Not So Great Weddings

Cash bar. (I've only actually seen one....) Or boxed wine, on display, for a self service bar

Gap between ceremony end and reception start AT THE SAME VENUE. Like what are people going to do?

Late couple. No,very late couple.

Late shuttles. No, very late shuttles. Like an hour late. As in everyone hammered because the venue started serving champagne late.

Giant bridal parties with no organization from a DOC or the venue.

Outside in too cold (under 60) or too hot (over 85) weather.

Drunk bridal parties

Warring parents

My cousin had an open bar for only an hour, but more than half of the guests didn't get to enjoy it because they did a receiving line which took over an hour and half to stand in line and get to see them, then after the open bar for an hour, they switched it to cash bar where a beer was $7!!

No wedding coordinator to cue the music...they started and stopped the song over and over...made the wedding seem choppy and unsophisticated

Too much waiting around, whether its waiting around at the cocktail hour getting hungry while the bridal party finishes photos, or waiting around to dance while you endure a million speeches, special dances, slideshows of photos, slow dinner service etc.

eta: words

Dry wedding and not enough appetizers.

Kids at a wedding who were throwing food under the table

Hors d'oeuvres that consisted of fried bar type food (mozzarella sticks, mushrooms, green beans)

Silk flowers as centerpieces (sorry, but they were really fake looking)

Asked to bring a vegetable tray to the reception (was a vow renewal, but still)

Having to take off work for a Friday wedding (glad they saved money at the cost of our vaca days)

Outside ceremony with logs for seats.

Open bar for dinner then switched to cash bar.

Too many speeches that were unnecessary.

The wedding was paid for by the brides family so her family got multiple special dances and the grooms family were never mentioned.

Bad food, bride and groom did everything before dinner (first dance, cake cutting, mom/son dad/daughter dances, more dancing)- we were starving before we even got to the bad food.

I hate when the pass around the microphone for everyone to toast. It's nice that you love them, we do too, but please stop talking.

Not enough food! I went to a wedding where I was seated at the last table to be called up for a buffet. By the time our table was called, there was hardly any food left! I was so hungry and getting very drunk (at least they had an open bar) but they did not have enough food for all of their guests. Also cash bars.

Oh my goodness, we went to a wedding where it was outside without microphones...at a zoo. The zoo was very pretty, but the ceremony space had a very loud little waterfall and was next to the howler monkey exhibit. The monkeys were hooting and hollering the whole time. And if there was a minute where the monkeys were not cheering the couple on, you couldn't hear anything the officiant, bride, or groom were saying over the water.

The same wedding had mini cheesecakes for dessert. Each personal sized cheesecake was a one inch cube. Not a very filling dessert.

I also attended two weddings where they had a bait and switch bar. They started out with a signature drink or a selection of signature drinks that were free. As soon as the signature drinks ran out, it became a cash bar for whatever you ordered, but there weren't any signs stating the bar policy so you knew what you would be charged for. It was very confusing.

One if this weddings also did a dollar dance. It went in for multiple songs and DH and I were extremely bored since we refused to participate. We were waiting and waiting and waiting for the dance floor to open back up.

At the other cash bar wedding with signature drinks, three things happened. Prior to sending out STDs, the bride approached me and asked if I would mind if I was invited without DH (at the time we were dating and had been together for over a year) because she had a budget and could only invite so many people. The kicker is that she was a mutual friend of both of ours and she had actually known DH longer. I didn't really feel like I could tell her no, you have to invite both if us, but I also didn't feel like I could just say yes. I told her I'd have to check to see how DH felt about that before I could say. At the time, he just said whatever and that I should just go along with it and plan to go without him. As this wedding got closer, though, we both had some major shade about it. I spent the entire reception being asked where DH was or why he didn't come with me. It was awkward and humiliating. I also noted several couples around who were not married and had not actually been together as long as DH and I had. So that was one. Two, they messed up their seating chart, resulting in extra people trying to sit at my table and the table didn't have enough seats for everyone, so people were taking turns standing up. The issue was the bride and groom intended for the spouses and children of two of the BMs to sit at the head table with their wives, but they didn't put the head table on the seating chart. The husbands thought they had been left off the seating chart and needed to pick a table to sit at, so they picked the table filled with people from their friend group. Eventually, someone figured out there was an issue and let then know they were supposed to sit with their wives. Third, the RB got lost. The wedding was outdoors on a farm that held events, and during the reception the only area that was lit up was the area we were expected to stay in. The reception was stopped so every guest could go out in the surrounding fields to search for the RB by cell phone flashlight. He had really gone to the bathroom without telling anybody (I can't blame him for that, because he had gotten in trouble earlier during the reception for dropping his pants and peeing in the grass. He was showing a lot of progress by actually going to the bathroom). But, this highlighted how important it is to make sure you're in a space with real borders when you have kids present at your wedding.

I've also been to weddings where the couple didn't hire a lot of professional vendors and then relied on guests to help pull it off. Like, I got stuck in the kitchen pouring glasses of sparkling cider and missed almost all of their cake and punch reception or got ambushed by the DJ into going around to dismiss tables to the buffet line for him.

This is all from the same wedding.

The pastor's sermon consisted majorly of the consequences of sin and the glory of coming to Jesus, along with, imo, dated opinions on how the husband and wife dynamic should work. It was pretty awkward to sit through. Certainly became the talk of my friend group afterwards.

It was on the Friday after Christmas. They invited something like 200 people. About 50 people came.

It was a dry wedding.

Their music came from either their lovely relative who played piano (which was alright) or their iPod which they hooked up to a cheap bluetooth speaker.

They had cupcakes, which could be alright, but they were dry as chalk.

Their meal options were pasta with meaty tomato sauce or pasta with just tomato sauce. That was it.

The bride and groom left almost an hour into the reception. So did everyone else.

I wasn't a guest at this one, I was a bridesmaid, but -

The bride's mother arrived at the hotel where we were getting ready with a giant JoAnn fabrics bag and announced that since I 'was crafty' they needed me to make 2 flower girl dresses. I felt guilty saying no so, in the tiny, tiny hotel room packed with 5 stylists, 9 bridesmaids, a screaming toddler, and a very diligent photographer I made 2 flower girl dresses out of just hot glue and tulle. At which point rather than thanking me, the bride chewed me out for not having my hair done in time for a group photo of us oooh-ing and ahh-ing as she opened a gift from her husband.

Other than that, cash bar, dollar dance, poorly stocked buffet, reception started 2.5 hours late as the bride and groom just vanished in the middle of photos. I could go on but... you get the picture.

Ugh... 4 years later we still remember FH's cousin's wedding where they didn't have a seating chart, we got lucky, because FH's mom was wheelchair bound we had to leave the ceremony early to get a parking spot near the reception entrance and that's why we got a table but it was uncomfortable seeing so many people standing on the side while we were eating dinner already

Then, at another wedding almost 2 years ago, they didn't have enough food, and a woman pushed FH out of the buffet line because she wanted to be sure she got SOME of the food

The ceremony was like an hour long. It felt like it went on forever.

It was awful.

Dollar dances, non-air conditioned church is August, no seating assignments at all.

No organization at 2 weddings. Atleast hire a DOC. Speak up on what you want. Both weddings had photographer issues. 1 Photographer kept the B&G gone for almost 2 hours and the other had little direction and kept going MIA.

Make sure there's extra seating (my best friends wedding ran out of seating for 200+ ppl, her MIL was taking care of seating)

Make sure the food is edible lol rehearsal for a country wedding had steak and potatoes..... we couldn't cut the steak! Thank god for country men because they broke out army knives so we all could eat lol

It was a potluck reception with no alcohol and no microphones and no ac on a day that was 99 degrees. Bride was a new mother and her mother in law planned most of the wedding. The couple is divorced now.

Ranch themed wedding, I guess we were supposed to wear "ranch attire" but I had no idea/even if I did I have no idea what that is- so I looked like an asshole in a cocktail dress. Date & I didn't know anyone (he was told he could bring me at the last minute because "no one can come", and he was highly aware that he was b list). No seating charts so we just sat alone at the end of a picnic table. BBQ buffet with no vegetarian options. Cracking and screeching mic during ceremony. Cowboy "actors". Um...and we had to park at the bottom of a mountain and ride to the site in a rickety ass bus.

Ps- they're divorced now