People Are Dishing On The Wildest Wedding Drama They've Witnessed, And That's It, I'm Eloping In Secret
We recently shared a story about family members ruining weddings and another story about general wedding drama, and both seemingly struck a chord with our readers. Many BuzzFeed Community members revealed their own wild wedding stories, and we'd be remiss if we didn't share those tales with you:
1."My soon-to-be husband and I lived in San Diego. My father lived in Virginia and drove across the country to give me away at the wedding. The day before the event, he and my sister got into a screaming match and physical fight in front of our house, where the reception was to take place, in full view of the neighbors and my soon-to-be in-laws. He drove off, heading back to Virginia, without speaking to me. My brother reluctantly walked me down the aisle, then immediately left, taking my mother with him. My sister later got drunk at the reception (held at our house), tying up the main bathroom because she was making out with my husband's roommate there, whom she had just met. Good times."
—Anonymous
2."My uncle, his wife, and his two grown sons on my mom's side came to my wedding ceremony and acted like complete jerks. They'd already had some issues unrelated to my wedding with my dad and mom regarding what happened to my grandma's life insurance proceeds after her death, which my uncle was in charge of. They were so offended that my parents asked about it that they took the opportunity to try and ruin my wedding day. As they sat in the pews, they started making comments about the groom — whom they had not met personally and who is a kind and lovely person — calling him a loser and laughing at us. I know this because another cousin was sitting nearby and could hear them. This cousin relayed this back to me later because he thought they were complete jerks on my wedding day, too."
"When it came time to take pictures of the bride's family, my uncle got up, and in EVERY SINGLE picture, he had his eyes closed. I guess he thought that would ruin the pictures, but it didn't for my husband and me. He looked like the jerk uncle who couldn't keep his eyes open when the photographer snapped the shutter. But that day remains in infamy. We barely talk. My kids grew up hearing about these jerks who are our family and highly dislike all of them. They are shocked that someone could be so classless and nasty."
—Anonymous
3."A famous adult film star attended my brother's wedding (she was dating a groomsman). She was kind and wonderful, but the drama was watching so many men squirming in their seats, pretending not to notice her, dying to meet her while their wives/girlfriends glared on. Priceless."
—Anonymous
4."We got married in 1999. We paid for the whole wedding: bridesmaids' dresses, groomsmen tuxedos, the church, singer, organist, and dinner for 250 guests. From the moment I got engaged, my mother became demanding. She also wanted a diamond ring from my fiancé (she came from a remote village in another country where they don't even do wedding rings). I had to buy her mother-of-the-bride dress from Neiman Marcus. She got upset I refused to buy her a whole new closet of clothes! She told me she wanted the wedding dress (I paid for) after the wedding, as well as all the wedding gifts we would receive because everything involved with our weddings belonged to her (including my wedding rings and the tennis bracelet I was gifted by my now-husband and my now deceased in-laws)."
"On the day of the wedding, she was pissed she didn't get to walk me down the aisle (my now-deceased dad did). A family of seven sat at the back of the church dressed in tees, shorts, and sneakers. At the end of the ceremony, my mom approached me and said those were her acquaintances, and she wanted them to be included in the wedding dinner (which I refused because everything had already been pre-arranged). Those seven wedding crashers made a big stink and cussed in the church until the minister had them escorted off the premises.
At the dinner, my friend was charged with watching the gift table. There was a box for monetary gifts, which my mom proceeded to tear up and put all the money into her large tote bag. Thank goodness my husband's side of the family gave the money to my mother-in-law, who gave us all the cash the next day. Well, my mom called my in-laws demanding that money and all the wedding gifts (delivered to their house after the dinner).
To this day, my mother (my dad and both in-laws have passed away) still asks for my wedding dress (I'm saving it for my favorite niece) and my wedding rings. She said she calculated the cash gifts my husband's side of the family gave, including interest, and that we now owe her $700,000."
—Anonymous
5."My husband's best friend from college showed up to our wedding in a very light beige dress with ivory patterns all over it. My husband is two years older than me. In his first year of college, he asked out his best friend, and she turned him down, but they stayed friends. His roommate also asked her out down the line, and she rejected him too, but all three stayed friends all through college. Then, my now-husband met me during my first year, his junior year. His best friend hated me all through college. She was always bragging about how if she hadn't rejected him before he met me, he would never have noticed me or given me a chance."
"Skip ahead to us getting married after we both got our Master's degrees, and his best friend showed up in what is very obviously an attention-stealing, nearly white, very fancy dress. Anytime someone asked her how she knew the couple, she would brag about how the groom had asked her out nearly six years prior and that if she hadn't rejected him, it would be her wedding. Needless to say, we don't talk to her anymore."
—Anonymous
6."Oh man, I feel like I could win an award for this one! My in-laws HATED me and ruined my wedding. We originally had over 150 people, mainly my husband's family, RSVP yes. Only about 40 people showed up. My mother-in-law was a toxic, horrible human. My father-in-law and mother-in-law decided to sign their divorce papers AT MY WEDDING. At my reception, after my in-laws signed divorce papers, my father-in-law requested his wedding song and drunkenly danced with his now ex-wife while professing his love to her. To say I was done at that point was an understatement. I told my husband I was done, and while we were leaving, I saw his family literally run, like rats, out of the venue with every bottle and case of alcohol they could find, including a special bottle of champagne that I was saving for our honeymoon."
"His family decided to get drunk and hold an after-party at the hotel they were staying and ended up getting pissed that we didn't want to spend our wedding night getting drunk with them. It was horrible — the worst wedding in the entire world. Nearly 10 years later, my husband and I are happy as can be and can finally laugh about how ridiculous the entire thing was."
—Anonymous
7."This happened 15 years ago at my wedding. My soon-to-be-husband's sister arrived from out of town with her boyfriend. His parents favor his sister for whatever reason. We lived in a busy downtown metropolitan area, so there were a couple of locations to accommodate the outdoor park wedding and the indoor reception across town. The day before the wedding, when we all met to organize out-of-town guests and get things done like flowers, etc., my almost-sister-in-law decided she hadn't ever been to our city before, so she wanted to go shopping at a mall in a nearby suburb with her boyfriend. My mother-in-law and father-in-law absolutely had to take her and her boyfriend so they could spend time with them."
"The key point here is that they all lived in the same city, and my husband and I were the ones who lived across the country and didn't get to see all of them as much as they saw each other (at that time, my 30-year-old sister-in-law also still lived at home with her boyfriend). They all went shopping together for the entire day before our wedding, leaving my husband alone with none of his family to help him with his jobs.
My dad, who is actually a diagnosed narcissist, stepped up and helped my husband and his best man figure out what to do and how to do it. His parents and sister/her boyfriend showed up that evening just in time for dinner, bragged about how much fun they had together, and showed off all of their swag. My husband was upset and snappy towards me but said it didn't bother him that his family had done that. They also all spent the evening hanging out with his cousins, uncles, and aunts, who had all come in from the same city (who they all regularly see), while he and I spent time with my family and our maid of honor and best man. His family was invited, but they just chose other relatives over him. Again, he said it didn't bother him, but then he was very closed off and short with me. That proved to be a pattern when his family chose his sister over him, and we are getting divorced this year."
—Anonymous
8."My father's wife has cut my brother, myself, and our children out of family events for many years, treating us as 'outsiders.' When my longtime partner and I decided to get married (and paid for the event ourselves), she pushed for me to cancel a wedding dress shopping trip with my mother so I could go shopping with her instead. She didn't get her way. Months later, she had a meltdown at the rehearsal dinner when she approached the wedding coordinator and insisted she was going to walk down the aisle. We had a small party and a very short ceremony with no plans for a large procession, so I told the coordinator that would not happen, so my father's wife cried and hid in the bathroom."
"At the actual ceremony, she tried to push her way into the processional line, but the coordinator repeatedly told her to sit down. And just to be clear, at no point during our engagement or on the actual day did she ever talk to us, the bride and groom, about wanting to be in the ceremony. Then she went to my partner's mother, who had waited her whole life for this moment and dumped all her emotional baggage on her. She complained that she deserved a corsage and to walk down the aisle. When another relative literally tried to pull her away, she grabbed his arm and walked down the aisle just before the music began, pretending to be in the processional.
After the ceremony, she refused to get in family photos, then chewed out the photographer twice for 'excluding' her. She miserably sat at a table all night and tried to make my father sit with her and miss the event, but he let her sit and pout by herself. The silver lining is that she displayed her narcissism so publicly that no one blames us for having nothing to do with her now, which is one of the best gifts we received."
—Anonymous
9."My sister-in-law had to take over the reception for an hour to celebrate her birthday. She had a birthday cake, had the DJ play her music, and invited her friends. I didn't even get any food — we had a buffet-style meal catered. She was a horrible person and kissed her mother-in-law's ass constantly. I had no say since I wasn't paying. Should have ELOPED."
—Anonymous
10."I asked my soon-to-be stepdaughter to give a reading during the ceremony. Instead of just reading, she began to talk about how unhappy she was that her father was getting remarried. When I looked at her in horror and called her name, she ran out of the church in tears. There's a photo of my husband and I holding hands in front of the minister, with me looking back at her in total disbelief. Unforgivable!"
—Anonymous
11."We did not know it at the time, but after our wedding, my father-in-law propositioned my brother-in-law's wife. Other than my husband, none of the other kids in the family had anything to do with their dad for over 10 years. The day after the wedding, while we were on our honeymoon, the rest of the family (the kids, spouses, grandkids, dad, and dad's current fling) went to breakfast. Evidently, it was rather awkward, and my sister-in-law's husband commented later, 'Leave it to E and C to get everyone together and then just take off.' That was the last time the kids and their dad communicated."
12."My mother-in-law wore an off-white beaded dress to our wedding. She was literally a wedding planner for her church (which is thankfully not where we got married), so she knew better."
13."My (16F) cousin (22M) got married to his wife (19F) last June. They live in Idaho, and so do the in-laws. My cousin's side of the family lives in California, and we all drove out to Idaho to celebrate his wedding. The only thing is, my aunt and uncle went through a messy divorce when he was a teenager and haven't been on speaking terms since he was in junior high. He hadn't seen his dad until they reconciled three years ago and has slowly come back in contact with our grandparents and us. My uncle was the one who encouraged him to move out of state in the first place, and I'm pretty sure that made his mom hate him even more."
"Anyway, as soon as we got the invitation, I got worried because I hadn't seen his mom's side of the family since I was 8, and I didn't know how they would react to seeing me, my parents and brother, my grandparents (who are also divorced but sucked it up), one of my dad's cousins and his wife, and obviously my uncle and step-aunt (who is awesome, by the way). The wedding was pretty small, in their church in Idaho (they met in a youth Bible study), and everything was great, aside from a few things:
1. My aunt was in charge of the rehearsal dinner. All of us were prepared to go, but she uninvited us at the last minute because she didn't want to see us at her son's rehearsal dinner. My uncle was understandably pissed and took us out for a very nice dinner at a very nice steakhouse instead.
2. Apparently, my aunt screamed at my cousin's wife at said rehearsal dinner and accused her of stealing her son from her, which almost made her call off the wedding.
3. The in-laws couldn't stand my aunt and left the dinner early, opting to come and have drinks at my uncle's hotel instead, where they told us about the drama above. They are all very lovely people, and they were also understandably pissed at my aunt.
4. The day of the wedding, all of us and the in-laws worked from the moment church ended until just before the ceremony to set up the decorations, the food, and everything else, and then from the moment the bride and groom left until about 12:30 a.m. to take it all down. My aunt showed up just in time to get walked down the aisle. Her mom also got an escort, though my grandmother didn't. That whole side of the family left a massive mess at their table immediately afterward.
5. My aunt refused to be in pictures with my uncle, so my cousins had to get separate photos with his mom and dad.
6. My cousin's sister (24F) wanted to reconcile with my brother (16M) and me, which I enjoyed. My mom encouraged me to give her my phone number, so I wrote it on a napkin and waited for a good opportunity. Then my cousin came over and asked me to dance. I said yes and asked if he'd give his sister the napkin for me. He took this to mean, 'Can you please take me over to your sister, who is standing next to your mother, who I'm pretty sure hates me, to deliver it myself?' It went fine, and she texted me later, but while we were there, his mom asked if my cousin would dance with his sister. He said he would after he danced with me. I know she knew I was standing right there because I had literally handed my cousin's sister the napkin with my phone number, but my aunt said something along the lines of" 'Her? Really?' and looked at me like I was the scum of the earth.
But yeah, other than that, it went great. And yes, my aunt still calls my cousin every night and yells at his wife for stealing him from her. But my uncle is always nice to her, so hopefully, she still believes that Californians can be nice sometimes."
—Anonymous
14."My mom was a violent, paranoid narcissist. Everything had to be about her, and she was physically and emotionally abusive to me. I had to invite her to the wedding, but I really didn't want to. She was in another state and said no until three days before when she changed her mind. My in-laws acted like I was out of my mind when I asked them not to allow her to be alone with me for even a moment. It only took an hour with her for each in-law to seek me out and assure me they had my back. She wore a bright red, cross-over front, above-the-knee gauze dress for the wedding. Her personality showed through, though, and later, when a friend saw the wedding photos, he asked me, 'Who's the sour lady with the broomstick up her ass?'"
—Anonymous
15.And: "There was definitely drama during planning due to divorced parents. My dad made me promise when I was 16 that I would never elope. My dad and stepmom were unhappy that I went dress shopping with my mom. My dad was sad that I wasn't getting married at his country club in the suburbs (people were coming from all over the country, and we weren't going to ask them to then get to a town an hour outside of a major city). The finale was my mom telling me that my wedding day was the worst day of her life."
—Anonymous
Have you ever witnessed (or been a part of) some wedding drama? What happened? Tell us in the comments or share your story anonymously using this form.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
