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! "

Early April wedding, freezing cold and rained, most of the ‘friend’ guests were in a separate outside tent which was freezing as the patio heaters didn’t work. Ate a cold meal in a cold tent with the rain pelting down wearing a coat, gloves and scarf. Veggie food grim. None of the nice outside activities were really done.

appreciate they could not control the weather but it stuck in my mind. Clearly I’ve not really been to anything with any exceptional events!

Fascinating thread this...

I haven't been to many weddings at all as I kept moving countries in time to miss wedding seasons. But some peculiar moments:

In Germany, some people treat the eve of the wedding as 'polterabend,' lit. 'thundering/growling' evening, and the tradition is to break old crockery. I once went to a wedding in a region that used to be a centre of china production, and both bride and groom's family had connections to the industry.

Guests brought out crates of crockery, seemed like dozens of them, and just emptied them into the bride's parents' yard. Bride and groom waded ankle deep in shards, wielding brooms, patiently pushing the shards into heaps while their guests were nursing beers. They seemed quite unperturbed by this and the actual wedding was fun.

Then there was a wedding in Scotland where the groom took some of the guests on a hiking tour the day before. Wildly overestimating the guests' mountaineering skills and underestimating the terrain. They were brought back by a rescue crew halfway through dinner, looking absolutely dead on their feet, one woman leaning on a rescuer. To this day, I haven't seen people look more exhausted.

All recovered overnight and the wedding was lovely. I suspect the bride had an, ahem, word with the groom though.

My nephews wedding was largely lovely but after the ceremony he, his wife and her family disappeared for hours - turns out they were getting photos done and having afternoon tea!!! Didn’t invite his mum & dad and the guests were left twiddling their thumbs and starving!

Well clearly I’ve led a sheltered life….

eXH’s uncle’s wedding, held in some baptist church. He hadn’t really seen any of his family for years on account of the fact he’s a bit of a loner, but then started going round there to make sure he had guests at the wedding.

There were maybe about 25 people there, and after the service we went round to the church hall where we were all given a sausage roll and some crisps with a choice of coke or orange juice, and red or white grape juice for the toast.

And then it was over.

Oh, and the best man was a 3 year old because in the bride’s words: “he was the first one to accept the groom into her family.”

We were home by about 6. Surreal.

Ah you cant just leave it at a that!!

My MIL did this on my hen do. Spent the entire time walking about losing her son until one of my friends took her aside for some stern words!

I feel for you TheDove
I didn't mention this one earlier because it wasn't allowed to spoil things, but at mine my own MIL - an almost professional funeral-goer and always guaranteed to put a downer on any occasion - stationed herself in the loos with a photo of a distant family member who'd died tragically young

Never mind that the death was 7 years earlier; every lady who popped in there was accosted with the terrible tale, while MIL soaked up the condolences.
Unfortunately (for her) one of them was my own mother, who soon sorted her out

I'm sure the wedding was lovely but exH once made us go to a wedding 1.5 hours away that I didn't realise we weren't even invited to. It was his boss' son's wedding, who we vaguely knew but he was just trying to brown-nose the boss. The whole thing was colour-themed so I bought new outfits for everyone. We arrived with our young DC, gatecrashed the church wedding ceremony and then drove 1.5 hours home again. So embarrassing and annoying.

Family wedding in Surrey
We were told on our invite that if we needed a lift to the reception ( which was about 2 miles away) to mention it on our RSVP so i did.
Cermoney over we wait for lifts organised for us..watching eveyone driving away looking at us standing there like lemons,
The best man told us he couldnt help us with a lift and drove off.
Eventually we get two taxis and arrive at the reception.
We had to wait hours for the food . a sit down meal. in the end nobody really wanted it because canapes had been served and we had all stuffed ourselves because we were starving,
Thinking back,,i was in the midst of menopause so was incredibly arsey about everthing

My friend and I (both women) had both slept with the bride and my friend wasn't over her yet. Also, it was held in the middle of nowhere with nowhere to escape to and it was completely cash bar which no one had warned us about and we didn't have enough money even to drown our sorrows.

@BrassyLocks was this a country in southern Africa by any tiny chance?

It was in the middle east. And so it wasn't just one event over in a few hours. The drama went on for days 😩. I was invited by the bride's sister to spend the weekend so I couldn't get away. The sister was supposed to return with me to the city I was working in, but due to the family drama she kept extending her stay until one morning I declared I was leaving on my own and I didn't care if it was not the done thing or dangerous or shameful. I was done!

We only went to the evening as we were working in the day. They’d hired a house, just a pretty normal semi detached in a local estate. The owners washing was still on the line. It was a lovely day so were having a bbq.

We turned up at 6pm and the bride had left the guests to go for a bath. We ended up left monitoring the BBQ, the vegetarian meal was corn on the cob, which they had 100s of for us to peal and BBQ. The brother of the groom came to help BBQ the meat, put a massive pile of meat on the BBQ and left (piled so high it would never have cooked).
The bride got out of the bath over an hour after we arrived.

Apparently there’d been a big family fall out in the day too where an aunt and grandparent had a screaming argument outside the registry office.

Nothing terrible. TBH, my brother's wasn't that great although the ceremony itself was lovely. He and his wife a very laidback, so they were fine with having it at very average hotel in a cold, miserable time in winter, which was totally fine in itself. But the hotel had to change over the room from ceremony to dinner and it took about 2 hours with nothing to do, eat or drink - to be fair, we don't have much extended family so no one had been to a wedding for ages (it was the first wedding I'd ever been to and I was in my early 20s) so I guess no one really knew the drill as it were. Brother can be a bit tight with cash so they didn't want to hire a band, he just put together a CD so no one really danced. The photographer was awful and they don't have many pics as the ones he took were rubbish.

This thread confirms my feeling that B&G should not sod off for 2 hours of photos, and I've been to 2-3 where that's the case, although all of them at least did have food, drinks and some sort of music during that time.

Our wedding photographer, who only did weddings occasionally, insisted on only half an hour max of family photos because any more was getting in the way of the day and she was quite right. Honestly I'd rather have fewer photos than guests with a memory of standing around for 2 hours for no good reason at our nuptials.

Sister's wedding. A large family group stayed in a church community place next door to the church and although her intended was supposed to sort food for the morning, there wasn't any, not even any milk. When I went into my parent's place the next morning for breakfast, I got shouted at by sister and thrown out. Then we had to go and buy everyone breakfast in a nearby town. The ceremony itself was okay but the reception was commandeered by sister's sil who took control of everything and shouted into a microphone half the evening. We were seated next to the speakers which blasted out too loud music so no one could talk. The whole thing cost everyone an arm and a leg and the marriage only lasted about a year.

I had no idea ‘split weddings’ were a thing until we were invited to one We assumed it was for the whole day (given that we’d been invited to the church), and it turned out we were there to make up the numbers for the ceremony then fuck off for several hours and come back later for the evening part. I was raging I must admit and would never go to one like that again, it’s the height of rudeness - get numbers for the church, then exclude them from the meal. It’s basically a second tier/evening invite in sneaky disguise, lol. I never saw my friend in the same light again, particularly as some of us (one big group of friends - or so I thought ) were invited to the meal and others weren’t.

My DS's. Married a man from an online dating site within months after seeing an online photo and stating she would never marry a man that ugly. Then found out he had money.
Fell out with me prior to wedding as I wouldn't let her announce my child's birth on Facebook despite the fact my baby was in a coma and we didn't know if she was going to make it.
Guilted me in to being a bridesmaid and then wouldn't even advise photos schedule so I could breast feed my child and still make sure I was available. Vile to me throughout. Best man's speech was the best where he admitted how much of a knob the groom was and how no one liked him. All bridesmaids were in bed by 11 (says it all) and needless to say I cut them off 7 years ago and am now the happiest I've ever been 😊

Family wedding with too long a gap between day and evening parts. Everyone crammed round tables in a tiny bar area for ages, bored to tears once they'd exhausted all the small talk. Pouring with rain so couldn't even wander round outside. Also the whole thing had been done in a super-formal way which isn't my cup of tea personally (though I accept it was their day, their rules).

And after all that, the marriage didn't last!

Oh you definitely win this one unfortunately. At least you are out of it.

Lovely wedding ceremony in a church but the put on a roasting bus to the receipt venue at a football ground. For 3 hours we all stood in a small room, no seats at all. No drinks or food, just standing around waiting for the bride and groom who were getting photos taken. At least if we could have sat firm and had sone drinks and food it would have been more comfortable.

That has to be one of the worst!

I went to a reception (not the wedding) in the 1980s somewhere in Northolt in a church hall. There'd been a fight and the floor was ankle deep in spilt beer and blood.

🤔 my mums 1st cousin in the 80’s wedding. I was a little bride. We got to the church only to find a woman and some thugs waiting for us all and they chased all back. The woman was the groom's wife who had kids for him but he never told his bride to be. We all went to the reception to eat up all the food and went home. Sad. But they stayed together and how have grown up kids and even grandchildren.

2nd wedding is the one I will be attending later this year. I am sure is going to be shit because it's my partner's sister’s wedding. She is a bitch & nasty to me and knowing her taste & style, it will be shit but unfortunately I have to go to support partner.

Wedding in wales(distant cousin) where there was a 4 hour gap before the big reception. It was a heatwave, the kids were tired, there was nothing to do. Myself and my 6 year old fell asleep on a chair. Went to the toilet later and the bride came in with her friend and hike I was in the loo ranting about how rude I was for napping. My six year old the proceeded to rip his lovely line shorts across the entire internal seam so it was just two bits of fabric flapping about. It was very funny!!

Oooh yes a family member married in France and I remember doing that was terrific fun though as we were all totally pissed and luckily my brother in law was the chief of the local gendarmerie so no risk of police intervention…

At my nieces wedding was told don’t eat anything by another niece,why I asked,it all got made on Thursday ,this was Saturday evening,sneaked out to Maccies

Oh I forgot one we went to where the evening buffet was still semi frozen. The bloke next to us gnawed his way through a big slice of frozen pork pie 😂