Wild Wedding Guests Whose Behavior Nearly Ruined The Bride And Groom’s Big Day

Ah, weddings. They’re a time to get together with your nearest and dearest and celebrate your union to the person you want to spend your life with. Unfortunately… those same nearest and dearest can really ruin a wedding if left unchecked. These 40 shocking stories from Reddit and social media might make you just want to elope to Vegas instead.

40. Limo lover

In a 2017 Reddit thread titled “What’s your worst wedding guest behavior story?” a user called pm_me_your_vudu_code volunteered, “Someone at my wedding rented a limo. Not for my wife and I, but for himself.” Well, we can only hope it cost them a ton of money and they hated it.

39. Manipulative mother-in-law

The internet is packed with stories of terrible mothers-in-law almost ruining weddings. On a Reddit thread asking “Married Redditors, what was the most obnoxious request made by one of your wedding guests?” a Redditor called Cogwork answered, “My MIL tried to manipulate my wife into letting the MIL’s boyfriend walk my wife down the aisle instead of her father.” Ouch.

38. Tone-deaf cousin

SAMO1415 posted on Reddit, “At my sister’s wedding reception our cousin asked her and my new bro-in-law if she could stop the music and dancing while she sang a song she had written about their wedding. My sister was annoyed but agreed because, wow, she wrote this song just for them.” It was not a good song, and then, “A few weeks later my sister finds out through Facebook that this cousin sang the exact same song at multiple other weddings.”

37. Devastating invites

Most people don’t throw a tantrum on receiving a wedding invitation. But imperfectchicken had this story to tell on Reddit: “My mother complained about our black-and-gold wedding invitations. It absolutely devastated her that I’d use such a funereal color scheme and she sent a long e-mail about how terrible they were.”

36. Super-conservative maid of honor

Alcohol is an accepted part of weddings, but some people just won’t have it. A woman called 23msginger wrote on Reddit, “My maid of honor didn’t want to participate in any of the pre-wedding festivities because there was alcohol involved. She is super conservative.” Then, she added, “She left the wedding without saying goodbye to me and then deleted me off of all social media.”

35. Unexpected child’s birthday party

On the Reddit “Obnoxious requests” thread, a user called Sackriel remembered that her sister-in-law demanded a child’s birthday party on the same day as the wedding. “Why?” Sackriel pondered. “Because she was turning six and would remember this birthday forever. We were horrible people for planning a wedding on this day.” Plus she demanded special cupcakes for the kid at the rehearsal dinner and a shout-out from the DJ. But also? It wasn’t her child.

34. Co-worker brings ex

There’s an unspoken rule of weddings that generally, except under very special circumstances, ex partners shouldn’t be anywhere near them. But a person called Mmkwats remembered on one of the Reddit wedding disaster threads, “One of our co-workers brought my ex-boyfriend. We only had about 20 people there.” That co-worker was probably not invited to anything else, ever.

33. Guest sees a business opportunity

Trenalynn on Reddit told a story of her wedding being hijacked by an aunt’s husband. She wrote, “He then proceeded to pull a couple cans of some energy drink out and give my husband and I a sales pitch, asking if we’d invest in the company… My photographer got a photo of the cans, thinking we had brought them for ourselves. When we told her the story, she was crying with laughter over the whole debacle.”

32. Grandma gotta eat

A user named rastascoob posted on Reddit, “While my wife and I were taking pictures with guests and some were still getting their meal, my grandmother cut our wedding cake and began serving it. We never even saw what it looked like.” Wow. Let’s hope the taste of the cake was worth all the dirty looks she no doubt got.

31. Wedding crashers

A Redditor called tomatotomato50 had her husband’s best friend’s mother turn up uninvited, with children in tow no less. And then she started taking unwanted photos and complaining about the catering. But luckily: “My mom told her to leave, which was so unbelievably awkward, but she left without making more of a scene.”

30. The Fish Hunter

Koi fish can be a lovely “decoration” at an outdoor wedding, until someone decides it would be a great idea to bring one home. A Redditor with the wonderful username of DannyDevitoIsMyDad wrote on the site, “I cater weddings and the most recent one was a guest going waist-deep into this pond at the venue trying to catch a koi fish.”

29. Wannabe photographer

The worst wedding guests of all are the entitled ones. Reddit user LaCa2BoMa wrote, “My wife’s aunt ignored our signs and announcements to not take photos during the ceremony and leave it to our paid, professional, photographers.” She got in the way of the professional photos and then, “When I finally got the photos she took six months later, they were low resolution and out of focus.”

28. Cousin in white

On the AskReddit thread about obnoxious guests, a person named 84th_legislature remembered her “dumb little cousin” wanted to wear a white dress to the ceremony, because she was “well on her way to being an Instagram model so people would have congratulated her all day.” It needs to be repeated: NEVER wear white to a wedding unless specifically asked!

27. Horrified grandmas

Redditor PhatedGaming recollected, “My grandmas (both of them) left the room when we did our toasts because we used actual champagne. We offered the non-alcoholic sparkling juice stuff for them, but that was not acceptable because it LOOKED like alcohol. They were so offended that we were drinking they refused to participate and returned once the toasts were done.” Wow.

26. The beauty queen

Bluebird-teadrinker posted a story told to them by their grandmother. Basically, young granny had had a simple and traditional wedding, except one bridesmaid showed up in “a full length beauty-contestant-style gown. Shiny satin, low neckline. Even wore a tiara and held a big bouquet!” Talk about upstaging. But the bride, “never said a word to her friend about it. I don’t think she wanted to give her the satisfaction.”

25. Stalker with a crush

This story was published on awkward.com, and it is, indeed, very awkward. It goes: “A girl that had a crush on my hubby came to our wedding in a wedding dress, then sat on his lap during the reception and hugged him. Needless to say, my three bridesmaids threw her out!” There’s a great comedy movie in there somewhere. Or a horror.

24. The mooching family

This one’s jaw-dropping. DarrenEdwards wrote on Reddit that when his ex got married, her family were invited but never showed. Then, “The next morning her and her new husband are woken by her family expecting them to cook breakfast. They had lived only a few hours from Yellowstone Park, but decided... their daughter’s wedding day was a perfect day to finally go, and the next day just wake them up to make them cook.”

23. Gift-stealing guest

A former waiter called Germanakzent remembered that at one wedding he worked at, “A guest robbed the newlyweds gift box. They had a little mailbox type thing where guests would deposit envelopes of money and cards. This guy opened it up and stuffed the contents into his pockets while everyone was distracted with the mother/son dance.”

22. Two for the price of one

A user named halibut wrote on the Reddit “obnoxious requests” thread, “My mother-in-law asked us if we could reschedule our wedding closer to step brother’s so she could come into town once for both. Our date was booked a year previously during the time of the request.” Believe it or not, anonymous MIL, wedding arrangements don’t work like that!

21. Mad about menus

Redditor user dax812 remembered a particularly obnoxious request: “We had a guest complain that we offered a gluten free option because, ‘You might accidentally give me that one.’” Presumably the guest meant the meal, not the condition that causes a person to need gluten-free food, but it’s super entitled anyway.

20. A walkout over music

Uniqueremnant told a wedding guest story with a shocking twist. They wrote on Reddit that after their venue’s sound system crashed, “I was told that I needed to fix the music or they would leave/so would ‘everyone else.’ They left less than an hour later. This, folks, was my maid of honor (also sister).”

19. The big spenders

Picksandchooses wrote on reddit, “A couple showed up at the reception too late for the dinner, it was already over, so they went into the restaurant of the hotel and charged their meals to the wedding party.” No matter how hungry you are, no matter your reason for being late, don’t do this.

18. Unwanted fluffy guest

Some people want pets at their wedding… but not uninvited ones. Redditor iba_spooh remembered that her husband’s aunt brought an aggressive dog to the ceremony. And just before the exchange of vows was to start, she “refuses to take her dog elsewhere, and argues that her dog is not the problem so she shouldn’t have to move.” Eventually a downright saintly friend offered to dog-sit and the day was saved — no thanks to the aunt.

17. Mother-in-law excludes the bride

At v_jax’s wedding, her mother-in-law took over the photo session and demanded several times over, “Can we get a picture with just the close family, please?” Eventually she worked out that her mother-in-law wasn’t counting her as close family and wanted the bride out of the photos. V_Jax concluded, “I cannot stand this woman,” and yeah, we can see why.

16. Not good enough for him

Redditor SomeGuyInSanJoseCa wrote on the website, “Our culture dictates that we pay for our guests’ hotels. Not a big deal. Anyhoo, we had an uncle come in, check in, decide ‘nah,’ and left for another hotel paid for by his son (who is pretty well off). That meant that we had to pay for his hotel room even though he didn’t stay there.” Needless to say, they were furious.

15. Trashy

A person called ZedBone told their fellow Redditors, “My sister-in-law showed up the night before the wedding and tried to redecorate. She said the decorations were trashy and that she didn’t like the caterers or the location. She actually tried to convince my wife and I to fake a break-up so that she could re-plan the entire wedding.” Um, NO.

14. Dad’s band

A Reddit user with the appropriate name of sedatemenow remembered that his dad absolutely would not stop pestering him to play at his wedding. Finally they agreed he could, then he didn’t show at the right time, then when he did he brought all his bandmates and their families. Sedatemenow concluded, “Oh, and my dad didn’t perform in this band, he just wrote songs for them.” He shared some pics of the disaster zone.

13. Angry aunt

Murder_kitty wrote on Reddit, “We were engaged for six months and wanted our guests to have the maximum amount of time to have our wedding date on their calendar, so we used online invitations only. My aunt, who I have met 2-3 times, emailed me to inform me that she would not be attending because it must not be that important if we couldn’t bother to send a ‘real’ invitation. I responded, ‘Okay.’” Ha!

12. Splitting up

Is there a more surefire way of ruining a wedding than this?! On a Reddit thread titled “Who was the rudest guest at your wedding?” user stlkatherine said, “My mom and dad walked from table to table and ‘quietly’ told everyone that they were separating.” Redditors were shocked at how inappropriate that was.

11. Engagement announcement

Reddit user sbashe5 recollected a particularly bad guest, saying, “One of the bridesmaids brought her fiancé to the wedding, and wanted our photographer to do an impromptu engagement photo shoot. The photographer laughed in her face.” And quite frankly, she’s very lucky if that was the only backlash she got.

10. Horrible grandmother

Most grandparents are lovely, but some really aren’t. SnowPaw850 wrote, “My grandmother walked out halfway through my vows. Still don’t actually know why, ’cause we haven’t [spoken] since. She just said to my aunt ‘right, I’ve had enough’ and off she went to wait in my aunt’s car. My uncle had to miss the first half of our reception just driving the old hag home.”

9. Dental disaster

In a Reddit thread asking, “What’s your worst wedding guest behavior story?” user pretty_in_think answered, “My mother flossed her teeth at the table after the meal.” Alright, as far as terrible wedding behavior goes it’s probably one of the more ignorable things, but still, ewwww. Please don’t floss at a wedding.

8. Motorbike madness

This story was posted on awkward.com and the writer remembered how some “former friends” of the bride were kicked out of a wedding. But then, “They somehow got back in and rode three motorcycles through the main floor. Needless to say, a ton of cops were called.” Oh god, imagine the mess.

7. No-show guests

UncomfortableChuckle’s cousin requested to bring “her husband, a friend and their four kids,” to the wedding, and anyone who’s planned one knows that’s a pretty big ask. Then, “Day of the wedding, they no-showed. One table, COMPLETELY empty. And she never bothered to give a reason as to why they didn’t show. I refuse to talk to her now.”

6. Overreaching mother-in-law

In response to a Reddit conversation about annoying mother-in-laws at weddings, opkc remembered how her own one handed out “dollar store glow necklaces” at her wedding without asking. It got worse: “I’d already vetoed her never-ending suggestions to change every single thing I’d picked, so I’m sure she purposely didn’t ask to keep me from saying no. That’s kind of her signature move.”

5. The scammer

Some people stoop so low. MacTaker wrote on Reddit that at his sister’s wedding an envelope was being passed around for money, and one guest “said something like ‘I don’t have a lot to give and feel embarrassed to put my participation in front of you,’ so she took the envelope in the loo and added her money there, away from ‘judging’ eyes. Yep, you guessed it, she took more than €500 from the envelope.”

4. Best man objects

Every so often, the best man objects at the “speak now or forever hold your peace” part. According to Redditor chadspdx this happened to his stepsister, albeit at the rehearsal rather than the wedding, because, “He was in love with the bride and was sure she felt the same way. My sister and everyone else was horrified… As far as I know after that neither the bride nor groom ever spoke to him again.”

3. Stealing the wedding bedroom

What is it about weddings that get people so entitled? Redditor stacksdweller remembered, “The day of the wedding, my mother tried to pressure my husband and I into switching from the honeymoon suite into the room she and my father were in with my kid sister.” Yep, that meant the newlyweds would have to share with the child. Why? The mom wanted the whirlpool bath.

2. Scary mother-of-the-bride

A Redditor named ross-and-rachel (speaking of bad weddings…) said on the site: “Not mine but my friend’s brother’s rather religious wedding. Bride’s mother makes a speech and says deadpan, ‘if you hurt her, I will slit your throat,’ in her speech... at the wedding where her daughter is marrying the nicest guy... Everyone was so stunned and embarrassed, no one laughed, bride and groom could barely look at her.”

1. Weird wedding game

Reddit user rachelmaryl had a particularly freaky story. They said, “I’m a wedding photographer. Last year, the mother of the bride wanted the DJ to help her play a game at the reception. The game was this: The bride sits blindfolded on a chair, while the groom and groomsmen circle around her. She then has to feel their junk and guess which one is the groom.” Unsurprisingly, the game did not happen.