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.

Full on brawl at one I went to. It was a lovely venue as well. I saw a woman climb on a table and jump on a man’s back kicking him. The bride has blood smeared on her shoulder. It was awful! Police were called.

Possibly - but it's an interesting thread so it doesn't really matter.

Bride and Groom from 2 different nationalities got married the same day the 2 nations had a big sporting event in the same city. A large quantity of guests almost half, disappeared halfway through the reception to find a pub to watch the game including the Father and sister of the Bride, they both missed the speeches. Needless to say the Bride was fuming.

Sisters wedding and the priest double booked!! Had to call on the husband's parish priest to save the day.. it ended up being 2hrs late also, the reception was 2.5hrs away from the chapel too.. Family photos were in a forest, some of the young nephews went missing and were found in the park a right bit away from the where the photos were taken.. pure maddness!!

It was a long time ago now but I think it was just dry cleaning costs.
Point is that walking into a church as a bride infront of 50 family and friends with an oil stained wedding dress is embarrasing and humiliating. No amount of money can compensate for that so choose your transport carefully.

The bride danced the first dance with her father whilst the groom looked on bemused. It was all very odd. They have now divorced, unsurprisingly.

At my first wedding, my ex-husband got into a fight with his cousin and broke his nose. The Police were called and the only reason my ex didn’t end up in the cells was because my best friend lied to the Police and said the cousin started it, not my ex. My best friend hated him but did it for me as she could see how upset I was.

I’m very happily married now to someone else and he’d never do anything like that. Our wedding day was extremely civilised ♥️

went to a family wedding when I was a child about 20 years ago, it rained so bloody hard the ceiling fell in onto the wedding cake. The hotel waived the bar tab though so I think it was ok in the end! Marriage didn’t last though 😂

went to a friends wedding in 2023 and the bride was over an hour late because her bridesmaids hate hate hated the ridiculous costumes they’d been forced to wear, and mother of the bride was being weird about brides hair and make up. Whole thing was a tacky shambles. Mother of the bride and bridesmaids fuming all day, bride stressed and spent most of the wedding placating everyone. Her own stupid fault though for her outrageous choices.

This topic is as old as time. Certainly the oldest and most regular topic on Mumsnet. There are at least 5 wedding threads in Classics and many of the same stories are repeated in some and many here are also in the other threads too. I'd say around every two years this topic comes up. And the same stories are repeated again.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mumsnet_classics/1008339-Worst-behaviour-seen-at-a-wedding

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mumsnet_classics/1832446-Terrible-wedding-behaviour

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mumsnet_classics/2910417-Cringiest-thing-youve-witnessed-at-a-wedding

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mumsnet_classics/4094310-what-drama-have-you-witnessed-at-a-wedding

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mumsnet_classics/1468074-Tell-us-about-your-worst-wedding-experiences

The worst wedding I've been to was the one where probably the most money was spent.
Thousands spent on venue, dress and band, it looked amazing on social media, but in reality it was really boring, not enough food, nothing for the kids to do (they had kids themselves), bar was mega expensive, hotel in the middle of nowhere, stupidly expensive gift list.

The best one was a lovely couple who put the guests first. Low key venue with free bar, plenty of food, no kids, venue easy to get to. Friends provided the entertainment, cake, dress. Specifically requested no gifts. Everyone invited to brunch the next day. A few things did go wrong, but everyone was having such a good time it wasn't an issue.

My dad got my name wrong in his speech. He called me by my brothers wife’s name. I put it down to nerves on the day and didn’t say anything but looking back it still really really hurts.

I actually want this to happen at my wedding 🤣

Bride was an hour late, but the groom was 2.5 hours late. Groom wore white and sunglasses inside the church. It was very bizarre.

Arriving at the reception venue someone knocked into the champagne bar table collapsed all the champagne on the floor made worse by the fact that the bride and groom took forever to have their photos done so everyone was just standing waiting no drink or anything. After this I told my photographer that she had 30mins tops I wanted to be with my guest.

That is a really good question! The vicar knew. It was a Church of England wedding so the bans had been read. We live in a small village so I’m surprised it stayed secret. But it did stay secret. We did it this way because we wanted a wedding with our family there but we didn’t want the pressure and stress that both of us would have struggled with in the run up to an event like that. We are both chronic people pleasers to our own detriment and we both would have struggled with trying to do what we thought other people wanted rather than what we wanted. If someone innocently expressed a preference for one thing and somebody else a preference for another thing then we would have tied ourselves up in knots. It was the only way we could do something that was authentically us - by not telling people. It was a great day and it was authentic. His brothers reaction was authentic too. It’s hard to explain. It’s probably a mumsnet post in its own right.

I once sort of witnessed a surprise wedding.

Me and DH stopped for a drink at a small bar one day that was attached to a different really quirky bar. Think 60’s Mod Spy theme.

We were chatting with the bartender when a different one ran in and put a song on the system we could hear ‘Going to the chapel” play in the other bar.

As it started the bride and groom walked through our bar to get to the one their family and friends were in. (They had both snuck out at different times during the ‘family lunch’). The bartender explained what was going and it was super fun to watch.

After the wedding we kept seeing wide eyed but smiling people come through and they all looked really happy!

The moment my, then-toddler, brother escaped from drunk-Dad's clutches, ran on to the dance floor, and hid under the bride's meringue skirt, during the couple's first dance has gone down in family history as hilarious or terrible, depending on who's asking...

At my friends wedding there was a fan/ventilator/heater thing right behind the top table where people said their speeches. No one could hear a thing.

When I got married. I got someone special to sing at my wedding who was like a grandmother to me. She sang the same song that she sang at my parents wedding. I have not seen her sing for a long time but assumed to her voice was still melodious, little did I know that her voice had changed as she was in her 70’s it was very different.

The minister suggested during the rehearsal that me and my husband sit at the front of the church facing the audience throughout the ceremony, as we faced the audience and she was singing. My husband’s relatives who have not heard her sing before were laughing their heads off and ducking under the chairs. We had to sit there in front of everyone while she sang watching other people laugh I felt sad for her because a special moment for us had become terrible because people couldn’t be respectful to an older lady fulfilling a wish to sing at her granddaughter, (by friendship at our wedding)

Oh I see. My dad had died ten years before I got married my DB gave me away and made a speech, and he just said something about how our dad would have been a very proud and happy man today.

That’s awful!! The poor bride

My DF used the same speech at my Dsis first and second marriage. My poor Dsis face.

Not as bad as some of them on here.
Wedding breakfast, several RSVPs indicated they were vegetarian. The venue ‘forgot’. Half a raw aubergine served eventually. Couldn’t even have the vegetables from the table as they were all cooked with meat.
Evening buffet was a hog roast, again no sides nor alternative.
Wedding was in the middle of nowhere. So no food deliveries.

But at least it was the same bride, as I said earlier my dad used the same speech for me and then my sister!!!!

This is actually heartbreaking. I would like to give that poor lady a hug. And the people laughing were ignorant and cruel.