid-20s, a naturally pretty country girl. She was a decent poker player, having a good time. Next to her was a dude, also in his mid-20s, in good shape, and rough around the edges. He was a decent poker player, but he was drinking and getting loud.
It was about 11 PM, and these two had been married for about 3-4 hours at that point. She had a bad hand, but it didn’t doesn't matter, as she was breaking even for the night. He dropped about $300-$400, and I noticed that a couple of players were keying in on him. By midnight, he was getting louder, and was warned for swearing at the table.
Everybody at the table was hoping to get a piece of his money when he started going crazy.
At 1 AM, he was down $1,000. They were going to play all night, as their plane was leaving in 10 hours, and they didn’t have a room at any hotel. At 2 AM, she was up $100 and was rock solid. She's gone from chatty to super-quiet. Her hubby was all over the place and was dropping about $200 an hour to the table.
At 3 AM, I left the table. I couldn’t help but wonder what possessed a “solid 8+ of a woman” to marry a pathetic trashed mess of a boy. I can't imagine a world where he didn't do something bad that night that she had to clean up. And, looking back, I can't imagine a world where he doesn't do something bad that she has to clean up every few days.
26. Everybody Dance Now
My cousin and his wife are both super religious, and they may also be the two most awkward people that I've ever met in my entire life. At their wedding, they did one of those "fake out" first dances where it starts off with a slow song but then transitions into a choreographed dance routine to an upbeat song. Even worse, the upbeat song was also five minutes long and the bride and groom just kept repeating the same few dance moves over and over again for what felt like an eternity.
27. Cake Smash
During the cake cutting, the groom at a wedding I attended smashed cake in the bride’s face. She immediately started crying and disappeared to the bathroom for about 30 minutes. Then they got into a huge fight and barely spoke to each other for the rest of the night. Shockingly, they are still married, but they still fight all the time. She's my friend from college so we keep in touch occasionally. She never has good things to say about him.
28. Tonight’s Gonna Be A Cringey Night
I was a banquet manager at a hotel for years, and have worked hundreds of weddings. The worst one by far was the time the bride was at least twenty years younger than the groom. It was almost definitely an arranged marriage. Only about twenty people were invited to the reception, and the only decoration was a lousy quality massive blown-up picture of the bride and groom in the shape of a heart.
When the bride and groom walked into the room, someone put the Black Eyed Peas’ "Tonight's Going to be a Good Night" on over a CD player. Then the song played again, and again, and again for three hours straight. The only time it stopped was when the CD ended, because apparently no one had learned how to use the repeat feature. So, they had just burned a CD with the same song on it twenty times in a row. When it did stop though, someone just got up and restarted it.
29. Grin And Bear It
The bride and groom planned a wedding at a Caribbean island resort, and their friends and family booked their trips. Well, everything turned upside down right before the wedding—the groom got caught with some other woman, so the whole ceremony was called off. It was too late to cancel the trips or get refunds, so mostly everyone, including the bride, went to the Caribbean island resort anyway.
The groom did not go, but his family and friends did, and they supported the bride. Everyone put on a brave face, trying to have a good time, but there was obviously an air of sadness about the whole thing behind the fake smiles. Looking back at the group pictures that were taken, it’s heartbreaking. The bride stopped nearly all contact with her friends and family after the trip. I think a part of her just couldn’t come back from the experience.
30. At Least She Admits It
At the rehearsal dinner, the groom's mom is in tears, because "he looks miserable" and he was, we all knew it. During the vows they had written for each other, the bride starts with "I know I can be a pretty terrible person, and I don't know why you've stuck around, but that's all going to change starting today!" They were divorced a year later.
31. The Bride Had A Dark Side
A guy I know met, got married to, and divorced this girl in under two years. She was ten years younger than him. He came to find out that she was a pillhead and was buying all sorts of dope on the dark web. She had a rich family who kept giving her money and meddling in the details of their marriage, like buying car insurance, buying a mattress, and such.
Said rich family made them get married on the family property. During the wedding, the bride’s dad said to the groom, “That empty lot over there is a place for [my daughter] to have a house”. There was no mention of him. But that’s not the worst part. She was cheating on him with a guy elsewhere in the state, and when my friend found evidence of their relationship, she told him that the guy had assaulted her.
She took this claim so far with her family that they never knew the truth until the last round of divorce negotiations, when my buddy’s lawyer dropped all the evidence he got from her phone on them, along with transactions for her dope dealings. She got nothing.
32. More Spice Than Sweet
I once attended a classmate’s wedding. They were both young, maybe about 22 or 23 years old. So there's that "caking" tradition in some parts of the country where, the couple feeds each other a little bit of cake and smears some onto each other’s faces as a joke. The bride had absolutely made it 1000% clear to the groom that she did NOT want to be caked.
He did it anyway. And not just a small smear. He full-on smushed the entire slice into her face. She was stunned initially, then got up, with her face full of cake, and yelled "YOU JERK! I TOLD YOU NOT TO DO THAT!" She then ran as fast as she could to a back area near the reception. The groom tried to follow her, but the bridesmaids and the mother of the bride stopped him.
So, the groom ended up sitting awkwardly at the head table by himself while half the wedding party rushed off with the bride. She stayed back there for like an hour. They eventually did let him go back there to check on her. We could hear her crying and them arguing. The rest of the reception came to a screeching halt until one of the bride’s aunts emerged and directed the servers to clear the tables and put on some music. They got divorced two years later.
33. No Laughing Matter
One of my best friends broke off her engagement only a month before her wedding after her husband-to-be "joked" about hurting her because he thought she hugged her step-brother for too long at her mom's anniversary party. She dodged a huge bullet: He was apprehended for doing just that to another woman only a year later.
34. Chivalry Is Dead
At my wedding, I asked my husband to hold my bouquet whilst I gathered up my skirts to get into the car. He refused, with the excuse that he “wasn’t gay.” So, I awkwardly got into the car while holding both my skirt and the bouquet. Ten minutes later, my mum asked him, “Doesn’t she look beautiful?” He looked at me, shrugged, and said I looked “ok.”
Both of those moments may as well have been red flags accompanied by sirens, and I felt my heart sinking with foreboding. It was 30 years ago, and I can still easily recall the feeling. Unfortunately, I was right and I left only 11 months later.
35. This Is A Classy Affair
It was my then-business partner's second marriage, to a prominent lawyer. She was 40-ish but behaved like a Cosmo-swilling sorority sister and was obsessed with optics, image, status. The wedding was a two-nighter at a banquet/event center in the city. When my wife and I showed up, we made an offensive discovery. The guests had been partitioned into an A-list and a B-list.
We were on the A-list who were invited for cocktails, the ceremony, and a sit-down dinner. The B-listers had been told to appear later for cake and dancing. During dinner, the already-half-in-the-bag bride stood up and told us A-listers we were her "real friends," the "cream of the crop," and our standing with her was reflected in the fine catered dinner we were eating.
Things ran long and the B-listers began assembling outside. They were not allowed in, but the place had storefront-type windows and you could see into the venue from the street. It began to rain and the B-listers had to stand outside getting wet and staring at us while the banquet part of the evening wrapped up. They clearly had not been apprised of the two-tier deal. It was so painful.
36. A House Divided
I went outside for some fresh air at a reception and I saw the groom's dad sitting in the back of his SUV drinking Knob Creek from the bottle. I was friends with the groom's family and knew the father well, so I went up and asked him what was going on. We all knew the bride was an entitled, spoiled brat, but she cranked it up to 11 that night.
Everything about the reception was wrong according to her. The food, the centerpieces, the decor, the DJ...everything. Even though everything was prepared exactly the way she wanted. Her behavior was not surprising, since her whole extended family was a bunch of entitled, spoiled brats too. They all gladly jumped on the hate bandwagon. The groom's family was slipping out the nearest door while the bride's family was berating every person they made eye contact with.
I think the only reason the dad was still there was in case his son had an epiphany and ran for it. He was poised to play getaway driver. I ended up sitting with dad until it was over. No way in heck was I walking back into that. My wife and their daughter were close friends (that's how we knew the family) and we had a front-row seat.
The daughter was sloshed and ready to throw hands, and the mom was all over the place too. They just hated this bride and her family so much. My wife basically became their wrangler, with a couple of other levelheaded females associated with the groom's family, to keep them from kicking the bride's butt. These are all upper-middle-class folks on both sides, by the way.
37. Double-Dealing Dog
I was the best man at a wedding, and the groom disappeared on the morning of the wedding. He went AWOL for several hours. My wife overheard the bride in tears in the bathroom at the reception, saying she shouldn't have married him, and asked what she was doing. It turned out his absence was to go and speak to another full-on girlfriend—who none of us knew about—to break up with her before he got married. He was leading a double life. They split up within a couple of years when it all came out, but sadly not before they had a kid.
38. Third Time’s The Charm?
I attended a wedding for two people in their 60s who had both been married before. The groom had lost his wife to cancer about a year and a half previously, and she had encouraged him to get re-married if he found someone he loved. After a while, he decided to get married to a woman who was completely opposite to his first wife; his family was intrigued, but didn’t intervene.
During the wedding ceremony, the bride kept looking into the crowd as if trying to get someone to help her. Then, when the Officiant asked her if she took him as her husband, she hesitated before saying yes. The Officiant then had to remind her to say “I do.” They went on the honeymoon together…and came back separated.
39. International Relations
An English guy was marrying an Irish girl in Ireland. The wedding guests were comprised mostly of her family, including people from Northern Ireland (the Republican areas) and England. The wedding was fine—it was all very romantic and the ceremony was nice. But then at the reception, during the speeches, everything went downhill.
It was all because of the best man speech. The best man was a particularly red-faced, Brexit-voting English man. He proceeded to make the most insensitive offensive speech, filled with “jokes” about re-colonizing Ireland one woman at a time, and how the stag party had been on Good Friday, but the hangover was so bad it led to a Bloody Sunday.
You get the idea. He ended up the speech by making a comment about how the speeches had gone on so long that it was like the guests were on a hunger strike. Throughout all of this, the English groom and his friends and family were laughing. They thought it was funny. Her Irish family was all fuming. I was there as a plus-one of the bride’s older cousin. It was aggressively awkward, and a lot of her cousins and uncles just refused to mingle with the groom’s family at all.
I'm no longer in touch with the guy who took me, so I don't know how the marriage is going. The bride was very kind, and despite his best man's speech, the groom seemed like a nice enough guy.
40. Early Intervention
I brought my girlfriend to a buddy’s wedding, and a conversation about kids came up. She told me she wouldn’t want kids for at least another ten years. We were only about six months in at that point, but things seemed pretty serious. I was sure I wanted kids with her, and I told her I’d be totally supportive of her if she ever became pregnant, whatever her decision was. Well, that’s when I learned she’d been keeping a devastating secret.
A few hours and a handful of drinks later, she told me she had recently gotten an abortion during our relationship. I didn’t know if it was mine or not; it was kind of a red flag.
41. Prophetic Piece
During the cake cutting, the groom smashed the piece of cake so hard into the bride’s face that her head snapped back. She ran to the bathroom crying with some of her bridesmaids. Her nose was bleeding and her make up was destroyed, so it took ages for her to come back out. I started to yell at the groom, but my boyfriend at the time told me I was being ridiculous and to shut up because the groom was just being funny and the bride was being too sensitive.
Yes, they’re still together. Yes, the groom got more abusive. She sort of vanished off of the face of the earth—I tried to keep in contact so she’d have a way out when she was able to take it, but I haven’t heard from her now in several years. Please pay attention to red flags.
42. Surprise Ending
I went to a really weird wedding last year. The bridal party had different, fancier meals than the guests and they were all drinking free champagne, while we had to pay for lesser stuff with drink tickets (cash-only, no ATM). There weren’t enough tables to sit at, either—I guess the goal was to mingle and stand to eat—and there was definitely not enough food.
People were hogging the buffet stations and going back for thirds before some people had eaten at all. The bride and groom, who were friends of my partner’s, were really stand-offish and just took photos with their photographer all night. Later on, a fight among the two families broke out in the parking lot and the authorities were called.
We decided to leave, order a pizza, and have drinks in a park. When we went back to our hotel room, someone was passed out in our bed. Ah, New Jersey.
43. An Exercise In How Not To Act
It wasn’t the couple getting married who had red flags flying, but the best man and maid of honor, who were married to each other. The best man's speech was all about how hard it was to be married. He said, "I've been married for a year and it feels like 100 years". The maid of honor stood up to give her speech and just said, "Ditto". It was so awkward and really brought the whole room down.
The brother of the bride stood up and gave a nice impromptu speech about teamwork, having a partner to go through life with, and how happy the family was to have the groom join their family. The best man and maid of honor were divorced within a year. The couple who got married was still married 30+ years later. I sometimes wonder if the speeches actually were helpful in how not to act as a couple.
44. Don’t Rock The ‘Ship
I went to one wedding...this couple who was doomed from the beginning. They had been together for over a decade before deciding to tie the knot, but had also been stuck in a classic dead bedroom rut for almost the entire duration of that relationship. At the ceremony, the groom wouldn’t dance with the bride and forced one of his friends into dancing with her.
The marriage lasted less than 72 hours. They slept in separate rooms that night, and then spent the rest of that time fighting and discussing why they wound up in that situation.
45. I’m Gonna Getcha
I was dating this girl who asked me to go to her ex’s wedding. We dated for a few months prior, but asking me to go to a wedding together felt like a serious commitment...I still accepted. I planned for the week off work and we went all out for this wedding. Half the time, I was trying to make the most of our time together, but she always went missing.
Fast forward to the reception. She made a scene in the most unstable and mentally sick way. In front of the groom, the bride, and everyone else, she said out loud: “I’m still in love with you. We literally have been sleeping together all week and I can't stop thinking about you". She quickly got escorted out after that.
The bride was clearly upset, but everyone tried to go about their business. As soon as I left, my “girlfriend” started completely ruining the hall and all the decorations, just throwing a fit on her way out. It was so embarrassing. I figured she was telling the truth since she was missing the whole time, but I’m pretty sure that everyone during the whole thing assumed this was too crazy to be real.
I definitely regret not seeing her true colors before, but when you work so much and try to date at the same time, you have very little time to get to really know some people. Time sort of flies by and you end up dating for a few months. Fast forward a month or two later...she got together with the groom and I’m pretty sure she has no regrets about wasting my time.
She probably doesn’t even feel bad about using me or even ruining that man’s marriage. This woman is seriously twisted.
46. All About The Groom, But What About The Bride?
I was the maid of honor at a wedding. They seemed like the perfect couple. They had been together for nearly ten years and had this big, expensive, beautiful wedding. The bride would have been happy with a small event, but she told me the groom had a big family and had insisted on a larger one. Alarm bells hit when I sat with her parents in the front row.
I realized the groom-to-bride ratio was so massively off. The groom had three best men, as well as ushers, etc. His sister and one best man read something during the ceremony, and then all three said long speeches about him at dinner. It was all about him. The photographer was even his friend’s mom, so she kept whisking away the boys for these “hilarious” guy shoots.
The bride was ignored most of the day and in the evening, the groom got too trashed, spilled a drink over her wedding gown, and danced with his friends. It felt more like a big birthday party than a joint event. I’d never seen that side of him, but I felt so sorry for my friend. It was like she was just there to be a prop to his plans and look good. Later, I learned the dark truth.
Three months after the wedding, he began being emotionally disparaging to her. A month after that, he admitted he’d been having an affair for years, then left. If I hadn’t seen the way he behaved at the wedding, I never would have guessed he had that in him. Four years later, my friend hasn’t been able to trust or date again yet, but I think she learned never to be a backseat passenger in a relationship again.
When he left, she told him that he would never see her, or hear from her, or about her again. She dropped all friends that had any connection with him and made sure he would always live his life wondering if he made the right decision and what she was up to.
47. The Sky Is Falling
On the day of my sister and her (now ex-) husband’s wedding, we had a MAJOR hailstorm. Yes, of course, weather happens; but they were married in Key West, Florida, during the summer. It NEVER hails. And I’m talking hail so big that the golfers were losing track of their golf balls. If that ain't a sign, I don't know what is.
48. Money Can’t Buy Class
I was a caterer at a really expensive wedding overlooking the Rockefeller center during the holiday season. It was between two prominent New York Jewish families. The bride and groom had way too much to drink and started physically fighting in front of everyone on the dance floor while screaming in each other's faces. Like, the bride was literally trying to throw punches and the groom kept shoving her. But that's not even the worst part.
The groom's mother was also pretty blasted and had come back into the kitchen to blame us (the kitchen staff) for "ruining her baby's big day". Apparently one of the hors d'oeuvres came out a few minutes too late and this was to blame for them starting a public fistfight. I actually had permission to dip early from that shift and was getting into the elevator right as the groom was screaming. He had to be held back by multiple members of the wedding party.
I had to try really hard not to laugh about earlier when his mother screamed in my face about how we should feel ashamed and how she "wasn't going to pay a penny," as though hiring a team of 15 back-end chefs, five up-front-party chefs, two catering managers, and a team of wait-staff was something she could totally pay for after everyone already ate.
I don't know what happened after I left, but I was pleased to leave when I did.
49. A New Do And A Ring Too
My college roommate was super reclusive. He never had any friends and never dated. One day, he told us he had a girlfriend. We’d never seen him with a girl, let alone talk to one. Toward the end of the semester, he ran into me near the apartment and asked if I was going to be gone around noon. I said I was and asked why. He told me he was going to propose to his girl, but he wanted me there and showed me the rather large diamond ring.
It was weird, but okay. It was the end of the semester, and everyone was busy with finals. The apartment was a mess. Dirty dishes were stacked high in the sink. My roommate’s idea to propose to this poor thing was to ask her to give him a haircut. She showed up before he or I did, so another roommate and she just sat there awkwardly.
We tried to clean up quickly, but we only had a few minutes. This was the first time we had met her and she was a supreme introvert. My roommate showed up and introduced her, and asked her if they could move along. He set up a chair in the kitchen and she started cutting his hair. He didn’t want to get hair on his shirt, so he got a big black trash bag and cut a hole in the bottom for his head only.
His arms were locked in the bag. She cut his hair, and his line to propose after she finished the haircut was, “If only I had something shiny to see my haircut”. She offered to get a mirror, but he repeated the same line louder and fumbled in his pocket and trash bag to retrieve the ring box. He was covered in hair, and his arms were awkwardly held against his body by the trash bag.
He opened the ring box, thrust it awkwardly at her, and went, “Hmmmmmmmmmmmm”? Meanwhile, she was backed into the sink with the dirty dishes. He didn’t really ask her to marry him. She put the ring on, said yes, and he left to go take a shower without kissing her or anything! She then sat on the couch, staring at the ring with a solemn look while the other roommate and I stared in disbelief at the train wreck that had just happened.
The semester ended, and they were still engaged. My roommate went across the country for an internship while she stayed in the college town. Then, my roommate got taken into custody at the airport and charged with possessing a fake grenade in his checked carry-on bags. He got out and came back to the college town. I ran into him about 4–5 months after the proposal mess. I asked how his fiancée was doing, and he replied, “I don’t know; I haven't talked to her since I left for the internship”. Somehow they are still married eight years later. It’s unbelievable.
50. Let the Man Have His Cheesecake
The groom was a co-worker of mine who loved cheesecake. He wasn’t obsessed with it, per se, but he loved it enough that his co-workers knew that he loved cheesecake. His only request for the wedding was to have cheesecake for the wedding cake. Get this: the bride refused! Not letting this guy have this one relatively small thing that would have made him happy just felt super-telling about how selfish this woman was.
A few years later, they were divorced. He ended up remarrying, to a different coworker. Based on their Facebook posts, they seem very happy together. I don’t know what kind of wedding cake they had though.
51. Can’t Stay Away From Each Other
This was a hilarious moment. It was a Christian wedding where the pastor refused to say the phrase, "You may now kiss the bride". The bride knew this going in but insisted that he say it anyway on the day. She had herself convinced the pastor would change his mind and ultimately say the phrase. Well, he didn't say it at the end of the ceremony.
The bride had a few drinks prior to walking down the aisle and proceeded to grab her new husband by the face and make out for what felt like a solid three minutes. At first, everyone was clapping and cheering for them, but eventually, the clapping petered out and we were left with two people just SUPER making out, in absolute silence, tongue and all, in front of 300 people.
I was a groomsman, so I got to see the stunned reaction of the entire crowd. Her grandparents and the older people were incredibly uncomfortable.
52. It Was A Losing Battle
I was friends with this couple for a couple of years in college. They got “secretly” married so they could live off campus. In the last year of school, they were getting “married for the first time” for their family and friends who didn’t know. The wedding day came around, and they had been fighting up to that point like cats and dogs. These two weren’t good for each other and made dumb decisions young.
Apparently, the first words they said to each other in two days was, “I do”. Even at the age of 21, I knew they wouldn’t stay together. Fast forward, and I ended up being roommates with them for one year. What a massive mistake. The fights, the throwing of things, the running out of the house during arguments, the lies told, etc., were crazy. They got divorced within a couple of years of that, and they both later remarried.
53. Not Everyone Loves Surprises
During his wedding speech, the groom excitedly announced that he'd bought their dream house...in a different state. He also announced that he had put in his notice at work, and they would be moving by the end of the month. The thing is, this was all new information to the bride as well as to all of the wedding guests.
I think he was going for a "grand romantic gesture" and expected to be hailed as "such a great guy," but the bride was absolutely livid that he'd made major life decisions for them both without even discussing it with her. They didn't last long after that.
54. It’s A Bust
I worked at a wedding in upstate New York as part of the catering company. For context, this was at a summer camp-type place, with a ceremony on the lake and a reception in what could be described as a mess hall. It was in September, so I assume the camp was trying to make extra money after kids went back to school. The ceremony went off fine.
During the reception, however, disaster struck—the owners of the camp realized there was a building fire across the lake. It was a building from the 1800s, and it completely burned down. At the same time, the father of the bride slipped on the dance floor and split his head open. The ambulance got called, and he went to the hospital and ended up with stitches.
The place was a mess with fire trucks, ambulances, etc. The bride and groom then got in a massive fight, and the DJ packed up and left around 8:30. That marked the end of the wedding. I proceeded to drink my weight in Yuenglings and sleep in my car. Made good tips, though.
55. Their Relationship Was Loaded With Problems
I was dating the best man at a wedding. The groom spent all his time hanging out with his buddies, and the bride spent all the time using illicit substances in the bathroom. I spent more time with the groom at the wedding than the bride did. She also flipped his brand new Jeep the day before the wedding because she was driving while loaded, and quit her job the day after the wedding because he was supposed to take care of her now. They were married in November and separated by January. The groom later confided in my then-boyfriend that he thought getting married would solve everything.
56. Willful Ignorance
The first warning sign happened before the wedding when my childhood friend introduced her new fiancé to our friend group. He failed to speak to anyone and had his eyes on his phone the whole night. Then during the wedding ceremony, our friend, who normally wears her heart on her sleeve and cries at the drop of a hat, was oddly unemotional, even through both of their personalized vows. She kept one eye on the camera and seemed to just be posing the whole time.
The couple also had the groom’s family’s Priest officiating the wedding—and I still can't believe what he said. This Priest recited a long monologue during the ceremony about how the bride’s life’s purpose now was to make her husband happy and support him by staying home and being a dutiful wife. This definitely hit a sour note, as the bride was the bread-winner at that time, and was helping to support both him and his parents. But when I spoke to his parents during the reception, they were gushing praises about what the priest had had to say. The marriage lasted about three months.
57. What Was She Thinking?
I worked as a wedding decorator for five years. Two years ago, we did the decor for a really pretty ceremony, and halfway through the day, we found out it was a "surprise wedding". The reality is even worse than that sounds. Basically, they were not engaged, but the bride planned the whole thing and the groom showed up at the golf course thinking he was just playing a regular round of golf. Nope.
He walked into his own wedding, saw her standing at the altar, and peaced the heck out. As he should have. Truly one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen in all my years of doing weddings, and I’ve seen A LOT.
58. Hitched On Hypocrisy
Both the bride and the groom had their stags the night before. The groom and bride stood in the church, hungover, both mad at the other because they were hungover. At the party afterward, they practically refused to talk to each other because they were still mad at each other. It all came to a head at about midnight. They were fighting about literally being in the same condition as the other one but not wanting the other one to be in that condition.
I was kind of shocked, to be honest. There is a threshold of being just hypocritical and being entirely devoid of the ability of self-reflection. Both stood firmly in the second category. Here's the kicker, though. Both wanted a divorce because they both cheated just three months into the marriage. To this day, both blame the other for cheating and ruining the marriage because of it. In some very weird way, they fit each other perfectly.
59. A Candle In the Wind
I went to my uncle’s second wedding. The ceremony included a special section in which the bride and groom were supposed to light a candle together. However, even though they tried several times, the candle wouldn't light! Finally, when the Officiant helped, it lit… but then it went out again almost immediately. They got a divorce a year or two later.
60. What A Waste
50% of the people who RSVPed to my wedding didn't come. My brother-in-law who volunteered to DJ didn't actually bring any DJ equipment, so our reception was powered by Pandora. He also said he would capture the ceremony and create a video of the highlights of the reception, but didn't bring his video camera. The florist also forgot to deliver about 50% of the flowers. That was already bad enough, but things just kept getting worse.
The reception venue took everything we discussed and then decided to do the opposite. There weren’t enough tables and no dance floor, among other things. When we tried to get it fixed, the man who was sent to change out the tables stood outside the window of the reception hall angrily drinking from a bottle. It was an absolute mess and no one seemed to care.
I later spoke with a friend who had worked with that man, and he explained that that sort of behavior happens pretty much any time he is asked to do anything, so...We made a CD with a couple of songs on it for my brother-in-law to play before the ceremony began. He insisted that he had something better. It was two songs played on repeat for about an hour.
My immediate family was late to the wedding, including my sister who was a bridesmaid, and my mother and father. They had originally offered to help set up everything that morning, but I guess they just got a late start. My veil got lost the night before the wedding. It still has not resurfaced. After everyone was done eating and the cake had been cut, I dimmed the lights in the reception hall to change the atmosphere to more fun, party vibe and get people dancing. Everyone got up and left.
It didn't go great, but my husband and I ended up married and we're still very happy together. I guess that's the most important thing. Still, I wish I'd saved the money from the whole thing and gotten married at the county clerk instead.
61. A Photo Finish
I was at a wedding where the couple had four professional photographers and two two-man videographer teams running around the wedding, capturing everything. The bride paid them more attention than her guests and only acknowledged the groom when she was being filmed. Her mailed-out wedding invitations were styled after a gossip magazine and were six pages—FRONT AND BACK.
They had about 12 photos of her looking lovey-dovey at her ring, or with a “surprised” face, and the groom faded in the background on his knee. There were more photos of her dog than the groom. They are currently in marriage counseling, but it’s not looking good. She has a laundry list of narcissistic things she’s done since the wedding, which was less than three years ago.
62. Thrift Store Wedding
A friend of mine from high school foolishly decided to marry the childhood friend that got her pregnant via a drunken one-night stand. They’d known each other most of their lives, but hadn’t seriously dated before the pregnancy. She bought a rather ill-fitting “proper” wedding dress from a thrift store for the occasion.
Honestly, it was cocktail-dress length in front and had a train in the back, it didn’t zip all the way, and it was supposed to be off the shoulder but was so tight that she wore it as strapless. The wedding took place on a Wednesday afternoon in the middle of nowhere. I stepped into the room where she was getting ready and she was bawling her eyes out.
I asked her what was wrong, and she said that she knew the groom was a player and that he’d cheated on his previous girlfriend with her. She added that she knew that he was only marrying her because of the baby, and that she didn’t know what else to do. She still went through with it.
63. Evil Stepmother
My father-in-law’s wife at the time attempted to ruin our wedding. The week before our wedding, she sent my mother an email saying that I, the bride, was too good for her stepson. She then messaged me that she had decided not to wear the dress that we had picked out together. She refused to come to the wedding rehearsal, then showed up on the day of in a garish, skimpy outfit.
She wouldn't speak to anyone and just sat there with her arms crossed for the whole day. We just ignored her, even when she threw away all the leftovers from the post-ceremony brunch that my husband and his best guys catered (they're all chefs). My father-in-law divorced her the following year.
64. The Signs Were All There
I was the groom attending a Roman Catholic church for a wedding that was a full mass as well as the wedding nuptials. The priest’s sermon was about the effects of divorce in today's society, of all things. When it came time to exchange vows, the bride-to-be looked bloody terrified and not what you would expect a woman to look like at that point in time on her wedding day.
I, on the other hand, was well and truly in the moment, fully embracing the commitment I was about to make in front of my family, friends, and God. But, the emotional state of my fiancée was becoming more and more apparent to me. So, when the priest asked, "If anyone here has any reason that this couple should not be joined in holy matrimony let them speak now, or forever hold their peace", my expression and glances around the church were, in hindsight, a desperate cry for help.
It was the kind of foreshadowing that should have been laughably obvious at the time, but what does one do in that situation? I just wish I knew what I could have done at the time, and not gone on to suffer through a one-sided loveless marriage for over 26 years and lose everything in the process. While we were separated, I found out that she had somehow managed to divorce me without my being served divorce papers and had remarried.
65. Script Change
My father is a retired judge. Many years ago, he performed a rather unusual wedding. During the rehearsal dinner, rather than saying “I do,” the groom asked if he could make any positive statement. My dad said yes, but didn’t ask what the groom intended to say instead. Well, the big moment came on the wedding day, and he never expected the groom to say what he did. Instead of “I do,” he yelled, “I like fat chicks!”
My dad looked at the bride in shock, but apparently she just had a vacant expression (my dad’s words) and appeared not to be at all bothered. So, my dad pulled himself together and finished the wedding. We have no way to know if they’re still married, but I’d bet they’re not.
66. Wedding Transference
I work in the industry and my friend is the wedding planner. He is a good-looking, straight male who has an amazing eye for design and detail. He can do everything from wedding dress design and execution to flowers, you name it. And his services are not cheap. He once had a bride who called him up a few days before her wedding.
She told him she couldn't go through with the wedding because she was in love with someone else. The conversation went something like this: Bride: "I can't marry him, I just don't love him anymore, I think I'm in love with someone else!" Him: "What do you mean you're in love with someone else!? Your wedding is in five days!"
Bride: "Well...I'm in love with you. You just GET me! I've never met anyone else like you!" Him: "...Do you know how much your parents are paying me to get you?!" She ended up getting married five days later as planned, and it was never mentioned again.
67. The Big Grift
My cousin attended a wedding where the bride and groom got scammed by the wedding organizer. One hour before the wedding event, there was nothing in the room—no food, no decorations, just a few tables, and basically an unused ballroom. The bride and groom realized the wedding organizer hoodwinked them and took the money to buy a big ol' house.
68. Rather A Roomie Than A Groomie
My friend was gay and his best friend was getting married. We all used to joke that she was already his husband because they were roommates and had a very Will & Grace type of relationship. I didn’t know her that well but, I and some of our other friends, were invited to her wedding. After the wedding, at the reception, we were sitting with my friend.
The girl came up to our table, a little tipsy, and started crying about how she wished my friend was straight so that she could have married him instead. My friend took it all in stride while we and the other guests were horrified. The bride and her husband broke up 18 months later, and she and my friend are roommates once more.
69. A Colorful Situation
My mom gets her hair died blue every couple of months. When my sister was planning her wedding, I confirmed with her that my mom and I were going to the salon the week before her wedding and that my mom was going to be dying her hair. My sister was fine with it because my little sister, the flower girl, was also going to have blue hair. They would match!
Well, apparently the groom had a hissy fit to end all hissy fits about my mom’s blue hair. All of a sudden, it wasn't okay for my mom to walk my sister down the aisle; instead, some random man that my sister had only known for a little while got to do it. The groom even called my mom names in the Church right before the rehearsal!
I started to yell at him, but the pastor intervened. Then the groom threatened to leave my sister at the altar because my mom had blue hair and would ruin the wedding pictures. Nobody in my family liked him before that, and he certainly didn't win any points that day.
70. There’s Making A Scene And Then…There’s This
I have always been close to my cousin, A. Out of all of our cousins, we’re the only ones without siblings so A has always been an older brother to me. We have a lot in common and get along really well. I’m really thankful for him. The last couple of years, however, we’ve drifted apart. I still see him during the holidays and normally we spend that time catching up.
A and his wife S have been together for five years and married last October. That’s when the wedding drama in question went down. S has never really liked me. She constantly micromanages everything I do whenever we have family gatherings such as me not washing the dishes correctly, or nitpicks about my boyfriend’s age.
She also likes to make snide passive-aggressive remarks at me and the other women in our family. I usually just ignore it since it’s just worth it to engage with her. So anyway, back in October A and S got married. My boyfriend and I went. The ceremony itself was beautiful—it was a big Italian-style wedding. Everything went smoothly—at first.
A was beaming the entire time and S seemed to be in a pretty good mood. However, later I guess something went wrong. It was held at a fancy hotel that had a few different venues, so there was another wedding going on that night. The cake was sent to the wrong wedding. While everything was sorted out pretty, quickly this caused S to flip out and she proceeded to pound drinks.
After dinner, A proceeded to make his rounds to say hello to everyone. By the time he stopped at our table he had been going around for close to an hour, so he ended up sitting down at our table and talking for a while with my boyfriend and I since we were some of the last people he hadn’t had a chance to talk to. It was the first time in nearly a year that I had seen him, so we ended up talking for a long time.
At one point, my boyfriend got up to get drinks when S came over. She was…not normal when she came over to us. She told A he had to come back to the head table. A agreed and as he went in to give me a hug. That’s when she screamed something I’ll never, ever forget. She shrieked at me "STOP TRYING TO SLEEP WITH MY HUSBAND YOU HARLOT"!
Everyone in our area heard and turned to look. I was mortified. S then dragged A back to the table and my boyfriend and I immediately left. At the time I thought leaving was justified. I got a voicemail from S giving a lazy apology where she said that she shouldn’t have called me names, but she was stressed and it was her wedding day, so whatever.
However, yesterday I visited that side of my family for the holidays and A wouldn’t even talk to me and everyone proceeded to tell me and my boyfriend that we were extremely rude for leaving early. At first, I figured they hadn’t heard what S had said but some of them even defended her actions and said I should’ve just stuck it out.
They’re all saying I ruined A and S’s wedding day by creating a scene by leaving.
71. You End How You Start
It started with the best man just absolutely roasting the bride and her parents. Basically, he called them gold diggers in front of several hundred family and friends. Then they cut the cake. Apparently, the groom was told under no uncertain terms not to shove cake in her face. Well, he did it anyway and she stormed off, not to be seen for 20 minutes. The chaos didn't end there, either.
The reception went on as planned, but she got wasted and passed out that night in the middle of the street while still in her wedding dress. Pure class. They’re divorced now.
72. The Bride Gave Off Some Bad Vibes
At my brother’s wedding, we were about to walk into the reception, and I assumed that speeches would be soon to follow. My family wasn’t all too fond of his wife, myself included, but I thought that I could at least give her a chance. I was talking to the maid of honor, who was also the bride’s little sister, and discovered that she had not prepared a speech.
She started freaking out, so I tried to calm her down and just give her some guidelines for something short and sweet to say that would go over well. She actually seemed like she was ready to pull it off. Then, the bride overheard our conversation and piped in, “Oh, no speeches. We’re not doing any speeches”. She was very firm on the matter, and my brother just kind of shrugged.
My reaction was something like, “Well then, why did I spend three days working on one”? I kept my cool, but I was mad. I had a really bad vibe from the incident, like their marriage was going to be a joke. She left my brother a month later.
73. Two Funerals and a Wedding
My uncle and his wife had a few bad omens both before and during their wedding. Firstly, there was a series of deaths; the bride's mother passed away, shortly followed by the priest who was supposed to perform the wedding! Secondly, we received our invitations a little more than a week before the event, so everything was pretty rushed, apparently.
Events hit their peak when my cousin nearly got physical with a member of the wife's family DURING the wedding. An all-out brawl was narrowly avoided. My uncle pinned all the blame on my cousin (his daughter) although both parties were clearly in the wrong. Now, they barely speak to each other. Yes, they still went through with the wedding, and are still together; I just hope they last because if not, my uncle will not have many people to turn to.
74. A Familiar Face…
I don’t have contact often with my biological father, but I knew he’d remarried again. Somebody on my biological father’s side of the family found out about my baby sister’s wedding and they all crashed it. During the reception, a woman I thought looked familiar walked over to me and asked if I was who she thought I was.
I confirmed my identity to her and explained that she looked familiar to me as well, but that I didn’t remember her name. She told me her name and reminded me of a shocking fact— I used to babysit her when I was in high school and she was in middle school. I asked her how she’d been and whose guest she was at the wedding. To my shock, she informed me that she was my biological father’s wife and she wanted to let me know he was hers now.
I was so stunned and not willing to cause a scene, I excused myself and left her standing there.
75. In It To Win It
My own wedding was a disaster. It rained so it was cold, and no one bothered to turn the lights on. The few pictures I have are dark and grainy. My parents divorced earlier that year, so my dad hated seeing my mom at the wedding and didn’t stick around to get a picture with me. My husband’s mom didn’t even take off work to attend.
The good news is that we just celebrated our 49th wedding anniversary.
76. Drama Was A Bonus
Many years ago, I was going out with a girlfriend, Kay, who had moved across the country to live with me, and was struggling to make friends. One night, I introduced her to one of my friend's girlfriends, and they became immediate best friends. This was an immediate red flag for me because this other girl was not exactly a nice person. However, I was glad that we now had a shared friend group and could go out together.
My friend’s girlfriend and my friend were getting married in a few months. A week before the wedding, Kay and I were spending the night in, and Kay was constantly texting on her phone. Eventually, she revealed that she was talking to the bride-to-be—and what she told me was seriously disturbing. The bride-to-be was with her ex in a hotel having a "bonus night" before she got "tied down forever".
My best friend was the best man; hence, I told him so that he could break it gently to our friend. However, the wedding went ahead as planned, surprisingly, and both have cheated on each other over their five-year marriage. I think some couples don't feel complete unless there is drama in their relationship, as my friends do seem very happy together when they're not shouting and fighting.
77. Sounds Like An Excuse for Incomplete Homework
I attended a wedding recently that included a fairly large red flag. It started out fine; the venue was nice, and the ceremony was beautiful. At the end of the ceremony, however, there seemed to be a problem. Apparently, the bride was refusing to sign the marriage certificate on the grounds that she “had a tummy ache." They separated three weeks later.
78. The Real Deal
I went to a wedding where the bride and groom bought the wedding package on Groupon...which is fine; like, why spend a fortune for one day? But I guess the venue thought they could cut some corners, so they did the worst thing they could have done—they stuck us in a room that smelled so strongly of cat urine that some people immediately left. The only drinks were those from a vending machine.
It was next to an airport, so every time a plane took off, the ceremony had to be paused because you couldn’t hear anything. And the day after the event, every single one of us had food poisoning.
79. The Icing On The Cake
In a lot of weddings, it is customary that the groom and bride feed each other the cake. It is not unusual that they will sometimes get some icing on each other's noses or even outright smash it against each other's lips. Usually, it's meant for good fun and whatnot. At this wedding, during the cake slicing, the groom got a little icing on the bride's nose, and she burst into tears.
She was full-on crying and accusing him of ruining their wedding in front of the entire party. It was hard to watch, especially since the groom was my cousin who is a sweet guy that's a playful goofball. He was pretty taken aback by her reaction and pulled her aside to console her along with her bridesmaids and maid of honor.
There were other red flags, like how the bride was insistent that the groom's family be seated 3-4 rows back, while her entire family, extended family, and all got to sit front and center. Then, she asked my parents and me to move from our assigned seats because she forgot that my cousin had invited us. She wanted some of her friends to sit there since it was close to the bride and groom's table. It was a bunch of things, but that cake-eating is what really made me know they were in a doomed relationship. They ended up lasting not even two years.
80. Disney For The Win
When I was a kid, I watched a lot of action and animated movies, most of them having romance at some point. If they taught me anything, it was that that if you loved someone, truly loved them, you would kiss them with your eyes closed. Well, at a wedding I attended with my family, I noticed something odd when the time came for the kiss: the groom didn't close his eyes!
Fast forward a year, and it turns out that the groom was cheating on her with a lot of other women, so she divorced him. I was not surprised.
81. Loose Lips…
I attended a wedding reception and was seated near the cameraman. An aunt of mine was sitting closer to the camera and spent the evening commenting and gossiping about everyone. Much of it came out on the video. The cameraman was great, he did two copies—one edited and the other no holds barred. The unedited version is the stuff of legend.
82. Taking Bets
I used to work in catering for weddings. There was this one couple, who got this beautiful old English Tudor venue, and they paid out a huge amount for the catering; it was for about 200 guests. They were all expected to arrive after the ceremony at 1 PM. Three hours later, they rocked up to the venue without so much as an explanation. There was no call that they would be late, no sign of any guests, nothing.
The staff was all standing around speculating “maybe they called it off, someone was stood up, etc.”, for hours. We started getting ready to pack everything up and just leave when we finally saw guests arriving. So, we started serving canapés and we saw the bride and groom for about two minutes before they walked off into the gardens to have a full-on screaming match.
The main topic of conversation with guests was literally betting on how long they would last, who is going to be the first to cheat, and things like that. They came back an hour later, now shouting at us saying, “Why aren’t the guests eating yet”? Meanwhile, we were waiting for them! After that, things actually went pretty smoothly. We finished serving and they started the toasts.
The guy’s friends were comedians, so the speeches are brilliant, but walking through topping up champagne, we could hear every table still murmuring offhand jokes or sarcastic comments about them not lasting, etc. I think they went off to argue a few more times after that. It was a lovely wedding with terrible people.
83. Boozed Up Bride
My sister-in-law is a nurse, and she was at a wedding where the bride was falling down drunk in the bathroom. Not only did this girl puke, but she also soiled herself… I’m talking number two—and that was just the start of the nightmare. Then her sister came in, also drunk, and they fought and somehow slipped in the mess resulting in one of them smashing her head on the sink and getting knocked out. My sister-in-law took care of them and called them an ambulance.
84. Double The Trouble
It was a big wedding with over 300 people. Except, it turned out the bride had a dirty little secret—she had been having an affair with her cousin’s husband. The cousin had known for a little bit but waited until the wedding to go table to table, letting everyone know the bride was sleeping with her husband. The poor groom was blindsided. The worst part was his father-in-law was well-off and opened up a restaurant for him. Well, he lost his wife and his restaurant.
85. The Butterfly Effect
My husband and I were doing the catering for a small wedding of fewer than 50 people. They had actually had their first date in our restaurant and asked us to cater their big day, which was sweet. It was a seaside wedding, very DIY, and even my kids helped set up. Under each folding chair in the wedding "audience", was a box to be retrieved and opened by the guests when the officiant told them to do so.
The goal of this was well-intentioned. The guests would lift the tops of the boxes to free what would become a sea of delicate butterflies, symbolic of their marital journey "taking off". Well, it ended in a truly gruesome scene. The butterflies all died in their boxes due to oxygen starvation, and when the lids were collectively released, their limp bodies were swept up in a vicious yet timely gust of wind. In one glorious moment, united, they were whipped off forcefully into the horizon.
86. And Another One Gone, And Another One Gone
I went to a wedding with a girl I dated in high school. Her uncle was marrying a woman that had already been married four times. Four. Times. As she walked down the aisle, instead of the traditional “Here Comes the Bride,” they played “Another One Bites the Dust.” I have no idea if the couple is still together, but I very seriously doubt it.
87. One Bad Idea
The wedding was held at a state park that's famous for its giant gorge and waterfall. I don't know whose idea this was, but someone suggested a photo overlooking this gorge and everybody was game. The wedding party went around a stone security barrier and the maid of honor literally fell off the cliff to her end. It was like 500+ feet.
88. It Was His Way Or The Highway
My ex-husband kept completely bulldozing the wedding plans. For instance, I didn't get to choose ANY of the music at all. He shut down things and made me feel small. I just kept acquiescing to his non-negotiable wedding ideas. He was also mad because people didn't execute them as he wanted. He wasn't smiling as I came down the aisle because the DJ got the music wrong.
All that should just have been a red flag that it was an unhealthy relationship. I was young, naive, and stayed way too long. It lasted 10.5 years, and those sorts of things never changed. We could never talk and compromise; it was either his way or the highway. If it didn’t go his way, I was a horrible human being for not giving him his way.
If I suggested a paint color for the living room, it was shot down. If he arrived at the same color on his own, it was great. I literally could not suggest something without being made to feel inconsequential. But, he expected me to jump, cater, and give in to anything he wanted, exactly as he wanted. He was always so critical of everything. Never again will I put up with that.
89. Mom-Zilla
At my sister’s wedding, the mother of the groom arrived late…wearing a bright red, skin-tight mini dress with stilettos. She then proceeded to try to get in front of the camera so as to block it from taking photos of the bride. During the vows, she coughed loudly and made groaning noises. The pastor apparently decided it would be prudent to not ask if anyone objected to the union.
After the ceremony, as we were getting ready to leave, she tried physically attacking my sister, but there were enough of us to get in her way. They are no longer together.
90. That’s What I Call A Death Drop
The bride’s aunt died on the dance floor while dancing. She fell down, and the DJ stopped the music until EMS arrived. They took her away, and when the music resumed, the DJ selected, of all things, Bryan Adams’ "Heaven" as the next song. Incredible. I will never forget the looks people were giving him for the rest of my life.
91. For Goodness’ Sake Forsake Already!
I filmed a wedding in Louisiana once. In the hours leading up to the wedding, the bride was getting pretty loaded with her bridesmaids. Rain delayed the wedding, as it was all scheduled for outdoors next to a rustic barn. In the final hour before it was time, the bride was getting pretty angry at her mom who was criticizing this item here, or this guest here, and her drinking wasn’t helping anything.
Somehow, they made it through without a catfight, but the biggest red flag came from the groom-to-be. During the vows, when it got to the part where the line is, "and forsaking all others", the dude simply could not utter those words. So much so, that he was getting emotional on his face, and shutting down completely. I focused on him with the camera, so when I edited the video later, I played that part over and over, trying to guess what was going on in his head.
The bride was laughing and smiling at him, so either she was too sloshed to care, or she was in on some partner-swapping action with him, and thought it was hilarious. The preacher offered to alter the line, and said something like, "Okay how about, and only loving the bride”. The groom regained a little bit of his composure, nodded, and muddled through the rest of the vows. The marriage was only about three years ago, but sure enough, she has a new man she is with.
92. No Double Dipping!
I once went to a wedding where the bride got back at her cheating groom in the most ingenious way possible. In the final moments of a Jewish wedding, after the marriage was finalized and all official, the bride straight up runs into the crowd and says, "I’m divorcing my husband for sleeping with my sister!" Here's why this was great.
I'm not Jewish, but apparently, once you’re married in that faith, the bride or groom cannot marry or remarry someone related to the previous wife or something like that. So, this bride not only publicly humiliated her cheating groom and her sister by outing them. She also sealed the fact that they can never ever be together. Mic dropped.
93. One Wedding To Mar Them All
I once photographed a wedding that made me quit photographing weddings. My husband was my second photographer, and even he couldn't believe the day we had. We showed up early to get a feel for the venue and grab photos of guests and details. Then, I went to check on the bride and my husband checked on the guys. The bride was extremely angry with everyone because apparently her husband-to-be had been smoking earlier and when she had ordered him to stop, he decided to have a drink instead.
The wedding ceremony was very dry. No tears. No sincere words. Then at the reception, the brother of the groom got up to speak. His toast included things like, "I can't believe we're here today; no one thought you would make it this far" and, "You know we wish the best for you and we hope you're happy." All of the guests were cringing.
Immediately after the speech, the bride said to me, "I don't want photos of any of his (the groom's) family. I also don't want photos of my sister who thinks she's a model." That was the last wedding I shot, and it was nearly four years ago. That man was miserable. I could see it in his face and everyone else's.
94. Backhanded By The Holy Man
The bride was a former nun who left her order not long after taking her vows so she could marry a friend of my significant other’s family. During the wedding ceremony, the priest kept staring at her, shaking his head slightly and making facial expressions that displayed his disappointment in her decision. It became especially awkward during his homily when he said, "Keeping the vows we make—whether nuptial vows or religious—says much about our integrity and sincerity".
95. Take A Picture, It’ll Last Longer
My friend is a wedding photographer. While he was waiting at the altar to take photos, the best man gave a shocking announcement. He told everyone that the groom was coming out as gay and that the wedding was canceled. Everyone laughed like it was a best man joke, but no, it was very serious. The bride was on the way in the car, and she was not happy.
All the guests had to wait while they sorted their lives out. In the end, they split the reception room into two and each family had their own dinners. Needless to say, they didn't want the photos.
96. Top Secret
The bride gave explicit wedding instructions beforehand through various channels. One rule was that there were to be no posts on social media before the bride gave the OK, and certainly no posts before she posted herself. Anyway, a few hours before the wedding, someone posted something, saying that they were at the wedding or whatever.
Absolutely nothing malicious, just a generic statement. The bride saw this and everyone could tell she was about to blow up. At the end of the vows, the bride turned to the congregation and said, "Can you all please unfriend Jennifer as I gave out explicit instructions that there are to be no social posts until I give the OK, and she has broken that rule today".
Just imagine—she literally just finished her vows and she finally has a new husband, but that was the first thing on her mind. Everyone awkwardly laughed as if she was joking…nope. She then stormed off, with her new husband awkwardly following behind. There was a weird atmosphere after that and everyone started making excuses to go home.
I'm talking proper fake emergency stuff here: "I have to get back because I need to err, my erm, yeah bye.".. Everyone left much earlier than usual. No one wanted to be there and have awkward conversations with the bride.
97. I’m Like A Bird
I was the best man at my sister-in-law’s wedding. After a whole year of planning, all the bride wanted was a ex release while they said handwritten vows to each other. It was a very small, non-denominational wedding. The day arrived in early summer and all seemed to be going well...except something was off with the bird handlers.
They showed up a bit late and were sourcing help from the wedding party to get everything in line. When the time came to say their vows, I helped the handler carry the chest with the doves in it over to the altar where the bride and groom were standing. Vows were just about wrapping up and the handler gave ME the signal to open the chest. I opened it and witnessed a horrific sight.
I saw 20 to 30 DEAD DOVES IN THE CRATE! I immediately closed it and tried to pretend nothing was wrong. Too late. The look of horror on the bride’s face was all that was needed. We spent the next few hours trying to cheer everyone up, but by the end of the reception, the entire wedding party had organized and filed animal cruelty complaints on the handler. It was all anyone could focus on.
98. The Worst Groom Ever
I once went to a wedding where both families were Irish. My girlfriend knew them, but I didn't. At the ceremony, the groom’s ex-wife started shouting something and was gently directed outside. I couldn't hear what was said. The reception was amazing—nice venue and all, but a bunch of guests had brought their own instruments and just started jamming what I can only describe as a genuine Irish Jig.
There was a LOT of booze. There was no responsible serving at the bar and I'm certain it was all by design. These people liked to party. At some point, I used the men’s room and was curious if I'd just seen the groom in a stall (door open) with someone who was not the bride. I didn't know these people and it might have just been someone else, so I said nothing.
Sometime later and the girlfriend states seriously, "We should get going now". Yeah sure. We grab our stuff and head downstairs. I see the suspicious fellow again in the stairwell going to absolute town on this same lady. My girlfriend grabs my arm tightly and keeps walking past, mumbles a thank you for the invite, and I just smile and follow cause it's all weird.
Yep, that was the groom, doing stuff to his ex-wife at his own wedding to another woman. The look that woman gave us as we passed was this smugly dominant, "I always get what I want" needling glare. Wow. I got it all explained to me after we were in a cab and well on our way home, but that look still haunts me to this day.
99. Forget Fainting Goats…
My cousin and his very sweet wife got married two years ago. First off, they got really unlucky with the weather, and what was supposed to be nice cool fall weather ended up being a heatwave with a dust storm. It was steaming outside, 100 degrees with full humidity. The first very obvious problem was that they had been planning for an outdoor wedding in a cool climate. As such, many of the dishes that they were going to have for their buffet dinner were mayonnaise and meat-based, and they'd been sitting outside in the heat after the ceremony without much means of keeping them cold.
To be fair, the Church was beautiful, and the bride looked gorgeous. In the middle of the ceremony though, we noticed the bride start to sway. As everyone started to murmur, she fainted, woke up...and then vomited all over her wedding dress. She looked horrified and humiliated, and then started crying. During the super hot day, she hadn't had enough to drink or enough to eat, so when everything calmed down, her body had caught up with her.
The priest asked her if she needed to stop, but she waved him onward, determined to finish the wedding. The priest said something really nice about how marriage is not about these random happy moments like a wedding, but about the challenges that you go through as a couple and how you thrive from them. She made it through and then we headed outside to the heat and the possibly rotting and poisonous food.
I managed to avoid most of the mayonnaise-based foods, but my brother and sister did not...they would suffer greatly in the aftermath.
100. Missed Encounters
At a wedding of a college friend of my husband’s, we learned that the bride (his old friend) had been in love with him for over a decade. We learned this from the women at our table at the reception. We introduced ourselves while we waited for the bride and groom to arrive. They were horrified that we were there—and extremely worried.
My husband had NO idea that she had feelings for him. She bee-lined right for our table after the "introducing Mr & Mrs" thing—ignoring her family and leaving her husband standing alone. She clung to my husband and sobbed—lifting her head to glare at me. She had to be pulled off of him.
She repaired herself, then followed us as we tried to leave quietly—her parting shot was to stare at my chest and say, "Well I guess I know what I was missing all along!" Her new husband was in shock and my husband was horrified and embarrassed—he was completely clueless and would never have gone to the wedding if he'd know she was obsessed with him. It was bizarre.
101. The Family That Lies Together Stays Together
My sister and her husband. They met each other our junior year of high school, and she moved in with him halfway through our senior year. I never liked him and did not hide that fact. I especially didn't like him after he hit on me while they were dating. Didn't hide that fact either, but my sister brushed me off. Before he popped the question, she found out he'd been texting other girls.
He promised he'd change. The wedding was a train wreck, honestly. It was a small affair in our family back yard, with our aunt officiating. That same aunt started crying midway through the ceremony. My stepmother read a poem about them she wrote halfway through the ceremony—she always wants to be the center of attention.
The groom’s drunken father, who had been barred from the wedding, came stumbling in at some point during the vows to search for alcohol, and I saw the groom grab one of the bridesmaids’ bottoms. I didn't point that out to my deliriously happy stepsister. I should have. A year later it turned out the groom had been texting racy stuff to my stepmom.
My sister somehow forgave both of them. She has low self-esteem. They got caught again a year after that. At that point, my dad had divorced my stepmother, so I have been distant from this whole shebang. But my sister—who I do still talk to—finally divorced that scumbag. Divorce for everyone! Let's pull an Oprah.
102. Whoops!
I work wedding bars often in between library shifts, and I saw a wedding where the bride never turned up to the altar and texted the guy 15 minutes before saying, "Sorry but I'm not coming." It was super depressing, they went ahead with the 'party' and the groom ended up leaving at around half 7, the rest of the guests at 10.
What had happened was the bride had spent all day with her parents the day before and they apparently hated her husband to be and had convinced her not to show up. Last thing I heard was she came to his door the next morning and apologized, they're still together as far as I know... Man was that an awkward work night.
103. Getting Even
The groom had his bachelor party the night before, got a handy, and kissed an exotic dancer. He was guilt-ridden and told the bride the morning of the wedding. She still married him. The next day, I was hanging out with the newlyweds and the groom's friends. The bride and I were the only two women there. The bride was drinking and hanging off me like we had been BFFs for years.
She made several trips to the bathroom to pee and insisted I tag along. On each trip to the bathroom, she was fuming over the bachelor party action and kissing the dancer situation. The kissing bothered her more than the handy, but she was still upset and talked about how she was going to cheat on him to even the score. Not a solid start for a marriage.
