Wedding season is upon us! And if you’re not the lucky Panda who’s getting hitched this year, you’ll probably have to be a guest at a wedding or two. A 2016 The Knot wedding study found that the average adult attends two weddings a year, and that it usually costs them around $1,000 in gifts, attire, and travel accommodation.
But some weddings might cost the guests something else: their sanity. You can see some pretty wild stuff at weddings, and netizen @queenrichter knew this when she asked wedding guests to share their “most unhinged” experiences.
We’re going to be honest; the comment section under her video has some crazy stuff: from grooms that were made up by the bride to family members having heart attacks, these folks have seen a lot!
Image credits:queenrichter #1
My cousin wanted a carnival-themed wedding with a limited budget. The DIY was impressive, but when I got there, my aunt (the mother of the bride) told me that my sister and I had the first shift running the cotton candy machine, and she forgot to tell me. Do you know how messy cotton candy is?
I was churning out cotton candy to ungrateful guests when I looked around and noticed all of the family members were working carnival games and serving food to acquaintances of the couple.
When I die, I have it in my will to make my cousin and aunt run a cotton candy machine at my wake.
#2
Bride only had 1 box of Triscuits & a small grocery veggie tray to feed 7 bridesmaids until 4 pm. Bride was a chronic cheater & one of the groomsmen was a guy who she cheated with. Dry wedding, outside in summer, only had finger food that spoiled in the sun. Rural wedding. When we left, couldn’t find food for 15 miles. Changed out of my bridesmaid dress in the Wendy’s bathroom before I scarfed down my first real meal all day😳
#3
One of the groomsmen planned on asking his girlfriend of two months to marry him at the reception without asking the groom or bride beforehand. But fortunately (?) it didn’t happen because they both got drunk and had a fist fight in the parking lot. (The girlfriend won.)
#4
My friends MIL said in her speech “you may be his wife, but I’m his mother and you’ll never have him to yourself”. I was sitting right infront of the stand, I looked at her and she was 😳 so I death stared the MIL the rest of the night. She also made the bride cry at the end of the night cause she was hammered. My own mother was gonna fight this woman 😅😅
#5
The father of the groom got up to give a toast, which ended up being a six-page apology to his first wife (the groom’s mom), practically begging her to take him back…while standing next to his new wife.
#6
Didn’t make it a bad wedding, but at my bestie’s wedding, someone dressed up, pretended to be a guest, and tried to rob the cards that contained money. The groom is a cop, so he spotted him, and the police were called.
#7
I was the bridesmaid in a Star Wars-themed wedding. We had to FIGHT the wedding party with light sabers.
This was not disclosed to us until five minutes before our entrance.
#8
At the rehearsal dinner, the groom’s mother wrote the bride a letter and signed it ‘The original Mrs. (last name).’ THEN the groom and his mother danced to ‘Bubbly’ by Colby Caillat at the wedding reception as their mother-son dance.
#9
About half way into the reception the dj stepped outside to have a cig and had a heart attack and died in front of all the groomsmen. the rest of the night was dedicated to making sure the couple didn’t find out.
#10
During the reception, the groom’s grandfather had a stroke and paramedics were called. The entire time, the bride was screaming, ‘He ruined my wedding.’
#11
Flying to Rome to attend a wedding, only to be un-invited upon arrival 🥰
#12
I despise a porta potty because why am I dressed up all nice and wearing nice heels for you to not have proper bathroom accommodations. It just makes me feel icky
#13
I have been to not one but TWO outdoor weddings in Colorado in November and December. No notice was given that we’d be outside and everyone froze. Unforgivable.
#14
My uncle was getting married, but everyone in my family hated his fiancé. Right before their wedding, my grandma’s (uncle’s mom) phone died, and his fiancé had a charger.
We soon found out that my grandma’s phone was fully broken, not just out of power, so his fiancé said she could borrow her phone and put her details in to access messages.
We found out the fiancé had been cheating on my uncle for eight years.
#15
My worst experience was my OWN wedding. We hired a restaurant to cater for 150 guests. Fewer than 100 people showed up. We told our caterers that a lot of people didn’t make it, so they only served food once to our guests and took the rest home.
THEY rationed the food, and HID the rest from us! My husband and I didn’t know this happened because we were too busy. Everyone just assumed we didn’t pay for enough food.
#16
Ceremony at 12, bride and groom left for photos and didn’t get back until 5pm. No entertainment or canapés. People were ordering food from the bar. Then sat down for dinner and had to listen to 6 speeches before food
#17
The officiant said once you are married the wife must submit to the husband and divorce isn’t an option. The couple wasn’t even religious 😁
#18
I was single at the time and when they did the bouquet toss and called for all of the single ladies it was just me and two 10-year old girls 😬
#19
A “Christian” dry wedding where only married couples could dance together (group for fast songs were fine). Bridesmaids were rude and drunk, and would tell the dj if an unmarried couple danced together.
#20
My date was in the band (we were also guests) and i was seated at the band’s table. the entire band played during dinner and i was at the table by myself. the table was ON THE STAGE. at a 500 person wedding.
#21
The groom was three HOURS late because he was at his ex’s house crying and panicking. The ex called the bride to let her know. The bride still waited. They got married and still are over 30 years later
#22
My mom’s third wedding (backyard). By the time they did their first dance she was so drunk he had to hold her up. My husband was the only one dressed nicely and everyone thought he was the server.
#23
No one was standing at the other end of the aisle. The bridesmaids and guests showed up, but she never walked down the aisle, and her dad had to break the news that there was no groom.
#24
The best man gave a long speech about how in love the groom had been w his EX, I felt so bad for the bride
#25
Each individual table had their own cake as the center piece and a random woman who was not seated at our table came and grabbed the entire cake plate and stood there and ate it with her hands 😳😂
#26
The venue kicked everyone out at a certain time, but not before asking everyone to help break down all the tables, chairs, decor, etc. Was also a dry wedding. Terrible 😅
#27
The bride and groom grew up extremely religious. So, after their ceremony, they drove off in their truck, and we all had to wait until they returned. They were DISHEVELED when they came back.
#28
Not me, but a friend of mine attended a mutual friend’s wedding. During the reception, a guest got up from the table and punched the bride.
She didn’t know why, but the groom then proceeded to throw food at the guest. Other people joined in, and a huge food fight erupted.
My friend said she had to flee the reception.
#29
They insisted on keeping the wedding outside even though a lightening storm was happening. All the guests clustered under an overhang while waiting for it to pass. Then the cocktail hour? One veggie tray for 150 people
#30
It’s rained the day of an outdoor wedding. They could have moved it inside but the bride insisted everyone sit in the pouring rain for an hour long ceremony
#31
The groom didn’t want to do the first dance. He didn’t want to kiss her. He gave her a small peck and the DJ ended up leaving their wedding because someone was having a funeral repast next door and was willing to pay him more money.
#32
A black tie “formal” wedding held at an outdoor park in Georgia that was just dirt. No food, no chairs 12 hour drive from home.
#33
Every single person at the wedding KNOWING the marriage wouldn’t last the year (we’d all tried telling the bride he was using her for her inheritance!). Six months later and her £500k inheritance gone, so was he!
#34
I was a bridesmaid with no plus one. The meal was open seating, yet there were NO open seats for me. It was buffet-style eating, but I wasn’t sure when I was supposed to eat since I wasn’t at a table, so I didn’t eat, but I stood the entire reception to be supportive.
Once the music started, I gave the bride my love/congratulations before I left, and she cried while telling me that I ruined her day for leaving at nine o’clock.
She hasn’t spoken to me since.
#35
The groom said in his speech that the things he did in his past with his friends (us) were wrong and that he would be a new man now. We never saw him again.
#36
Another awful experience was when guests had to help the caterer/wedding coordinator set up and she didn’t have enough chairs and tables so she asked if any of the guests could go to Walmart and get some. BABE, THAT’S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
#37
No AC in a barn on a Thursday in August, sound didn’t work, and bride’s grandma was yelling her inside thoughts the entire ceremony
#38
I went to a wedding that didn’t serve WATER. only beer, wine, signature cocktail, and lemonade. I had to get water from the bathroom sink all night
#39
The grooms dad’s speech was 17 MINUTES long. at one point he went on a tangent about the hobbit & lord of the rings that had absolutely nothing to do with the couple. so painful
#40
They got married in Logan, UT. Reception was a two hour drive away. No dinner, only cookies and cupcakes at the reception. We caved and ordered Jimmy John’s.
#41
It was 100 out. Completely outside wedding in a barn. The bride made everyone wear 3 pieces suits and the jackets the whole time. She yelled at the venue when they put fans out b/c she didn’t want to pay for it (it was free) and it would ruin the pictures. 4/7 groomsmen and her 95 year old grandpa got heat stroke. The MOH rapped her speech.
#42
Wedding was at 10am but the first sign of food was 9pm.
#43
A friend was at a wedding – they came out of church and a bus was laid on to take guests to reception. Each guest had to pay driver £5 per head 🫣 a well off professional couple totally made that stinginess the most significant memory for their guests 🫣
#44
The bride was older and ‘finally’ getting married. She made all of the single women stand up (she called out anyone who didn’t) and announced that she never thought she’d be married, so they shouldn’t give up hope. Everyone clapped. It was humiliating.
#45
The couple had a Trump impersonator come and make a 15-minute speech IN CHARACTER, prior to the election. It was only cut off because the best man told him to stop. ‘Trump’ also stayed to dance. It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.
#46
No dancing, No music, No alcohol, No coffee, No food. Just water and everyone sitting in awkward silence
#47
Went to a wedding with the weirdest meal ever: paella, chow mein, tortillas, and coleslaw
#48
My nephew’s wedding……got seated at a table with his stepmother’s aunt, uncle, cousin and wife, and three children under the age of five…..at a supposedly child-free wedding. Almost walked out. Just…..don’t.
#49
The bride had her ex girlfriend as her MOH. The groom had no idea they ever dated. The ex gf/MOH was still in love w the bride, got blackout drunk, gave it away in the speech without directly saying it, and ruined the whole wedding. Only 10 of us knew. The groom still doesn’t realize they dated.
#50
My cousin had a backyard wedding, served fried chicken and “elevated baked beans” aka canned beans with bacon on top and did a money dance where ppl shoved dollar bills down the front of her dress… my immediate family and I were mortified to be there
#51
There was one case of water bottles available for 40 guests. The AC wasn’t on in Rhode Island summer. The father of the groom said us bridesmaids were ruining the wedding when we didn’t want to dance all night in those conditions.
#52
We were attending a wedding at a nice venue, and the groom came down during the reception wearing a full Spider-Man costume, did a weird dance, and essentially gave the bride a lap dance in the middle of the dance floor.
#53
This one might be personal, but being thrown at a table of random people when we knew plenty of people there. I understand seating charts, but you couldn’t put us with a single person we knew? We felt pretty discarded after traveling and spending hundreds to attend.
#54
The grooms mother attacked 2 of the brides friends and the brides friend had a flight with her brother’s partner 👊🏻👊🏻
#55
The father of the bride made a speech…about how against this marriage he was. 💀 Dunno if it made it bad, but it was definitely entertaining! 🐸☕️
#56
Ok so it was a morning wedding. And at like noon the brides mom announced there was a surprise outside and to follow the “candy trail”. Everyone goes outside to see their 1997 Toyota Camry Saran wrapped with balloons inside. Literally that’s it. It creeped everyone out so bad people started leaving. Was home by 1pm.
#57
I was a bridesmaid and me and my husband were sat at the kids table after traveling to a diff country for this wedding 💀
#58
the whole wedding was tinkerbell theme…. they are divorced now
#59
All the staff walked out while serving dinner in solidarity for one staff member who was upset they couldn’t go home.
#60
The 3 bridesmaids gave speeches that latest an hour and a half – and there was no food at cocktail hour and all we had was bread for that hour and a half
#61
February in Chicago with a WINDOW open. Everyone was wearing coats inside. It was freezing. Had to leave
#62
Family was told to be 1.5-2 hours early for family photos before the ceremony, the bride was almost 3 hours late, which meant an hour late to her own wedding, WHICH MEANT…
#63
I was at a wedding that had a small fountain with still water that attracted mosquitoes, and by the end of the wedding, everyone had been bitten all over. At one point, I had about 10 mosquitoes on my legs. My legs were completely covered in bites, swollen, and bruised. The only thing that helped was applying ice or running cold water over them.
#64
In my father in law’s speech he said “thank you for taking her off my hands “, 30 years later I still wonder if he was joking
#65
Not the craziest, but the bride walked down the aisle to Adele’s “Someone Like You”
#66
The groom insulted my husband (the brides brother) by saying me marrying him was the worst mistake of my life and then tried passing it off as a joke. This was in from of all the bridesmaids and spouses too
#67
Food was all undercooked or nonexistent. Raw potatoes in the potato salad, weird ribs, overdone hot water cornbread…not enough food at all for the whole party. Drove 3 hours to what we thought was a pretty beach location but the wedding was at a local park in a worn down rec room with graffiti on the bathroom walls.
#68
Father of the groom got drunk and announced that the bride “was supposed to be a rebound, but here we are!”
#69
we were invited to a wedding and ended up being the bartenders the whole night and FOR FREE
#70
Got a call two days before asking to contribute a large fruit tray bc they hadn’t paid their caterer
#71
My Hairdresser whilst doing my hair for my wedding was talking about her divorce and if I’m sure i want to go thru with the wedding cos it will probably end in divorce 🙃
#72
They STOLE OUR VOWS💀
#73
The wedding started 2 hours late. The bride got angry when her ring didn’t fit. We had to carry our chairs from the ceremony to the reception. They looped the wedding playlist (~10 songs). The bridesmaids trashed the groom in their speech. The bride brought massive Tupperware to dish up and take food home. The father of the bride spoke about the groom being unemployed. All one wedding.
#74
Put our dietary requirements as vegetarian and we were given a cooked potato each…. That’s it and it wasn’t even a big potato. We were also forced to play trivia and the MC did a bit about how annoying it was that we were vegetarians.
#75
the DJ stopped the music to teach all of us the cha cha slide,, mind you, all of us were like 23 and have known how to do the cha cha slide for years, he just didn’t think we were doing it well enough 💀
#76
Was seated at a table with coworkers (& supervisor) of the groom who all loudly talked extremely poorly about him + his appearance, called his best men gay, & went on about how the groom didn’t deserve his most recent promotion… it was A LOT.
#77
It was in the middle of no where. I only knew people that I was acquainted with, and the whole thing was 2 hours. I drove longer than I was at the wedding. No food and just dessert. Also invited her and her husband to my wedding and they RSVPd yes and never came.
#78
Someone’s grandma yelled at me for dancing on the dance floor. She was sitting at her table and said “she couldn’t see” past me. I told her to stand up ✨
#79
It didn’t ruin the wedding it was still great, but the officiant forgot to tell everyone to sit down so we all stood the entire ceremony. I got the giggles 😂
#80
We had to pay for drinks & food.. walked away very quickly.
#81
I once went to a wedding where the mother in law was also wearing a wedding dress
#82
Cash bar where all the drinks were $25+ and no free water at all.
#83
I went to a military wedding where the couple literally acted like it was their first time ever interacting. They were so awkward and like they had never met. He also saluted her instead of kissing her for some reason
#84
water only, no music/dancing, no games, and cold cheese and ham sandwiches that only had cheese and ham (no veggies, no mustard,nothing), so dry.
#85
The grooms best man rapped the entire song of slim shady.
#86
1 hour of speeches. also there was no dinner so we really just had to sit there and listen.
#87
apparently my mums great aunt slipped off the deck & broke a hip right before my mums wedding. delayed the ceremony 45 minutes to get her an ambulance.
#88
Destination wedding where it was all outside in 100 degree weather no tents no shade. Just us for 6 hours. It was brutal
#89
The bride came round with a top hat begging for money
#90
This happened at a hotel I worked at when I wasn’t on shift: The bride was part of a well-known criminal family (seriously bad stuff). On the wedding day, a rival family showed up uninvited and started shooting. Armed police had to end the situation, whilst staff were hiding under and behind furniture.
#91
the groooms dad made a whole speech for trump…. the bride hates trump
#92
Family made all the food, it was a whole pig on a bbq!!! And the only alcohol was homemade beer. It was terrible in 95+ degree summer heat at a state park with. No ac in sight!!!
#93
Cocktail hour consisted of only a charcuterie board and dinner was passed hor’ drvs. Also at reception and cocktail hour were in the same location with only chairs and some couches to sit on but no tables and not nearly wnough seating for everyone. Left early to go to dinner cause we wete starving and hurting from standing for 4 hours
#94
the brides BOYFRIEND was at the wedding
#95
The wedding started 2 hours late. it was at a park and there was no fans and it was in July. we ended up leaving
#96
They played only disney music at the reception, and has a cereal bar for the meal….I just left. 👌
#97
Do 400 km to go to a wedding, discover that we were not invited to the civil ceremony but only the religious ceremony, be invited to the wine of honor and the ball but not to the meal. (wedding of my SO’s cousin)
#98
At my sisters wedding. There was this girl that was catering that hurt my friend in highschool, so we were natural enemies from her betrayal and toxicity. When she brought my plate, it was a raw, uncooked steak and a dirty, unbaked potato.
#99
The bride had a cell phone-free wedding. The ceremony was one hour because the bride was running late, and we put our phones in the basket prior to sitting. We could not access phones at cocktail hour and weren’t allowed to get them until dinner was over. I waited three and a half hours before I could get my phone and immediately left.
#100
Groom said in his speech that the things he did in his past with his friends (us) were wrong and that he would be a new man now. Never saw him again