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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask what's the worst wedding you've ever been to?

322 replies

WashingMatilda · 21/08/2017 01:25

I've just come back from a really gorgeous wedding. It was one of those joyous, real life affirming ones IYKWIM.

However, during the speeches I randomly remembered a wedding I went to years and years ago where the grandmas wheelchair was left without its brakes on at the top of a big flight of steps outside the registry office. She rolled forward, all the way down, cracked her head open on the slabs, ambulance took her off on blue lights, and the bride spent the reception scrubbing blood out of her train poor bloody woman. It was horrific. Sad (Nan fine in the end)

What's yours?

OP posts:
Blobby10 · 21/08/2017 12:54

I think my wedding has been mentioned here already! Grin it was early 1990's, church service followed by what seemed like loads of arty photos, even though we had genuinely tried to get the photographer to get through them quickly and got the 'essential' family group pics done quickly. Then on the way to the reception venue he persuaded the wedding car chauffeurs to take bridal couple and bridesmaids to a green area 2 miles in wrong direction and spent another half hour snapping away (photos were rubbish)!! Got to hotel and didn't realise that there was nowhere for people to sit and we hadn't arranged any food/drinks/canapes as expected meal to be served as soon as we got there - nope - more arty photos !

If I knew then what I know now I would have done things so differently but I had never been to a wedding so had no idea what to do to help guest comfort levels and was carried along by arty photographer!! Still cringe at what our poor guests put up with Blush

BlooBagoo · 21/08/2017 12:56

Went to a wedding excited to see the best man as we'd been in an LDR for a few months. Turned out I wasn't the only one. Two others he'd also been in LDRs with were there too.

Happydoingitjusttheonce · 21/08/2017 13:05

I was 7m pregnant, wedding was lovely. At evening party a work colleague of bride and me arrived with a friend who spent the whole night openly flirting with my husband who was sitting right next to me. He was Dutch and very open and friendly so genuinely didn't realise. I think in retrospect that was better as she was probably miffed that he didn't flirt back

elfinpre · 21/08/2017 13:21

I've not been to any which were a disaster to the extent of some on this thread .

But one of the first I went to with DH was quite hard work, though a gorgeous wedding, as he was best man and I didn't get to spend much time with him that weekend as there was loads of stuff for him to do beforehand which I hadn't been included in, I was much more shy and quiet then and we were not long together and quite inseperable normally. It was not just a few hours but took up the whole weekend and then we had a really long drive back to London and work the next day.

At another one they ran out of buffet really quickly when some people hadn't even been up and at first the hotel wouldn't do anything. But then made soggy sandwiches. Some people just had like, a couple of sandwiches and that was it. At other weddings we've been starving and thirsty while interminable photos were being taken. I resolved that no-one would go hungry or thirsty at our wedding, if nothing else!

I also made sure that speeches would come after the starter and main. At a friend's wedding later, when heavily pregnant, they had the speeches before food. I was nearly crying with hunger as the groom's speech went on for an hour in itself. People were eating the favours in desperation and stealing chocolate mints meant for coffee for me. In spite of the groom waxing on about his wonderful wife for an hour, the marriage lasted precisely two years.

At another one I was six months pregnant with DD2. Got chatting with a really nice woman with 4 kids. DH came over with an old friend who hadn't met me, gesturing towards the both of us. Old friend congratulated the woman I'd been talking to on her pregnancy - she was not pregnant.

At another outdoor wedding in a marquee it rained so much that all the electrics went off. Came back on but it didn't seem very safe. Groom's dad (drunk driving) ran over a guest's foot in his Landrover as they stumbled to the hotel in the pouring rain down a pitch black narrow country lane. The marriage lasted 12 months.

peachgreen · 21/08/2017 13:22

I've been to lots of lovely weddings, a few mediocre ones and one absolutely AWFUL one...

Bride and groom had a massive row at the top table before dinner (essentially over the fact that he had spent more of the day with his three (yes three) best men (getting hammered) than with the bride, and all four of them were now too drunk to coherently make their speeches. Groom stormed off and disappeared for almost two hours, during which bride refused to allow dinner to be served so we were all just sat there waiting for something to happen while bride sobbed on her mum at the top table.

When groom eventually came back he insisted that they all did their speeches - his was actually okay but the best man who was meant to be making a speech could barely string a sentence together. Bride's dad eventually physically removed him from the room because he refused to stop talking (or trying to). Finally, nearly 3 hours after we sat down and 6 hours after the ceremony, we were served food, which was (understandably) past its best.

Later on in the evening, best man spilled red wine all down the front of the bride's dress, groom was sick in the middle of the dance floor and groom's dad took off his trousers and y-fronts and had to be carried out effing and blinding by four guys as he refused to put them back on.

Needless to say, the groom is an absolute numpty but unfortunately they're still together. God knows how.

elfinpre · 21/08/2017 13:27

I went to one in central London where it was quite a nice wedding overall. At the reception I talked to some really interesting people, the food and drink flowed. But there was no disco nor even anywhere to sit.

elfinpre · 21/08/2017 13:28

I don't even like bars where you can't sit down, never mind entire weddings.

elfinpre · 21/08/2017 13:31

Another one which was a gorgeous wedding of a close friend, but like another poster, DD1 was tiny and wouldn't settle, so I missed most of it.

LaBrujaPiruja · 21/08/2017 13:31

Father of the groom felt ill during the wedding breakfast. We were at a big posh hotel and bride and groom were told the elderly gentleman had gone to his room and was having a rest. In fact he had had a stroke, was rushed to hospital by groom's eldest brother, and his wife and passed away a couple of hours later. Bride and groom (and the rest of us) were not told until after the evening reception. Poor things. We all felt horrible, but this is was the gentleman wanted, and eldest brother had just followed his instructions.

Original poster
WashingMatilda · 21/08/2017 14:10

Labruja sweet lord that's so sad.

The bride insisted we sit next to people we don't know so we could get to know each other
Why why why WHY do people do this?? Weddings are a chance for me to see and speak to family and friends I don't get to see as often as I'd like. Why would I want to travel miles and spend money on sitting with people I am probably never going to see again?? Don't get me wrong, part of the fun of weddings is getting to know different people and striking up random conversations with people, but to have it forced is so annoying.

OP posts:
PollyFlint · 21/08/2017 14:21

I wasn't actually a guest at this wedding, I was working as a waitress at the reception when I was a student - but at the reception some of the men in the wedding party, including the groom, decided to do a strip tease and ended up completely naked. This in itself was honestly a bit grim, but then one of them decided to dance around the room (it was a sit-down meal), still naked, and - inexplicably - stood behind a bridesmaid and rubbed his genitals against the back of her neck.

This would have been foul in any circumstances ... but she was only about 14 years old. She was very upset and started to cry and someone (I think her mother) got up and smacked the offending bloke in the face.

Anyway, the upshot of all this was that a huge fight broke out and we had to call the police, who made two arrests. The bride ended her wedding day sitting outside the hotel crying with blood down the front of her dress from the groom's broken nose. All this had occurred by about 4pm. I dread to think what would have happened if the reception had gone on until midnight as had been planned.

usersos · 21/08/2017 14:25

Groom was so drunk , he followed through at the top table.....I'm being totally serious....soaked right through his kilt and dribbled down his legs

Original poster
WashingMatilda · 21/08/2017 14:28

This would have been foul in any circumstances ... but she was only about 14 years old.

Oh my god

OP posts:
Ketchup123 · 21/08/2017 14:28

I went to one on my 30th birthday. We turned up at the appointed time to find an empty town hall. The wedding time had been moved back by 3 hours, and nobody had bothered to inform us. We were then expected to decorate said town hall, seeing as how we were early. The wedding itself was awful. We knew no-one, and there was a lot of family tension evident. I sobbed on the way home because it was a rubbish 30th birthday.

Yorkshirelass453 · 21/08/2017 14:42

My best one was when the Father of the Bride in his speech informed us the B and G were actually related.......cue very very awkward silence.

IHeartDodo · 21/08/2017 14:46

:O
How closely related???

Yorkshirelass453 · 21/08/2017 15:01

He left the details vague - still enough to cause a number of raised eyebrows and a horrified bride!

TwinkleTwinkleLittleEtoile · 21/08/2017 15:02

I once went to a January wedding in a charming, rustic venue. In other words, no heating. I have never been so cold in all my life. I was pregnant too, so not feeling that great anyway. I had to wear my coat all day. The post-ceremony drink was mulled wine. The non alcoholic option was chilled fruit punch. I was offering to hold everybody else's drinks in an attempt at getting some warmth into me. The bridesmaids' skin looked as blue as the colour of their dresses.

I left early.

Coldilox · 21/08/2017 15:22

Am a police officer. A few years ago there was a call to one of the nice hotels in the city as a bride and groom were kicking off at the staff. To my absolute dismay I didn't get allocated to the job but some friends did, both the bride and groom had thrown punches and both got locked up. Awesome photo on the front page of the local paper for my friend bundling a sobbing woman and her meringue style dress into the back of her van, and the happy couple spent their wedding night in separate cells.

Coldilox · 21/08/2017 15:23

*of my friend

Original poster
WashingMatilda · 21/08/2017 15:26

coldilox fellow police officer fist bump.

OP posts:
GeorgiePeachie · 21/08/2017 15:54

Tears from the mother of the groom throughout the ceremony. Later in the evening she happened to introduce me to the grooms uncle as someone she had hoped might marry him instead (NOT THE CASE definitely just good childhood friends). I think she just meant, that she wished he was marrying ANYONE else.

quote from the bride at her own wedding: Sigh it drags on a bit doesn't it.

The wedding was a cut out of a wedding so all pretty decently set up and everything nothing weird except that it seemed like the 'idea' of a wedding rather than being about them. They both love heavy metal and got together at a metallica concert but you wouldn't know it from the wedding.

It was generally pretty sad to watch my school friend and not see any of his personality reflected in the event. (she doesn't have one so it wasn't a bridezilla thing)

Awkward first dance where you visibly saw her say to him: Twirl me or something!

I had a lovely time, dancing with old school friends, as an event it was great. But behind it was just sadness. The next day our littel group sat around the kitchen table like we had as children and repeated to eachother how sad it was for our friend (although he seems very happy...) one choice quote: "I just think he is sleep walking into a life he doesn't want."

StealthPolarBear · 21/08/2017 15:57

Lurking.
Dh went to my cousins wedding on his birthday. Thought nothing of it but the bride and groom and her parents gave him a card and he was mentioned in the speeches which was lovely :)

ReanimatedSGB · 21/08/2017 15:58

A friend found out on the morning of her wedding that the hall for the reception had been double-booked: her family had gone to put up the bunting or whatever and been firmly seen off by a rather hostile family group who were having their mum's 50th birthday party there that afternoon and didn't know anything about a wedding and didn't care.
Friends rallied round madly, managed to book a vacant conference room in a nearby hotel for two hours for drinks and another community hall for the actual party.

There was also one that was lovely all day - apart from the groom's mother reading out a very sad traditional poem about the true love who turned out to be unfaithful and bursting into tears...

Icequeen01 · 21/08/2017 16:11

We went to a wedding reception a few years ago. Didn't really know the bride and groom but was invited by the bride's parents whom we were friendly with. We reluctantly went and within 30 minutes we saw the bride and groom having to be separated as they had got into an argument. The groom told his bride to f**k off 😳 Our friends got involved, took the B & G into another room and they came out all lovey dovey and carried on as if nothing had happened!

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