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Wedding photographers have a unique opportunity to experience what has the potential to be one of the most beautiful days in our lives. The reverse side of that coin, however, is that they can also experience disastrous weddings as well. When one online community asked wedding photographers to share stories of weddings where they knew the couple wouldn’t last, they delivered!
This list has it all - from trashy drunken flops to toxic family feuds and heartbreaking infidelity. Grab your popcorn and settle in for some good stories!
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#1
Third wedding and the best man, the groom's brother, starts his speech.... "Well, welcome back everyone. Good to see some new faces and some old ones."
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#2
Ooh ooh finally one of these I can contribute to. My mother was a wedding photographer till I was about 18-19 and I helped out on many of them. The one that stands out the most was when we were at a campsite where both the wedding and reception were being held.
About halfway through the reception I hear the groom start laughing maniacally. I peaked over his way and could see two groomsmen hauling the thrashing and screaming bride towards the lake. They threw her into the freezing cold water with her veil and dress still on. When she got out of the water I genuinely thought she might shoot somebody. Saying she looked like a drowned rat would have been an insult to rats. Her hair and makeup and probably the dress were ruined beyond repair. The fact that the groom laughed and didn’t do anything stuck with me as being a dog s**t move even as a teen. Apparently she thought so too because iirc they didn’t even make it 6 months.
#3
When the groom told the bride she couldn't have cake because she was overweight. Lasted a year. He gained weight
#4
Bride stabbed groom's mom.
#5
I used to be a wedding photographer in Las Vegas at several hotels and downtown wedding chapels. I’ve got so many of these stories.
Here’s a fun one.
Monday - I get booked to shoot the wedding
Wednesday- hotel calls me to cancel because the bride backed out.
Thursday- hotel calls to rebook me because wedding is back on. Same groom but different bride.
Friday - I shoot the wedding with the new bride about 18 or 19 years old (groom was early 20s) and it’s clear they barely know each other. Bride just kept saying “this is so crazy, I can’t believe I’m doing this”. Neither could I. No, it wasn’t a mail order bride.
Here’s a sad one…
Older couple, I’d guess in their 40’s/50’s. The limo driver calls and tips me off that the bride is being a problem. She arrives and is extremely rude to everyone on the staff while the groom is being apologetic and super nice. The ceremony starts and she fast walks down the isle doesn’t wait for the groom. The groom sheepishly catches up at the altar. When it’s her time to say “I do” she says “yea whatever” in a b****y annoyed tone. The groom says “I do”. You could cut the tension in the room with the knife. The minister keeps things in track and finishes the ceremony and we get to the kiss. Instead of kissing the groom she turns her face and gives him her cheek. She then fast walks back down the isle, signs the paperwork and left. The groom was in tears. Never saw them again and I’m sure it didn’t last.
Here’s another…
I would guess the bride was in her 70s and the groom was in his early 20s. One side of the chapel was all walkers and oxygen tanks while the other was drunk 20 something’s. Pretty sure it was a money grab but it was notable because normally the genders are reversed on these kind of weddings.
Another fun one….
Wedding was at the top of the stratosphere tower. The couple shows up and the bride is a new age crystal type very, let’s say, spiritual and the groom straight up looks like a 1849 gold miner. Rope belt, floppy hat, 3 teeth the whole thing. The bride tells me there would be spirits and angles in the photos and the reason they got married at the stratosphere is because it’s the closest place to heaven that they could get married. They were so weird about it and said so many times that they wanted to be with god and go to heaven that the hotel had the bomb dog sniff them before getting on the elevator to go to the top. We lie and tell them it’s standard practice to have the dogs sniff everyone. Wedding happens and they start chanting nonsense words (speaking in tongues?) then proceed to have the grossest make out session I’ve ever seen. Turns out they met that week in AA.
#6
First Dance: I still haven't found what I'm looking for, by U2.
#7
Bride was such a monumental b***h her mom gave me a $500 tip for not walking out on the event when she was treating everyone (even her now husband) like a piece of s**t employee.
She did the whole clicking fingers thing when wanting someone to do something for her, and she berated the dj for grabbing a sandwich when he'd been there for about 8 hours and was told that he should've brought his own lunch and she would be taking the cost of the food (like an open buffet style) out of his paycheck.
They were divorced within 3 years, but not before having 3 kids that have stupid names.
#8
One of the bridesmaids cried the entire time from makeup till reception. Would have nothing to do with the groom. Kept wanting photos of just her and the bride. 8 months later, bride and groom are separated and she up and elopes with the bridesmaid.
#9
No joke. I recognized the groom from a Grindr.
Jill Rhodry 1 year ago
Meh, he could be bi and they could have an open relationship or some sort of agreement.
#10
Her 3 kids from a previous marriage (8, 9, and 12) were screaming their as*es off and covering themselves in soda and overturning tables while making extremely hostile, profanity laden demands for a driveable hot wheels car, and escalated to just randomly hitting people with baseball bats. whole time mom was going "haha, aren't they so crazy. oh its ok they just get to express themselves. we unschool,"
lasted (afaik) somewhere between four and five months
#11
When cutting the cake, she playfully got some on his face. He proceeded to grab a giant chunk and PUNCH her in the face with it, several times hard. She was digging it out from underneath her eyelids bawling and her Dad needed to be held back.
EDIT: Alot of people have been asking, so here is a bit more backstory. My guess as to why people were holding the Dad back was that the Groom was in full Marine dress uniform and they used his sword to cut the cake, that sword was very much in arms reach of the Groom after this happened, so everyone was probably worried something really bad could happen if those two got near each other. After the incident, it was really awkwardly silent as the Groom apologized to the family and if I remember correctly (this was 10 years ago or so) him and the Dad went outside for around 20 minutes, then came back in. The rest of the reception went normally after that.
Shark Lady 1 year ago
If he punched her with cake in front of people, I hate to think how bad things were for the bride at home.
#12
When right after the ceremony we took a moment to have canapés and the bride started making out with her bridesmaid in front of all of us, her new husband included.
And another time where the groom went missing during the evening and the bride found him in bed with another women the next morning, also the bride had a gun and yes the groom was shot.
#13
When the Maid of Honor tells the story of when the Bride had sex in a Burger King bathroom with someone that wasn't her now husband. They broke the sink, then you see the groom start tearing up. We found out later that the groom ended up paying for the damage to the sink and the Bride made up some BS story.
#14
Over coffee, at our initial "do they want to hire me" meeting. They argued bitterly the entire time and eventually, the groom just sat back in his chair with his arms crossed and wouldn't speak to either of us. I went home and the next day, emailed them the old "something suddenly came up" and that my schedule had unfortunately changed. Red flags aren't just for the people in the relationship. Vendors, see them and heed them.
#15
At the rehearsal dinner, every toast to the bride was some euphemistic variation of “I’m so glad you finally found someone to put up with your b******t.”
They barely made it to the 6 month mark.
#16
Wedding photographer from India here:
1. Bride's mom dissed non-stop about the groom to a couple of our photographers. She believed that her daughter is too beautiful for the guy they promised her hand to and how she'd rather have him die sooner than seeing him with her daughter post the wedding.
2. Bride and the groom had the first dinner separately because the bride wasn't just in the mood to have their reception dinner together.
3. This is one is the final nail in the coffin - post the wedding when we were about to photograph portraits of the couple, the groom walked up to us saying that he's too tired from the wedding, so it'd be better if we could use the photos from the previous weddings we shot and morph his face on to those and walked away.
They divorced three months later.
#17
Wedding was on a golf course. Bride had a vision she wanted of her husband driving up on a golf cart to see her for a first look.
He got one look at her from the top of the hill and vaulted the cart, ran down the hill, picked her up and twirled her around to tell her how gorgeous she was. We caught it all. It was the best first look ever.
Once he set her down she straightened herself and looked back to us. “Okay, I don’t want that. Let’s do the golf cart now.” And she sent him back up.
#18
I was asked if I wanted to come up to the hotel room and film "a movie" wink wink nudge nudge... with the bride... It was not the groom asking this...but the best man... and she was right beside him...The groom was hanging out with some friends and her dad...
I kindly declined
#19
The bride and groom were stepsiblings whose parents forced them to get married after finding out they were hooking up, and they lived six hours apart and had no intention of changing that living situation. That was also the most extravagant and expensive wedding I had ever shot. I don't know how long they lasted but it was not long.
#20
When the groom looked at her like she was the love of his life, and she treated the day like her Prom and ignored him. I think they lasted six months.
#21
I think my first clue was when the bride showed up with some bad make-up clearly trying to cover her black eye, while most of the rest of the family seemed far more into the free food and booze than the wedding itself. Oh yeah, never paid me either. Classy people.
#22
Back when I was in college, I worked a few weddings for a Christian church near my school. The congregation was very god fearing people that you only see in cult movies and don’t expect to actually exist irl. Two of the couples live in my head rent free to this day.
While doing the getting ready photos, the videographer did pre wedding interviews with the bride and groom and asked questions like “why are you getting married?” “When did you know he/she was the one?” Etc.
Couple #1: Both admitted they just wanted to have sex, but were afraid of going to hell. They literally got married just to have sex. I believe they lasted 7 months.
Couple #2: Because getting married was “the next logical step” and it’s “just what people do”. They had dated for 2 years, never lived together, never had sex, just “dated”. I put dated in quotes because I have more intimate relationships with platonic friends than they had. Because they didn’t break up, they just felt compelled to get married, like it was part of a routine. They ended up having a kid, but only lasted 2 years together.
EDIT:
Just to add one more that I blocked from my memory. I photographed a wedding for a couple named Ben and Lorraine. They actually seemed like a fun nice couple except Ben just wanted to be a dad and Lorraine definitely gave off “fun aunt” vibes. She ended up getting pregnant about 6 months after the wedding. I bumped into Lorraine at a mutual friend’s baby shower about 6 or 7 months after she gave birth. She ended up sitting with me and my cousin even though she was assigned to sit at a different table. While the momma to be was opening presents Lorraine said, “you know how they say you instantly fall in love your child when you become a mom? That’s not true. I love my dog more than I love my baby.” My jaw dropped. I like to tell myself she was likely suffering from PPD, but I don’t know. I just felt so bad for Ben in that moment. They divorced when the baby was 18 months old. He got custody.
Budcot 1 year ago
Why feel bad for him rather than the baby? And it is true that you don't always instantly fall in love with your child. That is a line trotted out to convince women to have babies they aren't sure they really want. I have children and adore them, but the love grew, it wasn't instantaneous. It made me feel so c**p when people said that to me.
#23
I did a wedding for an acquaintance and her husband. Day goes great, I’m really happy with almost everything I took, everyone was feeling it and having fun. But, (and this is one of the reasons I quit photography) the bride sees some of the photos I had sent her, and immediately is calling me. “I need you to do the editing magic and make me look skinny, John was saying I was going to look too fat in my dress and wanted me to lose weight but I knew you could just edit it, so haha I didn’t”. So I have to explain (this is like 2010) I can only photoshop so much, I.e. I can make you look a tad slimmer in certain photos without making it noticeable. But I can’t do it to all of them, and if I was to, the editing would be noticeable, and I will have to charge you a lot of money to edit you in all the photos. She tried to convince me to edit hundreds of photos for a couple hundred bux, and I have other jobs going and had given them a great deal already so explained I couldn’t. So she insist I do at least some of her main pics, I tell her when people see the rest of the pics they will see the difference, she didn’t care and insisted more. So I do, and a couple weeks later when I thought it was all done and history calls me and leaves me a voicemail of how I ruined her wedding, her new husband is upset at how she looks in the pics and keeps making remarks about her weight. So didn’t seem like they were in a great place from the get go.
Shark Lady 1 year ago
If your husband/wife to be makes comments about losing weight because you'll look too fat on your wedding day, run and don't look back.
#24
I actually have a story for this!! Years ago I got into amateur photography and a friend of the family invited me and my camera to come to a wedding. I was basically there to get candids, nothing super formal (that was for the main photographer); I was dressed in all black like the wait staff so kinda blended into the background.
Anyway, since I was practically invisible, I got to hear ALL the tea: apparently the bride had hooked up w a stripper during her bachelorette and never told the groom. Of course ALL the bridesmaids knew, and it sounded like at least a couple of their SOs did too. Worst part tho? He was looking at her like she hung the moon and was his entire world; she was deadpan through the entire ceremony and hung out w her girlfriends during practically the whole reception. When it came time for cake, he fed her nicely and she smeared it across his face, cackling the whole time (the only time I saw her smile at him during the ceremony/reception).
I knew it wouldn’t last, although they weren’t my friend group. Ended up running into that photographer friend a few years later and asked, apparently the bride had gotten pregnant before the wedding and it was pretty much a shotgun wedding. Baby was born, then they split up like immediately after. Shocker.
#25
Asked the groom in a recorded interview why he asked her to marry him and he said, "The pressure to get married". They lasted less than 2 months. Hadnt even finished the video and they were over.
#26
While shooting video, I attached a microphone to the groom for audio and proceeded to prepare for the ceremony. Just as I was about to adjust my audio settings, the groom stepped into another room with a friend. As I put on my headphones, I overheard the groom confiding in his friend, describing the wedding as a "wedding of convenience" and reassuring them not to be concerned about what would happen in their relationship.
#27
The engagement session.
The couple was in from out of town because she had just taken the bar exam to become a lawyer. At the end of the session, I gave them a prompt to share with each other what they were proud of each other for. He couldn't think of a single thing.
Somehow they still got married, complete with: the groom drinking 11 IPAs + several shots before the ceremony, mother of the bride so drunk for family photos she pretended to strip, and the groom and all the groomsmen wearing camo hats with neon orange letters that said 'titties and beer.' For the entire wedding day. Including sunset couples photos where he refused to do anything I suggested, nearly spat chew right on my feet, kept farting on purpose, and loudly complained about how all he wanted was to go have sex.
#28
I had a young lady hire me for her wedding. I met her fiancé and he had a cast on his right hand. Didn’t think too much about it. She later told me he had gotten mad at her and punched the hood of his car. I wanted to refund her money and tell her to run away as fast as possible. They were divorced before I could deliver their pictures to them.
FakeOptimist 1 year ago
Hopefully a lesson learned since you didn't get paid anyway : tell her to RUN next time.
#29
Groom didn't want to participate in any wedding pictures after the ceremony.
I believe he was more interested in drinking beers with his buddies.
I don't think they lasted a year.
Shark Lady 1 year ago
Why bother spending all that money on a wedding, if you can't even fake it on your wedding day you must have known beforehand that you don't actually like the bride.
#30
The groom-to-be got drunk at a house party the night before the engagement shoot. He did not make the shoot but the bride did, we just did a solo shoot instead.
What do you think ?
Kathryn Baylis 1 year ago (edited)
My husband and I know the marriage is way more important than the wedding, so we just got married at the courthouse (we dressed up for the occasion, of course), and had a couple friends as witnesses, who then treated us to dinner at the best restaurant in town, then one handed up the keys to her beach house for our honeymoon ( we were just going to lock the door and take the phone off the hook --it was 2001, after all---at home). We just had our 22nd anniversary this past May. everyone I know who had big expensive weddings is divorced now---and the "friends" who made fun of our small simple wedding, because they went all out for the big expensive weddings were the very FIRST to split up, and I mean very acrimonious splits, not long after my husband and I got married. Our small simple wedding, plus the fact that we're still together, is a kind of a big F**k You to all the Bridezillas and Groomzillas out there who have to spend tens or hundreds of thousands on the wedding alone---and even more to their divorce lawyers not long after the wedding.
brandyy17 1 year ago
me and my husband r the same. we went to a hotel for a few days in a very nice port town for 4 days as our honeymoon since we couldnt go to jamica like we planned. we got married in 2020. we replanned our entire wedding bc of covid regulations. we didnt postpone it like alot of couples in that year did bc we wanted to live together, be married to each other, start our life together, be together forever. even tho it wasnt the original plan we still had an amazing wedding and we were extremely happy with it but more then anything it meant we were now husband and wife. my favorite parts of my wedding was wen the mc did the whole announcing us mr and mrs and my husband is in a band and just like his musician friends he wrote a song just for me. he got out his guitar and sang the song he wrote for me. he still takes his guitar out and sings it for me. naturally we had our friends and family make jokes but it was out of love and for laughs. like my dad said no refunds. i later learned my grandpa said that to him. my grandpa was my hero and he passed away a few years before i met my husband. i think bc my dad knew my grandpa was my hero he decided to say it to my husband knowing id get a kick out of it. wen he said it i thought he was saying i was an object but once it was explained i understood bc it was completely my grandpas sense of humor. some of my friends would say "u finally found a guy who wont abuse ur kind heart" or "look hes actually not an a$$hole" stuff like that but they said it out of happiness for me. friends who make rude jokes but mean it in a playful way not nasty way those r true friends. u can easily tell the difference. all my friends teasing and jokes its cuz they r just happy that im finally always smiling and kno i can joke about my miserable past. anyways i dont understand bridezillas or groomzillas. its supposed to b a happy day. not once during the planning or wedding did me or my husband get angry or crazy or watever. even we we had to completely replan we didnt freak out. only mess ups at our wedding was i accidently left the marriage certificate at my house so my dad had to go and get it and my dad going to stop the best man speech and my father in law stopping my dad. my brother in law was the best man and he is i highly intelligent person. hes humorous too. he made a 10 min long speech for his friends wedding but never got to do the full 10 min so we told him to do the 10 to 15 min speech at ours. he wrote a whole new one. all about time theories and different time lines and so on. at the end he said that he brings all that up bc he thinks no matter the timeline me and my husband would find each other bc it was meant to b. my maid of honor did short and sweet bc 1. she didnt want to embarass me or herself lol and 2. she hates public speaking. i was perfectly ok with this bc her speech can with a bonus. her daughter who was my flower girl added to her speech saying how cool and nice i m and then saying how cool my husband is bc he got her glow in the dark slime and extra candy on halloween the year before lol. my dad was probably the controlling one of my wedding but he kept being stopped by my mom lol. i get it my sisters r both divorced and one is on her second marriage so he probably wanted it perfect for me. thing is all of our friends r party ppl wen there is something to celebrate which he didnt kno. we all ended up on the patio having fun and joking around taking silly pictures. the past 3 years have been the best years of my life and i kno it just gonna keep getting better bc i have my husband by my side.
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Marvin HeartofGold (she/them) 1 year ago
My sister got wasted before the wedding even started. So many people were chalking it up to pre -wedging jitters. I had jitters before my wedding and did not drink an entire liquor store, that's just not what people with jitters do. They ended up being incredibly toxic with each other and divorced after a couple of years. Lots of people from back then don't talk to her anymore myself included. She messed up our relationship years ago.
Kathryn Baylis 1 year ago (edited)
My husband and I know the marriage is way more important than the wedding, so we just got married at the courthouse (we dressed up for the occasion, of course), and had a couple friends as witnesses, who then treated us to dinner at the best restaurant in town, then one handed up the keys to her beach house for our honeymoon ( we were just going to lock the door and take the phone off the hook --it was 2001, after all---at home). We just had our 22nd anniversary this past May. everyone I know who had big expensive weddings is divorced now---and the "friends" who made fun of our small simple wedding, because they went all out for the big expensive weddings were the very FIRST to split up, and I mean very acrimonious splits, not long after my husband and I got married. Our small simple wedding, plus the fact that we're still together, is a kind of a big F**k You to all the Bridezillas and Groomzillas out there who have to spend tens or hundreds of thousands on the wedding alone---and even more to their divorce lawyers not long after the wedding.
brandyy17 1 year ago
me and my husband r the same. we went to a hotel for a few days in a very nice port town for 4 days as our honeymoon since we couldnt go to jamica like we planned. we got married in 2020. we replanned our entire wedding bc of covid regulations. we didnt postpone it like alot of couples in that year did bc we wanted to live together, be married to each other, start our life together, be together forever. even tho it wasnt the original plan we still had an amazing wedding and we were extremely happy with it but more then anything it meant we were now husband and wife. my favorite parts of my wedding was wen the mc did the whole announcing us mr and mrs and my husband is in a band and just like his musician friends he wrote a song just for me. he got out his guitar and sang the song he wrote for me. he still takes his guitar out and sings it for me. naturally we had our friends and family make jokes but it was out of love and for laughs. like my dad said no refunds. i later learned my grandpa said that to him. my grandpa was my hero and he passed away a few years before i met my husband. i think bc my dad knew my grandpa was my hero he decided to say it to my husband knowing id get a kick out of it. wen he said it i thought he was saying i was an object but once it was explained i understood bc it was completely my grandpas sense of humor. some of my friends would say "u finally found a guy who wont abuse ur kind heart" or "look hes actually not an a$$hole" stuff like that but they said it out of happiness for me. friends who make rude jokes but mean it in a playful way not nasty way those r true friends. u can easily tell the difference. all my friends teasing and jokes its cuz they r just happy that im finally always smiling and kno i can joke about my miserable past. anyways i dont understand bridezillas or groomzillas. its supposed to b a happy day. not once during the planning or wedding did me or my husband get angry or crazy or watever. even we we had to completely replan we didnt freak out. only mess ups at our wedding was i accidently left the marriage certificate at my house so my dad had to go and get it and my dad going to stop the best man speech and my father in law stopping my dad. my brother in law was the best man and he is i highly intelligent person. hes humorous too. he made a 10 min long speech for his friends wedding but never got to do the full 10 min so we told him to do the 10 to 15 min speech at ours. he wrote a whole new one. all about time theories and different time lines and so on. at the end he said that he brings all that up bc he thinks no matter the timeline me and my husband would find each other bc it was meant to b. my maid of honor did short and sweet bc 1. she didnt want to embarass me or herself lol and 2. she hates public speaking. i was perfectly ok with this bc her speech can with a bonus. her daughter who was my flower girl added to her speech saying how cool and nice i m and then saying how cool my husband is bc he got her glow in the dark slime and extra candy on halloween the year before lol. my dad was probably the controlling one of my wedding but he kept being stopped by my mom lol. i get it my sisters r both divorced and one is on her second marriage so he probably wanted it perfect for me. thing is all of our friends r party ppl wen there is something to celebrate which he didnt kno. we all ended up on the patio having fun and joking around taking silly pictures. the past 3 years have been the best years of my life and i kno it just gonna keep getting better bc i have my husband by my side.
Load More Replies... Marvin HeartofGold (she/them) 1 year ago
My sister got wasted before the wedding even started. So many people were chalking it up to pre -wedging jitters. I had jitters before my wedding and did not drink an entire liquor store, that's just not what people with jitters do. They ended up being incredibly toxic with each other and divorced after a couple of years. Lots of people from back then don't talk to her anymore myself included. She messed up our relationship years ago.
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