Weddings are supposed to be days that feel like a dream and look like a fairy tale, and yet they end up being nightmares haunting people for the rest of their lives. Why? Because someone always ruins it—whether it was the one who had too many glasses, the one with a jealousy issue, or the infamous relatives in general. Let’s dive into the magical nights of people who wanted to say, “I do” but instead said, “Please don’t”.
1. Oh, Sisters!
My sister's wedding album looks like her sister-in-law was the star. Nearly every getting ready, speech, cake cutting, bouquet toss, even the I do's...She's either directly in the middle, has barged in and is smiling straight at the camera, or is standing there with her boyfriend of the month. And that's not even the worst part.
My sister didn't even want her as a bridesmaid, just did it because the sister-in-law was invited to be one to the guy the sister-in-law was “'engaged” to before that boyfriend.
2. In Sickness And In Chaos
My friend got married and decided to have a private ceremony, but an open reception in a massive hay field in Vermont. They invite a huge number of people, over 300 show up and it's a predictable apocalypse now from 10 am until around 6 pm when everyone finished their glasses.
For example, people were in and out all day, with four constant groups; the direct family of mostly tipsy adults, the bride's sister's college friends—from the women's studies major, and the Model UN team—the groom's home friends, who are all either farmers or animal breeders, and the bride's friend's, the guys I came with.
There are some minor altercations between the home friends and college friends, but it's a crazy party in the middle of nowhere, so some yelling and ideological disagreement was expected, and encouraged by many by saying "He was calling you a feminazi, you going to sort him out?" and stuff like that.
However, it came to a head when a heated discussion turned to a girl getting hit with a hot coal shovel.
Utter chaos, multiple emergency calls, officer cruisers from three different departments, and a couple of ambulances later, we had been given the order to disperse. The problem was that we were all very tipsy and shouty, so after a few incidents we put several people to bed well beyond the acceptable limit and sent home a lot of questionable people.
What about the girl hit with the shovel? Well, the guy had no idea it was the recently used coal shovel and just wanted to smear a little dirt on the girl. He's a veterinarian and dragged her off, apologizing profusely, and fixed her up within an hour.
Unfortunately, you can't undo 15 near-simultaneous emergency calls. Both of them being too tipsy to drive they stayed the night, and we found them in the same sleeping bag the next morning.
3. Bad Vibes Only
This was not really ruining the wedding, but it certainly ruined the vibe leading up to the wedding. I asked my brother to be my best man at my wedding. My brother and I are Catholic, my girlfriend is Episcopal.
He says "Yes". Months after saying yes, he comes to us and tells us that he can't be the best man or even be at the ceremony because his priest tells him it will be unacceptable for him to be a witness to the ceremony because I am not asking for dispensation and getting married in an Episcopal church.
Okay, understood...sad, but if that's the way you see it, we'll deal with it. At this point, I ask my best friend to be my best man, and all is good. Or so we thought. A couple of months before the wedding my brother started a campaign calling my entire family and telling them they will go against their religious customs if they attend my wedding and explaining how my children will be unacceptable in the eyes of God and anyone who even sleeps under the same roof with us.
What? I find all this out through cousins and friends and am in complete shock. Luckily, I have a few cool family members and they all show up for the wedding. Everyone had a "What is wrong with your brother?" question on the day of the wedding, but it was a great time with an open bar and live band.
Here's the kicker of it all: my Mom is Catholic, and my Pop is Episcopal—no divorces or any unhappiness, just your normal suburban family.
4. Bride Cosplay
It didn't ruin the wedding, but for a while things were a little tense.
For a little background, my high school boyfriend apparently called his wife by my name during an intimate moment. His parents told my parents when explaining why I wasn't being invited to the family party that year when I came home from school for winter break.
I made sure to keep my distance since that had the potential for more drama than an episode of Maury. Well, then he showed up to my wedding reception in another state with his wife dressed in a white lace gown with what I can only describe as a bridal hairstyle.
She kind of charged up to the bridal table and announced that she needed to meet me. She was just standing there, refusing to move, and looking confrontational. I grabbed a couple of chairs and asked someone to bring a couple of plates of food.
Then I warmly asked for an introduction and complimented her hair and dress. For a moment I thought she was going to hit me with the chair. Instead, she sat down, ate some food, and calmed down a lot.
My wedding planner stopped by a couple of times to make sure I was okay, but aside from a late arrival asking if we'd had a double wedding, the rest of the reception had very little drama. The happy couple chatted amicably with us, and the wife called me a lovely person before they left.
It was a bit surreal, but I didn't want a fight on my wedding day. I refused to engage in that, and through some happy circumstances that worked out for me.
5. Stay Away From The Little Girl
Not my wedding, but my boyfriend's aunt's second wedding. His cousin Beth, the bride's daughter, got tipsy and accused a 12-year-old girl of 'coming onto her man' although her boyfriend wasn't even there.
She shot glares at the kid the whole ceremony and rolls her eyes during the vows. At the reception, Beth cornered her in the bathroom, slurring her words and screaming and threatening she was going to 'knock her out'. The poor girl was just crying, asking her what she did wrong.
When her mom finally asked her to leave, Beth got mad that no one was taking her side. I don't know about you, but it's hard to feel bad for a crazy woman screaming at a frightened 120-pound girl. It really brought the reception down, since there were only about 30 people who stayed after that fight.
Wedding and lifestyle, Shutterstock
6. Oops!
I ruined a wedding one time, but it wasn't my fault, I swear it wasn't. I was a friend of a friend of the groom, and I had an F150, so I got asked to bring some chairs and a table to the reception hall as people who own trucks are often asked to do.
I agreed and was told I would be met there by a couple of women and a few guys to unload everything and place it. Cool. One of the women was pretty hot. I flirted a bit, and she flirted back. She asked if I wanted to take a walk along the river that the reception hall was on. Sure!
We walked for a while and talked, and it got hotter and hotter. We ended up making out on the riverbank for a bit and walking back to the hall, where I invited her to go for a ride in my truck. This was in rural Indiana, so in about ten minutes, we were along some numbered county road in the back of the truck laying on a blanket and going at it.
It was late evening and there was no one around. Then a car comes towards us. We laid still and waited on them to pass, but the car stopped and the girl from earlier got out and started screaming at us. Yep, the girl I was with was the bride.
The wedding got canceled, and my friend punched me in the face—he found out later that I had no idea who she was and apologized, we are good now—and it was quite the scandal for a while.
7. Going Wild
I am not sure if she ruined it, but it is a fun story. At my wedding, my best friend was our best man. His wife who is now divorced, was a very hot lush mess. It had been this way for years. She promised him that she wouldn't drink during the wedding or reception.
So about halfway through the reception, she is out there on the dance floor grinding on my 50-year-old 300-pound uncle, just giving him the tongue. It seems she had a flask hidden someplace.
She then starts trying to make out with just about every guy she can find. My friend then collected his wife and had to leave. Now, on the way home she gets angry and jumps from the car in motion and dashes down the street. She's a marathon runner, and my buddy lost her while turning around the car.
She proceeds to go to a local bar and meet up with some women she knows from her work. They drink more and she gets in an argument with another woman she knows that was at the bar. That woman leaves after my friend's wife attempts to get her to fight her.
So, my friend's wife in her work friend's car chases them home. She ends up trying to kick in the woman's home door. This woman finally opens the door and beats my friend’s wife. Her work friends had to take her to the hospital where my buddy finally got the call to go pick up his wife.
Monkey Business Images, Shutterstock
8. The Sister-In-Law Show
My husband and I got married 12 years ago and he and his sister ruined my wedding.
To start, we lived in Oregon at the time and all of my family live in Georgia so since I have a huge family who don't have the financial means to travel, and his family is very small, we went to Georgia to get married.
The craziness started as soon as we started planning. The sister-in-law would make comments telling us we should just get married like she and her husband on Christmas in a tiny church with a couple of people. She made a lot of other suggestions about how we should do things.
Then, while at my in-laws on Christmas morning, nine months before our wedding, my husband asks his dad to be his best man. It was a very touching moment, his mom cried. Of course, nothing good ever lasts when she's around—later that night, his sister corners him and asks why he doesn't make her husband his best man.
The fight about that between the whole family on Christmas day was really great.
Lots more happened, but I'll move on to our wedding day. We are all getting ready at a rented beach house. Admittedly, my sister-in-law can really bring out the worst in my husband. He's stressed while getting ready. She's being passive-aggressive and making everything about her.
For photos before the wedding, we are meeting at a park. I am riding with my friend, and he is going to follow me. On the way to the park, we get lost. No worries, we will just go to the wedding venue.
Somehow, my husband and his sister start fighting, with guests arriving in front of everyone. She's manipulating and pushing buttons; he's blaming her for my not showing up at the park for photos. I finally arrive at the venue with my very soon-to-be husband, hands in pockets and saying, "What the heck!”
My sister then tries going between my husband and his sister to diffuse everything with my sister-in-law calling her an idiot and then the minister threatens to leave because of the fighting.
So, after the ceremony, my sister-in-law has a horrible face in every single photo that includes her and then had the nerve to tell me during my reception that her day was ruined, and she would never speak to her brother again.
It was bad—but things were about to spiral even more.
Two days later as I am packing to leave the beach rental, she comes into my room to tell me how hard the week has been for her. She goes on to say that there was "God knows who sleeping on the couch" who was my best friend since 4th grade and she complains about "Unruly, undisciplined children running around" who were my nieces and nephew, who really are great kids.
Yeah, my husband brings up renewing our vows occasionally and while we do have a very happy marriage now, I have no desire for a vow renewal.
9. Chill, Mom
I recently had my wedding, and we woke up together happy to be getting married, then my soon-to-be husband received a text from his mother. Disclaimer, his mother had waist-length black hair. It's a photo of her, she cut and colored her hair exactly like mine.
Shoulder length, brown with blonde streaks. I was livid! Of all days to color your hair! And to do it on my wedding day. Fine, I let it go and decided to just forget it. Finally, it's the moment we all have been waiting for, I'm walking to the aisle, and we reach the front. The parents were called up so we all could recite a vow together.
Our wedding was held in front of a riverbank mind you. His mother then proceeded to walk around me near the pastor, instead of being with the other parents near the groom. She proceeded to loudly scream and fall, as she fell, she grabbed my hair and I fell with her inches away from the riverbank. My moment... Ruined. She got up and laughed and walked away while I was on the ground trying not to cry.
To be honest I don't remember anything else from the ceremony. I was seeing red. We no longer speak to one another, and I will forever refuse to speak to that woman. My husband stands by me on that decision. To this day when I think about my wedding, I tear up.
She ruined it and didn't even feel sorry for it. And those of you who say she fell and couldn't help it, after watching our wedding video her husband and the pastor were holding her arms. She deliberately stepped back and fell.
10. Can We Say “Cheese” Now?
Not a guest, but the photographer. She didn't really ruin the wedding, but she wasn't the greatest photographer in the world. She's a friend of a family member and runs her own photo company. She gave us a good deal, and at rehearsal, she had a lot of good ideas.
Towards the end of rehearsal, I pulled her aside and told her specifically one picture that I wanted. My wife had no idea that I picked out and got her wedding ring joined with her engagement ring.
She was under the impression I picked up her engagement ring from getting polished and cleaned up for our day a few days before, and I gave it to my mom. In reality, I had the ring for weeks. stashed away in my safe. It was gorgeous, and she was going to be so surprised. I wanted her reaction caught on camera.
Well, the photographer said she would sneak up behind the officiant and grab that moment. Where was she when I was putting the ring on my wife? In the back of the hall. Furthest away from us as possible. I was irritated, but a family friend caught my wife's reaction, so I brushed it off.
Next up were the after-ceremony pictures. This lady had us standing on a hill, she was at the bottom, and people around her taking pics as well. No biggie, but as a professional photographer, you need to make sure that people stay focused on your camera, not the third aunt of my twice-removed cousin's boyfriend's dad. That was irritating.
Another thing: Do you know how there's supposed to be a whole bunch of just candid shots of people hanging out and having a good time? Yeah, we got maybe 50 of those. Where was the photographer? Oh, she was busy talking to the family member that she's a friend of.
She even put her camera away. I was livid. I didn't show it, I didn't bring it to my wife's attention because I didn't want her to freak out. She was having a great time. So instead of really great pictures from a lady who runs her own company, we got mediocre pictures from her, and way better pics from the cell phones, and my sister's Canon DSLR that was floating around.
I'm so glad we weren't the ones paying her. I would have snapped.
11. I Was Gonna Throw That!
My wedding planner ripped my bouquet out of my hands as soon as the ceremony was over, plopped it in a vase, and placed it on a random table. An unwitting guest took it home thinking it was a centerpiece! I had no idea what happened to my bouquet until I went looking for it at the end of the night.
12. Back Off Woman!
My wife's co-worker who she was on excellent terms with at the time got married. It was a lovely ceremony. Nice little reception. I was alone because I was a +1.
Apparently, the bride was super nervous before the wedding. Her bridesmaid's sage advice was to do a few shots beforehand to loosen her up and all that. It worked! She got through the wedding.
Well, they had plied her with 100-proof bottle and had been a little liberal in doing so as they did the drinking right before the ceremony.
By reception time, she was pretty sloppy—and she ruined everything.
She's going around, looking kind of inebriated, laughing too loud, and being pretty wobbly. My wife and I were sitting down talking to some of the other co-workers who had come when the bride comes up.
She decided that today was the day she would let me know what a wonderful guy she thought I was, and how good she thought I was for my wife, and the best way to do that was to give me a great big hug.
In a strapless dress that was a little low riding, to begin with. She didn't let me get all the way to my feet before hugging me.
So, me, being caught totally unawares, basically got my head grabbed and shoved right smack into her dirty pillows.
My first thought was: “This is going to be awkward”. Second thought: “How am I going to react to this?” and third thought: “Well I can breathe but she's holding on a little too long for even this type of hug”.
I finally extricated myself and she does this whole “Oops” slouch and giggle and sort of stuff herself back in there. She hangs on my shoulder to apologize in an entirely inappropriate manner, and lucky me the table is silent.
She finally gets pulled away by her new groom who shot me a “Jesus, that was awkward” look that matched mine and they went off to get her fixed up.
The table is still silent. My wife isn't mad, she's flat-out flabbergasted. Finally, her boss goes “So. yeah that happened. All in favor we don't bring it up with her?”
Unanimous agreement.
13. Relatives Are Trouble
When my uncle got married 26 years ago, he originally planned to have three of his eight siblings directly involved in the wedding. About four hours before the ceremony, he found out that his future bother-in-law, who was supposed to do the reading had gotten sick and couldn't come.
He then asked the next person he saw—one of his sisters—to do the reading instead, thus having half of his siblings be directly involved in the wedding.
Three of the siblings who weren't directly involved in the wedding had a great time at the reception and wished Uncle and Aunt happiness. The fourth, Aunt Mary, who prides herself on always being proper and polite, I think she could probably recite everything Emily Post has ever written, called him out in the middle of the reception demanding to know why she hadn't been chosen to do the reading.
Two months ago, my Uncle's daughter Melissa got married. Melissa wasn't sure whether she wanted to invite Aunt Mary to the wedding because Aunt Mary is still holding a grudge against Melissa's parents and Melissa herself. She did decide to invite her though.
As soon as she got the invitation, Aunt Mary called me to rant about it. For some reason, I'm the only niece of 18 nieces and nephews that Aunt Mary actually likes. I think it's because we're both the only natural blondes in the family which is a bizarre reason; I don't like her at all.
She complained to me that she had gotten the invitation late. She hadn't though; Melissa sent out all the invitations six weeks before the wedding, as Emily Post says to do, so I talked her out of that notion and did not mention the save the dates
Aunt Mary also told me that she just didn't think she could attend the wedding unless I drove down with her. She couldn't afford a plane ticket even though she and her husband both make six figures, and she's just too old to drive all the way by herself. I politely explained that was simply impossible for me.
Then Aunt Mary decided to rant about how her sister Ellen seems to have known about the wedding forever and, "I just don't understand why Melissa would tell her before me".
Um...maybe because Aunt Ellen and Melissa have had a special bond forever...which you would know if you paid the slightest bit of attention to anyone else in your family at any point in the past 22 years...
Thankfully, Aunt Mary was unable to attend the wedding. She didn't RSVP until the morning of the wedding though which resulted in Melissa's mother worrying quite a bit that Aunt Mary would show up at the last minute and try to ruin her daughter's wedding as well.
14. A Nervous Groom Is The Worst
I saw a groom ruin his own wedding.
My fiancé's cousin was getting married. He and his now-wife are nice people but have trashy friends. The trashy friends had way too many glasses, were very rowdy at the reception, and kept pressuring the groom to drink with them and bring him full glasses of straight Hennessey.
Fast forward to the end of the night, and the DJ calls the groom to the cake table to do the cake-cutting. A couple of minutes pass. The DJ calls him again. I turn and I can see the groom seated with his back to me, and I wonder why he hasn't noticed his name is being called.
Turns out, Groom hasn't made his way to the cake because he is obliterated and can't even walk. Two of the groomsmen have to carry him to the cake, where they are just barely able to get him to cut the cake, or at least feign a cake cutting for the photographer.
Eventually, he threw up on the bride and had to be carried, chair and all, to the bathroom for a hosing down and then to the car.
15. Never Tell Snoop To Turn It Down
When my mother married my stepdad, I was only five or six, but I remember very clearly what happened that day.
My twin brother and I were walking our mom down the aisle when we heard a loud rapping from outside the church doors.
Everyone kind of stopped for a minute, but no one said anything or knew what to do, so we just kept walking and pretended it didn't happen. It stopped for a few minutes until it was time for the bride and groom to say, "I do".
Before my stepfather could say the words, the loud rapping sound came again, and this time it was booming throughout the entire church.
My uncle was super angry, so he sprinted to the back doors and swung them open just as the rapping was getting so loud that everyone was forced to cover their ears. When he opened the door, we all saw what was making the noise.
It was just Snoop Dogg practicing his craft, and he was unaware that he was disrupting a beautiful wedding. He kindly apologized to the congregation and promised to take his rapping elsewhere to a more appropriate and perhaps soundproof location.
16. Grumps
My grandfather. Less than 30 minutes into the reception, he broke my heart. He decided that he was ready to leave. In an effort to "hurry my gram along", he went and sat in the car. And she let him. She didn't decide to leave until over three hours later!
My gram didn't normally have this shiny spine, but I was not only the oldest grandkid. I was also the first to get married, so she wasn't letting him ruin it for her or me! My gram is easily one of my favorite people on this planet, so I choose to remember her shiny spine more than my grandfather's stupid behavior on that day.
17. Whose First Dance Is This?
I attended a real horror show a few years ago. I worked in the same building as the bride but barely knew her and was surprised to get an invite for the whole day.
It started at the church—the father of the bride and bridesmaids who were the bride’s two sisters—think the two famous characters from Cinderella—were clearly in a very bad mood, but things went as expected and everyone moved on to the reception venue.
At the reception, at a service station next to a very busy motorway, we made the usual small talk with our tablemates. Like me, no one really knew either the bride or groom very well. One person had met them on holiday three years ago.
This was not a big wedding, with four or five tables of eight or ten people each. I was surprised at the lack of close relationships because the couple were nice people, albeit a little odd. Things took a turn for the worst when the wedding party entered. The party was short a father of the bride.
Turns out that he had decided to go home. The departure was explained in agonizing detail, along with the story of the father's irrational and intense dislike of the groom—a man who never said boo to a goose, a bit wet but essentially harmless—by the bride's grandfather, who took it on himself to pick up the mic and make a speech.
It was actually quite touching as he was hugely apologetic about his son's behavior and made some beautiful comments about the not-so-happy couple, but he kept going back to how much the groom was disliked. The atmosphere was awful—everyone felt they were intruding on what was obviously a huge family argument.
Now, this is where things got especially awkward for my wife and me. The bride was nervous about her first dance and had agreed with her sisters that they would come in and join the dance almost as soon as the song started. However, the bridesmaids had now decided to leave the wedding in support of their father.
The bride was now without her sisters and so she asked my wife and me to fill in. We agreed, just hoping to be as help salvage something from the day. We should have said no.
The dance was timed so that it took place just as the majority of the evening guests were arriving. The meal had run slightly late so there were now several people gathered at the back of the room, along with everyone still at their table. The first dance started and within seconds the bride gave us the nod.
So, we are not dancers and so awkwardly swayed around the floor with the bride and groom. No one else joined in. The crowd seemed to think we were in fact trying to spoil the sanctity of the dance and draw attention to ourselves. We spent the whole song staring at each other, horrified at what was happening. The bride's grandmother actually booed us.
We left as soon as the song finished, safe in the knowledge that no other wedding we would ever attend would be as heart-wrenchingly sad or personally awkward.
18. Sorry I’m Late
I, the groom, kind of ruined it. I was late.
I had a few jobs in the morning to prep for before I got ready. Set up mainly. I had to go to the castle, set up, meet the flower woman help her out with all the flowers or/and get the other corsages before I go home to get myself ready. The flower lady doesn't turn up.
My wife had arranged it and I'm not calling her. She mentioned her brother has the same one. I got a number from her, she said she is on her way.
I got sorted, and headed home to get ready as me and my companions get in the limo, I turn my phone off for some reason. This is the point a few people wondered where I was and tried to call me. Well eventually someone phoned my wife and said I hadn't turned up and they couldn't get me. I got there, sleeper let the wife know, and all good. Phew.
19. Au-Naturel Bridesmaid
One of my bridesmaids was talking to an elderly guest. He was sitting down, and she was standing in front of him, bent so she could speak directly to him. Another guest walked up behind her, grabbed the zipper to her dress and yanked.
The bridesmaid’s dress fell completely off/down in one swoop. As a side note the same guest came from out of town with a plus one. However, her ex-husband was a guest as well, he was local. She ended up hooking up with the ex in her hotel room and left the plus to fend for himself.
Rest of the wedding was completely uneventful and just a nice time…
20. Dangerous Duo: The Cousin And The Imam
So, at my cousin's wedding, the Imam was the officiant and he ended up being late to the ceremony, which caused a domino effect to all the post-wedding rituals. We had to scramble through the fun games to make time for the dinner.
In Muslim weddings, the couple has to give their verbal consent and sign the wedding registry, instead of exchanging vows at the altar. The Imam was so busy rushing to his next job that he forgot to take the bride's signature on the wedding papers.
They had to visit the local wedding registers twice to correct their mistakes, with their birth certificates and other documents, and their witness. Why twice? My cousin forgot to take their certificates the first time, and they were admonished for not bringing a witness along with them.
21. Bouquet Feud With The Babysitter
At my best friend's wedding, I'm a bridesmaid and the groom grew up in the same town as the bride and me but was slightly older so none of us ever met in school.
One of the groom's best friends turns out to be a neighbor boy that did unspeakable things to both me and my sister for years.
I first hear second hand that he pitched a fit about not being a groomsman. He hadn't been picked because he was going through or had just gotten divorced from his wife and the mother of his two children because he was cheating with any piece of tail, he could get his hands on.
Next, I find out that not only is he dating women in her very early 20s, we are all in our 30s at this point, but that he is dating his sons' babysitter.
This young woman then inserts herself into all sorts of social functions with us and tells everyone that he's going to marry her and give her a baby soon. It's painfully obvious to everyone except these two that we are all in a very different phase of life than her.
Back to the wedding: So, the MC calls for all the unmarried ladies to come out onto the dance floor for the bouquet toss. I haul myself away from my martini and cheesecake to join them and jump around to 'Single Ladies' by Beyonce.
My best friend throws the bouquet and tries to aim it towards me and her sister just to give our partner a friendly nudge.
So, flowers whirl towards me and hit the floor and I go to pick them up and the non- groomsman's barely not-a-child date is there also holding onto the bouquet. We're standing there, both holding these flowers. Everyone is staring at us and whispering, “Why won't she let go?”
I'm also staring at her, she grabbed onto the bouquet after I had already picked it up. Like come on, that's not how this works lady.
The stalemate ends as she rips the flowers out of my hands and almost hits me in the face with them and yells “I caught the bouquet”'
The face on the non-groomsman falls. She goes back over to him and announces loudly that they will be the next to get married does he like this wedding venue? His friends are all sort of snickering at him on the side as she gushes that they are “So committed!”
22. The Bride Next Door
It was another bride. I’ve talked about this before, but we were in a venue with two ballrooms. We had an open bar and I guess the other wedding had a cash bar. The bartender started to suspect people from the other wedding coming in and taking away free drinks from ours.
He said he suspected because they didn’t tip, and we had been. Our groomsmen were dealing with it.
Then the bride in her full gown and train walked up to our bar to get one. The bartender shut her down, and the event manager canvased the bartender and the groomsmen who saw and asked for an estimate of how much they took, and it was a lot.
They had been doing it more subtly all night and this was later. But eventually, there were about 30-35 people from there, much smaller wedding doing it one at a time. We had 150 people, so it was easy to not get seen. This was pre-COVID.
The bride walked past me with the manager lecturing her about the extra charge and I just laughed. I didn’t mean to, but I was tipsy, and I just felt bad for this poor cheapskate who couldn’t even get someone to get her drinks at her wedding.
We were paying one price for dinner and unlimited drinks per guest, but she didn’t know that. So, she got a nice bill for like $500 afterward and I think her party shut down early, but I don’t think that’s why. Their party wasn’t even near ours, so they had to go searching for it. What a weirdo.
23. Ring Ring!
The groom's father answered a phone call during the ceremony.
That happened at the civil ceremony in the town hall. The mayor himself was officiating and was doing the formal part where he had to read some articles of the civil code related to marriage. Anyone who has attended a wedding here knows that at this stage, it is just a matter of minutes before the officiant will ask the question of the bride and the groom.
Then, we could hear a phone ringing with a very loud and annoying tune. Guests chuckled and looked around, and it turned out it was the phone of the groom's father.
He was sitting on the first line of seats, so he was very close to the bride and the groom, and everyone could see him; the guy then answered his phone and talked so loudly that everyone could hear him: "Hey, hello. What's up? Nah, not a good time to talk, but tell me”. He stood up and walked out of the room!
The mayor was kind and sensitive enough to then just make a couple of jokes and lose some time for a few minutes until the father came back, and then he moved on to the part where he asks the bride and the groom the much-awaited question.
The bride is an old friend of my wife, and she had complained multiple times that her future in-laws were real problems and that she actually hated them secretly but made her best to be civil with them.
24. Turn Up The Music
I had a small wedding, still about 30-40 people showed up and we were in kind of a small space. Some people, I'm not sure who set up the music so the speakers were pointed to where we all were eating since later it was the same area where we would be dancing.
While we were "mingling" around trying to talk to our guests, the guys controlling the volume kept turning it up, so I pretty much had to scream at whomever I was talking to. I would ask them to turn it down and they would but then my husband's mother would go behind me and tell them to turn it back up, thinking it was funny to watch me get frustrated about it.
A week or two later were all gathered together, and she and I are talking, and she mentions how soft-spoken I am. I didn't hold back, and I responded with a sharp tongue: "Now imagine trying to talk to me with some rude person continually turning up the music during our conversation".
25. It Was My Brother Who Made Such Comments, Not Me
This was at the wedding of one of my long-time friends I have known since we were kids. I befriended him through my half-brother who was my best friend growing up.
Around the time my friend was proposing to his now wife, my half-brother decided to become an evangelical Christian. This ruined our relationship because I am gay, and he was now spouting anti-gay rhetoric. So, our relationship fell apart, but our friend still loved us and made my half-brother the best man, and asked me to be a groomsman.
The day of the wedding I show up at the venue, happy to see all the friends of our group as the groomsman. As I’m catching up with each person, one by one they ask me why I wasn’t at the bachelor party that took place in Vegas 1-2 weeks prior. My half-brother, the best man, was in charge of that.
He invited every single groomsman to go except me. Then he didn’t bother to mention me or tell them why I wasn’t there. From their perspective, I was invited and chose not to go. I made sure to tell the groom so he didn’t think I didn’t care about him and had I known I would have gone.
I dropped it for the rest of the day, so it didn’t ruin their wedding. When it was all over, I thanked everyone. My half-brother approached me to apologize, and I refused his apology. That was roughly five years ago, and I still haven’t spoken to him.
The groom and all the groomsmen are still a part of my life. We regularly make time to spend together and luckily my half-brother doesn’t join for any of it.
26. Why?
My sister.
She spent the whole day telling my now-husband to just.... not marry me. She told him that nobody would fault him. That I wasn't deserving of marriage or good enough.
Then she started taking down my reception tables three hours early, convincing people it was time to leave. I never even got to try my own cake that night because it got removed from my table during my first dance. By 8:30, most of my guests were gone.
My husband and I had our five-year wedding anniversary in September.
27. This Is Not The Place For A Political Propaganda
This year I went to a wedding where the sister of the groom was a bridesmaid, and her husband was also a groomsman. They walked into the reception wearing “Trump 2024” tights and the husband had dressed in this red, white, and blue cheaply made shorts and button-down shirt.
He also had a little banner saying, “Trump 2024”. Mind you the bride and groom were both anti-Trump.
28. Protecting Groom’s Feelings
One of the groomsmen danced with me and he gave me a startling warning—he said I better not break my husband's heart. At my own wedding. It came out as a threat, not like a funny joke. We just celebrated our 10-year anniversary and are happier than ever.
29. Cake Fingers
Ouch, I think I’d be the rude guest. I believe I was around four or so when my aunt got married. Being a young kid with little to no self-control, as soon as I heard I was supposed to stay away from the cake, I started running...
Right to the cake. I ended up sticking my tiny little finger as far up that poor cake as it could go. I’ve never felt worse hearing that story.
Nigmatulina Aleksandra, Shutterstock
30. Please Stop The Music
My DJ was my rudest guest! A couple days before the wedding he was so scatterbrained that it was hard to keep up with what he was saying.
Then, he asked if I had to lose weight to fit into my dress! At this point, it was too late to find a new DJ and we decided we weren’t going to tip this man.
I’m glad we didn’t because at the wedding he refused to play some songs that he seemed were too inappropriate for a wedding. Then he yelled at me for being okay with WAP being played. He tried to mess up the order of the bridal party and my husband had to yell at him to do it right. To say he was a nightmare would be a huge understatement.
31. Stop Creeping Me Out
The guy that was “semi-stalker-ish” who was obsessed with me couple of years prior to my wedding was absolutely devastated when I got engaged. He told me he "wasn't coming to my wedding" which was fine, I didn't invite him.... but I was close to the family so his parents got invited.
He ends up showing up, sitting in the second row directly behind my parents, and takes photos on his IPAD for the whole ceremony. Yes, his face and his IPAD being held up are in every photo of the bridal party and me and my dad walking down the aisle.
32. No Children Allowed
I’ve got a good one.
We had an 18+ wedding reception. One of my husband’s “best friends” whom he hadn’t seen in years, not only failed to RSVP but when he showed up to our reception with his wife, they brought an unpleasant surprise—their four kids.
They allowed them to run wild, dodging under tables and playing tag in between guests. Their toddler screamed and cried during the entirety of my grandpa’s dinner blessing, and they made no attempt to respectfully remove him from the hall to allow for quiet during the speech.
I only see my gramps every few years because he lives cross-country and is frail, so every moment with him is to be cherished, and this blessing meant a lot to me.
Then when dinner was served, they wreaked havoc through our dinner buffet line. They stacked several to-go plates with food, gave my husband a side hug, told me my dress was pretty, and promptly left. No gift, no apologies for disrupting my grandfather’s speech, no quality time reminiscing with his “best friend,” just pure chaos then a dine and dash.
I have a picture my wedding photographer took of me, head bowed in prayer during my gramps speech, but I’m glancing up giving them the nastiest stink eye I’ve ever served anyone. I was livid, but at least they sort of got the hint and took off.
This guy has also made no attempt, before or since, to reach out to my husband for a reunion. Bad friend if you ask me.
33. Have Some Patience
I think I was the rudest guest at a wedding. The bride and groom were having a sundae bar instead of cake. I didn't realize this and made myself a nice sundae before even the bride and groom had done the ceremonial first scoop.
Literally, everyone at the wedding saw me. I was such an idiot. The bride and groom were extremely cool about it, but it was pretty bad on my part, and I couldn't apologize enough.
34. NFL Madness
During our reception, our parents, maid of honor, and best man took turns with their speeches at the DJ’s table. During this time, I noticed a guest—a male in his 50s—sitting next to the DJ booth wearing big headphones and looking down at his phone.
My first thought was he was sensory-sensitive and it’s admirable that he was here in the first place! However, only later did I learn he was a fully capable man who was just watching the NFL game. Not even discreetly.
At some points, he would even physically celebrate whatever was happening in the game. His entire table was mortified. I later learned that, to this day, his wife will not touch him and is still embarrassed by his actions.
Bogdan Sonjachnyj, Shutterstock
35. Hangry
It’s my wedding day. My oldest brother and I are talking about how we are starving. It’s before the ceremony and we are just getting started on pictures. “I didn’t get a chance to eat breakfast today”, I say, “No way, I think I am going to run out and grab something,” he replies.
He’s off before I really have a chance to respond, the problem is that we are just getting started on pictures. This 45-year-old man disappears for an hour while we struggle through the pictures that we can take without him, then shows up with a single item that he bought for himself from a Greek food cart.
Nothing for me, nothing for his pregnant wife, and nothing for his five children. He eats this mouth-watering, garlicky, chicken Kabob on saffron rice while he follows me around during and after the pictures without offering a single bite. He is weird about food, so I knew he wouldn’t want to share anyways, so I didn’t ask.
Not the worst thing ever but incredibly self-centered!
LightField Studios, Shutterstock
36. I Turned Red Just By Reading This
My friend's in-laws hated her and did not approve of her marrying their son. So, the traditional wedding dress color is red, and my friend chose to wear red. Everyone knew she was wearing red, including her in-laws. Well, the day of the wedding came, and the bride immediately cried a river of sad tears—because over 150 guests, all her in-laws, came dressed in red.
Red dresses for all the women and red shirts for all the men. They hated her so much that they wanted her to know they didn't approve. I felt so terrible for her. It would be like every single woman wearing a white dress to a Canadian wedding.
37. The Silence Before The Storm
I went to a friend’s wedding and my wife, and I were with a few couples who got stuck with one guy who no one really knew. We were friendly enough to him and engaged him in conversation, but he was quite antisocial most of the evening.
He had a lot of glasses but seemed to be holding his own until we were all left to start dancing and he remained alone at the table. 15 to 20 minutes later we looked back and he had his head on the table and we had assumed he was sleeping. When we went to check on him, he had been vomiting all over his own legs, shoes, and under the table.
The venue was furious, the bride and groom mortified, and it was all quite an embarrassing turn of events. Not sure if the couple are still friends with this fella.
38. Mother Nature’s Bitter Surprise
I got married in June of this year. We did an outdoor venue. Needless to say, it rained all day, and that was fine. But what wasn’t fine was the tornado sirens that went off when I took my first step down the aisle.
It was awful and everyone bolted to their cars for safety. I was ugly crying in my parents’ car, sandwiched between my maid of honor and my husband. That was when my very rude aunt stuck her head through the driver’s side window to tell me that I shouldn’t be upset, there was a blizzard on her wedding day, and it delayed everything and made it so awful.
I mean I see where she was coming from, but please maybe this isn’t the time.
Eddie J. Rodriquez, Shutterstock
39. One Thing After The Other
Everyone ruined my wedding. I had a COVID wedding, so I had low expectations to begin with.
My mother-in-law helped me get ready and spent three hours crying about the divorce she asked for ruining her life. She then forgot to tell my husband to hide on the way to the venue, so he saw me in the car.
They then hid me in my husband's old bedroom before the ceremony. But no one stayed with me including my mom. So, I spent two hours sitting in his childhood room alone. I called my best friend in California and cried.
The wedding! His mom offered to make us a cake. I told her just a simple wedding cake. I’m walking down the aisle and see the cake out of the corner of my eye. It’s “Marvel-themed”, which is cute because I did Marvel centerpieces. But it’s topped with pop toys and it’s red and green. Oh, Lord. “Babiest” complaint of the night but it made me laugh.
The husband's best friend showed up in basketball clothes and his girlfriend of one week came in an all-Jean outfit. But I guess it’s better than the dresses showing most of her chest she wore to later weddings.
His other friend announced she was pregnant.
The caterer forgot all our appetizers.
Then God himself blessed us with a freak lightning storm with downpour so the night was over by 8:30.
Boryana Manzurova , Shutterstock
40. Jealous Of The Sick Father
It was not my wedding, but my sister's. A few weeks before the destination wedding, our dad got incredibly sick and was unable to travel to the venue. She asked his brother, whom neither he nor she was particularly close to, to give the toast at the rehearsal dinner and to walk her down the aisle.
He promised to work closely with Dad to compose the toast. He didn't and simply wrote his own toast for the rehearsal dinner.
The ceremony went without incident, but after the ceremony, he hopped into every family photo where my dad would have joined. At the reception, he noticed he hadn't been seated at Table 1 and lectured the wedding planner so severely she was shaking when she spoke to my sister about it.
Apparently, this was pent-up anger from where he had been seated at some of our second cousins' weddings. My sister had also booked a day-after photo shoot. We didn't tell him about it—but he found out anyway.
While he had the sense not to join, he sat by the entrance to the area where the shoot was held and watched the whole thing, sulking, so we could see him there when we left.
41. Too Religious For Their Own Good
A girl I know was marrying a man in school to be a preacher. They wanted to get married young and quickly, for you know, to do the deed. The day of the actual wedding there was a big snowstorm, so it got pushed back a day, but they should have taken this as a sign to not do the wedding at all.
They postponed it to the next day, and hardly anyone was able to make it. When they got up to the altar, it was obviously a very religious ceremony, which is cool, but then it got weird. In his vows to her, he said “Bride, I wish I could say I love you more than anything, but I don’t. I love God more than you and that’s how it should be”.
They then did a feet-washing ceremony which was heavily focused on how this was basically his last act of service to her because now that they’re married, she is his “submissive”. I’m not trying to shame religion, but even as someone growing up in Deep Southern Baptist areas, this was uncomfortable for everyone.
Amazingly, this God-fearing man didn’t get a job in the ministry after graduation and had to take a retail job instead where he found the girl with whom he would have an affair and eventually leave and divorce my friend.
42. This Just Got Awkward
The bride was well known in the small town we grew up in. She invited 300 people knowing that the church only held 200 so it was really closed to being shut down by the Fire Marshall. She even invited our high school English teacher.
The bridesmaids wore white zebra striped dresses with every other stripe a colored stripe in the style of those blue cups from the 90s.
The reception was set up as long tables because the venue didn't have enough round ones so you couldn't mingle and there was barely any room to move. The DJ couldn't read the room and played inappropriate songs.
The groom and groomsmen did a dance for the bride which involved taking their clothes down to their undergarments which mortified the bride and shocked a majority of the Southern Baptist guests.
Shutterstock , Wedding and lifestyle
43. An Unexpected Turn Of Events
The bride sent out save the dates for a wedding in the spring of 2014, and the wedding date was in summer of 2015. They intentionally pushed their wedding date farther back than they had to because they had a quick relationship to engagement and didn’t want people to assume they were only getting married because she was pregnant or something.
Cue the bride actually getting pregnant and then sending out their invitations in December for a wedding in early January. They did not explain their plans to anyone, they just sent them out.
So, we arrived at the wedding. The ceremony is in the field of her family farm. No trees around to break the wind or anything and it was very cold and windy being a midwestern January. Groomsmen and groom roll up on four wheelers, play the music and start down the aisle, and then someone rushes up to the groom to let him know that the bride is late.
No idea how late, just that her and the bridesmaids will be late. She ends up being two hours late and the guests were not allowed into the barn where the reception would be to warm up. So, we sat there freezing cold for two extra hours. She then rolls up like nothing happened, they get married, etc.
We head to the reception where this old, reclaimed barn turns out to be open on one side and the only warmth is space heaters. So, everyone is having to trade turns huddling around them. We also find out at the reception that the groom’s mother made a joke about how the bride would “be late to her own wedding” because she’s always late, so she was two hours late on purpose to spite her mother-in-law. The rest of the reception is relatively normal, albeit cold.
The highlight of the evening was that the bride was fighting back and forth with her sister to be the one to stand in front of the space heater for some pictures—even though she’s in a long sleeve fluffy dress and bridesmaid sister is in a thin satin dress—and the space heater burned a hole through about half of her dress’s layers.
They announced their divorce a week after their first anniversary.
Hrecheniuk Oleksii, Shutterstock
44. What Happens At A Bachelor Party Stays There, Right?
My cousin's, female, second wedding. The night before the groom had his bachelor party—this was around 1999—his best man had way too many glasses, refused to give up his keys, got involved in a chase by Leo's and then drove straight into an electric pole after catching air at the top of a steep hill. The consequence was absolutely gutwrenching—he passed instantly.
My cousin insisted on continuing with the wedding. I can't blame her, but still, she ended up with a wedding video where the groom was loudly sobbing throughout the entire ceremony.
45. Somebody Wants The Spotlight
In lieu of giving a toast at the rehearsal dinner, my mother-in-law got up to announce that she was getting married that next Wednesday. She wore her winter-white micro-mini skirt wedding suit to the ceremony the next day.
This was a quiet, Methodist-church wedding in the upper South. My husband’s childhood best friend showed up with his girlfriend absolutely stoned out of their gourds, some cocktail of certain substances and a passel of pharmaceuticals and probably a few things snorted to top it all off.
His mom stood at the buffet table and ate more than half of the groom's cake. I've been told it was absolutely amazing, perhaps the best chocolate cake ever, but we didn’t get any of it.
Bogdan Sonjachnyj, Shutterstock
46. Masterplan By The In-Laws
My father-in-law, he was the best man, carried my ring in his pocket. He went outside to smoke before the ceremony and was fiddling with the ring and dropped it in the grass. It was night. The wedding was delayed as everyone got flashlights to help look for it. No one told me what was going on.
They couldn't find it, so my mother-in-law let my husband borrow her anniversary band, which was fancy and had diamonds in it. So, when the time came, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a fancier ring than we had chosen.
I thought it was a surprise for me. My mother-in-law approached me after the ceremony and told me there was no way I was keeping it. A few minutes later someone out in the yard actually found my ring!
At the reception, my father-in-law vomited on my dress.
47. Bummer
At my friend’s wedding, the bride’s mother spent the whole ten-minute speech listing all of the terrible things that had happened that year, tragedies in the family, unfortunate diagnoses and health issues, damage to property due to natural disasters, etc.
Then, every once in a while, she would go “So it’s nice to have had this wedding to look forward to!” before diving right back into it. It was bad—but she took it even further. At one point, she started hinting that her son could do better, adding their relationship to the disasters she was listing off. I mean, how rude and nasty can one woman get?
My friends still haven’t shown anyone the part of the wedding video with the speeches because it was filmed from the head table, and you can clearly hear the bride on the video saying “Oh my God. I’m going to end her. Right now. I’m going to do it, she must be stopped” and her new husband telling her “You can’t do it right now, honey, there’ll be too many witnesses”.
Bogdan Sonjachnyj, Shutterstock
48. The Hospital Is The New Wedding Venue
I've ruined a wedding. I got pretty tipsy but not bad enough to pass out, just make stupid decisions. So I went to the bathroom—and next thing I knew, I woke up in a shock. I was in a hospital. Apparently, the groom had found me and had to perform first aid on me getting blood all over his suit.
What seems likely is I had leaned or sat on the sink for some reason which collapsed probably smashing my head in the wall/mirror and knocking me out cold. Talk about leaving in style.
49. We’re Heading Out Darling
My best friend and the only bridesmaid brought her new boyfriend to the wedding. Early into the evening reception, well before anyone else would have left, my bridesmaid approaches me and says, "Ah boyfriend wants to go now".
You know why? "Well, he wants to do it now".... that’s when I went bridezilla on him "Bridesmaid is here for my wedding, not for you. You are welcome to go but I want her to stay... And if anyone is getting laid tonight—it's me!"
Viacheslav Boiko, Shutterstock
50. Beware Of The Cousins
They didn't ruin the wedding but did ruin a couple of pictures. An aunt and her family are notorious for showing up, eating all the food, taking away some bottles, and leaving. Her one son, the nice guy that he is, has serious problems and just can't keep it together.
Her daughter is trashy and has a new boyfriend every week. She will show up to family events, make a gigantic plate of food, talk to no one, and leave. My family has a free vending machine in the "man cave" style basement, and she will nearly empty it before she leaves.
So, when my wife and I were planning the wedding, we didn't invite the one cousin with serious problems because at that point, he was in rehabilitation, and we didn't let the girl cousin have a plus one because we were making some guest list cuts and she has trashy boyfriends anyway.
Well, you can guess who shows up at only the reception. We had an open bar so the cousin who is in rehabilitation gets blitzed immediately. At that point, we knew we were in trouble. He was jumping into every picture he could and becoming a real nuisance. My dad, who had no relation to this cousin, almost had to kick him out before other family members took him away.
German Campagnolo, Shutterstock
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