Worst wedding you've been to?

[Clawdy]

My worst wedding memory was when DH's cousin got married. He was reluctant to go, and said it might get rough....It did, rather! Drunk old Uncle Wilf fell down the steps and broke his leg, and the bridegroom had to be restrained from attacking his new MIL with a bottle of wine! DH's mum chided his brother for not going, saying "You missed a lovely wedding! "

My best friends sister was getting married and the groom did not turn up. He just changed his mind as sick with nerves and did not arrive. It was awful. There were his relatives from far away like Australia too. We all had to troop off to reception to eat up the food. Father of Bride made a speech saying sadly wedding had not occured but urged all to eat up the food. Bride went home with her Mum. They got married about 8 months later with just the 2 of them and both their parents.

A french wedding. I had a young baby and was newly pregnant again.
I had no idea that french weddings went on all night. It was out in the sticks somewhere. My french was shit. I felt knackered and there was nowhere for me to lie down. Dp (whos family wedding it was) hadnt thought prepare me for all this as he didnt realise that it was massively different to uk weddings, so i hadnt actually prepared enough to stay over.
The bride and groom had arranged a nanny and a room for children to all sleep in at the venue, but my baby wouldnt settle and it was me that wanted to sleep.
I hated every single moment and i think i probably ruined it for dp

My cousin got married on the day of a big championship football final. All the men went to watch the match in the pub down the road and left the women at the reception. It was a bit pants but i guess not as bad as some!

The one i went to on my own. Didn't know anyone apart from the bride and her sister who was being a bridesmaid (and their parents) and didn't get a +1 on my invite. Weather was awful, the B&G buggered off for hours after the ceremony to have photos taken and go for a drive in the car while we all huddled in this tiny bar area at the venue. No canapes or fizz that I recall. Then terrible food (and I mean terrible, it's the only wedding meal I can remember what we had because it was so bad), then the room layout was weird and not really big enough for the ceilidh they had.

One where the guests were openly betting on how long it would last. Bride had gone away with her ex for a last fling weekend the weekend before and someone had told the groom just before the ceremony. He sobbed through it, she was defensive and nasty. (She was the sister of my close friend and frankly was always a bit of a bitch).

They separated on the honeymoon.

My own.
He turned up!!

There was the one where it was quite clear from the bride’s face as she walked down the aisle that she wasn’t sure this was a good idea. Marriage over within a year.

Or, DP’s cousin’s wedding where the groom’s sister was drunk and disorderly during the ceremony, there was a weird gap in the middle of the day when we were all left to find our own food and entertainment for several hours and then a reception that included people doing lines of coke in the loos, a sink full of vomit and a crazy ex gatecrashing and having to be removed by DP and another cousin. They are still together.

December wedding in the Lake District, couple decided to “treat” guests to a boat trip round a lake for 2 hours after the ceremony in freezing cold temperatures. The boat was one of those open sided type, fit about 6 people below deck under cover, and everyone else had to huddle together for warmth. No advance warning to bundle up warm, I remember sharing a pair of gloves & a hat between 6 people and crying when the photographer came over because my hands were so cold. Blowing a gale then it started to sleet just as we reached the half way point…

Wedding venue was large but there were only about twenty guests, none of whom were any fun. The dancefloor remained empty.

One in Morocco that we went to. We were friends of the groom so he hadn't prepared us for what happens at a Moroccan wedding.

We didn't know it would go on all night, we didn't know that there would only be one drink all night

We didn't know that we just sat there and watch the bride be paraded in 5 different outfits.

Just out of interest what is different with a french wedding to a UK one?

2.5 hour church service in stifling 38 degree heat (no air conditioning). Partially in Ukrainian. I had a raging headache by the end and was dripping with sweat. Awful!

I've a feeling it's coming up this summer.
I'm sure it will be a lovely event for most of the guests actually but I'm dreading it. We have been invited to a wedding where DH only knows the groom and I have never even met him, ever mind anyone else. I don't enjoy social occasions at the best of times and its costing us a fortune too as its a long way away so we'll be away for 2 nights. DH really wants to go unfortunately so against my better judgement I have said ok.
I've never been to a wedding where anything dramatic has happened though really, but I've been to a couple where I've had to get something to eat on the way home recently. There seems to be a trend for lots of "extras" which weren't a thing in my youth and I can only assume that is reducing the budget for food. A few years ago we had to stop at a McDonald's after a wedding as we were absolutely starving and it was the only place around. We met a substantial number of other guests in the queue!

Cousin had such a big bust up with her Mum (MoB) before the ceremony the mum stood under the hotels grand staircase sobbing for the whole of the vows, ceremony room was right next-door and everyone could hear it. Whole room just didn't make eye contact with anyone the entire time.
They still haven't properly spoken 3 years on.

Two spring t mind, no drama as such but just not enjoyable

One - Church was stupid time like 12pm or something, like a three hour drive away then reception another hour drive. Hotel was expensive like 300e for the night. Room was so cold it was damp. The sheets were wet when we sat on the bed. Asked for the heating to be put on - told is was sept and it was still summer so no heating was sent a small plug in heater to try and warm room up. In laws room was down the hall and the air conditioning units was outside so noisy. Room were reception was in was horrible, big square room with no windows and heavy curtains hanging from the wall, vert dated and heavy. We got no sleep that night it was so cold. Himself never usually allows me to complain but 1st thing in morning he was at reception complaining, we got a whole 50e off our bill. It was like 10 years ago and i still remember the cold so clearly
Second was a wedding of a friend but not that close, they were together for years and had a couple of kids, had decided to get married. But it was like they decided to have the biggest wedding ever, with every single detail a wedding could have at it. Think there was about 450 at the wedding. Gospel choir, white doves floral arches at the church . Reception was in local hotel which can hots big weddings but not this big. Tables were laid out fitting 10 to 12 people with back of chairs hitting each other, We were squashed in like a cattle mart. Once dinner was over and band started we left. you couldn't breath with amount of people there, no comfort talking to anyone either. Home in our beds by 10pm

One where there were two tiers of guests. First tier - family. Got the first go at the buffet and ate most of it, had proper tables and chairs to sit at. Second tier was everyone else and there was basically no food left, nowhere to sit aside from some chairs round the sides. It was like the end of a game of musical chairs. We had to just try and subsist off the sweetie table and not get too drunk as none of us had any good. Well i say drunk i was 4 months pregnant so i got to watch everyone else get drunk. Oh yes - the top layer of the cake was cut and served to the top tier guests. The rest of us got nowt. They took the bottom two cake layers home with them.

The first dance was a random song they picked off YouTube the day before the wedding (not even a traditional first dance song - it was like some slowed down techno thing) which had no significance. No dj, just a spotify playlist so nobody could make any requests so it was more techno/club music all night.

Worst. Wedding. Ever.

As Branleuse said, they go on all night. There's a lot of hanging around. The meal starts late, can't remember off the top of my head but maybe 8-9pm ish, they tend to break up the courses with speeches and things, and you eventually end up doing dessert / pièce montée in the early hours. Then the dancing starts, when you're just about ready to collapse into bed It tends to finish at about 5am. It's a feat of endurance. We did a lot of them pre-kids and have only done one since (didn't take DC), I had very little stamina for it before kids and have even less for it now!

My cousins wedding. The police were called out to break up a fight between the grooms dad and the grooms brother in law. Proper punch up with screaming and threats.

We went to a wedding at 11am, church lasted about 45 minutes. Went into the hall for the 'breakfast' but it very quickly became apparent that the really bad catering wasn't scheduled until 4. There was nothing to drink, not even water, never mind a welcome drink.

It was embarrassing, guests were nipping down the road to the local garage (remoteish location, nothing else around) to buy drinks, parents were getting food for their kids.

Nothing against a wedding on a budget but either let your guests know what to expect or sort the day out better. A later wedding would have been ok.

Didn't help that I was 9 weeks pregnant and felt sick as a dog.

Scottish dry wedding, it was all over by ten o clock and the marriage was all over a year later.

Two tie for worst place.

One was at 2pm, had to leave at 1pm
to get there, so hadn’t eaten. Canapés offered on arrival but nobody really ate them as we were about to go into the wedding. We were seated at round tables decorated for the wedding breakfast with place cards and the wedding ceremony took place in front of the top table (they had got officially married the day before and this was a fake/joke ceremony with a comedian playing the minister). The speeches and photos went on for hours. There was no wedding breakfast. At 8pm a tiny hot buffet was served (one mini burger and a tiny cone of chips). By 10pm people staying at the hotel were ordering take aways to be delivered and many of those local just went home (we did!)

Second wedding- only invited to the evening reception, which doesn’t offend me at all, but there were no seats whatsoever for the evening guests, no food served until very late and then there was absolutely nothing veggie. It was burgers again but no veg burgers. The waitress came back with a single bread roll and butter when I asked if there was anything veggie.

The worst wedding i attended was a friend who always had stingy tendencies and the wedding was sadly no exception. It didn't help that the groom was dull as ditchwater and his family was awful. Terrible speeches (boring and/or sexist/offensive). The reception venue was a cricket club with an open-sided marquee, apparently the marquee was already there anyway for some kind of cricketing event, so they used it to save money instead of hiring one (or using an indoor venue). It was freezing. There wasn't enough food; there was a cold buffet of afternoon tea type stuff, which the tables had to take turns to queue up and get. I had my baby with me (who had been invited! before anyone tells me off for taking a baby to a wedding) and they had seated us at the table closest to the stage (with band) and dance floor. There was nowhere warm and quiet to take my baby. We were very hungry. The wedding cake was disgusting - it had been made by a colleague or friend (I can't remember) as a favour. Clearly not a professional. We should have left after they'd cut the cake and started dancing, but there was a pizza van that had set up, so we waited for them to start serving pizza. When they finally did, there was an absolutely massive long line of all the guests queuing up for it, I think DH managed to get in the queue and get a couple of slices. We left after that but it was too late to get any food so we just went back to our hotel and went to bed hungry.

The couple went on a nice honeymoon so that's obviously where all the budget went. Their choice, fair enough. But if they couldn't afford (or didn't want) to provide adequate food and shelter for their guests, they should've had a much smaller wedding.

i had already been growing apart from my friend and it was the final nail in the coffin I'm afraid.

A ‘destination’ wedding 🤣. Paid a fortune, one of DHs best friends. We didn’t have DCs, and on the first night there it was announced that the guys were going into town for drinks and the ladies were staying behind to look after all the kids!

I wasn’t having that so me and another friend joined the blokes … the mother of the bride was extremely hostile/rude to us for the rest of the trip.

six weeks after the wedding the groom was found shagging one of the brides ‘best friends’. What a complete waste of everyone’s time and money. Never again.

One in a very expensive country house hotel, where they had paid for every gimmick going; personalised favours, a photo booth, chocolate fountain, walking magician, caricature painter, children's entertainer etc etc. But only one bottle of red and one white wine per table to 12, so a teeny tiny glass each and mediocre food. The bar was so expensive it was like £15 for a 175ml glass of wine. The dancefloor remained empty, everyone was bored shitless and the B&G nowhere to be seen for hours. We left about 8.30pm and went home. God it was dull and mustve cost about £30k. Why not spend some of that on a bar instead and at least people would have looked less glum.

Can't believe I'm going to say this out loud

My husband was shot by his brother at our wedding reception 1983

I spent my wedding night in my mum's spare single bed

Now divorced and don't care if outing

🫢