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! "

I said this on another thread and was told that people will have 'already eaten'. I said I wouldn't have and would expect food of some sort. Apparently that was unreasonable.

I remember going to an evening reception with my parents when I was about 14 - a 2nd cousin. It was in the days before mobile phones or social media,

We drove an hour to arrive at the venue for 7pm. The hall was dimly lit with no music and a few very somber people sat at table drinking tea.

It transpired that the Bride's mother had gone out to her car to fetch her camera after the ceremony and had suffered a sudden cardiac arrest on the pavement outside the church. The Bride and Bridesmaid were nurses and attempted CPR but they weren't successful.

I was bridesmaid at a nature reserve which is lauded for biodiversity but to an non expert looks like a field. There was no cover, it was raining and guests were freezing. Official asked us to be silent during ceremony and appreciate the tranquility, but this just made us hone in on the motorway in the distance!

Reception in unheated marquee. Guests got picnic blankets from their cars to keep warm. Food served on paper plates. The evening band were really good and we did have fun later on.

Quite strange really, as the couple were quite wealthy but chose to spend as little as possible, to detriment of guests.

But the marriage is more important than the wedding and they are happily married years later.

Without a shadow of a doubt, it was a friend of my exH, who was supposed to be an usher. Ex hasn't bothered to find out exactly where it was and was too tight to pay for a hotel, so we stayed at his brother's an hour away, and got caught in Saturday Bath traffic and we were late. Bride was pregnant and clearly feeling massively sick. I was in the midst of IVF woe and found out that very morning our first attempt had failed. There were far too many people invited and at the meal we were wedged in along benches, so whenever anyone needed to loo everyone had to get up off their bench, like in the cinema. We stood around for ages waiting for the photos and I didn't know a single soul. Tried smiling and saying boo with a baby in a pram, until the mum snarled at me, pulled the hood up and stood shielding me from the baby. This made me cry in the toilets and by the evening I was in floods of uncontrollable tears in the car, and exH wouldn't leave. He was too afraid of offending anyone.

It was so shit it makes me fill up just thinking about it

The one where we couldn’t go because DS1 tested positive for Covid the day before. DH, DS2 and myself then tested positive one by one but the bridge and groom were not happy that we didn’t go and treated it like a personal insult that we had Covid. Three or four days after the wedding they went down with Covid themselves - not surprising as one of their DC’s had Covid in the run up to the wedding and they fiddled the isolation dates so the DC could attend. However, the bride had the audacity to blame it on one of the other guests bringing it to the wedding - she actually put out a post blaming it on someone else on social media! Many of the wedding guests subsequently went down with Covid!

There's always been a ' moment' or at two at every wedding I have been too.

Genuinely don't know why people go to the expense, stress and hassle. Are we really that egotistical as people to demand this costly, attention seeking ' celebration' ? . It's bizarre when you think about it.

Anyway, two that stand out to me was one where the groom was a policeman, and had invited all his work colleagues because they were ' his family' . Wedding at 2.00pm, bar open from 11.00 a.m. . No food until after the ceremony. You can guess the rest. Anyway, it was a remote country house style thing, so by 8.00pm when the party/disco was about to start , this ' family' of the groom had were either comatose or had left , leaving a very poorly attended evening do an an upset bride.

Second one, the classic disappearing act from the bride and groom for photos..three hours. Three hours with confused guests eating tiny canapes and getting drunk on a baking hot day. Again, I think some people left and didn't come back for the wedding breakfast, never mind the evening do.

I realise a bride and groom can plan whatever wedding they want, but the lack of thought and hospitality offered to guests who have spent a lot of money, time and effort to attend is remarkable.

I would say to any couple planning on one of these self indulgent spectacles, please feed your guests at normal times - lunch still exists even when you are getting married - and don't disappear for hours for pointlessly expensive photos.

😱

My cousins wedding.

Left home 10am.
Church service 11.30am
Venue 1.30pm - 1 glass of bucks fizz served
Photos 3 hours - guests rammed into tiny bar as it was raining and no food on offer as it was a venue not a hotel. Not even a bag of crisps/nuts.

Go into reception room 5pm - they decided to do speeches
Food served 5.45pm.

There was just no thought to the guests whatsoever, alot of whom were elderly or very young.

DH's colleague's wedding. Invited to the reception not ceremony.
Free drinks for the first 20 mins (cue shit fight at the bar); got one drink. Spent about £50 on subsequent drinks.
Not enough seats for everyone to sit down. A shit buffet of brown food with tiny side plates. People queuing across the room to eat.
Asked for money as a wedding present (put £50 in a card)
Drove 2 hours there and back for it
Paid for babysitter as well (another £50)

Never seen them before and will never see them again.

What the actual heck??!!

We went to one where one of the guests wore a hi- viz waistcoat!

I've been to two weddings with zero atmosphere. First was a work colleague I had known long invited me and dp at the time who didn't know her to the sit down meal. 80 guests in total most from work. Her parents had got her a particular package. 2 hours gap between sat a round doing nothing, most left to watch the footie, evening do was empty. The second one they ignored us all night and food was crab again no atmosphere

I've been to two which were bad for different reasons:

1. Non-religious wedding (I don't go to a lot of those, so I don't know how common this is): couple had decided not to go for many of the optional extras, so the whole ceremony was over in under 10 minutes. They tried the bride walking in with her father to music, but the room was so small that they were at the front in about 15 seconds and then just standing around. The reception was passable. It just felt like a bit of a non-event, the reception had more going on than the actual wedding.
2. The opposite. Really religious couple determined not to make too much of a fuss with the reception. The wedding ceremony was massively elaborate and went on for over 2 hours. The reception was dry (bride's family are Protestant teetotalers) and in the church hall, there were a few stale sandwiches and cups of weak tea. It was very much like what's left over from a village fete. No music or entertainment. There was a cake cutting and a few speeches (no chairs, so we all had to stand around). The bride and groom left on their honeymoon after about an hour, the rest of us helped to tidy away then left. The bride had discovered the morning of the wedding that she'd put on weight and her dress didn't fit, so the pre-wedding morning was spent frantically trying to let it out. Instead of a hen and stag do, we all went for a meal in a local pub the night before the wedding (no alcohol allowed because the bride's parents were present).

To be fair, both couples are still married and seem happy, whereas I had an absolutely lovely wedding and am now divorced. 😂

Remote village in Scotland at a ‘Big house’, ceremony was fine, food was average but served early at 3pm all ok so far but then the ‘evening reception’ was just drinks in the bar with no food! Nothing open for miles around except a McDonald’s, 30 mins down the motorway 🙄 DP and I still talk about how disorganised it was to this day.

Did you marry into the Corleone family?!

Bad weddings seem to have one or more common factors:

• unlikeable/incompatible bride/groom
• violence
• poor hosting: difficult location, not enough food/shelter/seats, long gaps, expensive to attend

Mine. Not bad as such, but a bit WTF? At the point where the vicar was to give a small speech from the pulpit, he started giving out the parish notices for the next week! (Meetings, services etc) I can only assume he forgot it was a wedding, and thought he was in a regular Sunday service!

What happened next? did you tell your friend? Did she find out by other means? Hope they got divorced.

Outstanding!

Wedding reception held at a Toby Carvery

Given the number of stabbings/shootings/bunfights/assaults detailed on this thread, this sounds like a bad idea from the get-go ...

Went to a friend of DHs wedding, they are lovely and we were excited to go. However they fucked off to do photos for hours including my DH who was in the wedding party, and I knew NO ONE so I sat behind the venue texting and chainsmoking. I find the photo thing so weird, just like this long gap in the day with nothing happening.
The evening was lovely, but she hadnt paid for anyone to clear the venue so we were roped into helping pack up the entire hall. will never forget the site of the bride in her beautiful dress sweeping the floor with a big ol broom.....

Whole family were invited so we hired a bus to take us half way across the country. Arrived to find hundreds of people waiting to cram into the church. We were lucky and got seats but there were others standing in the aisle and at the back of the church.

Reception was in a sports hall. Long, long trestle tables laid out with bottles of wine etc. Waited an age for bride & groom to arrive after photos. Menus on the table suggested a feast. In the end our party ended up with roast potatoes which hadn't thawed out yet, and about a tablespoon of rice salad each. The kitchen ran out of chicken before they got to me. I was so hungry.

The microphone provided for the speeches didn't work so I didn't hear a word of them. Although there was wine on the tables so many people were there it ran out before I got a glass and there was no where to get a drink. So I was thirsty as well as hungry.

It was about 30 years ago and bride & groom are still happily married so a disasastrous start didn't foretell what was to come.

It wasn't. The groom mother was in tears as she had offered help toward the wedding . Everyone was shocked at just how awful it was as her parents weren't short of money . I know the brides mother thought she could have married better maybe that why it was so penny pinchinly awful

BIL’s was awful (and they split 3 months later) He looked awful clearly having second thoughts. MIL cried during ceremony and little bridesmaid yelled no during ceremony echoing views of many attendees. It had an awful about to kick off atmosphere. We left before meal/speeches.
I also went to one where celebrant said x and y got married yesterday but they consider this their wedding and there was an audible gasp and wtf atmosphere. Why they hadn’t worded invite so people knew in advance I don’t know (celebrants can’t mislead) I always think of that when I see threads where people say no one cares if it’s legal ceremony or not.

When groom got drunk and told my husband he doesn't want to have kids (but his new wife really wanted to be a mum). They don't have any children and wedding was 7 years ago. I feel sorry for her.