Brides often get a little too intense about planning their weddings. But what happens when it's the bridesmaid that becomes the problem? Bridezillas step aside. Bridesmaidzillas are taking things even further.
We found the best stories of horrible bridesmaids from Reddit! From the ones that didn't help at all to the ones that tried to control everything - here are the worst bridesmaids brides-to-be have had to deal with!
Bride Blackmail
“I got married in March. My wife had a maid of honor picked out for like seven months. They were college friends but we all slowly saw the friendship deteriorating. I went to high school with the maid of honor and she was notorious for being, to put it nicely, horrible. My wife befriended her in college not knowing about how she was in high school. I thought ‘Hey, whatever, people change’ and boy was I wrong. We helped her leave a toxic relationship multiple times because she kept going back to the guy. We saw her snap on people and ruin friendships with other people and thought, ‘Won’t happen to us.’ Wrong again.
About a month before the wedding, she started blackmailing my wife because she bought a veil without telling my wife and expected us to buy it from her full price. Her blackmail? Racy texts, between my wife and I. The maid of honor sent the texts to her phone while my wife wasn’t paying attention. She threatened to show everyone and said the texts showed that I’m abusive. She went and found blackmail on my wife before they even had any problems. That was my wife’s last straw and kicked her off the bridal party. She chose someone who probably should have been the maid of honor the whole time and continued to have a great wedding.”
Bad Best Man
“My husband asked his best friend to be his best man for our wedding that was still a year-and-a-half away. At first, he said yes and seemed really excited. Slowly it came to light that he and his longtime, live-in girlfriend weren’t sure if they were going to be able to come because it was going to be in my home state which is not where he and my husband lived and money was an issue. My husband was going to offer to buy their tickets and his tux, then let them share his hotel room with him. Then, a few months later, his best friend announced that he and his girlfriend were officially engaged. We thought this was interesting because they had always proclaimed that they would not get married until gay couples had the right to marry. This was all happening in 2011 and they had not won that right yet.
About a month after that, he sent my husband a very formal email letting him know that he would not be able to be best man at his wedding because our wedding date, which had been set before they had even announced their engagement, was going to fall the week after their wedding.
My husband never responded to that email and has not spoken to him since either. He was a pretty non-confrontational person so we’re pretty sure that this all came from his girlfriend. It’s really sad because they had been friends for a very long time.”
Jilted And Jealous
“I had a bridesmaid who brought a lot of negative energy to our wedding. She was my husband’s sister. She had just broken up with her boyfriend for the umpteenth time so she was pretty jealous and resentful towards us in the days leading up to our wedding. It didn’t help that she stayed with us for a whole week before our wedding (most of our family members live out of town). She treated us horribly the entire time (when she wasn’t ignoring me) and having her around just added a lot of unnecessary stress.
A couple nights before our wedding, she got hammered and cried to my husband about how it was supposed to be her wedding (going by her logic, she’s older so she was supposed to get married first). She then proceeded to tell my husband that she could put together a better wedding than ours for only $200.
At the wedding, a few of my family members overheard her and her best friend (who we graciously invited, even though we didn’t know her well) complaining about everything and bashing our wedding. We had an unconventional wedding ceremony on the top of a mountain and then had our reception at a luxurious log cabin by a river. We had only 85 guests and we had lawn games and a bonfire in addition to the usual wedding stuff. My sister-in-law and her best friend kept saying that our wedding was cheap and tacky.
Most of my husband’s family members showed up in jeans, t-shirts, flip-flops, baseball caps, etc. even though we didn’t tell anyone that the dress code was casual. We suspect that my sister-in-law told everyone to wear casual clothes. We were a little upset that no one bothered to double check with us. Our dress code was NOT supposed to be casual. We assumed that people would show up in semi-formal clothes so we didn’t specify the dress code on our invitations.
On top of all that, my sister-in-law didn’t give us a gift but she invited us out to dinner a few days after the wedding as her gift. Turns out she invited a couple of friends she met at a local bar, too, and she flat out ignored me the entire time. Even when I tried to join the conversation, she’d just pull the ‘Did anyone say anything? I could’ve sworn I heard something’ act. Some present that was. I was at the point of tears by the end of the night.
My husband and I feel that his sister ruined our wedding. We footed the bill for everything, and we spent a year and a half planning it all by ourselves, only to have her act like it was the worst and sabotage it. My husband wants to have a do-over wedding someday (in the form of a vow renewal). We’re going to only invite the people we actually want there. It’s going to be so awesome. I can’t wait!”
Her “Headache” Was More Of A Pain For Everyone Else
“My supposed best friend was a toxic friend but I was still in the 16-year friendship at the time of my wedding. I didn’t want a hen do and my hubby didn’t want a stag party, so we just had a wee pre-wedding party. It was just cheesy, good-natured fun including games and stuff. I totally understand that’s not everyone’s idea of fun but…it was our wedding. She sat apart from us all, audibly making fun of everything we did but I just ignored her because she was always nasty and insufferably ‘cool.’ I didn’t want drama when my sister had organized it and we were having fun.
She has stretched ear lobes so I asked her if she wouldn’t mind wearing flesh-coloured plugs and earrings to match the other girls. She said yes but on the day, she said she’d lost the plugs I’d bought her and had in obnoxiously large black things that really drew your eye. I’m not a maniac, these things happen and I didn’t really care that much. That is until I found out she’d been making fun of how she loved throwing the plugs in the bin and that I’m such an idiot for believing her. Why wouldn’t I believe her? I’d only asked her to do it for me as a favor because I liked the earrings I bought my bridesmaids. I would never demand someone change their appearance for me.
On my wedding day, she waltzed into breakfast at the venue in her pajamas with a bucket, claiming she had a migraine and was going to be spewing all day. I knew she was faking because it’s nearly impossible to fake a full-on migraine while you’re walking about talking to people and laughing. I suggested that she go lie down in one of the bedrooms but she aggressively said: ‘I guess I’ll just have to deal with it but I’ll need to have a bucket at the ceremony.’ My sister told her that wasn’t an acceptable option and if she needed to go home that could be arranged for her.
She didn’t go home nor show any further signs of a migraine. She was snippy for the whole rest of the day and made a scene on the dance floor at night by doing an unplanned choreographed dance with her new friend to a song that we used to dance to when we went out on weekends as kids. It was a kick in the teeth although I was too happy to get upset. Our friendship was never the same after that day and she ended up finishing the friendship in a storm of drama just after I had my first kid. She’s an awful person.”
Forgotten Bride
“My best friend’s bridesmaids were supposed to pick her up when she returned from visiting family the day before the wedding. Then they were going to go out and celebrate at some bars, then to a head to a hotel while us groomsmen and groom hung out at their apartment. After being 30 minutes late, they called her and asked her to pick them up from a bar.
They had all gotten wasted without her while she was waiting to be picked up. Then at the hotel, all of the bridesmaids passed out and slept in the beds, while the bride had to sleep on the uncomfortable couch. The next day at the wedding, they didn’t help set anything up. The mom of two of the bridesmaids demanded that all the groomsmen clean up the entire wedding ourselves while they all got wasted again.”
At Least She Made The Cake?
“My sister was a horrible bridesmaid. She was supposed to be the maid of honor but refused to do any of the responsibilities. She would literally call me a bridezilla and yell at me for nagging her when I asked her to help with anything from planning to decorating. She did make the cake though – in the one flavor I asked her not to use because my husband and I both hate it. The fondant was lumpy but our mom wouldn’t stop bragging about how she belonged on Cake Boss or whatever. She, enabled by our toxic mother, refused to wear any of the bridesmaid’s dresses I picked, so she got to pick her own specially made dress, I had no say in it. They both put more effort into that dress than any other part of the wedding.
She thought we should cancel part of the bachelorette party, that she didn’t even plan, because her zipper broke and she didn’t want us celebrating without her. She screamed vile things at me and stormed off, threatening to ruin the whole night for everyone when I told her we would meet her at the restaurant. I could go on, but those are favorite highlights of her selfish behavior. We no longer talk because I eventually got tired of dealing with her crazy.”
Battle of the Brides?
“My best friend lost her marbles when I got engaged first. She gave her boyfriend an ultimatum to get him to marry her. It worked and she planned her wedding one month before mine in Hawaii. 90% of the people she invited (150) couldn’t make it due to the short notice. She blamed that on my wedding taking resources; mine was in our town and had been planned for 18 months.
She also showed up to my bachelorette wearing a ‘Future Bride’ shirt, cut into the cake that my sister made for me, and posted pictures on social media as if it was her party. Then she proceeded to tell everyone how her actual bachelorette party would be so much better than mine. She literally recreated my party two weeks later and none of our friends went. The day after our wedding, she asked my husband -in front of my dad- if he ‘made it to home base.’ She went bonkers and our friendship couldn’t recover.”
Cheer Up!
“One of my best friends got married a couple of years ago, and one of our other best friends was the maid of honor. We were a group of six but the bride and maid of honor were inseparable ever since they both found out they were pregnant within a month of each other. The entire wedding and reception, the maid of honor was in the worst mood ever. It was so bad that even her own father told her to stop being such a spoiled brat on what was meant to be the happiest day of her best friend’s life. There’s only a handful of photos where she’s actually smiling. At one point in the night, her mum’s dress had broken and the maid of honor actually screamed and shouted at her for it (like it was her fault), in front of so many people.
The reason she was so unbearable? She wanted her new boyfriend to come to the wedding. They’d been together a couple of weeks but he had been shunned by our entire social circle for stealing thousands of pounds from his friends and employer. The person he had tried to pin the theft on was a wedding guest!
This was the beginning of the end for our friendship, and she did a lot of other stuff to me before I washed my hands of her. Of course, she turned the entire story so she is the victim.”
The Know It All
“I chose my husband’s best friend for my maid of honor because she is local. I don’t have a ton of close friends and he wanted a big wedding party, so I needed people.
She didn’t like any of the bridesmaid’s dresses I picked out because they were ‘all’ strapless (I gave them seven options and one was strapless). It came in sewn wrong and she kept complaining to me about it so I would let her pick another style. I told my husband to tell her that she shows up in that dress or she doesn’t show up at all.
She dyed her hair magenta and insisted her eyebrows had to match her hair. So she questioned whether the makeup artist (completely paid for by me) would be able to do her eyebrows properly or if her daughter should do them in advance.
She kept on telling the photographer how to stage the photos.
I put what my initials will be on the wedding website because I know people often like to buy monogrammed stuff. She bought me a monogrammed mug. I told her the initials were wrong. She said that I don’t understand how a name change works (it’s my second marriage so yes, I do). She argued with me for 10 minutes about how everyone in my family must have done their name change wrong because she had never heard of anyone doing it like that (We keep our birth middle name. In my area, it is common to move the maiden to the middle, but not in my family and it’s not what I wanted to do…and I put on the wedding website what my initials would be so she had no excuse). I could understand messing up the monogram, but her doubling down that I didn’t understand how the name change process works and lecturing me that no one keeps their birth middle name and my family is wrong for doing that really annoyed me.
She wanted my husband to take me on HER dream trip. When he ran it past me, I told him I didn’t want any of that and what he’d previously planned was more in line with what I wanted. He was glad he trusted his gut instead of her because he knows me well.
She left the wedding immediately after the ceremony because she was sick. I can’t say that she was missed.
Then she proceeded to come over to visit my husband all day (like 10 am to 4 pm) for a week straight. I told him she is not welcome to come over like that (she had never done that before). She has her own husband and kids. Our house is not her place to escape her life.
I’m cool with my other bridesmaids, though.”
A Total Letdown
“My bridesmaids dropped the ball with planning a bachelorette party. They said they were planning one but who knows what happened. They ended up deciding what to do the day. We ended up meeting at a pool hall (none of us play pool) and awkwardly played for a couple hours. It was pretty fun, we’re all friends so it wasn’t bad, and we had some delicious apps. After about 2 hours or so, they started wrapping it up. I thought we were going to go somewhere else after that or keep hanging out, but apparently, that was the end of the night. The waitress came over and asked about checks, and they told her to split them evenly…including me. I paid for myself. Which isn’t terrible, but definitely isn’t tradition, and I have been the maid of honor in two of these friends’ weddings, a bridesmaid in a third, and in all three, we planned awesome parties and covered everything.
It just felt like no one cared. I put so much into my friends’ weddings and they all talk about how much they love when I do things for them like buy gifts or plan things because everything is so thoughtful and neat. When it came to me getting married, they decided an hour ahead of time to meet up at a pool hall, play for a few hours, make the bride pay for herself, and then go home. No games, no night out, anything. It just kind of made me feel bad. I know it’s a petty thing to feel bad about, but with the amount of history in that group, it was a huge letdown. Oh well.”
Slow Train To “Quitsville”
“My friendship with this girl was already slowly heading to Quitsville before I got engaged but she really amped up her antics after I started planning my wedding. I was in an international, long distance relationship and we were getting married so we could finally be together in the same country.
There’s a blogger on Instagram that I’ve followed for a long time who happened to get an engagement ring style that really caught my eye. When I explained I was thinking about getting a similar style ring made, she bashed me for trying to be like the blogger and how it would be totally unoriginal to me. Anytime I brought it up, she would roll her eyes and diss me over it. One day we were walking through the mall and she dragged me into a ring store. I tried on a vintage Art Deco ring that was nice but it didn’t really look like an engagement ring to me. She took it off me and put it on herself and proceeded to take a million pictures and sent them to me repeatedly. She tried to convince me to buy it for the next two months. Not sure how she thought a used ring is more original. She also automatically assumed she was going to be the maid of honor, despite me having two sisters.
I wanted to elope, given the situation and that we wouldn’t be able to pick an exact date in advance because of the dubious timing surrounding visa approval. She freaked out and called me selfish. When I told her our families were supportive of us eloping, she said they were lying and would resent us.
I asked her and a mutual friend to come to a bridal store with me. Within two minutes, she pulled the other friend off to look at expensive ball gown type dresses and they spent the whole time picking out their own dream dresses. Thank god the sales staff said no when they asked to try on dresses.
Later, I decided I wanted to try a tulle skirt and elegant top look a try. She begged me to let her come so against my better judgment, I let her. We went to a fancy dress store to try and find the outfit. I found a combo I liked and when I came out to the dressing room, she was wearing the exact same outfit. Unfortunately, my proportions didn’t suit the look and I quickly changed out of it. It suited her pretty well and she stayed in the outfit for another 10 minutes, preening in front of a big mirror in the dressing room while I waited.
Eventually, I found four dresses I quite liked. I took pictures of them all and sent her the photos asking which one she thought looked best. She replied five days later with, ‘The belt one.’ Two had belts…
She repeatedly harassed me to choose her as our witness. She wanted to fly out to our wedding, stay at the same hotel as us, and have dinner with us on our wedding night. Thank god I said we were having a random person be our witness (it was actually my husband’s best friend).
On my wedding day, I sent our friend group chat a picture of me all glammed up. She was the only person not to respond. As we were leaving the hotel, I snapped a pic of my husband in the elevator and shared it with the group chat. He had a beautiful rich blue suit on that contrasted his chocolatey skin so perfectly. He looked like a legit GQ model. Within seconds she responded, ‘His phone in his pocket is ruining the line of his suit. Rookie mistake.’ That’s all she said to us the entire day.
She never sent a wedding gift or congratulations. Not that I really expected a gift but in contrast, all my close friends and family sent us cards and gifts. Even one of my mom’s friends sent us $300 check.
Yep, I finally ended my friendship with her a month later. I would have never guessed things would get so bad between us.”