The bride was 90 mins late for the wedding ceremony (despite living less than a mile from church), while the groom and groomsmen were waiting one said something to the other, which led to a fist fight at the altar knocking stuff over and the flowers all over the ground,
The bride when she arrived and saw the state of the place on one side and where the groom had tissue up his nose to stem the bleeding and an ice pack on head to bring down bruising as was starting to appear so in frustration she punched him.
During the ceremony at some point someone on bride’s side said something and one of groom’s families punched them, I should also probably add here for timeline that this was a catholic wedding with mass, sermon and vows, choir the works so it was long in itself so with stops and starts took almost 2 hours.
Once the ceremony was finally over (as had been 90 mins behind to start) plus 2 fist fights and 1 punch.
So then they went thru the photos session in the church which took almost 90 mins and when arrived at reception venue, they had another hour in the hotel garden and about 30 mins inside the hotel in various areas.
15 mins to the reception venue but cos was close to ceremony venue I went home for almost 2 hours first as I knew was going to be a long day. I put pizza in the oven and ate it as knew dinner was going to be late,
The wedding was originally for 1pm, bride arrived at 2.30pm so ceremony over at 4.30pm, then 90 mins photos in church so 6pm allow 20 mins to reception venue as the limo went the long way around, 60 mins in hotel garden and another 30 mins for photo shoot inside the hotel.
There was a cup of tea offered on arrival and a biscuit. Nothing to break the fast for those who hadn’t eaten since before taking their place in the church for the start of the wedding so before 1pm
It was after 8pm when we got sitting down to the meal, majority were very drunk by then as while they were starving, the bar didn’t do anything except crisps and nuts which didn’t soak up the booze.
There had been 3 separate incidents during the photos of the families punching each other. The brides dress had blood stains down it from her nose, the groom and his side wasn’t much better both families fought among themselves and each other during the day.
The meal wasn’t good, the hotel had a good reputation and it was the only bad meal I ever had in it. Turns out the meal had been booked for 5pm and by the time we got the mains, it was just after 9.30pm as they decided to do speeches before the meal.. There was a very basic dinner on plates put in from of people, (no choice in what was given or option for extras)
It was announced by the couple in the evening that their little girl's chickenpox had just broken out and they tried to toast that. No one outside their own families responded as everyone else added up the crying toddler that had been lying on a made up bed in the corner that day but had also been in and around everybody the hotel didn’t actually do accommodation and was 8 miles out in countryside from nearest town. FFS
it was 10.45pm by the time the band got set up while tea/coffee was being served and clearance to allow people to dance however they were only booked to play till 1145pm as they charged more after 12 so they stopped at 11.45pm, the DJ had to wait for the band to dismantle, then he set up his speakers, lights and equipment, between the band and DJ it was 12.30 when music restarted and he was being paid till 1.30am.
There had been several more breakouts of smaller fights between the bride and grooms families during the night, and by about 12.45 things got even worse, a complete brawl broke out with tables, chairs flying, loads of damage to hotel, 2 people glassed and other injuries, which led to arrests of 20 people - all b&g family inc b&g
Very surprisingly given all that, the marriage is going well now; it will be 20 years this summer.
it was the worst wedding, I’ve ever been at based on there was so much violence, hanging around, long speeches, length of waiting for food which came in very limited portions, sick toddler with infectious disease that the parents knew about but it wasn’t obvious until it came out, lots and lots of fights, arrests, ambulances, entertainment was very limited and was an expensive place to buy drinks with no other food options for 8 miles, , bride and groom didn’t actually speak to guests and unless inside the immediate families we were all outsiders with no consideration for guests at all.