You Can’t Say She Didn’t Warn Her
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“I had this client book me two weeks before the actual wedding. I regret taking it to this day.
She had no transportation planned to take her home at the end of the night. I asked her repeatedly what her plan was and she told me she just wouldn’t drink and planned to drive to her honeymoon spot. She never told me where it was even though I kept asking.
Fast forward two weeks to the wedding. A massive tornado just went through the area the day before her wedding and power lines and trees were blocking every entrance to the highway to her wedding in the boonies of Maryland. I got up early to deal with the issues at the venue, like no electric on a 100-degree day. I got a call from her around 6 am saying she realized she needed transportation now. Fine, I’ll find it. One last question, where is this mystery honeymoon spot? Oh, hours away in West Virginia. I called every D.C. and Maryland based limo company and begged them to find someone to drive into the Maryland countryside at 11 pm and then take them to West Virginia. Finally, someone relented and I called the bride to tell her the price. Complete. Meltdown. Well, guess what, you requested that at the last minute, you’re going to pay whatever they want to charge you.
The wedding itself was a complete disaster. The bride hated her hair and makeup and made it very well known to me, even though she had personally booked the stylist. As it was 100 degrees and blazing July sun, the original unshaded area was going to be terrible for the ceremony. I suggested we move it for her comfort and the comfort of her guests to the beautiful area with a centuries-old tree. She refused. But as guests arrived, they did nothing but complain. I decided to say forget it and moved the ceremony to make everyone happy. It was a one-hour traditional Jewish ceremony and in no good mind would I let people suffer in the sun.
After the ceremony, I had to wait outside the bridal suite while the couple had a bedding ceremony. Something I never want to witness again. This ceremony went way over, thus extending happy hour and shortening the reception. The bride freaked out that she lost out of dancing time because of it and blamed it on me.
At the end of the night, during clean up, the mother of the bride started throwing decor in her car rather than let my team do the loadout. As soon as she left, I noticed my emergency kit was nowhere to be found. I called the mother of the bride and she claimed she never saw it, even though it was next to the decor we had started to pile up. The next week, I got a call from the venue saying they saw a car throw a bag out of their window onto the steps of the venue and then speed away. Alas, it was my bag and I had to drive over 90 minutes to go fetch it, even though the mother of the bride and the bride lived super close to me and had my address.
To top it all off, I got heat stroke and my poor assistant had to drive us home at midnight.”
The Groom Treated Everything Like It Was Some Big Joke
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“I have a GROOMZILLA!
I am the office manager/assistant to a photographer during weddings – I go along with her on wedding days to be an extra set of hands and help gather everyone for portraits. Bride and groom were doing a ‘first look’ (which I highly recommend!) before the ceremony – how that works is the bride comes up behind the groom, taps him on the shoulder, he turns around to see her in all bridal, they smile and kiss, and get couples/wedding party/family portraits out of the way before the ceremony, so you’re free to spend more time enjoying your reception instead of ducking out to take pics. It’s great because you get up close picture of the groom’s reaction to seeing his bride, which is harder to get in a church/ceremony. Everyone stands up when they see the bride, and if you miss the shot, there’s no recreating that look on his face.
ANYWAY. So they’re doing their first look in downtown and the groom has been on a party bus with the groomsman for a few hours while she’s getting ready in the hotel. They are all HAMMERED, like couldn’t focus their eyes when I go to grab the groom for the first look. I ask him to please set his drink down for the pictures and he rolls his eyes but complies. She comes up behind him, already trying not to cry and smiling big as the sun. She taps him on the shoulder, he turns around… and instead of looking at her, his eyes immediately search for the drink, which he set on a window sill. He reaches around her, grabs the drink, and takes a long drink while FINALLY looking at her. He put the drink down. Burps. In her face. And says, ‘You look nice,’ before spinning around and heading back to the bus.
I follow after him as the photographer is standing there, stunned, and I’m like, ‘Hey, Mike, you still have a bunch of portraits to take before we get the guys off the bus…’ Just as he turns around to answer me, the bride throws her bouquet and hits him right in the chest. He grabbed it and whipped it into the middle of a very busy street and stormed onto the bus. She follows him screaming, I follow behind her but I can’t get around her without stepping on the dress.
Another wasted groomsman is coming back on the bus, trying to get around both of us, bumps me aside, steps on her dress, ripping part of the train and sending both of us stumbling backwards. He dodges the falling bride, I don’t, and I kind of catch her butt and keep her mostly upright but we both tumble off the bus. I can feel her dress ripping more in my hand as she’s trying to right herself.
The guys on the bus are all laughing hysterically. Including the groom. I have tears in my eyes because I just landed on my tailbone and my palm is scraped from breaking my fall. All I’m thinking is ‘don’t touch the dress, don’t get blood on her dress, just get her standing up.’
Groom tells the bus driver through his laughter ‘Just go. Just go man, she can meet us at the church.’ I meet eyes with the bus driver and I just kinda shake my head no, and the groom sees me. ‘Forget her, she’s not paying you, I am. Do you want a $100 tip? Drive.’
The bus driver leaves. The bride is hysterical. I drive her to the church. They still get married an hour later. I drank myself silly when I got home that night.
I was crying later on her behalf. That’s one of the most special moments when he sees you for the first time as his bride, and he was intentionally, obnoxiously ruining it to make his buddies laugh. Not that she was right to throw anything at him, but I would’ve flipped out, too. He also texted a cousin to go pick up the bouquet out of the street, and he presented it to her at the reception as a big joke, kept trying to display it on the head table. Her sister grabbed it to go throw it out in the ladies room (after he had already pulled it out of the garbage and tried to hand it to the bride before their first dance) and more drama ensued. He was in it for the laughs.
I was just heartbroken for her if that’s one small glimpse into that relationship that poor thing. Shockingly, they are still married, three years later.”
This Is Why You Don’t Let The Bride Take A Bunch Of Pills
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“I worked a wedding where the bride and groom were hippy potheads and the groom’s father was the chief of the local police department and they were all from the same little town. One side of the room was a sea of cops, the other was dread-locked, patchouli wearing, barefooted hippies. After dinner was over, the entire hippy crowd went outside and stood in a huge circle and smoked mass amounts of ganja while the cops looked on in utter disgust. It was epic.
The bride was off her rocker on pills and came to when she caught wind that someone was planning an after party without her approval. She didn’t like that one bit. She started screaming at the top of her lungs ‘WHERE IS SHE?’ over and over again while she stormed around in search of her victim. When she found the girl, she proceeded to freak out on her (it was a bridesmaid) in the middle of the dance floor, in front of 300+ people. The bridesmaid started to cry and the bride completely lost her freaking mind. All anyone could do was stare with our mouths hung wide open in disbelief. The words that came out of that bride were some of the absolute worst known to mankind. Several people tried to step in, but the bride lashed out at everyone – it was the single most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen.
The bridesmaid ran off and the bride proceeded to pass out on a couch in the bathroom. Classy chick. When it’s your ‘big day,’ for the love of God, please don’t take pills.”
She Saw A Floating Cake In A Cartoon And Demanded The Same
“I work at a bakery and part of my job is to help pair couples with the correct designer for their cake.
One bride wanted a cake large enough to feed 500 and she wanted it to float. This multi-tiered cake was going to be filled with fresh berries and custard, covered with buttercream and fondant, and decorated with edible flowers and more fresh fruit. And she wanted us to somehow defy the laws of gravity/physics and make it float.
Apparently, she had seen a floating cake in an anime show and decided nothing else was acceptable. When I told her we can’t make floating cakes, she threw her coffee on the floor and cried that we were ruining her wedding. Her fiancé ushered her out the door and I never saw either of them again.”
She Demanded It All For Free
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“We had a woman who wanted everything and wanted it cheap. We had one of out planners quit suddenly so this woman had to be transferred to another planner, but this was so early in the planning that it really should not have mattered, but bride thought the stress was enough that she should get everything for free or severely discounted. Now, she and the original planner had preliminary pricing for certain items. One of the items, a small flower wall, suddenly changed to a 12’x12′ flower wall, but not only should the price not be increased for this custom monstrosity, we should give it to her for free for the stress. I am not a pushover and have no pity for those who try to manipulate me, so in the end, she rented our wall but had to send pre-made flowers herself, which we would staple to our wall. She cut most of what we were supposed to provide, saying her family would do it instead. Fine with me, I could tell this was someone we wanted minimal contact with.
The day came. She was renting chairs from us for the ceremony and we’d begun setting up the flower wall and a couple other minor things, such as stanchions that she’d rented and arranged, but were still in our truck. The time limits on this space were very tight. It also turned out that this outdoor pavilion becomes a complete wind tunnel during the time the bride had scheduled. She rented the cheap stanchions, so the wind just knocked them all down. The wooden chairs were falling over. No way the flower wall would stay up, no amount of sandbagging was going to keep that giant wooden sail from crushing the bride during the ceremony. The family was trying to set up a paper runner and paper deco. I tried to get this all to work, tried putting the chairs along the runner to hold it down, but apparently, her dress was so big, the aisle was too narrow for that to work.
I sat the family down. They knew what was coming, but the bride was the bride and they all feared her reaction. The family came to the decision that this was not going to work, so since I had to go prep the restaurant for the reception, I told them I would take their decor and runway and make use of it there, along with the flower wall. I went to the restaurant with my crew, made this happen, then went home. I guess we were lucky that the bride was over an hour late for her two-hour set up-ceremony-tear down the window.
The bride, shockingly, never called to complain about the wall not being at the ceremony, or anything else. I assumed her family talked some sense into her. We did go above and beyond to make what we could work for her. But what she did do was tell the restaurant that all deco is donated to them. Including all of our rental items. Luckily the restaurant didn’t argue when we said the bride was mistaken and I sent my crew to collect what was ours.
That flower wall was the ugliest thing I had seen in my career. I didn’t have my crew wear our logo gear that day, I did not want the company associated with that event, or anyone thinking we designed it.”
Sounds Like One Heck Of A Party
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“The entire wedding was a disaster.
I used to work for a wedding catering business. One time, we had a wedding where everything that could’ve gone wrong, went wrong. The groom’s ex showed up, demanded to be let in, and was eventually escorted out by the cops. The groom later screamed at his mother to, ‘Get the heck out of here.’ The bride’s brother, who was cut off after he was noticeably sauced, proceeded to knock over a stack of glass racks (maybe five racks) and break about eight dozens glasses on the floor in the dining room. Multiple guests had their drinks confiscated and a lady vomited and passed out on the dance floor. I miss that job.”
She Thought She Could Take On Mother Nature
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“It was an outside ceremony at a golf course with an inside reception. About an hour to the ceremony, the skies go dark and storm clouds begai rolling in.
I always tell my outdoor brides that we need to call the wedding no later than 30 minutes in advance so we have time to move guests indoors, as well as any other items (flowers, etc). In this case, the bride had a beautiful indoor location that was easily used for both ceremony and reception. Which is why there was no tent.
I suggest to the bride that she move her ceremony inside. She says no. She wants it outside.
I show her the clouds. ‘It’s Seattle,’ she says. ‘There are always clouds.’ Well yes, but these are storm clouds and you have 200 people sitting outside on a golf course, so…
She won’t budge. No amount of reasoning is helping.
20 minutes before the ceremony, it starts to get windy. Nothing big yet, but this is just more signs that wet weather is upon us.
She still won’t reconsider. Several guests are seated outside. Most hover inside the reception area because it’s cold out now. I tell her this. I tell her it’s the last call. I warn her what happens if it rains during the ceremony. She still wants it outside.
The ceremony begins. It starts to sprinkle. Bridesmaids are getting wet as they walk down the aisle. Shoes are sinking into the grass. Guests are looking worried.
The bride walks down the aisle just as big wind gusts begin. Rain starts to fall in earnest. Guests try and use umbrellas but it is just too gusty.
We aren’t even five minutes into the ceremony when the heavens suddenly open and it POURS. Guests start screeching and start moving inside. The ceremony is still happening for the bride, but the guests are bailing. The musicians grab their instruments and head inside.
The bridal party continues to stand there like nothing is happening, much like the band on the Titanic.
There are maybe 20 guests left. Everyone else has bailed. It is an open downpour; anyone left is just soaked.
The officiant is rushing now, though there isn’t really anyone left to witness vows. Before they got to the kiss, the lightning began. At that point, they finally bailed.
The bride and bridal party spent the reception looking like drowned rats. The bride was just ruined. Runny makeup, hair smushed. She had rashes on her skin from being wet all night. Wet lace and heavy ball gowns are not easily worn wet. All the decor that was meant to move inside following the ceremony was ruined; thousands of dollars on flowers and centerpieces down the drain. Literally.
And in the end, hardly anyone witnessed the ceremony at all, and they didn’t even get to finish.
Bad bride.”
A Bridezilla At Her Own Wedding AND Her Brother’s Wedding
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“‘Sarah,’ was horrible to her mother, ‘Dora,’ during her whole wedding process. Dora took the terrible abuse like a champ. From Sarah having tantrums over the dress to Sarah wanting her mother to dye her hair the night before the wedding. Dora paid for over half of the wedding and tried to calm tensions between Sarah and the suppliers. She did all this with the patience of a saint. After all, Sarah is her only daughter and the first of her kids to get married.
Then my wedding day comes, I am marrying Sarah’s brother. I wanted to elope but my husband wanted a wedding, so we compromised and had a small wedding with only 10 people, including us.
Sarah shows up late and is being nasty to my family, nasty to our guests and nasty to Dora, her mother. So finally after 20 minutes of her making a spectacle of herself, Sarah loudly starts complaining about how the professional photographer doesn’t know what she’s doing. Dora has had enough. She holds Sarah’s hand softly and very loudly in front of all our guest and family says in a sweet voice, ‘You were a bridezilla at your wedding, do you also have to be so nasty at your brother’s wedding, too?’ Sara’s face dropped and she left shortly after the ceremony and did not sign our wedding book.
I later found out she told my husband the day before our wedding not to marry me. She got divorced shortly after my wedding due to her being unfaithful.
She was miserable with that man and now is a lot nicer and I can genuinely say that I like her now. I feel she was awful because she was not happy with her ex-husband and didn’t want my husband to be as unhappy as her. She projected her feelings, thinking that we were in the same situation.”
“If I Can’t Have The Car I Want, Maybe There Won’t Be A Wedding!”
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“It was my brother’s wedding, and I was one of the bridesmaids for my sister-in-law.
We were taking all those cutey, typical pre-wedding photos between the bride and her bridesmaid, and her and her parents, when we realized that only the bridesmaids’ transport had arrived and that the car for her and her dad was stuck somewhere.
She called up to find out what was happening, then proceeded to scream at the poor guy who was stuck somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
Her skin erupted in a red sort of rash that was visible on her chest and her arms, and she screamed that she was not going to get married if she couldn’t go in the car she paid for.
Half an hour went by. No car for her.
We suggested that she just come with us. We had a Volkswagen van decorated with wedding stuff and had plenty of space for her and her parents.
Her response? ‘No, I can’t turn up this late to my wedding. I’m not getting married!’
After a tense 10 minutes, she got in our van, and we continued with the wedding day.”
They Slept Through Their Own Wedding
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“I am a wedding/special event planner in Toronto. I own my own planning company and I have been in the industry for about eight years.
I had one horrific couple that didn’t care about anyone. The groom was 30 minutes late for the ceremony, but it was no big deal because the bride was two hours late. After the ceremony, we had to shorten happy hour to make up for lost time. The couple got wasted in their limo and both ended up falling asleep. They were both so late for their own reception that I had the venue serve dinner without them. Their parents were furious. The bride’s parents left early and the couple didn’t arrive until 11 at night. Half of their guests left before they arrived and they yelled at me for allowing dinner to start before their arrival. This was a 400 guest wedding.”
The Bride Like To Play Mind Games
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“My worst bride was an Ivy League-educated shrink. She tried to play head games with absolutely everyone involved in the planning of the wedding. She frequently had fits. She and I butted heads because she wanted a carpet running straight from the bottom of the stairs to the doors of the chapel. I told her it wasn’t possible (they didn’t line up). She kept on asking me if I was sure, even after I showed her exactly what I meant. She narrowed her eyes and told me she thought I had a problem with the truth.
She was very controlling with the groom as well. I remembered their names and looked them up on Facebook a while back. They’re divorced and he appears to be happily remarried.”
A Completely Different Kind Of Crazy Bride
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“I’m former clergy. So, let me start off by saying that I was a deacon. Fully empowered to officiate weddings. But no one, in my experience, asks the deacon to do a wedding unless they are a family friend. So I was a little shocked, and somewhat suspicious, when I was approached by this couple. They wanted two things; me to officiate and use of our church. They were only two weeks away and their first venue fell through. Alternatively, they would just like to rent the church and they would have a family friend officiate.
Unless the family friend just happened to be clergy of the same denomination as us, the latter wasn’t an option.
As I asked more questions, I became increasingly uncomfortable with the couple. Something was off. Finally, they came out with it. The couple had broken up after the invites had been sent. But the bride was not going to be deprived of her ‘special day’ of ‘being treated like a princess’ for some technicality like she didn’t have a groom. Deposits were already in place anyway. So they figured they’d throw the big wedding, have the reception and then go their separate ways.
I asked the groom why he would be participating in this farce. The father of the bride, in an apparent effort to give his special princess her special day, was willing to give the groom the honeymoon tickets/hotel. So he basically got a vacation to show up and look sincere.
The reason why the first venue dropped them was that they didn’t want to stage a fake wedding. Neither did we.”