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.

I know of someone who had a huge brain hemorrhage on the day of her wedding. She was feeling unwell for a few days beforehand but put her headache down to nerves and stress. Ended up collapsing unconscious while in her wedding dress just before the ceremony. She made a full recovery after a long stint in hospital, but wow, what a drama.

I was also at a wedding where an elderly relative of the bride had a funny turn in the middle of the vows and had to be laid down in the church aisle while an ambulance was called.

It wasn't a mention.
That was my point.

I've told this tale before, but some of the stories on this thread are so genuinely sad, I thought a silly one might lift the spirits.
Friends getting married, and the groom especially was a dedicated folkie, and a Morris dancer.
The happy couple added several of their own touches to the wedding in terms of readings etc., but the main one was the Morris side.
The plan was that, after the serious solemnities finished, the doors at the back of the church would open, and in would prance the Morris side, flowers in their hats, sticks and handkerchiefs waving, accordion playing, and of course the merry jingling of the bells attached to their person. They were to dance up the aisle, the congregation would join in a lusty rendition of "Lord of the Dance", and they would then lead the bride and groom, followed by the guests, out along the road to the reception.
Unfortunately, the usher coordinating their entrance was not concentrating properly, and flung the doors open too soon. We the wedding guests were still engaged in the quiet, solemn part of the service, wearing our best prayerful expressions.
In leapt the Morris dancers, bells a-jingling, accordion resonating in the echoey church acoustic, danced up the church, realised their mistake and had to leave and wait for the correct cue. because of the attached bells, it was not possible to slip away silently.
The bride's expression seemed to indicate that it had been more the the groom's idea than hers.

Mine is a sad one, but so well intentioned by the FOB.

The brides mother had died after a long illness when the bride was around 16.

However, the FOB found a letter (previously undiscovered), of the mother writing to her daughter, knowing her illness was terminal.

It said how much she loved the bride, how sad she was to not see her grow, how sad she would be not to be there if the bride got married, to miss grandchildren etc.

It was heart breakingly sad, full of emotion.

The FOB decided to read it out during his speech, the bride was in pieces, not a dry eye in the venue, I think even the caterers were wiping eyes.

It really was a letter that should’ve been read in private and possibly in “bite size” pieces when the bride wanted too.

He honestly was a lovely man, but just got it wrong.

I fainted at a friend's wedding reception! Was a tad embarrasing. Came to with a guest who was a medic taking my pulse and asking if I wanted to go to the nearest A&E but I felt much better afterwards and I was used to fainting so declined.

Years ago, pre-kids, went as an evening guest to an old uni friend's wedding with an overnight stay so not local. Then-bf now DH and my friend and her bf all went in DH's car. Was lovely to see some old friends, but the food was really terrible considering we'd driven over 100 miles to get there just for some cheese sarnies and sausage rolls!

Looking to fill some click bait column inches?

I remember one where the Best Man overslept and was terribly late, and then realised that he had forgotten to bring the rings.

He had to borrow two rings from some friends in the congregation!

He made up for it later by making a brilliant speech and apparently he ended up in bed with one of the guests, so it was all fine in the end.

Happened to me too. The tables were called by number to the afternoon tea style buffet. We were table 10. By table seven it was obvious that the food would run out. We stopped waiting and all went up. I had an open ham sandwich all day. Apparently the evening food was fine for the evening guests but the ceremony had been at 11am and most of us were well served.

Why don’t people cater properly? Don’t starve your guests.

One where the bride passed out cold right before the vows. She came to and the ceremony continued, but apparently she didn't remember any of the ceremony/vows at all afterwards. That whole wedding was a bit weird, tbh.

Another one with the classic mistake of the wedding party spending a looong time after church taking pictures while the guests were all plied with vast quantities of champagne and no food. By the time the B&G arrived to the reception all the guests were completely blotto and the meal/speeches were a bit of a waste of time as it was so raucous by that point.

I've no idea, you'd think that was basic, really.

I once went to one where the (religious) officient spent most of the ceremony talking about how much more special religiously-officiated weddings were. It wasn't a particularly religious bride or groom, nor in a religious location (hotel venue) so quite why he thought he'd spend about 20 of the 30 minutes of the ceremony talking about why couples who got married in religious ceremonies have a "higher" kind of "extra special" bond was beyond me.

I know this makes it sound like I have a chip on my shoulder, but I can assure you that I'm generally fairly agnostic/chilled about this sort of thing, but it was such a blunt, repeated reference to other marriages not being as "high" as ones "recognised by a representative of God" that I honestly thought they'd hired a comedian in the first 5 minutes to pull one of those American-style showy wedding stunts and he was going to reveal himself as a fake in a couple of mins.

Nope, it went on and on, and i've been to plenty of religious and secular weddings in my time, and i still can't quite believe what that ceremony was like.

I never dared ask the bride or groom what went on, but I believe they'd bowed to family pressure to get the religious ceremony arranged, and I suspect my questions would have rubbed salt into some very sore wounds. Many years later I probably should ask what the deal is!

🤣🤣🤣

Love this thread although the sad stories are heartbreaking.

This reminded me of a really posh church wedding where the Vicar started lecturing everyone about Leprosy & how there would be a collection at the end of the ceremony. Charitable as the Bride & groom are I don't think they expected this lecture on their wedding day. People didn't know where to look 😳

These are anxiety inducing I'm getting married on Friday 😬
Worst one I heard is a family member of the groom throwing up in his pint glass after the speeches!

At my cousins wedding, the bride had the faint mark of a shiner that the groom had give her. They didn’t book an organist or choir so we all had to hum the wedding march 😂 The church hall caught fire a few weeks before the wedding so the reception stunk of smoke. The buffet ran out really quickly. They’re celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary this year 💕

One where there were 2 weddings going on at the same venue, and half the staff had called in sick in protest of new managers. It ended up with ONE member of bar staff running between the 2 separate events to run the bars all by himself with people getting more and more frustrated. One of the Brides's brothers was being very demanding and an absolute arse to the poor lone shared barman, and didn't like being told he couldn't smoke indoors. So he hid in the loos, triggered the smoke alarm and the whole venue, BOTH weddings, had to be evacuated onto the car park. It was about 3 days before Christmas, sheet ice on the car park and the adjoining spa also emptied out, with several elderly folk wrapped in towels and bathrobes, just bare foot on the carpark. I felt so sorry for them. It was about 10 at night, pitch black and so so cold. Brides family demanding they should get the whole wedding for free, shouting and bullying the poor remaining staff, until they were told it was THEM who had caused the evacuation.

It happened after I left but I used to be distantly related to a guy who'd get violent when he was drunk.
He got in a fight at a wedding and a bouncer had to drag him out of a fire escape as a load 😭 f people on the other side of the family were looking to beat the shit out of him.
The guy gave up drinking because found out that the groom and the groomsmen spent the wedding night driving around looking for him.

I was a waitress at a wedding where the egg white in the royal icing on the cake hadn’t set somehow, or was fondant or something. Anyway each pillar had started to sink into the cake below - presumably there were no dowels underneath and it was eventually saved from collapse by persuading the bride to cut the cake BEFORE the main meal, rather than after.

Presented without comment.

I’ll share mine…

We had a small (under 40 people) wedding. Small hotel ballroom at a cute art-deco boutique hotel. Most of our budget went to food and drink and some things we just didn’t really care about. So we ordered our cake(s) from the bakery in our grocery store. It was good cake and I wasn’t really fussed about a traditional wedding cake. I called the week before to confirm our order and all was good. DH and his BM stopped to pick it up on our wedding day and they had forgotten to make it. After a bit of fuss they managed to figure out alternative cakes and the bakery manager delivered them to the hotel.

Our flowers went missing for a bit, Apparently our florist was a Ninja and delivered the flowers so stealthily that nobody knew he had been. I had totally forgotten about them until someone asked me where my bouquet was and that cued a small scramble from the hotel staff to find them. Then there was a scramble to track everyone down to distribute them before the ceremony.

Both of those were pretty minor and nobody really knew there was a problem. I was responsible for the biggest ’oops’

I did not know that my DH had tipped our judge extra to keep the ceremony short (I was fully onboard with this after I found out). So we’re in the ceremony and my mind was starting to wander because I figured he’d be talking awhile. Suddenly I realized that it was really quiet. Turns out he had just started in on the vows bit and I had totally missed what I was supposed to repeat.

I started to ad lib something and then decided I couldn’t do that with my wedding vows(!) and was forced to ask the judge to repeat them.

My family just snickered at me while my DH rolled his eyes. Oops!

The day we got married it absolutely pee’d down by it was really muggy. By the time we got married at 2 the sun had come out so yay. Photo time at the church the photographer wanted us all in front of the church and alll the women’s heels sank in the grass and mud. A friend of my husband went flying and had to go home to change, luckily the sister in law had a pair of cream flip flops in her car I could put on. When we got to where we was having the wedding breakfast I was met with being told that my cake had melted a bit and sank. Bless them the were so worried to tell us but I burst out laughing. What was the point in getting angry at something that was out of all our hands. The best man and his wife got lost going from the church to the hotel but we have no clue how considering he grew up in the area, I think they stopped off for a quickie as they were trying to get pregnant at the time 😂 Again that didn’t bother me because I was rooting for them to get pregnant and if that was the perfect time to try then so be it. We all had a fab day and one I won’t ever be repeating so it is what it is.

I see what you did there🤣

A wedding where the groom was north American. There was some kind of activity for 'single women' and 'single men'. An unmarried woman took part because that's how she defined 'single' except that her partner was there sulking at the whole thing. I can't remember what the activity was now...

Has he continued to be violent?

That’s one way to make the point 🤣

But yes, it’s pretty typical for ‘unmarried’ people to take part in the ‘single’ events. Think bouquet toss/garter toss and other ‘who is next’ type things.