Weddings should only be about love and joy, but not everyone wants to see others finding their happily ever after. These nightmare nuptials prove that you shouldn’t invite everyone to your special day.
Planning a wedding is already stressful and expensive enough for someone to come and ruin everything. These people on Reddit posted what happened during their ceremony and reception that made them wish they hadn’t hosted a party at all.
Comments have been edited for clarity and grammar.
1. My Selfish Family Did Whatever They Wanted
u/Swimming_Juice_9752: Not everyone should be considered your close family. I married my partner in a modest ceremony and reception in our backyard. Being middle-aged and each on our second marriage, we opted for a simple thing.
Despite the distance, almost every guest traveled, some from the Midwest and others for hours within our state. We live in a remote part of the country, where a 120-mile journey can take over five hours.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Midjourney
Still, we were thrilled that my parents and one of my six siblings made it. My parents had a visit planned, so we timed the wedding to fit perfectly. My sister decided to join a couple of weeks before the event.
I arranged hair and makeup appointments with my regular stylist for my mom, sister, and me. The first appointment was at 10 a.m., and I was the last to go there, so I stayed home to prepare our house until noon.
After arriving at the salon, I found out that my mom and sister had left. I had hoped we’d spend the day together, especially since we live nearly 2,000 miles apart.
I returned home around 3 p.m., with much left to do and the photographer arriving at 4:30 p.m., so I was panicking. I texted my family for help.
The plan was for them to assist with final party preparations after our appointments. However, they went to a fancy lunch an hour away and were just getting ready at their rental at 3:30 p.m. I managed the last-minute tasks alone as guests began to arrive, but by then, I was sweating off my makeup.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Midjourney
My parents and sister arrived at 4:15 p.m., leaving me barely any time to write my vows and get dressed. But the worst part was seeing my mom in a knee-length cream lace dress with brown, tall boots, identical to my wedding gown.
She had seen my dress already, and all she could say about it was: “It’s cream, not white.” I was on the verge of tears by then and wanted to change. But my dad eventually took her back to their rental to change.
They came back an hour later, but they were both clearly unhappy with me. They didn’t speak to me for the rest of the night, other than to say goodbye. My sister helped clean up, but I was deeply hurt because she didn’t intervene earlier.
The next day, my parents hosted a brunch, where my mom barely spoke to me, and my dad seemed annoyed. I had trouble sleeping due to anxious dreams for an entire month after my wedding. Luckily, my husband was there, and I focused on building my life with him.
2. I Couldn’t Control My Anger
u/best_reddituser19: Was I wrong about this? My husband and I recently tied the knot in Paris. It was a huge wedding with over 60 people attending.
I’ve never been on good terms with my mother-in-law, and if it were my choice, I wouldn’t have had her at the wedding at all. But I put our differences aside for my husband and invited her.
Everything was fine after I had sent the invitations out until I got a text from my mother-in-law asking if any children would be attending the wedding.
I said yes, as I have a six-year-old son from a previous relationship who loved my husband as if he were his dad.
This became a problem for her, and she demanded I hire a babysitter for my son, since he wasn’t my husband’s biological child. I was fuming but kept my cool for my husband’s sake. I calmly told her it was my wedding and wanted my son to be there on my big day. She finally agreed after arguing for some time.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Midjourney
Everything was great after that, and we had a few days before the wedding. Getting everyone from the airport to the hotels was stressful, but it went smoothly.
Once we got to the hotel, my mother-in-law insisted on sharing a room with us. My husband and I told her we wanted to spend some time alone with our son before the wedding, since he wouldn’t get enough attention during the ceremony and the party afterward.
We asked her to share a room with my sister-in-law instead, and she walked away angrily. At that point, I thought she wouldn’t argue or cause more stress on the wedding day, but I was wrong. A day before the wedding, she said she should have been my maid of honor.
I don’t understand why she said that because she always knew she wouldn’t be my maid of honor. Also, no one makes their in-laws part of the wedding party.
I didn’t want to argue, so I just walked away. Finally, the wedding day arrived, the ceremony started, and everything went as planned. I felt it was the best day of my life until the reception started.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Midjourney
Everyone was having fun, but when it came time for my husband and I to have our first dance as a married couple. We were halfway through the song before I heard a loud “boo” from a person in the crowd. Of course, it was her.
She stood up and shouted, “You have taken my boy away from me. He will never love you as much as he loved me! A boy’s mom should be the only woman he should ever love! You will never be good enough for him!”
That’s when I lost my cool, got up, and shouted in her face, “You have done nothing but ruin everything for me! You ruined the days leading up to the wedding and my wedding day. I will never accept you as my mother-in-law!”
She immediately started crying and ran out of the wedding. Needless to say, the rest of the night was awkward, and everyone went home early. So, should I have kept my mouth shut?
Coming soon: a bride’s family and her groom are completely AWOL from her wedding. Then, she discovers they’re all at another ceremony!
For illustration purposes only | Source: Midjourney
3. Grass-Stained and Hurting
u/Deleted User: I recently had my wedding, and the morning started with us feeling elated about getting married. However, the mood shifted when my soon-to-be husband received a text from his mother, who traditionally had waist-length black hair.
To our astonishment, she sent a photo of herself with her hair cut and colored to mimic mine: shoulder-length, brown with blonde streaks. I was beyond upset.
Despite this, I let it go and focused on our special day. As we proceeded with the ceremony, held beside a picturesque riverbank, a moment came for the parents to join us for a vow.
Instead of standing with the other parents near the groom, his mother positioned herself prominently by the pastor and me.
Suddenly, she screamed, lost her balance, and as she fell, she grabbed my hair, causing me to almost tumble down towards the riverbank. I didn’t fall in the water, but my scalp hurt the entire day and my dress got stained with dirt and grass. She destroyed my moment.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Midjourney
The incident left me devastated. It was the talk of the rest of the ceremony. When she recovered her balance, my husband’s mother simply laughed it off and walked away, leaving me on the ground, holding back tears.
This event has severely strained our relationship; we cut contact with her. My husband supports this decision wholeheartedly.
I still cry whenever I think about my wedding day because it feels like she deliberately marred the celebration without any remorse.
The evidence from our wedding video shows it was intentional because her husband and the pastor were holding her arms. She deliberately stepped back and fell.
4. What’s the Baby’s Name?
u/Silver_Fire72: My husband and I got married last weekend, and our wedding was a much-anticipated event for us. We’ve been together almost ten years with four children but couldn’t afford the wedding of dreams. We also wanted something our girls could remember since we’d waited so long. Therefore, we worked very hard for it.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Midjourney
I was already nervous because I was terrified something horrible would go wrong, but the setup and ceremony went as planned, and the reception started on time.
About halfway through, my sister-in-law came to me and told me she had left something in my guest book. I didn’t think much about it and went on about my night until my aunts approached me, asking about my brother and sister-in-law’s baby name.
I was so confused until I realized that’s what she left in my guest book. They announced their baby’s name using our guest book and made it a game with the family.
The game was called “If you want to know the baby’s name, you’ll have to look for it.” I was upset but didn’t say anything because I knew it would cause a scene.
I found my husband and spent the rest of the night with him. The next day, I messaged my brother and SIL to tell them that they had hurt my feelings by doing that.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Midjourney
In return, my brother yelled at me, saying it was a gift. Meanwhile, my sister-in-law said it wasn’t like they grabbed a mic to announce it and that we could remove the baby’s name if it were such a big deal.
I tried to explain why I felt hurt, but I stopped once I realized they wouldn’t understand or care. They just got mad at me, and their messages made me feel like I was being crazy.
5. They Held a Secret Wedding behind My Back
u/Deleted User: My wedding day was shaping up to be legendary, right? Huge barn, and a massive guest list of 250, all orchestrated by my folks. But when D-Day arrives, it’s a total disaster—only like 30 people show up.
I’m standing there in my wedding gown, feeling more ghosted than an overused Snapchat account. But soon, I realized the most important people – my nuclear family, my bridesmaids, and my groom – weren’t there either.
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I started calling my fiancé, my mom, and anybody who’d answer. Nothing. Finally, one of my bridesmaids picks up, and this is how our conversation went:
For illustration purposes only | Source: Midjourney
Me: WHERE IS EVERYONE?! WHAT’S EVEN HAPPENING?
She: LOSE MY NUMBER, TRASH!!! We’re at the ceremony, no one’s waiting for you here…
Me (completely baffled): Umm… what ceremony? I’M STANDING ALONE AT THE ALTAR.
She: ooooh, so you don’t know? Let me hand the phone to your mom, she’ll explain.
So, my mom gets on the line and starts with: Didn’t you get my message this morning?
Me: No. What did it say?
And then, the truth bomb drops. My mom writes that she and her sisters thought my fiancé would be better off with my cousin. Yep, they schemed, got him tangled up in this affair with her, and now she’s expecting A FREAKING BABY!
For illustration purposes only | Source: Midjourney
The wedding I was at was a total sham, a smoke screen while the real action was going down elsewhere with my fiancé and my cousin. I know it sounds impossible and fake, but it happened. After I composed myself, I greeted those who came, told them everything, and left.
I moved far away, and I don’t talk to my family anymore. They can go to hell!
A bridesmaid, the mother-in-law, or a jealous ex-girlfriend could easily ruin a couple’s big day.
Have you ever experienced a wedding guest turning this day into a nightmare?