How and why did your wedding go wrong? And can you look back and laugh now?

[Sd183]

Just as the title says really! I'm intrigued to hear if you can look back and laugh/accept with begrudging realism if something "went wrong" at your wedding...and what is it that went wrong?

I'm just trying to settle my own wedding nerves and tell myself that things go wrong and there's nothing I can do about it!

We had a small wedding in a venue with only two toilets, one got blocked and I discovered later that one of our dear friends in his 70s spent some time up to his elbows in shit

A bigger went wrong actually was that we had a portable speaker from a phone for music going down the aisle, it didn’t work and the music was practically inaudible. Total bummer but once the day was over it was forgotten and we got on with being married!! All the best for your day.

Nearly everyone decided to get drunk the night before.
Sister decided she didn’t want to help me get ready, so my wedding morning was me alone with the kids
Sister decided she hated the food
We forgot to buy rings
I wasn’t going to invite my mum to due various reasons, mostly that she had extremely attention seeking behaviour. She died a couple of months before and subsequently had 4 toasts made to her, she would have loved it!
It pissed it down on the day, really awful weather.

The sun came through very briefly just as we ventured out for photos though, except it was so bright that DH is squinting in every single photo.

We got married and had a laugh at the evening do though. All’s well that ends well.

My bridesmaid have me her high strength codeine tablets for a headache instead of plain paracetamol. I can’t have codeine so I was an absolute wreck from the photos onwards and can’t remember any of the wedding breakfast and speeches!!

The best man just didn't turn up.

This was in the days before mobile phones, so we had no way of contacting him and had no idea what had happened. He was a bit of a flakey character, and I hate to think what his speech would have involved (if he'd even prepared one) so it is probably just as well that one of DH's more reliable old friends stepped in and did a very good job.

We didn't hear from the original best man for at least six months after the wedding, after which he came up with a rather far-fetched story about why he hadn't been there, though we had heard on the grapevine that he had been spotted alive and well not long afterwards.

Persuaded to have a church ceremony instead of a register office, tried to please everyone else. Found it all really stressful. Luckily for us it’s a good marriage.

I left my flowers at home and didn't realise until we pulled up at the gates. I borrowed one of my bridesmaids to walk down the aisle whilst two wedding guests went and fetched mine. Thankfully had them in time for the photos. I had three bridesmaids and thought it would look odd if only two of them had flowers and would look better if just one had them. So the one that walked at the front had them and the other two awkwardly followed.

My mum also booked a medieval jester on stilts as a surprise

I had a horrible cold and lost my voice, our photos were a bit crap, and I did my own hair and makeup and in hindsight wish I'd got someone to do it for me

Oh, and I used to be a wedding planner abroad; it was an amazing and fulfilling job. However there were testing times; the best being two policemen appearing at the church to arrest the groom and best man, minutes before the ceremony.

I'm sure that won't happen to you though OP

It wasn't that big a deal but it still really niggles: I had done a chart for the caterers with all the vegetarians marked so the could deliver those meals (including my husband's boss) smoothly. They misplaced it and of course a few meals got mixed up - and one was my husband's boss so she couldn't eat much.
I had requested a full length mirror in the room I was getting dressed in. There was no mirror and to get to the bathroom I would have had to go out where the guests were milling around (it wasn't a church wedding). So I couldn't check how I looked before the ceremony (phones didn't have cameras then).
The band insisted they should start playing and that people would just join in. I said no one would until we did our first dance and I wanted it to be a certain song. They started and of course no one moved so I eventually had to interrupt them so they would play the song I wanted to dance too.
I forgot to ask for the menu, which had a lovely bit about the history of the building and was personalised for us. I asked the venue several times if they could reprint a copy and they said they would but never did.
Almost forgot to eat any wedding cake! Just spied it on the way out and grabbed a couple slices...

We forgot to chose a first dance. Lovely DJ was much too cool for us and the first three things he suggested we hadn’t heard of.

Glorious day! Enjoy yours, OP!

First wedding. Leaked milk on my dress.
Second wedding. I was poorly and looked it. Car broke down.

Congratulations op! You will have an amazing day. Things might go wrong but you won’t care!

Oh god!!

1. We had an actual wedding crasher. Bless her she definitely had a learning disability but we drew the line at her getting in the family cars to come to the reception.

1. Mil was doing the flowers. We turn up to collect the stems at the florist two days before the big day. Florist accidentally had them on display and had sold half of them. Still tried to charge us full price.

1. DJ (for reasons we never found out) sub contracted to a really really shit one. He played every song we asked specifically not to be played and did cheesy chat throughout (something else we had asked not to happen)

1. One of our couple friends had a massive row and broke up over the dinner.

1. Fil and mil terrible divorce hence the seating plan was like a mission in UN diplomacy. He arrived and moved everyone around Before they got seated to sit with who he wanted (oddly separating a husband and wife pairing who kindly just went along with it)

Few more things but they are (surprisingly!) even more outing than these so I won’t post just Incas they link to my other posts!!

The only thing that went wrong with mine was my ex-husband turning up. If only he hadn't or then again, maybe I shouldn't have turned up.

Wedding 1 - husband took ear drops - just in case, the night before. Ending up with something badly wrong with his ears, and lying on a sofa through most of the wedding meal, then we went to find a chemist afterwards to get some treat,ent. I was stuck in a tiny mini in my wedding dress outside the pharmacy. Don't know why I had to go. That one did last 28 years though.
Wedding 2 - I had a spray tan done the day before and look absolutely awful in all of the photos. Not one has been printed. I actually looked at them on the computer yesterday, and I still look ridiculous (10 years on). Mind you perhaps I should have a go with some editing software now....

Raging flu on my wedding day. Drugged up to my eyeballs and beyond just to get through the marriage bit. In the wedding video I have 2 people walking me up the aisle. Except they were not walking me up the aisle, they were holding me up and practically dragging me along. I looked like a heroin addict ffs.
I didn't even get as far as the first dance as I ended up in bed in the bridal suite at 4.30pm. and in hospital 2 days later with pneumonia

DH and I still laugh about it now.

Our DJ that was part of the package from the hotel, didn't show up! Hotel didn't tell us until the evening party had started. Thankfully I had booked my friends band and they had their DJ equipment with them! I was fuming at the time, but now look back and laugh as it was fine in the end.

I’m struggling to think of anything wrong with mine (smug face)! I did have a few glasses of champagne and practically fell asleep whilst having my makeup done. Also DH’s speech was a bit crap and rambling (and pretty much only included only his family and missed out all of mine)
I’m sure everyone has little things that niggle but it makes the day more memorable!
I do remember being a bridesmaid for my cousin and her (usually extremely quiet and mild-mannered) mum getting so stressed that she screamed at us all “shut Uuuup!!” Then burst into tears! Bless her.

Oh, and the videographer was too busy recording my friend singing, and missed the door open for me to enter the aisle 🙄 My friend thinks it's hilarious, but I'm kind of gutted that my big entrance with my dad wasn't caught on video!

@feebeecat yes her friend was in charge of wheeling her around and she kept shouting at him the whole time.

On my third wedding..it was a destination wedding on a beach
Fabulous sun shines wedding just before sunset

However I will never ever forgive each and every one of my 25 guests as not one of them came and straightened my fringe

I look like a cabbage patch doll

I will never ever forgive My husband..ever 😡

Nothing as dramatic as some of these horror stories!

But it’s true that even little things going wrong can make you even decades after!

We’d decided to walk up the aisle together, after welcoming our guests together. One of the many traditional things we turned on it’s head, and also to avoid my not-so-dear dad walking me up anywhere. It all went fine until I nipped to the loo to do my lippie ahead of the ceremony. I was gone 2 mins max, and returned to find the whole wedding had disappeared. One moment 100 people and staff serving drinks & nibbles, the next a ghostly silence. Very surreal!

DH had apparently decided it was ‘time’ to move everyone to the chapel, but had forgotten to check where his bride was. I panicked and started a mad dash to the chapel. Then I stopped dead, realising that at least this one time the timings were entirely up to me. The service wasn’t going to get far without me, was it? So I strolled, enjoying the peace and the beautiful garden. A lovely way to spend my last ‘single’ moments.

Less lovely was the fact that my carefully confirmed plan for the food went awry. We had a beautiful long buffet, including recipes from both our cultures. It was a real feast for the eyes as well as the tummy. Everyone loved it. I’d heard from many couples how little they’d managed to eat at their own weddings, what with socialising and dancing, so I’d organised a big platter of the wedding buffet to be put aside for us. We were staying on the property that night, so it was to be waiting for us in our fridge. Not only had the venue confirmed it was doable, they’d started offering it in their brochures after I asked for it.

You guessed it. Nada in the fridge on our return. I didn’t get one bite of the food I’d spent months organising. I have plenty of photos of it though, and it comes up to this day with all our mates. It does stick in my craw that after spending $$$$ on food, I had to hunt down a (yucky) pizza in a tiny rural town on my wedding night!

Note to other brides: plan to spend a few moments alone on the Big Day. It is a very enduring memory now, an oasis in a crazy busy day! And don’t forget to eat as you go...

Where to start ? Service was outside at a venue in the country. Massive thunderstorm just prior and everything got soaked (couldn't afford a marquee), running around in my dress emptying glasses and cups of rainwater. The minister got lost, sent two guests to find him (pre cell phone and GPS), they got lost too. Somehow I got locked in a room, just before the ceremony, and no one could find me. Finally we couldn't afford a honeymoon so arranged to stay in a romantic B&B near by. Four guests decided to "surprise" us by booking same B&B. Weather was crap so we spent our whole "honeymoon" playing cards. 40 years on we can still laugh about it.

The worst was I got my wedding dress altered slightly and the dressmakers (supposedly the ones Camilla PB uses, great write ups which is how I found them) made such a balls of it they damaged the fabric so it looked like dirty fingerprints along the front. Instead of apologising they got aggressive and defensive.

My wedding was very casual, we didn't have a photographer (which i kind of regret) because i didnt want to be away from my guests. I didnt do hair or make up (dragged a brush through my hair on the way out the door) and the cake (a wedding gift) was inedible I believe. I also heard the flowers were dead . But none of those things mattered because it was supposed to be about the marriage not the details of the day. And it was. Apart from the dress (and that was more the shitty attitude of the alterers) I usually only remember the good parts and even those very vaguely these days. It's been 22 years

Not me, but a wedding I was the organist at. I was playing away quietly, with DD2 on 'spotter duty'. Time was ticking on and no sign of the bride. 45 minutes later she turned up. I was almost at the point of starting to play through my music again! Turned out that the limo couldn't find her street and a guest left the church to find the limo, lead it to the bride's house, then back to the church. Nobody bothered to tell me what was going on. I was beginning to think she wasn't coming and they had a very swift service, because there was a short window between the service and the reception.

My butt exploded