Ask anyone who has planned a wedding if they've dealt with a bridezilla and they'll probably be able to fill a book with stories of stressed and stubborn wedding parties. It's a given that something is going to go wrong on a day where the bride and groom want everything to go right.
A Reddit thread recently asked people to share their experiences of dealing with a bridezilla, whether it be themselves or someone else, even if it wasn't the bride who was throwing the tantrum on the day of the wedding. These stress-filled stories come from all sides of the spectrum, with each person having a completely different experience. All posts have been edited for clarity.
“Sisters Are Weird”
“I have three sisters and we created a rotation for the maid of honor at each of our weddings. My sister that was my maid of honor asked that she be the only one in a long dress (bridesmaid wise). I said sure because it was an outdoor wedding in June and the other bridesmaids could wear knee-length dresses.
My older sister complained about having to show her legs, and after a while, I started to cave in and said, ‘Well, maybe all my sisters can wear long dresses.’
My mom and other sister said that this would not be okay and that I shouldn’t allow my older sister to bully me around like that. Then my older sister started to complain about having to wear a dress period, and I told her that she could wear a pant-suit instead.
Apparently, this all made me a bridezilla in her eyes, and she just kept sporadically mentioning it throughout the entire planning process. Finally, my sister who was serving as my maid of honor stepped in and shut her down.
My older sister that complained had recently worn plenty of knee-length dresses and skirts, so the sudden complaint felt out of left field to me. It didn’t feel like a hill to die on for me, and I was terrified of being seen as a bridezilla, so I was quick to cave to many things throughout the process.
Sisters are weird, and weddings just highlight it.”
The Makeup Artist Had No Idea What She Was About To Unleash
“My husband and I eloped, so it was pretty chilled and relaxed. We specifically did it so we wouldn’t have to worry about managing other people’s expectations or drama on the day, and we could focus on just ourselves and the commitment we were about to make to each other.
We were in a different country because we really wanted to give ourselves some space from our family when we got married. On the morning of the wedding, my husband was in the room chilling out watching YouTube on his phone while I was with the makeup artist getting my hair and makeup done. I was stressed (didn’t sleep well the night before, discovered a gem fell off my engagement ring, and I hadn’t pooped in two days, so I was feeling really off and bloated).
The makeup artist was doing her thing and she was doing a good job. She showed me in the mirror what she had done and it was a little bit more than what I would’ve liked. I normally only wear minimal makeup, so I figured this is what my face looked like with the freckles hidden and false eyelashes on. It was compounding to my stress a little bit, seeing myself look so different, but no big deal in the grand scheme of things.
Because we were in a different country, I’d been messaging my makeup artist for a few months leading up to this – mostly organizational things and sending her a few photos of myself so she’d know what she was working with, what my skin was like, what kind of look I wanted.
We were in the homestretch, I’d been in the chair for about an hour and a half at this point, and my stomach and shoulder pain was starting to feel worse. She got to the blush and lipstick part and put a light coral type color on my cheeks that was actually a light colored contour powder. She was about to put a similar color on my lips when I decided that this was the hill I wanted to die on.
I grabbed the mirror, told her I felt like she had made a mistake, got her to look through her kit for pink lipgloss or powder or anything. The color I settled on wasn’t long lasting, and she didn’t have any sample containers, so she left me some in a plastic cup. I started being short and snippy with her, implying she was not a real artist because she went to a job without sample containers and how could she not have pink lipstick? I was forceful, rude, and freaking out but taking it all out on her.
My husband heard me, took his headphones off, and told me not to worry, that I looked fine and I was just stressed. I thanked the makeup artist for her time. She kept asking if I wanted her to redo the whole thing and that it wouldn’t be a big deal, but I brushed both of them off saying there was no time.
She left, and the minute the hotel door closed behind her, I started yelling and freaking out about things going wrong and that this was what I wanted to avoid. I locked myself in the bathroom and texted a couple of friends back home who assured me I looked fine.
I ended up adding some of my own lipstick, and off we went. The rest of the day was great and stress-free.
I sent the makeup artist a long, sincere apology text the next day.”
A Bride Teetering On The Edge Of Madness
“My wife didn’t go full-on bridezilla, but it was definitely pretty clear that the stress was getting to her. All the Instagram browsing, wedding magazine reading, and YouTube watching she was doing had created a set of extremely unrealistic expectations. Certain things got so built up in her head that when the reality didn’t match up, it was hard for her not to feel a bit let down. And for me, it was hard to hear her talk about how much she hated her dress, our venue, and the decorations, and how terrible and gaudy and disappointing our wedding was going to be.
I found that we were fighting a lot more frequently, too, which really made me start to worry that this was a red flag until I Googled ‘fighting before the wedding,’ and found out what a common thing it was.
Ultimately, I’d say it was an overall positive experience because I got to see her pull herself back from the edge of being a bridezilla and use her intelligence and reason to control her emotions. It gave me even more confidence in the future of our relationship because I could see that when difficult times or hard emotions come, she’s willing to talk through them and recognize that her feelings might not reflect the truth of the situation.
I’d probably have a much different response if, instead of sobbing quietly to me privately, she threw a big public screaming fit like a full-on bridezilla, but as it is, I think it wound up OK.”
He Didn’t Want To Hear It And She Didn’t Want To Say It, But It Had To Be Done
“My husband was somewhat of a groomzilla. I felt like our wedding was just a big competition for him to outdo his three older brothers’ weddings.
I wanted to just get married at the courthouse and he was aware of that, yet every time I expressed that I didn’t have an opinion on what kind of silverware I wanted, or what I wanted the invitation to look like, I got a long speech about how I didn’t care about our wedding.
Then I was dumb and told him that I couldn’t care less about this wedding because it was a waste of money and time and we could already be married if we would just go to the courthouse.
We talked about it in counseling, so he chilled out after that.”
She Blamed Her Craziness On Her Pregnancy, But It Ran Deeper Than That
“I met my brother’s fiancee several times before my brother told us they were getting engaged. She seemed lovely, warm, and fun. She was a mom to a little girl who was just adorable.
They didn’t have a lot of money for the wedding and she was pregnant, so they were in a hurry. We all stepped up and said we could help them make it work. They lucked out on the venue, which was nice and almost free. She found a pretty dress and one for her only attendant. So far so good.
They asked me to do the flowers, gave me a small budget, and said ‘Do what you can.’ I had never done ANYTHING with flowers before, but we found someone who sold us three giant buckets of gorgeous flowers for less than the cost of one bouquet.
When my brother’s fiancee saw the flowers, she flipped out. She was saying things like, ‘THOSE FLOWERS SUCK,’ ‘TOO MANY DAISIES,’ and ‘THEY LOOK CHEAP.’ She turned into a total rage beast right in front of my face. I was just staring at her as my brother dragged her out. I could hear them yelling before she finally came back and apologized very sweetly, and said that she was all stressed out and preggo-brain. OK.
The same scenario was repeated several times over the next 48 hours while we were running around trying to get everything ready. She had screaming fits over how the food was prepared (she set the menu for the most part and gave us the recipes). She had screaming fits or fake-sobbing meltdowns over how her bridesmaid steamed the wrinkles out of her dress, over how her hair was fixed, over the plates (we found some pretty disposables, but she didn’t like them).
So they got married and the baby was born.
About three years into the marriage, they started canceling out on family things. We usually had Sunday dinner, they’d call a few hours in advance and say they weren’t coming. And we noticed that when they were hosting, things often seemed very tense and she would say very disparaging things about my brother, including that he was cheap (while standing in the lovely, too-big house she’d insisted on) and other things we knew weren’t true.
He and my other brother sometimes played pool at a bar near their house. Suddenly, pool was no longer a thing – not just occasionally, but never. If he was over at my parents’ house, she’d blow up his cell wanting to know where he was. Then we started noticing bruises on my brother’s arm and face. One time, he showed up with stitches on his forehead. There was always some excuse.
All along, my brother had wanted to adopt his stepdaughter but his wife always refused. Then one day, she came to him and said, ‘OK. You can adopt her. Let’s get it started this week.’ My brother, who, by this time, we could all guess had been the victim of serious domestic violence for nearly a year, told her that before that happened, they would have to go into couples counseling (he’d asked for that before and she’d refused). She went absolutely insane. Beat the heck out of him using several different things including a fireplace shovel. There was literally blood on the walls. Then she called the cops and said HE beat HER, put the kids in her car, drove over to my parents’ house and broke down sobbing, saying my brother had been abusing her and to please protect her.
It didn’t take the cops long to figure things out, given that my brother had fractured facial bones, severe lacerations to his shoulders and midsection and was covered in bruises, and she had very faint marks on her upper arms where he tried to hold her away from him. For the record, my brother is 6 foot 2 and burly, she was a tiny little thing.
They took my brother to the hospital, then called the cops who were at my parents’ house and told them to arrest her. She went from a sobbing pitiful thing to an utter shrieking banshee. Just beserk. Alrighty then, add several counts of battery on a law enforcement officer.
It turned out she’d been abusing them going back to before their own daughter was born. Mentally (she insisted he check in everywhere he went, accused him of infidelity with zero proof, etc.). Financially (she spent like a madwoman, they were constantly on the brink of fiscal meltdown). And physically.
Of course, being the big strong man, he covered it up. He might have covered it up until she killed him if she hadn’t telegraphed her intent to leave him with the sudden about-face on the adoption thing.”
He Knew It Was Bad When He Found Out About His Friends’ Bet
“My ex-wife was a bridezilla and her mother was the definition of a monster-in-law.
I just handed over reins in defeat and got wasted through the whole planning process, and it ended up being the complete opposite of anything that I wanted. The marriage lasted two years, seven months and three days.
My group of friends, including my best man, his now wife, a few colleagues, my sister, and her husband all had a betting pool on how long the marriage will last. I found this out the day I told my father (who was in on it) that we had separated.
At the time, I put it down to the stress of wedding planning and thought no, she was not really like that. Nope, it turns out that she was a spoiled brat and wanted me to take over from her father just pampering her and never saying no because he stated that now she was married, it was my responsibility to keep her in the life she was used to.
She ended up leaving me while I was deployed and moving interstate, taking my son in the process. It was a shock to come home to an empty house. Her reasoning was I said no to her buying a new vacuum and that I didn’t love my family enough because I put my work first.
After she left, I decided to stay away from relationships for a while and just started sleeping around with different women. Four years later, after a long and messy divorce, I am about to elope in Vegas with my partner. We are happier than ever. And neither of us want to deal with the drama associated with a ‘traditional’ wedding.”
This Demand Was Just Too Much
“I was almost in a bridezilla wedding. I had an ectopic pregnancy (baby attached to my tube, which then burst, and I almost bleed to death).
My cousin got engaged shortly following my ectopic. When she asked me to be her bridesmaid, she told me that I would be required to wait to try to have another baby until after her wedding in two years; not because there would be a small child at the wedding, not even because she didn’t want me fat at her wedding, but because if I lost another child, it would take away from her engagement and wedding.
I was so shocked, I just declined and haven’t spoken to her in person since. It wasn’t hard to cut ties with her, but it was hard when my grandma asked me to put it behind me and just go to the wedding. I just couldn’t do it.”
She Just Had To Sit Back And Watch It Go Down
“The bride had two weddings. She had one wedding in her hometown and then had a destination wedding a month later. She couldn’t decide which dress to get, so she bought three.
I was the maid of honor at the local wedding and was supposed to be in the destination wedding as well. I had to overdraw my bank account to attend and cover expenses, so I was really a bit in awe at all the extravagances. It was a three-hour ceremony with two venue changes because the bride wanted what she wanted and it was her ‘day.’ She took on $60,000 in credit card debt for her perfect day(s), which she told me the day before she had not informed the groom.
The best part was when she was in her second wedding dress change, she started to scream about how things weren’t exactly what she wanted. It was great watching her stand there, half dressed and wasted, yelling about how the cake wasn’t perfect (it was a $3,000 cake that was transported from another state and was slightly smashed on the back side from hours of travel). The whole bridal party was just standing there in the hallway waiting to take pictures, and again, I told her to shut up and said I wasn’t going to come to the second wedding in Ireland, reminded her that her hundreds of guests could hear her making a fool of herself, and fixed her bustle.
She was such a little tantrum throwing brat. At the end of the Irish dancing groups, the toasts, and her wedding dance (that was choreographed), her PAID wedding planner offered to give me some ‘medicine’ to help me chill for putting up with such a spoiled twit. The lady did it loudly in front of an aunt who later told the bride. Yeah, it sucked. She is a great girl most of the time, she was just a terrible bride.”
It Was A Perfect Storm Of Disasters Designed To Drive Them Nuts
“My wife and I had a costume wedding, and on the day of the wedding, our seamstress was ‘hit by a bus’ and none of the 16 outfits were ready! The maid of honor rushed to the seamstress’s house to pick up what we could, but none of the outfits were ready and the seamstress was watching Netflix on her couch.
I called my best man, explained the situation, and told them to skip breakfast and get over there ASAP. Nearly an hour later, I called again only to find they were at IHOP waiting on food! I lost my mind at that point considering we were in crisis mode and they were scarfing down pancakes.
I feel pretty justified, but I wish I hadn’t lost my cool. Lots of yelling and screaming.
As for the wedding, the bridesmaids spent the entire morning/afternoon sewing on buttons and fixing the stuff the seamstress missed. The guys’ costumes were fixed up, but the girls ended up renting outfits from a local costume shop last minute. They all looked like Disney princesses and it was wonderful, so no harm no foul, I guess.
And as for the seamstress, she never called us back to collect on her invoice.”
The Stress Of It All Really Got To Her, And Hubby Wasn’t Much Help
“I will admit it, I was the bridezilla.
I’m normally super calm in stressful situations, but planning a traditional wedding on a tight budget (fully self-funded) was awful, especially because there were so many months of constant effort. My now-husband had no interest in any of the wedding coordination, and whenever I asked for help or input, he’d just respond: ‘This is usually a woman’s thing, so I don’t know how/don’t want to do it.’
I would have leaned on my bridesmaids, but my maid of honor passed away before the wedding and my other bridesmaids all moved out of state a few months after we got engaged. Finances were tough because of car issues and student loan debt, but we were doing our best.
The week before the wedding, I came down with pneumonia and basically snapped. I screamed and yelled at everyone. I was so stressed and frustrated by the whole process that I nearly called things off.
Fortunately, the small sane part of me prevailed and I married to the best and most supportive partner I could hope for. I learned that while he is not so great at organizing and planning, he is great at getting us through hard times by being emotionally supportive and picking up the home/life slack when I have to focus on handling major events.
Our marriage has been fantastic and the bridezilla only lasted for a short bit.”
Is This Just Another Case Of A Mom Going Overboard?
“I was not a bridezilla, but my mother-in-law was at my wedding.
She wanted to wear the same dress as me, didn’t want to pay for any of my guests to have dinner (my in-laws are very well off and we’re paying for the majority of the wedding). My parents gave their life savings to save face and they didn’t even cover 1/10th of the total cost of the wedding. My mother-in-law designed the wedding invitations with her and her husband’s entire family (brothers, sisters, husbands, wives children, grandchildren), and my parents’ names were tiny at the bottom of the page. I had to have invitations reprinted for my guests in secret.
Whenever she didn’t get what she wanted, she would convince everyone my mother was a manipulative witch trying to ruin everything and my mother-in-law was just trying her best. The truth is I wanted to be as far away from that wedding and that woman as much as possible and tried to keep my mom away from her too.
She found and read my diary and used it to convince her husband I was a bratty psychopath. She pushed everyone to breaking point and knew she’d be safe because we all nodded along not wanting to rock the boat. She affected her marriage and my marriage. I literally restarted therapy just because of this woman.
The diary reading was the final straw. That was totally unforgivable and my husband just gave a blanket ‘no’ response to anything she wanted after that. Granted, this was only a few weeks until the wedding, so most of the damage was done.
I’ve been married a year and I’m still trying to run away from her. We live nearby and every weekend, we are inundated with calls and texts crying about how we never see her and she’s a victim of some new thing every week. My husband is interviewing for jobs abroad and I’m trying to make an escape plan with my business so I can up and go at a moments notice.
This witch needs to sit back down.”
Her High Standards Nearly Cost Her All Her Friendships
“The bride insisted we (bridesmaids) make all the decorations but got mad because they weren’t up to her high standards. All of this was a month before the wedding because she procrastinated the entire time.
She wanted to plan the bridal shower herself because she thought we were incompetent. During the bachelorette party, we went to a decently fancy restaurant and the bride was mad because her little sister (bridesmaid who helped with nothing) ‘Only ate simple foods so we should have just gone to McDonald’s.’
It was strange because up until the wedding (I had known her for three years previously), she was the nicest person. But the wedding turned her into a monster. I knew she had lots of anxiety about it being perfect, but I don’t think anything can be perfect and she just has to come to that realization herself. I was there through everything and spent hours upon hours trying to help her.
To this day, she keeps saying how she wants to do the wedding over again because of how horrible everything went. It was not a good time and I don’t want to have a wedding after being a part in that disaster.”