What's Your Worst Wedding Experience?

CowgirlK39

I just read a thread where someone said "no wedding is perfect." So true. So c'mon, whats the worst thing you have had happen to you, or have seen happen at a wedding?

I havent been to a full fledged wedding since I was a flower girl in the early '90s, but I have a few instances that made for really bad wedding experiences.

1) A friend of my FI invited both of us to his wedding reception a few years ago. We were excited to go, until a few days before, when my FI got a TEXT from the groom saying that more people were attending than they thought, and we and a number of others were now uninvited to the wedding due to space restrictions. However, we were invited to join them for drinks afterward. Uhhhh.... no thanks. We declined the offer and couldn't believe the rudeness!

2) We attended a friend's wedding reception last year. Everything seemed ok at first, until the food came out. It was served buffet style, and was downright aweful. The beef was tough and the chicken was watery! My FI became ill soon after eating the chicken, and many of us didn't finish anything that we had taken. The caterer then came out to remove the serving table from the dance floor. Instead of picking it up, one person dragged it across the floor, making a screeching, ear-piercing noise that disturbed the whole reception. It wasn't even like it made a quick noise and they corrected it.... they pulled it alllllll the way across the floor and into the kitchen like that! Shortly after, FI and I had to leave because he was unbearably sick from the food.

Bring on the horror stories!

nancyr

This is a pre-wedding experience but scary just the same. Went w/one of my best friends to see the gown she was planning on buying... ok, she'd gone shopping w/her sister in law who is very conservative so I'm expecting a reasonable dress. NOPE! The dress actually had TASSLES, yes you read that right, tassles...placed where no REAL bride wants them,unless she moonlights at the local strip joint and wants to use her dress as a costume. I was totally freaked out! Why would any designer, let alone birde want a dress with tassles hanging down?  Managed to talk her out of it by having her try on a few other gowns and finding one she really did glow in--I mean really radiated happiness, so I didn't feel bad trying to talk her out of the tasteless lassle dress.

haleyrealtor

I went to a wedding about 10 years ago where the bride was reallllly late to her own wedding. What do you do in that situation? Leave & you're the Jerk...stay and stew? We kept thinking "I'm sure she'll be here in a few minutes". No one ever came and told the entire room of family/friends that they were inconveniencing what was going on. Two and a half HOURS (and I'm not exaggerating) later, she made her way down the aisle. 

Then later, at the reception...we ended up at a table with some family of the groom who we didn't know. Of course, the bride and groom took another 2 hours to arrive there so we sat at the table looking at this other couple...because after trying to make conversation, they claimed to not speak English. We heard them later speaking VERY good English with some other members who were the same color as them. I wanted to scream! 

Then later at work, we asked the bride why she was late. Her response? They had to make a trip to WalMart to get makeup sponges...and got stuck in traffic or something. WTH?!? We seriously should have taken our gifts back from the table when we left on that one. So inconsiderate.

Gloric21

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_wedding-recap-withdrawal_whats-worst-wedding-experience?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:12Discussion:417507dd-6109-478b-811f-63dfdb2358cdPost:79148c35-48ef-4bb5-b081-9d7f63194eab">Re: What's Your Worst Wedding Experience?</a>:
[QUOTE]I've been to a wedding where there was no first kiss. They pronounced the couple as husband and wife. The couple turned around and walked down the aisle.
Posted by annodam328[/QUOTE]

Was it a Catholic wedding? I got married in a catholic church and during the rehearsal the deacon said "I now pronounce you H & W" then nothing, so we asked if he could kiss and his response was "No. I won't say you can kiss the bride but you can if you want".  On our wedding day sure enough he didnt say it and we didn't want to be disrespectful so we just did a modest quick kiss on the lips.

ebush11

Mine isn't too bad, just a lot of bad luck:

My H and I got married 2 months before he was supposed to be the best man in one of his GM's own wedding. My H and this friend's fiance didn't get along, and a week before our wedding they had a shouting match. The rehearsal dinner was super tense because this GM made the entire WP late, and the MOG introduced HIM to all the guests as her son, not my H. His fiance offered to do my makeup and everyone said she was a professional, so I let her go for it. It took an HOUR for her to make me look like a hooker. I didn't have time to change it, so I'm dreading that I'll hate my pictures.

Then it was time for their own wedding. We had a bad start, because we missed our flight and ended up buying new tickets and showing up after the rehearsal, but before the dinner. The dinner was great, but then the bride suprised the entire WP by announcing that they had to memorize a dance. I was waiting for my H to learn choreography for 4 hours. We got up after 5 hours of sleep and ran around town doing last minute errands for the B&G to try and make up for being late the day before. We bought $150 dollars worth of items for them, and they conveniently forgot that they promised to pay us back later. When it was time to get ready we parted ways and I hung out with another friend of ours until the wedding was supposed to start. We arrived on time, took our seats in the 90+ degree sun in Pheonix, and waited for an hour and a half for the bride to be ready to walk. All the guests were sweating and looking around for the WP. The hotel was great, and handed out water bottles and set up an umbrella for the bride's grandma. Then I overheard the MOB talking to a couple guests, and she outright bragged to them how much the wedding cost! I don't care how much you spent on a wedding, you should never tell a guest how much it cost to host them!
There was a 2 hour wait in the reception hall for the WP to finish photos, then they entered the hall with the dance performance. Then there was a 45 min slide show of the B&G, then a 2 hour long Hawaiian luau, then the toasts, and then, finally, the dinner was served by the waiters performing a choreographed routine to "Be Our Guest". It was just too showy for my taste. After the dinner the dancing started and cake was served, and everything seemed fine until the bride started yelling at her mom and the wedding planner saying "You've ruined my wedding! Get out, now!". Two of the groomsmen got in a fight, a pair of cousins sitting at our table started making out, and we had to stick around until 2 am to help clean up the tables after everyone else had partied it out.  After getting up super early the next day for our flight back home, it all started to sink in and we had a good laugh. It wasn't the worst wedding I've ever heard of, but it was quite an experience for us!

blaxnubian

My father caught the garter and my H's 7 year old niece caught the bouquet. Needless to say, he wasn't putting the garter belt on her. My worst wedding experience was I was on the dance floor with all of our guests. When it got to a slow song, I looked around and H was nowhere to be found. I went out to the lobby and he, my MIL and SIL were sitting on there talking. Apparently she didn't like the music and how loud it was so she sat outside of the reception. My SIL and H were trying to comfort her. Then when I came out, she asked when could she and the SIL leave. I was very upset but I just went back in and continued with guests. Everything else was wonderful.

bridetobemo

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_wedding-recap-withdrawal_whats-worst-wedding-experience?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:12Discussion:417507dd-6109-478b-811f-63dfdb2358cdPost:08f17e31-fee5-4be8-aba5-4a42e22c7456">Re: What's Your Worst Wedding Experience?</a>:
[QUOTE]I don't have anything to add but all these stories make me cringe. Ouch....
Posted by sprtychick10[/QUOTE]

totally agree! YIKES!

alimbrady

1.  I was dancing at the reception when this drunk woman in spike heels accidentally kicked me - it sounds like nothing, but I had a huge bleeding gash and the awful bruise lasted for weeks.  When I was doctoring up my cut, I saw two other girls who were also tending to similar injuries - it turns out this crazy guest was so drunk she kept injuring people on the dance floor while she danced wildly and did high kicks in heels. 

2.  Sadly, I attended a wedding where the bride passed out cold as she was starting to walk down the aisle.  They revived her and tended to her for about half an hour before she was steady enough to try again.  Turns out, she hadn't eaten anything for days and the heat of her dressing room, combined with nerves, kept causing her to pass out.

3.  I was in a wedding where the groom got into a shouting match with the photographer while taking pre-wedding pictures.  It got so bad that the photographer basically avoided him all night, which isn't really a great strategy for getting good wedding photos.

4.  While I didn't attend, I recently heard about a friend's wedding where they had an open bar and a tequila tasting bar as well.   Everyone got trashed.  Apparently people got so drunk that the mother of the groom's dress accidentally got torn down the front, and another guest fell and broke an ankle. 

LuckyHeather

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_wedding-recap-withdrawal_whats-worst-wedding-experience?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:12Discussion:417507dd-6109-478b-811f-63dfdb2358cdPost:81938ffd-4a55-4bdf-b334-a3bc0e91ec79">Re: What's Your Worst Wedding Experience?</a>:
[QUOTE]Oh, and the reception entertainment was watching couple unwrap their gifts.  Awesome!!
Posted by Karenofcourse[/QUOTE]

<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Calibri','sans-serif';color:black;">This made me laugh out loud.  How tacky!! </span></span>

Chelpants

Well.. I was in a wedding last year for a girl who was marrying her boyfriend because the guy she was cheating on her boyfriend with was getting married.

Needless to say, they are going through a divorce atm. Sad.

texasgurly13

I was about 9 or 10 and went to a neighbor's wedding at their house across the street from us.  It was a little weird for me because up to that point I had only been to Catholic weddings in a church.  They did a quick ceremony in the backyard and the reception folllowed shortly afterward.

The GM and the Groom had a little too much to drink while waiting for the reception to start, and they were horsing around...next to the pool in the backyard.  Next thing you know, the groom falls backwards into the pool...tux and all.  This was BEFORE pictures were taken.  The bride was livid.

My parents took me and my brother home shortly after that.  The couple ended up getting divorced a couple of years later.  

hollyweenOR

At my friends' wedding, someone thought it would be a Great! Idea! to keep a couple of guests' kids busy by letting them cut the cake. 7 and 10. They were making a pretty big mess, and more importantly, pointing fairly sharp knives all around (someone had brought really quite sharp knives, not your standard cake knives) and so I figured maybe someone should help Stabby McGee Jr. and her sister Pokey with a little supervision. They basically pointed the knives at me and said, "NO!!!! WE'RE DOING IT!!" O.O  Ooookay. I backed off and rounded up their mom and let her handle it.

At my cousin's wedding, the wedding party rode off from the church on the back of a flatbed truck full of hay bales. Cute, fine. Oh, there was a cooler full of beer back there. Huh, okay. We all head to the reception site, 15 minutes away. They're not going to take pictures, they're just going to ride through town, then come to the reception. 30 minutes, tops. There are a couple of trays of snacks at the reception, gone in moments. There's beer and wine, though. And we wait. And wait. And drink, and wait some more. My 98-year-old grandmother (groom's great-grandma!) is getting tired, and we're all very hungry. And we wait. For THREE HOURS, I kid you not. Turns out they stopped at a bar or three. They show up well after dark and the whole wedding party is loaded, like falling-down drunk. My cousin carried his bride in over his shoulder. Not sure she could stand up at that point. They finally let us eat. We scarfed down some food and took Grandma home, she was exhausted. :P

ambersthebride

Last summer we went to my FI's friends wedding. The groom and his buddies were taking shots at the ceremony (everyone could see them through an open door in the small church, and I mean not celebratory shots, get wasted shots)

He then proceeded to the altar where he sweat like a pig for the next hour and a half, and all of the guests around me noticed and whispered about it.

During the reception, his best man gave the longest, drunkest speech I have ever heard, without notes.  My FI went to the washroom, went to the bar, came back and the best man was still rambling on. 

Later on, the best man and a guest got into a fight over the bride's MOH. There was a lot of blood and the cops showed up. 

I'm hiring security for my wedding.

dragontrainer

I went to one of my best friend’s wedding with my boyfriend (who was also friends in high school with the bride). I carpooled with her very religious neighbors four hours one way to the wedding. I never prayed so much in my life than that one day.

The wedding was at the groom’s grandmother’s house in the middle of mountains in the middle of August. It was two stories with a deck. The deck was the viewing platform down below to the ceremony. The wedding was small, I would say 40 people. Here’s the ratio. There was the brides family = dad, mom, brother, uncle. Then me, my bf and brides two neighbors. That’s eight people. Do the math.

Her groom’s family was awful! They were all very red neck. The FOG wore a cut off beer shirt. They smoked in groups and the beer was gone before the ceremony even started. I saw the groom’s grandmother have 4 beers in seven minutes while smoking. His family had no respect for the brides family and friends. The groom even had 5 beers before the ceremony started. Good thing he can hold his liquor.

The food was a buffet made by the family. There was 5 types of pasta salad and shredded beef that you could see was sitting out for awhile. The cake, also made by a family member wasn’t cooked in the middle. Even the religious neighbors who we carpooled with asked if we could get something to eat after the wedding. After the food was served, about half of the grooms family left. After cake, another half. By the time there was “dancing” (aka 5ft x 5ft) and in front of the patio door and exit there really wasn’t anyone there.

The reception tables were on an incline and placed over ant hills. The part out of the entire thing that got me was that the FOB who knew me since 8^th grade asked me why his little girl would choose such a horrible place to get married. When he heard about the engagement he was prepared to have a fancy wedding at our home towns finest country club but that the Bride didn’t want that and she wanted to pay for it. Secretly the FOB thinks that its because the grooms family is completely red neck and disrespectful and she knows they wouldn’t fit in.  Right when the FOB is telling me this, the FOG starts to have a seizure, which I found is common and happens frequently.  Probably explains why no one rushed to his side.

I felt bad but I know she loves her H and at the end of the day, that is all that matters.

LJones7883

At my FI cousin's wedding, the MOG purposely stepped on the bride's veil while she was coming down the aisle. And of course it ripped.

Hawt83

OMG ladies!  Some of these are horrible, but I certainly enjoyed reading them!