Called It: Everyone Knew These Marriages Would Wind Up In The Gutter

August 28, 2023 | Brendan Da Costa

Called It: Everyone Knew These Marriages Would Wind Up In The Gutter


Anyone who has worked in the wedding industry has seen their fair share of soulmates. Star-crossed lovers who are destined to be together forever. But that’s not these couples. These are more like flaming asteroids that crash land in a desert devoid of love. Wedding industry insiders share their stories about the couples that everyone knew just wouldn’t work out.


1. The Mystery Groom

I have a friend who is a wedding photographer. She’s a rather busy and expensive one at that, so people usually book her a year in advance. So, she had a bride come in and book a wedding date. She paid the deposit and everything—nothing unusual here yet. The bride confirmed the venue, which was also pricey, and had general discussions with my friend about the style that she wanted, etc.

They had regular meetings over the following months but, strangely, the groom was never there. My friend shrugged it off—it’s a bit unusual, but not unheard of for grooms to skip out on wedding plans. Four weeks before the wedding, however, my friend and this bride have a meeting to lock down all the details, but still no groom. When my friend finally asked about this missing groom, she learned the disturbing reason why he hadn’t shown up.

As it turns out, the bride wasn’t even engaged. Maybe she has a long-term boyfriend and was planning a surprise wedding? No. It turns out that she doesn't have a boyfriend or any other guy in mind at all. But she prayed about it and God told her to trust that He will provide a groom for her. In the end, not surprisingly, no groom magically materialized, and there was no wedding.

So, in that case, the marriage lasted exactly zero minutes and we were all sure that it wasn't going to work out. In fact, at the time we had some running jokes about her meeting a guy on a date and asking him if he wants to go to a wedding with her next weekend. Talk about moving too fast.

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2. Cheaters Smile Biggest

I was photographing the groom and then I saw his eyes light up when one of the wedding guests arrived. When I looked over to see who it was, I knew the marriage wasn’t going to last. It was a cute woman in a short dress. The groom smiled, walked up to the woman, picked her up in his arms, and started swinging her. It was the best smile I captured on the groom all day.

The marriage didn’t last six months from what I’ve heard.

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3. From The Mouth Of Babes

I was attending my friend’s wedding once. A judge was officiating the ceremony as my friend and their soon-to-be spouse were getting married at the courthouse. The judge or officiant came around to the part of the ceremony where they ask if anyone believes that the union shouldn’t go forward, someone couldn’t hold their peace. A loud “UH-OH!” came shrieking from the back.

It was my friend's two-year-old son. Everybody joked that it was a sign. However, less than a year later, the couple got divorced.

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4. Mother Of The Groom

I attended a wedding that had one major warning. After the bride and groom collected their wedding gifts, there was an argument. No, it wasn’t over the salt and pepper shakers that they had registered for. The couple began arguing over why the groom’s mother shouldn’t get all of the money given to them on their wedding day. That was a red flag.

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5. The Skeletons In The Closet

I used to do be a DJ at weddings. During one wedding, I went to the storage room to grab some gear. When I opened the door, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I walked in on the bride going down on the best man. I immediately closed the door, then thought, "Wait, did that just happen?" and opened the door again. The best man looked like a deer in headlights.

I slammed the door again and went back to my post for the night. My co-worker said, "Don’t say a word! We don't get paid to get involved. Just collect the check and keep playing music." I guess then, maybe I was the only one who knew that the marriage wasn’t going to last.

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6. Unwelcome Guests

My boyfriend and I went to his female co-worker’s wedding. We used to go dancing with her while she was engaged and her boyfriend was working out on the East Coast. Her fiancé didn’t take kindly to a male co-worker showing up to the wedding—even though they had invited us. I had even gone to her bridal shower! Red with jealousy, the groom sent his dad over to threaten my boyfriend into leaving, because they work in the same industry.

The groom also refused to dance with the bride except for once, for photos. It was so sad because she loved to line dance. They lasted a year.

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7. Off To A Great Start

I worked a wedding that should never, ever, have gone ahead. The bride and groom had a big fight the night before their wedding and were considering calling it off. Everyone thought that the wife was going to leave her fiancé at the altar until she showed up just 30 minutes before the ceremony was meant to begin. At the reception, the groom showed his frustration with his new wife.

The groom danced with his MOM more times than he did with his pouty wife. The bride was snippy and nitpicky with the staff all night. The newlyweds even threw around the word "annulment" a few times. I hope to God that they went through with it the next day, because that was a nightmare wedding. No marriage that starts that way could end well.

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8. You Make Me Sick

I don't work in the wedding industry but I have a depressing wedding story. I have a friend who I grew up with. She was always gorgeous and incredibly popular with guys and I always thought she was a great person. As I got older, I came to realize she was actually extremely toxic in relationships. Nevertheless, she had been seeing a new guy for two months when one day, I received a wedding invitation in the mail.

Knowing her history with guys, I braced myself for the worst at this wedding. But even I could not have seen this coming. I turned up to the wedding, and it's a gorgeous little backyard-type wedding. It's spring and everything looks perfect. I greeted her family and it was like I had turned up to a funeral. They were all extremely solemn and when I asked about the groom, her mother rolled her eyes and said, "This is a mistake."

The wedding commenced and the bride walked down the aisle. Her face was grey. She looked like she would rather be anywhere else. The couple managed to exchange vows even while the bride did everything in her power not to touch her husband-to-be. She stood a solid meter away from him at their backyard altar. She actually cringed and looked away when the groom choked up talking about how much he loved her.

When the priest finally said that it was time to kiss the bride, my friend did the unimaginable. She took a slow step forward and presented her cheek for the groom to kiss instead of her lips. No one cheered. There was just an awkward shuffling of feet and a few scattered claps. It was the worst wedding I've ever been to.

They lasted about three months.

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9. Let’s Call It A Night

I have a few wedding stories from when I worked in a hotel. I came into work when there was a wedding scheduled to go until one in the morning. But by the time that I had arrived at 11 PM, the wedding party was already over. Apparently, the newlyweds had a huge fight and the bride went home with her mom.

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10. You Ain’t My Baby’s Daddy

At one of the weddings in the hotel I worked in, a rehearsal dinner turned ugly. The fight erupted in the banquet hall and quickly spilled out into the lobby. We later found out that the bride hated her groom’s parents—and that wasn’t the worst part. The bride was pregnant, and she had no idea who the father was. Half the guest list packed up and checked out the next day. They still got married.

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11. Uninvited

I have a friend who does calligraphy. They had a bride come in to get wedding invites drawn up. The usual wording goes something like, “‘Father’ and ‘Mother’ of ‘Bride’ and ‘Father’ and ‘Mother’ of ‘Groom’ invited you to the wedding of ‘Bride’ and ‘Groom’". But this bride didn’t want the groom’s parents to be on the invitation. My mate did an invite mock-up and sent it to the couple.

Needless to say, the groom lost it, because his parents were the ones paying for most of the wedding. It turns out they didn’t need those invites after all in the end.

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12. Bye, Bye Wifey

I don’t actually work in the wedding industry, but I have helped out a friend who does work in the industry with a few weddings. A few of those weddings I could just tell the couple wasn’t going to make it. At the first wedding, the bride and groom hardly spoke to each other for the entire evening. It was like they had nothing in common.

Then later the groom said, “I’m tired,” and just got up and left. He never came back that evening so his new wife had to see off all of their guests. Funny enough, about a year later, wouldn’t you know it, they had filed for divorce.

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13. Saturday Is For The Boys

At a wedding I attended last summer, just before the speeches, the groom went to hang out with his friends for like half an hour. He left his poor bride sitting alone at their table and delaying the speeches. Then, right after the bride and groom cut the cake, he once again went to go hang out with his friends and abandoned his wife. At one point in the evening, he actually went for a drive with his friends for about an hour.

I don’t know why he didn’t just marry his friends.

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14. The Biggest Loser

I work as a wedding DJ. I worked a wedding a few years ago where the groom was a total loser. When it was his turn to make a speech, he plainly refused to make one. The bride's sister had to beg him to just tell the bride she looked beautiful. The loser-groom agreed. He got up, took the mic, mumbled to his bride that she looked beautiful, and then promptly sat back down.

When I left after the wedding ended, I was walking back to my van with some gear when I heard someone crying. It was the bride, sitting to the side all alone and just sobbing to herself. I found out a few days later that the groom had hit her three days before the wedding and he tried to hit her again at the wedding when she confronted him about his excessive drinking. Yikes.

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15. Laughing Stock

During the ceremony when the priest started asking the bride, "Do you take this man to be your lawfully-wedded husband?" she just started laughing uncontrollably. She couldn't stop. It was cute for about ten seconds, and then things got really awkward and uncomfortable. They lasted a year and change. We all kind of knew the only reason they were getting married in the first place was that she was pregnant.

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16. How To Dance Your Heart—And Husband—Out

I work for a catering company and we do weddings sometimes. We did this one wedding where I knew the couple was going to be getting a divorce. And soon. After everyone had eaten their dinner and descended onto the dancefloor, the bride was having a great time…with someone who wasn’t her husband. She was grinding on the best man! The groom, on the other hand, was over in the corner puking his guts out.

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17. Mistaken Identity

I worked fine dining/catering for over 20 years, so I’ve worked lots of weddings and receptions. I once heard a bride at the reception during the toasts say that she actually thought she was asking out the groom’s twin brother on their first date. That might have made for a cute story, but this blabbermouth bride just kept going. She went on and on about how this twin was more compatible, etc.—but the worst was yet to come.

She ended the toast by saying, "Well, as nice as you are, you’ll make a great first husband.”

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18. Teach Me Your Moves

I work in the wedding industry as a side hobby. I saw this divorce coming from a mile away. A groom came to me with a really strange question. He asked me what I would do if I found out that my fiancé had been doing more than just dancing with her “dance” partner. Seeing as though this was three weeks before the wedding, I just shook my head and walked away.

They lasted all of two months.

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19. Worst Wedding Ever

I’m a wedding photographer. I’ve been right in predicting divorces a few times, for sure. This one groom in particular was so full of himself, but did that “Whatever you want, my Queen,” thing because he wants everyone to see him as this great guy, but really, he’s a self-absorbed jerk. He was a “chef” and loved telling people that. It was a quick engagement and marriage, and I got the feeling maybe too quick.

The wedding and reception were both at his parents’ place. His mom had a lot of input, as did his sister. Between those two, they shut the bride out of her own wedding whenever she tried to talk. On the day of the wedding itself, I arrived to shoot the bride and bridesmaids getting ready but she was alone with the hair and makeup person.

I initially thought that the makeup person was a friend, but she wasn’t. Her bridesmaids were nowhere in sight. Two hours went by and still no sight of them. The bride tried calling but couldn’t get a hold of them. The makeup finished with still no sign of the bridesmaids, so I helped the bride put her veil on and did up her shoes.

I was feeling so bad for her. This was supposed to be her big day and there I was, basically a stranger, putting on her veil on and telling her that she looked beautiful. Finally, the bridesmaids showed up. The maid of honor was the groom’s sister. When the bride questioned them, the sister said that had gone out for breakfast.

The bride innocently asked why they hadn’t told her and the sister started getting defensive, accusing the bride of being a “bridezilla.” Then it came out that this maid of honor—or dishonor—had invited the groom and all of the groomsmen for breakfast too. She was the only one in the whole wedding party that hadn’t been there.

The kicker? None of the bridesmaids were ready—they hadn’t dressed, done their hair or makeup. The wedding was supposed to start in 30 minutes. The wedding ceremony went well enough, but the rest of the evening was a mess. We were supposed to go to a nearby beach and trail for photos. This never happened, because the groom was literally talking to every person in attendance in the longest receiving line situation I had ever seen.

The sun was about to set and I told the couple that I literally had no photos of them alone together and we needed to get the light. The groom brushed me off, “Yeah, yeah after the speeches.” That would have been alright, but his speech ran on for 30 minutes. By that time, the sun had set. Finally, the bride just looked at me, defeated, and said, “You can just go home now.”

Not long after, I delivered the images that I had managed to capture from that debacle of a wedding. The groom refused to pay the remainder of my money. I got a million excuses. After a month, I finally texted him and said I was going through small claims. The next day, he sent an electronic payment, with an angry message about hounding him and giving me a bad review.

The joke was on him though. I saw the bride six months later at a restaurant, and before I could ask, she told me she left him. I found out from a friend that the groom was no longer a “chef”—three separate restaurants had fired him.

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20. Don’t Let Them Eat Cake

Many years ago, I had a side hustle making cakes. I would often get orders for wedding cakes. Long story short, I came face to face with a real bridezilla. This bride threw a full-fledged stompy-footed tantrum and locked herself in my bathroom. She refused to come out because the groom was "unreasonably insisting" on having a say in what the cake flavor was going to be.

If I recall correctly, she was about 22. Can’t imagine that marriage lasted any longer than a cake at a birthday party.

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21. No Love Lost

Oh, I’ve got some stories. I photographed this awful couple once. She was a sour cow and barely cracked a smile all day. She was following her poor husband around nagging him all the time. She stayed after saying, "Maaaark! Get my shoes! Maaaark! Where's my bag? Maaaark!" He looked completely miserable and barely spoke all day.

At one point we asked them to kiss for a photo. Her response was chilling. She said: "Oh, we're not that kind of couple." You mean, one that loves each other?

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22. Wedding Photos And Mugshots

My wife has been a wedding photographer and I've helped her out from time to time. At one of the first weddings we did, I got this really trashy vibe off the bride. I couldn't quite place my finger on what specifically triggered this feeling. It was like her whole extended family came right out of Deliverance. I told my then-girlfriend (now wife) that I didn’t think that the couple was going to last very long.

Sure enough, a few months later, the mother of the bride called my wife for the wedding photos. My wife asked why the bride hadn’t contacted her to collect the photos and the mother just said she'd been "indisposed" for a bit. I got into a Google-fu mode and looked up the bride. It didn’t take much digging. She was all over the news.

I found a report from three days after the wedding. It was from Florida, where the couple had honeymooned. The bride was behind bars for publicly attacking her new husband. She put the poor guy in the hospital.

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23. Who Are You Calling Chicken?

I catered weddings for a year or so. I have a ton of crazy stories of marriages that were definitely going to end in divorce but there are just a few. I encountered a bridezilla who screamed at our serving team for serving too much chicken and not leaving enough for her. We tried to be understanding, but it was three hours after dinner service. I just wanted to go home.

The groom must have known that he had just married a monster because when she was throwing her prehistoric creature-like tantrum, he was nowhere to be found.

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24. Holy, Mother Of The Bride

At a wedding I catered, it was the bride’s mom who was the real piece of work. She kept aggressively flirting with one of our chefs. It’s kind of hard to blame her; he was a very good-looking, 6'3” tall Italian stud. The poor bride had to pull her mother away from the kitchen a few times, causing a fun argument between her mom and dad.

Eventually, the bride started crying. I knew the marriage wouldn’t last when the groom disappeared to go take a few shots instead of comforting his wife.

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25. Does This Make Me A Wedding Crasher?

I’m a photographer and I’ve only worked three weddings because they’re a nightmare. Bless you guys who do it, but it’s too much work and drama for me, and not worth the money. Anyway, as it turns out, I’m kind of the reason why this couple got divorced. Not that they really should have gotten married in the first place.

So, at this wedding, the groom called his bride unattractive. That was red flag number one. She was stunning and used to model and he was cute but generic. Throughout the night, he kept ignoring his bride and hung out with his boys. At one point, he even asked for a photoshoot with his mom. He was definitely a mama’s boy. But not even his mother could get him to take pictures with his wife.

When I suggested that he take pictures with the bride, he told me to shut up. I could see the bride wanted the pictures but after asking the groom a third time, I just started packing up. When he started yelling at me, I just told him no one talks to me like that, and I’d send them a refund. And that’s when I knew it wasn’t going to last.

The guy actually started crying and said he’d behave. Anyway, fast forward two weeks, and the couple had gotten an annulment. The bride’s dad paid me in full—and tipped me well too—but neither party wanted the photos. When I offered to refund him half anyway, he said the bride knew when the groom yelled at me and cried that it wasn’t going to work, so I earned it.

I guess the whole family was trying to get them to call it off.

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26. I Want My Money Back

I did this one wedding where the bride was so nervous that she had more than a few drinks and became inebriated before the ceremony. She was so far gone that she needed help just walking down the aisle. Then when the ceremony was over, instead of kissing the groom, she did something so disturbing, it’s unforgettable. She licked him from chin to eyeball.

She also fell during the reception and knocked over a waiter carrying champagne. She couldn't even be in the post-ceremony photoshoot because she kept falling over. When it was time to cut the cake, we couldn't find her anywhere. Eventually, our staff went to her hotel room and found her covered in her own vomit, still in her wedding dress.

She had the audacity to ask for a refund after all of this. They're divorced now.

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27. It’ll Cost You

A friend of mine ran a country club. A demanding couple wanted to rent the whole place on Valentine's Day for their wedding. Of course, the price for everything on Valentine’s Day was double the usual, because you know, it’s Valentine’s Day. Florists, caterers, DJs, all double. And they had all kinds of weird requests. Like wanting the entree to be steak carved into heart shapes.

It basically would've been cheaper to end world hunger than to throw this wedding, but they went ahead anyway. Unfortunately, the bride made herself sick even before the couple arrived at the country club. They canceled everything.

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28. Too Young For Love

The night before a wedding I was supposed to work, something crazy happened. It was so obvious that this marriage wasn’t going to make it. The bride-to-be tried to sleep with me on her stag night. She cried on my shoulder, saying that she wasn't ready for marriage. Even my 18-year-old hormonal brain said, “NOPE!” Her marriage lasted a year.

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29. Betting Odds

I attended a wedding where they might as well have just signed the divorce papers before throwing the bouquet. The groom looked like he had had too much to drink and the bride seemed incredibly angry. Then there was this woman walking around during the reception placing bets on when they would divorce. I later found out she was the mother of the groom.

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30. Or Forever Hold Your…Mistress!

I didn’t know if I should laugh, cry or cringe when I attended this wedding. Somehow, the groom’s mistress—big no, no right there—found out he was getting married. Instead of letting the bride have her day, the mistress showed up at the wedding. Right in the middle of the “I dos,” she walked straight up the aisle, right on stage, and slapped the groom in the face.

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31. Let’s Just Call The Whole Thing Off

I was working at a "wedding factory." On Monday, the bride called to cancel her wedding, scheduled for that Saturday. We informed her that they would lose the deposit, around $7,000, and she seemed ok with it. Then, on Thursday she called back and said that the wedding was back on. When the guests arrived, everyone looked pretty upset.

It seems that the wedding party had told everyone that the wedding was off, then two days later that it was on. The ceremony only lasted about three minutes. The bride then changed into sweatpants and everyone made use of the bar. "Well, this won't last long,” I thought. I was so, so right. It didn’t take a fortune teller to predict what happened next.

The following Monday the bride asked for a divorce.

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32. Marriage Ain’t No Bed Of Roses

This isn’t my story, it’s my little brother’s. He worked in catering for a bit after he graduated from college. He told me about this wedding that he had worked that turned pretty ugly. The bride and groom disagreed over the flowers for the tables. The bride wanted lilacs and the groom wanted roses. The bride won out in the end, but she ended up getting into a fistfight with her groom over it. I would have opted for tulips.

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33. Haste Makes Marriage A Waste

A long time ago, I worked as a wedding planner/caterer, depending on what the client needed. I got a call from this woman on a Monday morning. I could practically hear the excitement in her voice. Her boyfriend had proposed the day before, on Sunday, and she wasn’t wasting any time. She told me that she wanted to get married that Saturday.

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34. I Can’t Even Bare To Look At You

I used to moonlight as a musician for hire in college. I did more than a few weddings and saw many that raised an eyebrow but there’s one that really stood out as rough. At the wedding, the groom was super emotional and smiling when the bride first appeared at the church doors to walk down the aisle. The bride, on the other hand, was more interested in "holla-ing" at her family and friends as she made her way down the aisle.

I don't think she looked at the groom once on her way down. The groom’s whole expression just dropped as she got closer. It was like she had no interest in the man she was about to marry.

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35. Champagne Taste, But The Wedding’s A Waste

The bride and her bridesmaids had gone through at least ten bottles of champagne throughout the morning before the ceremony. Well, two of the three bridesmaids fell and had trouble getting up to make their way down the aisle. The bride and the maid of honor made it down the aisle but had great difficulty. The groom basically had to hold her up for the entire ceremony after she very loudly refused a chair.

The flower girl even looked a little green around the gills and threw up into her basket during the vows. I guess she was either given or sneaked some champagne as well. The wedding planner told me that the bride and groom had argued the night before over whether they were going to drink before the wedding. The groom wanted to stay sober until the reception…obviously, the bride disagreed.

I ran into the wedding planner at another wedding and she informed me that the bride and groom had a massive fight in the limo after the ceremony. The bride’s side of the party was all so bent out of shape that they had to skip the post-ceremony photoshoot. The photographer ended up doing a goofy shoot with the groomsmen, since they had already paid for the photos.

When the wedding party arrived at the reception, the bride had passed out. The groom, obviously embarrassed at this point, made an apology speech to his guests, got an Uber, and went home. Alone.

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36. A Walk Along The Beach

I worked catering gigs in Florida. This one wedding ended very abruptly and even more tragically. The bride was being super mean towards her groom during dinner and the reception. She kept speaking to him with this sarcastic tone like, "You should have known to do that already, dodo bird.” Our crew figured, yep, this is going to be a record short marriage.

After the obligatory dances, and dinner had started the groom came up, tipped the DJ, the photographers, then came over and tipped our crew. He tipped us way too much, and this should have been a sign. He thanked us very sweetly and said he was going to skip away and drive down to the beach a few minutes away while the party continued.

The groom never came back. The next day, we found out the horrifying truth. The bride's family told us that the sheriff had found the groom’s car and his body down by the beach. Tragic. Just tragic.

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37. The Battle Axe Bride

I ran a fairly upmarket hotel and restaurant. Sometimes we hosted weddings. I made a rookie error and booked in a wedding for Christmas Eve. This should have been a warning sign. It shows a pretty significant lack of consideration for friends and family making them travel across the country on one of the most irritating days of the year.

Anyhow, the wedding party turned up three hours early. The battle-ax of a bride came charging through the doors and proceeded to shout at us for not being prepared. Her family looked totally and incredibly embarrassed but not entirely surprised. There were various other red flags throughout the night, but the main one happened to me.

The groom asked me if I wanted to go up to his room with him and “break him in” as a married man. I politely refused.

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38. It’s A Setup

I’ve worked as a filmmaker for weddings. As the filmmaker, my entire job centered around capturing shared moments of emotion and chemistry. These are what make it into the edit. These are what make your wedding film amazing. But when you realize you have almost no chemistry to capture, it becomes clear that the edit is going to lack the magic that is, you know, love.

At one wedding, the couple treated the wedding like a bachelor and bachelorette party and only hung out with their respective circles. The groom was drinking and laughing loudly amidst his old friends. It was not a good vibe, a very hostile table. The kicker? Both the bride and groom each got their own photographers and filmmakers for their special night. Eventually, their conflict became our conflict.

They divorced very shortly after.

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39. Tabloid Fodder

I was the filmmaker for a political celebrity wedding. The bride and groom didn't care about my camera crew and instead, they invited and treated the paparazzi cameras as a priority! My main camera guy had to argue with security to get the shots we needed. They essentially cared more about the next day’s front page and glamour magazines than their own memories.

The groom was also known for corruption and there was an incident where his “lover” arrived and made a scene. I googled the couple and now and I see they are publicly fighting each other in the news!

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40. Mama’s Boy

I bake wedding cakes for a living. I own my own bakery now, but have also worked in a country club kitchen, doing basically the same thing. I've seen couples who clearly weren’t going to make it from as early as the tasting/consultation or the wedding day itself. There are a few stories—or should I call them nightmares—that come to mind.

I once had a Mama's boy who ignored his wife when they were supposed to be having their cake tasting. It was so weird. He was cuddling with his mother and he was even hand-feeding her cake samples. His mother was not supposed to be there in the first place, and you could tell that the bride was livid. By the end of it, he had kissed his mother on the lips multiple times. Divorce.

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41. WWE Smackdown Wedding

The worst story was a wedding that went horribly wrong. Even the bride and groom knew it. The bride was this sweet woman, about 10 years older than the groom. She came from a fairly well-off family. But the groom complained about everything during the planning process and was generally rude to the wedding planning staff.

He was just straight-up cruel to his bride though. Like at one point, when we were meeting, I asked after her wedding dress because it was gorgeous. She showed me this amazing dress and he said, straight up, “I don't know why she picked that one. She looks fat and old in it. Every other woman is going to be more beautiful than her one her wedding day.”

When she explained that her dress was traditional, he just sneered. That should have been enough to end it, but the wedding day was where it all fell apart. I found out later that their marriage didn't last even a day. From the way the servers tell it, midway through the reception, the groom raised his hand to his new bride.

She flinched and turned away, protecting her face but he grabbed her by the arm and ripped her around. Her mother and aunt were standing three feet from her and lost their minds, realizing what must've been happening behind closed doors. The groom’s response to his bride’s mother and aunt was to flip out on them.

So, in the middle of this very big, 600-person wedding, the groom hit his new mother-in-law, a well-respected woman in her community. There was a giant brawl, the authorities showed up, and the couple quickly annulled their marriage.

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42. One Ring To Rule Them All

I worked wedding receptions before and saw some marriages that really could only end one way. One of my favorites was a pretty harmless situation, but it showed how much this couple probably didn’t care for one another. Less than just three hours after saying their “I dos,” the bride lost her ring. Either she didn’t love the guy, or she wanted a bigger diamond.

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43. Let’s Have A Bonfire

Bridezillas are usually the ones tearing up their reception parties. But in the case of this ill-fated marriage, it was the groom’s mother. I wouldn’t exactly say that she was protective of her son, because what she did at the reception party was pretty dangerous. She didn’t like her son’s new bride or her family so she lit the table on fire. I’m assuming their marriage also went up in smoke.

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44. Mama Knows Best

I'm a musician and the son of a wedding photographer. I've actually played in a band whose leader actually took two deposits for the same couple. The groom’s mother paid one deposit for the wedding and then laid down another deposit for the divorce party. She said, and I quote, “I give it six months.” Her math was a little off, but she was right.

Nine months later, there we were, and there she (the bride) wasn't.

End in divorceUnsplash

45. The Honeymoon Is Over

I knew this couple from years ago. It was obvious that they were in trouble when they frowned during most of the ceremony. But the real wedge in their union came after their reception. The couple skipped out on a honeymoon because they couldn't agree on a destination. They had plenty of money—just no desire to compromise. I doubt they’re still together.

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46. This I Swear

At the rehearsal dinner, the groom's mom was in tears. She thought that her son “looked miserable.” Truth be told, he was and we all knew it. During the exchange of vows, the bride basically doomed their marriage to failure. She had written her own vows and they weren’t words of comfort and love. She said, "I know I can be a pretty terrible person, and I don't know why you've stuck around, but that's all going to change starting today!"

They were divorced a year later.

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47. Why You Shouldn’t Write Your Own Vows

At one wedding, the bride rewrote the wedding vows, and I have to think that she wanted the marriage to fail. The bride had the minister put "Until death, or divorce, do us part," into the ceremony. That’s less a red flag and more a giant, blinking “STOP!” sign.

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48. The Family That Stays Together…

I was working at a hotel during a wedding weekend. One of our staff caught the father of the bride and the groom getting to know each other a little too well. Nothing really came of it. We all had a bit of a giggle and assumed this was some sort of misunderstanding, like maybe there was a family tradition whereby the father of the bride “inspects” his future son-in-law.

At 7:57 PM on the night of the wedding, however, this wedding party went into overdrive. I was bringing a bottle of champagne up to the bride’s room along with some other things we regularly do for a wedding night. I wasn’t expecting anyone to be in the room as the groom was downstairs and the bride was supposed to be out getting photos taken or something.

Anyway, after I knocked on the door—hotel staff have to, even when we know nobody is in the room—I was in for a surprise. I quickly unlocked the door and walked straight in. The bride had thrown herself over the chair with her wedding dress over her head and the best man was pounding her from behind. I just left the champagne on the ground and left.

That was one seriously messed-up wedding party. But they all tipped well.

End in divorceUnsplash

49. He Just Ran Into My Knife

I was helping out at my parents’ restaurant. They were hosting a huge wedding party and everything was going well…at first. I was busy serving drinks and suddenly loud yelling and screaming started right behind me. As it turns out, the bride had somehow found out the groom’s dark secret. How bad was it? Well, he had hooked up with her sister right before the wedding ceremony—and apparently on a few occasions before.

To say that she did not react well would be an understatement. Actually, what happened next kind of reminds of that lyric from Chicago’s “Cell Block Tango.” How does it go again? Oh, yeah. “And then he ran into my knife. He ran into my knife ten times.” In her anger, the bride grabbed a dinner fork from the table and plunged it into the groom’s chest…several times. We had to call first responders. It was absolutely insane.

Apparently, the (former) bride’s parents are still regular guests at my parents’ restaurant. And, according to my mother, they told her that the groom and the bride's sister now actually have two children together and are planning on getting married.

End in divorceUnsplash

50. Keep Them Guessing

I was attending a wedding and everything was going just fine. The flower girl was angelic, the bride was the image of beauty in white, etc. It looked like this marriage was getting off to a good start. Then came the wedding vows. When the time came to say “I do,” the groom said, “I guess.” Well, the marriage ended shortly thereafter.

End in divorcePexels

51. You Can’t Keep This Hoedown

I played in a wedding band for several years. We played a wedding at a farm and they provided us with a greenroom. It was just one of two small rooms built into the side of a barn. After we finished the first set, we and a few of the guests all went back to this barn to hang out. Once we were inside, we could clearly hear two people sharing what should have been a private moment.

We all thought that it was funny as all get out, and started making all sorts of noises to let the couple know that we were there. The noises coming from the couple stopped immediately, but nothing else happened for a while. We all thought that the couple was too embarrassed to come out just yet. They were probably sorting themselves out and bracing for the walk of shame.

More time went by and the couple still didn’t come out. So, one of the guests knocked on the door to ask if everything was alright. The door opened and the best man, who was married, appeared and literally bolted out of the barn as fast as he could with his jacket pulled over his head to try and hide his face. Then, a few seconds later, the bride walked out and started crying her eyes out.

It turns out they had been sleeping together behind the groom’s back for quite a while. The groom got wind of what had happened in the barn. There was a lot of shouting and then I’m not sure what happened after that. We just packed up all of our stuff and got out of there. Eventually, I found out the ending of that strange story. 

A few years later we got a request from the same bride and best man to play at THEIR wedding—and that’s not the weirdest part. They were having it at the same venue.

End in divorceShutterstock

Sources: Reddit,


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