To ask you to share stories of events you have organised that have gone disastrously wrong!

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I don’t want to include too many identifying details... but on the weekend I had a party for dd which was partly at out house and then going out to do an activity. All was going well except we took public transport (older kids and also seemed like the most practical option). Except the public transport failed us and we were very delayed getting back. I had tried really hard and wanted to make a good impression (new school, parents I don’t know) but instead made myself look like an irresponsible person whom can’t be trusted to organise anything properly...

Please share your disasters to make me feel better!

It doesn't sound like a disaster! Just a delay. I'm sure they had a good time.

Well, it feels like a disaster now, as many of the parents were inconvenienced by the delay, and the kids were hot and grumpy but maybe I can laugh about it in 12 months time!

I'm sure it does at the moment, but at least it was on the way back. I'm sorry you feel bad about it. [the kids were probably fine after a cold drink]

I once booked a holiday cottage only to find I'd actually booked the barn across the road with no beds or kitchen, just a bbq and mattresses. I was not popular

Not exactly a disaster, but years ago my dh (then dp) was travelling up to Birmingham from our home in the south east for an event with my db, they wanted to stay overnight so i was tasked with booking them a b&b

I went online and booked them somewhere, and was very pleased about my bargain of just £25 for the night

It was only while i was at home bored and they were about halfway to Birmingham that I decided to actually read some reviews for the place id booked, they were awful! I didnt dare ring my db to tell them (dh would have been driving) so i just waited for the inevitable call to moan about my fuck up

The call came but neither of them moaned, they had a good laugh about it in fact and its now just a funny story to tell people, tho dh did say it would probably be best if i read reviews before i booked anywhere in future

For reference the issues with the b&b was that the place was dirty and tho things like bed sheets had been washed, there were still various stains on them and there was mould in the bathroom and the room smelled damp, oh and when they checked in the guy at reception was watching porn on his tv

I had plans for a party, only someone talked my child into hiring a hall no one came, I could have cried for my child.

My sons baptism

SHitty hall venue didn’t like look nice
No god parents
Food was late
Then People left early
Then elder child puked everywhere

It was so awful

Oh mummy

About a zillion years ago I was a sort of youth leader for an English language class offered to children for whom English was a second language. I got funds to take us all (20 kids plus a few more helpers) swimming. We trooped up to the pool, on a hot day only to find that my chosen time was the disabled swimming session and - rightly but frustratingly as the pool was empty - we weren’t allowed in. I had to walk everyone back down a riverbank pretending that the nice hot walk was the trip. One of the helpers had persuaded her hot new shag to join us, this was in the days before CRB/DBS checks, and she moaned at me all the way back.

Taught me a vital lesson: always check the timetable

My wedding...where to start!

I hand made the invitations...then lost them!! Had to remake entire batch.
Maid of Honour’s bouquet didn’t arrive
My car never arrived (driver got the date wrong). Luckily I was bailed out by brother’s best friend, owner of a swanky BMW 😁
Caterers- wrong crockery and main course

All turned out fine. The free bar took the edge off, and we are still married 18 years later. The wedding is just for a day...it felt like a bloody long one though 😂

Oh, and while I was having photos done (humanist wedding inside an historic building), one of the staff who worked there decided to just walk all over my dress and cloak (winter wedding...very cold!) and didn’t care as she was “late for work”. I kept one of the photos with her in it, just for a laugh 😆

It wasn’t my event but still cringy. I offered to take a friend’s son with mine to a party. They were both at nursery at the time. I lost the invitation but was pretty sure of the time/venue etc. Was incredibly socially anxious at the time, not helped by the fact that there was a hotbed of bitchy parent vipers in the class (they would literally blank you if you went up to talk to them). Anyway, as I turned up with two excited children, presents and cards, I noticed the mother standing at the door handing out party bags as people were leaving. I was treated with scornful looks by the parents. No one was kind and laughed with me. I still go hot and cold at the thought of it. I bunged the presents at them and ran away and tried to make it up to the poor children with me! Awful!

My wedding. The venue was a disaster. It was a perfectly nice hotel when we viewed, but was awful on the day. They had a burst pipe the day before the wedding which flooded the lower ground floor, and as a result they decided to turn up the heating to dry everything out and hope for the best. This was in August, so the downstairs where many of our guests had booked rooms was boiling hot and smelt of damp. They were running short of staff due to the clean up, so tried to change the venue for the ceremony from the light airy garden room upstairs to a windowless office style conference room in the basement, to make turning the rooms round for the reception easier on staff. I only found out after they had made this change, an hour before the ceremony, cue a frantic race to change it all back.

My dress was delivered to the hotel by the shop the afternoon before but had been altered incorrectly and didn't fit - the modesty panel behind the lacing was far too narrow for the gap it was meant to cover. So at 10pm the night before the wedding I had the alterations lady taking apart and hand sewing my dress and refitting.

The photographer, who charged going rate and had a great website with recommendations and photos from supposed previous weddings turned up with his dad. His dad was also a wedding photographer and was there to help the son as it was one of his first weddings. They spent the day mainly eating. We had paid a deposit with the balance to be paid on receipt of the edited chosen images, but the photos were so bad that the photographer put a cd or unedited images through our door late one night and went incommunicado - he would have known how bad they were as he didn't even want the balance.

The family member who promised to have my 2 children on the wedding night (and was accordingly booked into a family suite in the hotel) changed their mind at the last minute. I spent my wedding night in the honeymoon suite with my two children sleeping next to me, and my new husband slept in the armchair.

My eldest DD was turning one. I planned a massive birthday party for my pfb.

A week earlier we were hit by rotavirus. I had no idea about infectious periods at this stage. My sister helped in the lead up to the party especially with cleaning and cooking. We all recovered by the Wednesday before the party on Saturday so I breathed a sigh of relief and the party went ahead as planned.

The party was a success. We had a full house.

The next day I heard that my sister was really sick overnight after the party. 2-3 days later other reports of sickness started coming back to us. It wasn't just one or two people - there were so many - like 30/40.

We were known as ground zero for a long time after that! Thankfully everyone recovered after a few days!

I helped organise a hen do for a friend who turned up with a nasty cold and was pretty miserable for all of it! One attendee was her family friend and just moaned throughout - she didn't like this sort of food (we went to a gastropub for dinner which had a huge menu), she didn't like prosecco (too fizzy), she didn't want chocolate (too fattening), the airbnb staircase was too narrow..There was a 5 min walk between two activities and she moaned that it was too far in her heels and we should've sorted a taxi...nightmare!

The best part of it was when they all went home and we had the leftover bubbly after we'd tidied up