15 Stories Of People Breaching Wedding Etiquette That Make Me Think "Manners 101" Should Be A Mandatory Class
While I enjoy other places on the internet, something about the stories people share on Quora are so dramatic, I can't help but read every word. Recently, I found a thread that asked "What is the most appalling breach of wedding etiquette you have ever seen?" I was not prepared for these wild stories.
New Line Cinema
1."A couple of years ago, we were invited to family member's wedding. It was out of town (about an eight-hour drive for us). Actually, the vast majority of the guests were from out of town like us. So, we get the invitation and notice there is an 'A' reception and a 'B' reception. The 'A' reception was right after the ceremony and just for immediate family and close friends. It included a catered dinner, a wedding cake, all the normal reception stuff. The 'B' reception was for everyone else and occurred about five hours after the ceremony and just included dessert. All guests invited to the 'B' reception had to provide their own meals and entertainment during the five hours that the 'A' reception was happening. We, like most other guests, were invited to the 'B' reception."
2."I went to a wedding with my roommate as her 'plus one'...or so I thought. Turns out, she was NOT invited. She had previously dated and given an STD to the groom."
Nickelodeon
3."I was working as a silver service waitress for a wedding at a local hotel. After the meal was served and cleared, I and the other waiting staff started making the rounds with ‘champagne’ for the toast as speeches were about to start. As I approached the top table, the bride launched herself out of her seat and started laying into the maid of honor, fists flying, hair pulling, cursing, stuff getting hauled off the table to use as weapons, furniture knocked over, the whole nine yards.
"Members of the wedding party tried to pull the two ladies apart, but it escalated into a pitched battle with family members from all sides being involved. The manager of the hotel evacuated the staff to the car park, and the police were called. The police arrived, saw the scale of the brawl, and called for back up. The car park filled with police cars, and they went in and broke up the fight. We saw the bride handcuffed and taken away in a police car. The maid of honor and one other bridesmaid left in an ambulance. Various other members of the wedding party were hauled off in police vans. It turns out the bride’s mother stumbled upon the groom banging the maid of honor in the bathroom earlier in the reception and decided to share that information with the bride whilst the party was waiting for champagne to be served!"
PBS
4."At my wedding, my new father-in-law started his speech by saying they assumed I was pregnant when their son told them we were getting married. I wasn’t, and he wasn’t joking. My husband called his parents on speakerphone to tell them the news when we got engaged, and their first comment was that he didn’t have to marry me, we could work something out, so clearly, they thought I was pregnant. Ironically, we have now been married and happily child-free for 18 years."
5."A female friend married another friend... When they announced their engagement, his mom suddenly got 'the vapors' like a delicate Southern belle, fanning her face with a hanky and calling for water. They went on with the wedding plans. Everything went fine, but when they did the cake-smashing thing, his mom literally sprinted to her son, shoved the bride out of the way, licked a tissue and tried to clean the cake off his face. He was appalled, and his mom got upset when he went to his now wife to apologize for his mom shoving her out of the way."
CBC
6."I heard the marriage celebrant say to the bride as she signed the register, 'This will be the last time you use that name.' The bride replied pleasantly, 'Oh no, that’s my name, and I’m not changing it.' Then, the marriage celebrant introduced the bride and groom as Mr. and Mrs. (husband’s name). I was appalled at this rudeness, and the look of anger on the bride's face was obvious. If the bride could have shot laser beams out of her eyes, she would have. But the bride said nothing, not adding to the rudeness of the marriage celebrant. I wasn’t the only one who heard this rudeness, and basically, the marriage celebrant ‘aggressively’ stamping her views on marriage on someone else’s day. Another shocked guest came up to the bride and commented on it, and congratulated the bride for keeping her cool."
7."I went to a large wedding where the bride and groom wrote their own vows. The bride was my friend, and she read her very heartfelt, romantic vows first. When it was the groom’s turn, he paused and blushed deeply (which seemed sweet and romantic) until he opened his mouth. When he began reading his vows, you could have cut the tension in the room with a knife. It became immediately obvious that his blush wasn’t due to his tender feelings for his bride, it was embarrassment about what he was about to say. I cannot imagine what he was thinking when he wrote his vows, and I can only hope his intention was to be humorous and not cruel. His vows made light of marriage in general and the bride herself. It came across as a passive aggressive dig toward her and were in no way funny or loving."
NBC
8."At our wedding reception, my sister-in-law made a point of going around to several people commenting I had a lot of nerve wearing white when I had lived with my husband before marrying, a fact which was not a secret exactly, but we hadn't advertised it either. She wore white at her wedding even though she had been married before."
9."Well, it might have been ME! My husband's cousin was marrying his beloved, and we (me, hubby, and six kids) were invited. I had not worn a dress in years, and my teen daughter and I spent hours finding something flattering and comfortable: a sleeveless midi with a cute jacket. The periwinkle color flattered my eyes. We were not involved in planning at all. Imagine my embarrassment when I realized the bridal party and whole color scheme of the wedding was periwinkle!"
NBC
10."The bride, not wanting to alienate or upset any of her friends by picking a maid of honor and bridesmaids, opted to have no attendants, and they had no groomsmen either. (They did have planned witnesses to sign documents.) All of the married friends decided to wear their own wedding dresses to the wedding in 'revenge.'"
11."I didn't see it for myself, but my parents told me that at my brother's wedding reception, my great-aunt approached my dad, told him it was her birthday, and asked if the venue staff could bring her a cupcake with a lit candle that she could blow out while everyone sang 'Happy birthday' to her. My dad, as father of the groom, was distracted and flustered, and he apparently agreed to this request (maybe to get the great-aunt to go away so he could deal with other people and issues that needed his attention) but never actually arranged for it, although he didn't fail to do so intentionally. After the wedding, my great-aunt called my mom's sister and left a tremendously pissed-off message in her voicemail. My mom's sister later shared it with my parents. This resulted in our family dubbing the great-aunt 'Aunt Cupcake.'"
NBC
12."When my husband and I got married, we had a very large wedding. There were approximately 400 guests. There were people on my husband’s side that I did not know, and there were people on my side that he did not know. When it was time for me to throw my bouquet to all of the single ladies, this woman caught the bouquet that I did not recognize. She looked a little out of place as she didn’t seem to be dressed for a wedding. When I turned around to see who had caught the bouquet, it looked as though one of my friends from work had caught it, but this mystery woman ended up with it in her hands. My friend was left with a couple of leaves in her hand! I had assumed that she was on my husband’s side of the family, while he had assumed that she was on my side of the family. Right after she caught (correction: GRABBED) the bouquet, she came over to me to INTRODUCE herself.
"She told me that she had the same name as me. I then asked her who she was related to from the wedding. Her response astonished me and caught me off guard. She said that she was at the wedding because she 'came to pick somebody up who needed a lift home from the wedding!' I kid you not! This woman who caught my bouquet — who actually GRABBED my bouquet right out of my friend's hands (as an added bonus, it was captured on video), was not an invited guest to my wedding! She was a complete stranger. How does somebody do this and think it’s OK?"
13."We were part of the wedding party of a friend. She was the 'cool mom,' so she told the 'bartender' to serve her 17-year-old son’s friends. Go figure, booze and a bunch of teenagers weren’t a good combination. It started as one fight, which started several other fights, which led to adults trying to stop the fights, which led to adults fighting with ‘kids,’ which spread to include a large part of the guests. Police were called, people were arrested, and an Elk’s Lodge was trashed all for a marriage that only lasted a few weeks."
Netflix
14."Before the meal, everyone was milling about in the dining area where most people had sat at their tables, and we were waiting for the bride and groom to appear back after their photos. All the tables were assigned seating; however, two of the bride's not-so-close friends and one of her former teachers decided to sit down…at the bridal table! Immediately then, the bride and groom appeared back, expecting to be cheered, and were met by an awkward applause as everyone was in shock. These friends looked to have no intention of moving, and the bride discreetly had a small fit to her mother and myself. She was always the opposite of a bridezilla. This was one of the few instances I've seen her angry! The bride's father politely asked the 'guests' to move to their assigned seats, and one of them starts to kick off about 'they weren't seated in an area of the dining room that they wanted' and 'wanted to be closer to other guests.'"
15.Finally, "I’m not certain it’s a breach, but while attending my sister-in-law's wedding in the Caribbean, the girlfriend of someone in the wedding party (they had been together for 5-6 years) started 'woe is me' nonsense about not getting engaged, and she’s not getting any younger, and actually crying and making a scene at the reception. Her boyfriend called for a cab and went to a jewelry store and bought her a wedding ring DURING the reception. Here’s where the train completely derails. He presents her the ring at the reception, and she cries. She doesn’t like the ring he bought for her. Now, every woman at the reception is over trying to comfort her while her boyfriend stands there with a ring box and a $3,500 ring. He calls another cab and goes back to the jewelry store and buys a more expensive ring on his credit card. He brings it back to the now thinning reception and gives it to his weepy girlfriend. She perks right up and says, 'Much better!'"
I know you've got one! PLEASE share with me your cringiest or most embarrassing wedding story in the comments below or in this completely anonymous Google Form!
Note: Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
