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Getting married brings out the best in some people — and the worst in others. Add to that the possibility of scheduling mix-ups, technical difficulties, and plain bad weather and it’s amazing anyone has a snag-free wedding at all. We rounded up some horror stories about memorable wedding day disasters ranging from an uninvited rat to a brawl in the banquet hall.
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“There was a wedding I was working at in the ’80s, when the hair was really big with a lot of hairspray,” said Noelle Tretick Gosling, a professional violinist in Indianapolis for more than 30 years. “We were playing an evening wedding, and these candelabras were lined up behind where they were standing. And one of the bridesmaids was taking the bride’s bouquet when she leaned back and we noticed this bad, bad smell.” The bridesmaid’s hair was on fire, slowly burning “one strand at a time.” Luckily, the bride put out the fire with her veil — even though that meant continuing the ceremony with a black smudge and a noticeable hole in her bridal accessory. “She went through with the wedding, a real trooper,” Tretick Gosling said.
A Reddit user described a nightmarish wedding that redefines meddling motherhood. In addition to wearing a dress that looked suspiciously like a wedding gown, “she started making this horrendous crying sound as soon as the wedding vows started, and didn't stop until the pastor presented the couple as husband and wife. She promptly ran to the front and used her elbow to move the bride before throwing herself into the arms of the groom.” After muscling the bride out of many of her own wedding photos to get snaps with her beloved son, she apparently “gave a doozy of wedding speech about how she couldn't believe the bride was stealing her only baby and implied quite strongly that the son only married her [because] she was pregnant. Bear in mind, they were together for 5 years.”
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While some guests can be an embarrassment, some can actually ruin your expensive wedding right down to the pricey floral arrangements. “The uncle of the groom wanted to make a grand entrance,” said Bruce Kahler, destination-wedding specialist and “travel guru” for Apollo Travel Orlando. “He had a cab pick him up at the resort to take him to the airport so he could take a helicopter to take him back to the resort.” Too bad he didn’t ask a few questions about the resort’s amenities before he left. “It was a destination wedding in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, and there was no place for a helicopter to land.” Because of his stunt, the Hindu beachside wedding, for which Kahler said no expense was spared, was completely blown away — literally. “The beautiful wedding ceremony setting became a blank space after a hurricane, basically.” The uncle didn’t nail his big entrance, either. “He fell into a tide pool wearing a white suit, which was soaked.” And when the bride and groom tried to argue with the resort that they wanted a refund on their trashed wedding, the manager replied that the resort had done all the requested work — it was the uncle who ruined it, so no refund was forthcoming.
South Africa took its pandemic lockdown seriously: A bride and groom were arrested at their wedding and immediately taken to a police station. Their crime? Holding a wedding when there was a nationwide ban on public gatherings. All 50 guests and the pastor performing the ceremony were also arrested and hauled in. Hopefully they were able to drink a celebratory glass of champagne in the holding cell.
While the wedding for one Bradenton, Florida, couple was memorable, it made the local news for all the wrong reasons. A thief grabbed a bag containing the couples’ gifts as well as their marriage license. The bride and groom weren’t able to count the money they had received, but estimates range from $3,000 to $5,000. A GoFundMe was created by the groom’s sister as an attempt to cover the loss, but the couple still had the added hassle of needing to get a new marriage license.
Sometimes nerves about the big day can unsettle more than thoughts. “One time we had a groom who was so nervous to walk down the aisle, he actually made himself sick and was in the bathroom throwing up for about 20 minutes,” said worldwide wedding planner Trista Croce of BTS Event Management. “He was so embarrassed and didn’t want his bride to think he didn’t want to get married. We assigned one of our team members to the groom to make sure he was pulling himself together, another team member assigned at the ceremony site to make sure guests were content and music and champagne were flowing, and another one of our girls distracted the bride with a couple last-minute bride and bridesmaid photos so she wouldn’t know anything was wrong.” Fortunately, the groom pulled himself together and the ceremony went off without a hitch. We’re just hoping he brushed his teeth.
Sure, we’ve all heard about guests getting rowdy at a wedding after they’ve been overserved, but 100 people getting into a brawl? That’s what happened at one wedding shindig in Glendale, California. After multiple calls to police, one man was arrested for trying to elbow two police officers while others emerged from the fight bloodied and battered. That’s one fast way to lose your deposit on the banquet hall.
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“I plan weddings at all-inclusive resorts,” said destination-wedding specialist Kahler, “and anytime you have unlimited alcohol involved, there’s a chance someone is going to do something regrettable.” One best man gave what he thought was a funny toast. “He talked about streaking in college and how he and his friend had great looking rear ends. Then he turned around and mooned the whole wedding party.” Hope they got that on video.
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“About 10 years ago, I was playing violin at this beautiful outdoor venue,” said Tretick Gosling. “The bride and groom started their vows, and the groom started swearing at his bride. I don’t even want to say the words aloud, but the B word, the C word, everything. And all the guests were watching adoringly. They didn’t seem fazed at all. I thought I was in an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone.’” Another member of her quartet finally told her that the groom had Tourette syndrome, a neurological disorder that can cause sufferers to make unwanted movements or sounds including swearing. “The stress of a wedding likely made it worse,” said the violinist.
When a gay couple decided to wed, not everyone who attended was a gracious guest. "This uncle was not accepting of 'LGBT lifestyles,' and the drunker he got, the louder he got about it," said Kahler. Luckily, the grooms had a no-tolerance attitude about their big day being ruined. "His nephew, who was the one getting married, asked security at the resort to escort him out."
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We’ve all heard of weather delays, but this one seems to have derailed the whole outdoor wedding. “There was a huge, huge storm coming, and you could tell it was something serious,” Tretick Gosling said. “But the officiant was taking such a long time thanking guests that when the ceremony finally started, the skies opened up.” The wedding guests rushed inside the indoor reception, which started immediately — but the ceremony had never been completed. “The officiant went home and they just had a reception. I’m not sure if they ever got married.”
Warning: Don't read this if vermin make you squirm. "I was playing a barn wedding with a quartet, and it was back when the Princess Di wedding gown with huge petticoats was popular," recalled Tretick Gosling. "We saw a rat crawl down from the rafters of the barn. It wasn't a cute little field mouse, but a big, big rat with a long, wiry tail, maybe 9 or 10 inches long. And it decides to go under her dress, with the rat tail sticking out. She had so many petticoats she'd probably never feel it. I looked at the groom and he shook his head as if to say, 'Don’t say anything, please.'" While everyone could see the rat tail (and the photographer even took a close-up shot), the rat stayed put without the bride having a clue. "It wasn't a short ceremony, either. They read poems to each other with that thick, rope-y tail swishing back and forth." When they were pronounced man and wife, she walked back down the aisle — rat included. "I wasn't sure if the rat was caught in her petticoats, but it definitely didn't seem to be afraid of people."
Sometimes weddings go awry before they even happen. “When the bride goes to the bathroom and the groom takes that opportunity to hit on my secretary, you know things won’t end well,” said Kahler, who also wrote a guidebook for destination weddings. “They didn’t make it to the wedding. The bride was a bit needy and the groom was a bit self-centered, so it wasn’t really a surprise.”
While this was a disaster with a happy ending, it probably wasn’t the happiest wedding memory, either. “The mother of the bride got sick,” Kahler said. “She fell and ended up having an embolism, needing to go to the hospital.” The good news is that her ailment was only a speed bump on the way to the wedding. “We made some phone calls, had her brought out of the hospital, and with a nurse and an orderly on hand, she was able to watch her daughter get married.”
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