Wedding Horror Stories- What's the worst you've seen?

@KateR. Not their fault, but has been voted the worse family wedding. But the whole family laughs. And the couple tried to return the gifts to make up for it. Just funny, people actually brought the McDonald's in the venue. My dad said if cell phones were around, he would have had Pizza delivered.

This wedding disaster requires a lot of background for some part if I explained the whole thing, so I'll stick to the list of what went wrong. This couple enjoyed talking ABOUT the wedding more than actually planning the damn thing. Their parents paid for most of the wedding if not all. So there was literally no excuse for a lot of this. I'm not sure if they flat out didn't know etiquette or didn't care. So here's the list:

-bride dragged BMs to "mini parties" for her wedding. Everything they did was a party

-only ever talked about their wedding. If you were near by, you were talked to about the wedding. Also, you were not allowed to talk about anything but the wedding. Got old quick.

- no invitations. Just Facebook invites.

-wedding was held on a holiday weekend. Bride got upset that people started telling her they could not go.

-colors and style clashed horribly with the venue. Also, they thought trash and an abandoned garden shed were "rustic"

-wedding was an elegant theme, reception was their misunderstood rustic theme.

-Potluck reception where the bride didn't even provide a main course, despite the venue being known for pizza and chicken.

-everyone, including the bride and groom, wore tacky flip flops that didn't even match colors.

-HoneyFund for a trip to Paris. No one donated.

-registry started at $400 and went up. They did not get many gifts. Bride threw a fit about this and the HoneyFund.

-cake was homemade by a family member and looked questionable.

-they ordered cake toppers the week before and did not get them in time. Took nasty cheap clay and hand molded toppers and put them on the cake. Gross.

-bride spent more time on photos of herself than mingling with guests

-groom decided to do kicks and flips right after the ceremony to show off.

-bride did not get her BMs gifts or even thanked them.

That's just some of it. I was honestly shocked when this all went on, but now I feel bad for the bride. They definitely should have put more money for a caterer (nobody ate) and planned the whole thing our a lot better. Not to mention they have random trailers in the background of their ceremony photos. Their "rustic" photos looked more like they were standing in trash. The bride tried hiding the fact that her wedding was truly overhyped and she was disappointed in it, but it really was her and her husbands own doing.

My fsil sent invites to her wedding that was planned in 4 months... after they had already had a courthouse wedding, their invites said to join them in their marriage. The aunt paid for it, we went. The bathroom smelled like shit bc the sewer ended up having a malfunction. The hired a friendor for the dj and their cousin took pics. I love my fsil, but her wedding was a vow renewal. They lied to their guests. Everything I've learned on here NOT to do, she did lol

Interesting with all the breaks between Catholic weddings. I've been to plenty, but never have heard of a big break between ceremony and reception. Our wedding is in the Catholic church and it starts at 7pm.

I've never been to a "bad" wedding. The worst thing that I've seen happen was when I was a BM in my cousin's wedding. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding under a big oak tree next to a plantation. When it came to exchange rings, the rings were nowhere to be found. After about 30 seconds of confusion, the MOH throws her/the brides' bouquets in my arms and runs across the street. I can't remember if they found them or just went on without the rings, but after 5 minutes, the wedding was back on track. It wasn't a big deal to couple; they're pretty laid back. The rest of the wedding went on without a problem. I would never suggest someone do this, but the father of the bride made flavored moonshine for the wedding. Oh. My. God. That strawberry moonshine was the best thing ever.

I've written about the worst wedding I've ever been to before but here are the highlights:

- Self-catered

-All Vegan ( personally that is fine if the food is edible, but this couple decided poorly executed vegan cheesecake would be their cake of choice)

- Dry wedding

- The couple actually got married 2 days before so the "ceremony" was a Quaker ceremony where we all sat in a circle and anyone could speak who felt moved. This lasted an hour. No one other than the brides parents were warned of this so no one had a prepared talk. Among those who felt moved to speak included the bride's ex-boyfriend

- The dancing was all contradancing. Could have tolerated this with enough alcohol, but I actually walked out when this got too long.

My cousin had a courthouse wedding a year before her original wedding date because of her dad being in very bad health (which is understandable). However, a year later she still had her wedding, expecting about 250 and maybe 30 showed up, most of my family worked wedding (dad photographed, me and aunts, uncles and cousins served, brothers ushered, etc.). The ceremony lasted 8 minutes, processional and recessional included, and she went down the aisle barefoot instead of in her plastic flip flops. Cue reception, where tons of the groom's family showed up to party. It was a dry reception so they drank in the parking lot. The dj was louder than any club I've ever been to playing club music and old traditional Mexican music all mixed together. Then the kicker - his family was Mexican and hers is white. Her food was catered, we served it, while the Mexican food was a potluck that wasn't served just sitting to the side. They even wanted to put out Mexican and American flags on the different tables. Probably the most racist thing ever and it was all planned by the bride and her mom. Apparently after my side of the family left the groom's side brought the party in, destroyed the venue with some crazy party, and they lost their deposit. In my opinion she deserved it for how she treated them!!! Eta they didn't even serve full sandwiches, we had to give them shredded chicken on a dinner roll!

Toonie bars are known across Canada in more rural areas. It's really a social circle thing. I've only seen it once. The "toonie" is used all across Canada for the $2 coin.

ETA: Sorry a bit late of an answer.

@Kate

So...her ex-boyfriend had actually started transitioning as she was transgender so was now presenting as female (this made things quite confusing as the I thought the bride was heterosexual so the relationships were a bit confusion) and was wearing a very short miniskirt and low cut shirt. She had dated the bride pre-transition. I tell you this to give you context for the scene.

She basically started explaining how the bride was a the greatest thing that had ever happened to her and how jealous she was of the groom. It was massively uncomfortable.

I wish I had thought of your idea- I was certainly moved to find any sort of alcohol.

We all went to the nearest place that served alcohol immediately after which happened to be an Olive Garden and ate lots of meat and drank as much liquor as they would serve us.

Not horrible, but not great.

My cousin got married a few years ago. We had to buy drink tickets in order to buy drinks at the bar. Her sister was the "DJ" and played songs with her iPod. Even though they had the venue until 11 pm or so, my cousins decided they'd rather go back to their hotel and go swimming so they abruptly ended the reception early, shortly after dinner. The staff started cleaning up the tables while we were still sitting there.

I've never been to any terribly rude weddings, but I do have one funny wedding horror story.

I was the MOH in my childhood best friend's wedding. She is a great person and so was the groom, but there were a number of reasons why their getting married right then seemed like maybe not the best choice (not the least of which is that she is almost certainly a deeply closeted lesbian. I was there for her growing up. I know what gender 100% of her crushes were. Zero judgment, just fact.)

Anyhow, at the very end of the ceremony the officiant lead the group in the Lord's Prayer. When that happened, BATS came down from the ceiling and started circling inside the church. I kid you not. Bats descended on the room. It was like something out of a movie. People were shrieking and running from the building. I wound up grabbing something tall and trying to help the groomsmen shoo the little critters outside.

It was pretty wild.

@Richard some was family & is what I'm use to. I've never been to a grande event wedding like most WW people describe.

Following so I can come back and read all this amazingness later!

Wedding at a church- reception took place in the same room. So we had to leave the room so it could be set up for the reception. During this time there was a "cocktail hour" in the hallway involving non-alcoholic slushies (it was December). We left the cocktail hour and did shots in the parking lot- only to find out when we returned inside that the church had security cameras of the parking lot broadcasting on televisions in the hallway.

The reception finally started and it was no dancing.

@Sarah! Thanks for the great idea! Musical chairs at my reception!! Fantastic! lol!

@reirei....my FFIL makes his own moonshine. It will be at the wedding, and it is delicious.

Oh man I just spent like an hour reading this. Dick shaped bowl is still funny!

I have two stories...

The first one the bride was an older bride getting married for the first time. At some bridal fair she got a special for booking the venue that day sight unseen. It was two hours from where anyone lived, middle of nowhere, and the nearby hotel was $200/night. The venue was horrible and was just starting weddings so they hadn't quite figured out all the logistics. It was also freezing and outdoors. The absolute worst part was her parents were in their 80's and the ground was super uneven and broken. One of her parents fell! Just horrible. Yea she got a good deal but all her guests had to suffer most of all her elderly parents. I know there was a meal that took forever to come (due to venues inexperience) but can't remember alcohol as I was like 12. I would guess it was cash bar though.

The second wedding, I didn't attend but I heard all about it from my roommate at the time, while it was all going down.

So my roommates friend met this guy in business school and fell hard for him. Problem: she was married and he was engaged. They end up having an affair, she and her hubby separate (but still live together) and the guy stays with his fiancée. It goes on for a long time and is just completely ridiculous. Like to the point that she went to his bachelor party. Then it continues and the couple are set to have their wedding in Mexico and so roommates friend decides to go to Mexico also (not to the wedding but to just hang out in the same exact city while the wedding is taking place...) A night or two before the wedding, he finally confesses it all to his fiancée but all of their guests have already travelled down there. They decide to have a ceremony & reception but not legally get married. The whole thing was so dramatic and ridiculous and in the end (pretty much right after the "wedding" mind you) my roommates friend and him fizzled out and that was that. It was insane though since I heard this story develop over many months.

I can think of three off the top of my head.

1. Bride was a friend of one of my closest friends. He went to beauty school but doesn't do hair, I have been doing hair for almost 9 years. I only knew her because years ago he and I moved into her old apt above her uncle's office. She invited me to her wedding via FB messenger as my friend's plus 1 and said she would pay for our hotel room if we did hair and makeup (Wedding was almost two hrs away). I agreed because I figured it would be a fun night to drink with my friend, and I had just broken up with my son's dad and needed a night out. Everyone was wasted when we got to the hotel the night before, the aunt was super racist and homophobic, it was a shit show. We were told we only needed to take care of the two sisters the next morning, but her other hairstylist friend was running behind so we had to help with everyone else. We barely had time to eat breakfast and get ready ourselves. Drive ourselves to the ceremony/reception and find out there is no alcohol, only food is cheese, fruits, crackers, etc... we drove the two hrs back home after ten minutes and got drunk at a bar.

2. My son's dad was in a wedding when I was 7mos pregnant. Ceremony was at three, but bride asked the wedding party to be there and ready by 8am for pictures. Offered no food or snacks, wouldn't let anyone leave, pictures were of only her until 11am, they had an hr before the ceremony to run and grab sandwiches for themselves. I sat in the back sweating my big preggo butt off because it was packed and there was no airflow. My ex found me after and said the bride, groom, and wp were getting a shuttle to a bar for more pictures. Reception was self-catered at groom's dad's house. I went home to change into something I could breath in, but apparently they kept guests waiting at the house for a couple HOURS. When I got there it was misty and in the 40s, and everyone was crammed under two little tents in the yard, no port-a-potties, and food was cold salads and pulled pork sandwiches and a couple coolers of bud light and water bottles. I immediately turned around, ordered a pizza, and cried.

3. The worst one was my ex's sister's wedding. We showed up at a local park, no chairs, everyone was hanging out drinking beers they bought, little sister was "officiant" and read from a script she found online, nobody knew what was going on because we were all just standing around drinking. Bride walked away so she could walk back, but since nobody knew what was going on there were two guys walking ahead of her carrying cases of beer. Everyone gathered to a clump, I assumed we were taking a pic or something, bride walked up to me and handed me her bouquet. I was drunk and confused, so it took a full minute before I realized the "wedding" had started. So I stood there next to her, sunglasses on, beer in one hand, bouquet in the other, confused af because there was no way this was actually happening. Fifteen minutes later we're at the bar having spaghetti and meatballs out of a crockpot and buying our own drinks. Groom is from KY, and his fam brought legit moonshine to share with everyone. Tasted like gasoline, but it sure made the night more interesting.

ETA: words

These should be published somewhere... thanks for sharing everyone!

Oh gosh this thread is ridiculous! Worst wedding I went to was for a friend's daughter. 4 of the brides 5 BMs were larger girls and the dress she chose for them was a very very unflattering strapless short yellow fluffy thing that made them all look kind of like chubby baby chicks. Then she had them all wear flip flops that she decorated with glitter- which fell off, leaving hunks of glitter everywhere. It was February so all the BMs needed a tan for those dresses. 2 BMs used self tanner- not successfully. One looked orange, the other was splotchy with white feet. The super skinny girl had white blonde hair and was so washed out looking next to the orange girl! The photographer who was a friend of a friend showed up drunk for a morning wedding. Not enough folding chairs for the ceremony so people were standing in the back and drunk photographer kept bumping into them and loudly complaining during the ceremony. The officiant was a friend who had a nervous giggle throughout which was bizarre. The bride's dress was poorly fitted/off the rack no alterations so on the way back down the aisle she tripped over it and lost one of her own half glittered flip flops and fell into some guests.

I skipped the reception but heard from a friend that braved it out that they only had finger sandwiches and chips. Apparently the wedding pics came back with a bunch of shots focusing on the bride and BMs back fat and boobs.

ETA auto correct fix

Not exactly horrible but I was a bridesmaid in a wedding where they only played goth/industrial music at the reception. It was also freezing and snowing and we had to take pictures for an hour and a half outside. Missed the one hour open bar because of that. The wedding was also in a town that is known for Halloween on Halloween. Traffic was a nightmare. The reception though was 40 min away in the middle of nowhere. So, no hotels to stay in if you wanted to drink a little.