From monsters-in-law to demanding distant relatives, these people share the worst wedding guests they have ever had.
The Most Stressful Day Of Your Life?
1) “My aunt expected us to delay the ceremony until my cousin arrived since he had been at work. Uh no.”–
2) “My great aunt called my bride and asked her to come pick her up from the airport… four hours before the wedding. Taxis are a thing, Aunt Pearl!”–
3) “My in-laws refused to attend unless we got married in their Midwestern state. My husband and I met and live on the East Coast. We married in our city, giving his family more than six months notice. They did not attend.”–
4) “When my cousin and her husband were planning on getting married, they wanted a small wedding, something like 40 to 50 people. Both her mother and future mother-in-law weren’t having that and took it upon themselves to invite everyone and anyone they could. The guest list quickly shot up to around 700 people. They ended up changing the venue to somewhere way out of state to cut down the guest list and have the smallish wedding they wanted.”–
5) “My wife’s parents refused to pay for anything if we didn’t hold our wedding at their church. We said fine, we would pay for it ourselves. They then tried to dictate that we could not serve drinks or have dancing at the reception, which they weren’t paying for. We told them they didn’t have to attend if it was a problem for them.”–
6) “One of the bridesmaids brought her fiancé to the wedding, and wanted our photographer to do an impromptu engagement photo shoot. Photographer laughed in her face.”
She Wanted The Couple To Share A Room On Their Wedding Night!
7) “I had a small wedding and our budget included putting all 16 attendees (ourselves included) up in the bed & breakfast that we held our ceremony/dinner in. The day of the wedding, my mother tried to pressure my husband and I into switching from the honeymoon suite into the room she and my father were in with my kid sister (small bed, crowded, and a creepy mini bed in the closet for my kid sister).
Unless I misunderstood her, we would have also have to share the room with my kid sister on our wedding night (because of the spare bed being in that room). She ONLY asked because she thought that the whirlpool bath in our room would be nice for her back.
I told her no, that we had specific plans for the bathtub that night, and she dropped it.”
Beware The Monsters-In-Law
8) “My mother-in-law tried to manipulate my wife into letting the mother-in-law’s boyfriend walking my wife down the aisle instead of her father.”–
9) “My mother-in-law asked us if we could reschedule our wedding closer to my wife’s step-brother’s, so she could come into town once for both. Our date was booked a year previously during the time of the request.”–
10) “My mother-in-law wanted to wear a white gown down the aisle. Insisted. Denied. Then complained the wedding didn’t focus on her enough. She complained after that we didn’t care because there was no special moment for her. We asked her like what and she said, ‘well, there are always mother-son dances.’ It was her daughter who was getting married. She was mad she was left off the toast list. She was mad the DJ didn’t bring her out for a special moment. In our haste, we made the day all about us and forgot her.”–
11) “I’m a wedding photographer. Last year, the mother of the bride wanted the DJ to help her play a game at the reception. The game was this: The bride sits blindfolded on a chair, while the groom and groomsmen circle around her. She then has to feel their junk and guess which one is the groom. The DJ was inexperienced but had minimal enough common sense to come ask for my professional opinion. I told him if he wanted to keep his job, he would never in a million years do that, and if the mother of the bride comes back, he needed to keep conveniently forgetting about it.”–
12) “When my wife told her mother that we were getting married her response was ‘Why are you doing this to me?’ and then told my wife that she wouldn’t go and that she would convince her whole family to boycott the wedding. This devastated my wife, she told my stepmom who took her out to find a wedding dress that day and she offered my parents’ backyard for the ceremony and reception. Well, after my monster-in-law found out that my stepmom took my wife dress shopping she freaked out because that was supposed to be something she and her daughter did together (in her mind) and she confronted my wife and my wife was like, ‘Why do you care, you’re not even going?’ At that point, the mother-in-law realized it was gonna happen without her and she changed her tune and got on board pretty quick.”–
13) “My mother-in-law wanted us to have a destination wedding at a resort in a tropical country. She spent months trying to get us to do this. Neither of us like the heat. But hey, that didn’t stop her from making my sister-in-law and her husband who both also dislike the heat get married in Cuba two years earlier so I kind of blame them for enabling her.”
“Behind The Scenes, It Was A Nightmare”
14) “My husband’s aunt found out that our dogs were going to be our flower girls. She decided this meant she could bring her dog to the wedding. Her aggressive, misbehaving, terrible dog. Several people told her the dog couldn’t come, but she claims that it’s a therapy support dog (it’s not).
She showed up the night before the wedding with the dog anyway. As soon as it got out of her car it attacked my younger dog. She insisted it was just a misunderstanding. An hour later it attacked my older dog. She insisted it was my dog’s fault, and in order to avoid drama, I put my dogs in the house.
The next day, during the ceremony, my dad was about to help me onto my horse to walk down the aisle, and he sees the dog sitting in the front row right next to the aisle, where my dogs will be walking. There is going to be a dogfight during my wedding.
I’m sitting on this horse (who’s afraid of flowers) and my dad takes off running down the hill. My lovely aunt-in-law refuses to move, refuses to take her dog elsewhere, and argues that her dog is not the problem so she shouldn’t have to move.
My dad lost it. Got an old friend to pick the dog up and carry it away from her and out into the back of the field. It wasn’t pretty. But, I made it down the aisle and my dogs behaved perfectly throughout the ceremony. The old friend kept the aunt’s dog with him all night (the aunt didn’t really even protest), and he missed everything.
My wedding was beautiful, but behind the scenes, it was a nightmare.”
They Dealt With Crazy Demands To Get To ‘I Do’
15) “My sister-in-law had to have a birthday cake for her boyfriend’s daughter. Why? Because she was turning six years old and would remember this birthday forever. We were horrible people for planning a wedding on this day. She had to have the DJ say that this is her day too, and they had to have special cupcakes for her at our rehearsal dinner. Why couldn’t they celebrate another weekend?”–
16) “I invited my aunt, uncle and two cousins. All but one cousin declined, but she wrote on the rsvp her boyfriend’s and two friend’s names to fill the spaces her family didn’t want. How about no.”–
17) “My wife’s aunt asked if she could bring her dog – in a stroller. When we said no, she promised he wouldn’t be trouble. We said no again. She decided not to come.”–
18) “As my father-in-law opened the door to walk down the aisle with my wife, one of his cousins came up from behind and asked them to stop for a picture.”–
19) “I had a friend call me after he received his invitation asking me to reschedule the wedding because he bought tickets to a Nine Inch Nails concert the same day.”–
20) “My aunt gave a toast after the best man. Unplanned. Unwanted.”–
21) “The day before the event, husband’s grandma asked if any part of the wedding was going to be outside (it was). She asked what would happen if it was cold (in May). I told her she should bring a jacket. She said, incredulously, ‘But I’m 80 years old!’ To this day, I don’t know what she expected me to do, to make the weather not chilly or her not 80 years old.”
These Family Members Made Things So Awkward
22) “At my sister’s wedding reception our cousin asked her and my new brother-in-law if she could stop the music and dancing while she sang a song she had written about their wedding. My sister was annoyed but agreed because wow, she wrote this song just for them. So we all stop dancing and stand around awkwardly while she sings this long, long, long song that doesn’t really make sense but has to do with love or whatever. A few weeks later my sister finds out through Facebook that this cousin sang the exact same song at multiple other weddings. The nerve. Stopping weddings dead in their tracks to be the focus of attention by lying that the song you’re singing was written just for them.”–
23) “My mother-in-law wouldn’t let me be in photos with her side of the family because I wasn’t ‘real family,’ even though I just married their daughter.”–
24) “At my sister’s wedding, my dad bought a drink for each guest to cheers to during the speeches. Someone on my brother-in-law’s side ordered himself an expensive bottle of the good stuff.”–
25) “My brother’s wife asked me to postpone my wedding ‘a year or two’ because she was going to try to get pregnant the following year. She also insisted the wedding cake be vegan for religious reasons. I was fine with providing a vegetarian meal option for the few guests I knew would want it. But the cake? No. That’s your religion, not mine. She ended up not coming anyway. I’m fine with that.”–
26) “My sister-in-law showed up the night before the wedding and tried to redecorate. She said the decorations were trashy and that she didn’t like the caterers or the location. She actually tried to convince us to fake a breakup so that she could re-plan the entire wedding. I eventually had to throw her out of the wedding party and my wife asked her not to come to the wedding. To this day it’s still a source of contention between myself and my in-laws. The wife is on my side though, so I’ve got that going for me.”–
“When Can My Band Play?”
27) “My dad insisted that his band get to play at our wedding. My wife and I were dead set against it. My dad would not stop asking over and over again to let his band play at the reception. We kept saying no, so he decided to get creative. He calls me up one day and says he is paying for our honeymoon and that he has booked us a cruise to Mexico. He then asks again if his freaking band can play at the wedding. I talk it over with my wife and we compromised that they can play at the reception hall for a couple hours between the actual wedding and the reception.
The wedding was at 3 pm.and reception was to start at 5 pm. We figured his band could entertain people while they waited for us to show up (we provided drinks and snacks for people that went straight to the hall). While my wife and I are having pictures taken, I text a friend and ask how my dad’s band sounds. He says they aren’t playing. I’m confused now because we explicitly told him when they could perform.
So, now I’m of the understanding that my father’s band isn’t going to be performing. We get to the reception hall and see that my mother had rearranged everything while we were getting pictures taken. The head table we set up, the way we wanted the tables grouped, she moved everything. So, of course, my wife bursts into tears seeing how everything had been moved. We actually have a picture of me seeing that everything had been moved with a blank expressionless look on my face and then a second pic of my wife noticing and the look of shock and sadness.
So the wedding reception begins. My dad comes up to and starts trying to negotiate when his band will play. We already paid for a DJ. I told him it’s not possible anymore. He persists. Dinner is served (when can my band play?). Toast by best man (when can my band play?). First dance by the couple (when can my band play?).
It gets to the point that my best man starts fighting with my dad. They’re screaming at each other and my best man is yelling ‘Stop bringing up the freaking band.’
Here’s the best part — the band members weren’t even there yet. And when they did arrive, they all brought their whole freaking families. After a few hours at the reception, I told my dad that his band could play whatever they wanted, then my wife and I left.
Oh, and my dad didn’t perform in this band, he just wrote songs for them. It took my wife a solid five years to be able to be in the same room with my dad again.”
Weddings Are Stressful Enough WITHOUT These Crazy Demands…
28) “We had a guest who said he did not need a plus one, so we didn’t plan one for him. When we received his RSVP he requested two meals, so we figured he was bringing a date, no big deal. Nope, he actually wanted two for himself, at $150 a plate.”–
29) “My mother begged me to not invite my grandparents (her parents) at my wedding because it would ‘ruin her special day.'”–
30) “My husband, our wedding party, and I had just sat down at our table to eat since we had been taking pictures. I didn’t know this happened until after the wedding, but my aunt went up to my mom and began tearing into her. Apparently, my aunt was saying she deserved a seat at our table since she helped us with the reception and that they needed to figure something out and pull a chair up for her. One of my mom’s friends diffused the situation thankfully. My aunt has been drinking at this point too but it made me realize never to accept anything from her again since now I know she will hold stuff over us like that.”–
31) “The number of people who thought they were entitled to come see me in my dressing room was astounding. Everyone thinks that they’re special because they know the bride, but guess what, at least half of the guests at this wedding know the bride. Unless you are immediate family or part of the bridal party, you can wait with everyone else. We had experience from previous weddings with people wanting to come into the dressing room and knew to try and head people off before they could get in, but I still had one coworker slip in while my maid of honor was trying to close the door. So not only did she come into my changing room (this is literally where we change clothes, get the heck out), but she also stayed way too long and wanted to get pictures. I let her take a picture to try to get her to leave, but specifically told her that she could only send it to another coworker who couldn’t make it to the wedding and she absolutely could not post it online.”–
32) “My husband and I set our wedding date as November 19, 2013, and like a week later Disney said they are premiering the movie Frozen at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. And we lived in Hollywood at the time. We had die-hard Disney fans as friends. About six people asked us to move the date so they can see the premier instead of our wedding.”–
“She Fought To Invite 50 People To A Wedding Of 20 Guests”
33) “My mother-in-law demanded that we invite more than 50 distant family members of hers that we hadn’t met. We politely told her no, we can’t afford it. She pushed it a couple of more times throughout the months coming up to the wedding. We both said no, everything was finalized and we simply don’t want them there considering it was a very small wedding of 20 people.
I thought she finally understood because she stopped harassing us about it. But then she changed her request two weeks before the wedding.
‘Okay, scrap the 50 people, but my overseas cousins’ daughters’ family of five want to come.’
No, Joan. No. It’s too close to the wedding, RSVP’s were in two months ago, we have never met them, and I already said no.
She dropped the issue, cue sigh of relief. I couldn’t deal with her pushy attitude anymore. The issue was out of my head by my wedding day, and I almost didn’t see that random 14-year-old kid who my husband and I definitely did NOT invite.
But I saw him clear as day when my mother-in-law pulled him into every single family photo. Even a photo that was supposed to be just of just my husband, me and his grandfather.
I only caught his name when I heard my mother-in-law say ‘ALEX! ANOTHER FAMILY PHOTO!’ twenty times.
Thanks, Joan. Thanks, Alex.”
People Are So Rude
34) “My aunt tried to tell me I couldn’t invite her ex-husband, who was my uncle for 25 years. She went so far as to say that if I invited him, she wouldn’t come. I called her bluff and told her that I’m sorry she feels that and I hope she would still be able to cancel her hotel reservation.”–
35) “We had made the guest list and arranged for the properly sized venue, so we were allowing most people to RSVP for themselves and one extra. One of my cousins, whom I hadn’t seen in several years, wrote back asking if she could bring her husband, a friend, and their four kids. I was taken aback. Are you serious? Seven people? I talked with my fiancée and we decided, sure. We’d squeeze them in, mostly because I hadn’t seen this cousin in so long, it would be really nice to see her again. Day of the wedding, they no-showed. One table, COMPLETELY empty. And she never bothered to give a reason as to why they didn’t show. I refuse to talk to her now. So rude. Still blows me away after all these years.”–
36) “My groom’s sister and her husband wanted to announce their pregnancy at our reception. They waited to ask us the morning of the wedding. We told them no, they could make phone calls the next day.”–
37) “My cousin’s wife asked me to not pick a wedding date between the months of March and July because she was trying to get pregnant…and then proceeded to say that if we did schedule between those months, she’d have to bring the baby to the wedding (strictly no children), because ‘what kind of monster would separate a child from their mother.'”–
38) “One of my wife’s parent’s cousin’s daughters asked for a gluten-free, kosher, vegan, GMO-free meal. My wife pretty much told her to eat a GMO-free carrot.”–
39) “My sister-in-law asked me if we could change our wedding date because her husband (my brother-in-law) had his 10-year high school reunion that day. This was about a month before the wedding, when obviously everything was planned and scheduled and invitations had gone out.”