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

[Turniptracker]

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
Any "best things" for good reasons also welcome!

Omg destination weddings are the worst.

Hell, yes! They act like they're doing you such a favour asking you to spunk loads and waste all your annual leave and then brag about how it was the best wedding! Everyone said it was (they're being polite).

We genuinely did our best but she still isnt talking to us sad.

Some friend! What a total cow. I hope you get to the point where you realise this and just cut her loose. No one is entitled to your time and money for their wedding.

When my Dsis was planning her wedding she didn’t keep a track of how many invitations she sent out, she just kept printing them. On the day, a venue that could comfortably seat 300 people, had about 500 guests and myself and the other bridesmaids were kicked off our table for older relatives. We stood in the entryway for hours and I never even saw her cake. 11 years I still haven’t seen it! And the groom’s ex turned up with her mean girl entourage and one of the girls snapped her heel and fell over. The worst of it was a person who had included a used sanitary pad in their gifts to show their displeasure. In my Dsis and her husband’s culture the presence of someone else’s blood is a bad, bad sign.

My friend was just married a few weeks ago. Her poor husband is wonderful and was trying to help people get home she got so angry at him not paying attention to her she hit him. At their wedding. Unfortunately, it’s a religious community so while it was definitely an issue and people were not happy with her it was not seen as domestic violence and I’ve spoken to him and he doesn’t see it that way either.

I went to another wedding where the bride, groom, bridesmaids and groomsmen went to take pictures, returned and all the food and drink was gone. Their budget was miniscule and not many people ate that day.

My cousin was married last year and he told everyone that the wedding started at 5pm and we arrived at 4:30pm with a newborn only to be told that it actually started at 6pm and he just didn’t want anyone to be late. We are not a family known for tardiness so I’m not sure where that came from but by the time the hors d'oeuvres came round we were inhaling them.

Not to toot my own horn but I think I did well. We started our wedding at 3pm to allow for travel time and only paying for one night’s hotel stay, guests arrived at the country house at 4:30pm and had a ton of hors d'oeuvre and Pimms on the beautiful lawn whilst we took pictures and dinner was served promptly at 5:30pm, and as we only had 35 guests we had an open bar. From the guests’ point of view the wedding was great. We won’t talk about my racist DM and DMIL who made my day hell

Worst - hours of hanging about whilst b£g had 1000 photos.
Best - a few guest photos take. Immediately after service, then afternoon tea in village hall for the bulk of guests, whilst B&G did family pics, and had afternoon tea in vestry!

Worst - children expected to be seen and not heard
Best - childminder and video/games room out on; venue adjacent to playground; age appropriate puzzles, drawing stuff, card games laid out at children’s meal places.

Worst - overcluttered tables
Best - live herbs growing in terracotta pots, which served as table foiliage, place names (names were chalked on) and favours. Also, so allergies!!

Worst - poor veggie option, very drawn out sit down meal
Best - amazing buffet of cheee, meat, substantial salads, homemade bread etc with something for all food choices/allergies/restrictions

Worst - awkward seating plan
Best - free for all seating. Everyone more or less ended up where we would have put them anyway.

Best - free bar, plenty of food
Worst - ceremony in late morning, lunch only for immediate family, all other guests invited to evening do only, which had no food and v expensive cash bar. There were good reasons for the afternoon break, but the lack of food was galling, particularly as most people had come 100s miles. The Impromptu party in the Chinese take away at 9 pm was fun though!

No food at these evening do's seems to be a growing trend. As is 'Come to the ceremony, then fuck off whilst the first tier guests get fed and watered and come back to pay up for the evening do and give us money as a gift'.

No food at these evening do's seems to be a growing trend. As is 'Come to the ceremony, then fuck off whilst the first tier guests get fed and watered and come back to pay up for the evening do and give us money as a gift.

I've been to a few of those and they made me all the more determined that we were going to have everybody as all-day guests with plenty of food and a free bar, even if we had to cut back in other areas to afford it. If anybody missed chair covers, table favours and other non-essentials, they didn't mention it

Weddings where it's all about the sodding photos - lots of hanging around, nobody to greet guests, no sign of a drink.
One wedding where the food ran out. Completely. Was tempted to nip out to the chippie but it felt rude.
Can think of a couple of lovely ones - but I've been to enough weddings, really don't mind if no-one invites me again!

best was unusual food. The starter was like mezze / tapas type food.
The main meal was roast lamb but each table had a leg of lamb put on the table and someone had to carve it for the guests and all the veg were in self serve bowls. The cake was giant wheels of cheese so everyone had cheese and biscuits for pudding after they had "cut the cake"

Oh god my wedding is going to go down like a tonne of bricks then isn't it.
Getting married at 2pm on a Tuesday in a school holiday. Reception is 45 mins away but is pretty central to most of the guests (registary office is in the local city but we live rurally). Food starts at 3.30, there is no first dance or photos ect, just music and we are providing no alcohol at all (there is a bar) as we don't drink and there are recovering alcoholics coming who won't refuse the drinks

One wedding that I thought solved this nicely invited a local kids dance school and a friend's band in as entertainment during the photos

That seems a cruel and unnatural punishment to inflict on one's guests!

Food that didn't really suit the season. We basically had a Christmas dinner on a blazing hot day in August.
A buffet that ran out because the all day guests who had already eaten at the reception decided to pile up their plates before the evening guests got a whiff of a sausage roll.

@katy1213 my thoughts exactly

My dd gets married this year and I'm reading all this and panicking a little.

@Mammyofsuperbaby thy will probably smuggle booze in if want to drink it,I wouldnt worry

The best was a ceiledh - everyone up and dancing all night!

@Brokenlightfitting that’s harsh I mean how much drinking do you actually do!! Most weddings I go to have free drink at the reception and then wine during the meal....I think I have been to two weddings with a free bar. I would NEVER EXPECT a free bar...that’s a bit entitled surely??!! what’s the point in going to a wedding if you’re going to drink yourself to oblivion!!

I think from the guests point of view at our wedding it was a case of

Highs: Sit where you like.

No sit down roast dinner,we had the tables set lovely but we had a posh bbq.

Short speeches.

Lows:
Expensive bar but we found out later that the best man had been doing a roaring trade in selling shots from the vodka hed bought from the shop nearby

Hanging around outside the church for photos.

Worst was 3 best men and 3 speeches. First was ok, second was misogynistic, third was racist. Fun times.

Worst:
-Groom having 3 'Best Men' then the bride, maid of honour, groom and father of the bride making a speech- nearly 2 hours!
-Arriving at the reception venue on a blistering hot day and them not expecting us as we were due later, (mix up over ceremony times), room not ready, bar not open- really long wait for food.

• Having a carvery (which was lovely) but we were invited up table by table - we were the second to last table to be called, it was a big wedding about 150 guests, first half of the room had finished eating and some were wandering off from the tables and the kids were running riot by the point the last people got any food.
• Bride and Groom then sat with a small group off at the side of the room and didn't speak to or mingle with any guests, without them going over.

Best:
Village hall, a cèilidh and bring your own drinks! Everyone sat at long trestle tables, not lots of little tables, and they had done a really good job of doing the table plan.

For the children they had a magician who did a show, and a games/craft corner with a giant jenga etc and a table with craft bits on.

At night stovies and oatcakes. Relaxed, low key - Bride and Groom made a point of socialising and dancing with all the guests. The next day we all helped clean the hall and they hosted a BBQ at home.

I was running a childcare creche for a wedding at a hotel once. Four fifths of the guests abandoned the marquee to squash into the tiny playroom and watch some big football match on the TV. Both the bride and the groom came in and tried to persuade them to rejoin the reception but they weren't having any of it. It was a nightmare for me, but I can't imagine how much worse for the poor couple!

@furryslipperboots the poor b & g that's disgusting behaviour by the guests.
Although my df refused to go to his best friend's wedding because my df's football team were in the FA cup semi final.
My poor dm missed out because her invite was withdrawn by the bride who was quite rightly furious!

The thing is one guest's meat is another guest's poison.

Some people have said they enjoy a ceilidh/barn dance. I'd agree I think they're fun, but I've heard others moan till the cows come home about dancing, especially organised dancing. Older guests are often, I'm afraid, total drips and simply want a chance to have a bit of a chat (complain about the wedding) and certainly don't want entertainment and I think my elderly relatives would have combusted if faced with mezze/tapas (which a pp liked).

There are a fair few guestzillas. Pp: "something for all food choices/allergies/restrictions" . Heavens above! It's a wedding, not your own home. Within reason just eat what you can, and if you have a massive list of restrictions, bring something in a tupperware pot. I was on a table once with someone who had requested a vegan meal, and to my horror she attracted the bride's attention and said imperiously that she did not like mushrooms. How can people be so entitled? And weddings seem to be their spiritual home. So much potential for complaining!

I've been to some lovely,thoughtfully choreographed wedding, but my very best was the afternoon reception - 3rd day, so the first was in her country,the second in his, so this third was in England where they both worked -- it was a Hindu wedding, bottles of whisky on every table, and the dancing!, oh the dancing! All us girls in a circle doing the 'screw in the lightbulbs' dance with the bride in the centre, followed by general dancing. Father of the bride claimed me and I had SO much fun, brilliant bloke! He was huge, I'm not tall and I actually forgave him continually patting me on the top of my head,flattening my hair-do
Worst, unfortunately, was the wedding of my best friend at school, you know the scenario - 2 thirteen year old girls in a sewing lesson, pricking our fingers and solemnly promising that we'd be each others bridesmaid? Years later she contacted me, and so her cousin and I became her bridesmaids. Her cousin's mother was a tailor and made our dresses.
So what went wrong? Both the cousin and I got sexually molested by the bridegroom at the reception, is what

Best: Really nice and plenty of canapés, relaxed meet and greet on the lawn at the venue between the ceremony and the meal with everyone circulating, not just staying in little cliques.

Worst: The dreadful magician that stalked us around the reception all evening because we were (politely) impressed by one of his card tricks. Awks...

Heavens above! It's a wedding, not your own home. Within reason just eat what you can, and if you have a massive list of restrictions, bring something in a tupperware pot

Really? Most professional caterers that I know would much rather provide an altered meal to a wedding guest than have someone rock up at a catered wedding breakfast with a tupperware box of their own food.

Oh yeah, seating plans arranged to separate couples/friends 'so everyone can meet new people and mingle with the other guests'.

One of the best things about going to weddings is the opportunity to catch up with old friends you never see, why the fuck would you want to waste time making small talk with randoms you're never going to lay eyes on ever again?!