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Original poster

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:
MrGin · 09/05/2012 14:52

A friends wedding in another country. During the speeches the brides uncle starts his speech in another language. There is a friend of the bride happily translating to the English half of the room.

The translator stops translating and the brides family all start to look mortified.

The uncle commands the translator to carry on. And it turns out he's saying what a terrible day it is for the family , that she shouldn't be marring a foreigner, we're not welcome etc and then storms off.

Was pretty good wedding apart from that.

TeWiDoesTheHulaInHawaii · 09/05/2012 14:54

oh dear MrGin.

I liked my wedding, a couple of things got messed up. But everyone was warm and fed - clearly that counts for a lot!

LieInsAreRarerThanTigers · 09/05/2012 14:58

Funny in a registary office it can be the other way round - we could only have about 30 people to the actual ceremony but invited many more (about 80) to the reception with lunch then all those who wanted to stay plus lots more extra friends (I turned it into a school reunion - bring a friend and a bottle, with a fantastic band and a disco) in the evening. Most of the 'olds' didn't want to stay for the evening do, except my parents and MIL who all complained about how loud it was, instead of sensibly going home like all the others!

Beanbagz · 09/05/2012 15:02

localcrackpot DH and i went to a wedding where we assumed that canapes/drinks were the only thing on offer (it was in Spain).

Nearly 4 hours later we were told that dinner (3 courses) was served. To say that we were stuffed full was a bit of an understatement!

NiniLegsInTheAir · 09/05/2012 15:06

I probably shouldn't say this, but one of the worst weddings I've been to was my own. :(
My groom got lost trying to drop our car off at our wedding night hotel and was late for the service.
Another wedding party stole the flowers from the venue before the service (we did get them back thanks to our determined wedding planner).
Groom's Dad refused to smile for any photos as we wouldn't let him bring along his new girlfriend he'd been with just a week.
My Chief Bridesmaid was nasty to me all day over some imagined slight I apparently performed at her wedding a few years before.
Groom's speech didn't mention me once. :(
As we started the first dance my groom decided he 'didn't like' our song so refused to dance - I had to smile and try and swing him around like nothing was wrong.
The DJ wouldn't play any of my requests, only those of my guests and my new husband.
My Gran refused to eat any of the food.

But our guests were kept fed and watered so I hope they enjoyed it. :D

I have been to a wedding once where the estranged Aunt & Mother of the bride turned up uninvited and attacked the bride. It was awful. Angry

aloiseb · 09/05/2012 15:07

The worst wedding I've heard of, my Dad was at. Apparently, at the ceremony, when asked "do you take this man.....?" the bride-to-be replied, "No, unfortunately, because he slept with the chief bridesmaid last night"

Oh dearie dearie me Shock....he said the reception was still held, as a party for all the friends and relations, but imagine the poor wedding familySad

The worst wedding I have been at, we were singing for the service with a London choir, which the bride usually sang in, but the wedding was at her parent's very upper-class home in Northumberland. None of us knew any of the couple's (snooty) friends or relations. So why they chose to split us up around the tables for the meal, I don' t know - didn't want to see us having a laugh together, maybe, and lowering the tone!

DilysPrice · 09/05/2012 15:10

I think ceremony + evening invites can be fine if you're in a town and can all hit a decent pub for lunch and there's a bunch of people in the same situation so it remains a sociable thing.
It is not ok if the venue is in the middle of nowhere.

DilysPrice · 09/05/2012 15:17

At my own wedding I had the mad idea of mixing up people from
different friends groups on the tables. Very sensibly they just ignored my seating plan and sat where they liked.

PullyWoolOver · 09/05/2012 15:20

Ugh, my own - married a twat.

Divorced now Grin

Annunziata · 09/05/2012 15:22

VivianDarkBloom It wasn't a Father McBride that told you not to use cameras in such a charming, polite manner, was it?!

littlemissstan · 09/05/2012 15:23

We went to just the evening do of a colleague of DP - local, nice venue, good buffet, nice group of colleagues all together, so that was all fine. The wedding was a Sunday, on Father's Day, so after the first dance the DJ said something like "[bride] will now take to the floor with the other man in her life" - fair enough, until it turned into a 15 minute choreographed routine to about 5 different songs all mixed together (the actual first dance had been a little shuffle compared to this), complete with, at one stage, the FoB lassoing the bride in and then pretending to slap her bum in a very suggestive manor. We were all Shock, the groom smiled VERY sheepishly, though her family seemed to think it was all fine...

lurkerspeaks · 09/05/2012 15:24

Big wedding grandeur on small wedding budget - reception in a pub function suite, food terrible (gravy out of tea pot anyone), wine undrinkable. Pimms served in martini glasses (in October!) and strictly rationed and outside for the drinks reception.

We got dug out of the bar by the grooms mother (he is our friend) who was furious with us (old friend) and her son for organising it (she is v. posh and was upset that her family /friends were exposed to it)

Such a shame as a pub wedding (fish and chips/ sausage and mash), beer etc. would have been lovely and the food might have been edible!

Other cracker was the muslim wedding with a 2 hr drinks reception with no drinks. Those of us who drink (most of the bride and grooms university friends ) found it a struggle.

Best wedding - the one with a bottle of champagne / person and we didn't even mange to drink it all!

CeliaFate · 09/05/2012 15:24

nini are you still married to him????

lurkerspeaks · 09/05/2012 15:28

Oh and my brother was a best man once but didn't get invited to the meal... that was apparently family only.

Their call as he spent the afternoon in the pub with the other rejected guests and then apparently gave a v illuminating speech at the evening reception....

NiniLegsInTheAir · 09/05/2012 15:36

Celia Yes :(

SmellsLikeTeenStrop · 09/05/2012 15:38

The worst wedding was one at a small country hotel. After the service we were all kicked outside so that the staff could convert the room where the service was held, in to the dining room. It started to rain and we weren't allowed back in until they'd finished setting up. Fortunately there were trees we could shelter under, but still.

Another wedding, the brides parents were paying for the event so the groom was only allowed a tiny number of guests for the afternoon reception, his family and a couple of close friends. To try and conceal the fact that out of 100 or so guests, only 20 of them were the grooms, we'd been split up and dotted around the room. So rather then having a laugh with friends and family, DH and I ended up on a table with our 2 DCs, and 4 strange* teenagers.

*strange as in strangers

SmellsLikeTeenStrop · 09/05/2012 15:43

Oh, and there was the wedding where we were invited to travel to the back end of beyond for the service in the morning, bugger off and amuse ourselves until 7 in the evening, and then come back for the evening reception. I didn't go to that wedding though.

shoegal34 · 09/05/2012 15:46

The worst wedding I've been to was my good friend's :(

3pm wedding - twas a civil ceremony in a hotel followed by reception and 8pm(!!!) buffet at same hotel. Invite didn't give times re food etc. We were all absolutely starving and pssed by 8pm (I'd been there since 2pm). There wasn't anywhere near enough food (don't know why as the groom is loaded?!) so some people didn't get any at all! Bride was pssed before the ceremony and continued drinking heavily from there. Ended up going up to her room for a couple of hours before the buffet to lie down. Groom and his friends were snorting cke in the toilets then acting like dcks on the dance floor afterwards. And there was a really horrible atmosphere all night. I couldn't wait to get home...

Their relationship pre-wedding was terrible, wedding was terrible, marriage is now terrible :-|

Thumbwitch · 09/05/2012 15:56

Some horrors on here! I also want to know if Nini is still married to that groom...

My own wedding was a long drawn out affair, out of necessity really (short-range planning, had to take what was on offer) but worked out to be essential that we had a 2h gap between end of photos and the meal, as it gave us time to get to the hospital to see my Mum, who couldn't make it out (she died 2 weeks later). Guests were left with drinks and bar nibbles - but because I knew the schedule was a bit on the painful side, I had included it in the invitation, so people could see that there would be "lulls" in the proceedings. Nearly everyone stayed until the end, which was lovely - so it can't have been all that bad!

Worst one I went to was a Hindu wedding in Birmingham - nothing wrong with that per se, but the food was all deep fried awfulness, dripping in grease and overcooked. Nothing there that wasn't deepfried. I'd gone with my sister and we ended up having to stop in a pub on the way home to get some food, we were so hungry!

AnonymousBird · 09/05/2012 16:06

The one where the father of the bride, in front of well over 100 guests at a "big posh wedding" type affair, spent his whole speech slagging off his daughter and saying what a train wreck she was.

Bride cried. A lot. Sad

Peetle · 09/05/2012 16:07

My SiL's wedding was the full Baptist, bells, whistles, tambourines and guitars and quite entertaining. However, she'd blown all the money the family had given her on gifts for the bridesmaids, groomsmen, etc (no surprise). As a result the reception had no booze, and at the foyer to the church hall was a dish asking for contributions to pay for the hall hire (about £60). The food was a bulk order from the local chippy; greasy cardboard boxes all round.

For the photos the happy couple and their mates had scuttled off somewhere so the only relative in the photos is the groom's mother, in her mobility scooter, sitting like a battleship in the middle of everything.

theDevilHasTheBestMNNames · 09/05/2012 16:08

My worst wedding was one I was invited to with then DP. We had to travel down and book a room. We didn't drive so was bit of a mare getting from hotel to church. Sat through very long service and at end found that while DP had been invited to reception afterwards but I hadn't Hmm but was expected at evening do.

I didn't want to make a fuss and told DP to go. Made my long way back to hotel on my own - couldn't get a taxi so had to walk navigating with no map in an area I didn't know-and spent afternoon waiting round watching crap tv but didn't go and eat as was told there would be food at the evening do and didn't know when DP would be back.

He didn't come and pick me up till 7.30 pm. Got to evening do and there was no food. Was stuck at a really awful disco with drunk DP till early hours with a large number of people asking where I'd been at the reception which got me upset and embarrassed.

I don't think I've been to one since though that mainly due to them being DC free and us having no childcare so I send him with apologies. I've not missed going.

theDevilHasTheBestMNNames · 09/05/2012 16:09

The actual ceremony was lovely - as apparently was the reception.

getabloodygrip · 09/05/2012 16:10

My SIL professed undying love to my about-to-be-DH the night before, I was not there, she was very very drunk, but he remembers it well.

She then vomited mid ceremony.

DH had the good sense not to tell me either of these things until well after the event!!!!

ButternutSquish · 09/05/2012 16:11

I think it's very difficult when you're organising a wedding. You want the day to be about you two but also want to have your guests with you to celebrate.

Most of the people who comment about being hungry and having no food seem to also say that they didn't have breakfast or weren't expecting to wait so long for food. I always assume when i go to a wedding that there's going to be at least an hour or two between the end of the service and the food. I have a good breakfast and have a banana or biscuit in my bag. How difficult is that? It's not unreasonable for the Bride & Groom to want to have their photos taken is it?

I think there's a balance to have between having a day you can't afford where you splash out of things like flowers and dresses and not feed & water your guests and going completely over the top with free bars etc.

In saying all that I'm getting married next year. Getting married at 2pm, eating at 4.30pm....drinks and canapes after the ceremony whilst DP & I have some snaps taken. Evening reception (for all the people we don't like - well, that's how it taken by some and not what it really means!) with a band and a casino.

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