While the bride and groom thought, ‘Happily ever after,’ their guests thought otherwise. These wedding guests share why they knew the marriage wasn’t going to last long. Content has been edited for clarity purposes.
Honeymoon Gone Wrong
“My husband was wasted (as usual) at the wedding rehearsal and so were his immature stupid friends. The pastor said if he showed up wasted at the wedding, she’d walk away. Forunately, he didn’t. It wasn’t until reception when him and party-boy friends got wasted (of course). They partied and partied, danced, etc.
He did not pay much attention to me during the reception. Just danced and partied with his friends and brothers and his sister. He then invited his tipsy friends back to our home where we lived with my best friend/roommate and one other room mate (a young guy he had become friends with).
At this point, I was so tired, so I went upstairs to sleep. While he stayed downstairs in the family room and more partied more. About eight people were down there, yet they were too noisy.
So I walked down and told them, ‘Please be quiet.’
They yelled and laughed at me. I went upstairs and cried. There was no romance at all. And this was my wedding night.
I was not strong enough emotionally to go down and yell and scream at them to go home. I was too upset. My best friend and roommate comforted me.
My new husband never came to bed upstairs. Instead, he fell asleep with all those stupid friends downstairs on the floor and couch, He never apologized. They all left the next morning. It turns out he was a binge drinker. I never knew how bad it was as I never lived with him prior. Things got worse and worse.
I soon found out he was messing around with other girls when he was drinking. He’d flirt right in front of me, all the time. The marriage lasted about a year, then I told him to leave.
Worst night of my life was my wedding night. My husband now is a total sweetheart. A wonderful man.”
The Groom’s Sisters
“This happened at one of my distant cousin’s wedding. In our culture, everything that the bride uses on the wedding day is brought from the groom’s house. So most of the groom’s family members will overdo things, so that there isn’t any complaint of shortage of things.
During my cousin’s wedding, the groom’s family got a lot of jasmine flowers, more than what the bride could wear on her hair.
After a certain limit, the bride said, ‘It’s getting very heavy. I don’t think I can lift my head up.’
The groom’s sister said, ‘We have to put them all on as it’s a tradition.’
So the bride didn’t say anything else, she just adhered to whatever they said.
After sometime, the groom’s relatives were then applying makeup.
The bride said, ‘Please don’t apply too much. It would look patchy.’
They laughed and said, ‘My brother doesn’t like pimples.’
The bride blinked helplessly. After all this drama, she went to the stage. The groom was continuously looking around for his mother and sisters. The girl was feeling left out on the stage.
I somehow felt that this couple won’t last. During the initial days of the marriage, the girl was yelled at a lot. With time, she became aggressive and resentful. I feel sad to see them like this.”
A Fake Charming Smile
“We had a fairy tale wedding on Valentine’s Day, complete with Navy swordsmen on the steps of the beautiful Fort Belvoir chapel with stained glass, a red and white theme, a heartfelt ceremony, and surrounded by an abundance of white flowers. A white horse-drawn carriage awaited us outside to take us to the reception, a truly spectacular appearance from a guest’s point of view.
Immediately after the wedding ceremony outside the church, I attempted to climb up into the carriage in view of all the onlookers, a difficult task with my long trained wedding gown, spike white pearl shoes, plus carrying a heavy white (faux) fur coat.
My brand new husband, despite my pleads for assistance, did not help me in the slightest way. Instead as I finally somehow managed to climb up and get inside to sit next to him, he waved and smiled his charming smile to the crowd of 300 plus guests.
But he said between clenched teeth for my ears only, ‘Get your stupid coat off my dress blues!’
It was that moment I knew I had just made the biggest mistake of my life.”
Self-Obsessed
“A long time ago I had a work friend. If I could describe her in todays terms, I would say she was one of these self-obsessed girls, who wore too much makeup, dressed to impress, and constantly uploaded selfies onto every online platform. The ones that were all look at ‘me, me, me’.
She had a long-term boyfriend who was married, and she flaunted the relationship. She claimed to be worldly wise, and could handle anything, but she came to work with black eyes, courtesy of loverboy but would make excuses for him.
After several years they broke up, and very quickly she met a chap who fell deeply for her. I, and other friends, though he was a nice guy, and couldn’t see what she saw in him. Not because of him, but because he was not her type at all. She liked ‘bad boys’.
Very quickly he asked her to marry him and she said yes. We couldn’t believe it, and started to suspect she was not doing it for the right reasons.
On the day of the wedding we were standing in the outer rooms of the church, before the ceremony, and it was very apparent from what she said, and her actions, that she expected her ex-boyfriend to come running in to stop the wedding. She had only accepted the proposal to make her ex jealous. We were disgusted.
Her ex did not come to ‘save’ her and she married the poor sod. They went on honeymoon and she treated him like dirt, and the marriage was over before the honeymoon ended. We saw her husband a couple of weeks later and he was a devastated mess. Of course from her perspective it was all his fault. I never saw him again but I hope he went on to meet someone wonderful.
She had an affair with another married man and eventually married him. She lost her job, and thought everyone was constantly gossiping about her at her old workplace (they weren’t), but she was still so self-obsessed that everything had to be about her, obviously.
I was younger than her, and naively still maintained a friendship of sorts with her, until she pushed my buttons one too many times, and I just cut her out of my life. The only ‘friend’ I have ever walked away from in my life, and I have not one regret about doing it, except that I should have done it much earlier, like at the wedding.”
A Best Friend’s Advice
“Some years ago, a friend began seeing a woman who we were both acquainted with. A few months later at a baseball game, my friend got up and followed me when I decided to get something to eat.
When we were done taking care of that, he said, “Hey man! I need your advice.’
I said, ‘Sure.’
He asked, ‘Should I ask her to marry me?’
I said, ‘It’s really not my place to say what you should do.’
He said, ‘I really need some advice right now. You’re one of my best friends, and I respect your opinion.’
So being an honest person, I said, ‘I think you shouldn’t. Or at the very least, give it more time.’
He thanked me and proceeded to ask for her hand within the month. Then asked me to be his best man.
Although I thought it a mistake, you don’t say no to a request like that so I acquiesced. The wedding was great and the reception was as well until I was required to take off her garter.
Rather than just lifting her dress and allowing me to access a garter a few inches above the knee, she had slid it uncomfortably high was in a half-sitting posture that allowed her to spread her legs wider as I reached for it. I knew right then that I had been correct in my assessment of her character.
A couple of years later, my friend and I along with another friend went to a nearby city to visit someone for the weekend saying we would return on Sunday. As it turned out things didn’t go as planned and we returned a day early.
Just joking around I said to my friend, ‘I hope your wife isn’t having someone else spend the night!’ and we all laughed.
When we got back, I dropped my friends off and went home, only to be awakened an hour or so later by my friend who had caught his wife in bed with another man. The poor guy was a wreak. I never said I told you so but a few years later he admitted that he should have listened to me. I said that I wish I would have been wrong.”
Momzilla
“I have photographed precisely one wedding. One. A neighbor of mine had seen some of my photography work and suggested me for the job. Cool. I was eighteen, the payment was pretty good, so I said yes immediately. I had helped out several wedding photographers in the past, so I knew what I was getting into. But this was the first wedding. I would be capturing entirely on my own. This was the wedding that helped me figure out I would never cut it in the business. If I had the choice between being a wedding photographer or going to prison, I would choose prison. Prison is way less chaotic. That wedding was unlike anything I had ever witnessed.
It was held at this state property owned by the groom’s mother. This building was practically a palace. Once I got there, I was immediately presented with a comprehensive list of over one hundred shot demands. According to the groom’s mother, if there was even one single shot missing from her list, she would see to it that I wouldn’t get paid. I was considered nothing more than part of the help, which meant I basically didn’t exist to this family. People would run their mouths in my presence like I wasn’t there. I heard so much gossip throughout the day.
One of the groom’s brothers alluded to the fact he had always wanted to bed the bride and might have a ‘fair shot’ since she was ‘in the family now’. The bride’s father was openly hostile to the groom and called him all sorts of names. The bride’s sister was trying to hook up with pretty much everybody except the caterers and me. The families seemed like a lot to handle, but the couple were the only ones who really mattered here. If their love was strong enough, they could make it through all of this gossip.
The families were not the couple. They didn’t matter and they didn’t have to like one another or hold one another in high regard. The couple was the core. I still saw that maybe they could make it work. If love was strong, they could endure.
Everything started unraveling with the pre-ceremony shots. They wanted a ‘men of the wedding shot’ and they were already about half a case of drinks into the festivities. A couple guys needed to pee, and a couple more had to hide all the drinks they had been openly guzzling. One gentleman didn’t know where he had left his fake teeth.
In the ‘ladies of the wedding shot’, it was like herding kittens. They all would rather gossip and badmouth each other instead of helping me get the shots. The groom’s mom and grandma were frustrated at me for my lack of ‘ability to control a group’.
The kiss was semi-interesting. She was all-in, while he was taken aback and off-balance. I’m no pro, but that had to be probably one of the few kisses he had ever gotten, and I don’t know how you convince a woman to marry you with that little experience.
Whatever. I stepped more to his side to try and hide his awkwardness in the photo. I viewed my role as simple. My job was to make this train wreck look less like a train wreck, to hide the bad and emphasize the good.
Then here came the groom’s mommy with her handkerchief, wiping off the lipstick that had transferred during the kiss. I kid you not, it was like he was seven years old. Mommy licked the handkerchief and proceeded to clean her boy up. It only got worse at the reception.
Every single person got wasted out of their minds. The more hammered the groom’s mom became, the more domineering she grew. The bride and groom were at the display table cutting the cake, but the mom shoehorned herself in between to help the groom cut his slice of the cake. The photo for the bride and groom feeding each other the first bite of cake was sidelined by the mom. She insisted the bride put less cake on the fork. If there was a way for her to commandeer the space, then she did.
While I was editing the shots, I realized the groom’s mother was in nearly all of them. This was the first wedding I had ever seen where the mom coached the groom on how to remove the garter.
She screamed at him, ‘Don’t be silly! Don’t use your hands, you’re supposed to use your teeth!’
So when things were winding down, I noticed there was no limo arriving, like there was no car all decked out with ‘just married’ and all that. So I asked the groom’s mom.
She said,’Oh, there’s no transport for that. Just go over by that shrub and wait, we’re about to do the rice throwing.’
When the bride and groom came out from around the trellis, surprisingly without the mom, they got lit up with the rice. Rather than go to a car, they walked straight to the house behind the mother’s house, and he carried his bride over the threshold.
About five minutes later, mommy dearest made her way across the lawn and into that house as well. I got my gear and made my way to my truck, and en route I discovered the bride’s uncle puking in the shrubbery alongside the stately driveway, whilst a few other fellows and friends looked on in amusement. If there’s a more allegorical description of the entire spectacle, I can’t really think of it.
The marriage lasted almost three weeks, and considering the living conditions and the neighbors, I think that speaks highly to how much the bride wanted that marriage to work. I knew the groom’s mother for less than five hours, and I was done with her attitude, so I can’t imagine three weeks living next to the mother-in-law who viewed you as the woman who ‘stole’ her baby boy away.
Unfortunately, a couple of the shots on the mom’s list did not turn out. I messed up the exposures thanks to some clouds blocking my light. Because I failed to get all the shots, she didn’t pay me. Wedding photographers? You truly demonstrate patience that I cannot comprehend. I would hate for this sort of thing to be my regular day job.”
Unexpected Pregnancy
“Well, years ago, at our community center, we found out one of the ladies had gotten pregnant. What the shocker was, it was by another member from the community who was also a pastor. The whole situation was rather unpleasant, as such a thing usually didn’t happen. The weird thing is, no one knew they were even a couple of some sort. We all played on the community’s softball team together, and you never saw them even indicate they were involved. Even stranger, they were the most unlikely couple you could imagine. Two totally different people with different interests, backgrounds, and everything. She was actually bigger than him physically. Everyone thought it was stranger they had gotten together.
Well, they figured they had to get married since she was knocked up, so so they did. Not long after she gave birth, my brother and two of his buddies were supposed to pick the guy up because they were all on the same softball team. They arrived at his apartment and knocked on the door.
Well, the wife told the guy he wasn’t going anywhere until he washed the dishes. And it wasn’t a request.
In front of his friends, she yelled, ‘YOU’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL YOU FINISH THOSE DISHES.’
So my brother and the other two guys stood awkwardly in the entrance, while the guy finished doing the dishes.
After the softball game, my brother came home and said, ‘Well, that’s one marriage that isn’t going to last.’
Sure enough, they split up not long after. That was followed by an ugly custody battle for the child.”
A Family Secret
“An old friend invited me to his second marriage, which was to be held in his community. A week before the wedding, he introduced me to his fiancee.
Perhaps because of my own frequent depressive bouts, I immediately saw in her the deepest depression I’d ever seen. Had I met her before they placed marriage on the table, I would have privately advised my friend what I saw in her. But since we were so close to the wedding, I didn’t know what to do. So I did nothing beyond attending the wedding.
I was stupid.
In the first year of their marriage, she fell into deep depression a couple times. Only then did her parents tell my friend that she had been treated for it for more than 10 years. They concealed this from him in hopes the marriage with him would sort her out.
That was both reckless and unkind.
Before my friend completed a year of marriage, he came home to find her dead by her own hand.
This was a week before he and I had planned to run a 25K foot race. My friend insisted we still do it. We had trained for months for the race, which we completed exactly at the eight minute miles pace we agreed upon.”
Blank Faces
“There was this one wedding I shot, in which the bride and the bride groom seemed completely off. I noticed, that for everything, she was looking at her dad and he was looking at his mum, for guidance or approval. They did not seem happy. They weren’t even looking at each other or talking to each other or atleast smiling at each other. Both the guy and girl seemed to be pampared a lot by their respective parents.
A little enquiry yielded information about the wedding. It was an arranged marriage purely based out of astrology, the government job guy was holding, and the properties girl’s dad accumulated over the years.
I was not even hired by the family. My services were offered as a gift to girl by one of her friends, who paid me in advance.
I did not like shooting for that wedding because, no one seemed happy. It just felt like, people were just getting it over with. I was unable to compose my shots properly as I was totally staring at blank faces who weren’t appreciative of anything.
I however, did my job, shot some cool pictures and delivered it. Because I needed that money for my trip to Goa with my pals, who planned an extravagant one.
But while walking out of the venue, I felt, if the guy and girl continued to be like they were then, the wedding wouldn’t last long. And it did not. It lasted for one year I guess and they are now divorced.”
Two Different Families
“I attended the wedding of a business aquaintance some years ago. The difference between the two families was very significant.
The groom’s familly consisted of normal, everyday, next door type of people. The bride’s familly however were extravagantly dressed, and plastic surgeries all around. They had invited a couple of celebrities, propably to show off even more.
When it was time for the party to start, there was not even a couple’s first dance. The music that played was folk songs of the bride’s home region, extremely difficult to dance. The bride was dancing with her own familly all night long. It was extremely insulting to everyone else. The groom’s familly and the guests alike, who were obviously not included in the celebration.
I felt very sorry for the groom. I wasn’t at all surprised to hear they divorced a few months later.”
Ticked Off Bride
“When one of my sons was getting married, despite the relationship having its awful moments and them being ‘on and off’ every month in the lead up to the day, we still hoped the marriage would make them strong together.
On the actual wedding day, there was an unfortunate hold up. Part of the best man’s outfit attire was missing and there was a delay whilst trying to get replacements to him from the company.
The bride and guests were waiting, not sure what was going on. Supposedly, there were mixed messages amongst everyone.
Eventually, everyone was ready. The bride proceeded to frog march down the aisle, holding her father’s arm and the first words that came out of the bride’s mouth was, ‘You’re freaking late!’
It was then that I really knew it wasn’t going to last. Within three weeks they were separated and are now divorced!”