Weddings you went to where things went wrong?

[Bupo]

Please can you share any times you attended a wedding where things went awry. I’m just keen to avoid any possible issue.

The only one I can think of is where the bride was two hours late. Apparently her family were just really exacting with the make up artist and had a lot of the make up redone/touched up.

We were sat in the Church for aaaaages. It meant that the drinks reception/evening meal was really rushed as the bride and groom really prioritised the dancing.

Actually, that is not a bad thing given that most of the trouble at weddings is caused by too much alcohol consumption.

Groom had 2 younger brothers that were about 19 and 20 at the time. They both liked the brides cousins daughter who was the same age. They both asked her to dance and kept trying to out do each other all evening.

Ended up in a massive fight, brides mother had heart attack, brides father was arrested as well as the grooms father. 8 police cars turned up and 3 ambulances. Bride spent the night by her mother’s bedside who survived while the groom was at the police station trying to get his father and father in law released.

They have been married 20 odd years now.

Not enough food for the number of people who turned up to the reception. It was a huge wedding, the only wedding I've been to where people were stood outside the church because there wasn't enough room for everyone inside. I was close family to the groom but the caterers had run out of food by the time it came to serve the table I was seated at, so the only food we got at the table was one roast potato each.

At a different wedding, in the USA, the bride's mum and dad were divorced, had an acrimonious relationship but were both invited to the wedding. DH was best man. As part of the ceremony the MOB & groom's mum were to go to the alter and jointly light a candle. Bride's dad wasn't happy and wanted to light candle as well - cue unseemly jostling and arguing at the alter. DH had to step in to mediate.

Mine. (I should say DH has a big family with lots of aunts and cousins in case of any confusion!)
Hen night - my cousin stole all the money from the drink kitty. We know it was her as a friend saw her do it, but DM refused to let us upset DAunt
also Hen night - DHs aunt1 and 2 cousins(f) didn't want to chip into aforementioned kitty because they were only having soft drinks. Then DAunt pointed out DM was paying for everyone's meals and they'd had the most expensive meals of us all.
Wedding - BILs GF turned up in white. Their DD (then 2yo) was in a flower girl outfit despite not being a flowergirl (too young). MIL was pissed about that and therefore bought the flowergirl outfit in defiance.
BIL made photographer take lots of photographs of DNiece meaning there are loads of her red face (she spent most of the day crying) Obviously wasn't happy with photographer about that.
MIL said DH Uncle could do a wedding video which I stupidly agreed to as i thought it would be nice and save us money - it was all their family.
MIL insisted on making the cake - I agreed for same reasons as above. it was stale, lopsided, nothing like that design I'd shared that she said she could do (and it was a very simple design too). She was pissed no one would eat it.
DH aunt2 said she'd do favours - yes I agreed, lesson learned, she arrived late to the wedding as we were walkinng back down the aisle and was putting favours on the table whilst people were trying to eat.
DH aunt 3 said DH 2 cousins(m) would not be coming. Not only did they come, they brough their GFs. Cue having to find additional seats/space at extra cost (which ILs pled poverty about when it came to pay)
DH cousin (m) was found in our dressing room, where me and BMs had gotten ready, by my DM who is certain she had locked it so how did he get in. She asked him to leave, he said he was just looking around the hotel but why there and our underwear was lying around where we'd left it as we thought no one would obviously come in. He also turned up in jeans.
DH cousin (f) said she wasn't coming as she was due a baby. Not only did she come, she came with her husband, toddler DS and newborn DS who screamed place down. She was breastfeeding, not a problem in itself, except she whipped off her entire top and bra and breastfed with both tits on display to all, not even trying to be discreet about it.
Hotel pissed due to extra number of guests, lack of room, had to put people in a side room if we weren't going to send them away.
DAunt heard MIL and GMIL bitching about family being put in side room for meal etc and not being able to see what was going on etc. DAunt had sharp words for them apparently.
And my own paternal aunt got pissed, decided to belly dance, fell flat on her face on the dance floor.
First dance song was the wrong one.
DHs friend stood on my dress and ripped it, boy was I pissed off about that.
Hotel room had massive spiders in it, like massive, so I couldn't sleep as I am terrified of spiders.
Portable cameras I'd put on tables all got taken home instaed of being returned.
Sorry that's a long post!

Not so much something going wrong as terrible planning for the guests. Wedding was at 11am in a church in one location, then had to traipse across London to the reception.

At the venue there was a welcome drink and a couple of canapés each - for 3 hours! It was warm and no air conditioning. I ended up having to go down to the kitchens and ask the staff to please bring jugs of water and glasses for the guests because it was so hot inside. We weren't allowed in the garden because of another event and the bride and groom were nowhere to be seen as they were having 10,000 photos taken.

The meal and party afterwards was lovely but that 3 hour standing stint where there weren't enough seats really took the shine off.

The wedding was at 12 so I left at about 8.30 to get there. The food didn't come out until about 3.30 and everyone was starving. The menu they had ordered was clearly one that was meant to be for an evening buffet so there was only a sandwich and a small cake. They are divorced now!

At another one the groom got into an actual fist fight with his young adult son. It was horrible and we just left.

Bride & Groom’s toddler daughter was clearly unwell and cried all
rhe way throughout the ceremony. By the time we got to the meal, she was screaming the place down. Bride sat there with a face like a smacked arse and had a bad attitude for the rest of the day.

Not me, but as teens me and my siblings were left alone for the day as my parents went to a wedding, and we had to frantically stub out our fags and spray air freshener as we heard them roll into the driveway 8 hours early 🤣 apparently the groom backed out as he’d fallen in love with a colleague and left it to the morning of the wedding to say something to the bride. The mistress was waiting outside the church for him in a car, they drove off and my parents never heard from him again.

(Our mitigation of the smoking didn’t work BTW, they sussed it and we all got a massive bollocking)

My photographer was an hr late and very hung over. The photos he did take were ace but missed those getting ready shots

Grooms ex girlfriend was on my table, sitting with her mum and aunt (obviously still very close friends considering he had chosen to invite the three of them) and she - literally - ugly cried / sobbed throughout the speeches. It was a little awkward to say the least.

Four weddings:

My cousin married a girl from a wealthy family. We wolfed down the canapés when we arrived at the reception and looked forward to the main meal. Turned out it was only canapés. We left early and went for a curry.

I went as an evening guest and the groom was absolutely plastered. He stopped the dancing and announced to all present that he preferred me to his bride. I left.

At another cousin's wedding when the groom's mother collapsed out cold. She was still unconscious when taken away by ambulance. Everyone was frantic. Turned out she was dead drunk and had been secretly drinking since first thing.

My stepson's wedding. I was asked to make the video. The bride burst her wedding dress all down the back during the ceremony. She chewed gum the whole way through. She swore and spat out her gum on the grass to chain smoke. All caught in glorious colour. We've been NC for 15 years now.

I can never, for the very life of me, understand why people who are still in love with their exes have any desire to attend their weddings. Even if I wasn’t still in love with them, I would respond to an invite with a gracious ‘no thanks’.

This is the best post on the thread. Glorious!

I've told this story before but it fits nicely

My ex BIL shot his brother ( my EH) at our wedding reception

He spent night in hospital having bullet removed from leg
I spent night in estranged parents spare room

Wild West Scotland lol 1983

Jewish weddings are wild. They have dancing before during and after the meal.

This. The only time I’ve known inviting the ex GF to the wedding to go well:

1. It was a school romance and they were better friends than a romantic couple (see point 3).
2. It was an amicable break-up where they both realised they were trying to turn a really good friendship into something more and the feelings just weren’t there (again, see point 3).
3. The ex GF had since come out as a lesbian and brought her GF to the wedding as her plus 1.

If there is the slightest hint the ex or the person getting married still have feeling for each other, it’s a much better idea for the ex to stay away.

Having said that, I wonder how much pressure the ex was under to attend to show ‘we’re all good friends now’. I’ve known that as well, particularly when the groom is still feeling guilty about something around the break up.

Our photographer forgot to turn up.

Life lesson: follow up with all suppliers in the days leading up to the big day.

You must tell us more!

Someone had written the words "oh shit" on the soles of my cousins (the groom) shoes in tip ex, so when they kneeled down to pray this was revealed to the congregation, who all broke into giggles. The vicar ordaining them, who was a bit stuffy and uptight got very cross and roared that church was no place for mirth. It was all a bit subdued after that.

Oh Dolly ... what do you want to know lol

Too much alcohol , country people, family dynamics..

It was awful , I'd not lived with parents since I was about 13 , had to spend the night with them , they didn't even know I was a veggie lol tried to give me a bacon sarnie in the morning

New husband and brother best pals again by following week

Why???

66babe

So it was on purpose then, not an accident?

Surely you win the prize for most bonkers story?! 👏 😂

No food. It was really random. We all went to an event room in a pub for the evening. went out for food. It was a bit awkward.

This was pre sat nav and mobiles.

Might be a bit outing but it was years ago + couple aren't married anymore so....

Child no.1 (7) was supposed to be bridesmaid. The Tuesday before she diagnosed with appendicitis. We'd lived, one or the other or both, at the hospital with her. Definitely not well enough to be a bridesmaid.

MIL came to look after her, visit her in hospital etc on the day.

Went to wedding with our other 2 children. As we'd spent so much time in hospital we thought.....no food in house..... there's a Tesco next to the Church, we can go in there, have a quick shop, and still get back in time for the reception.

As we drove round the car park I thought I'd seen the best man + his partner behind us - but as we'd never met and had other things on my mind we parked and shopped.

Got to reception to join greeting line and sat down for the meal.

A couple of hours, way after the meal etc, later the best man + partner turned up complaining about getting lost and following a car they'd thought was at the wedding.

We sat quietly.

Child no.1 fine. Now late 30s. She was admirably philosophical about missing being a bridesmaid. 'At least I'm not dead"

My friend went to one where it was outside, in the UK, in April. It was about 6C! No inside accommodation. Only a a marquee (unheated) for the reception. She told me that people kept going out to their cars to run the heater for a bit to try to warm up.