30 Of The Stupidest Wedding Traditions, As Shared On This Online Thread

Inviting everyone you’ve ever met.
Or on the flip side when people you don’t see much are upset they’re not invited.

Not sure if that counts as tradition but dang. Just invite the ones you like. Lol

I wouldn't say they irk me but I think wedding favours are a bit pointless. When I was a waitress in a hotel that did a lot of weddings, around half the guests wouldn't take them and they just ended up either getting thrown away or dumped back on the bride and groom the next day, and it just felt like such a colossal waste of money.

(This is why when I got married, the 'favours' were a striped paper bag in our wedding colours - like the kind you get at the fair or in old fashioned sweet shops - with a slice of wedding cake and a teabag with a blend of tea my ex-husband and I made ourselves, so when people got back to where they were staying they could have some tea and cake.)

Oh, and also the idea that the best man's speech has to be a relentless mickey take of the groom. A bit of light ribbing is OK but I've seen more than one that just descended into outright meanness about the groom, his new wife and her family, and it's not a pleasant experience for anyone involved.

Well, not to be a party pooper but I hate the messy ‘hen nights’ and ‘stag dos’ we have in the UK. We’ve managed to traumatise (well, heavily p**s off) most of Europe with these kinda do’s going on in places like Amsterdam, Malaga, Budapest, Benidorm to list a few. It’s embarrassing to be English nowadays, and them day drinking wrecks have a bit to do with it.

I went to college in York and it’s hen and stag do central there because of the pubs and horse racing (and the fact is quite pretty). They caused a lot of vomit on the lovey cobbled streets, in broad daylight, on a sunny Saturday.

The separation of men and women in wedding parties. I'm from a very traditionally Catholic family and am very close to my youngester brother.

The spot of best man always goes to someone in your family that you are closest to (something my mom and dad told my older brothers who each chose each other) but when it came down to my younger brother and I my mom actually laughed at the idea of me being my brother's best maid.

I adore marriage, and have been married over 40 years to my favorite person!

But most wedding traditions-- nay, all of them!-- are upsetting. Archaic, and they smack of ownership and dominion, not partnership.

If I went back in time, I would want us to just elope quietly, skip all the silliness, and I would keep my maiden name.

I’ve been a bridesmaid (or attendant) in 9 weddings. I have come to really hate weddings. I’m so over wearing an ugly dress (unfortunately I have yet to be in a wedding where I liked the dress), spending copious amounts of money, and feeling like glorified servant. It costs me usually around $1000 to be a bridesmaid! Do you know what I could’ve purchased for $9k at this point?!? I think the costly expectations of friends and family are the absolute worst part of the wedding industry. The ugly dress is just the salt in the wound lol.

Honestly, how many events there are surrounding it (stag and doe, bridal shower, engagement party, Bachelorette, you name it) and how expensive everything is. Getting people to travel etc...expensive bridesmaids dresses...don't even get me started on how much brides spend.

I would rather none of the big parties leading up to it, a simple enough ceremony (*not* a destination wedding because honestly you shouldn't do that unless you can cover people's travel expenses), a cheap dress (under $1k), and spend more money on the honeymoon and you know, starting your life together.

Checking the bedsheets for blood the morning after. Taken so seriously in some areas that you can buy fake blood capsules to fool the parents.

No shade toward people who do a bouquet toss because it's fun and silly and makes you happy, but I personally did not want my wedding to perpetuate a game that makes a bunch of women in heels and nice dresses engage in physical combat for the privilege of being the next woman to get married. The whole "being married to a man is such a prize that women will elbow their girlfriends right in the face in order to beat them to it, and being married to a woman is such a burden that that men have to be forced into it" narrative is tired as hell.

Too many to choose my top irk. So many wedding/marriage traditions are so archaic and/or cringe

Note: most of these are based on het weddings/marriages. Totally understand and love that not all weddings feature a bride or groom

- the wedding dress color reflecting the bride’s sexual past (I get that this isn’t a big thing anymore but still)
- the father “giving” the bride to the groom
- wearing a veil
- the bride changing her last name but not the groom
- joking that the bride/marriage is awful (rude toasts, cringy wedding toppers showing the groom trying to run away and the bride dragging him)
- digging the garter from under the brides skirt and flinging it at the unmarried men. Like what?!
- making the bridesmaids wear the same color/style dress regardless of their body types/preferences/budgets
- going into debt for a one day event
- expecting others to go into debt as part of the wedding party (expensive clothes, destination parties, gifts, etc)
- being so rushed that the bride and groom can’t enjoy their day or spend a few moments together