23 Behind-The-Scenes Wedding Catastrophes That Venue Staff Witnessed In Horror

Weddings can be highly emotional events where people gather to celebrate love, commitment, and the future. On the other hand, they can also be complete and utter dumpster fires where everything that could go wrong DOES go wrong. No one has witnessed more weddings, good and bad, than the staff that keeps them running! We asked members of the BuzzFeed Community who have ever worked a wedding (planners, musicians, caterers, etc.), to tell us about the wildest wedding drama they've ever witnessed. Buckle up, y'all. It's a wild one.

1."I used to work as an assistant manager of a country hotel, and we had our fair share of interesting weddings. The one that stands out though was the wedding with a bride who had found out her partner had been using dating apps days before the wedding. Everything went surprisingly smooth on the day of, up until the groom got drunk and started a fight with the bride's cousin. The bride then proceeded to punch her new husband in the face and screamed at him for ruining their wedding. Breakfast was interesting the next morning when the overnight guests showed up and discovered the bride had left the groom at the hotel during the night. The most shocking part of the story: They’re still together today."

—Anonymous

2."The families had a tradition that the groom had to push the bride in a wheelbarrow (not joking). I made sure her dress was protected from the wheel. They insisted they do this around the pool at the reception. I begged them to do this AFTER the reception, but no! The groom got down to the deep end and stopped to readjust his grip. The bride thought they were done, so she started to get out. He lost his grip and the bride went tumbling into the deep end. Her brothers jumped out of their shoes and jackets and dove in. She was under the wheelbarrow at the BOTTOM of the pool. Her makeup, hair, and dress were ruined."

—Anonymous

3."It was a daytime Saturday wedding. Weddings like that are usually chill and have non-drinkers looking to save money. This one had an open bar. I was in my office with a coworker when I noticed an unusual smell. I jokingly looked at them and said, 'Wow, that stinks! Excuse you!' She responded with, 'That wasn’t me! I thought it was you.' Well, the smell got worse. We decide to head out to the lobby and investigate, which led us down the bathroom hallway (which our office shared two walls with). Someone had taken a poop in the middle of the women's room floor, and NO ONE told us!! There were footprints in it. Seven years later and it’s still so vivid in my mind."

—katwill0508

4."I was in a string quartet throughout middle/high school and college, and I've probably played at 100+ weddings. This is the biggest catastrophe I've ever seen. The altar had these candle stands on the sides, basically poles with lit candles on the top, in a glass surround. As the ceremony was progressing, the bride and groom were standing in front of the priest, the bridesmaids and groomsmen were to the sides, and the candle stand on the left (bride's) side just fell over. It fell directly onto the bride's train. The glass around it shattered, and the candle actually caught the train on fire! The maid of honor, being right on top of the situation, immediately jumped into action and batted out the flames with her bare hands, slicing her hand open on the broken glass in the process. After about 10 minutes of first aid and broken glass cleanup, the ceremony continued. It was almost like a scene from a John Hughes movie. LOL!"

—Anonymous

5."I worked for a wedding chapel at a destination location. Once, following a ceremony, the bride and groom were supposed to walk down the stairs to their family and friends. The bride said she wanted to show off the wedding gift her new husband got her, so he proceeded to pull down the top of her wedding gown and show off her breast enlargement to everyone. Her new in-laws did not seem too impressed by their new daughter-in-law or what their son had wasted his money on."

—Anonymous

6."The mother of the groom stood up right before the wedding and proceeded to point out all the guys her future daughter-in-law was sleeping with. Her son and his soon-to-be wife were both military, and the mom of the groom really disliked her future daughter-in-law, so she hired a PI. She even pulled out pictures. The ceremony went on, but following the ceremony, the groom asked if he could not have the marriage license submitted."

—Anonymous

7."I worked in the wedding industry for years and saw a lot of shit. What really took the cake (pun not intended) was a seacoast wedding where the father of the bride walked in on his daughter screwing a banquet server in one of the bathrooms during the reception."

—tiredpanda2

8."I worked for a catering company as a teenager. I was working a wedding where the groom got absolutely wasted and jumped into a fountain outside the reception venue. The bride was clearly livid and went outside, yelling at him. He proceeded to grab her arm and yank her into the fountain with him. We all just watched from inside while the groom laughed uncontrollably and the bride sat in the fountain, in her wedding dress, bawling. I'm so confident they're divorced now."

—stephplugrad

9."I worked for a photo booth company. The reception was in a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall, and the bride and groom had two small children. At some point, three women showed up (like vampires out of nowhere). One of them went to the groom crying. He took her into the photo booth where she started bawling about him getting married and how she would never see him again. He assured her he would see her again as they made out. NICE start to a marriage, right?!"

—Anonymous

10."Most brides and grooms don't do the cake cutting and feeding bit, but this couple was. I explained the procedure, and the groom's buddies were egging him on to mash the cake into the bride's face. I told him not to. They cut the cake, she picked up the small piece as instructed, and then she fed him. He looked over at his buds, picked up the rest of the piece, and mashed it down her throat, up her nose, and all over her face. I rushed to the table and held a napkin to her face and told her to blow it all out. She did her best. I got the maid of honor to take her to the bathroom to get her cleaned up. I walked over to the bride's mother and told her to get an annulment. I said, 'If he's willing to humiliate her in front of everyone, you don't want to know what he'll do at home alone.' The marriage lasted six months."

—Anonymous

11."For this wedding, the guy hired as the DJ was also supposed to supply flowers and a photo booth. He didn't bring any flowers; we had to get a bouquet from the local supermarket. No photo booth either! THEN, the girl the DJ brought stole the bride's purse and phone! She didn't realize there were cameras everywhere and a tracking app on the phone. The cops could see the purse and phone through the window of the DJ's car. The bride got her phone and purse back, and several illicit substances were found in the car. But, because they were not in the scope of the investigation, the DJ was not charged. It took several people to keep the bride from attacking the thief. A good time was had by all!"

—Anonymous

12."We got a call two weeks before the wedding from the groom. He wanted to know how he could cancel his wedding and get refunded. He was well past the refund date. We asked if everything was okay, and he proceeded to tell us he caught his brother and future wife in bed together. This is a brother who had hit on me at our venue tasting. The wedding proceeded as planned. I doubt they lasted."

—katwill0508

13."A bride's cousin got in a parking lot fight with her sister-in-law. Cousin's brother got involved; punches were thrown; hair was pulled. When they finished, they all walked back into the reception a bloody mess."

—Anonymous

14."I worked as a photography assistant for a few summers. You could always tell the couples that weren't going to make it by how they looked at each other. But one wedding stood out in particular. The bride was very, very pregnant, and her mom refused to let us have any food or bathroom breaks for 12 hours in case we missed a 'special moment.' The bride was exhausted and clearly needed a nap, but the mom kept pushing her for more photos to the point where she asked us to prop her up! We were getting photos on a gorgeous staircase that honestly hid her bump rather well, but she kept falling asleep. We refused to take any more photos until she got a nap. The mother of the bride tried to not pay us because we stepped in."

—Anonymous

15."One wedding I was at, the caterers served raw chicken to one of the guests. The guy complained, and everyone's meals had to go back to the kitchen. The whole wedding had to go without food. It was awful, and everyone got very angry."

—Anonymous

16."I do setup and tear-downs for weddings, and I don’t usually leave until around 1 a.m. At the end of the night at one particular wedding, while cleaning up, one of my workers walked into the groom's dressing room and saw him making out with the bride's mother. She ran back and told me, and we avoided eye contact with the rest of the wedding party until we were done cleaning up. Needless to say, we were out of there well before midnight that night."

—Anonymous

17."My cousin got married a while back, and I was shocked to see his ex-girlfriend there. During the reception, the DJ was taking song requests. The next thing I know, I hear the DJ announce that the next one was dedicated to my newly married cousin from his ex-girlfriend. The song was 'Love Shack.' She started singing at the top of her lungs and dancing wildly. Everyone left the dance floor immediately, which did not slow her down one bit. She was the only one dancing while looking at him the whole time. When the song ended, she left the dance floor, and I didn't see her the rest of the time."

—Anonymous

18."I once had a father of the bride who got drunk prior to walking the bride down the aisle! Working for a caterer was one learning experience after another! We once showed up at a reception hall to find a power failure! How about the baker who was late delivering the cake and forgot the top of the cake? It would have been different if that’s where that problem ended, but the young man who showed up with the cake top proceeded to trip in front of the bride in the kitchen and smash it into the floor! Yes, interesting experiences that we had to try to fix!"

—Anonymous

19."The bride and groom were only 16 (legal in the UK). The groom round-housed the wedding cake."

—Anonymous

20."I was assisting a planner by helping with day-of services for a wedding. It all started with the father of the bride (mother was remarried, so the stepdad and bio-dad were both there) drinking from a bottle of tequila while the rabbi was performing the Ketubah ceremony (marriage license in the Jewish faith). He wouldn’t stop drinking. I had to take the bottle from an adult man during a religious ceremony, who yelled at me that he could do whatever he wanted because he was the father of the bride. It gets better. The groomsmen found the same bottle of tequila and started doing shots right before they walked down the aisle for the wedding ceremony. I took the bottle away AGAIN and was yelled at by the groomsmen that it was their 'right' to drink and party. I had to remind these man-children that it wasn’t their wedding and they didn’t pay for ANYTHING. They could party after the ceremony."

"But wait, there's more! During the reception, we couldn’t figure out why the wedding party kept going in and out of the bridal suite until we saw a groomsmen with a little white powder next to his nose. The same groomsmen was caught in the bathroom by the photographer snorting coke in front of the bride's grandfather. The entire wedding party was high on coke. My last little take from this wedding from hell was the cake cutting. This particular venue used a saber for the couple to cut the cake. The groom was high as a kite and decided to HACK their wedding cake with swinging arms. Everyone was laughing. Most people were high at this wedding. It’s all on video. What a memory. The planner and I couldn’t leave fast enough. The sad part about this was chatting with the director of the country club, who said this behavior was a regular occurrence."

—Anonymous

21."Musicians see a lot at weddings. I am a saxophonist, and I often perform solo while guests arrive for like an hour or so at the reception. I've done dozens of weddings in this format, and many with a small jazz combo during happy hour. Usually people gravitate toward the bride, seek her attention, and offer compliments and well wishes (you know the drill). Well, can you imagine the uncomfortable vibe I encountered when NOBODY wanted to interact with the bride?? People were actively going out of their way to not face her or interact with her. What was weird was that, at first glance, she didn't appear to be a bridezilla."

"I'm a seasoned 'cat' and have never witnessed anything like it before. The bride zoomed past me a couple of times, once with assistance and another time alone. I thought it was just an odd family, but this one was different. I witnessed guests actively dodging the bride (cutting down hallways, turning the other way, looking the other way, etc.). The scene was funky to say the least. Doesn't everybody usually love the bride? They were not fans of this one. I was out of there as soon as my hour was up, but I gotta tell ya, it was definitely a strange one."

—Anonymous

22."The bride's parents were divorced but had married people who looked just like their former spouses. I couldn't tell who was who! The groom's parents were also divorced, so there were four sets of parents. The grandparents were also divorced. Well, at this wedding, NOTHING went right. The groom left the ring an hour away round trip, and half the groomsmen had vests, and the other half had cummerbunds. The groom had a vest on, so I had everyone in a vest on the altar. They didn't have the right sizes of things. The groom didn't try on his shoes at the tux shop, so he wore his sneakers. The bride had rented her gown and didn't bring the right undergarments. The photographer started taking pictures in the church to fill the time. There were so many kids running around, and one dashed out of the pew behind the photographer, and he backed up into the kid and fell. That was language you don't often hear in a church."

"Also, the wedding was two hours late. The reception had no one to toss the bouquet or the garter to, the food was bad, and the ice had melted."

—Anonymous

23.Finally: "I currently work for a posh flora/staging company in Savannah, Georgia. I was somewhat hiding in the background, waiting to move some flora arrangements, when I saw a couple that clearly didn't belong. One of the bride's kids noticed them as well, and approached them to see if she could help them. The couple responded they were invited by one of the patrons of the wedding. The wedding planner and venue manager also approached them and got the same answer. Then, the groom came flying out of the ballroom. As he approached the couple, you could tell the couple had no ideal he was the groom. He was very direct and asked who invited them. They pointed at his nephew's partner and said that she invited them to come and enjoy the celebration."

"The groom ended up asking the couple to leave and threw the nephew and partner out of the wedding. You could hear a pin drop it was so quiet. The groom saw me watching the entire thing go down, and he told me he was sorry but this was his DAMN day!"

—Anonymous

Oh wow!! Apparently I've only ever been to tame weddings. What about you? Guest or staff — what's the wildest thing you've witnessed go down at a wedding? ??

Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.