Wedding Horror Stories - What's the worst thing you experienced as a guest at a wedding?

Wow, these are really bad, I am glad I don't have any of those type of stories. At one wedding. my sister and I found the groom's brother and father trying to take cards out of the reception venue under their shirts; they were wearing t shirts and blue jeans to a semi formal wedding! I went to the bride and groom (my cousin and her husband) to tell them and the father and brother were NOT asked to collect the cards nor did they have permission to touch the cards. My cousin had my uncle lock all the cards and gifts in his car for safe keeping.

Aside from that, the only other issues have been the amount of time waiting due to late brides or traffic between the ceremony and reception venue.

@Aronna: OMG now THAT is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard...to plate a meal then not eat it to save money for the B&G? I mean everyone knows once the food is "out" and given to someone else they cannot turn around and NOT charge someone for it. I think there are even laws that prevent plated food from being boxed up and given to charity because that means that another person could have contaminated it.

Wow- these are awful! The only really bad experience I've had was at a wedding that was on the HOTTEST August day. It was outdoors and the bride was late, so we were all sitting in the sweltering 100-degree heat for what seemed like forever! The guys in front of us were sweating so bad, their shirts were totally soaked through and it started to smell like B.O. The reception was fun, though!

Bride and groom had a cash bar, which NO ONE would have considered this particular couple to commit this faux pas, and as guests were going up to the bar and being charged, they were visually pissed, and almost all the guests went back to the gift table, took out whatever monies were in the cards for the couple to pay for drinks. The bride found out after almost all the cards were taken back, and was screaming at the top of her lungs at her mother for not stopping people.

They sent someone to remove whatever gifts/cards were actually left and take them to the couples room. It was quite the scene, and almost everyone left immediately after dinner.

Uggh so tacky to have a cash bar. But so much tackier to take back a card!

I went to a wedding once where the ceremony and reception were in the same room, but the couple hadn't lined anyone up to take care of the flow of events, room getting turned over/etc. Me and a girl who attended church there ended up running the show. I even had to take home the trash afterwards...

I was a BM in what is forever known in my circle as the Starvation Wedding. I missed the cocktail hour due to photos, but apparently all they had served was a bit of cheese, which was gone in five minutes.

There were all three dances, in a row, which we had to stand and watch. Then, we got to go to our tables, and I found out that I was seated in Siberia (even though I was a BM). Then there were long, meandering, awkward speeches. Then a blessing. Then, just as I thought we could eat, we had to sit through an epic slideshow. But wait, there's more...I was the last table called to the buffet (yes, even though I was in the freaking wedding). By then everything was cold and the caterers were out of almost everything. Simply terrible. It was almost 10:00 before I got to eat anything and I was super hangry.

Though I also have choice words for the couple who had a receiving line, obligating us all to stand on a hill, in the hot sun, in fancy shoes, with no water or shade, for 45 minutes. Ugh. Receiving lines are THE WORST. If I'm going to stand in line for that long, Space Mountain better be at the end.

I feel bad even saying this but we waited 4 hours in a room with a broken air conditioner to be served dinner. I got a "vegan meal" that my friend has since given me crap about because I'm having an all vegan reception. She says because she accommodated me, I should serve her meat. ... My vegan "meal... 6 slices of charred grilled zucchini. We left early and got take out on the way home.

MOB caused the wedding to start 45 minutes late (long story there).

I got through the ceremony and then the transformer out on the electric pole exploded and the hall lost power. We were all sent to the basement for cocktails while the wedding party got photos taken and caterer set up reception. Basement means no windows and remember, we had no power. I was the only one with a flashlight. People were using cameras & cell phones to light the room. I think there was 1 candle in the whole building. Venue mgr. called power company and said they MUST get there quickly. Within 20 minutes a truck was there, within another 20 the power was back on.

Wow, some of these weddings sound like nightmares!!

My worst experience was an outdoor wedding in the middle of July at 1pm in 100 degree heat, with very intense sun. There was no tenting or any shade at all, nor were there any pre-ceremony beverages. We were not “allowed” to go indoors into the reception hall to wait since the venue staff was setting up for the reception (the doors were locked). I was shocked that they were doing an outdoor wedding in such heat.

The worst part was that the invitation time was listed 30 minutes earlier than the ACTUAL ceremony start time. So, those of us that arrived 15 minutes early had to wait 45 minutes for the ceremony to start. By the time all of the unity things, readings, and sand ceremonies were done, the ceremony was almost an hour. So, it was a total of 1 hr and 45 mins in the blazing heat.

I thought I was going to die. I had a terrible sun burn on my face and an awful headache when it was over. I think I had sun stroke and dehydration as well. I just wanted to go home and sleep, I felt so sick. The reception was not for another 30 minutes after that, so we just left and skipped it. I couldn’t do. I felt badly, but I just couldn’t stay. It was awful!

I went to the wedding of a family friend I grew up with - she and I had been good friends when we were younger but grew apart.

The ceremony began more than a half hour late because she wasn't ready, she had a bridesmaid in tears right before they were supposed to walk down the aisle, and then when she finally got to the altar she looked like she'd rather be anywhere but her there! She read her vows in monotone and barely looked at her groom (I tried to chalk it up to nerves but...knowing this woman my entire life, I knew that wasn't it!)

At the reception, her husband came to the tables alone to thank everyone for coming while she spent most of her time at the bar. She got embarrassingly drunk and tried to lay on a table. When we left, she was crying about something. It was awful.

GrayCatVintage: that's what I thought too. I thought they were joking when they got mad telling me that since I ate it, now they had to pay for it.

legal or not, I saw the food being packaged up and when I asked what was becoming of it I was told it was being taken to charity.

maybe they didn't actual do that, but that's what was said.

I asked the bride and groom later about the whole thing and they told me they were charged a fee for the staff having to package up and deal with leftovers. hopefully that's not done often now, but during that time it was, at least in the area the wedding was at during that time.

After reading all these stories about power outages I think I'm going to make sure there are extra candles at my wedding!

A college friend agreed to write her own vows. She ended up DIY the whole wedding and wouldn't let anyone help, so she stayed up until 5 am the morning of her wedding. When it came time for the vows she started with, "I probably should have gotten around to writing these..." and just began babbling. Felt bad for her hubby, as his vows were beautiful.

Funny guest story: A roommate's car wasn't working and she borrowed my bike to go 5 miles in November (in Minnesota) a la dress, heals and present in tow. Ended up 30 minutes late, couldn't enter because the ceremony had started, and called a relative to drive her home because she thought she was getting frostbite. Couple didn't even know she was there.

Again like I said, I have been to more weddings were "stuff happened" than not...lol

One of my friends got married at a pond of one of her parent's friends...which is fine. BUT, this pond was full of bullfrogs. They had no PA system for the preacher, so he was having to yell over the obnoxious noise of these frogs...not to mention they sounded like someone was "breaking wind" half the time and the groomsmen started laughing and couldn't stop. It was hilarious...but their ceremony was almost an hour long because the preacher had to stop and repeat half of what he said. The MoB was shooting death stares at the guys who were snickering but that only got the guests laughing too...I felt bad for the bride lol.

I recently got married, we had a friend who is ordained, marry us. I poured my heart and soul into planning a wedding for 8 months. I had very little help from anyone, including my husband since he works very long hours. The day ended up being absolutely gorgeous, sunny and 80 degrees in Ohio… It was beautiful, especially after it rained for 22 straight days over the summer. We had a non traditional ceremony.. One I had worked on with some input from my husband, and with our officiant. Everything looked like it was going to be perfect. So the ceremony began… It came time for him to say his vows he had written. Mind you, he didn’t want to share those with me previous to the day so I had no idea what to expect. His were 3 lines long and it took him less then 30 seconds to say…. I was minorly devastated. Mine were an entire page and deeply heart felt. I had let him read my rough draft, and had insisted that my vows would be longer then a few lines. Hoping he would get the jist of what writing your own vows would entail. He obviously didn’t get it. Now… What he did say was very sweet, don’t get me wrong. No big deal really. The next part that went wrong for us, really has me upset and I am trying to work through it. We never said "I do". The beautiful ceremony we had come up with was so different from the traditional, though the I do’s were in our officiants rough draft, they did not end up in the ceremony. She never asked for the expression of intent. I realized it that night, but we were sure we had to of said it! After all that’s the one thing you HAVE to say. I didn’t get upset until we got our video back and realized… We never said it. I seriously cried for quite some time after my husband went to bed. There are other things I could nit pick about our wedding, like the fact that one of his groomsmen was drunk before the ceremony ever began, and wore his sunglasses around the front of his neck while walking down the aisle, and during the entire ceremony. But the fact that we didn’t get to say “I do”… I feel so bad about the whole day for some reason. Like the whole point of us being there was taken away. I feel like I want to go to the courthouse Just to be able to say I do so I don’t feel so bad. But.. What do you do? Legally all the paperwork has been filed, and no one is going to go to the court and say that we didn’t say I do… We are married. Not only that, I was super excited about our guestbook, (I mean I dedicated an entire table to it!) I had lots of fun pens and stickers to use in it... Went totally missing! The catering manager at our venue swears everything was packed up and picked up later or was taken that night. And my husbands parents who took all the decor to their house and should have it, swear up and down it's gone. Even though I have the box it came in, and ever thing else that was on that table. Not only that, they will not allow me to look through the boxes and totes they have for some reason. I did get most of my decor back, but not the guestbook. I shouldn't have left it for someone else to take care of. My best advice to someone getting married, make sure the little important things are in place before you get too wrapped up in all the rest of the details.