10+ Stories About Weddings That Suddenly Turned Into Total Nightmares

A wedding is a significant event that many prepare for over a year. However, even with meticulous preparation, things may not go according to plan. Sometimes the celebration can be spoiled, and occasionally, a runaway partner at the altar can turn into a happy twist in life.

• This was sometime in the 70s. My uncle in India was attending the wedding of some not-so-close friends (totally common to have 1,000 people at a wedding, with many people that barely know the couple in attendance). The bride was left at the altar and literally standing on the stage and waiting while everyone was watching.
  My uncle stepped up and said he’d marry her. He must have felt some sudden rush of Bollywood go through him. Anyway, she said yes and they are happily married to this day. © agentkatsumoto / Reddit
• My best friend’s mom got remarried and had an expensive, beautiful wedding, but for some reason didn’t hire a DJ. Last minute, her mom asked me to manage the CD and gave me a list along with verbal instructions of when to play each. I tried to warn her that I simply did not follow, but she told me she had confidence in me.
  Apparently all her life she wanted to walk down the aisle to some specific song, but I just couldn’t figure it out. They had to get walking to match the sunset, so she went ahead down the aisle while I flipped through a series of incorrect songs to the horror/amusement of the crowd.
  For years after, when I called my friend’s house and her stepdad answered, he’d say, «Is this the guy who messed up my wedding? How are you?» © yeetnpotatoes / Reddit

• The bride’s father was 45 minutes late to walk his daughter down the aisle. While we were waiting, the air conditioning broke in the venue. It was over 100º degrees outside and extremely humid. The place was overcrowded. You could barely move without bumping into someone else, and in the heat that was extra miserable.
  I guess the air conditioning problem had also affected the refrigeration or something because most of the food was spoiled. The only food on the buffet was salad, spaghetti and rolls. Not enough to feed even half the guests. Most people left after the first dance. Two of the bride’s aunts fainted. The bride and the wedding planner were crying. © PleasantSalad / Reddit
• It was a big wedding, over 300 people. Turns out the bride had been having an affair with her cousin’s husband. The cousin had known for a little bit, but waited until the wedding to go table to table, letting everyone know the bride was sleeping with her husband. Poor groom was blindsided.
  Worst part was his father-in-law was well off and opened up a restaurant for him. Well, he lost his wife and his restaurant. © admx14 / Reddit
• We attended a wedding for a family member who didn’t have a lot of money. It was hosted at an inexpensive venue, but was nice. My heart broke when only a third of the people invited showed up. You could see the hurt in the couple’s face.
  They came up to our table and asked if we had any friends in the city (we lived an hour away). They had all this food for 100 people but only 30 guests. They were willing to have complete strangers come down just so their money and food wouldn’t go to waste. We hadn’t handed over our card with cash inside yet, so my husband hit the ATM and added another $100. © redgreenbrownblue / Reddit

• I’m a wedding photographer. I was at one really fancy wedding a couple of years ago, typical outdoor deal at a swanky location in the middle of nowhere. The place was really nice, had a large concrete stairway flanked by water fountains that led down to the altar area, so the bride could be seen by all like she was ascending from heaven.
  The ceremony begins, and the bride appears with her father. She takes 3 or 4 steps down the concrete steps and her shoe twists on her. She tumbled down a good 12 feet or more and busted out the majority of her front teeth in the fall.
  With the place being so isolated, it took a good 40 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. Ultimately, she was ok and I got an email from them weeks later with the rescheduling date. This time, there were no stairs anywhere in sight. © MaestroLogical / Reddit
• I went to a wedding where the bride and groom bought the wedding package on Groupon. Which is fine, why spend a fortune for one day? But I guess the venue thought they could cut some corners. So they stuck us in a room that smelled so strongly of cat urine, some people immediately left.
  The only drinks were those from a vending machine. It was next to an airport, so every time a plane took off the ceremony had to be paused because you couldn’t hear anything. And the day after the event, every single one of us had food poisoning. © Independent-Nobody43 / Reddit

• A close friend, who’s a wedding photographer, saw this happen. While waiting at the altar, the best man announced that the groom was coming out as gay and the wedding was cancelled. Everyone laughed like it was the best man joke, but no, it was very serious.
  The bride was on the way in the car, and she wasn’t happy. All the guests had to wait while they sorted their lives out. In the end, they split the reception room in two and each family had their own dinners. Needless to say, they didn’t want the photos. © timiss***d / Reddit
• Bride and groom decided to «go get a few pictures» right after the ceremony. They disappeared for about 5 hours. We all waited at the venue. Since no one got any word from them, the buffet wasn’t set and the DJ didn’t play any music. After 2 hours, most guests decided to collect some cash, and we talked the manager of the venue to get out the buffet and the DJ to play music. So we basically started the party without the wedding couple.
  When they finally got back, they were in shock because basically all food was gone, people were happily dancing and everybody forgot that this was their wedding. So the wedding itself wasn’t ruined but everything around it. Us, guests, had a great time after all when we took things in our own hands. © DrPCox85 / Reddit

• Hurricane Ivan. Our wedding was scheduled for Friday, and the hurricane hit us dead center on Thursday. We were sitting around with no power on Friday and remembered that a neighbor was a pastor.
  So my partner and I just knocked on his front door and asked if he would just marry us in the front yard. The big church wedding was cancelled, but instead I got married in the front yard with chainsaws and stuff in the background. We’ve been married for 17 years. © microtodd / Reddit
• This was around 2009. On the second day of the wedding, the bride went swimming in the ocean. It took place in Tenerife. She swam out too far and was basically «lost at sea» for 9 hours or so. She eventually found her way back, but was in bad shape. Everyone was panicked the whole day and thought she had drowned. By the time she got back, she wished she had.
  Her husband found her phone and read a bunch of messages supposedly from her aunt (but it was quickly clear from the intimate content it wasn’t her aunt at all, she had been having an affair with the best man for apparently years). They got an annulment shortly after. $60.000 down the drain, as it was one of the most opulent weddings I’ve ever been to. © ciggies87 / Reddit
• It happened to a woman I knew. When it came to the part of «If anyone here has any objection, speak now or forever hold your peace,» a woman in the back stands up and says, «the groom can’t get married as he is my husband.» Turns out the woman, who objected, and the groom were in fact married and tried to get divorced, but the divorce was never completed. So technically the groom was still married, and the wedding did not proceed. © linux1970 / Reddit

But the wedding is not the end of the story; it’s just the beginning. For some people, it’s only after getting married that they discover terrifying secrets about their partners.