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Original poster

What are the best/worst things you've experienced at a wedding?

313 replies

Turniptracker · 30/01/2020 21:32

Just started planning a wedding and it got me thinking about the best and worst things about weddings I've attended in the past. The worst was a wedding where we kept getting moved from room to room for each stage of the wedding, we were kicked off the dining tables after our last mouthful of dessert and had to stand up in a cold stable with no chairs to juggle coffee and chocs (hello indigestion). Best by far, but for all the wrong reasons, was watching a groomsman rip his trousers through vigorous dancing and he was so drunk he proceeded to just rip all his clothes off and dance in his pants Grin
Any "best things" for good reasons also welcome!

OP posts:
Ginfordinner · 31/01/2020 06:56

Elephant I don't like beer, but I wouldn't not have it to offer to guests at a wedding because I know that lots of people do like it.

Pinkyyy · 31/01/2020 07:08

I don't think I have ever seen anyone drunk at a wedding

Have you ever been to a wedding in the UK, @Brokenlightfitting?

Mookie81 · 31/01/2020 07:10

Exactly Ginfordinner how is having guests waiting around and not providing a popular drink because you don't like it the best wedding? 🤔

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Weddings
HeartZone · 31/01/2020 07:12

Singing waiter = brilliant

RhymingRabbit3 · 31/01/2020 07:21

Make sure there are plenty of soft drinks available, even if you've provided wine on the tables. Plenty of people will be pregnant/ tee total /driving. At my cousins wedding they had wine on the tables and when I asked for a non alcoholic drink they would only provide water. I went to go and get myself a fizzy drink from the bar but apparently bar glasses werent allowed in the dining room!

Mama1980 · 31/01/2020 07:22

Best a wedding was in Paris, registry office, then meal in restaurant in mon martre, followed by music and dancing there plus copious amounts of red wine. It was relaxed, calm, fun and informal. The only photos were the ones the guests took, we all scrawled messaged on a big sheet of paper which they later got framed, no speeches etc. Just perfect :) they are still together and very happy nearly 20 years later.

The worst was a huge formal country house do in the UK. Massively expensive so there was little food, it was pretty cold and loads of hanging around while photos were taken, speeches made, and weirdly presents 'presented' in a sort of line....which was a sweet thought - so they could thank everyone personally- but in practice it was just more standing around. The seating was formal. Everything done to a tight schedule. It was beautiful but not fun for the guests. (And the obvious argument/atmosphere between the bride and groom made the evening rather awkward)

Bluedogyellowcat · 31/01/2020 07:28

It’s very rare in the UK to provide a free bar

Surely that depends on your crowd. A free bar is absolutely the norm in my circle. I haven’t ever been to a wedding where we were expected to pay for drinks, it’s unheard of.

Equally I’ve never been to a wedding without substantial food at the reception whilst photos are being taken but it seems that’s not the norm either.

Lojoh · 31/01/2020 07:29

The nicest wedding I've ever been to was very small, perhaps about 30 people and they hired a boutique hotel. Married in the drawing room, then a barbeque in the garden with some very very good wine while the kids ran around. A shimmeringly lovely day.

Also really enjoy a barn dance! Lots of barn dance weddings in my youth which I remember fondly.

Bad weddings, though I haven't been to many bad weddings, have all been too much show and not enough heart - standing around for hours, photo obsession, silly performances.

Chickydoo · 31/01/2020 07:30

I have never been to a wedding where drinks were not included.
I just can't imagine inviting friends and family to travel miles in my honour & then make them pay for the privilege

UnleashTheFury · 31/01/2020 07:31

BEST-

An activity between the wedding and the party. In this case it was a boat trip around the lake with a band on the boat and canapés.

WORST-

A wedding where there was a huge 5 hour gap between the wedding and the party with nothing to do and we were all far from home. Everyone ended up super bored and sleepy.

DoveGreylove · 31/01/2020 07:32

Definitely think of the guests.

Best-
free drinks all day - bubbles for reception with elderflower fizz and water also for those not drinking... wine for the meal and limoncello with dessert... cocktail reception... then free bar!

A great band, photo booth.

Worst-
Waiting around with "one drink per person" during the reception whilst copious photos are taken. Bad food and no entertainment in the evening other than a DJ playing shite music.

IceCreamAndCandyfloss · 31/01/2020 07:33

I dislike large weddings and two tier weddings re the guest list.

I much prefer a smaller intimate event where everyone is included in everything, no waiting around for hours whilst ten million photos are done, plenty of food and drinks especially a good selection of soft ones as not everyone drinks alcohol. Just a nice ceremony and good food with friends.

Alyic · 31/01/2020 07:36

I wasn't a guest at this wedding, it was at a nice hotel in Barbados.

Bride, groom, a few guests and preacher on a sort of bandstand in the hotel grounds. An elderly man in the smallest trucks in the world walks up to bandstand and starts taking photos, bride looks incredibly distressed and the preacher stops the service and asks him to go. He just carried on, it was cringeworthy,

I don't think he was a random person, probably a disgruntled relative.

sashh · 31/01/2020 07:43

Some of the best have been shoestring weddings with the reception in the house/garden.

There was an impromptu England v Scotland match at one, the bride was in goal using her dress to guard it and a couple of us were literally moving the goal posts.

I think if you have children then make sure they are happy, one wedding with a children's menu served all the adults first, the children waited 20+ mins for their food.

One wedding some of the guests were tasked with looking after some of the other guests, I was looking after the groom's mother, made sure she had drinks and got her food from the buffet. Mother didn't know I'd been asked to do this, she just thought I was kind.

Its a great idea if you have older or single guests.

TheRealScousewife · 31/01/2020 07:57

Apparently my wedding was great because we had 60 guests and 90 bottles of champagne (not dead expensive) gifted to us as our wedding present from a relative. Everyone was too smashed to notice anything else, which we didn’t spend a lot of money on. I had a lot of people coming up to me saying it was the best wedding ever.

Don’t skimp on booze.

thenewaveragebear1983 · 31/01/2020 08:14

Drunk brides doing looooong poems as a speech and everyone laughing politely. Very cringeworthy.

Went to a wedding last year and there was no food. Cupcakes, but no food. Everyone either left at 10 and went to McDonald's, or was just horribly drunk as no one knew there was no food. This was a family wedding and I do have to say I think it's quite cheap to ask people to go to your wedding, pay for taxis, give a gift, get a hotel or taxi home, and not even put on a few sandwiches.

Other than that, of the many weddings I've been to, some big some small, all different, I think most weddings are great. It's people's personal day and it's always a privilege to be invited especially if you're the girlfriend of the groom's university friend and have never met the couple, which puts you in quite possibly the lowest position of the wedding hierarchy, and it's always a good day/night in my experience anyway.

WildRosie · 31/01/2020 08:23

I don't have a best wedding experience but the worst was at a Baptist church about thirty years ago. The priest/minister looked more like a bank manager than a man of the cloth. He and the musicians (no organist) and many of the congregation were evangelistic, happy-clappy types. Each to their own but the whole business made me very uncomfortable. It was cringeworthy beyond belief.

Perhaps I witnessed the extreme end of the Baptist denomination Confused?

SuperMeerkat · 31/01/2020 08:28

@Brokenlightfitting Your Mates must all be loaded if their having a free bar Biscuit

Worst- Hanging around for yonks with nowhere to sit.

Best- Nice food and good fun in the evening with some sort of entertainment. My fave was a caricaturist.

fastliving · 31/01/2020 08:33

Never been to a wedding with a free bar, but sometime there's a few grand behind the bar (always gets used within an hour) which is fine.

Worst wedding: Two were bloody freezing, winter weddings, one in a castle (no heating), one in a barn (no heating) the guests all kept their coats on, but we weren't pre-warned there was no heating - otherwise I would have worn skiing clothes.

The barn wedding had shit food and speeches that lasts over 4 HOURS!
If I had a gun - I would have used it!

Best wedding: small, in a pub, lovely food, happy couple very in love. I've been to a couple like this and they are always wonderful weddings.

Bathroom12345 · 31/01/2020 08:37

Tin hat at the ready. I have been to tons of weddings over the years...

Children at weddings! One cried throughout the vows and parents just smiled. One family insisted on taking their babe in arms to the front despite the ushers trying to move her towards the back. She wanted her baby to see ‘the colours’. Needless to say as soon as the bride arrived she stood in the aisle showing her PFB the bride. She then stepped back into the pew and the baby started crying....

Another was under 5’s trashing the dancing and one having a tantrum by being asked to leave the dance floor for the first dance.

Needless to say I had a small wedding at a beautiful country house hotel with 30 guests. Got married at 1630, then champagne on the lawn (with canapés) whilst photos were taken and then straight into dinner and we were done by midnight.

AND NO CHILDREN!!

fastliving · 31/01/2020 08:37

I was told my own wedding was the best wedding by lots of my guests, I didn't do anything special, although I do hope everyone had a wonderful time.

I think it's something that people say to be polite, like telling you your baby is gorgeous- even if they look like a potato Grin

Dancingontheedge · 31/01/2020 08:38

In the 80s, nothing for vegetarians as the parents were in control and didn’t approve of that sort of nonsense. Very little food, and one glass of white plonk.
We were students and rebellious, so we sent the only driver on a run for pizzas, a wine box and beer. The groom joined us. The marriage lasted less than a year.

Dancingontheedge · 31/01/2020 08:45

Thinking back, it’s not the money thrown around I remember most, it’s the welcome and the positive energy.
I’ve been to some amazing extravaganzas, and some shoestring weddings, but it’s the joy you remember.
Another student wedding, they got married, and we went for a picnic in Port meadow afterwards. We all bought food because we were all broke, and it turned into a cozy festival atmosphere.They’re still together, more than 30 years later.

HoppingPavlova · 31/01/2020 08:47

Worst is long religious ceremonies. People are all sitting there zoned out willing for it to end.

Also too large a gap between ceremony and venue for meal. An hour is fine, 90mins is starting to strain the friendship, anything more is ridiculous.

I have never been to a wedding that did not provide alcohol service once you arrived at the venue after the reception.

Heihei · 31/01/2020 08:55

Best - seeing one of my friends cutting up the dance floor and doing the worm! He put his back out but it was so funny!
Worst- a very drunk bride repeatedly stabbing the cake (which was topped with a model of bride, groom and dog) shouting “I hate the fucking dog”