People Share What Ruined Weddings They Attended, Here Are The 43 Best Stories

Big family wedding many years ago. I was not part of either family, but knew both sides well. Didn't know many of their cousins. One pair of cousins (brother and sister) did not get along at all. As is often the case at weddings this simmered and finally blew up. Sister was visibly being a b***h to brother all day, making snide remarks from the very start. He seemed to be bearing it with good grace, presumably because of the occasion. On a couple of occasions when he seemed to be losing his cool either their mother or father took notice and stepped in.

I was seated at the same table with them, as were two other cousins and a few other friends who knew both bride and groom. Sister continued her comments and making fun of brother, really mean s**t, that made people uncomfortable at the table. At this stage, the beer and wine had been flowing for a while and sister got louder. Parents of the two over to the table 2 or 3 times to calm things down, mostly shushing sister and calming brother ("you know what she's like" and "be the biggger person"). During the speeches she contributed to p**s him off until he very calmly reached over and pulled off her wig. She had complete alopecia (hair loss) and from the gasps from the surrounding tables of cousins this was a closely guarded secret.

Sister was obviously very upset, grabbed her wig and ran off in tears. Brother just sat back calmly, sighed and took a drink. He announced he'd been wanting to do that for years. Presumably he was going to catch holy hell for it later on but he was going to bask in the revenge and public humiliation of his sister for a few minutes.

While I felt bad for his sister, it was hard to feel sorry for her. She had been unmercifully taunting this guy about every single work and relationship failing in a very public and nasty manner, and he had just had to suck it up because of their parent's continuous interventions.
Sounded like it had been coming for a while.

While I was walking back down the aisle after saying my vows, my mother loudly exclaimed how it was so great I had that miscarriage because "imagine how it would have looked to be wearing white with a toddler running around".

She said it so loud that my wedding singer (the music didn't work so my opera trained friend sang as a gift to me) stopped dead mid-song and yelled "What the f**k?!"

On the bright side, nobody questioned for the rest of my life why I disliked my mother.

I’ve told this story before. The couple to be decided 1) to use their black Lab as the ring bearer, and 2) to release doves after the ceremony. In retrospect, of COURSE the dog would absolutely lose his s**t when 50 or so of the very thing he’s genetically programmed to chase just fly out of a box. Like, they’re called “Labrador Retrievers”. They retrieve s**t. It’s right there in the name.

Anyway, all was calm until the minister opened the Box. The birds started flying out, and the dog couldn’t help himself. He lunged away from the flower girl, (who fell, and was now on the ground crying), sprinted the 20’ or so, and tackled the cage / box thing. For maybe 10 seconds, it was just a blur of screaming and feathers. He did eventually manage to catch one, and being who he was, he then proudly marched up to the bride and dropped it at her feet.

Don’t do the bird thing at weddings, people. Terrible idea for a whole bunch of reasons.

(No, the couple in question is no longer married. Probably not because of this.).

I went to a wedding for some close friends. They are high school sweethearts. They are also just, in general, sweethearts. They deserved a magical day and it went disastrously.

Their priest died a few days before so they had to find a back up. This guy was either drunk or having a stroke. He could not remember the bride's name throughout the actual ceremony. He called her by at least 4 different names. She kept having to correct him.

Then during the reception, which was outdoors, the wind picked up like crazy. No one could hear any speeches and everything started getting knocked over. Then it started raining.

We were all shuffled inside a tiny room because there was another indoor wedding happening at the venue. So 200 people, soaked and now cramped.

The bride and groom decided to cut the cake and celebrate in spite of everything.

When they went to cut the cake, the wedding topper fell off and the bride's head split in half. The topper bride obviously. But still. The actual bride casually excused herself and had herself a very deserved moment alone.

This was about 9 years ago and they are still happily married.

Just a few hours before the wedding, the groom's father, age- 50-ish, sat in his recliner to take a short power nap and never woke up. The couple went through with the wedding anyway since a lot of family had traveled there for it. Just a sad day all around.

Before my wedding (which I planned all of it), I asked my fiancee for one favor... a promise to not smash wedding cake in my face. He agreed, said he's not into that, we can sweetly feed each other the first cake bite and share a moment.

So the moment arrived, he smashed cake all over my face, hair, wedding dress. I didn't say anything except 'excuse me'. Then I went back to the dressing room, changed outfits, wiped the cake and icing off my hair, washed my face, re-did my make-up and returned to the reception. He had the audacity to ask me if I'm ok. I told him yes but... there will be no bouquet toss, garter grab, first dance... no traditions. I'm just going to party. That scenario set the stage for our marriage, we divorced 9 years later. I should have let him go right then.

I was there, among the guests, when everything started to fall apart. The ceremony was almost at the end, Ana was walking down the aisle beaming, and Martin, the groom, was looking at her as if she was the woman of his life. But the moment the bride's mother, Silvia, got up from her seat, something in the air changed: Silvia approached Martín, whispered something in his ear, and I saw his face transform. I thought maybe she was saying something affectionate or nervous for the big moment, but no. Soon after, Silvia asked to speak, interrupting the ceremony with a serious, almost defiant expression. We all looked at each other confused, and then she dropped the bombshell: “Martin, I can't hide it anymore. I love you, and I don't want you to keep marrying my daughter. What we had... it was real, and I still feel it.”.

Well, the tornado at the outdoor reception was kinda bad.

Best man here. Buddy 100 percent American Indian. Wife Baptist and her father was the priest at the church. At the grooms dinner, the families argued about alcohol at the wedding. So the father/priest said we could take his boat around the lake (wedding at an extravagant house on the lake that the brides father/priest owned). Because there would be no alcohol at his house. We got back from a quick drink across the lake and he sent everyone home because we were drinking... And he already agreed we could do this. He told his daughter.. I told you not to drink, now I sent everyone home.
She cried and cried. I never felt to terrible for someone. My buddy was as cool as you could be, told everyone to stay, got on the phone and called as many people as he could to come back. 4 hours later we had the dance and cake cutting. All of the Indian side of my buddies family... We all stood the the property line and brought an obscene account of alcohol. Just partied outside his house line.
I've never seen anyone do something that horrible to their daughter on their wedding day.

Watched my friends mum have a drunken meltdown during her daughters ceremony. Took 6 people to get her out!
She started drinking at 5am, was asked not to turn up to the hotel where the bridal party was getting ready and then broke down when she saw the bridesmaids dresses were black and not pink like she wanted, her daughter (the bride) wore royal blue instead of white. Her mum wanted nothing to do with dress shopping so her future MIL came with her.

The police ended up having to take her away after the venue called them.

Didn’t see it but certainly experienced it… I got stuck in an elevator for over an hour at a hotel wedding reception and no one noticed. I was 11.

My own wedding was a fun one. Grey and drizzly through the day, of course its an outdoor wedding in August. Rain stopped for the ceremony, it was perfectly overcast and mild, and then a tornado decided to fly through and knock out the power and call the party short. All the legalities were done and all the guests were safe and got home safely, but let's say it wasn't what we expected!

Honestly it was a fun time, and the restaurant brought us back 6 months later to redo the reception :) Hubs and I are now married 2.5 years and still loving life together!

While I was not in the reception room, my mom dragged my husband on stage in front of all the guests and made him recite some words in a language he did not speak. We had discussed our unwillingness to do anything like that before the wedding and she promised no surprises. It turns out, he professed to convert religions to her religion. He was a Catholic missionary. All her guests flooded over to the table his parents were at and congratulated them on his change of faith, which they were not happy about. I didn’t find out until the honeymoon. That was the 100000th s****y thing she did on my wedding day. I should never have invited her. My wedding anniversary is the anniversary of the day I realized my mother genuinely did not care about me.

At one wedding I went to, the groom started complaining in his speech about how much it all cost and called out family members for not pitching in. It was so awkward, and everyone felt uncomfortable. Weddings can really bring out the drama!

Good friend got married, on the way out they had the traditional “throwing the rice” celebration gauntlet. Everything A+++. On the honeymoon to Bali, bride began to get headaches. They chalked it up to overindulging on rich food and booze. It kept getting worse. She hung in there, but finally got a really high fever on the day before departure. They sucked it up, got on the plane, and by the time they got home, she was in major pain. They went to the ER… Where it was discovered that a single grain of rice had embedded against her eardrum, and caused a massive gnarly/ugly and risky infection.

Got my period on the day of my wedding. Bled all over the back of my dress, and spent my wedding night with a heating pad instead of my husband!

A young guy (maybe 20ish, and a distant relative of the bride, second cousin or something like that) got absolutely blacked out drunk, projectile vomitted all over the dance floor, and the brides 72 yr old dad slipped and fell in it and broke his hip. That was a wild wedding.

I’ve told this story before. This was my wedding.

Between the ceremony and reception, my new husband yelled at me in front of family, a few guests, and all the hotel staff because I made a last minute (inconsequential) room change. No reason to yell, he was angry because I made a change without consulting with him first, the hotel staff were appalled and kept telling him it was no big deal.

I soldiered on.

Later that night as partying, dancing was winding down, my new husband was nowhere to be found. He took off with all of his friends and they all continued partying at local bars and clubs in the area without telling me… his brand.new.wife! My brother-in-law found us a cab and we went from bar to bar until we were finally able to track him down and my bro-in-law dropped me off to go back to the hotel where my sister and their kids were already asleep.

And I soldiered on for another 9 years before I was finally able to escape him. Should have never married him.

The bride and her MIL got into a fist fight at the reception.

Indian wedding. Groom walked out because dowry wasn't paid. Guests were made to remove their jewelry to give grooms family.