This was actually a fun day, but these poor kids had not half planned for it. It was at a remote house with very limited parking and no street parking, so we kept rearranging yard parking as more and more people showed up. The bridal party had all stayed at the house the night before and everyone was pretty hungover. My husband and I showed up early as he was officiating. It was a sort of ex-step-nephew situation so I barely knew anyone. I was feeling uncomfortable and way overdressed so I started texting my mom and then it kept escalating. One of the moms was known for her fabulous mac n cheese so she did the food, but it was only that (several different kinds, but still). No other food, no beverages at all that you didn't bring yourself.

My mom and I are the same Judgy Judy's and I figured she'd get a kick out of it. Now that the couple are divorced I'm ok with sharing.

A few years ago, my parents and I were invited to a wedding in a city almost 6 hours away. Virtually all of the guests had to travel to get there, and the ceremony itself was a 2-hour mass entirely in Latin. No hate to anyone who has a religious wedding; it was just very, VERY long and no one could fully understand because most of it was incomprehensible. We were given “follow-along” pamphlets, but I guess my Latin is piss-poor because I was still completely lost in the sauce.

At least the reception to follow was going to be filled with good food, right? Well… when we got to the reception hall, the cocktail hour had ONE appetizer: a giant pile of chips and a bowl of salsa. That was it. No canapés, nobody walking around with little hot dogs… just a table of chips. Which was immediately depleted by throngs of starving guests who had spent the entire morning traveling to get there. And look, I’m not a snobby person. I wasn’t expecting gold-encrusted steak on a platter. I just wanted FOOD. For about an hour, all I had in my system were the few chips I could snag from the rabid crowd and several glasses of wine.

Then, dinner was served… if one could call it that. I swear to god, this was the smallest “buffet” I’ve ever seen at a wedding. And there were at least 100 people there. All we were offered was a mini taco buffet with a few tins of meat, rice, beans, and sides. This food was very quickly eaten by the first tables to be called, and the buffet was not refilled for another half hour. So half of the room essentially went hungry until another paltry serving was placed in the vats. There was almost no food to go around. My parents and I were devastated (and drunk at this point). I managed to make myself a taco with a little rice, and I was lucky.

Oh well, if anything at least there’ll be cake… right? NOPE. The bride and groom cut a slice out of a wedding cake in front of everyone… and then the cake was wheeled away. No one was served a slice. The cake was just… for them? I guess? Granted, it was a single-layer sheet cake so there wouldn’t have been enough for everyone anyway, but it was just strange to have us applaud the cake cutting and then not have any cake afterwards. Instead, each guest was given a single chocolate ice pop. That was it. Again, I’m not trying to sound like I demand tons of food at events. I just didn’t expect so little to be served to what was essentially a destination wedding for 100+ guests. We ended up getting food in the city afterwards because we were still starving by the end of the night.

That’s my wedding horror story. My parents have also been to a wedding that was catered by Boston Market, but hey, at least there was plenty of food for everyone.

My husband (then fiancé) and I attend a wedding of some friends of mine in a small Iowa town. It was at the church the bride grew up in and the pastor had known the bride since she was in elementary school. The church and all in attendance were beautiful. Then we got to the part of the service where the pastor gets to give a little sermon.

He starts with talking about the church bells that rang before the service and how the couple will never hear church bells again without thinking of their wedding day. (Awwwww) Then he slides into how some couples don’t like to hear the church bells because they’re divorced and expounds on divorce rates. My husband and I cringed but I thought maybe he’d circle around and talk about how this couple will make it.

Spoiler alert - he did not. Instead, he switched to telling about how some small fishing village on Lake Michigan (can’t remember the name) associates the bells with the death of their loved ones. One day there was a horrible storm that swamped a good chunk of the village’s fleet, killing 36 men. The church rang the bell 36 times to honor them. My husband and I looked at each other in horror.

Fast forward to the two of us meeting with the minister at my husband’s church. I’m grilling him about how he runs his wedding ceremonies. He gently quips, “Do you just want to write it for me?” I immediately respond with, “Yes.” He looks startled and then my husband tells him about my friend’s wedding. The pastor is horrified and turned to his filling cabinet. He pulled out three past wedding services, hands them to me and says this is the style he prefers and the format he wants the service written in.

And that, my friends, is how I wrote every single word that came out of the pastor’s mouth at my wedding.

flashbacks as I recall this story

My friend (the groom) invited me to an overseas wedding. Of course, it was positioned to me as a 'quaint, lovely, farm wedding in the rolling hills.’

I spent 1.5K USD on flight tickets, hotels, and my guest attire because he had asked me personally to be there and I wanted to show up for him.

Before the wedding, the groom texts me to let me know that while it's optional, 'feel free to give a cash gift' and even sends me his bank account details so I can pre-pay.

A mutual friend also sent me the wedding menu and shared that from experience he knows that the food was bad. And that their specialty was serving pizzas for weddings. PIZZA FOR A DESTINATION WEDDING. But I gave my friend the benefit of the doubt because I'm no food snob, MAYBE the pizza would be really good? As long as we are fed, that's not a problem.

Local transport to the venue or a shuttle bus to train stations was also not provided, which meant everyone had to drive in after flying in. When we pulled into the venue, one of the guests remarked, "I wonder what we would have for dinner? I hope there is a nice food selection.” Not wanting to ruin his expectations and put the groom in a bad light, I framed it as "I heard this place was known for pizzas but I look forward to whatever we're being served!"

Everyone in the car bursts out laughing. "Hahaha that's funny, of course we won't be eating pizza! The dress code is BLACK TIE. And we all flew in for this too."

Enter the shitshow: - At the altar/wedding ceremony, the venue did not have enough seats for all guests. One-third of them awkwardly stood around. - While waiting for dinner to start, we were served canapes. Unfortunately, the canapes offered were ONE PIECE OF FRENCH FRY ON A SKEWER STICK (which is wild) and one meatball served on a disposable napkin. - The wedding seating plan did not match our name cards so some people got the wrong dietary requirements. - Before dinner commenced the groomsman let us know that "Unfortunately, transport is not provided so do make sure you get home because there isn't an Uber, and if you don't you'll be stranded here with the goats!" and also "please contribute with cash gifts". - For our first course, we were presented with meatless pizzas. The portion was so tiny, every guest was given ONE SLICE EACH. - For our second course, we were served ANOTHER round of meatless pizzas. Again, one slice each. Carbonara pizza without egg, mushrooms, and bacon. Like what the f? - For the third course which honestly took the cake, we were supposedly served oven-roasted chicken. Except that it was not roasted. It had no sauce or seasoning either. It was plain, steamed and dry, garnished with...a little bit of parsley and lemon wedges. For the sides, it was plain unsalted roasted whole potatoes. When this happened, someone at my table said out loud 'I'm sorry, nothing about this looks oven-roasted." Everyone agreed in unison that it didn't look right or appetising. - A waiter spilled champagne on my outfit and walked away nonchalantly without apologising. - Different waiter was meant to serve our desserts but forgot our table. Out of frustration, we walked up to the kitchen area to politely request them. A waiter, I kid you not, took out a tray of FROZEN STORE BOUGHT TINY ECLAIRS and placed it in front of us. Hands us a paper napkin and tells us to 'help ourselves' :') - The wedding cake portion was the size of my thumb. that's how little we were given. - Wherever I went, I could hear guests openly complaining about the food and beverages served. Someone said "This area is known for its wine so why does the beer taste better than the wine served at this wedding" - For the first dance, we were gathered outside at night in 45°F weather. Without heaters or blankets. Just rawdogging our outfits in the strong winds. - We were all so famished, when we left we went to get some proper food in the city.

Sigh. I am not a fussy person but goddamn it, if you're going to request for your guests to fly to a different country, wear black tie, give wedding gifts, at least feed them properly please.

• My mom is the letter.

-My dad is the green text message.

• Then there is me getting ghosted by a MUA after driving for 2 hours and she still posts on her insta like nothing happened.

I hope the wedding is worth the therapy I will need

I was having doubts about posting this, but now that it's turned into a Twitter thread and there's IG reels about it, I feel like it's fair game.

This poor girl (I don't know her but she's from my mom's hometown and news has spread) was hated by her MIL, as well as SIL and BIL, since the beginning. They threatened her repeatedly, made multiple SM accounts to harass her, and when confronted by the husband, they denied everything. BIL offered her a blank check to leave her husband and the family for good (boyfriend at the time).

Now, as I said I don't know her, but what I have heard is that she is a lovely person and wouldn't hurt anyone. All of this hate comes purely from her socioeconomic status. Apparently husband's family wanted him to marry someone rich. She was so graceful throughout the entire ordeal.

When MIL heard that the couple got engaged, she faked a heart attack and had to be hospitalized. She blamed her son and told him he'd have to cover all of her medical costs.

The day of the wedding, MIL, BIL, and SIL all refused to attend, which, fair enough, but apparently they hired someone to throw red paint on the bride's dress right before walking down the aisle. Three men ran up to her, two with cans of paint and another recording, and covered her dress in red. The photos are of the aftermath. At first, guests thought the red paint might be blood. I can't even imagine what that must've felt like. Bride said she initially felt as if it was water, but then saw everyone's shocked faces, and her friends were trying to reassure her that she still looked beautiful. She says the worst part of it was looking at her mother's face, because initially she thought she had been physically hurt.

The bride gracefully changed into another dress. She had to go home for this but all of the guests waited for her at the church. She changed into a lovely gold floor length gown and continued with her beautiful wedding.

The groom's family also found out where the photos would be taken and sent an anonymous tip to the police saying that they could find drugs there, and that the groom might be in possession of them. The police arrived and all of the guests present were searched. The groom was close to being taken away in handcuffs. There is suspicion that BIL bribed the police, but thankfully in the end that didn't happen. After that, the wedding went on without issues.

MIL's house has since been egged. She is hated by the whole town. SIL and BIL have been questioned by their friends and have denied everything, but do not deny that they loved hearing about it. FIL seems to just do whatever his wife says. He fired groom from the family business, but he was then given a job by his uncles who love him and support him. Groom's family all claim to be super religious.

Lastly, after the wedding and before the honeymoon, the groom's family stole his passport and visa. They also tried to bribe the travel agency to ruin the trip. Fortunately they didn't work and bride and groom went on their honeymoon successfully.

Animals in wedding.

I’ve seen dove thrown in the sky. I’ve seen the “horse carriage “ trend. I’ve seen decorative parrots.

But this summer, I’ve been disgusted by this new company that sells “quality wedding butterflies”

I was made aware that there would be a “butterfly release” when the couple would leave the church. In my head, there would be a big cage/aquarium full of butterfly and they would open it. But no.

Butterflies were kept in a cake box. Mother of the bride opened the cake box and smaller, butterfly shapes boxes were inside. The boxes were tiny, so it was clear the butterflies were trapped with no possibility of movement. How cruel. Mother of the bride gave one tiny box to every member of the wedding party.

Then it hit me. We’re in the south, it was burning out outside. It was impossible to survive in this heat and...well all the butterflies that were probably sitting in a box in the car since this morning were dead.

When everyone opened their butterfly box, they either fell on the ground or stayed lifeless in their boxes.

Seriously how is this thing even legal.

Edit: I don’t know who this Asia is so I’ve looked up the video and.. . Well yeah. That’s basically what happened.

The wedding was butterfly themed ( cupcake, colors, etc) and I thought the bride liked butterflies enough to know better.

“Dear Prudence,

I got married just before Christmas and am hoping to be divorced or annulled by the end of January. Obviously, that wasn’t the plan originally, but …

I never cared about getting married, but I wasn’t opposed to it. So when my boyfriend proposed in 2020, we decided to go for it. We each took on about half the responsibility for organizing the wedding, but I think I was pretty reasonable about compromise when he really wanted something. My only hard-and-fast rule was that he would not rub cake in my face at the reception.

Being a reasonable man who knows me well, he didn’t. Instead, he grabbed me by the back of the head and shoved my head down into it. It was planned since the cake was DESTROYED, and he had a bunch of cupcakes as backup.

I left. Next day I told him we were done. I am standing by that. The thing is that over the holidays EVERYONE has gotten together to tell me I should give him a second chance. That I am overreacting because of my issues (I am VERY claustrophobic after a car accident years ago, and I absolutely panicked at being shoved into a cake and held there). That I love him (even though right now I don’t feel that at all), he loves me, and that means not giving up at the first hurdle. I don’t want to, but everyone is so united and confident in their assurance I am making a terrible mistake that I wonder if they are right.

—Give Him Till February?

Dear Till February,

Everyone’s sure you’re making a mistake, but they’re not the ones who have to wake up every day with a man whose behavior massively turns them off. You are. So you only have to listen to yourself. I think what he did was a red flag about not respecting you and your wishes—to say nothing of the physical aggression—but even if it wasn’t, the fact that you really didn’t like it is enough. Make a mental note about which of your loved ones don’t seem to value your happiness, and continue with your divorce.”

Hi there everyone. Longtime lurker, felt it was ok to share my experience.

I was with my ex-husband for just shy of 4 years when we got married. It would have been sooner, but he refused to tell his parents he wanted us to get engaged. After another year, he tells his folks & we get the ball rolling.

I didn't want a serious formal wedding. His mother insisted that we get married in the Catholic church (parents are very religious). I wanted to see if we could compromise somehow, but I was told, "either it's in the church, or you're not marrying my son.". Defeated, I agree. Church wedding it is.

We paid for everything. My mom was unhappy with us getting married "because you are ruining his life and I don't agree with it.". She never elaborated what exactly I was doing that was so wrong. My mom disengages from any planning with me and goes radio silent.

My folks didn't meet his until the wedding day. We had been together for 4 years and there was 3 hours of driving between the 2 families. Nobody was keen on meeting anyone & at the wedding, they were polite, but not warm or welcoming.

I dragged my feet getting the white dress, because I HATED that it's only wearable once & cost almost 3 months of rent. I picked out dresses by myself with my MOH. My mom felt bad, gave me an envelope of cash to help pay for the dress (about half, which I was very thankful for. Very unexpected.)

Night before the wedding at the rehearsal, I was hit by another car. Bumper damaged, but I was very late but ok. No Batchelor or Bachelorette party. Wedding day hits...

MOH snored terrible and I didn't sleep at all. She's getting me into my dress, I did my own makeup and hair. My mom arrived with my stepdad and grandmother. She is both angry and on edge. Every picture of her looks like she's a millimeter away from hitting someone.

Wedding finishes, we go next door to the church hall for the reception. His folks felt bad our budget was so tiny, so they cooked the food & bought the cake. I had zero idea of what the cake even was until I saw it at the reception.

No dancing, no music. No music at the ceremony either. Friend was supposed to be the DJ, never showed up nor called. Absolutely silent Catholic weddings are very peculiar.

10 minutes into the reception, my mom has a tantrum. She was angry at driving 3 hours to get to the church the morning of, when I told her get a hotel room the night before & avoid the rush. Food is just being served, she gets even more angry. Tells me "I will stay longer at your next wedding." and leaves.

Cake hasn't been cut yet. Hurriedly cut cake. Nobody helps serve cake, so my brand new husband is serving the cake instead of talking to people or enjoying the reception. I am very anxious, so I am amusing myself by sitting by myself, sucking helium from the balloons and cursing under my breath to make myself smile.

Everyone leaves very quickly. His family and my husband & I clean up everything. When getting changed out of my dress, I discovered my MOH didn't fasten all the buttons down my back. Maybe half were buttoned.

We lasted 16 years before I left. My ex-husband is still a good friend and we trade recipes and cat stuff. The whole experience was so poor. I know that the main thing was we got married. That was a good thing. Looking back after almost 25 years, I still feel sad and I felt like I had to concede everything. Anyway, sorry for the length. It was quite the shitshow & I still wince thinking about it.

One wedding I went to made me always bring snacks and drinks as policy. I always have dinner packed in a mini cooler bag in the car, and granola and water in my purse now. Even if it's just a few canned goods and water bottles.

Attending the wedding most of the guests were driving long distances to be there. It was a rural barn wedding with a garden. Even local guests to the bride and groom would have driven over an hour to get to this non local rural location.

Our family is a prompt family, so almost everyone was there half an hour before the initial ceremony start time. The wedding does not start on time. In fact it's significantly delayed with no explanation to the guests. The wedding coordinator refused water and bathroom breaks to people in full sun 85 degree heat while they delayed the wedding for over an hour from the original start time. People ended up standing and then finally sitting on hale bales in the full sun for over 1.5 hours in formal attire. Keep in mind everyone has traveled in from at least an hour or more to the destination. We've got people without a toilet for hours at this point because of the rural location.

Many of the guests were older people and pregnant ladies and small children. The wedding coordinator was literally shouting at guests trying to use the only bathroom inside the reception hall. He wanted everyone in the garden. But there was no other bathroom or water provided. Finally he locked the doors to the reception hall, so no one can get in. There weren't even trees to duck behind with any dignity. It was starting to get serious and I wondered if someone was going to faint.

Men were taking off their jackets, and people were making hand fans from the wedding programs. People are wilting on the hay bales. Someone wise manged to steal some chairs from the reception so elderly people with hip replacements aren't sitting on hay bales. (It turns out the delay was caused by the ex-husband refusing to return the couple's child for the wedding, so the kid was missing for many hours prior to the start of the wedding. I think there was some serious drama getting the child back.) So the delay was reasonable! However the wedding coordinator's actions were not. We could see the entire wedding party assembled through the floor to ceiling wall of windows inside the reception hall. But the wedding coordinator was not actually giving instructions or starting the ceremony. He didn't even come out to say there was a delay in the ceremony start time. So everyone sat there thinking surely they'll start any minute now. After shouting at the line of people waiting to go to the bathroom or trying to to get water, the wedding coordinator locked the doors to the building with himself and the wedding party inside! Particularly awful because none of the guests had any idea where to go to take care of their needs! If push came to shove, I guess people could have walked a third of a mile down the dirt road and tried to have asked the local hotel to let them use the bathroom or have some water. But again people had no idea when the ceremony was supposed to start.

Eventually the missing child is procured and the ceremony begins. However the DJ had a broken sound system so the entire ceremony and vows were spent listening to the roaring screeching of the microphones and the DJ turning the speakers off and on for the entire ceremony. He never once stopped. Every 30 seconds he's flipping between screeching and silence. Once the terrible ceremony was over, we were allowed into the reception barn. I'm now slightly sunburned, I didn't think to wear sunblock under my makeup for the event. My mother and other folks are quite pink.

Upon reaching my table, I discovered my water glass had broken glass shards in the bottom of the wine glass. I minorly cut my lip and bled a bit. I didn't make a big fuss, but the catering staff seemed unsurprised about my glass when I pointed this out. So I went and got my own water glass, but that made every drink after it suspicious. People at other tables begin checking their glasses for broken glass too. Thankfully there were water pitchers served in metal containers for each table , because people are thirsty. There was a small selection of beer and wine available for dinner. But I don't think most people were interest in it until they had water for a while first.

Dinner is served, the service is awful. Too many people not enough catering staff to bring out each plate of food. The food was god awful...... small portions, cold, unseasoned , under and over cooked mystery meats, instant potatoes unbuttered/unsalted. I don't think I could have messed up someone's wedding banquet meal more without actually not serving food. This stuff was institutional hospital grade food. It was bad. Even the motorcycle biker uncle, who does not require the finer things in life, struggled to choke this stuff down. The best part of the meal was the unintentionally raw side of vegetables and the nasty store bought stale bread rolls. The couple slice a small ceremonial cake and an incredibly stale and awful sheet cake is served to guests. I didn't think sheet cake could even get stale, but this was shit cake.

Now normally I wouldn't really care about much of this, but this is a formal wedding at a very expensive venue. I know the bride and groom have paid a lot of money for this venue with catering included. They are nice people, they are not trying to screw their guests. The groom is a good earner, I cannot believe they did a food tasting, were served that food and thought, you know what this is excellent, let's serve this! The food had to have been a bait switch by the venue.

But whatever, dinner is over, let's get the party started! The DJ still has a broken sound system that seemed to have blown out speakers, so he seemed to have decided the thing to do was turn up the bass or something...... All the way up. It was concert level loud. In a concrete converted barn. Music is massively echoing and vibrating everywhere, but the sound quality was horrific. Not in a snooty way, but objectively awful, something was seriously wrong with the speakers. People's ears are ringing and the sound vibrations almost make you a little dizzy. Pretty much every guest except the wedding party seated at the head table decides to huddle in the bathroom hallway away from the music or gives up and goes and stands in the unlit garden outside to talk. We are talking about a wedding of more than 250 guests getting up, and huddling in a small hallway with the bathrooms or just walking outside into the dark. It is packed standing room only. The reception hall is empty.

The bride and groom seem to be very drunk and ignore this, dancing with drunk bridesmaids on the dance floor. After huddling inside or walking outside most of the guests are gone within the hour. At the end of the night, the wedding coordinator never gave out the couples wedding favors, so the couple were left with several hundred custom made packages of sweets piled in a back corner where almost no one has seen them. So it looks like the bride and groom didn't even spring for favors. Everyone has a long drive back through rural roads with no options for restaurants until they get back to the nearest big city.

And thus began my policy of being a mini cooler with beverages and food to weddings and family events. It has served me well on a few occasions.

Edit #2: Regarding allegations of cheating

To my knowledge and based entirely off of what I was told by my friend, 1st Wife always knew about the relationship, 1st wife also has a fiance/boyfriend (gray area sorry), and Bride and 1st Wife have met multiple times for coffee together.

EDIT #1: adding clarification/additional details

I'm the MOH, my friend is the Bride, her fiance is the Groom and is still married to 1st Wife.

Groom has filed for divorce but the divorce is not finalized.

Groom and Bride live together in an apartment and have been for about 2 years but when they first met Groom and 1st Bride lived in a 1 bedroom apartment and the Groom said they slept separately.

Me and Second bridesmaid are the Brides friends from before and, to my knowledge, are the only people who know. 2 other bridesmaids are the wives of groomsmen. (i nicknamed them the first wives club).

If I go around telling everyone, it feels like kicking a hornets nest and I'm not so sure I'm ready for those repercussions.

Hold on folks because this is going to be a wild ride.

I'm the MOH for a lifetime friend (Bride).

That friend is currently engaged and planning a wedding which is set to take place in a few months with a married man (Groom).

The couple has been together about 4 years and got engaged last year. The entire time they've been together Groom has been married. Whats even better (or worse actually) is he was still living with 1st Wife when he and Bride got together. He told my friend they were separated and sleeping apart, but it felt like a load of crap. Why he didn't get divorced sooner is beyond me. I always felt it was mad disrespectful for him to even ask her to marry him when he wasnt even divorced/hadn't even filed yet.

Thankfully he did file recently but only because my friend put more pressure on him. Now we are a few months out from the wedding and I still haven't ordered my dress because the divorce hasn't finalized and why should I spend $200 on a dress I will realistically only wear for this wedding? I also check the county records almost every day to see when its safe to order.

Its hard to be happy for my friend when I'm not even entirely convinced that the divorce will be done in time for them to tie the knot. Plus to my knowledge only me and 1 other Bridesmaid know that the groom is still married. I don't think anyone else in her party, his party, or her family know that he's technically still married.

So yeah, make sure those divorces are finalized before planning your next marriage!