In a perfect world, all weddings are momentous occasions filled with nothing but fun and lasting memories. They are joyous celebrations for the bride and groom to fondly look back on in the years to come.
But of course, real life doesn’t always operate that way. Some ceremonies involve drama, tension, and moments worth forgetting, much like these stories people shared on Reddit.
Many of these disastrous accounts border on funny, but overall, they are unfortunate situations you wouldn’t want anyone to experience on their big day.
#1
At the reception, the bride and groom got into a horrible fight, the groom shoved the bride up against a wall by her neck and then all hell broke loose. It was like the entire room erupted into a fist fight, things were broken, people were hysterical. Like a scene from a movie. 90% of the guests spoke Spanish as their first language and I speak very little Spanish so to this day I don’t even know half of what instigated it or what was said.
Image source: StrongTree17
#2
At the wedding reception, one of the bride’s coworkers proclaimed that she hadn’t made arrangements for a place to stay because she was going to pick up a guy at the reception.
She started aggressively hitting on one of the groomsmen and had to be removed from the dance floor. Following that failure, she got incredibly drunk, and ended up locking herself in the bathroom. She was so inebriated at that point that the fire department had to break down the door and pump her stomach on the way to the hospital.
So I guess she did find a place to spend the night after all!
Image source: walkthebassline, Vailery / envato (not the actual photo)
#3
The goofy Peter Griffin-looking groom absolutely demolished his cute, sweet little bride with cake. I’m talking one hand on the back of her head, the other literally grinding cake into her face as she struggled to break free. Her hair and makeup were ruined.
Image source: dreamsinred, WeddingMan123 (not the actual photo)
#4
A guest collapsed and the father of the bride had to perform CPR in his tux on the ground outside until the ambulance arrived. The father was a cardiologist so at least he knew what he was doing.
Image source: Poodlepink22, kostinat / envato (not the actual photo)
#5
The grooms best friend, a woman, talked about how they were each others safeties back in the day. Also called the brides dog ugly.
Image source: msleepd, CCISUL / envato (not the actual photo)
#6
Pastor gave a long winded and confusing speech during the service that was about all of his wives who had passed away. Like 3 or 4 deceased wives.
I don’t remember the point of that story in relation to a wedding BUT I do remember feeling very uncomfortable and wondering if the pastor was actually responsible for that.
Image source: casapantalones, seventyfourimages / envato (not the actual photo)
#7
Arrived with my parents and future wife to my cousin’s wedding across the country.
Upon arriving two days before the blessed event, we’re told we are expected to cater as it’s a low budget affair. Fine, guess we’re having an adventure. We go to Sam’s club and buy a giant bag of frozen chicken and stuff for potato salad and a bunch of mango chutney to put on the chicken. Probably some other stuff too (this was 25 years ago).
We cook the potatoes one saucepan at a time in my other cousin’s under equipped kitchen, and make a giant mountain of potato salad. Great.
The reception is in a pavilion at a public park. There’s a basic on-site kitchen and the plan is to barbecue the chicken with the chutney and serve it with the potato salad. Great.
The park’s refrigerator is broken – it just ices up the coils and doesn’t get cold. The chicken is still frozen when it’s time to get ready for the ceremony, so we put up the potato salad in the barely-icebox using the chicken as a cooling source and hope the chicken heats up and the potato salad stays cold by evening. What could go wrong.
We get to the ceremony, (btw this is a medieval themed wedding held at 4:20 pm). I’m in the front row with family so I can’t visibly laugh. This will shortly become a significant challenge.
The officiant, in his long white robe and long white beard, dramatically until the scroll with the vows, takes a beat, and says “I can’t read this.” The groom replies “you’re holding it upside down.” Problem solved, fantastic. Top marks.
Then there’s a moment where the officiant says “who will vouch for this man?” and whoever was on vouch duty dropped the ball, so there was a long moment before his mom pipes up “I will” and the ceremony can continue.
Nuptials completed, we head to the reception to get catering. That’s when we learn, in quick succession:
* The potato salad is warm
* The chicken is still frozen solid
* They bought 2 bags of charcoal to grill chicken for 75 people
* The groom’s band is the entertainment, *with the groom in his lead singer role*. Bride is dancing with her bridesmaids I guess.
Don’t really have time to investigate the whole band/dancing situation because we’ve got chicken to grill. We’re running the huge chicken boulder under the sink and breaking off pieces as we can, then grilling them on the anemic heat and serving with warm potato salad. Guests are complaining their chicken is raw, but all we can offer is more raw chicken.
I think I’ve traumatically blacked out the rest of the occasion.
I don’t think anyone passed, but the marriage didn’t last.
Image source: pinkmeanie, aleeenot / envato (not the anctual photo)
#8
The stepmom gave a speech about how the groom (her stepson) wasn’t allowed to smoke grass at his mom’s house as a teenager, and how she had so much fun secretly smoking together anyway.
The whole speech was basically bashing the groom’s mom while making herself look ‘good’ (but bad, because yikes).
Image source: LaughingOutLoudAgain, rthanuthattaphong / envato (not the actual photo)
#9
Someone tried to propose to his girlfriend.
The best man almost hurled him out of a window.
The bride (thank God) didn’t see that, and neither did most of the other guests.
The best man promptly walked the guy out of the hall with a hand over his mouth..
Image source: Impossible_Offer7988, LightFieldStudios / envato (not the actual photo)
#10
Was at a massive Indian wedding (over 350 guests.) At the reception, I’m in line for food and the line snakes by the DJ, who is up on a raised platform. The older gentleman in front of me in line tries to climb up to talk to the DJ, but is struggling, so I help him up. He put his hand on one of the speakers and it falls over/off the riser, and the music stops.
Everyone looks over at us. And the old man turns and looks at me.
For the rest of the night, I’m the white boy who messed up the music.
Image source: CalabreseAlsatian, wirestock / envato (not the actual photo)
#11
Bartender served children champaign instead of sparking cider.
I was one of those children.
Image source: oogleboogleboiga, seventyfourimages / envato 9not the actual photo)
#12
Brother of the groom got wasted on the mic “remember when dad got that chick pregnant in the Philippines and we found out we had a brother?”.
Image source: the_evil_potat0, YuriArcursPeopleimages / envato (not the actual photo)
#13
I am a guy. My sister got married.
My dad gave a toast at the reception, saying that his daughter, the bride, was like the son he never had.
Cut to all the attendees looking at my brother and me.
Image source: LunchyDude101, DragonImages
#14
My cousin’s bride went missing from the reception which launched a search party. She was eventually located at a nearby bar with the ex bf she’d been having an affair with for years. My idiot cousin stayed with her like a chump and cut off his entire family to make her happy.
Image source: PensOfSteel, sedrik2007 / envato (not the actual photo)
#15
The groom’s best man giving a 20-minute speech about how the bride used to be the “hottest girl in their friend group”… while the bride was sitting right there.
He ended it with “But hey, you won, man!”
The silence after that speech was so loud I could hear the marriage slowly ending in real time…
Image source: ModeSignificant2870, Omelnickiy / envato (not the actual photo)
#16
Well, I was invited to a surprise wedding. It was advertised as an engagement party/costume party since it was near Halloween. The bride was absolutely HORRIBLE leading up to the actual wedding, which was sort of understandable. I was joking about wearing a hot dog costume and she absolutely flipped out at me and told me I had to promise to wear something upscale—she did this to everyone. She also gave me a job to do, which was bring her desserts.
I showed up and it was pretty clear this was a wedding, not an engagement party. It was awkward as hell because she had her whole bridal party getting ready (she had 4 outfit changes that day) and I went and waited in my car until her sister called me to come (again, awkwardly) hang out.
This isn’t even the worst part. It was at her mother-in-law’s house and like 100 degrees and there was no shade. People were dressed in these black costumes from like 1pm. Finally, at like 4pm the bride and groom came out and announced they were actually getting married that day. His mother immediately started hysterically crying—not in a good way. Because the parents of the bride/groom weren’t prepared to give speeches, they gave the most bizarre and horribly honest speeches.
Her dad, who was a professional athlete, immediately started talking about how her husband had no idea who he was when they met. It was so arrogant and cringey. Then the groom’s father came up and said “so and so is a good boy—he just doesn’t care about professional sports” and then that speech turned into an attack on the bride and her family.
Meanwhile, MIL is still sobbing uncontrollably.
They also spent like 2 hours taking their wedding photos and the bride’s cousin jumped in there with her boyfriend and took a bunch of shots. That really pissed off the bride.
It was such a bizarre and horrible wedding that I actually cried the entire way home, lol! And then for weeks and weeks afterwards, our friend group had to listen to this gal complain about the plethora of things she was pissed about.
My mom can be a real a-hole but one of my favorite things was telling her this was a secret wedding and her response was “Who does she think she is–Beyoncé?!”
Needless to say, a lot of us don’t talk to this woman anymore. It was so embarrassing.
Image source: Devmoi, Zinkevych_D / envato (not the actual photo)
#17
The mother of the groom showed up wearing a literal, full white bridal gown. When the bride’s maid of honor “accidentally” spilled an entire glass of red wine down the front of it during cocktail hour, the mother screamed, she threw the cake she had on a little plastic plate.
Image source: Sensitive-Date-5255
#18
The Bride’s mom getting up to give a speech talking about all of her daughter’s previous boyfriends and how she wanted her to marry all of them.
Image source: 2020grilledcheese, Wavebreakmedia / envato (not the actual photo)
#19
Wedding guest had a GI issue on the shuttle to the somewhat rural venue. Basically soiled herself. She was older and mortified. The venue manager would not let her inside the building to use the bathroom. This poor woman had to sit in the sun in her own poo and wait for a ride.
I would be livid if I found out that one of my guests was treated so poorly.
You can’t tell me there’s never been a child related poo incident or drunk guest puking at a wedding venue. This was an older person with a medical issue. Completely humiliated. Still makes me mad…
Image source: jillian512, Kohanova / envato (not the actual photo)
#20
The priest spent a good half hour thanking the bride for choosing to stop living in sin.
Image source: gottahavethatbass, AnnaStills / envato (not the actual photo)
#21
Saw the groom make out with a bridesmaid right after the first dance it got ugly fast.
Image source: No_Setting8688
#22
After a very, very long wait for the food (buffet), and after only about 20 minutes, our plates- which hadn’t even been cleared yet- were snatched away right from under our noses; they were collected from everyone and the buffet was dismantled because they were supposedly “behind schedule.” We were a group of 4 and decided to leave, even when the bride was sad about that. The couple got divorced 2 years later…
Image source: Hanabi685
#23
Mother of bride is my Mom’s sister. All 5 of my Mom’s sisters fight bitterly since childhood. If left alone the feud stays on a low simmer. A vindictive sister in law decided to make it her mission to crank it up to a roaring boil THAT DAY. The whole reception was all about the feud. My poor cousin.
Next cousin who got married eloped.
Image source: Next-Historian-8069
#24
Food. I thought it was a big cheesecake, it actually was mashed potatoes in the shape of cake with blueberry sauce (it was in China).
Image source: literally_lemons
#25
The pastor for my wedding asked if he could add comments to the ceremony. My now-ex admired him as a pastor, so we agreed. Unfortunately, he’d been recently divorced, so his comments were all about how shiny the rings were today but over time, they’d be dinged and scratched and dulled, just like our love. It was so yikes. My groom and I were crossing our eyes at each other and trying not to laugh.
Image source: mustbethedragon
#26
Bride passed out drunk in the bridal suite and the groom decided he “deserved a wedding night” so he spent it with a bridesmaid. That was his argument when caught.
Image source: Pistalrose
#27
Some very (generic, probably inaccurate term) gothy college friends had a very ‘alt’ wedding, dress code was band tshirts and they walked down the aisle to their favorite screamo band (couldn’t tell you who it was but it fit) and it was really a quite beautiful ceremony.
Except the Bride’s mother who turned up in the dress she wanted to wear as a traditional maid of honor and carrying the wedding dress she wanted her daughter to wear and had to be asked to leave the room because she wouldn’t stop performative wailing about how her daughter had ruined HER day.
The rest of the day was fine, her mother sat in the corner looking for attention that was not granted her, and the couple are still together, some 20 years later and very happy with 3 little goth kids in training. I assume her mother is doing a Miss Havisham routine in the same dress.
She was awful though, the idea that you would turn up purely to disrupt in such a performative manner still makes me shake my head.
Image source: Lower-Reward-1588
#28
At my sisters wedding, a deranged auntie and her daughter had broken into the reception hall and made her way over to my 89 year old great gran (her mum) and tried to drag her out the reception as we are all no contact with her. she proceeded to try to get into a fistfight with my gran (her sister) which the cousin jumped in and i had to drag said cousin by the hair while my gran and mum went for the auntie, i got a high five off my sister after and we haven’t heard from any of them since, great times 😂.
Image source: Mean_Cauliflower5329
#29
Father of the bride so drunk he fell on top of her during their dance.
Image source: Similar_Cup_9770
#30
The mom of the groom spoke for 27 minutes and shared a few gems. One was how he came back for one last suckle when his sibling was born. I don’t think anyone needed to hear that. It was 27 minutes of cringe.
Image source: buttercream73437
#31
My husband’s co-worker got married and had a very formal black tie reception. The groom proceeded to get so drunk, he vomited all over the head table and passed out. The mother of the bride ended up calling the ambulance. He spent the night in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. They were divorced within the year.
Image source: RNnobody
#32
Goldfish as centerpieces.
Image source: Sophia–Petrillo
#33
The groom gave a 47 minute, yes we timed it, speech about how amazing he was at a rather small wedding.
Image source: Wreny84
#34
Wedding was in one space, reception was in another, significantly more rural area (about an hour drive away) with truly nothing else nearby.
This is bad enough, but then the bride and groom got into a fight between the wedding and reception, and spent the entire time arguing directly in front of the only entrance in or out of the reception hall so everyone had to walk past them.
Image source: StandardFilm1
#35
A child got body-checked by a bridesmaid during the bouquet toss. The kid caught it, gets rushed by a bunch of burgundy taffeta, and the bridesmaid rips the thing from the girl’s hands! I was the child, I was 12, it was my cousin’s wedding.
Image source: Marillenbaum
#36
The best man and a bridesmaid had split up. He got really drunk and aggressive, people were trying to calm him down, but he was getting worse and he wouldn’t leave. I was a bridesmaid too and a groomsman told me there was a car outside ready to get her out of there, we were in puff ball type dresses, I was pulling her along, we all throw ourselves into the car, the best man is chasing after us, trying to open the door, and still clinging to the door and running along side of us. When he let go and we were able to drive off we all started laughing hysterically, which I guess was shock.
We must have look a sight, holding onto our puff ball dress, running in high heels, and we still kept hold of our bouquets.
Image source: Which_Comfortable_32
#37
I always thought it would be related to the overconsumption of alcohol like many others here. Then I attended my first Mormon wedding in a dry county where they raised the baskets in the high school gymnasium to have the ceremony. it took us all a few seconds – and then we realized there was no bar.
Who are you people?
Image source: Personal_Might2405
#38
This happened in the 70’s.
Everyone got super drunk and two of the groomsmen were started really going after each other. People were getting involved on each side. The bride stepped in between them at the same time one raised a fist to punch the other guy and punched the bride right in the nose. Big brawl breaks out and the bride has a broken and bloody nose.
This was fairly recent. A fairly prominent county worker had their wedding at a local park. The kegs were tapped before the ceremony started. Everyone was drinking beer from red solo cups (yes, not even color coordinated) and the bride walked down the aisle with her bouquet in one hand and a solo cup. The groom was standing in front of the officiant drinking his beer waiting for her. They said their vows and handed off their solo cups (and bouquet) and exchanged rings.
Then everyone went and got refills. The BBQ was good.
Image source: Butterbean-queen
#39
Best man was hammered and had to do the speech.
It was something along the lines of “Bride, groom I love you man and yeah. I love you guys” then a mic drop and stumbles away to chug more beer.
I was a brides maid and cringed with the whole room.
Image source: ChaoticGoodPanda
#40
I was a groomsman at the wedding of one of my very good college friends. His wife-to-be is one of the most intelligent people I know. My friend is Jewish, his wife is half-Muslim (through her dad) and half-Eastern Orthodox (through her mother).
The wedding was beautiful. They put together a tapestry of all three faiths rather nicely I felt; they had a Christian element, a Jewish element, and an Islamic element, too. Each of their parents wrote out something to say. My friend’s dad spoke, and recited a very thoughtful Hebrew prayer. His mom read a wonderful passage of the Old Testament. Her mom read a few verses from the New Testament.
And then her dad got up and started speaking. He was holding his phone in his hand, and I wasn’t quite sure if he didn’t know how to put it down or if he was reading off of it, but then he played a recording of a Muslim Call To Prayer that was meaningful to him.
No, he went to YouTube Dot Com, searched for whatever it was, found the video while he was standing at the pulpit and subjected the entire wedding to an unskippable Vance Auto Parts ad, and then played a recording of a radio broadcast through a microphone.
That was the worst thing I’ve seen at a wedding.
Image source: InMemoryOfZubatman4
#41
The groomsman in his speech explained to the room that they used to call the groom, whose initials were DB, “Dirty Balls.” Note this was a second wedding for both and the couple was around age 50 and religious.
Image source: BlueChalcedonyFrog
#42
My cousin tried to jump over a small stream next to the venue and slipped on a rock and paralyzed himself from the waist down. Kinda ruined the whole wedding vibe.
Image source: Shes_dead_Jim
#43
A man standing there getting married, knowing that he just cheated on his wife the night before and the fact that he now has a 17yo kid from it.
Image source: Spectreworld
#44
Maybe not the worst thing, but my mother brought her own cake to my reception after I asked her not to because she didn’t like the cake we were providing.
Image source: nightowl6221
#45
Groom got arrested. His mother got run over. His father got tazed.
Image source: Loud-Celery-6608
#46
So my brother was the officiant for his good friend’s wedding and this happened the night before the wedding.
The best man (groom’s best friend) and the bride-to-be …turns out were having an affair for some time. The best man is also a married man with a toddler and his wife is good friends with the bride as well.
Well the night before the wedding, the best man’s wife was celebrating with the bride in her suite and shared very happy news that she & her husband (best man) are expecting their 2nd child.
This news completely threw the bride over the edge and sent her into a chaotic emotional mess. I guess the best man was playing with/manipulating her and saying how he doesn’t even sleep with his wife anymore, it’s a tumultuous marriage, and they both had plans to be together after getting through this wedding/separating from their partners.
She became hysterical, told the wife of the affair, she told her soon to be husband while he was with the best man. It was this extreme emotional fight. She was even threatening to harm herself. Everything exploded and there was no wedding obviously the next day.
Obviously that relationship dissipated + loss of deep friendships. But the wife of the best man actually forgave him and they just had their 3rd kid….
Image source: shiftctrlc_rosebud
#47
My cousin’s 14yo, clinging to his mother’s hand and sucking his thumb throughout the entire reception. There are no neurological deficits, he’s just homeschooled.
Image source: BuckyRainbowCat
#48
Very religious couple in a borderline religious cult. They went in for their first kiss teeth to teeth. We heard the teeth hit each other. Yikes. Most awkward kiss I ever saw.
Image source: JennLostAndFound
#49
The groom’s friends decorated the ‘get away’ car. Tastefully I would say. The bride saw it before the couples exit and would not come down because she was so upset- it was her car. Nothing special- a late 90’s accord. The bridesmaids all then washed the car as we watched in disbelief.
Image source: BeardyMcTrout
#50
Perfect timing. Went to my partner’s cousins wedding last week. Tension has been building for a while between the bride and her grandmother (who is also my partner’s grandmother) over not visiting, and snarky comments each have made to the other. Bride has never cared greatly for her grandma and I can see why, If I’m honest, shes one of those people who always thinks they’re right and see’s anyone else giving a differing opinion a personal attacker. Grandma is angry because bride never visits her.
No one thought she should attend as she is not one for holding her tongue, but she wanted to go. We tried to stop her but she took herself along.
Everything was fine until the photographs. The photographer called for “the brides family.” Grandma steps forwards, the photographer says, sorry, no grandmas. Mother of the bride sees the expression on grandmas face and says, no, we want her in the photos. It was always the plan for her to be in these photos.
Photos are taken. During the drinks reception afterwards, grandma accosts the bride and starts screaming in her face about how she can’t believe she’s being treated like this, how disgusting that nobody wanted her in the photos (not true) and that she shouldn’t be seated by the exit (it was my table too and it was lovely.) bride apologies profusely but refuses to have grandma moved to the top table, she explains only bride and grooms parents and the wedding party are sitting there. She didn’t know that the table would be close to the exit but she doesn’t see the issue, the table is lovely. Grandma continues to scream about the disrespect. Everyone is staring and the mother of the bride comes over. After making the bride cry and leave the room (at her own wedding) she does the same to the mother of the bride, screaming about disrespect and then the same to the father of the bride (her son). Speeches are announced, bride returns and everyone sits down. Groom stands up and begins to speak. In the silence whilst everyone has a sip of champagne during his toast, she loudly scraped her chair back and storms out during the grooms first speech honouring his new wife.
She was completely at fault, she had every right to be upset about past issues but it was the wrong time and place. It was absolutely appalling to witness. We were stood with her trying to calm her down while she was screaming at everyone, so everyone was staring at us like “are you going to sort this out?” I’ve never been so embarrassed or ashamed in my life.
Image source: JustEllie12345678910
#51
Bridal party was tailgating in the parking lot as the guests arrived. There was a pile of empty cans and cases, so they had been there awhile. The bride was so drunk she could barely make it down the aisle. They delayed the ceremony because of it. They managed to get her upright enough and she somehow made it all the way through this Catholic wedding. She didn’t even bother coming to the reception.
Image source: ekimlive
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