Wedding Stories Where The Couple Seemed To Forget They Had Guests

People remember the food, or lack thereof. Of all the weddings I have been to in the last 25 years, the one my wife and I still hate on, is the one we had to drive out to the middle of nowhere, "scenic wedding". The only food was hors d'oeuvres, and every time a waiter left the kitchen he was swarmed and only made it 10 feet.

Oh, and a cake that a friend made, which was a beautiful cake, but my 2 square inches of cake just teased my stomach.

We left early so we could drive back into town before restaurants closed.

My story is from a bachelorette last summer where the MOH prepared a surprise spiritual ceremony about forgiving our female ancestors. The woman next to me was abandoned by her alcoholic mother when she was 12 and my grandma is a raging homophobic racist. MOH read a text from chatGPT for 25min and ignored all the awkward side eyes from the bride and her guests.

Wedding was at a historic home. Everyone was left sitting in chairs so close we were all touching arms in full afternoon sun probably high 70’s low 80’s temperature waiting for the ceremony to start. We moved our chairs around and they set up tables for the reception in the front yard area of the house and we are given the strangest bizarre wine that was absolutely disgusting along with our dinner.

They begin speeches and start dancing. Then apparently there was a secret bar somewhere in the back yard area that certain people were privy to so a bunch of guests were just sitting around while the bride and groom and a few of their friends are completely gone from their reception and not grab a couple of shots and come back, just gone. After about 20/30 minutes of them being gone we just left.

Why have all these people there if you don’t even want to celebrate with them??

Wedding where the bride and groom ate steak while everyone else had chicken. There were about 40-50 guests at two long tables. Across from us were two old ladies who proceeded to steal every bit of the tableware, including plates and glasses!

Seating the grooms family at the last table by the exit. My husband was his brothers best man. I was seated at the last table with in laws while the rest of the groomsmen had their dates with them.

At another one, all the guests got food poisoning at reception except for me, the lone vegetarian who only ate a dinner roll and green salad.

There was an A list and a B list of guest, that no one was aware of until they arrived at the reception. A list sat in the main reception hall, catered lobster dinner, open bar, etc. B list was sent to a large hotel conference room with pizzas, cash bar, and an iPod for music.

This was my cousins wedding and she simply explained that because of her "Instagram look" 🙄 she could only afford X amount of people on the A list but didnt want anyone to feel excluded which is why she had the B list. She then looks at the table with me and my sister (it should be noted her and my sister are BFFs and my sister was the MOH over her own sister) and says she only included us on the A list because her mother made her. If she had her way we would have been on B list because she doesnt appreciate us being prettier her then her.

Her mom (my Aunt) had no idea her daughter/my cousin had done this A list/B list and was so embarrassed.

Black tie wedding at a farm with porta potties 🫩.

Groom hired a celebrity DJ about 12-15 years after celeb's heyday. Only food was cut-up veggies and cheese and crackers prepared by bride's family. The groom had somehow talked her family into giving him the money they had earmarked for her sister's college (sister had decided to work instead of college but still). The DJ and his entourage/friends had commandeered all the wine and there were no toasts.

I reconnected with the bride after her divorce. He had continued being a selfish man and she left him.

I had a friend who didn’t think she had a proper first wedding so she had the worst second wedding reception. She decided to throw it at a local restaurant and I was trying to help her choose her menu but homegirl could not conceive that she should cater the food to more than just herself. She kept trying to choose like three different kinds of potatoes and I was like baby maybe you need a vegetable or something? Then she wanted to choose all of the same genre of protein and I was like baby girl maybe you should put some chicken on the list because most people don’t want to eat what you’re putting on here. She straight up told me it didn’t matter because it was her wedding and she was only getting what she wanted. Mind you she didn’t even take the opinion of her groom into consideration, just her wants and needs. I’m all for pleasing yourself because it is your wedding, but if you’re inviting other people, you should cater to them as well. Needless to say that marriage didn’t last. Nor did the next one… or the next one. She’s embarking on a new one now, let’s see how it goes.

Traveled from CA to VA, husband was groomsman. They know we are vegetarian, but had zero options for us. Sliders were the menu. We brought our own food. DJ was a neighbor who played a Lionel Richie album twice. There was a giant painting of the bride in her $6000 dress at the entrance. Divorced within 2 years.

I worked at a mansion that was a fancy summer house turned all inclusive wedding resort.

The couples would pay for the entire property (say, 20k for a weekend) and then could choose how much their guests could pay for rooms, and guest services would collect it at checkin. Most couples would ask guests for less than the rate of a hotel room, many couples absorbed the entire amount and let guests stay for free - but one memorable couple decided to turn a profit on their guests. They asked us to collect MORE than our rate.

Someone got charged $500 for 2 nights on a pullout sofa - and the couple had not invited that person to breakfast.

I went to a formal wedding inside an active working barn. The bride was walked down the aisle by two goats who stopped to eat the hay bales (very poley to sit on) the guests were trying to sit on, then started eating everything because that is what goats do. The entire ceremony kep getting interupted as the goats would attempt to devour something, a guest or the bride/groom would try to haul the goats back up to stand at the “alter”, and then the bigger goat would try to head ram whomever was trying to wrangle it. Wash, rinse, repeat. Reception was punch and chips.

To thier credit, it was a second marriage for both of them, no registry, and they made it clear they did not expect or want presents. They just wanted people there. But those goats…..

Not the worst, but it was at a ranch, with 2 homes for the wedding parties, but guests had to camp (that's fine). The night before the wedding (i was a bridesmaid), we were in our girls quarters and the bride was very strict that we weren't allowed to drink or go mingle with other guests. The guys opened a keg and we wanted to go hang out. She was super irritated and let it go for a bit until she got [angry] off and said we all had to come in and go to bed. It was super awkward.

For the camping aspect, there was so much poison oak everywhere that the only place to put down tents was right next to the horse corral which smelled soooo bad (I love horses but they can be stinky), not enough restroom access- 2 on a trailer for a lot of people and the lines got long and they started to get ...full, reception venue was on a steep angle so the dance floor was angled and everyone's calves were so sore the next day & an auntie fell, food messed up my stomach in the middle of the night and I slept in the car miserable. OK, maybe it was the worst one....

I still talk about what I call the Cold Chipotle Wedding.

It was my husband’s cousin. First, she had already gotten married in New Zealand and this was for her American family. The church wedding was over an hour long as they are evangelicals. We watched a vow renewal and then they sang Christian songs for 45 minutes. Afterwards there was dessert in the basement and guests were asked to supply dessert. Fine.

Later there was a reception at the home of a friend of the bride. Family and close friends only. So we go, and it’s in the friend’s converted garage. People have to bring their own chairs. And the food was takeout catering boxes of Chipotle! And it was already cold.

Like fine, you had your real wedding in New Zealand because you married a guy from there and you live there now. Good for you. But you don’t need to make us sit through your bad music and then feed us cold take out that most people have for lunch at work. Should have just left it at the desserts in the church basement.

Groom ignored everyone, bride included, to play his guitar badly with his bros in a random gazebo at the edge of the property. He was a mid singer, think the the guy who plays Wonderwall at parties. Never even got close enough to the guy to know what he looks like. Divorced within a year because he decided to become a stay at home hoser and that the bride would support him financially while also being his mother. I considered his playing to be guest mistreatment.

The wrist bands is so tacky. Basically saying who you actually wanted at your wedding vs who you just want a check from.

Went to one that had nothing besides dinner rolls for the vegetarian friends (who identified themselves in the RSVP, wasn’t a surprise), no alcohol/beverages whatsoever besides water and DECAF coffee, and reception was in MIL’s yard but she didn’t want guests using her bathrooms so there were portapotties. Guests had to park in the church parking lot and walk to the house!

Couple got married overlooking a 900 foot gorge in Georgia in July. Small ceremony where about 40 guests gathered at a scenic overlook in the middle of nowhere overlooking the gorge. No seating at all, no water or shade. Bride was 2 hours late, no one could reach her. Groom was present and kept saying “She’s on her way.”

At one point someone left and went to buy bottles of water at a Costco or something, so at least we had room-temperature water.

The ceremony finally happened and then we all drove somewhere to a pavilion for the reception, which was fine but most guests at that point were not in the mood to do anything but eat and leave.

Couple still married years later.

A few years ago I was a maid of honour at a former best friend’s wedding. The wedding was held at a manor house, very traditional English countryside. There was a sit down meal with a complimentary glass of wine per person (and no bar available). We were sent the menus together with invitations and all made our choices. Only the meal that was served was entirely something different. We then realised that we all got generic chicken, and the vegetarians got a risotto (none of those were on the menu, the menu did have things like beef wellington etc). When there was the time for the toasts we had an empty champagne flutes put in front of us and no champagne or Prosecco was served, the bar wasn’t opened till later. I did the MOH speech and it was a little weird to hold an empty glass.
But actually the strangest thing was when bride and groom stood up and did a joined speech and started thanking everyone and bringing out the small presents. Well, by everyone they meant all their extended families including cousins and aunties and uncles. It felt a little bit like we were witnessing a family Christmas. The groomsmen got a thank you and the presents as well , but nothing for the ladies, not for me not for the other two. We were a little confused, sober and disappointed. We were all part of a very strong friendship group at that time and one of us got married the year before, so there definitely was no animosity or misunderstanding. My husband pointed out to the groom that the bridesmaids were overlooked and it was awkward, but the groom said that he didn’t realise that we would want to be acknowledged officially being the best friends and all.
Luckily for us the bar got opened soon after the speeches and that somewhat helped us to power through.
Unfortunately the crack was too much and we slowly drifted apart after that with this girl. The other ones are still in my life and it’s now a funny story that bonded us stronger.

The ceremony was in someones backyard in the rain with no access to bathrooms or otherwise. The Reception was 50 minutes away at a hall where it was basically a potluck with no beverages, no dancing, and a sheet cake. The brides family went up to grab food and walked away with multiple plates piled high and took probably 2/3 of what was brought, most of the guests didn't get to eat.