Best and worst wedding

The last wedding I attended was a backyard minimony due to COVID. As a guest, I probably loved the food the most. It was absolutely delicious! They even had a plated meal, which I was shocked about for a backyard wedding. And it was so filling! I couldn't even finish mine.

Probably the part I liked the least was that it was a Friday wedding at 2:30 in the afternoon and only lasted for 3 hours total from ceremony to send off. I don't mind Friday weddings (mine is on a Friday) but if I'm taking a whole day off work I would expect to be there much longer and spend some time with the couple.

The last wedding I attended:

The food was really good and there wasn't a ton of traditional stuff that I had to pay attention to, like cake cutting, speeches, bouquet toss, etc. Was nice just to hang out.

Didn't like the heat, it was in a barn in June and we were all melting. Also, it was a dry wedding so a little boring lol

The last wedding I attended was bad. The food was bad, too many speeches, very small bathroom with constant line… it was technically a destination wedding in the woods so we had to get McDonald’s after leaving we were still so hungry. The brides dress was beautiful- that was the “best” part.

The ceremony was on a dock in a marina, on one of the coldest, windiest days of the year. I was literally shivering the entire ceremony.

The best man's speech was a bunch of inside jokes and, for some reason, a story about how he and the groom literally destroyed the groom's family home when they were kids playing with fire? Why would you think this was a good story to tell a room full of wedding guests??

However, the food was good and the dance floor was big and open and easy to move around.

The last wedding I went to was very average. If you could imagine the most stereotypical Pinterest wedding… that was pretty much it. Cookie cutter venue at a winery. 200+ guests. The same sleeveless, lace overlay fit and flare dress you’ve seen a million times. The long tables with plain white linens and greenery & candles down the center. All the things you would find in a book entitled “how to throw a basic wedding”… Lots of speeches with crocodile tears, a DJ that announces every tiny little thing, a big official moment for cutting the cake and feeding each other, an uncomfortably large “in memory” table, way too many spotlight dances, cheesy bouquet and garter tosses, etc. etc. There was really nothing special or interesting about it, so nothing really pops to mind in terms of a “best” part (except maybe when we were finally able to leave). The worst part is a tie between the fact that the bride insisted on having the ceremony outside because she wanted those insta-worthy pictures, despite the fact it was over 95° and there was zero shade…. And the food. The food was a buffet (which I already don’t enjoy), with some of the worst/most bland BBQ I’ve ever had. Maybe if this had been a choice for a rustic barn wedding it would have made more sense. But to have a BBQ buffet at a winery really didn’t fit the event and cheapened it.

Last wedding I went to:

Best Parts

The bride and groom looked genuinely happy

It was nice to mingle with some of my husband's family we don't often see

The Rest

The wedding was in the CA desert in late spring. Completely outdoors (at a friend of the bride's family's compound), no shade, late afternoon. Supposed to start at 4, but didn't start until 5. Did I mention no shade during this time? People dipped into the alcohol prior to the ceremony, so there were beer bottles all around. Bathrooms were porta potties. Alcohol was pretty much gone by the time the ceremony was over, so my husband's cousins went on an alcohol run to a nearby store to buy more for the wedding. "Cocktail hour" was just popcorn. No coordinator or DJ in the food area, so no one to release tables once the reception started. It was a taco person (no hate there) and since everyone got up willy-nilly, there was a huge, slow moving line. By the time my table got food, the meat had run out. Dance floor was in a barn located some distance away from the tables. You didn't know what was going on unless you were in the barn. They did a dollar dance that lasted over 30 minutes because they tried to milk more people into participating. Music was not my taste. I was DD for a group of family, so I ended up going back to the van and taking a nap. Just not my kind of wedding at all.

I've attended 3 in the past few months and of all of them, I remember the food - the first had great food all the way through but no appetizers during a cocktail hour and had mini cheesecakes instead of regular cake which was amazing. The second did not have a cocktail hour, dinner was average at best, but the cupcakes for dessert were phenomenal. The third, the cocktail hour appetizers were a mess, I only saw one butler once, so barely any of those were available, the pasta station was mediocre and room temp, I had a steak at dinner and it was perfect, my fiance had the crab cakes which were also really good, but my brother in law had the chicken which he said was gross. The cake was not good either.

I also remember the DJ/dance portion. All three had DJs who were good at bringing the crowd to the dance floor, and a good variety of songs. Being engaged at all of these, I tended to notice things I probably wouldn't have if I wasn't planning my own wedding like the table decor, officiant, etc.

One really negative thing I noticed at one was the background noise. They had it at a shore town hotel, and it was in this area near the pool so you not only had the people in the pool making noise, but the hotel plays music in the pool area, so you had that noise, and one thing about shore towns in summer is there is always planes or helicopters flying nearby so that caused a lot of extra noise. I barely heard a word of the entire ceremony. Another negative at this same wedding was the amount of people filming/taking pictures and blocking views.

I went to one in 2019 that i really liked/disliked at the same time LOL

i really loved all the little cute details but i disliked that it was outside with dirt so my shoes were sooooo dirty by the end of the night. i loved how intimate it was because it wasn't that large BUT their photobooth was outdoors and there was no lighting so the photos come out dark.

there was like not really any parking - street parking with meters, essentially too.

The last wedding I went to was also my least favorite. It was a close family member's wedding and I (and several others) were voluntold to work all weekend to put on the rehearsal, wedding, and day after brunch. It was a miserable experience for many reasons. I knew it would be bad when I heard about the poor planning and "DIY" ethos (it wasn't actually DIY, of course, because it was everyone but the bride and groom doing the work). But I felt unable to say no because opting out would have put waaaaaay more of a burden on my mom. *sigh*

My favorite weddings have all been smaller, more intimate celebrations for people I am close with. Everything felt magical at those weddings simply because of how much love was in the room.

The last one I attended I wasn't impressed that there was no cocktail hour or appetizers, we literally had to starve and were bored between the ceremony and reception. The venue had an industrial type feel, wasn't intimate or decorated at all. There was a buffet and the food was bland and kind of cold.

The best thing about it was that the groom's best friends were all in the wedding party (my FH included) and we got to see each other dressed up for the first time in a long time. We all danced and took pictures and enjoyed ourselves so that was definitely the highlight.

I myself haven't attended a 'bad' wedding yet but I have a friend who did and it sounded awful!

The ceremony was outdoors in a park and they didn't have a back-up plan in the case of bad weather. It rained all day so for the few handful of guests that attended they were sitting there getting soaked in the rain (and the photographers and videographers kept telling guests to put umbrellas down) and thereafter at the reception they only served water and juice. No exaggeration guests had to beg staff to allow them to purchase sparkling water and alcohol because the couple didn't want drinks to be opened up for purchase. Yikes!

Best: ceremony/vows were short and sweet, BBQ food during dinner was awesome, dancing was super fun.
Parts I didn’t care for: overly choreographed first dance that felt very stiff and not really genuine, appetizers during cocktail hour were left out where the flies were landing all over them (although they looked good otherwise), Sad to see some parts of the reception space not enjoyed by majority of guests (eg. memory tables, hay bales with blankets and pillows — none of this was really enjoyed except by like 3 or 4 guests).

Oh and another wedding I went to when I was a teenager with my dad and brother. The groom and bride kissed for about 10 minutes during the ceremony…… when I tell you the audience was so confused, we were CONFUSED. The bride and groom weren’t even moving, they were just standing there like statues 🤣 it was like we were frozen in time. Then there were no tables for dinner, so everyone was standing around with these small plates of food but we were all so hungry. And there was a huge pool in the middle of the reception space, so we were constantly trying not to fall into the fall. AND just to top it all off…. When we went to leave the wedding, my dad’s truck had been completely egged with raw eggs, Dog crap and spaghetti (mind you we were just parked in a residential area??) It was seriously one of the strangest nights of my life.

Ok, maybe I'm alone in LOVING a wedding. Even the dreadful ones are at least interesting - the people watching! The outfits! Plus, at the heart of each wedding is a couple who presumably love each other enough to spend all this money and stand up in front of their friends and family. So even when they're trash I enjoy every minute.

But from the last few I went to...

What I loved

the food! I've been to some great weddings with really delicious food. Seeing how overjoyed the couple were, and how happy their immediate family were. Some heartfelt speeches that weren't too long. Also, some wholly inappropriate speeches that I very much enjoyed talking about afterwards (for eg, one was the father of the bride who said he thought the groom would never ask her to marry him, and what took so long etc, which was SO uncomfortable).

What I wasn't keen on

One of them was over 40C (104F) and just... unbearably hot. The mics didn't work properly and the groom and best man each spoke for way too long (almost 20 minutes' each which doesn't sound long but is actually an eternity). The aircon also didn't work. The waiters kept saying they'd bring more water and more beverages but never did so we had to repeatedly go up to the bar. I know the bride and groom paid for the premier alcohol package but I don't think they got it - there were supposed to be 2 choices each of the red, white and sparkling wine, for example, and I was never offered more than 1. At another wedding, the ceremony was at 3, cocktail 'hour' started directly after the ceremony at 3:30, but they didn't provide any food until about 5pm, yet kept circulating and topping up glasses, so everyone was well-drunk by the time they served cheese platters and other self-serve nibbles. Add to that, the older family members flocked around the serving platter and never moved, and of course no one wanted to shove them out of the way, so lots of people didn't really get the opportunity to eat prior to dinner at all. Also they had a bus to collect people from their hotels since the wedding was kind of in the middle of nowhere, and the driver left some people behind by accident, missed the turn off for the venue and had to turn around, and then drove down a very narrow road and hit a bush, LOL

The best weddings are the ones where everyone felt comfortable to throw off their shoes and dance with friends, family, and people you just met. Plenty of room on the dance floor, great music, and alcohol.


Things that I remember dislikingne wedding was in an beautiful old house, but the ceremony was in a small room. There was not enough chairs or even standing room. So guests were standing outside trying to listen in. Then the reception tables were scattered throughout the house. It was interesting, but some rooms had 2 or 3 tiny tables and it just made it awkward.Another wedding was assigned seating for the ceremony and the reception (same space) and my child and I were assigned seats in the way back away from any of our many friends. Everyone sat in their seat from beginning of the ceremony until after dinner with no dancing or mingling. Just staring at strangers and no alcohol. It was terrible.

I kid you not, the last wedding reception I went to was supposed to start at 7pm, and did not start until 11pm!

Worst wedding
The food was blan and cold, the cake was frozen in the middle, the dj kept putting the microphone next to the speaker

Best parts of the wedding the dance floor was big and good music

My favorite weddings reflect the sweetness of the B&G's love for each other and were clearly hosted with the guests in mind -- they have great food & beverage, comfortable seating/temperatures/etc., a meaningful (but not overly long) ceremony, lots of close family & friends, great dancing, and a fun, relaxed atmosphere where the B&G are clearly having a wonderful time with their guests. Fortunately, we've been to many of those!

Things I have NOT liked (compilation from different weddings): 1) Clearly spent a TON of $$ on things that don't matter to guests (two different drone videographers, multiple cheesy "favors" that got left behind, etc.), but had a CASH bar for EVERYTHING except water, coffee or tea.... Even soda.... And, it was hot, so, yeah, that just seemed like really bad hosting. 2) So many guests were taking pictures & video that there were constantly people/equipment blocking views of everything (all the photographer's photos of the bride and her dad walking down the aisle were ruined by two women who STEPPED INTO THE AISLE IN FRONT OF HIM and took their own photos; the groom's entire family sat in the front row, each holding up a phone or i-pad -- every photo of the couple during the ceremony includes the whole row of them looking through their cameras...); following that experience daughter when full on UNPLUGGED for their ceremony. 3) A "choreographed" first dance that lasted the entire length of the original song (probably 4+ minutes?) and was so incredibly painful to watch it was at the far extreme of the cringe-worthy scale. Also, at that wedding the music was what the groom's younger brother played off an i-phone through a speaker.... It was bad so no one danced, despite the bride's continuous awkward pleas for a "rocking dance party!" 4) At a destination wedding where 85% of the guests traveled cross country, the "ceremony" lasted less than 5 minutes, and most of that was the "officiant" talking about herself and her career as a law professor -- which was how she knew the bride.... 5) Same destination wedding, which was "such a bargain" according to the B&G, but likely cost the 85% cross country guests cumulatively more that $75,000 in travel expenses.... 6) We have a lot of Midwest and east coast Catholic family, so "the gap" is a given; I understand, but it is definitely NOT guest-friendly. 7) But, the saddest wedding ever was definitely the most expensive/over-the-top that you can imagine. The bride's parents spent SO much on it that they were paying it off for years, but even worse was that the marriage lasted less than 7 months.... That couple had called off the engagement once in the past (mostly because the groom was a jerk and his family was WAY TOO controlling of him and his future). Unfortunately, he convinced the bride to get engaged a second time.... In the end, he and his family hadn't changed -- and they may have even gotten worse. Even though the situation was bad, the bride was committed to trying to make it work. Despite that, one day she woke up to the groom standing over her telling her he was leaving for the day, but that he no longer wanted to be married and she needed to be out of the house by the end of the day.... He never spoke directly to her again.... It took a LOT of therapy for her to try to make peace with that.... Lesson: when people show you who they are, believe them!

Good luck!

Favorite is whenever I see the bride and groom exchange tearful, but joyful tears as the bride walks down the isle. Always makes me cry too because you can tell just how much they love each other.

Least favorite are when speeches run too long, and then it's also when there are multiple people who want to say something. I understand that it's a beautiful day to be celebrating two people and there is just so much to say, but you start to loose the audience who want to start dancing the night away lol.

The last wedding I went to was clear and unclear. CLEAR: The wedding decorations where in the colors of the wedding (White, Yellow and Black) and placed nicely everywhere. The wedding took place in a backyard with lots of natural greenery. The Bride and Groom wore white and yellow. The food was awesome but the wedding cake was too small so not everyone got a slice. And you could see that the Bride and Groom are madly in love with each other but scared of what the future might hold for them as a new family of six. UNCLEAR: Most of the guest they had to invite wasn't to happy about them marring, they did what the could to try to shame them and make noise at their wedding. (That wasn't nice at all.)