Weddings are simply glorious. The guests can dress up, drink for free, and eat a ton. Moreover, the married couple gets to celebrate their special day, officially declaring their vows and starting their own family. Most of the nuptial events are heavily overpriced, though. Indeed, the wedding industry makes people believe they need fancy wedding dresses, wall projections, and ice sculptures to celebrate.
Unfortunately, though, if your ceremony is increasingly extravagant, you’ll probably experience at least a few wedding fails.
Now, there are a few things the bride and groom can’t really control. If they have a bar, for example, they may not be able to stop their loud, emotional friends from overindulging. Plus, the couple rarely has full control over what music the DJ plays.
And the speeches. What if the bride’s father-in-law accidentally calls the bride by the wrong name during the rehearsal dinner? Crazier things have happened before.
The sad thing is that just one cringeworthy event can negatively define an entire wedding. Even if you spend $30,000 for a night of fun, one cousin who vomited on the dance floor might be what everyone remembers.
Here are some of the worst wedding moments ever.
1. The Groom Learned That The Bride Was Unfaithful Moments Before
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One Reddit user shared a story from his boss’ history books: “I work weddings. Manager was telling us his best ever stories… there were a lot but this one takes the cake.”
Listen, it’s never cool to cheat on your partner.
They continued:
Right before the ceremony the MAID OF HONOR tells the groom that the bride is cheating. The couple spends about an hour yelling at each other in the hospitality suit. Groom agrees to go through with it anyway. At the ceremony she says “I do” he says “I can’t” and chucks her ring over the fence into the pool. Staff had to fish it out.
But it’s especially horrible to cheat right before your wedding ceremony. The bride probably faced the most embarrassing moment of her life, but she shouldn’t have expected her affair to remain secret forever.
2. Someone Couldn’t Wait For Dessert
This Reddit user revealed a serious wedding faux pas:
“I did not witness this, but at someone’s parents’ wedding:
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someone got drunk and ate the back of their cake before they got to cutting it
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when she came downstairs to in her dress to show her dad, her dad said ‘god, I hope you aren’t wearing that!'”
Wedding cakes are expensive, but they serve an important purpose.
The couple cuts the cake together; it’s a symbolic moment. Seems like a drunk guest forgot about that part.
3. There Was A Drunk Open Mic
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This Reddit user attended a wedding that would be memorable for the wrong reasons.
“One wedding I went to had about an hour and a half of LONG partially drunken speeches, it was awful. It’s still talked about years later by everyone, I’d hate to have my wedding be remembered like that. The bride went around and thanked almost every person in attendance on top of the speeches, it was truly cringeworthy.”
It’s tough when people just keep talking during wedding events.
All of the guests usually feel trapped in their seats.
4. A One-Man Water Balloon Fight Got Intense
Uhm, this is terrible.
“…Attended a wedding for a young couple. She was maybe 95 pounds. Just a little Lady. A guy friend of the bride and groom thought it would be funny to throw a big, full water balloon at the bride, instead of rice. He chucked it from across the patio. It nailed her in the face, but didn’t burst. It just ricocheted off her dome. She started crying loudly. It was horrible.”
Now, this just seems cruel.
Even if you’re not particularly fond of the bride, surely she deserves to at least enter the limo with her makeup still intact.
5. Nobody Corrected The Priest
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Yeah, it might be awkward to be the one person who speaks up.
But it’s way less awkward than sitting through an entire ceremony while “John,” not “Sean,” is asked to recite his vows.
6. The Father Actually Objected
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These days, it’s not as common to hear “speak now or forever hold your peace” during the ceremony, and that’s probably a good thing.
If someone’s dad has a problem with the wedding, let’s hope he addresses it before the big day.
7. The Groom’s Son Revealed A Big Secret
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Everyone has a few moments they’re not all that proud to share.
But, four years in jail sounds like something people should have known about. Everyone is bound to have a ton of follow-up questions.
8. The Bride’s First Groom Showed Up
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Sorry, no admittance.
“At my brother’s wedding his bride’s ex-husband showed up uninvited, drunk, and several of us had to escort him quickly out of the church since it was obvious he came to ruin the ceremony.”
And this, friends, is why you should be very careful about your wedding information.
If you have a spiteful ex, they might come to crash the big event. So why risk it?!
9. The Best Man Got Plastered
Yikes, this got gross fast.
“At my cousin’s wedding, the best man had been boozing so hard that he ran off, mid speech, to be sick in the toilets. I was just 15 at the time, but I still look back and think, ‘What a d*ck.'”
Here’s some more advice:
If you’re going to make a speech, try to go light on the alcohol before you talk. Otherwise you risk turning out like this guy.
10. She Just Had To Share Bad News
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This Redditor’s story has a personal touch:
“Literally five minutes before our wedding ceremony started my aunt came up to me (the bride) and told me that my grandfather had cancer and [most likely] a few months to live. I had not known but seeing him that morning I saw that he was not well (my parents and sister had (unnecessarily) kept it from me before the wedding).
You should never saddle the bride with bad news right before the wedding.
She continued: “Auntie dearest just walzed up to me and said: If I were you I would not be so happy, did you not know that your grandfather is dying? I cannot remember but apparently I replied: Well, let me get married first and then we’ll take care of this.”
Unless her partner ran off, the info can wait. This is, after all, supposed to be the happiest day of her life.
11. They Played The Most Embarrassing Home Video Ever
Embarrassing doesn’t even cut it:
“My drunken 19 year old cousin stole the camcorder being used to make the wedding video, took it into the bathroom and proceeded to pleasure himself on camera….no one knew until we all (the WHOLE family) sat down to watch it a few weeks later.”
This individual should probably watch his alcohol intake in the future.
Unless he’s hoping to get arrested in the future.
12. They Started Their Marriage In A Pretty Bad Way
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Dearly beloved? Ish?
“Members of the bride’s family had beef with each other but came for the wedding anyway since they were fond of the bride. Naturally, there was alcohol served along with the food afterwards and said members got too tipsy for their own good.”
And then things got fiery.
“A fight broke out amongst them and it got pretty hectic. The bride got punched unintentionally trying to break up the fight and it was a sour end to an otherwise well planned and cheerful wedding. Poor girl’s special night was ruined because of angry drunkards.”
Thinking about swinging your fists at someone’s wedding?
Maybe it’s time you take a walk and cool down a little, buddy.
13. This MIL Did One Of The Worst Possible Things
Apparently she didn’t approve of her son’s bride choice?
“It was well known that the mother in law(mil) wasn’t a fan of the bride. On the wedding day she turned up late in a pale peach gown that may as well have been white and looked exactly like a wedding gown.”
That’s not really a good start…
“She was up and about at the church until the wedding March started to play at which time she hopped up out of the back and walked quickly up the isle basically in front of the bride to take her seat at the front. She started making this horrendous crying sound as soon as the wedding vows started and didn’t stop until the pastor presented the couple as husband and wife.”
There’s so much wrong with this; it’s almost impossible to dissect.
“…She promptly ran to the front and used her elbow to move the bride before throwing herself into the arms of the groom. At the photoshoot afterwards she kept trying to exclude the bride from the pics and posed with no less than 10 photos of just her and her son. So every pose he did wid his bride, his mom tried to recreate.
“I wasn’t invited to the reception but heard she gave a doozy of wedding speech about how she couldn’t believe the bride was stealing her only baby and implied quite strongly that the son only married her cuz she was pregnant. Bear in mind they were together for 5 years.”
This situation is a bit much, though.
Surely any bride would be fine if their mother-in-law wore something close to white if it meant salvaging the peace.
14. They Just Had To Wear White
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For standard US weddings, only the bride wears white.
“My aunt texted me two days before my wedding asking if her daughter could wear white to my wedding, tempering the request with ‘she has already bought the dress, it’s expensive, she doesn’t have anything else to wear, it’s so late I don’t know what to do.'”
Uhm, if you have to ask..?
“Since I also happened to have bought an expensive white dress in which to attend my wedding, my response to that question was a simple, ‘no, obviously not!’ And what do you know, turns out my cousin DID have more than just one single expensive white dress in her cavernous closet of clothes and found something to wear…”
Now is not the time to settle a score against her.
If you have to stop and think whether or not your dress conflicts with the bride’s, it probably does.
15. Things Got Pretty Tense
This could seriously happen at any wedding.
“I was once shooting a wedding where the minister accidentally dropped the grooms rings through the a gap in the dock and almost lost it in the little pond. Luckily the water was low so me and a few family members of the bride and groom went to look for it.”
At least there’s a happy ending, though.
“I found it in the mud, but it was the middle of their ceremony and I could tell everyone was really stressed. You know how a lot of times after a crisis is averted people laugh… well they did but it was a very tense laugh.”
16. They Completely Disregarded Common Etiquette
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The most romantic gesture at a wedding should occur between the newlyweds.
“At my friends wedding one of her friends ended up proposing to his girlfriend. Best way to take attention from the bride and groom and put it onto yourself. Kinda ruined the brides day.”
But if you get caught up in the moment, at least wait a day before proposing to your own boyfriend or girlfriend.
If you have an engagement ring in your pocket “just in case” the mood strikes, you’re already choosing a dangerous path. But wait, another Redditor shared a very similar story.
That’s not really how the bouquet toss works.
“I don’t know whether it’s better or worse, but I was at a wedding where the bride’s family was trying to get one of the other daughter’s boyfriend to propose. Things like making ‘jokes’ in the wedding speeches about the next wedding wink wink, making a human wall so that their daughter could catch the bouquet, trying to get them to dance before the first dance had concluded, stuff like that.”
Do they get a re-do wedding after this?
“It was obvious both the bride and the boyfriend were mortified that her family thought this was acceptable.”
What on Earth could they have been thinking? We all have our family quirks but this is s true bummer for the “lucky” couple.
17. Someone Mentioned Divorce
This is a huge no-no on anyone’s wedding day!
“My uncle walked up to me on the dance floor at my wedding and handed me a small envelope. ‘There’s not much in here, but this is for you. Don’t tell your husband you have it, and when you get divorced in a few years, call me and I will send you more.’ Then he turned and walked away.”
Not everyone is going to like the person you choose to marry.
But, seriously, no one should talk about divorces and annulments during the wedding. It’s just not right!
18. They Forgot The Bug Spray
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Outdoor weddings are romantic, but a lot of things can go wrong in the natural elements.
“A friend of mine got married on the beach and there were these huge mosquitoes. They started biting the bride and her dress was covered in blood.”
It might get too hot, and bugs might plague the ceremony.
Plus, people might get dehydrated, and we don’t even need to talk about the potential chance of rain. That’s a lot to worry about.
19. There Was A Blackout
It’s easy to party too hard at a wedding.
“It was my brothers wedding day and I’m his best man. At approximately 10:30am someone breaks out a bottle of cheap whiskey, in a big bottle. There’s only 6 of us. By 5pm, the time of the wedding, we are completely smashed.
But if you can’t remember what happened during the main event, there might be a problem.
Let me reiterate that a bit; By noon we are smashed, but as 5pm rolls around we are still smashed because apparently we had to open another bottle.
I Honestly still don’t remember what happened or that day and I still refuse to see video [footage].”
20. They Needed To Give Thanks Where It Was Due
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Writing thank-yous can be exhausting.
“So this wasn’t a rude guest, it was a rude bride and groom. They had a 5 pm reception with no food. None. Not even a cheese platter. They didn’t warn us beforehand so we didn’t know to eat before going. The reception was in a very rural location so we couldn’t run anywhere to grab a bite.”
And hunger sets in.
“We had to write our address on a thank you note envelope. Which I’ve seen before. But, we were also directed to write our own thank you notes!
Finally, at 9 pm I told my husband we had to leave because I’m starving aaaaaaand they wouldn’t let us leave until we helped fold tables and chairs.”
It’s polite to offer the notes to your wedding guests…
But you definitely shouldn’t make it mandatory on an empty stomach! That’s just tempting some choice words to show up in the notes.
21. The Bride Fought With Her Dad Instead Of Saying Her Vows
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This is another train wreck of a wedding story.
“The worst wedding I went to was one where the bride was two hours late, she didn’t have her hair done or her makeup done either. The grandparents were seated three different times because everyone thought the bride was coming and she wasn’t. The officiant was the bride’s father who was so aggravated at the delay he constantly fumbled over his words to the point where the bride got into an argument with him, in front of everyone, at the altar.”
Okay, yikes already. But there’s more.
“The entire time this is happening, the groomsmen are smoking dab pens and getting high in front of all the guests. My ex being one of them, unfortunately. You would think that it couldn’t get any worse, but the reception was a drunken disaster.” “
A perfect venue.
“The reception hall was split into two sides, with access to an outside patio, and on one side was the wedding and the other side had a nearby High School’s prom. That wouldn’t have been super bad except everyone was belligerently drunk and/or smoking pot outside.”
And then the bride’s mother gets involved.
“The bride’s mother actually made a huge scene because people were smoking a blunt WITHOUT her… she came running outside irate and yelling at everyone. We were asked to not come outside anymore or the police were going to be called. They were called.
Although it was the worst wedding I’ve ever been to, it’s a fantastic story and I will never forget it.”
The guests stayed to watch a wedding, but they saw a huge fight instead. Proper etiquette went out the window.
22. Uncontrollable Sobbing Isn’t Usually The Vibe
Sometimes people just aren’t in the right head space to celebrate with someone on their special day, like this Redditor explained:
“The woman was a plus one that came with one of the grooms family. Not in a relationship with them, just a friend, and as far as I know didn’t know the happy couple very well.
It started off in the church, she cried quite loudly to the point people were actually turning to look at her. After the actual ceremony we were informed that she was widowed early last year. Fair enough, though I did wonder why she’d put herself in such a highly emotional situation for people she barely knew, but each to their own.”
Then things got even worse.
“Then came the dinner, rather tipsy from the pre-dinner cocktails whilst the wedding party did their photos, she stood up to make her own speech. The wedding itself was a fairly relaxed affair, so although a little odd no one stopped her. She tearfully wished the bride and groom all the best because ‘you never know when you can be ripped apart from the one you love.'”
As if the speech weren’t enough…
“First dance for the bride and groom was cut short as the song reminded the widow of her dearly departed. Father daughter dance also caused a scene because her daughter would never be able to do that with her father.”
This is definitely a mood.
“Generally it just brought the whole mood crashing down, and it felt like we were all treading on eggshells. She stole attention from the couples big day and got a ton of sympathy from all the guests. I felt for her, loosing her husband had to have been awful, but she essentially ruined someone’s wedding, and no one was going to be the asshole to call her out on it.”
23. As A Rule, Probably Don’t Mess With The Cops
Getting into trouble on your wedding day might not go over so well with the guests. This Redditor explained:
“Buddy’s wedding day– he and his groomsmen are taking a bit of liquid courage outside the church right before the ceremony, and a cop comes into view. One of the groomsmen, perhaps pregaming too much, flips off and starts mouthing off to the cop, and the cop busts him for drunk in public/open containers, etc.”
Okay, bad idea.
“…Takes the offending groomsman to the station (mind you, not the rest of the guys drinking on the sidewalk, just the one who felt like taking it to the next level), and the ceremony keeps getting delayed and delayed– an hour and a half, so that the groom can bail out his pal, just to have him there for the ceremony.”
24. Who’s The Bride Here, Really?
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What do you do when a bridesmaid has some serious bride-envy?
“I went to a wedding where the maid of honor was a childhood friend of the groom’s. The speech was all about her own relationship with the groom, all the stuff they did together, how she was the one he confided in when he became serious about his relationship with the bride. It was so cringey – it was a thinly veiled declaration of “I should be the bride”. That marriage did not last long.”