Worst wedding experiences?

I don't like when entrees don't get served until 10pm, even with a heavy cocktail hour. I also don't love when the music is so loud you have to scream to be heard (this seems to be more of an issue with bands as opposed to DJs).

View Quoted Comment I've never been to a reception where entrees were served that late. That's crazy! I definitely agree with the music being too loud.

1) went to a wedding that said started at 6p but food didn't get served til 8p. There were appetizers floating around but they were very light (like fruit skewers)


2) that same wedding had a four hour gap in between the ceremony and reception. I hate gaps that long.

View Quoted Comment A 4 hour gap? That's way too long! I'm glad we're having our wedding and then everyone will go to the reception downstairs right after.

1. Vegan food and vegan cake with no alcohol
2. pouring down rain
3. Beach wedding with gnats biting everyone and kids crying 4. Ceremony delayed an hour and a half so the bride could get her make up redone

A recent wedding I went to was a little overall bizarre. Grandparents where late to the ceremony so it got delayed 40 minutes (original start time was 5:30pm), then after ceremony photos of the wedding party went long about 20 minutes, so by the time the bride and groom where in the tent, they already started sending guests up to the buffet. During the cocktail hour, everyone sat where they wanted because there were no cocktail tables and no name cards. Was a bit awkward when the bride and groom had to ask a table to move because it was going to be the "wedding party table" which was something that probably should've been put as a sign on the table. To make it all more strange, 90% of the music they played were songs from the groom's band (really neat but it's not music you can dance to). Super sweet couple, it's just the time management was really bad. The wedding was supposed to run from 5:30-10pm but ended up being from 6:30-10pm so there was really not much time for socializing or congratulating the bride and groom.

My absolute least favorite wedding ever was a family member's who wanted to spend as little money as possible and had pretty much demanded to have the wedding at another family member's house despite it not being a good venue. All close family (including me) were voluntold to provide free labor all weekend.

Sure, we could have said no somewhere along the way, but there are lots of reasons why that wasn't feasible (to be honest, I did say no several times but was overridden). It was exhausting and stressful and I still have a negative reaction when the wedding is mentioned, despite how much I love the family member.

Please let your loved ones be guests, not laborers!

A long break between the ceremony and reception is always a pet peeve of mine.


Music too loud during dinner/reception
Kids crying throughout the entire ceremony.

This is such a silly rant of mine, but the last wedding H and I attended, they didnt play a single slow song for us to dance to until almost 9:30/10pm.

All different weddings...
1) Bride was over an hour late—awkward
2) Cash bar 3) head table (no SOs allowed) when I was a BM. My BF was mad at me all night.

Biggest thing I hate is being stuck at tables with people I don't know. It's uncomfortable. I also hated being stuck at the "singles" table, also uncomfortable.

I went to a late November wedding that was in a non-heated boat house/shed on the water (it was in the 40s outside... and inside). The buffet food was lukewarm and the bar was self serve. Beer was in a cooler and the wine was box wine. The 2 person band for the reception was less than enjoyable. The singer fell off her stool at one point... maybe too much boxed wine??
This wedding hit pretty much all of my wedding pet peeves lol... cold, bad food, self serve bar, and bar music.

1) Back in my home country when I was around 12, at my half brother's (father's side) wedding when he called main family to toast and take family pictures (I think it was around the cake or some) he didn't called me nor my other siblings, buy he called his brother (my other half brother) and my aunt and family, (who he lived with for a long time). Even though I didn't really grow up with him it hurt a lot.


2) At a friend's wedding, when we were arrived they were still setting up.
3) another wedding that the ceremony was on the beach it rained so bad. Same wedding had 'live' fish on the centerpieces, they didn't last long. Some of them were already dead when we sat down.

I went to a wedding once with new boyfriend, on the other side of the country, so I knew no one and was in no place to complain. Anyways, it must’ve been 20* out, and the ceremony was outside. Took forever to get started, it was long, we must’ve been out there for an hour! I was near tears, it was so cold!! Her bridesmaids were troopers though, no jackets, just sucked it up!
Once we got inside the venue was amazing and the wedding was great. Oh and there was tons of space to move the ceremony inside 🤦🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️
Don’t let your guests freeze!!!

I have to say, I have never had a good time at super large weddings. They always feel chaotic and impersonal. It reminds me of cattle being herded from one area to another. Especially when dinner is buffet style, which most large weddings are. I can’t help but think of cows lining up for the feeding trough LOL

I’ve been to weddings where dancing starts super late, like 9 or 10pm. That really irritates me because I love to dance but by then I’m just too tired!

There have been SO many unfortunately.

One wedding (a family one of course) they invited my kids to the reception but not the ceremony. This wedding was not local for us so we had to fly 2 hours from home, drive another 2 hours to the campground (it was on a YMCA style overnight camp) and then stay in a hotel 30 minutes away from the campground unless we wanted to stay in the unheated cabins. It was a fall wedding in the Northeast so the unheated cabin was NOT appealing to parents or FH and myself. Since the kids were allowed to come to the reception but not the ceremony (they were 8 and 10 at this point and totally capable of being quiet and still but whatever) and the hotel was so far from the wedding campground my kids had to sit in a cottage watching tv during the ceremony. It wasn't a huge deal aside from somewhat awkward and uncomfortable for the kids as they were like...but we won't say/do anything...and during the ceremony there were rowdy adults on boats near the location anyway so it was disturbed by them. Cocktail hour was fine, only one station of food so that made it a little hectic. Dinner was wood fired pizza and that was it. Along with my mother, a cousin, my daughter and several other guest's they had to later order food as several had food allergies ranging from gluten intolerance to dairy intolerance and vegan. Reception was in a smaller building up a hill and it was fun but we never felt welcomed by the couple, there were only 70 people at this wedding and the Bride (who came face to face with us several times over the weekend) never once said Hi or Thank you for coming or anything. Keep in mind we were there all weekend as it was advertised as a fun family get together so we had the welcome party, rehearsal dinner, wedding day and day after brunch so it wasn't like they didn't have the opportunity to see everyone over 3 days. It was just an overall bad time.

We went to another wedding where the food portions were so small that people were ordering in Uber Eats to the reception and eating it out in the lobby of the club house. Then they cut the cake in a different location and only had enough cake for the wedding party, no other dessert option for guests. I'm not a big eater and I was starving, poor FH was dying and we grabbed Taco Bell on our way home.

Yet another wedding, they had several food stations set up but limited seating available. You literally ate your food off your plate standing in line for another station. FH was not pleased his grandparents (80's) had to search for somewhere to sit and kept bringing them food from the stations so they wouldn't have to stand in line and eat standing up.

There are more but I don't want to sound like the worst wedding guest ever or the most judgmental, however, all these bad experiences have helped FH and myself in our wedding planning. We are having a few food stations at cocktail hour, 2 bars open during cocktail and reception, large portions for dinner, dessert for everyone and a late night snack. We will also be sure to say hello and thank you at least once to every couple during our wedding weekend. It might not happen on wedding day but it will for sure the day before during events (rehearsal dinner/welcome party/day after brunch). I'm not saying our wedding will be perfect but we will at least correct the things we have experienced in the past.

View Quoted Comment Vegan food is okay, no alcohol can be okay. But the two together? Oh no!

View Quoted Comment Sounds disorganized. I'm all for seating charts.

View Quoted Comment That's not silly at all! Unless I'm drunk, I'm most comfortable dancing to slow songs. And I know at my wedding, I want to dance to love songs with my hubs a ton.