Recently, I asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us the most absurd things they've seen working in the wedding industry, and their answers were as delicious as they are dramatic. Here are some of the best — or, well, worst — things they've witnessed.
1. "Not chaotic, but hilarious. I worked at a wedding venue in Texas for about a year, and one of our couples were HUGE nerds. Groom had a Frankenstein tattoo on one leg and Daenerys Targaryen on the other, bride had a full back Jack Skellington tattoo. We got everyone inside from the ceremony and seated for the plated dinner. Unbeknownst to anyone but the bride and groom, I had been instructed to play 'The Rains of Castamere' as soon as the guests were seated."
"For those who don't know, that's the song the band plays at the beginning of the Red Wedding reception in Game of Thrones right before most of the Starks are slaughtered in their seats during dinner. You could tell some of the guests had no idea what was happening, but others looked legit nervous and kept checking around the room for snipers. It was hilarious!"
2. "The catering company DIDN'T SHOW UP. My clients chose a fairly new wedding venue that just signed with a large catering company who has exclusive rights to most of the major venues in the area. Keep in mind the minimum catering package for a 125 people was $25,0000."
"I got a phone call an hour after the catering was set to arrive. Apparently, their truck broke down, and the second truck they sent got into an accident on the way. Since they cater so many venues, they didn't have any other trucks available. By the time they could get to our venue, the food would be ruined, and new food would cause the wedding to run five hours late. I called every single contact I had, and In-N-Out, and my go-to taco guy came to our rescue. The bride went from crying her eyes out to double fisting tacos and scarfing down animal-style fries. Guests said it was the best food they've ever had at a wedding."
3. "I had a groom once spend the entire reception sleeping on tablecloths in a smaller banquet room. Their ceremony had been off-site, and the groom had had a little too much drink apparently, before and after the ceremony. Somehow, he made it to pictures, but once people arrived at the cocktail hour, he was nowhere to be found."
"Finally, one of my staff found him sleeping in said room. The bride was able to wake him for introductions, and he made it through the first dance, spent the speeches drinking more and leaning on his wife, then once dinner was served, he disappeared again. He missed their cake cutting, the sparkler send-off, his dance with his mother. I've never seen a bride so pissed before. She left the reception about a half hour before it ended, and he was still sleeping."
—Anonymous
4. "I was the pastor of a small town church. It was small and seated 200 people at most, with a narrow center aisle. The bride had gone all out and spent big bucks on everything imaginable. She'd even added open candles on stands on both sides of aisle at every pew."
"It was stunning, but risky with so many people in such a narrow space, so I told the candle-lighters that the candles were not to be lit. This resulted in a huge confrontation with the bride, but I held my position.
Later, while I was handling something else, the bride had the candles lit anyway. I only noticed right as the procession started when I stood in back of the church. My choices were to put the candles out in front of everyone, or hope for the best. I chose the latter.
As the bride came down the aisle, her veil lifted in the air and caught fire. Half the congregation noticed the fire and saw it burning up the veil toward her hair, which was full of hairspray. Just I was about to leap from the dais and tackle the bride, the fire burned itself out, inches from her hair. She remained totally unaware. I swallowed hard and started the service. I should have put out the candles."
—Anonymous
5. "I worked at a bakery that is famous for their beautiful and delicious wedding cakes. A bride came storming into the shop the day after her wedding demanding, 'Why was the icing off-white and not white?'"
"I said, 'Because you chose buttercream, and the butter makes it a little yellow.'
Then she said, 'Well it looked stupid with our white cake topper.' So I asked, 'Well, did it taste good?' And she replied enthusiastically, 'Oh yes, it was delicious! Everyone raved about it.'
I just stood there and blinked at her until she left."
—Anonymous
6. "As a former wedding videographer, one time I showed up at a bride's house to film pre-ceremony footage only to find an Ambulance/EMS crew and shocked family. Turns out the bride's father had a heart attack that morning while getting ready and was rushed to the hospital just a little before I arrived. He was stable but still in ICU before the ceremony, and they continued with the wedding. I wish I could remember who filled in to walk her down the aisle, but the part that stuck out the most was before the bride's entrance, about a dozen firefighters and EMS who saved her Dad's life that day came and stood in the back of the church for the wedding."
"There wasn't a dry eye in the church, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't choking up behind the camera as well. In between the ceremony and the reception, we went to the hospital with the priest, and the bride and groom recited their vows by their dad's bed, then went and had a great time at the reception. This was a good 10 years ago now, but I believe he made a full recovery. I just can't imagine going through that day with a parent in that situation, but to sayin
—Tom C., Fort Lauderdale, FL
7. "Another one: I've seen a bridesmaid's long hair-do catch fire from a candelabra on the altar, mid-ceremony. She didn't even realize at first since she was facing the pews, and it was only catching the bottom of her hair, but within seconds, it must've caught her hairspray because it went up in a large flame pretty fast. If you were behind her where the priest and I were, you could see it all happening. So, the priest starts hitting her on the head (softly!) with his Bible and some papers in his hand to try and put it out — which actually seemed to help!"
"The wedding party all jumped in and patted it out, and someone tossed a towel or something over her head pretty quick. She was fine. Needed a good haircut but no burns to her skin or anything major. No hospital visit. The rest of the wedding went off as planned. The best part is when you watch the video, you can tell she had no idea she was on fire when the priest started swatting her from behind with the Bible. The look on her face was quite something!"
—Tom C., Fort Lauderdale, FL
8. "I'm a wedding coordinator for a resort. Seems like usually the drama involves the cake. Once, on the morning of a rather large wedding, the catering staff discovered they had misplaced the cake order form. In a panic, they baked and decorated a four-tier wedding cake. Everything was going great until the father/daughter wedding dance, when the cake imploded from not having enough time to set. The bride freaked out, of course — she called every day from her honeymoon to complain about how her day was ruined."
"A different time, we had a very elegant and formal wedding. The couple had gone with a black and white theme. They decided on a cake design with a black flower overlay on a white cake, very classy and clean. Only one problem, once the wedding photos came back, all the reception photos featured guests with black teeth!"
—Anonymous
9. "I worked as a day-of coordinator for a COVID wedding. It was super small due to the pandemic, and the couple just wanted to have their day. It was one of those weddings where everything was going wrong, but somehow, it all came together. Everything on the timeline was running behind. The first sign of trouble was the caterer not showing up on time. The bride and bridesmaids were significantly behind on their schedule. Then, we realized that the officiant was a no-show."
"This kicked everything into problem-solving mode. I got the (very shy) best man ordained online. We found an officiant book from a previous wedding that had been left behind at the venue so I removed all of the personal anecdotes and changed the names and handed it to the best man to read.
At this point, the wedding was an hour late, but went on without issue. The caterer finally showed, and due to the ceremony delays, the food was still served without guests realizing how late it was. Then, the officiant showed up to the reception and was angry with me because the couple wasn't married in their denomination! It is absolutely my go-to story on stressful wedding days."
—Anonymous
10. "A friend of the family made a massive three-tier cake. The wedding was on a very hot day, and the venue's air conditioning kept going off. I was in the food line, and as the person closest to the cake, I watched as the top two layers began to slide off the cake in slow motion. The bride’s grandmother came running over and tried to pick up the fallen cake and started swearing loudly. She got icing all over her navy blue chiffon dress. I had to placate her and lead her away from the cake. I felt bad, but it ended up okay, because even with two tiers gone, we had so much cake left over at the end of the day!"
11. "I worked at a resort in a popular destination for weddings. One weekend, we had a wedding block for a couple who was staying at the resort and getting married at a nearby venue. The bride checks in Friday afternoon, and not long after, calls down to the front desk and is losing her mind. Apparently, she hung a dress on one of the fire alarm sprinklers in the room (I believe it was a bridesmaid's dress, not her wedding dress). The weight of the dress was too heavy, and the sprinkler broke and got the dress, the entire room, and rooms below absolutely soaked."
"The kicker is that the bride was outraged at US because she said 'there should have been a sign saying not to hang things from the sprinkler.' There was, it was knocked onto the floor when the sprinkler broke.
We had to put her room and all rooms underneath out of order for a fully booked weekend, so between losing that revenue and paying for repairs/damage we should have made her pay, yet she had the audacity to threaten to sue us.
A coworker suggested to the bride that she simply wash the dress in one of our washing machines, which caused the bride to go berserk. She screamed, 'IT’S A CUSTOM DRESS, IT'S COMMON SENSE THAT YOU CAN’T JUST WASH IT!' To which my coworker replied, 'So that’s common sense, but not hanging clothes from a sprinkler isn’t?' She stopped yelling at us after that. I get that weddings are stressful, but a marriage license isn’t a license for you to be an a-hole to anyone."
12. "At my wedding, our transportation died in front of my parents' house as we were supposed to be leaving for the church, and we couldn't get word to the groom or groomsmen about what was happening. My sisters had to flag our parents down to drive us. We ended up arriving 15 minutes before ceremony was supposed to start. I had poison ivy, but didn't know it, and by end of the wedding day, I was covered from head to toe in rashes. Also got food poisoning on our honeymoon."
13. "I used to photograph weddings in my younger days. One wedding was in a venue that had a rooftop ceremony area, and then you came back downstairs for the reception. The building was super old and had this ancient elevator in the back. After the ceremony, I held back the wedding party and did lots of shots of them on the roof. After the bridal party went downstairs, I shot the groomsmen. They were super silly and hyped up, and they decided they wanted a picture of all of them jammed into the elevator. After taking the picture, they said they'd take the elevator down. I went down the stairs and started photographing guests and such. After about 15 minutes, the bride comes and finds me to ask where her husband is."
"Turns out the groom and his buddies got stuck in the elevator, between floors. Firemen were called in to rescue them, and I took pictures of the whole thing. Groomsmen half dressed (it was hot in there!) came climbing out the door, with firemen lifting them down. It ended up taking almost half their reception time to get everyone out ok. The bride was hilarious the whole time, saying maybe the groom was too dumb to marry. After he got out, they cut the cake, and it became a great story for them. When I made their wedding album, she asked for an entire page spread showing the 'elevator incident' so she could remind him whenever she wanted!"
—Anonymous
14. "The reception was at a fancy hotel overlooking the beach. While everyone was dancing and chatting, I went over to see the cake because it's my favorite part of any wedding! I was horrified to see an ant trail mid-march up the back of the cake, stuck in the frosting like a Mt. Everest expedition party stuck in a snowstorm."
"A few ants had made it up to the second tier. I discretely alerted the staff, who quickly took the cake to the kitchen and brought it back out for the cake cutting — minus the bottom tier. Not sure if they scraped off the ants that made it higher up. I ate up all of my table's Andes Mints instead."
—Anonymous
15. "I'm not in the industry, but at my uncle's wedding, his ex showed up incognito. When the line for someone to object was read out, she stood up and announced that she was pregnant with his child! My uncle's bride-to-be shot down the aisle, called her a liar, and punched the woman in the face. She called the cops, the bride got arrested, and the whole wedding was ruined. Come to find out she wasn’t even pregnant, and didn't even want him back, just hated the bride."
If you've seen something juicy go down at a wedding (even if you don't work in the wedding industry!), pleeeeease let us know in the comments. I love reading about drama. Or, if you really wanna dish but want to stay anonymous, check out the Google form!
Submissions have been edited for length and clarity.