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.

Ours nearly disappeared. The church was at the top of the road, and the church hall where we were holding the reception was halfway down the hill. The bakers tried to deliver the cake to the church-presumably as the name was the same (St W. church/St.W. Church Hall) Luckily my Dad was at the church checking things, so he re-directed them sharpish.

Brighton? I live there.

No. A different B city.

The Europa?

No see earlier post.

At a friends church wedding, the ceremony went on for 2 1/2 hours. At the time my very energetic son was 3/4 and my husband and I had to take it in turns to take him outside to run around because he couldn’t sit still. I love my friend but my goodness that was dull.
At another friends wedding, his best man got up to do his speech but he was so drunk you couldn’t understand a word he was saying. He found it all very hilarious even if the rest of us spent the whole time cringing.
A friend at my wedding brought a posh camera with her and spent the whole day stood next to the photographer taking photos. I tried to stop her and apologised to the photographer as she was getting in his way but she didn’t stop until the photographer left. Very annoying and to this day I still haven’t seen any of the photos she took!

I forgot a cringe but funny wedding incident from my childhood - the bride and groom decided to sing their views to each other. They had written the words themselves.

I was 8 but still nearly died of embarrassment. I can't imagine how the adults in the room felt.

Ah, this reminds me of another one when the bride announced she wanted to make a speech at the dinner too (fine, good for her) but she started off and I thought "this sounds a bit like song lyrics" and suddenly she had full on burst into singing "From this moment on" and a few seconds later all her bridesmaids stood up and joined in. The singing was really bad and not helped by the fact that the bride was also sobbing loudly between words.

Everyone was sitting there frozen in horror and embarassment for them, including the groom. I was cringing so much I had that hot and cold feeling going up my back. OMG what was she thinking.

Just a quick mention on the under catering. If it’s catered by the family or a self serve buffet and nobody has assigned seats then yes the likelihood is they catered for 50 and invited 100. If it’s a sit down wedding with a catered meal or a serviced buffet then theB&G have paid per person so if there wasn’t enough food either the caterers under budgeted or it’s poor portioning on the servers part. Lack of courses ie no canapés/evening buffet/starters etc is definitely on the bride and groom.

Groom's family and friends all from England. Wedding in Ireland on NYE. All flights grounded due to inclement weather conditions. As a result, groom had no one there.

I once went to a 12pm wedding at a hotel, after the ceremony we were directed to a bar area for drinks and canapés, unfortunately there were not enough to go around.
We had to wait for an obscene amount of time, before being guided to the main hall. There was no table plan so we all took a seat, bizarrely, there was no tableware?! Waiting staff offered everyone a glass of fizz. Bride and groom were seated at the top table, after which a very long set of speeches commenced.
Once complete, we were ushered back into the small bar area whilst the tables were rearranged. Sometime later, we were allowed back into the main hall where the seating had been set up to allow the dance floor to take priority.
We are now hitting 5pm, no one had eaten. It turns out they didn’t fancy feeding the guests and thought they would just do a hot buffet in the evening to accommodate everyone!!!
No mention of this at any point in the planning (we were close friends). At this point, most of the guys had decided to go out to McDonalds to get something to eat.
Unsurprising the wedding didn’t last, the bride ended up marrying her friends husband.

It's nothing to some of these but I once went to a wedding when heavily pregnant (decades ago). At the reception we were all standing around chatting. Drinks and canapes were being handed round. Lovely idea, I thought, just nicely fills the gap till the sit down meal or the buffet. Eventually I asked the people I was talking to when they thought the meal might be. 'I think this is it' came the reply. They were right. I had to go to McDonald's on the way home.

Anymore, I have really enjoyed this thread

Talking to my sister about this thread and she said "did you mention my wedding?"

Popular wedding venue. DSis wedding with 100 guests in the big room, another wedding with 50 guests in the smaller room. The venue mixed up the buffets so nowhere near enough food for their guests. They got their money back but Dsis and BIL made a point of mentioning the mix up in their thank yous because they couldnt bear people thinking that htey had undercatered.

This is shocking! I'd have been so upset. And the other wedding party didn't notice?!

Well no because as far as they were aware, they paid for a buffet, got a buffet and from their POV it was great. They just assumed that it was brilliant service. Not even my sister thinks that they were BU for that.

ETA it was still a a great night for them and I dont think anyone went hungry, but they didnt get what they paid for.

My Godparents married during the groom’s pre-embarkation leave. Half way through, the air raid sirens went off , and they all had to go into the shelter (tube station). Once they were down there, the Vicar decided to just carry on , and they were married on the platform amongst the other shelterers.

When telling this story ( fairly often) my Godmother’s main comment was her relief that the vestry was undamaged, so they were able to sign the registry and get the certificate. My Godfather used to express his surprise, ‘because daylight raids were unusual at that stage of the War’.

They were made of sterner stuff in those days.

Edited to add : maybe avoid war zones, OP

I think that’s lovely in a way.

What tube station was it, do you know?

melonalone
You “didn’t realise wearing white as a guest was a no-no”? Oh, come off it!
They mightn’t have said anything to you but I’m sure they had plenty to say

I’m in 50’s and only recently discovered this apparent faux pas after reading threads on Mumsnet.

I don’t know anyone who’d give a monkeys about such frivolous matters in my circles. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I've heard of it, @FuckityFux , but i agree with you that it's a load of old arse.

Are people really suggesting that, if you wear white to a wedding, that
a) you'll upstage the bride, and/or
b) other guests will mistake you for the bride?

I mean, really. 🤦🏻‍♀️

It is definitely a thing but unless you are wearing an actual bridal gown it shouldn’t really matter. It’s not bad luck or anything, I’m sure black hats used to be viewed as bad luck. My exs mum wore a black hat at ours. She needn’t have bothered with the jinx he ran off with my bridesmaid 6 weeks after the wedding. They are still together and I definitely traded up for my next one.

That tube platform deserves its own version of a blue plaque 🙂

I agree ❤️

Same here. I’d never heard of it till I joined MN either. My mum wore cream at my wedding, I wonder if that would be classed as a faux pas by some?

Depends. If it was more of a yellowy ivory, or a champagne beige, maybe not. But a pale cream that's almost white? Especially if there is no pattern or other colour? Of course that's weird. Presumably as it was your mother you knew in advance and were not fussed about it, but it's not a normal choice and one that most people would know to avoid.

I can't believe there is anyone who doesn't know it's bad form to turn up to a wedding in a plain white dress unless you are the bride.