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Tell us about your worst wedding experiences?

498 replies

ENormaSnob · 08/05/2012 13:49

Inspired by diamondsonthesoleofhershoes thread in aibu.

The worst wedding I have ever attended was an attempt at a big traditional wedding done on a tiny budget. Freezing cold room, luke warm daytime buffet with 2 choices served on paper plates that bent when the food hit them, no drinks at all, not even a toast after the speeches. There was a pay bar which is fine with me but not even one glass of wine with the meal seems mean. The night buffet was worse than the daytime one, a few plates of dry sarnies and 2 plates of mummified chicken. No pudding of any description throughout the whole day Sad I was cold and hungry all day. The bride had told me before hand that most of their budget had gone on outfits for the wedding party and the cars. Cars which no one saw anyway Confused On a positive note, the drinks weren't extortionate like they are in some places.

I am not a fussy cow btw, my ideal wedding as a guest would be a village hall type of affair with everyone bringing a plate and a bottle.

OP posts:
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Ilovedaintynuts · 08/05/2012 20:17

Three bad weddings.

First one was where the groom, during his speech made jokes about the maid of honour's virtue "she's a complete slag who's fucked every bloke in the place". She had, but it really wasn't the time Smile
Maid of honour ran out crying and to this day (20 years later) she and bride have never made up.

Second was when I was a LP of a five year old DS. My close friend who also had a five year old DS invited me to her 'child free' wedding. She said she didn't want any kids but hers. Fine, her choice. Struggled to get a babysitter but tough on me. When I got there EVERY other person in the venue had their kids except me. Literally everyone. People she worked with and hardly knew. By 4pm I was crying in the toilet and left soon after. She was my confidante and knew I was struggling with depression. Cow. We 'lost touch' soon after Smile.

Third was my best friend who unbeknown to everyone charged everyone for their 'meal'. She had her wedding service in the registry office and then on to a restaurant. At then end of the meal each person got a bill for £27.99 plus drinks. Every single person paid without comment, they were completely in shock. This was about 10 years ago and people still talk about it. Her rationale - they were saving for a deposit and couldn't afford the reception Shock.

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piratecat · 08/05/2012 20:18

prob my own when a close relly told me to fuck off, and well, she ruined my day.

Sad

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bigTillyMint · 08/05/2012 20:20

Only one, when the Best Man's speech was so bad that my friend and I literally had to stuff napkins in our mouths. It was one of those ones where they just do totally unrelated jokes.

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CeliaFate · 08/05/2012 20:23

piratecat OMG! Why did she say that to you on your own wedding day?!

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BupcakesandCunting · 08/05/2012 20:25

I will out myself here but anyway...

The wedding of my former best friend. Did not get on well with her pompous arse of a husband. This is relevant. First off, all of the electrics went when it was time for the bride to walk down the "aisle" (aisle being an expanse between two groups of conference-style chairs) so she could not have her music played. One of the groom's friends lived round the corner from the hotel so he hotfooted it home and got his battry-operated cassette player. He neglected to put the bride's tape in though and she walked down the aisle to some shitty R n B song (bride was a rock chick).

A few more hiccups along the way, we get to the speeches. The groom decided that his speech would be the perfect moment to take swipes at me "I love X because she isn't a silly girl who gets distracted by sparkly things" "People take advantage of X and I DON'T LIKE IT" (you'd have more chance of taking advantage of Genghis Khan than her) "So proud of my WIFE for finishing her degree" (I didn't finish mine first time) He was a prize cunt and still is. Never seen them since.

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DilysPrice · 08/05/2012 20:27

One thing which was Shock but not enough to ruin the wedding happened to my cousin who was marrying a man whose family owned a baker's shop. Naturally enough they said to my aunt "we'll do the cake" and she said thank you.

The week after the wedding they sent in their bill - they'd given her a ten percent "family discount" which made it even worse somehow.

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DamselInDisgrace · 08/05/2012 20:31

At my sister's wedding, the registrar was over 2 hours late. My sister started having a total meltdown and my mum had to work hard to stop her screaming and throwing things.

When he eventually turned up, he was absolutely crap. BIL kept trying to hurry him along.

There was no alcohol and no music, which made the whole thing very weird. My sister had decided they'd have boardgames instead. Would have been fine, but all the guests were glaswegians used to proper weddings with lots of wine and ceilidh dancing.

BIL had one single guest and none of his family came.

The food was lovely, but I got none because DS2 got sick and I had to comfort him. We left immediately after the meal, along with most of the guests.

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Limejelly · 08/05/2012 20:32

I went to one wedding where the ceremony was at 12 followed by a reception after at a restaurant, but there was NO food Confused. In the evening there was the odd plate of pizza going round (the kind of thing you expect to have while waiting for your main meal)but no where near enough. In the end guests where going to Big M's across the road, it was ridiculous!

Another wedding was in a really posh location about and 1 1/2 hours away from where most guests lived. It was on a Sunday, which meant work the next day (but was obviously cheaper to book). Me and DP were evening guests. Now I don't except free drinks all night when I go to a wedding, but not even a welcome drink was provided or food for evening guests. The bar was also really over priced so no one drank much. The party was dead with tired guests sitting around and the best man on the mic begging for people to dance. I did feel a bit sorry for them, but they had obviously spent all their budget on an expensive venue, rather than thinking about their guests.

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DamselInDisgrace · 08/05/2012 20:34

Was made worse by my sister insisting that I have make up applied by her make up artist. It took about an hour to apply and looked dreadful. I felt horrible under it all day. Took about an hour to bloody remove too.

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rhondajean · 08/05/2012 20:35

I HATE weddings and this thread has reminded me of every reason why.

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urbanturban · 08/05/2012 20:45

The wedding where the brides fathers speech ended with 'some say that I am not losing a daughter but gaining a lovely son, but no, I am definitely losing a daughter'!! Confused

And the one last week where the bride and groom did an astonishingly bad choreographed first dance........they WALKED round the floor rather than dancing, he stepped on her dress a million times and when he 'dipped' her backwards at the end I thought he was going to drop her!
It was excruciating but I had to plaster a smile on my face as the mother of the bride was beaming at us all, looking to see what thd guests reaction would be!!

Oh and the one where the bands electrical equipment blew the one (overloaded) power socket and there was no music or lighting for fifteen mins while it was sorted! Grin

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cece · 08/05/2012 20:49

I went to one wedding where the bestman (who had also been bestman at the grooms first wedding) made the toast to the bride and grom. Unfortunatly he said the name of the first wife. Shock Sad for the second wife.

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JustFab · 08/05/2012 20:50

JobCarHouseNoBaby

Our wedding was 12, we sat down to eat at 2.15 so the 4pm might be a bit too generous unless you have 100's of guests to photograph.

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JustFab · 08/05/2012 20:59

2-2 1/2 hours of hanging around drinking before eating is too long imo.

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CelticPromise · 08/05/2012 21:48

We had a similar gap Jobs and it was fine, we put the timing on the orders of service so people knew, and our venue was right in the middle of town so people took the chance to check into hotels/get a snack/ditch cars.
Celia what you describe sounds a lot like ours. Smile

I have never been to a really dreadful one, but I have been totally smashed on fizz before dinner at a wedding where the photos were very long. I fell over into the stage on the dancefloor. Blush

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olibeansmummy · 08/05/2012 22:08

Sorry to ruin a light hearted thread, but there was another wedding in our town in the same day as mine, where the bride's mother choked and died right at the top table. Puts everything else into perspective... I can't imagine how awful that must have been :(

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frumpet · 08/05/2012 22:16

Im always astounded at the time it takes to have a few photos done , how many are actually displayed post wedding ? Even if there arnt many people it seems you need to have several of the bride and her bouquet on her dress or peeking round corners or being picked up .............aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh. And no-one else other than possibly the mother of the bride ever wants to look at the ruddy things .

Thankyou so much for listening Grin

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ancienthistrionics · 08/05/2012 22:20

I went to one where the best man was a woman who was incredibly self-obsessed. She started her speech, when x called me to ask me to be his best man, I was buying shoes as I had just been told I had won young lawyer of the year...and then went on about herself for ages. So embarrassing.

I was best man/bird or whatever at a friends wedding and they asked me to give some of the speech in French for their relatives. I did, and one of the twits called out to correct my grammar.

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frumpet · 08/05/2012 22:24

But the worst photo is the arty farty shot of the back of the bride's dress and the hand of someone else doing it up , that particular one brings me out in hives .

Right i have finished now

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WhiteWinePlease · 08/05/2012 22:27

I was at a wedding once where one of the brides uncles got completely pissed, started hurling abuse at his ex wife and daughter and then ended up pushing his siter out of the way as he stormed out of the room. She fell over, smashed her head open on the doorframe and we ended up calling the paramedics and police Shock

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mrspepperpotty · 08/05/2012 22:30

DH and I were invited to a wedding the day before DS1's due date. We declined the meal as we didn't want to mess up the seating plan if we had to cancel at the last minute, but said yes to the evening reception. DS1 hadn't arrived, so we went along. The invite specifically said there would be evening food so we didn't eat beforehand. There were some tiny canapes in very short supply but I was 40 weeks FGS! I was starving!! Also the first dance was the most wooden piece of dancing I have ever seen.

Or the one when the best man (groom's brother) accidentally toasted the groom and his ex... now that was cringeworthy...!

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Earthymama · 08/05/2012 22:39

I once went to 3 weddings in 3 days! One was evening invite but still!!
We didn't go on holiday that year as it cost us so much.
Best one of the 3 was in a Marquee in the grounds of a castle, the local WI catered and we had the best meringues ever with local strawberries. The flowers were lavender from bride's grandads garden. it was lovely.
Worst wedding i ever attended was held in very lovely Parish Church where my then SiL had recently married. My family, well ex's family, all wore our finery from that wedding. The other guests were wearing shell suits, all of them.
The reception was in a Leisure Centre, the brides father didn't take off the duffle coat he wore with his Shell Suit.
I won't recount the full horror of it all!! I think I have erased it. Smile

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BalloonSlayer · 08/05/2012 22:47

Not a wedding but I went to a renewal of vows once where one of the woman's vows was to "support her husband more and not to listen when her friends criticise him." Hmm IIRC she had a fantastic well paid job and he dabbled in this and that.

She had organised a wonderful spread with the most fantabulosa puddings, but I did not see her eat any of them, although she talked about them, and how lovely they were. She also talked about how she had been so busy that morning but had still made time to go for a swim. She weighed about 6 stone. I felt so sorry for her. Sad

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ImperialBlether · 08/05/2012 23:15

Am I the only one who sympathises with the woman in the toilets who was crying because her son had died and she wouldn't see him get married?

Hate to bring the mood down, but my daughter's friend died a couple of nights ago. I hate to think of his poor devastated mother being mocked for crying at one of his friends' weddings.

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TeWiDoesTheHulaInHawaii · 08/05/2012 23:45

You're right Imperial, it's incredibly sad. I think that's why the poster picked it out as being a worst wedding, not because they thought it was funny/to mock the woman.

I have not been to many weddings, but I did feel rather sorry for the bride whose priest went on and on about the high divorce rate now, and then later had her maid of honour do a speech all about... the maid of honour.

However, said bride thinks her wedding was the best ever and exactly what she wanted, so there we go.

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