15 Beyond Tasteless Weddings Where Guests Weren't Sure Whether To Laugh Or Leave
We recently consulted members of the BuzzFeed Community and r/weddingshaming to find stories of the tackiest things guests have ever witnessed at weddings, and oooof, it's messy. Here's what people shared:
1."A couple of years ago, my family and I attended my nephew's wedding. It was a lovely ceremony and reception, but the narcissistic mother of the groom could not leave well enough alone. While the guests and wedding party were having dinner, she gave an effusive, boastful speech and followed it up by gazing deeply into her son's eyes as she told him he was always his deceased grandmother's favorite grandchild. The other grandchildren and great-grandchildren sat at a table a few feet away. I remember hearing a gasp, but to this day, I don't know if it was mine or another guest's."
—Anonymous
2."I come from a Chicago Italian family where weddings are very formal, regimented events. In college, I attended a mid-summer wedding in Iowa held in a church. Nice, formal wedding followed by a backyard reception with kegs of coolish beer and warm ham sandwiches. The members of the wedding party and all the guests changed into shorts, jeans, and T-shirts except for me. I didn't know about the costume change and wore a suit in 90-degree heat and 90% humidity while everyone got shit-faced and food poisoned from the rancid mayo in the potato salad, which I skipped when I saw flies on it. People were shitting behind the garage because there weren't enough toilets for all the sick people."
3."I was in my best friend's wedding. It was set in a large church on a late Saturday afternoon. Everything was going really well. All members of the wedding party were on time, everything was in its place looking good, and the church was fully packed. It was all good to go except for one thing. The priest was nowhere to be found, which resulted in several of us looking everywhere to find him. Well, after 45 minutes or so, he was found drunk on his ass from drinking the communion wine and smelled like it, too, not to mention he was a total mess. As for the wedding, it was saved by a guest who was an ordained minister of another denomination, and it went great. As for the drunk priest, he showed up for the reception and got even more hammered at the open bar. Yeah, what a great fool he made of himself that day."
—Anonymous
4."I attended a wedding in my hometown. In the wedding program, the couple welcomed everyone 'to the consummation of our marriage.' I nudged my mother and said, 'I'm not sure I want to stay for the whole thing.' The groom sang to the bride during the religious ceremony."
—Anonymous
5."I was a friend's plus one for his friend's wedding. I had never met the bride or groom until then but was told it was a low-budget wedding. I baked a turkey and other stuff for the wedding, and what I brought constituted about 80% of the wedding's food. Immediately after the ceremony, I was shocked when the wedding couple asked me to loan them money for their honeymoon! I said I didn't have much but gave them enough for one night in a hotel. Moments later, the bride made a pass at me. I think they wanted a three-way. I declined and soon left. I heard their marriage lasted about three months."
—Anonymous
6."I've been to some pretty tacky weddings, but my stepsister's was the worst one (by far). I don't even know where to begin with that one. When she had initially gotten engaged, she asked me to be the maid of honor. I accepted, and then she promptly went radio silent, even when I asked her what I could do to help. I got no response. Imagine my surprise when I got there, and her friend was now the MOH, and, oh yeah, we had to pay for our hair and makeup. She had to have her wedding in the remote mountains of North Carolina and didn't provide any directions to the guests. My stepmother had to field dozens of calls asking where the hell the ceremony was."
"She had apparently left her notebook with all the wedding plans behind, so none of us knew what was going on or who we were walking with until the ceremony. The rehearsal dinner the night before was just dinner, and she asked my plus one to emcee her wedding, even though they had just met a couple of days prior.
As it got closer to the ceremony, he got nervous since he didn't know any of these people and had JUST met the bride. I asked her if she could give him some notes or guidance, and she SCREAMED AT HIM in front of everyone that she would have her MOH emcee instead as she 'didn't have the time to deal with him.' Needless to say, I don't speak to her anymore."
—Anonymous
7."My cousin's wedding. The gorgeous bride had a gown straight out of Gone with the Wind. It had a hoop skirt so big she had to come down the aisle sideways. Then came a reading. Everyone was looking around to see where the voice was coming from. Come to find out it was her uncle reading from prison. It's one I'll never forget 😂."
—Anonymous
8."A coworker's wedding. She invited well over 500 people. When we got to the venue, she had two trays of tuna fish sandwiches, a tray of carrot sticks, and a punch bowl. She wanted as many guests as possible to receive gifts."
—Anonymous
9."My friend is getting married nine months from now. She wants RSVPs by today because her venue is too small, and she's doing a second round of invites based on the nos. I'm trying to conceive, so I have no clue if I can attend yet or not. I also need to request vacation time, plan financially, etc. I just got the invites about three weeks ago. I feel like this is super tacky."
10."I went to a friend's wedding in Vancouver, Canada. Two of the groom's aunts (40+) hated each other. Both were invited to and attended the wedding. During the reception, they got into a huge argument, which turned into fisticuffs. Imagine two middle-aged women throwing punches. They eventually got split up, and the instigator was taken to the washroom with a bloody nose. Five minutes later, she came running back into the reception, up to her sister, plowed her right in the nose, and the fight was on again. Most entertaining reception ever."
—Anonymous
11."I went to a wedding where there was a garter toss after the traditional bouquet toss. The woman who caught the bouquet was in her 20s. The boy (yes, boy) who caught the garter couldn't have been older than 12. The DJ seated the woman on a chair in the middle of the dance floor and instructed the boy to put the garter on her leg. He said, 'Since you're so young, I won't make you do it with your teeth.' It felt so wrong."
—Anonymous
12."So this happened over 12 years ago. My boyfriend at the time (now husband) brought me to a wedding as a plus one. The bride and groom both went to our very small college. They were fresh out of college, so most guests were in their 20s. During the reception, the bride and all the single ladies gathered so the bride could toss the bouquet. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a guy came up behind the bride, who was holding the bouquet up over her head to launch it into a crowd of hopeful women, and he grabbed the bouquet from the bride. Then he got on one knee in front of a bridesmaid, offered her the bouquet, and proposed."
"No one knew how to react. A good 10 seconds of absolute silence passed as everyone tried to comprehend the sheer audacity. The bridesmaid said yes, and everyone went back to their tables. To this day, I still find myself wondering if the bride knew and approved this proposal. From what I remember, the bride seemed surprised but not upset. Either way, we left shortly after."
13."My partner's cousin is getting married. We live in Cambridge, they live an hour away, closer to London. They've chosen to have their wedding six hours drive away. It's a three-day affair. We were initially told accommodation would be sorted for us at the estate. We have two kids. They'd said no children ages ago. Fine, we got that covered over a year ago in anticipation, and they gave plenty of notice so plans could be made. No worries. A few months before, on the official invite, we then found they'd reduced us from the three-day affair to just the day. No accommodations. Okay, that's a bit sad, but we can get over it. We would then stop over in Bristol for a night to see friends on the way down instead. Then, we planned to book a hotel or Airbnb for two days and make a little break from it since we'd already got the kids sorted."
"Today, we got the request to RSVP within three days. After RSVPing for both my partner and me, my partner received an email (not on the actual website RSVP). It said: '[Partner name] — day and evening guest. 1.30 p.m. start for the ceremony.' [My name] — evening guest. 7.30 p.m. start.'
My partner doesn't drive, so I would be driving us six hours there and six hours back. We'd be spending a fair amount of money on petrol, accommodation, and drinks. And now I'm told I'm only going to be there from 7.30 p.m. onwards? We're both annoyed...maybe because it's still fresh. But my partner and I are wondering why this hasn't been mentioned before. The place is fairly remote and in the countryside. Am I just going to sit by myself for six hours after spending an arm (and potentially a leg) to come to the wedding? This area is not cheap, so accommodations are expensive. The average price is £170+ per night, and fuel is not exactly cheap either. I expect two tanks, so that's about £160 for us. So that's £500 for me to go to the wedding of my partner's cousin for four hours."
14."The bride and groom sent wedding invites by text message and requested cash for gifts. The invitation said the ceremony would start promptly at 1:00 p.m. Somehow, that turned into 2:00 p.m. When the dancing started, guests were required to pay the bride and groom to be able to dance with them. This couple had lived together for two years in their parents' house despite having good-paying jobs."
—Anonymous
15.And: "We were invited to a wedding ceremony at a park (we were told there was no reception). The gazebo didn't even fit 50 people; they invited more than that, so we had to stand for the entire ceremony. Only to find out afterward that there was a reception...for family and 'close friends.' They didn't need to lie to us about the reception. The couple invited everyone for free gifts and then lied about the reception. Really disappointed in them."
—Anonymous
Have you ever witnessed something truly tacky at a wedding? Tell us about it in the comments, or share anonymously using this form.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
