To ask what's the worst wedding you've ever been to?

[WashingMatilda]

I've just come back from a really gorgeous wedding. It was one of those joyous, real life affirming ones IYKWIM.

However, during the speeches I randomly remembered a wedding I went to years and years ago where the grandmas wheelchair was left without its brakes on at the top of a big flight of steps outside the registry office. She rolled forward, all the way down, cracked her head open on the slabs, ambulance took her off on blue lights, and the bride spent the reception scrubbing blood out of her train poor bloody woman. It was horrific. (Nan fine in the end)

What's yours?

[KeepServingTheDrinks]

You win!

Mine's REALLY lame, but the wedding day was my birthday and it was horrible having a b.day that was NOTHING to do with me for a single instant because the b&g trumped it all. The marriage didn't last long, and I resent that more than anything.

But that's pretty lame given your experience, OP!

[WashingMatilda]

I was at a wedding on my birthday last year keep! I was so tempted to put up birthday banners all over the joint. Selfish pricks.

Yeah it was pretty horrendous. I think I must only have been about 13 at the time. There was this horrid silence list after she'd fallen and then hell broke lose.

[DisorderedAllsorts]

Yes mine. I can't say too much as it's very outing but I was yelled at throughout by my sil. I wouldn't spit on her if she was on fire.

[KC225]

My friend's wedding. She was marrying an absolute knob. He proposed, just as she was going to throw him out for ringing sex lines and running up bills she had to pay.

She dropped massive hints about borrowing my dress as I had married four months before but I couldn't lend her my beautiful dress it would have tainted all it stood for. I cried in the corner with her mum. my friend later admitted that she was surprised anyone turned up as she knew how people felt.

Recently, she has left him. It took 10 years during which he cheated on her twice, got fired from every job he had and stopped working for around the last 5 years. He drove most of her friends away but I persevered, I was determined I would outlast him and the marriage.

[NoncommittalToSparkleMotion]

Omg that made me cringe and laugh Op! Poor Nan

I don't think I could top that. But I went to a wedding that had the buffet next to the bathroom and it was self-serve. I felt pretty nauseous at the thought.

[MyheartbelongstoG]

My own

[kissmethere]

Probably the very swish wedding where there was only canapés for food and we left starving! We would have left earlier but they kept insisting we stay a bit longer. Went straight to KFC after!
However it was a time when I had a good catch up with an old friend who passed away a couple of years ago.

[LorLorr2]

Oh blimey OP that took a dark turn I thought it was going to be a comedy!

As it happens a family member was telling me today about the wedding they went to on Saturday. Apparently it was just dull, seemed to be organised reluctantly and cheaply as if the bride & groom didn't want even the wedding and would rather have done it their own way in a registry office. "Their own families looked bored" was one comment

[LellyMcKelly]

I went to a fabulous, no expense spared, wedding at a venue popular with premier league footballers. There were nearly 300 guests, seven courses, and the bride and groom were nowhere to be seen for most of it. The bride was a model, and they spent 4 hours having professional photos taken for wedding magazines while we all milled around downstairs, dog tired, after eating our own weight in food. By the time the band came on, we'd ordered taxis.

[allfurcoatnoknickers]

I have a horror;l:

FIL's Third wedding was pretty awful. He has two acrimonious divorces behind him, but my new MIL wanted her big white princess wedding, so that's what they had. On a beach. At a 5* all inclusive in Mexico.

DH got strong armed/manipulated into being best man, but was FURIOUS, when he found out he had to wear a full suit on the beach in 30c weather. FIL sweated buckets through the whole ceremony, the bridesmaids were dressed like strippers in barely there dresses and giant platform heels, so they couldn't stand up properly on the sand.

Barely any of DH's family were there, and the ones that did come looked horrified the whole time. At one point DH's uncle stormed out of the reception because he couldn't take one more moment of the bride and groom passionately groping each other at the sweetheart table . DH got absolutely hammered to cope with this gruesome scene and let's just say his best man's speech was "interesting", to put it politely.

The music was awful, so no one really danced and the food was so bad it was inedible. The only upside was it was so terrible that I lost a kilo from not being able to eat anything.

Oh and as a follow up, new MIL is 37 and trying to "bond" with me over TTC. No. No thank you.

To add insult to injury, it cost us a fortune.

[EssentialHummus]

Held on the outskirts of Moscow and involved bride's friends putting on an hour-long faux Hindu shanti shanti type ceremony in front of 45 assembled guests and a drunk Russian Orthodox priest. The only food available was vodka and pickles.

[Aquamarine1029]

My cousin got married to a girl, stupid expensive wedding, fancy AF. It was PAINFULLY obvious the bride was miserable - she did not want to be there. Now, my cousin is a great guy, but she just wasn't in love with him. It was clear from the beginning of their relationship, but he was so smitten with her (and young and stupid) that he didn't see it. Less than a year after they got married, he literally came home from work to find a "Dear John" letter. Poor dumb guy was blindsided and devastated. His wife was NOT a bad person, she just made a huge mistake in not ending the relationship before they got married. Good news is my cousin is remarried to a lovely woman, they just had a baby and he is incredibly happy. Life is a crazy thing!

[pastapasta]

I won't mention the worst one I've been to as a) it was genuinely traumatic and b) this is the kind of thread which gets lifted straight into the Mail.

The second worst one involved a school dinner style buffet which ran out half way through the guests.

[LineysRun]

"Their own families looked bored"

Yep, had one of these last year. The groom was so bored during the reception that he went off to deliver a van for his boss.

[Pawsbutton]

Went to wedding where the only "food" was Haribo sweets.

[highinthesky]

I attended an evening reception as a "plus one" a couple of years ago, mainly to offer the non-driving invitee a lift to an otherwise inaccessible venue.

Mistake. We got there after a 2hr drive to find it was a disorganised bunfight, not enough seating and food for all the guests. Unforgivable as it was completely avoidable by restricting numbers / picking a bigger venue. The bride and groom were well paid and in established careers, they were just tight. There was nothing celebratory about it.

I left after 1/2 hr to see an aunt who lived another hour away and left her at midnight to collect the guest although I was sorely tempted to go straight home.

[strawberrisc]

I went to a wedding in Wales. When we arrived at the reception (in a lovely little pub) the guests all suddenly and obviously stopped speaking in English. Felt totally excluded but have no idea why.

[Ceebeegee]

Not really a patch on these but recently went to a wedding that started at 11am followed by a half hour drive to the reception location and HOURS of photos with no food or drink being served to the guests - not even a buck's fizz. It was half past 5 before they finished the photos and took Everyone to get seated . Everyone was so hungry, they were eating the bread rolls before the soup came out...and then they ran out. I saw at least some family in the car park eating a McDonalds as they wouldn't wait any longer.

[Raisinbrain]

It was a huge affair with no expense spared but no care gone into anything either. Soulless. The bride looked depressed. The marriage lasted 6 months.

[DubaiismyBlackpool]

My DS2s wedding was awful. We all felt we were only invited because we had to be. There were 12 of us and 58 of the brides family. At the reception, we were consigned to a small table out on the edge of everyone. We decided to have a great time anyway, we were obviously the best folk there lol, but couldn't get over the lack of food. Haribo was the 'starter'/canapés - the table had 4 jars of various sizes which we helped ourselves to. Now, the actual wedding ceremony was at 11 am, the reception was supposed to start at 5 - it was actually 7 as the bridal party - everyone but grooms side anyway - were late. It was pretty embarrassing folk asking where they were and us saying we didn't know. Even the best man - DS3 - hadn't a clue. It later came out that they had all gone FOR A SPECIAL MEAL to welcome DS2 into their family! Funny, but isn't that what a reception is supposed to be?
All this time, no one had eaten so we were pretty hungry. But because we're decent people and we didn't know where they were or what was going on, we didn't clear off to the local chippy for chips and what's the main at the reception a hog roast, a small hog roast at that. Oh and bread roll with salad for any vegetarians.
Brides family kept going on how tired they all were and was it bedtime yet, so come 10 most folk had left.
Not a life affirming day at all.
When DS2 told us he was getting married, I asked him how much he needed as a contribution, he said her parents were giving them £40,000. My thought was 'Ah, they want to make all the decisions' which didn't bother me really, if they'd said that from the start I would've just let them get on with it. I told him he didn't need any money from us then. But, all through the wedding day, I kept looking for what a £40,000 wedding should look like and I'd have been hard pressed to find what a £4,000 wedding looks like as the dresses, decorations etc were all homemade. The hall, the ceremony - apart from the license - were free. The photographer was free, the drinks were only squash and smart price lemonade. There was no disco, no dancing, not much food wise and not even exotic honeymoon! The £40,000 was just a lie so they could control it all.

Still makes me sad 9 years later.

[catsarenice]

The worst one I went to was really really religious: the ceremony lasted about 50 3 hours and was non stop holding hands for prayers and singing hymns. It was soooo boring. We weren't invited for the meal so had 4 hours to kill in a strange city before going to the evening do. Luckily we found plenty of bars! When we got to the evening do we realised they weren't big drinkers as most of the table wine was still full bottles so at least we didn't have to pay for drinks! It was definitely one of those 'thank goodness for alcohol' occasions!!

[StarkintheSouth]

Oh god - it was a dry wedding and they served cans of warm pop in plastic cups. It was a boiling hot day and all I wanted was a cold glass of water! The whole thing was running about three hours late so by the time food was served we were all ravenous. And the food served was gulp tripe! Which I hate. Add to that no communication about where we were meant to be and when it was literally a waste of a good dress. Oh well. As long as they enjoyed it (& to be fair they are v happily married still)

[Raisinbrain]

I think aquamarine and I may have been at the same wedding!

[Foslady]

The one where the Bride's parents and the Bride and Groom fell out big style with the Hrooms parents a few days before and disappeared off for an hour or so without telling anyone for photos without the bridesmaids so took a while to figure out what was happening
The one where the caterers never showed up so the venue hastily put what they could together.....and then one table got up and filled their plates to the point of nothing left for other guests.
The one where the Best Man (Grooms brother) got hideously drunk and spent the entire speech being rude about the bride til his mum ordered him to sit down.
The one where the (much older) Best Man was so nervous he was completely rat arsed by the time he gave his speech and was the only one who found it hilarious.

Of all these I know that three of them failed pretty quickly and I'm no longer in touch with the 4th but seem to remember it was pretty stormy......

[ProfYaffle]

Then dp (now dh) and I were invited to the evening do of his friend's wedding. They had it in a marquee on their own farm. Trouble was, the marquee was unheated so we were all freezing. Throughout the evening, people kept going out to their cars and bringing in coats/blankets etc. Fortunately those with spares shared them out so I spent the evening huddled in an over sized ski jacket.

Guests weren't allowed inside the house so had to use the farm workers toilets, literally a hole in the ground with 4 sheets of corrugated iron stuck into the ground around it. And it was a five minute walk away down a muddy track with no lights. (what a treat in wedding finery + car blanket combos)

Plus I'd offered to drive as it was dh's friend so couldn't even get pissed.

And his friends who were there were all friends of his ex and were really quite horrible to me all evening.

So yes, I've had better evenings.