Have you ever been to a wedding that was ruined?

[bluestateguy]

I just watched the movie "The Graduate". I think most of us know how it ends: Dustin Hoffman ruins his love interest's wedding and the two run off together. Many of our TV shows, books and movies romanticize weddings that are ruined by romantically infatuated people.

Somehow, though, I don't think we would like it if our wedding, or that of a family member was ruined in such a situation. I've never been to a wedding that was ruined before.

[JVS]

1. The only beer was lite beer!

and the bride and groom are now divorced! Coincidence? I think not!

[LeftyMom]

2. I've been to one where an inebriated priest read the wrong service

but it wasn't ruined, it was still a nice service, just with different readings than my cousin picked out.

My ex sobbed like a little girl through the whole thing when we got married. I should have backed away slowly while I still could. I don't know if it was ruined, it was certainly awkward.

[JVS]

3. What did he do, read the baptismal rite or something?

[LeftyMom]

5. No, just somebody else's prayers and scripture reading

not the ones my cousin and her husband picked out.

It was still a nice wedding and they're still married almost 15 years later, so apparently it wasn't the end of the world.

[Left Is Write]

4. Nope.

[xmas74]

6. I was a bridesmaid

and the bride needed some "courage". We (there were three of us) opened up a bottle of Jack and started drinking shortly before the service. She drank way too much and puked on the minister.
Her mother blames me for their divorce 2 years later since I helped get her daughter drunk. You do stupid shit when you're 19.

[swag]

9. Best true story ever posted on DU.

I mean I hope it's true.

[xmas74]

13. Unfortunately it's quite true.

I had a major lapse in judgement. Didn't help that the best man was dealing at the time and we went out for a "smoke" break right before I had to help get the bride ready for the ceremony.
She wanted some too but didn't want her mom to smell it on her so we opted for some Jack instead.

[JVS]

10. LOL! This minister actually was willing to complete the ceremony.

On a more serious note. My pastor back home refused to perform a wedding for a HS classmate of mine and her fiance because he thought that they were really not ready for it.

[xmas74]

14. Well, they had already said their "I do's"

and mom knew she was drunk but was pushing for the end of the ceremony.
It was the first time he'd ever been puked on but not the first time he'd had someone drunk at their ceremony(though he said it was usually the groom).

[crispini]

35. O M G!

:spray: Thanks ... need a new keyboard now.

[grace0418]

Getting married at 19 was the really stupid thing.

I'm sorry to all those folks who married at 19 and are still together 25 years later, but those people should consider themselves very lucky. That's too freaking young to get married. Her mother should be blaming herself for not talking to her daughter about being more mature when she gets married rather than blaming you for getting her drunk.

[aQuArius]

7. My Own!

The flowers were near death and it poured rain during the ceremony. I should've taken it as a sign, lol. Divorced at the 7 year itch... ahhh well.

[JitterbugPerfume]

8. my son forgot the ring

he left it in the car The wedding was on the beach Very informal and his new wife covered for him nicely but it was obvious when he turned bright red and whispered to her I FORGOT THE RING!!!!

[mykpart]

11. I wish someone had ruined my first wedding.

It would have saved me a few tears, bloodshed, and black eyes.

[BlueIris]

34. Yikers.

Someday, I have this bad feeling that I'm going to be That Wedding Guest.

[Rabrrrrrr]

12. I've been to many that were ruined by Diva Bitch Bridezillas,

but never in the way that you are asking about.

[JVS]

15. Do tell the tales!

[greatauntoftriplets]

16. No...but my parents' first wedding was totally fucked up.

It was 12/8/34 and they went to a judge for the wedding. The judge was smashed...and my parents knew it. He slouched in his chair and slurred the wedding vows. My parents doubted the efficacy of their wedding.

So, about six weeks later they went back to City Hall and told another judge about what happened. This judge happened to be sober, and so did the ceremony again.

Several years later, when my mother did not get pregnant, they got married in the Catholic Church...with witnesses from the street...literally.

Took a couple of years again to get pregnant...and then I was born five years after my sister.

I only learned about my parents' marriage history after my father died 13 1/2 years ago and my mother got a copy of their wedding license. It was the second marriage that took...not the first. The date was 1/24/35...and my father always brought flowers on that date. We never knew why....

My mother was extremely embarrassed about it when she confessed...and it was only after my father died.

Sadly, my mother died 12/28/05. But that makes this story sound good. I have told friends in private, but never before publicly.

They stayed married for more than 50 years. :)

[SeattleGirl]

20. I'm sorry you lost your mother, greataunt

I did not know she had passed away. It makes your decision to stay with her instead of going to (sorry, can't remember the event), even more special.

:hug:

[swag]

24. Great set of stories, hon.

And one nice long story.

[Scout1071]

17. I went to one this fall and it was disastrous from beginning to end.

Started pouring rain during the ceremony....outdoors. Everyone rushed under the tents where the reception was to be held and they finished the ceremony. However, the thunder got louder and louder and eventually drowned out the vows.

Rain stopped for a while and everyone got drunk, sinking in the mud, then boom! Rain, thunder and heavy duty lightning started up again. The center tent (of three) began bulging with water. Two geniuses decided to push the water out with a couple of chairs. I warned them repeatedly, but what do I know, I'm just a woman? So they pushed the water and hardly any came over the lip of the tent. I looked up and realized it had just moved to another section of the roof top and was REALLY bulging now. I just had time to yell "Get out of the tent, it's going to go!" - Boom. Came crashing down. Mayhem ensued. Lightning striking all around in the nearby distance. Power gone. Screaming, crying, mud. A woman yelling for her son "Nooooaaahhh!" It did not occur to me until the next day the extreme irony of her son being named "Noah." The bar was looted. Complete chaos.

Everyone had arrived on the property via charter bus. Because of the lightning, we had to evacuate the collapsing tents and head to the small house on the property. 250 people crammed in a 2 bedroom house waiting for the bus in a torrential downpour. The bus finally arrives and we all load up. The bus backs up to turn around when - wham! Comes to a stop. The bus had sunk into the mud. So low that I literally had to step up to get off the bus.

It was much worse, but I figured the condensed version would do!

[JVS]

22. "The bar was looted. "

:rofl: Great wedding!

[Scout1071]

23. I woke up the next morning and I was hurting.

Not just in the hungover sense. I woke up and went in the hotel bathroom to brush my teeth and could barely lift my arm. Then I looked in the mirror and saw the bruise on my arm and the one on my forehead. I got hammered by the metal poles on the tent. After we crawled out of the metal and collapsed tent top, my friend looked at me and said "are you alright?" I replied that I was fine and he said "I'm going back in!" Next thing I know he's helping Grandma, Grandpa and the Mother of the Bride out from under the carnage.

Good times.

And I probably should have noted that the bar was looted....by moi. I wasn't the only one, but I ended up with a little bottle of petite syrah back at the hotel.

:rofl:

[skygazer]

18. I suppose it depends on the definition of "ruined"

I mean, if someone who is about to be married runs off with someone else, the marriage probably wouldn't have been real good had it gone through. It would certainly suck at the time but better to find these things out before you're legally shackled than after.

That said, I've never attended a wedding that reached that level of drama though virtually every one had its surreal moments.

[leeroysphitz]

19. I took !/2 hit of acid just before my first wedding....

My wife and I were nearly late after getting lost in rural N.C. but we made it. Our Pastor (preacher or whatever you called him) nearly passed out from stage fright just before the ceremony. I rang the church bell afterwards and somehow "broke" the bell wich pissed off the pastor (or preacher or whatever...) but I was high so it seemed sort of funny at the time. I can't imagine why that relationship only lasted seven years...

[henslee]

54. Acid at your own wedding. That's a new one.

[BikeWriter]

21. I went to a wedding last night. The couple...

left today for their honeymoon. Her car wouldn't start, so they took Mom's. It broke down an hour into the trip. Mom and Dad left immediately to drive them to their destination and then get the car fixed.

[fortyfeetunder]

25. Not the wedding but the reception...

The caterer didn't show up. We sat around for hours -- on a hot summer afternoon...Ended up selling out the soda machine.

[Missy Vixen]

26. I'm not sure if this qualifies, but

it was sure amusing to us.

My cousin "S" got married several years ago in a very costly and elegant ceremony. She went upstairs to the bride's dressing room shortly before the wedding, though, and put down what must have been a serious amount of champagne. She couldn't stop giggling long enough to recite her wedding vows.

Julie

[Jean Louise Finch]

27. Not ruined exactly

But a wedding I attended left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It was the wedding of a very successful academic and his (not quite as famous, but still fabulously successful) partner. And the three toasts were all focused on HIM and how great and brilliant HE was, with very little said about her, except how she would be "standing behind him". Yuck. It just sort of ruined the whole mood and was much more of a celebration of him than of them together. Sorta sucked, and I felt bad for the two of them, because he was obviously pretty embarassed, and she just was trying to put a brave face on. I can see one speechmaker messing up, but all three? It was like a conspiracy against them!

[leftofthedial]

28. most weddings are ruined

it just takes a few years for some of them

[WCGreen]

29. Oh yea.....

A shotgun wedding where the bride and the groom didn't even like each other...

Sad really, cause it ended up ruining both of their lives....

[Patiod]

30. Not ruined, but some bizarre stuff

#1: Bride was an Eagles cheerleader, wearing a skin-tight gown that made her look like a mermaid (or morticia adams) and the back was cut to JUST above her butt-cleavage. It was a secular wedding since she's Catholic and he was sort of Jewish (Jewish Dad, Catholic mom and Catholic schools). The priest that he had invited from Georgetown got drunk, and when he did the blessing, he said "...and I'd like to thank the bride for reminding me, after 30 years in the priesthood, that I'm still heterosexual"

#2 Any one of my cousin's weddings where the groomsman can be found doing shots at the bar, and someone ends up slow dancing with a chair

#3 the wedding where the best man gave a long toast about how the groom fell in love with the bride after pulling her out of the water on a white-water rafting trip. Except that story was how the groom met his previous girlfriend....

[tigereye]

37. ha ha

:rofl:

I love it when the priest hits on the bride! That is a great story!

[Patiod]

43. My friends were clamoring for pictures of the dress

I wish I knew where they were, and I'd post them here (since you can't see my friend's face)

I'm not sure who was more shocked - the Jewish relatives or the Catholic relatives. Supposedly, the priest had been the model for someone in The Exorcist, or had actually been IN the Exorcist although I wasn't buying it because I think every priest at Georgetown had that rumor swirling around him at some point

[BlueIris]

38. Ooh. That number 3 story sounds PAINFUL.

Man.

[Patiod]

46. Fortunately, the bride has a great sense of humor

My friend Tom who gave the toast was mortified.

True story about the same guy: He and his friend Susan were at a formal for our theater group. Susan was putting on fake nails, and made the mistake of putting in her contacts right away, and got SuperGlue in her eye. Tom took her to the Eye Hospital (thank God for living in a major city) and spent the night there with her in the ER.

The next morning they are checking out of their rooms at a big Center City hotel, and there's a large group of elderly Masons behind them, waiting to check in. Her eye is bandaged, and when she finishes checking out she turns to Tom and says, "I am NOT kidding Tom. Next time you slug me, I'm taking the kids and moving in with Mother!" and she flounces off. Poor Tom still had to check out, in front of all these disapproving Masons....

[Tracer]

31. An old boyfriend of mine...

... wanted to be a male Martha Stewart and set himself up as a caterer.

He was hired to cater a large wedding reception in a tent. Since he was so new, he asked me to help him out.

It was an extremely hot day, but he set up a huge blazing grill right next to the tent to serve some kind of kebabs. The heat and fumes nearly cooked people who were close to the grill.

Then a thunderstorm kicked up and right before one hits, you KNOW that there is going to be some really gusty winds. Well, of course, the wind blew all the ashes and coals from the grill right through the tent - onto all the people and tables. Then, the tent started to collapse.

Ash-covered men rushed to shore up the guy wires --- and actually did save it from completely collapsing.

This was the first and last time I ever "helped" my friend.

[AngryAmish]

32. "People called me 'The Standing Ovation" because I..

had such a raging case of the clap."

The wedding speech of a friend of mine.

[MountainLaurel]

33. The bride ended up in the ER

During the reception. She had taken her shoes off to dance, and a bridesmaid dropped her glass on the hardwood dance floor. It took several stitched to close up the wound. Ironically, the song that played immediately after her departure was "Heart of Glass."

Also at this wedding:

* The married best man ended up sleeping with the violinist on the night of the wedding.
* There were bets on about whether the divorced parents of the bride would get into a screaming match.
* Only two members of the groom's family came to the reception, his mother and sister. After the meal was over, they sat out in the hallway because they were fundies from the mountains who refused to be in the same room as dancing.

At another wedding where I was a bridesmaid, the newlyweds had to have their car jump started after the reception because the best man had left the lights on.

[MrsMatt]

36. A college friend of mine

played guitar and sang "The Rose" at her own wedding. That would ruin any wedding.

[ucmike]

39. Rev. Dr. Pepper performed my friends ceremony

I thought Dr. Pepper was his nickname for some reason until he introduced himself to me. While shaking his hand i looked at him and thought he had a salt and pepper colored mustache. during the ceremony (i was best man) i figured out that his "mustache" was actually some sort of cream over a healthy patch of scabby cold sores or fever blisters. for the rest of the night i couldn't look away. as soon as he left everyone in the place started talking about it.

hearing other's wedding stories makes me glad that i got married on vacation in a ten minute ceremony. i wore shorts, she wore a skirt, our "resort friends" were witnesses. no muss, no fuss, no planning, no headaches.

[Patiod]

47. Heard the following story when I was in the hospital:

The nephrologist, Dr. Ngo, was doing something on my "roommate", and trying to distract her.

He told her a story about his name, saying "when I was in high school, the principal's name was Robert Bond. The receptionist hung up on my dad, who was also a doctor, because he called the principal's office saying 'This is Dr. Ngo for Mr. Bond'."

[tjwash]

40. I went to a reception that got ruined.

I'm telling you, keep the future mother in laws away from the free wine...

[tigereye]

41. several things went wrong at mine

but it wasn't ruined.

Minister forgot the day, had to call him on the phone, but he was able to come anyway. Whew.

Caterer ran off with my deposit for the reception, but the restaurant ended up giving me better food for the original "too-low" price, since they felt so bad. ;)

It did rain, but not so much that it was a problem. It actually looked really nice with the autumn leaves and they say rain on a wedding day is good luck.

I'm still happily married after 14 years.

[azmouse]

42. My Mother-in-law broke her arm at the reception.

The floor was freshly waxed and down she went just as she walked in. Luckily the hospital was right across the street. I felt really bad that she missed most of the reception. My husband is her only child and she didn't get to experience the whole special day.

[bleedingheart]

44. None that were ruined but some that were funny...

1. My one cousin got married and at the reception one of our other cousins tried to get his 1st cousin to give him her bra (she wore a 40 EEE bra) so he could wave it around during the bridal dance...it was really pretty funny. It took...approximately $50 before she would give up the bra...

2. Same wedding...the parents of the bride refused to dance with one another ...even though they are/were married at the time...they just hate each other so much.

3. A wedding I attended of a friend where it was BYOB...it was the most classless thing to do... and people were pissed off about it... They did it to save money...

4. Another cousin's wedding...the bride and groom were late to the reception...they had to go do shots at the firehall where they met...and ended up being late to the reception at the firehall her parents had rented for the wedding...they were morons...Then...their cheesecake wedding cake got too warm in the reception hall and started to fall over...that was pretty funny.

5. All family weddings I have gone to have resulted in extreme boozeouts.....big fights...the old ladies somehow manage to drink the men under the table...it is all quite funny...

[Patiod]

48. I much prefer firehall weddings

When my cousin's bridal party does shots and yells at the firehall bar, it's WAY less embarrassing then when another cousin's bridal party does shots and yells at an elite Main Line country club bar.

(I used to waitress at a few country clubs, and I know how judgmental/snobby the staff can be)

[On the Road]

45. OMG, This is a Great Thread!

My wedding actually came off pretty well, all things considered.

Because my hair is unruly, I had an appointment before the wedding to get my hair washed and blow-dried. (Sounds vain, but I just couldn't look like that for my wedding.) But it had grown out and looked horrible, so I asked for it to be cut, which made us late. My best man and I raced to the chapel, which was on the old campus of Yale. Thankfully, there was a parking spot right in front of Phelps Gate, which I have never seen vacant before or since. We were about two minutes late, and my bride was panicking, thinking I had had second thoughts.

I had also just separated from a tight-knit religious community who had problems with the marriage. I was afraid that some of them would show up uninvited and cause a scene ("if anyone has reason to object to this marriage, let them speak now..."). So I asked my best man to get rid of them, physically if necessary, if they showed up. They didn't, but it got back to them and didn't help things -- not that it mattered in the long run.

The ceremony and reception were actually very nice. The relatives and guests all had a blast. The marriage lasted 14 years. Feel no regrets about either the wedding or the divorce.

[Redstone]

49. No, more's the pity. It would be fun to watch.

Redstone

[mikeytherat]

50. Same wedding ruined TWICE ON TWO SEPARATE OCCASIONS!

Here's the skinny:

My band is booked for a wedding gig in late '04. Two weeks before the wedding, bride and groom call it off (one of them was caught in a compromising situation, so we heard). Since it was within 30 days of the event, they had to pay us, the caterer and the venue 50% of our fees. Fast forward to spring of '05 and the wedding is back on. Two weeks before attempt Number 2, you guessed it: called off again! And, again, they had to pay all of us the remaining 50%. So, we all got paid in full for a gig we never had to do!

mikey_the_rat

[Justpat]

51. Yeah, my own, by acutally going through with it.

The first one.

I got better with practice.

[Crazy Dave]

52. One of my ex-girlfriends wanted me to be at her wedding....

....but I wisely declined. I'm sure the "Who are you?" would have eventually got to the groom and....

[henslee]

53. I went to one in a hotel where lots of guests took rooms. Grooms friends

grabbed a case of chapagne and took it back to a room at end of party. Bride's uncles tried to retrieve. Drunken fistfight ensued. Quite a few rented tuxedos were blodstained that night. And oh yeah, marriage did not last.

[kwassa]

55. My strangest wedding

The strangest was one that took place in the Mariposa Grove of huge sequioas at Yosemite National Park. The wedding party traveled from LA aboard a huge chartered bus. What we didn't know is that our friend the bride had converted to the new age religion of Urantia, and everyone on the bus except us were members of the Urantian church group. So, we spent much of the trip politely turning down conversion, and feeling like fish out of water. The park was beautiful, of course, the company nice but odd. I still remember swimming nude in ice cold water under Yosemite Falls the next morning with a group of them.

The marriage lasted a couple of years. Our friend had no discernment about men, and made worse choices later.