For whatever reason, some previously-normal women turn into absolute monsters when their wedding day approaches. Whoever gets in their path—be it friend, family member, or wedding vendor—is then susceptible to feeling their terrifying, unpredictable wrath. It was those people who came together and shared their experiences of Bridezillas gone wild, and their stories are all absolutely jaw-dropping.
1. You Think You Know Someone
I had coordinated a bridezilla’s wedding. My cousin's six-month-old baby had passed a few days prior to the wedding. I called the bride and told her of my family situation, and I assured her that my assistant would be stepping in for me so that I could attend the funeral. Her reply made my blood run cold. She told me to send my assistant to the funeral and that I had better be at her wedding.
I told her I would be sending her a refund and that now no one at all would be coming to her wedding. The groom ended up leaving her after this whole thing went down. Suffice to say, he really dodged a bullet there.
2. Comeuppance Bought And Paid For
My mom and I saw a great Bridezilla freak out while shopping for my wedding dress a few years back. We were in a small, local shop when another mother-daughter duo came in. The attendant who had been helping us went up to greet them. The mother said they were here to pick up her daughter's dress, so the attendant looks her name up in the computer, frowns, and says, "Ma'am, you never bought the dress."
"What are you talking about?" The attendant shows the lady the notes on her computer screen. "You said you wanted to think about it, and asked if we could hold the dress. We held it for two weeks, but when we didn't hear back from you, we assumed you didn't want it." "Well, we want it now." "It's been over eight months", the attendant explained, "We sold the dress a long time ago. But I can order you another one, and have it expedited here in a few weeks."
And like a Mt. St. Helens of entitlement, the eruption began. "This is unacceptable!" The mother shrieked. "We have her alterations scheduled in two hours! The wedding is a week away! I can't believe you sold her dress!" The bride, meanwhile, is slumped against the desk and sobbing like someone kicked her dog. My mom and I are just open-mouthed staring at this point.
The attendant was trying to be diplomatic, but is clearly as baffled as we are. "Ma'am, we had no way to know you wanted it. You never called. You never put down a deposit. The dress isn't yours until you pay for it." After some more screaming from the mother and wailing from the bride, they left. The shop attendant came back over to us and I asked her, "Does that kind of thing happen a lot?"
The poor lady just deflated. "All the time." It baffles me to this day. How do you schedule alterations on a dress that you never purchased? Why would you wait until a week before the wedding to pick up your dress? How do you make it to adulthood without knowing how basic buying and selling transactions work?
Flickr, Office of Public Affairs
3. A Case Of Cold Feet
My friend is a wedding planner. He is a good-looking, straight male who has an amazing eye for design and detail. He can do everything from wedding dress design and execution to flowers, you name it. And his services are not cheap. He had a bride who called him up a few days before her wedding and told him she couldn't go through with it. Her reason why was chilling.
She started by saying she was in love with someone else. Then the conversation went something like this: Bride: "I can't marry him, I just don't love him anymore, I think I'm in love with someone else!" Him: "What do you mean you're in love with someone else!? Your wedding is in 5 days!" Bride: "Well....I'm in love with you. You just GET me! I've never met anyone else like you!"
Him: "...Do you know how much your parents are paying me to get you?!" She ended up getting married five days later and it was never mentioned again.
4. Clearing The House
I sometimes work for a wedding planner as a waiter on the day of the event. There was one wedding that was humming along right on schedule. Then, about 45 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to begin, a bridesmaid grabbed me in a panic and told me that the bride forgot her shoes. She told me that the bride absolutely needed her shoes.
I asked where they were and she told me they were about an hour away. The wedding planner talked to the bride and told her that no one would notice if she didn’t wear her shoes. The bride pitched a fit and made an uncle drive and get them. It took him about 2.5 hours to get them. The whole time, we were trying to convince the bride to start the ceremony and she refused.
The worst part was that her family came from another country and didn’t really speak English, so they had no idea what was going on at first. They got super restless and some people even left. We even told the bride that people were leaving. She didn’t care, she just wanted her shoes. Everything was delayed by about an hour and half. People were FURIOUS. By the time the reception rolled around, about 50% of the people left the venue.
5. Her Own Worst Enemy
I work as a wedding server. As soon as someone says “Bridezilla.” I think of this one story where the manager of our hotel had to shut down the wedding halfway through. This was the Bridezilla of all the Bridezillas I've ever seen. There were a lot of little things leading up that were casual Bridezilla—until the wedding took a dark turn.
At one point, she accused the wedding server staff of taking her veil...then the manager found it in her room and also showed her the card swipes to her room proving only she had been in the room that day. About 20 minutes later, she was screaming at some poor front desk employee accusing her of taking her wedding boots.
The manager intervened again, and after a long talk the photographer told them he had a photo of the boots on the staircase of the church, and asked if she had worn them since...When she said no, she told our place it was our job to have picked them up and made sure she had them, even though the church was not related to our place at all.
THEN shortly after she started opening the wedding gifts frantically inside the ballroom and screaming at anyone and everyone, guests included, saying someone took her wedding certificate. After that, our manager gathered the wedding staff and told us to take off our uniform jackets, empty them in front of him, then to clock out and go home.
Which we all did. None of us took anything. We heard next day that the maid of honor had the certificate and after we left the wedding was shut down completely.
6. Money Can’t Buy Class
Strap in, everybody. This is going to be a bumpy ride. I work in a relatively high-end country club in the American South. We had an absolute doozy last season. It was not only the bride who was crazy, but the whole wedding party. The "Happy Couple" were not members of the club, but had convinced our coordinator to sign off on it.
However, this coordinator quit shortly after booking, and a new girl had to deal with the fallout. First off, they had been extremely rude to our new coordinator and managers through the whole planning process. They had a private coordinator as well, but she was pretty well useless. Ours didn't even know she existed until the rehearsal.
The bride had demanded all kinds of free stuff during the planning. Now, I have no problem doing a wine tasting to go with the food tasting. However, if you come back three times to try the same free samples, I'm not playing ball anymore. You're paying for it at that point. You and the five people with you. Fast forward to the rehearsal.
We have regular dinner service going on in our dining room for our (rather exclusive) members. Renting the ballroom for a day does not entitle you to take over the entire clubhouse. The bridal party are drinking, yelling, cursing, and being generally ugly all over the grounds. Nothing was right, according to the private coordinator who had never seen the space before this.
Everything had to be moved. "What do you mean your covered terrace can't accommodate 250 people for the ceremony without an extra tent?" "I was told the dance floor would be by THOSE windows, not these." "We absolutely cannot let anyone into the ballroom until after the ceremony, so I don't care that the terrace is only accessible through it, make them all walk around the building through the wet grass."
This whole time, the bridal party is getting louder and drinking more. The little old ladies trying to eat poached salmon in peace are obviously annoyed. Father of the bride has set up a provisional account to pay for the wedding, since we don't accept cash or cards, only accounts. The bridal party knows the account number, and we've been told to put everything on it by our managers, as long as the person ordering knows the number.
You can see where this is going. He didn't see it that night, but he argued every single drink when the bill came. Even the 18-year-old scotch that he alone was drinking. Okay, enough of the day before. On to the main event. Most of this day I was on the periphery, since I was working on the other end of the building. This is the end they weren't supposed to be on, except the bride and bridesmaids, since their dressing room was on that side.
I could still hear pretty much everything that was happening, and saw way more than I should have. As guests arrived, they were directed around the outside, as per the request. The mother of the bride freaks out because OF COURSE they didn't want HER side of the family to have to go that way. They need to be allowed to walk through the active dining room and around the other side where the golf course is.
At this point, the groom and groomsmen are getting positively sloshed in the men's locker room, which our members are still using as well. Bridesmaids have moved out of the ladies' locker room and are rampaging through the members' bar. And by that I mean that we caught them multiple times pouring drinks behind the bar while the bartenders were getting their bar ready in the ballroom.
They had the same move every time of, "Oh, gosh, how did this bottle get in my hand and why is it suddenly half empty? Haha, silly me!" The ceremony goes well enough, considering basically everyone standing up front could barely stand. You may be asking how we let it get to that point. Well, they had snuck in a lot of drinks. I mean, a lot...
Highlights of the reception: The bride is cursing. A lot. I don't think one sentence came out of her mouth without a variant of a swear word. During hors d'oeuvres, the maid of honor comes out of the locker room and informs me that it "needs attention." You know, the room where only they had been for the last three hours because they had scared off all the members already.
It shouldn't have been my job, but the attendant had gone home early due to an emergency, so I figured I would take a look. I was horrified at what I saw. I came right back out to get every manager I could find. I even cleared the coast so our chef could come look after he saw my reaction. It was, quite simply, disgusting.
The small wastebasket was overflowing because they had put a bunch of stuff on top of the nice big covered one and then forgot about it. Part of the overflow was a used tampon. There are separate baskets in the stalls for those. Dirty panties, about 10 empty champagne bottles, everything a normal person would put aside or throw away just sat wherever it had fallen.
I removed the trash (with gloves on) and didn't touch one thing that was personal. I should have thrown out a lot more. About 1.5 hours in, the bride asks the bartender "what Black people drink," so she can get something to give to the band. When she is told we don't serve the band drinks due to liability, she flips out. More cursing.
How dare we not do exactly what she wants? Do we know how much she is paying for this? Not nearly as much as a lot of our members pay for theirs, I can tell you. Her new husband manages to somewhat calm her down eventually. By this point, all of the guests are so loud and obnoxious and not staying on their end of things that we call in extra security just to stand at all access points and wrangle them.
Remember all those "hidden” drinks? About two hours into the reception, the security guard nearest to the men's restroom hears an awful noise from inside. Goes to investigate and finds a broken urinal and an empty handle of Jack Daniels. Time for cake! This can't go wrong can it? Oh, it does go wrong. Wifey smears cake on the lower half of Hubby's face.
Haha! So cute! Hubby puts tiny dollop of icing on end of Wifey's nose. "OH MY GAWD!! HOW DARE YOU DO THAT?! YOU'RE RUINING EVERYTHING!!" (Paraphrased. It went on waaay longer than that). She proceeds to go literally running through the entire clubhouse and most of the surrounding grounds screaming at the top of her lungs.
As it was a nice night, many of our members were enjoying the patio off the dining room. One member in particular had been listening to the hubbub and asked me the names of the couple. I had to laugh when I remembered that he's a prominent divorce lawyer. I, jokingly, asked if he wanted me to pass out his card. He, very seriously, said yes.
The party was shut down two hours early. Officers were informed of potential drunk drivers leaving the property. The bridal party were staying in rental houses on club grounds, so our security escorted them back. You'd think that would be the end. But, alas, no. I did not witness the next day's meeting, but I gather it involved a lot of apologies from the groom and a lot more angry words for everyone from the bride.
Plus debates about the bar bill from dear old dad, because they could not possibly have had three kegs in that short of a time. He was right, sorry for the mistake, we should have charged for the fourth tapped keg. About a week later, we were informed of an investigation claiming that one of our staff had taken the bride's laptop.
For maybe two weeks, we were randomly called by the local authorities with updates on the case. Then she found it in the trunk of her car, where it had been the entire time, because they used a club-owned laptop to play their slideshow. Which she had tried to walk out with. I think that's the whole story. I probably blocked some stuff out. Except there’s one last twist.
We think the original coordinator did this to us on purpose. She didn't leave under the best terms, and confirming the booking was one of the last things she did. She must have known it would go like this.
7. Thirsting For More
Wedding coordinator here! I've found the moms are usually worse than the brides. I worked a wedding this past summer with a ridiculous Momzilla. During the rehearsal, she handed me the box of decorations and said, "Don't you dare make this look tacky." On the day of the wedding, she arrived and came up to ask me where the wedding programs were.
I told her there weren't any programs in any of the boxes and she proceeded scream at me for losing them and then decided that I took them. She also asked that we build a water station for the guests, but instructed us that she didn't want the guests to have access to it until after the ceremony. It was 90 degrees that day and the ceremony was outside, so that did not go over well.
And when the guests complained that they were thirsty and we weren't letting them go to the water station, she told them how horrible we were and made a big deal of opening the water station early, like she was the hero. Thank God they only booked the venue for the ceremony, so she was only my problem for about an hour. But that wasn’t the end of the story.
The next day, my boss handed me an email the Momzilla sent her. She wrote about how I lost the programs, but then in the same sentence said she found the programs in her hotel room later that night and made a comment about how I should've gone to her hotel and gotten them. She also complained about how I wouldn't give her guests water and how the photographer was the worst person she's ever worked with.
She actually wrote, "Don't bother remembering her name, she'll never work in his town again" about the photographer, like she was a Hollywood producer. Her letter ended with her complimenting the venue space—and then came the line I’ll never forget. "I think I would be a great addition to your team of event coordinators! Let me know when I can start!"
Yep, this witch was blatantly trying to take my job. The worst part, though, is that my boss actually hired her. Needless to say, I quit working at that venue.
8. Don’t Judge A Cake By Its Cover
I’m a baker here. I wasn't present for the freakout, but it was my fault so...A few months back, I had a bride who wanted a navy to white ombre cake made with white sponge. Now, dark, rich colors like that in white cake SUCK. They always taste terrible because they have so much gel coloring in them to get them just the right color.
However, you can do it OK if they're willing to have the dark layers be chocolate. Navy is especially easy, thanks to blue velvet. I tell her this when we're planning. "But I want white cake!" She says. I tell her I'll do all but the last few in white sponge. She agrees, and I make the darn thing and drop it off. I come back to pick up the staging stuff the next day, and make an awful discovery.
I find my whole freaking cake sitting there. Apparently, when they cut into the thing and fed it to each other, she freaked out over it being chocolate. That's not even the worst part. She refused to let any of the cake be served. Apparently, she forgot that she had agreed to have the bottom tier have two layers of blue velvet, so she threw a massive temper tantrum over “the cake being wrong.”
Apparently, she kept talking about how I ruined her wedding, then locked herself in the bridal suite. If she wouldn't have been a little psychopath and let the staff cut the cake like they should have, she would've seen that 90% of the cake was white sponge, like she wanted.
9. The Polish Princess
I worked at a mom-and-pop bridal shop. We had a bride who was Polish, leading my boss to call her “the Polish princess.” She wasn't my bride, but they picked a very bad consultant for her. This was made worse by the fact that this girl wanted stuff added to her dress that wasn’t done by the manufacturer, so we had to do it all in-house.
To give you an example, she wanted lights all around the bottom half of a dress that we had already spliced with two different dresses. Side note: my boss loved anything that meant money. Anyway, we spent months fixing and refitting this dress because she not only lost 45 pounds from her first time being measured, she also got a massive breast job.
Well, after finally fitting her into her gown, on the last week she decided the lights that took our poor 70-year-old seamstress two months to sew in looked tacky. She was crying and throwing herself at her mother in a tantrum, screaming in Polish. She then ripped the bottom of the dress and ultimately had to buy a dress from David's Bridal because my boss finally got smart and kicked her out.
Just a mess. She made our seamstress cry!!!!! The witch.
10. A Modern Romeo And Juliet
I work at a hotel that does a huge amount of wedding business, and we had an engagement shower, with the plan being that the couple would be having the wedding with us as well. This involved the bride-to-be and, to an extent, her mother. We knew there were going to be issues because neither the bride or groom ever smiled.
The bride was always complaining about how the groom was "wishy-washy" with picking a date, while he was always silent. The mother of the bride was your stereotypical Brooklyn Jewish Mother and had her hand in EVERYTHING to make sure things were perfect for her little princess. Well, the engagement party starts, and everyone except for the couple seem to be having a great time.
Then, halfway through the party, we suddenly heard the girl scream at her fiancé "WE WILL NEVER HAVE A CHRISTMAS TREE IN MY HOUSE, SO YOU CAN GET OVER IT!!!!" And from there it devolved into a shouting match between the couple, who moved from the banquet room to the lobby so their "guests" couldn't hear the argument. (Didn't work. They heard everything).
Apparently, she was Jewish and he was Protestant and not once in their relationship had they discussed religion. They went at it on and off for two hours. She was screaming at the top of her lungs about how their (non-existent) children would be raised Jewish, and how his traditions didn't matter. Her mother was standing at her side, nodding in agreement, and interjecting occasionally with a "that's right" or "you tell him."
The groom was pleading for her to at least compromise to let him at least invite his pastor from his hometown for the wedding, and said that their (non-existent) children could possibly do things with his parents for Christmas, even if they didn't celebrate. The guests just kept partying, pretending nothing was happening, but you could see on all of their faces that they wanted to leave.
Only, well, they couldn't since they would have to pass by the couple to get to the only exit. Only after two hours and the argument eventually devolving into her INSISTING her children would never see a Christmas tree in their whole lives, the groom finally dejectedly said, "Well then maybe this isn't going to work."
She threw her ring at him and said, I swear to god, "THEN WHY DID YOU LET ME MAKE YOU PROPOSE?!?!?!?!?!?!" She then changed her mind, picked up the ring, and said, "Whatever. I'm keeping this." Then she stormed off. Her mother looked at her ex-potential-son-in-law, told him he was an idiot for letting her baby go, and went after her.
I've NEVER seen a banquet room clear out so fast. Within 15 minutes, everyone was gone and it was a ghost town. From the looks of it, everyone took their "gifts" with them, too. Worse still, it was the former bride's family who had hosted and were staying at the hotel, so we spent the next two days "commiserating" with them about how awful the groom was as they moved their daughter out of his apartment.
Dude dodged a bullet.
11. My Plate’s Full
I’m a restaurant manager. The wedding dinner was on a Sunday, so instead of the usual one manager on, we had the banquet coordinator come on for a few hours to make sure everyone was happy. They were a rich couple and we wanted more of their business. Their menu was $119 a person and they had $80 bottles of red on the table.
So guests start to arrive and obviously start ordering drinks. At this point, the bride and mother see this and approach the head server. They tell her that everyone except the head table are to get separate bills, and that they are not planning on paying for anything but what's at the head table. Server finds us, tells us what's happening, and the banquet manager heads over to figure out what's going on.
It seems that the bride and her mother decided that their guests should have to pay, but they didn't want to be the bad guys so they expected us to have to tell the guests. We tell the people who have already arrived. Half of them laugh, thinking it's a joke. Once we told them it really was the truth, they laughed and left. My job became to stay at the front and tell all the people arriving for the dinner that they are going to be responsible for their whole bill, and what the costs were.
The final guest count was 20 people, and we ended up threatening court action against the family since they signed the banquet sheet stating that they agreed on 60 dinners. So the best part of this all was that they paid for the full 60 dinners, plus gratuity, and only had 20 people actually there, all because they wanted to save some money.
12. If The Shoe Fits
My experience with a Bridezilla happened at my great aunt's house. She has a private lake and a lovely setup for a small, country-style outdoor wedding. The mother of the groom was a close friend of hers, so my aunt was happy to open up her home for the event. I got the feeling leading up to the wedding that the groom's family didn't care much for the bride, and after witnessing her throwing a temper tantrum over the placement of the food table because it started to rain, I kind of started to see why.
Listening to the way she talked to everyone around her appalled me. She was a complete spoiled brat, and really was lucky that everyone didn't just leave the wedding completely...I wouldn't have blamed them a bit. However, the worst was the fact that she decided that she wanted her bridesmaids to walk barefoot...in the muddy, wet grass.
See, she had them buy new boots to wear specifically with their dresses. Anyone who has ever bought cowboy boots knows that they are upwards of $100, and she picked out pink ones to match their pink dresses. All five of the bridesmaids had to buy these boots on top of whatever they had to pay for the dress. But she decides 10 minutes before the wedding starts that she doesn't want them to wear them.
Of course, everyone complies with her and pacifies her and the wedding goes well. Although it got pretty tense during the "speak now or forever hold your peace" part. Not surprised to hear that the marriage didn't make it to six months. She was the most selfish person I've ever met, and I'm convinced that she didn't want to get married at all, she just wanted all the attention on her.
13. Daddy’s Little Girl
I worked as a banquet server at a ritzy, riverfront hotel. People come from all over to have expensive overpriced weddings. So needless to say, many of our brides were Bridezillas to some extreme. Our summer season is very expensive. Usually, our local brides only get married there in the off-season to save some of their cash.
One local bride that I will forever remember, however, went absolutely crazy. Before the wedding even started, one groomsman left because he couldn’t stand her demands. We were all in the ballroom setting up as we normally do. At this particular wedding, the bride had a wedding planner who set the centerpieces, which were a pretty general country theme.
The bride storms in, literally has a temper tantrum that they are not right because the candle was supposed to be on the left and not the right. We fix it no problem even though it was not us but her wedding planner who set them. Now, you’d think that would be all…but no. One of her bridesmaids lost her bouquet right before the ceremony.
Instead of troubleshooting, she completely berates and humiliates her bridesmaid. Then starts stomping her feet and saying, “Dadddddyyyyy” like a two-year-old. This was over and over again. To her, every little detail was wrong in some way, shape, or form. Needless to say, I was so glad I wasn’t responsible for the bride and groom’s table that day.
14. Picture Imperfect
As someone who has done a fair amount of wedding photography, one particular Bridezilla stands out for me. She abhorred the engagement photos and insisted that I must have used a warped lens or something that made her look fat. She readily admitted that her fiancé, who was standing right next to her in the photos, looked fine and normal, but there absolutely had to be lens distortion or something else that made her look significantly heavier than she really was.
That was awesome. I waived the fee for the engagement shoot and scheduled another at no cost to see if I could placate her. I recommended colors for her to wear that would “compliment her skin tone” and scheduled the second shoot for the golden hour where the light would be most complimentary, since she had insisted on the first shoot being at noon.
Two days after the second shoot, I delivered the photos and she was content enough to agree that I could be honored enough to be their wedding photographer. We (my assistant and I) get to the wedding location an hour early. We took literally hundreds of shots of pre-wedding preparations, all of the family shots that could be done with the family who actually showed up on time, and everything else that was agreed upon.
We shot the wedding as discussed. After the formal ceremony, we continued to shoot more casual shots, cake cutting, first dance, the reception, and everything else that was agreed upon. At that point, the dinner was being served. Again, as previously agreed upon, I wasn't going to shoot a bunch of people jamming food into their faces and it was time for a break anyway.
Her mother, who was actually the one paying me, invited myself and my assistant to discreetly grab a plate of food and sit at the back of the reception area and relax for a few minutes. The bridezilla came completely unglued at that point. She stood up and literally shrieked that “the photographer isn't here to eat, he's here to take photos and make me look good!"
The entire clubhouse went silent and all eyes turned to me. I set my fork down, glanced at the Bridezilla's mother, and then back at the entire ballroom and mumbled through an apology that wasn't warranted but somehow seemed necessary. Then I got my revenge. I proceeded to aim my camera directly at the fat witch while she chewed every last bite of her meal and jammed seemingly endless desserts into her maw.
Shortly thereafter, her mother and brand new regretful husband approached me and suggested that despite our contract to shoot through the duration of the reception, it might be better if I go ahead and call it a night. So I left. Very happily, I might add. The next day, as I was starting to do post-production edits on the photos, the psycho called me.
She screamed about how there was no way they were paying for the photos (that she hadn't even seen yet) and that she was going to call the local TV station to make sure I never got work again. "Ok," I said, "I understand you're upset. Please enjoy your honeymoon and we can discuss this later." And I guess I kind of hung up on her.
Half an hour later, her mother called me. She assured me that the bill would be paid in full and apologized profusely for how her daughter acted. I got paid in full. EVERYONE in the family was perfectly happy with the wedding photos except the Bridezilla. Her mother thanked me for my patience. Her husband thanked me for my tolerance.
And I thanked the powers-that-be that I'd never have to see or deal with the atrocious with again.
15. Dance Like Everyone’s Watching
I was the DJ for a wedding where the bride, who was from a very wealthy family, was not expected to live past childhood. Imagine, if you will, a girl who was raised having never heard the word "no." Her entire childhood was one big Make-a-Wish. She had a zest for life. She loved to dance, so much so that her parents were building her a giant lake house with a disco club; like a room just for dancing.
She was marrying a man several years her senior who she met at a dance class. He was just like a character out of a movie who charms older women and then takes their fortunes, except this was a much younger woman. The request list for the wedding reception was a lot of early 90s high-energy dance music. After dinner, and I've done this hundreds of times, dancing starts.
I decided to kick off dancing with the bride's favorite song, which was Technotronic’s “Pump up the Jam.” Until this moment, I had nothing but pleasant interactions with this woman, who genuinely seemed to appreciate life for how precious it truly is. Before the beat could even drop, however, she was running over to me screaming, tearing into me for ruining her wedding.
It was a spectacle and the guests watched in horror as she berated me. Apparently, she wasn't ready to dance yet, and I was playing the song that she was most looking forward to dancing to on her wedding day. I was forced to stop the song cold and the only sound was her screaming as I fumbled to find some cocktail music to throw on until she was ready to dance.
At the end of the night, most brides come up and hug me and thank me for a wonderful night. I didn't get so much as an icy stare; it was as if I didn't even exist to her anymore. Her father came up and gave me a $400 gratuity. His words offered a simple apology, but you could tell they carried the weight of the monster he'd created.
16. Worth Every Penny
I married a bridezilla and she ruined my life. After the wedding and vacation were over, I told her we needed to pay the debt we just accumulated—she wanted a huge wedding and she got it. We had a budget for the wedding and we should have had no debt at the end, but in the last few weeks before the wedding, she suddenly had to spend a ton of money on wedding stuff I had never even heard of before.
And when I say she spent a ton of money, I actually mean that it all came out of my pocket. So yeah, I wanted to start paying it off. She said she didn't have much on her credit card and I could easily pay it off in a couple of months if I just picked up some of her bills. I agreed... but that ended up being the worst decision of my life.
Three months later, she had her credit card paid off and she told me she wanted a divorce. You’d think we could get an annulment, but no. Annulment is very uncommon where we live. We looked into it, but we didn’t meet the criteria for one. Instead, we had to go to a quickie divorce lawyer who just puts paperwork together, and then we had to do everything else.
Maybe the worst thing about all this in retrospect? She comes from an upper-middle-class family and has a trust fund.
17. A Hair Don’t
As a hairstylist, I've seen a few bridezillas. This one affected me directly. So mid-week, a woman came in and asked about up-dos for a wedding for the upcoming weekend. She told my boss that she wanted something "funky" done with her hair. My boss then booked this witch with me. Saturday morning rolled around and she got in my chair so we could get started.
I was nearly finished when she started complaining that she wanted more of a classic Audrey Hepburn style. At this point, it was too late to change anything.... plus my next client had already arrived. She completely lost it. She said I wasn't listening to her and then called her mother to talk some sense into me. She was almost in tears wondering how she was going to explain her hair to her future in-laws.
Her mom showed up and basically told her that her hair looked beautiful. Then she paid me and dragged her out of the salon. A total what the heck experience for everyone.
18. Servant Of Honor
My best friend, who is normally very sweet and quiet, was super rude when she got married. First, she told me when I would be having her bridal shower. She set a date without consulting me in any way and decided on all the details—it would be at my house, I would be serving so-and-so types of foods, etc. I was in the middle of my honors year of my bachelor's degree in another city that was a 15-hour drive away.
Well, she set the date to be right in the middle of my exams. She also planned on making all sorts of DIY things for her wedding to save money, like an aisle runner, centerpieces, arch, veil, etc. I came into town the night before the wedding and she said to me, "I didn't have time to get anything made, so I need you to do it." I stayed up all night sewing and arranging flowers while she slept. But it gets worse.
It was in the middle of winter, and when we arrived at the hall, the floor hadn't been cleaned and it was covered with salt stains. There was nothing to clean it with but a bucket and a cloth. So after staying up working all night, I had to clean a floor on my hands and knees. I was exhausted, sore, and I hated every minute of her wedding. I didn't talk to her for months after that.
19. Bride’s Day, Bride’s Way
I attended the wedding of a family friend's daughter, so I didn't really know her. It was a night-time reception, with the ceremony immediately preceding. When we went into the reception, we were expecting a buffet or something to be set up, but there was nothing. Later, we found out that there was no food for the 120 guests.
Instead, there was a cheese spread, a fruit platter, and vegetables with dip. After an hour, people were really hungry and some people started to leave because they were expecting to be fed and didn't want to stay. When the bride found out, she absolutely lost it. She ran across the room in her dress and blocked the doors, screaming about how everyone was ruining her wedding. She kept screaming, "Bride's day, bride's way!"
It was such a scene that her father had to peel her off the door. I don't know where the husband was; probably cowering. After that, the people who didn't know her all left. I heard through the grapevine that she was inconsolable the entire night... She got trashed and then threw up—hopefully on her dress, but I’m not sure.
Oh well, Bride's Day, bride's way!
20. Warning Signs
My cousin married a bridezilla. He comes from a very poor area but has become successful after moving out of his hometown. His wife, however, was already extremely wealthy; you even could say excessively. They married after a year of knowing each other, and boy was it a surprise to hear about their horrific wedding plans.
They spent $250K on the wedding, including catering by seven different restaurants. Their food was from different cultures and cooked in front of you, almost like a hibachi buffet style. They even had servers in tailed suits and white gloves serving Taco Bell after midnight. Basically, it was the most lavish wedding I’d ever been to, and she was OBSESSED with the details. Well… that ended up being a HUGE red flag.
Once they got married, she was spending more money than he could make. She was getting mad because he wasn’t making enough, while she wasn’t working at all. When they got divorced, she gave him a cruel ultimatum. He could either get his ring back or keep the dog. He kept the dog. Oh, and there was one more parting gift.
Her sister, a lawyer, helped her file a restraining order on him and they haven’t spoken since. Screw her, but man, did he dodge a bullet there. They finished the divorce papers exactly one year and one day after their wedding. Once a bridezilla, always a bridezilla.
21. Let’s Go To The Tape
I used to shoot wedding videos for a business that covered anything related to a wedding. So one day, I heard that I'm getting assigned to another wedding this weekend. No one told me there anything was special about the ceremony, so I show up and see it's an Indian wedding. No big deal, I think, I can handle this. I did not handle it.
In a typical wedding, we would mic up the groom, and the bride and groom would stand in front of the preacher and the one mic would get everyone's audio. Except in this wedding, the bride and groom sat on a swing and the person officiating the wedding was pacing back and forth. So my audio was completely messed up—loud one second and quiet the next.
On top of that, the bride and groom had eloped months earlier and this was all for show. So what did the bride and groom do? Sat there and talked about all their guests behind their backs. So not only could I barely hear the guy talking, I had way too much audio about how the bride's mother's cousin was a promiscuous alcoholic.
Then we go to the reception. The reception lasted eight freaking hours. 8 hours. I brought enough batteries and tapes, but Jesus that was a long time. I sat a camera up at one end of the hall for a long shot, then a slightly closer shot from over the DJ booth, and I was doing handheld camera work. Every few songs, I'd move my long shot camera to get a different angle.
Now we go into the edit phase. This is really the only time I ever interact with the couple and where we spend any amount of time together. So I'm editing and we have a standard format we follow. A montage in the beginning, ceremony footage, first dance, father-daughter dance, mom-son dance, cake cutting, random footage of people dancing, testimonials and well wishes, etc.
Basic stuff. It usually ends up being about two-four hours once everything is done. Theirs was five hours long. We gave them a copy, and the next day all heck broke loose. The bride stormed into the store, demanding the rest of her wedding. I have no idea what she's talking about and besides, I don't get paid for any re-editing work.
We gave her an hour longer than any video I'd ever done, but that wasn't enough. She wanted all eight hours of the reception. Edited together. So I loaded all my shots up, and did huge cuts where I'd stay on a shot until it sucked, then I'd change it. Some shots wouldn't move for three songs. Basically, there was no way I was spending a lot of time on this.
We finally finished and exported the video to DVD. But she had one more nasty surprise in store for us. We called her in and she wanted to watch it in the store...and she brought a note pad. As she's watching, she's making an "edit list" of things she wants me to change. That list ended up being three pages long. I stood up, looked her in the face, and said, "This job isn't worth it. I quit."
That was the last wedding video I ever edited.
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22. It’s The Little Things
I worked for a catering company that catered for super, super rich people's weddings and events. There were a lot of little things that happened at the weddings we did, mostly rude rich people who thought that because we were the help, we should be treated like dirt. The one that sticks out in my mind is a wedding that we did at night.
We had been there for hours, and our main duties were done. However, we still had to clean up, and to do that we (of course) have to gather all plates, cups, silverware, and napkins. Well this one rich witch of a woman had been a piece of work all night. Complaining about everything and just being a pain in the butt to all of us.
We were all very polite and put up with her, but when we came over, she refused to give up her place setting—where she had gathered all the dishes and napkins, and would not let us take them. That meant we were stuck there. After an hour past when we should have left, we were all just sitting around, exhausted at 12 am and waiting to leave.
Every time this woman would take a step away from her seat, one of us would dash in and grab as much as possible. And every time, she would dash back to her seat. Finally, she had only one napkin left...she got up to dance, with the napkin in her hand! My boss was a 65-year-old, amazing woman who was sweet and wouldn't say a foul word to anyone or do a thing to offend a soul. Until that one moment changed everything.
She marched up to this woman, looked her straight in the face, grabbed the napkin, ripped it from her hand, smiled sweetly, and wished her an amazing night. I will never forget the anger and disbelief on that witch’s face. She immediately made a beeline for the mother of the bride, while we all made a run for our cars. Good riddance to you, lady.
23. Little Sister, Don’t You Do What Your Big Sister Done
I was my sister’s maid of honor. During a peak planning time, our aunt passed away. I kept trying to get in touch with my sister that entire day. When I finally reached her, I explained that I had been trying to speak with her all day to let her know that our aunt had died. I got blasted about how busy she is, and then she ripped into me about where I stood with my tasks. She was pretty rotten on the day of the wedding, too.
We are no longer close…
24. Don’t Harsh My Vibe
I work for a planning company, and we had a "dadzilla." He was the father of the bride and he was pretty much an idiot all night. Toward the end of the evening, he asked that I play "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston. They didn't have a DJ; I was using my phone hooked up to our ancient sound system to play music for their reception.
I obliged, and he decided that he wanted to sing along. Whatever. Well, my co-worker decided to unplug the mic because he was, in her words, ruining the song. I didn't care one way or the other, it was no skin off my back if he wanted to warble along, but whatever, my co-worker clearly disagreed. She cut off maybe the last 30 seconds of the song. I came to regret this deeply.
Cue months of angry phone calls and demands of a refund because cutting off the song "ruined" his daughter's wedding. This in spite of the fact that his daughter had both warned us about him and apologized to us for him. He showed up one day to pick up the remainder of a few decorations they had left behind and claimed that my boss was supposed to have left a $450 check for him and he wouldn't leave until we paid him.
I had to deal with this guy harassing me for money for probably 45 minutes before he finally gave up and left, claiming that he was going "straight to the courthouse" to sue us in small claims court. We haven't heard anything since then—he was probably put off by filing fees, would be my guess—but my husband still asks for "microphone guy" updates every once in a while.
Shutterstock
25. Hey Mr. DJ
I’m a photographer. During more than a dozen years in this business, I've had almost nothing but fantastic clients, real sweethearts, and consider myself lucky. Almost. The exception was a New York bride who was so angry because it rained cats and dogs on her wedding day. I’m not sure if she understood I wasn't in charge of making the weather.
She had wanted to take golf carts to the beach with the wedding party to do fun photos there, but that clearly didn't happen. Her foul mood spoiled a bit of the wedding. Good thing everyone else still appeared to be having a good time regardless. She managed to stay (barely) polite to her vendors, but weeks later she unleashed on me.
I had delivered, among I don't know how many hundreds of photos, two shots of the DJ. She calculated that those photos, based on my fee, had cost her $14, and was almost comically displeased about that. She also flipped her wig because, she told me angrily, she'd observed me eating a few canapés during the reception—and at three dollars apiece, how did I not understand those were not intended for the hired help!
I offered to refund her $23 and inquired where she wanted me to send the check. At that point, she calmed down a bit, possibly realizing how ridiculous she was being, and then volunteered that maybe she was being a bit irrational at the moment...because she was pregnant. Of course, I offered my congratulations. She grudgingly told me to keep the check.
I did put a baby gift (a silver rattle) in the mail to her a few weeks later. I hope she and her husband and the baby lived happily ever after!
26. It’s A Doggone Shame
I work for a wedding venue, and the couple wanted to bring their dogs for the ceremony. The day of the wedding, everyone working has a list of jobs to do to get ready for the big day. All of my fellow employees are setting up everything, so the couple's families can get ready and relax. We set out the chairs, decorations, flowers, tables, silverware, the dining room, the Arbor, EVERYTHING!!
The only thing they had to do was hold onto the dogs. Spoiler: They didn't. We finished everything on the inside in the morning, and we were almost done finishing everything outside, when we all hear a massive crash on the inside of our massive event room. It was the dogs. One had started with the wedding cake and accompanying artsy cupcakes.
The other moved into (on top of) the beverages tables where they broke around 80 flutes, 60 stemless glasses, and around 120ish glasses, along with four crystal punch bowls and all the accompanying liquids. And they did it all within a few seconds. Needless to say, the bride and groom’s "handler" was their 15-year-old nephew.
This boy, in his eternal wisdom, thought that he would let them run around a bit before the wedding. When the bride walked out of the changing rooms and down the hall to see the noise, she was not happy at the sight of the horrors that took place. She lost her mind, blaming us for everything, screaming, “Why did you let the dogs into the room?” etc etc.
She said she didn't care how, but to get this all ready before the reception or she would sue us for all we were worth. We took the "I don't care how" to heart. We called every business within a 10-mile radius and bought, borrowed, bartered, and did everything we could. All the glasses, all the wine, the drinks. I was in charge of driving the boss’s car to the nearest bakery and forcing the bakery to make a serviceable wedding cake with everything they had.
I was a little late on bringing the cake back, but everything else had been cleaned, reset, and back to its former glory before the wedding ceremony was over. After the night was over and the bride and groom left, we gave everything back we borrowed, boxed up what we bought, and started shelling out the favors. We tallied up all the damages the dogs had caused and what the wedding cost.
It was in the five-digit range. The couple was understandably angry at the bill, so they did indeed sue…they lost. And to my knowledge, they are still leaving 1-star reviews on every rating website out there for us.
27. Get A Room
I worked management at a resort in a popular tourist town. When weddings are booked at our venue with the event coordinator, we can hold a certain number of rooms for guests attending. A manager was always required to check in the bridal couple, and I had been given a heads up by the coordinator that this particular bride was a Bridezilla.
First, they wanted a room on the highest floor and closer to the beach. Thing is, they were already booked into the Honeymoon Suite, which was on the third floor with ocean views. Nope, she wanted higher and closer. Had an absolute meltdown at the front desk when I explained there was nothing higher...or closer. I mean, really.
A colleague of mine ran for the event coordinator when the bride started screaming at me and her husband-to-be. The husband was very apologetic and trying to calm her down. Eventually, she was placated and sent off with keys, but fewer than 30 minutes later she was back and demanding we empty the rooms next to and below her.
Honey, those rooms cost $640 a night and we are fully booked! I was lucky enough to not be working the night of the wedding, but I heard all about her screaming at the wait staff, kicking the band out for playing a song she didn’t like, and the screaming match she got into with her mother-in-law. What a peach! All counted up, the wedding was about $40,000 and she made everyone miserable.
The groom left our front desk staff a big tip to apologize for her behavior.
28. Sister Act
My sister was a bridezilla. She announced her two-year engagement and asked me to be the maid of honor. I then got the opportunity to move across the country to pursue my career. It was 18 months before her wedding, and her reaction was chilling. Instead of congratulating me, she said, "You're going to leave me here to plan my wedding all by myself?"
It was as if I had signed away my right to have a life for the “honor” of being in her wedding. Oh, but that was just the first salvo. She made us all spend hundreds of dollars on specialized dresses, and even the bachelorette party had a dress code and a steep price tag. For 10 years before her engagement, I had consistently had blue, green, and purple hair, but knowing that she is conservative, I let the color grow out.
I had natural color but a short bob with an undercut and even that just wasn’t good enough. She went on about it constantly. In the lead-up, we talked every few days to discuss her wedding—despite the problems, it was the closest we'd ever been. Then, as soon as she was married, I got radio silence. She even forgot my birthday.
Needless to say, we don't speak anymore.
29. A Rollercoaster Of Emotions
My co-worker married a crazy bridezilla. Here’s just a taste of what happened leading up to, during, and after the wedding. The moment he proposed, she lost her desire to sleep with him. According to him, she also basically stopped acting like the woman he fell in love with and started acting like her real self—and it was horrible.
A week after he proposed, she quit her job without warning. According to her, her full-time job was now planning the wedding. The wedding was truly horrible, but I'm getting there. She then had a fight with his mother because she demanded that she pay for half the wedding while getting absolutely zero input on anything.
Like, the groom’s family wasn’t even allowed to contribute to the guest list, which ended up being 95% of the bride's friends and family. The bride, who was 30 years old, subsequently egged her future mother-in-law’s house. When the bride and groom had a spat about the egging, he went to work the next day. That's when he received a disturbing video.
The video was of her screaming and sobbing as she buzzed her hair off in the bathroom. I worked with him, so he showed me the video. I strongly urged him to have her assessed by a psychiatrist. In response, he made a stupid joke about how intimacy with a crazy girl is the best kind and I pitied him. There's no amount of patience in the world that would help me survive a relationship like that.
Now we get to the juicy part: the wedding. It was in a pool "clubhouse" in summer, and it was much too small for the 150+ people they invited. Someone forgot to turn the air conditioning on until after the place was already packed. A lifeguard showed up in a swimsuit to turn it on, but it did little, given it was already sweltering.
Two rows of chairs in the clubhouse were ribboned off with “reserved” signs on them, so no one sat in them. They were later occupied by the six bridesmaids, leaving about a dozen chairs open once the wedding started. The one groomsman, who was the best man, stood by the groom and didn't sit, while elderly people were left standing as there was no way to get to the chairs once the ceremony started.
The bride showed up 90 minutes late. She was unhappy with her hair and makeup, so she took it all off and did it herself. All the guests were standing for an hour and a half just waiting for her. The groom was literally standing at the altar sweating his butt off in a wool suit, and he was clearly not sure if she would show up.
He looked like he felt sick. When the bride did show up, it somehow got worse. She burst into the clubhouse, marched down the aisle, and snapped at the officiant to "hurry up and get started." During the prayer while the religious groom had his head bowed, she turned to wave at everyone (I don't pray so I was looking up), then she told her mother to go get her some water.
She drank a bottle of water during the prayer and kept grinning and waving at people in attendance, paying zero attention to her groom in front of her. When the ceremony was over, tables were crammed into the clubhouse…and apparently only family and immediate friends of the bride had seats at the tables. The rest of us were to stand outside during the reception. I didn't see a dance, a speech, the cake cut, nothing.
The food was served outside where there were bugs absolutely everywhere. The bride made the groom get her food over and over and over again. He meekly stood in line with the other 150 people, until people insisted he go sit and let them get food. Nope, she told him to do it, so he said he had to be the one to get it for her.
She never left her table to greet any of her guests. And when it was over, it went nuclear. Apparently, they had a massive fight as they were leaving the following day for the honeymoon, with the bride laying all the failures of the wedding she planned at his and his mom's feet. She threw his luggage out of the car and tried to drive to the airport by herself.
However, he had their tickets and jumped on the hood to stop her from driving off in his car. He then got fired about a month after the wedding because he kept showing up late and leaving early to deal with her personal crises. One year after the wedding, I got a thank-you note for my wedding gift, and it revealed the whole story.
It was signed by just the bride with a note that said, "As you may have heard, Ryan and I have had a bumpy start in our first year as a married couple, and we're separated now. Thanks for the lovely gift." They divorced a couple of months later.
30. A Bull In A China Shop
Do Groomzillas count? I used to work as a bridal registry consultant for a big department store. I had several nightmare couples and family members, but I always think of this one guy. The bride was pleasant enough and very polite. She expressed great excitement when discussing the plans for the wedding, while the groom just seemed bored.
She was very excited to pick out fine china—and that’s when the groom snapped. He yelled at her and called her an idiot, then told her that there was no need for expensive things like that. He said they would never use them, while she insisted that she would find reasons to use them so they wouldn’t go to waste. She also said that her family insisted on her picking a pattern and they would all chip in to get the set.
She was nice enough and patient enough with this jerk that she even kept asking him what he liked. Well, the groom didn't like anything and kept yelling at her, telling her that she was "wasting his time" and that she was stupid. It was getting really uncomfortable at that point. I tried to intervene as much as I could, but this groom was complete scum.
Eventually, he stormed off and I tried to keep everything light-hearted and happy for the bride. I hope she didn't go through with that wedding.
31. Horsing Around
I worked for a small regional newspaper. It must have been a quiet week for stories, so my editor sends me off to cover the wedding of the son of one of our biggest advertisers. I make contact with the family to get details, and get told to meet them at a carpark behind the community hall, as the bride would be riding a horse up the main street to the quaint little stone Anglican church (how romantic! swoon).
So I get there and here's the bride in a massive, poofy, white fairy princess dress. The bride had to hoist the dress up to her armpits to get on the horse and ride with it bunched around her hips with her legs from the knee down poking out beneath. Apparently the decision to ride was a rather last-minute one. But what's this? There are two horses!
It seems the mother-of-the-bride wanted some of the attention cough I mean, she wanted to be part of her daughter's special day. So the mother is in a lovely lilac jacket, white blouse...and a very tight knee-length skirt. The sort of skirt that makes walking hard, let alone stepping up to a stirrup or swinging your leg over a saddle.
Oh, and huge stiletto heels that she refused to take off, even to get on the horse. The mother ended up having to roll her skirt up to her belt and get two hefty blokes to hoist her onto the horse. Then roll her skirt back down enough so she could tuck it under her butt and not be flashing her knickers up the main street. And away they went.
It was early afternoon in a pretty touristy town, so the echo of clip-clopping hooves brought everyone out of cafes and shops for a look. Took some very creative photography to cover that disaster discretely!
32. Don’t Bug Me
My brother and sister-in-law used to own a bakery, and wedding cakes were their primary moneymaker. If a couple had an outdoor wedding, we would always warn them that the cake needed a net around it to protect it from bugs. Most couples understood it and usually had a net around it, or else didn’t care. So anyway, this one bride wanted an extravagant wedding cake.
The middle section was a four-tier cake—two tiers on the bottom pillars with columns and two tiers on the top. Then she wanted four other sets of a four-tier cake that had stairs connecting the middle section. On the stairs were small dolls that were supposed to resemble the bridesmaids and groomsmen. Each cake was also a different flavor as well.
Oh but we’re not done yet. Then on the bottom, a waterfall. In short, this cake was ugly. The reception was also close to a creek, so that means lots of bugs. We strongly urged her to use a net around it. She declined. We also made her sign a waiver excluding us from any liability after the cake was dropped off. We have this wedding as our last drop-off as it was hot and we didn’t want the frosting to melt by sitting in the hot sun all day.
We also freeze the cakes a day or two before so by the time it’s ready to cut, the cake is de-thawed but the frosting is still intact. This is how it went downhill. We arrive to start assembling the cake and I noticed little tiny gnats already in the cake. We did a quick fix to eliminate the problem but alert the people there (again) that they needed something to protect the cake.
Again, by time it’s ready to serve, it will be covered in bugs. We show them the problem, but they didn’t seem to care. So whatever, she signed the waiver, we finished and left. Well, my sister-in-law gets a phone call around 8 pm that night with an angry bride. She wanted us to make and redecorate the exact cake and bring it to her within an hour.
There is no way in heck we would or could do that. Since I am better at customer service than my brother and his wife, she handed me the phone and I explained to the bride, “I feel your frustration in the matter, however, you were informed of the dangers of setting up a cake outside, in the country, with no protection.”
I asked her if she had any more questions. She threw a big humph and hung up on me.
33. You Need More Than A Priest, People
As a minister, there’s only one ceremony I had to walk away from. I received a call from my sister-in-law where she told me that one of her friends was supposed to get married and the priest had passed away the week before. They didn't want to change the date or move anything, so they asked if I knew anyone who could help out.
I said, "Sure, when is the wedding?" It was supposed to be in an hour. Okay, no problem—I was on my way home from work where I had finished up an important meeting, so I was already reasonably well-dressed. I called home to say I was going to be late. When I arrived, it went wrong almost immediately. The "happy couple" looked at me and asked if I had proper priest’s vestments.
Um, no, I didn't, and if I did, I probably wouldn't be carrying them in my car. This is, after all, was an emergency. Still, the bride asked if I was able to go buy some and come back. I told her that I didn't even know where to buy garments like that. The groom then told me that if I couldn't even try, then maybe I should leave. So I did. Oh, but it gets better.
My sister-in-law told me they later cornered a priest at the church and told him he had to marry them, or they would sue the church for a breach of contract and that it was the moral thing to do. They divorced nine months later when her "surprise" baby was of a different ethnicity than he was. It didn't help that he had a side-piece as well.
34. Telling On Yourself
I have to confess, I was a bridezilla. It was a small wedding, like 50 people, and it was going to be a casual celebration in a park. Everything was handmade or from the dollar store. I only ended up with a dress from a David's because the first little bohemian dress I ordered was more of a shirt, and my mom refused to let me wear it.
At the bridal shop, my mom told the lady not to tell me any prices, but I told her I would only consider dresses under $200. I tried on one dress and cried because I loved it so much. My mom bought it, and I later looked it up and saw it was $3,000. That changed everything. No more wedding at a park. Instead, we booked a small venue. We served pizza and pies still, and the groomsmen were still wearing polos and shorts.
The bridesmaids were in some simple Rue21 dresses I bought for them. I only became a bridezilla on the day of. That’s when it all unraveled. None of my family showed up, so my husband's side was full and mine was completely empty. Even our friends sat on his side. I was already primed at that point, and then the wheels came off.
Our MC read the speech I wrote before we were even at the altar, and our camera lost battery so we didn't get the recording, I tripped going up to the altar, and I had herniated a disc a week before the wedding. I was miserable and in so much pain. I cried so hard afterward. It felt like it was terrible; like everything was ruined, and I took it out on everyone.
I did my best to hold it together as much as I could, but I was so relieved when it was over. If I could do it all over, I would change everything; especially how I acted. None of that excuses my snippy behavior or my crying constantly on the day. Being stressed and upset didn't give me the right to make others feel bad.
35. Just Say No
I work in a mobile bar that travels to different weddings in our region of the country. We had this couple that were a bit strapped for cash, so we did their wedding for cheap. Anyway, they were so nice to begin with, but a lot of their guests brought their own drinks to the venue, which wasn't allowed. We confiscated them and promised to give them back at the end.
One of these guests was the groom's father, who brought a whole keg of ale. At around 10 pm, most of the guests were leaving, even though the party was supposed to go on until 1 am. That’s because the bride and groom had gone off the deep end. They had obviously partaken in some illicit substances and were pretty high and out of it.
We weren't selling any more drinks so we decided to leave early, refund the customers a bit of money, and leave all the confiscated booze behind. The bride (who booked us) was cool with this so we proceeded to head out. Well, it turns out that the groom was not okay with that. Just after we packed up, he started demanding drinks and the phone numbers of all our female staff.
We said no, of course. Eventually, we had packed everything in to my boss’s trailer and were ready to leave. We all ran to the car park as the groom was getting really angry at this point. It was about to get so much worse. My boss pulls away just as the groom comes out of the venue and starts hurling chairs at her car and trailer, screaming nonsense and swearing.
But I was in another car, and he hadn't noticed me yet. I turned the key in my car, which of course didn't start. He noticed me then. I kept trying the engine, and after a few tries, it finally started. I turned on my headlights—and there he was. 6'2" of messed up groom standing with lock-eyes in front of my tiny car. I couldn't get around him as he kept running in front of me, so I decided to drive straight at him and hope he moved out of the way.
He didn't. Instead, he jumped onto my car and eventually fell off the curved hood. Never looked back. Screw that guy.
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36. The Ten Commandments
The following is an excerpt that was posted in a Facebook group for people attending this wedding: “Please arrive 15-30 minutes early. Please DO NOT wear white, cream, or ivory. Please do not wear any hairstyle other than a basic bob or ponytail. Please do not have a full face of makeup. Do not record during the ceremony. Do not check in on Facebook until instructed. Use official Wedding hashtag when posting all pictures."
But she didn't stop there. The post continued: "DO NOT TALK TO THE BRIDE AT ALL DURING THE CEREMONY! Everyone will toast with Rémy. No exceptions." And the cherry on top? "Lastly, you must come with a gift of at least $75 or you WILL NOT be admitted!”
37. Runaway Bride
I’m not a wedding shop worker, but I do have a pretty incredible Bridezilla story. My sister and I were asked to be bridesmaids by a mutual acquaintance. We both thought it was odd that she asked both of us and not someone closer to her, but either way, we planned a wonderful weekend in a resort town three hours away for her bachelorette party with the other two bridesmaids, who were her friends.
She started the weekend pouty and on her phone for most of the time. All in all, she seemed totally ungrateful for the good time we were trying to give her. Things got better when we broke out the hard stuff in our hotel room later. Then we saw a band at a bar, and there were other bridal parties there. She was fine for a while, dancing and having fun, until one of the other bridal parties sat down near us and started getting more attention.
They were all young cute girls and the band was flirting with them, guys were asking the bride to dance...and all of a sudden my bride sat down and began furiously texting on her phone. We asked what was wrong, and she would only say that she wasn’t having fun anymore and wanted to go home. We were all like, “Okay, let’s call a cab and go back to the hotel.”
And she was like, “No, I want to go HOME.” Which was three hours away. We were all drinking, so no one could drive her home. She storms out of the bar and begins calling people who none of us know to come and pick up her in the middle of the night because her fiancé isn’t answering his phone. She steadfastly refuses to get a cab; she says she’s going to stand in the parking lot for hours until someone picks her up.
She even made us miss a bus that could have driven us to the hotel for free because she simply refused to move. That was what made me snap. I screamed at her. I’ve never in my adult life screamed at another adult like that. I told her that she was going to get in a car and go back to the hotel, because we weren’t going to leave her out here all alone and we certainly weren’t going to stand in a bar parking lot for hours while she waited for someone to pick her up.
And she finally relented. We got into a cab and got back to the hotel. Bride is still texting, not speaking to any of us now because I yelled at her. When we got to the hotel, she refused to come inside. She stood in that awkward space between the two double doors and refused to move again. Myself and one of her friends went up to the room to pack her stuff, while my sister and the other friend stayed downstairs to make sure she didn’t bolt on us or something.
She finally got a hold of her fiancé, who agreed to drive down and fetch her. My sister said that when Bridezilla finally decided to talk, she witched about how she was mad at US because “we hadn’t helped her enough.” I was livid. We’d gone to wedding expos with her, helped her pick out her dress, picked out our dresses, and we’d planned an entire weekend for her bachelorette party.
We spent hundreds of dollars to make her happy, but that wasn’t good enough for her. And while I was up in the hotel room gathering her stuff with her other friend, I learned the whole truth. She’s been previously married, had multiple foreclosures and court dates because of unpaid debts, and had two children she no longer had custody of—all things I had no idea about even though I’d known her for years.
I’m not sure if her fiancé knew it either! When her fiancé did arrive, she didn’t even greet or thank him. She just blew right past him and sat in his car. Her behavior was like a petulant teenager, and this woman was in her late 30s. It was unbelievable. But in the end, my sister and I bonded with the other two bridesmaids over the tumultuous situation, and now we’re friends. And the wedding was astoundingly uneventful. So I guess I’m happy with that!
38. All About Me
My brother married a bridezilla. She yelled at my mother on the day of the wedding for asking her where she wanted certain decorations put at the reception site. For what it’s worth, there wasn’t a written plan, so my mom had nothing to go off of. She never thanked my parents for financially contributing to the wedding, either.
She also accused a bridesmaid of trying to upstage her by getting a spray tan before the wedding. My brother wanted me to be part of the wedding party, but she told him to his face that I was too pretty to be a part of it, and that all of her bridesmaids had to be less attractive than her. Oh, but she was just getting started. She yanked my sister-in-law’s jacket right off her back at the reception because one of her bridesmaids was cold.
The list goes on. Well, they got divorced about a year later because apparently her demanding attitude carried over into the marriage. Needless to say, the rest of my family had a little party when we heard about the divorce.
39. Sibling Rivalry
My sister was a bridezilla. She asked me to be her bridesmaid. The dresses were hundreds of dollars, and my mom ended up paying for them because she knew I couldn't afford them. 70 bucks in alterations later, the stupid dress finally fit. I lived in Edmonton at the time and my sister was in Abbotsford, BC, which is far away.
She demanded that I fly down for her bachelorette party. Fine. 300 dollars for a flight there. I stayed with my mom until my sister kicked me out on the night before her wedding. Apparently, she wanted a "special night" with her TWO maids of honor and since I was “just” a bridesmaid, I couldn't be there with them. Whatever.
During the bachelorette party, I was told I needed to bring drinks for myself and the bride. Fine. I went to the store and she ran up 100 bucks on my card with what she wanted. Whatever, it's her wedding. She proceeded to drink none of it; then went to bed at the hotel early because she was angry for some reason. She then gave my bottles, all 100 bucks of it, to her husband for his bachelor party the next night.
But that's not all—she also got angry that my gift for them wasn't off her registry. I looked at the registry and there was nothing under 200 bucks. I mean, this witch even put a 900-dollar vacuum on there. When all was said and done, just being in HER stupid wedding cost ME over a thousand dollars. She then didn't speak to me for years after.
Even when she did reach out, she only wanted to tell me that she didn't actually want me as a bridesmaid and that I ruined her wedding. She said she only asked me out of courtesy and that the spot was actually meant for her wedding planner, our cousin. At this point, we don't keep in touch. Her wedding ruined our relationship.
40. Married In A Snap
I had a bride rent our facility for her "classy" wedding. She was a TOTAL nightmare, easily the worst bride I've ever dealt with. She refused to make eye contact with any staff member and got people's attention by snapping her fingers at them. Oh, but she got her comeuppance. She made a complete and total fool of herself when she and her groom showed up plastered to the reception. But that wasn’t all.
A rumor had started to spread that she was pregnant, which is why they were getting married. She furiously denied this in a speech to everyone gathered at the wedding. The baby was born five months later, and weighed a healthy 10 lbs, so no one bought her story that he was premature. It now costs a lot of money to get married at my place of work, and all brides must sign an eight-page contract basically promising not to be a jerk.
41. This Takes The Cake
The bride insisted that her mom make the wedding cake. The wedding planner warned them that you need to include a stand in the middle of the cake for support if you are going to use a wedding cake topper. The mother insisted she knew what she was doing and that her three cakes piled on top of each other were sturdy enough to support the large figurine cake topper.
Fast forward to them setting up the reception. I was speaking to the planner about something and, the whole time we were meeting, she kept apologizing for having trouble focusing because something about the cake was looking off. We were wrapping up our meeting when, suddenly, she screams and bolts out of her chair.
The topper had collapsed through the three layers of cake, then through the front—leaving the entire front of the cake a pile of crumbs with frosting.
42. Right In The Face
I was a bridesmaid for a family member’s wedding. We hired a super talented makeup artist to come in and make her look really good for her big day. This makeup artist, who was the quietest, shortest lady I’ve ever met in my whole life, starts doing her makeup. Once she finished it looked REALLY GOOD. I was just like “Diddly dang, she’ll love this.” BOY was I wrong.
The bridezilla looked in the mirror and went absolutely BONKERS. She screeched, “It looks awful! YOU KNOW WHAT I WANTED!” She was crying, and her eye makeup was streaming down her face. We all rushed to calm her down. This poor makeup artist looks like she’s about to pee. So the makeup artist fixes her up despite her outburst and does basically the same thing but adds a little more eyeliner.
Suddenly the bridezilla LOVES IT.
43. Ring Her Up
I used to be a "Bridal Consultant" at a retail store, which basically means I helped couples scan things onto their registry, although the training for it just meant I knew how to use the scanner and the computer, and my actual job had nothing to do with bridal shopping. This one couple came in to start a new registry, which quickly turned into only things the bride wanted.
Anything the groom wanted to put down on the registry was deemed as "childish, stupid, ugly, unpractical, never-going-to-be-used." I was cringing during the entire appointment. She also kept asking for my input or opinion on everything, and I felt so bad for this guy. His bride-to-be seemed so selfish and entitled, and I couldn't believe the fact that he was soon to be married to this woman.
The poor man just wanted a waffle maker, who doesn't want waffles?!
44. Tuxedon’t
I spent four years of my life working in a formal menswear sales and rental chain, where the average wedding gown from the bridal shop started at $3k. My most memorable bridezilla was this woman who came in with her fiancé. Poor dude never said a word. She wanted a very specific color of shirt to match her "diamond white" gown.
She also wanted it in a mandarin collar, with a mid-range shawl collar and two-button jacket. 14 of them. Okay, pretty straightforward...but when you're renting shirts, particularly these shirts because they were newer so some were closer to white and some were VERY ivory, I can't guarantee that every shirt will even be the same color, let alone that exact shade of "diamond white."
I explained this. Twice. And she still signed off—but she emphasized the shirts WOULD all be the same color, and they WOULD be the right color. Okay, lady. I'll do my best. Cue six weeks later, the Thursday before the wedding. Bridezilla comes in with her poor fiancé. We pull out the tuxes. OF COURSE, the shirts are exactly as I warned her they would be.
There were several shades, and only one was her perfect color—and it wasn’t the groom's shirt. She lost her ever-loving mind. Crying, pounding on our glass countertop, WAILING at the top of her lungs. She got so agitated she shattered our front counter with her pounding. We called the authorities and officers dragged her off in cuffs.
The groom took his and everyone else's tuxes and left. On Sunday, I happened to be accepting returns. The father of the groom came back with 14 unworn tuxes. He explained that the bride spent 24 hours behind bars after my spineless manager refused to press charges. But then, at the rehearsal dinner, the bride threw some insane temper tantrum.
It was complete with throwing glassware, swearing, and finally punching the groom in the face. He decided not to proceed with the wedding. I will never forget that woman's crazy eyes or her insistence on the perfect colored shirts from a $90 rental. It was truly wild.
45. One And Done
My sister made me her maid of honor. This was a little weird, actually: We never talk. We grew up together but barely know each other, and she never spoke to me in high school or while she was in university. But she calls me one day, while I’m away for a debate tournament in university, so I’m a poor student at this point.
She lets me know that “Since her fiancé’s brother is getting him his wedding band, wouldn't it be so cute if I bought her HER wedding band?!?!?!" It wasn't a question—she demanded it. All of a sudden I'm "her sister," meaning I guess that I have to do all these things that she's seen in movies and in wedding magazines for her.
Plan this party, plan another party, help countless hours doing this, buy the dress she wants you to buy, etc. The best part is that she let me know that "at least she was letting us choose how we were going to have our hair for the wedding—a lot of people don't actually let their bridesmaids choose!" Thank God, am I right? So generous!
It was the tip of the iceberg, and it was all awful. She went back to not talking to me ever after that, then she had a baby, and it was the same thing again. Worst of all, although I was angry about it openly to my parents and to her, no one heard me, or more importantly, everyone decided I was being a brat. That doesn't make any sense and isn't fair, but it’s how it is.
I was 18, and this was a turning point in my relationship with both her and my mom—I've distanced myself a lot. It makes me sad, but it's what I had to do.
46. Stepping All Over Him
I saw one bride who had bullied her stepfather into paying for her lavishly expensive dream wedding, only to then ask her biological dad to walk her down the aisle instead of him. She had to bribe him till he’d agree to do it, while the stepdad had actually wanted to. When her stepdad finally put his foot down and refused to give her more than $15,000, she stole his credit card.
In the end, the wedding was canceled because she couldn’t pay her bills—and the stepdad divorced her mom.
47. The Mask Comes Off
Not a wedding shop worker, but I was at the wedding when it happened. As the bride was walking up the aisle in her dress, she tripped over her gown. And instead of just getting up and moving on, she let loose an absolute huge tantrum and started screaming at everyone. And then it got worse. When her dad tried to console her, she just slugged her dad in the face.
Then she started just throwing stuff everywhere, screaming about this wreck of a day and screaming about hurting the tailor for making the dress too long. She just lost it and proceeded to rip up her own dress and run out of the church half-naked into the rain. I mean, I know the stress is high but oh my god, she lost her freaking mind.
48. Too Much Of A Good Thing
Bridal consultant here! My most memorable appointment was a party that showed up completely sheets-to-the-wind HAMMERED. It wasn't unusual for bridal parties to have a little tailgate-style party in our parking lot before coming into our store. Often they'd have mimosas or a shot or two to loosen up before the "scary" gown search.
This party, however, must have finished a full bottle between the five of them. They didn't appear too sloppy when we first got started, but about half an hour into the appointment it was pretty obvious that they were way too gone to be in the setting they were in. I had to prop the bride up with her nose in the corner of her fitting room to lace her corsets because she couldn't stand.
Each time we stepped out onto the stage, the bridesmaids would scream, Beatlemania style, until they were red in the face. Eventually, my manager came to me and said, very sternly, "Sell this girl and get. them. out of here." The appointment ended when she fell for a gown $700 over budget, her most tipsy bridesmaid swiped her own credit card to cover it, and then one of them sprayed a brown bodily fluid of some kind over our ENTIRE toilet.
49. Happily Never After
I married a bridezilla. In the 18 months that we were married, she was such an unfit mother (too many instances to list here) that when the divorce was finalized, I got custody of our kid AND the kid she had prior to our marriage. Also, she was a blackout drinker and cheated on me with several different men. But the final straw was brutal.
I had to travel out of state to check on my grandmother. I came back a day early, saw used Marlboros in the ashtray—not her brand, and I don't smoke—and then I heard grunting and groaning in the bedroom. Yep, there she was. And there he was. And there HE was. Devil's Triangle. Contacted a divorce lawyer the next day, finalized it as fast as possible.
50. Toxic Waste
My ex-best friend was a bridezilla. She always had a short fuse, but I put up with that side of her because I cared about her dearly. I met someone who I was engaged to for three years, and even before that, we’d been friends for four years. Before we got married, she used to stay over at our house all the time, and we all got along. Then she met a guy.
After being together for about four months, they got engaged. That's when everything changed. She would talk to people in a really posh voice as though she was above everyone, and she even went out and bought a horse to appear like she had money. She asked me to be a bridesmaid at her wedding, and of course, I said yes. I really wish I hadn’t now.
A couple of months after that, we met for coffee and I told her I was pregnant. I thought she’d be as happy as I was, as we’d been trying for a while. Nope! According, to her I got pregnant just to ruin her wedding and take the focus off of her. Um... ok. Once we got pregnant, we planned to finally tie the knot before the baby arrived. We decided to do this on our anniversary.
We envisioned a really small friends-and-family wedding. This was only three weeks after her wedding—not ideal, but we wanted it on our special day. When her wedding day arrived, she had it in a church. She’s not religious at all and he was a very vocal atheist. Still, she had an expensive wedding dress and booked out the most expensive hotel in our local city.
It was a huge affair. That’s fine, it was her special day. I was there for her through it all—I did everything a bridesmaid was meant to do even if I did have morning sickness. I kept a smile on my face holding her ridiculously long veil up for most of the day. Then my wedding day arrived, which was a very small registry office affair that was perfect for us.
She sat there looking like she was chewing a lemon and didn’t smile once. Afterward, she spoke with my mom who’d she’d known for years. My mom said, “You’re probably used to all this by now,” or something like that. She replied, “Yes, but mine was a lot grander.” When she came to the reception, she accused my other best friend from childhood of playing footsie with her new husband under the table!
My friend was not like that at all, and she’d only caught his foot while crossing her legs. I let that one slide...but later on, when I finally had my baby, she did something that made my blood run cold. She visited for the first time in about six months and said, “Oh, it’s got red hair." She didn’t even refer to her by her name at all. That was all she had to say, so I cut her off at long last.
It was the best thing I ever did. I hadn’t noticed how toxic she was until that moment. Now my husband and I live in the same little house we did before we got married. We did not have any debt at all from the wedding and we are still very happy six years after our wedding. She, however, got into loads of debt from her wedding.
Her husband also lost his job for gross misconduct, and she had to sell her horse. Now, six years later, I heard they’re living in her dad’s basement.
51. Cold Feet, Cold Manners
I’m a wedding planner. The bride was in her late 20s, while the groom was in his mid-30s. From what I understood, they had never been in relationships before; at least, not serious ones. On top of that, they were in a long-distance relationship and never actually lived together. Since the groom was living in another city, consultations and communication were done with the bride only.
She seemed a little awkward, although generally nice and easy to talk to. When I got to the ceremony, the groom was very stressed. I figured it was the normal pre-ceremony stress and he would warm up to me later, but nope! Once we got to the reception venue, I wanted to chat with him and check if everything was okay.
I can't remember what I said exactly, but it was something like, "Hey! I could tell you were very stressed before the ceremony! How are you feeling now?" For some reason, he took it the wrong way and refused to talk to me for the rest of the evening. He asked his mom (remember, he was in his mid-30s) to tell me to leave the reception because he didn't like seeing me walking around, even though I was just doing my job.
After asking the bride if that's also what she wanted, she reluctantly agreed and asked me to come back later. I ended up sitting on a chair in the hallway for 30 minutes like a child until he gave me permission to come back and complete my job. He also refused to do the couple portraits after the ceremony. The bride managed to convince him at first, but after 10 minutes, he was done and refused to cooperate.
Needless to say, they ended up with very few good photos! Something tells me he grew up very sheltered and didn't know how to act with people, but who knows. To this day, I have no idea if they're still together, but one thing is sure: I will never work with them again.
52. Money Talks
My first marriage was to a bridezilla. She 1) drank before the ceremony, 2) wouldn’t dance because she was “too anxious that people would make fun of her,” 3) tried bragging to my cousins during the dinner that our wedding was better than theirs, and 4) invited her “ex” boyfriend to the ceremony. I later found out she had been sleeping with him both before and after our wedding. But that wasn’t even the cherry on top.
She later took the money we had received as gifts—money we were planning on using for a house down payment—and spent it on random stuff. Actually, she had a ton of debt she kept from me. I left her a year after I found out and never looked back. Now, I’m happily married to a great woman. Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, but there were a lot of red flags I should have noticed.
53. Perfect Timing
The Bridezilla pulled the “you'll do it if you really love me" card and demanded her fiancé rent a massive equestrian park with stables, vast fields, riding rings, and the whole nine yards—as if her $20k diamond ring wasn't enough. Only problem is, a massive rainstorm rolled in, and the stables only had one small building to cram into.
Oh, and did I mention her several dogs? They all peed and pooped inside the venue, all over the velvet carpet. One even pooped while they were walking down the aisle.
54. If The Dress Fits…
My mom worked in a bridal salon when she was in college, and sizing was a nightmare. One day, a woman named Sandra came in to try on gowns. She tried on the large sample dress, and had it pinned to see how it would look on her if it was her size. She said this was it, so my mom took her measurements, and figured out what size she needed to order.
When my mom told her dress would be a size 8 based on her measurements, Sandra threw a fit. "That's impossible! All of my other dresses are a size 4! I have been a size 4 since I was 14. I am not an 8! Order me a 4!" My mom tried to explain how sizes vary from designer to designer and that, while she may be a 4 normally, with the designer of her dress her measurements are considered an 8.
She said it's just a number, and if it's too big it can be taken in. However, a 4 couldn't be taken out...Sandra took none of that. Despite all protest, she demanded a 4. A couple of weeks before the wedding, her size 4 dress arrived. It wouldn't zip (duh). Bride had a meltdown. Mom had to apologize and reorder a larger dress at the bridal salon's expense.
55. Bite The Hand That Feeds
My sister fired her wedding planner and canceled the rehearsal dinner. The poor photographer ended up stepping in to be the one to tell us when it was our turn to walk down the aisle, time to cut the cake, who should toast, etc. because my sister was toasted and the rest of us were just clueless. He was also a top-notch photographer.
So what did my sister do to the man who saved her wedding? Betray him. My husband and I were considering buying some of the photos he took of our family, but he ended up taking all of my sister's pictures off of his site because she was screen-capping and sharing them with the watermark cropped out instead of buying them. So classless.
56. We Don’t See Eye-To-Eye
I worked a wedding where I basically had to play a game of telephone all day long. I'm a photographer and came onsite the day of the wedding to meet with the planner/coordinator, who promptly told me to be careful around the bride. Now, let me tell you, planners have seen it all, and this doesn’t usually happen. But this Bridezilla was beyond nightmarish.
Apparently at the rehearsal the prior night, the bride thought the coordinator was taking too much of her time (after two questions), and relayed through her bridesmaid that the coordinator was no longer allowed to speak to the bride or even look her in the eye. All communication would have to go through a family member from there on out.
I had worked with this coordinator in the past and knew her to be a consummate professional and pleasant person to be around. She had actually assumed the bride would get over her tantrum the day of the wedding, but nope, still no talking or eye contact. The coordinator tried her best to keep the wedding day going smoothly and on time, but it was really tough to do so through proxy.
Taking photos took forever because I had to make sure a bridesmaid or sister was always with us to tell the couple where to stand and how to pose. It was one of the most awkward jobs I ever had. I also should mention that when I came onsite for the wedding, I was able to locate the bride by the sound of her screaming at her hair and makeup artists.
By the time I came into the bridal suite, she had switched to screaming at her bridesmaids for looking prettier than her and made them change their hairstyles to "look uglier." After I was done with the getting-ready portraits, I found the groom outside on a balcony just staring into the sun with the longest sigh I've ever heard in my life.
57. A (Sad) Tale As Old As Time
My husband’s long-term, childhood friend married a bridezilla. She is Evangelical and religion is pretty much her life. Meanwhile, he was agnostic and a very big metal-head geek. They asked us to be part of their wedding entourage. My husband and I are both tattooed, and when we arrived at the wedding, we were his only friends present.
Everyone at that big wedding was from her church. The preacher kept saying to him that his old life was behind him now and his new life was just about to begin, yadda, yadda. But while he was giving his sermon, everyone kept looking at my husband and I like we were beasts. Worst day ever. She is that kind of person who wants to be an influencer. EVERYTHING is on her Instagram.
Their relationship seems perfect there, but he always seems so unhappy and so apathetic. When we actually talk to him, he always brings up how they are so different. She made him stop talking to us. Eventually, he got out of every friend group we had, and he stopped answering my husband, who is very sad he lost his friend. Even worse, I believe she is the one replying in the few weird messages he does get.
58. I, Bridezilla
Okay, I'll admit it. I was the bridezilla at my first wedding. What can I say? We were young, and we had more money than brains. My then-husband was also a horrific jerk, but I was in love with the idea of being a picture-perfect bride. I tried not to go full Bridezilla but eh, I managed to do so anyway. The stress was incredible, given that we were doing a high-falutin' wedding in a beautiful but resort-y location.
Everything had to be just so. I believe the final cost of that darn wedding was somewhere north of $17,000...in 1990s money. I can't even imagine or calculate what it would be today. I remember getting to the altar and wanting to pitch a fit because the groomsmen were wearing vests that were minutely the wrong color—a plum-ish color instead of the ocean blue I'd requested.
My groom, who hadn't yet graduated into full-on physical aggression, gave me a warning shake of the head. And since we were at the altar, I managed to rein myself in and not make (more of) a jerk of myself. If I could talk to my 26-year-old self now, I'd slap her silly for being as dumb as a stump. That custom-made dress you insisted on? A $299 David's Bridal gown would've worked just fine.
Boutique wine with custom labels? Right. Buy a couple of cases at the local discount store. Nobody cares; they just want the free booze. Passed hors d'oeuvres followed by a gourmet, plated luncheon? Yeah, go with the buffet, because after all those drinks with the custom labels, nobody is going to remember what the heck you served anyhow.
I have since learned my lesson—making sure you're with the right person is so much more critical than trying to impress people with some stupidly fancy wedding that nobody will remember in a week's time. You want to be a princess for a day? Buy a costume and hit up Disneyworld.
59. Trainwreck Right On Time
I worked for a few years as a wedding singer. The worst disaster I've seen was directly caused by a bride being a Bridezilla. If you've ever been to a wedding, you know that weddings run behind schedule. This bride was adamant that everything be exactly on time. Of course, it being a wedding, everything was running behind about 30 minutes.
At 7:55, she could no longer handle that the wedding was running late and decided to skip ahead to the Hora, the traditional Jewish wedding dance. The Hora was scheduled for 8:00 pm. We (the band) and the wedding planner suggested that we should not skip ahead, but she was having none of it.
With her face red with effort, she screamed at us that the Hava Nagila would start at 8:00 pm and not a minute later. Well, she was paying us, so we did what we were told. It went so wrong, so fast. We started our Hava Nagila at precisely 8:00 pm. The guests rose and began to form a circle as they have done countless times before. But something was amiss…
The groom was nowhere to be found. The bride was alone in the center of the circle. As if on autopilot, the guests danced and sang on while the bride's expression changed from confused, to horrified, to crushed. It was a train wreck. They finished the dance without the groom ever arriving. The bride was sobbing uncontrollably.
The groom was outside because the wedding was running 30 minutes late. He knew the schedule and thought he had time. In the end, it was the bride's own stubborn insistence that led to the tragic ending. She was the captain on her own Titanic, and we were the band playing as it sank. I sometimes wonder how that marriage worked out.
My #1 advice to people getting married is to enjoy their wedding day. No matter how much you plan ahead, things will always go wrong. Instead of trying to control and manage everything, spend your wedding day celebrating with your guests. No wedding ever goes perfectly. Considering you ideally only do it once, do your best to enjoy the ride.
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60. Everybody Just Calm Down
I briefly worked in event production. I had the pleasure of being at this event working a plain old photo booth at a beautiful church. It’s a simple gig. The weather was gorgeous, the view was gorgeous, and everything was great. The second I get there, one of our photographers comes up to me with a glass of champagne, chugs it, and says, "I’ve been here since noon.”
My jaw dropped. It was now 8:00 pm. In the distance, the bride was screaming and cussing up a storm. I talk to the photographer a bit longer and I find out that the bride punched her mother in the face during photos, the bride kicked out the groom’s best man, and she cussed out our videographer. This woman was going mad.
To put it in perspective, halfway through the reception the bride shouted for her “idiot husband to get our money’s worth at the photo booth." Later that night, I watched her shove a groomsman to the ground when he asked her to calm down. She eventually broke into tears randomly at some point. At the end of the night, she tipped me $150. When she wasn't having a breakdown, she was chill.
61. Detail Oriented
My cousin’s friend has forbidden her bridesmaids (my cousin is one) to use anything other than a very specific brand of fake tan any more than a set number of times in the month preceding the wedding. They aren't allowed to be more tanned than the bride, artificially or naturally. They also have to wear a very specific pair of tights—a set thickness and color—or the bride will lose her mind.
62. Who Am I Without You?
We had one groom who was an hour late to his own wedding. Yes, this is a jerk move, but the bride’s response made my jaw drop to the floor. This woman, who had seemed perfectly reasonable before, laid down on the floor, pulled the back of her dress over her head, and started singing nursery rhymes to herself until he could be located.
63. Surf’s Up
My friend was definitely a Bridezilla. She was having a destination wedding and decided to pick a petty argument with me right before the big day. I was uninvited from the wedding literally the day before. Since I was already at the resort, I just got drunk on the beach for a week, didn’t attend the wedding, and saw her for less than five minutes total the whole time I was there.
64. When It Rains, It Pours
Photographer here. The couple opted for an outdoor wedding with no weather backup option and, lo and behold, it started pouring literally five minutes before the ceremony. The guests and groom ran for cover under the reception tent. After it didn't let up, the groom made a mad dash to the door of the RV the bride was getting ready in, because she nor any of the bridesmaids were answering their phones.
She made the poor guy stand outside in the pouring rain while she screamed and cussed that she was NOT getting married under the tent and everyone would just have to wait until it stopped raining. This was the middle of July, so even the rain was hot and sticky, and there were a lot of elderly family members with health issues in attendance sitting in 80-degree heat for over an hour.
The cake had also started melting. I honestly wasn't sure if the wedding was going to happen at one point, but it eventually stopped raining and the bride married her soaked groom and ate wedding cake soup.
65. The Mother Of All Insults
Not a wedding shop, but we sold kitchenware. Think china, cookware, etc. It was like a Williams Sonoma store. The bride, mother of the bride, and mother of the groom were all shopping and filling out the wedding registry list. The groom’s mom was pointing to an item and said something to the bride. The mother of the bride turned to the other mother and snapped, “Your job is to shut up and wear blue.”
We placed bets on if that marriage would last.
66. A Wandering Eye
I worked at a church that had weddings in the DC area. The worst bride I dealt with was part of an insanely rich couple. They showed up in a Lamborghini, I think, and the groom kept asking if it was safe to park the car out front. I think he was just trying to show off the car, and he also wondered if his father's Bentley would be safe in the alley behind the church.
We were in DC, so he was lucky we had any parking at all. Then the bride was walking around talking about all the extravagant things she was wanting for the wedding, and pointing to things saying, "This will never do." The worst thing was that every time the bride turned her back, the groom kept on staring at my breasts.
It was strange. His bride looked like a supermodel, and he was very good-looking himself; I don't know why he had to sleaze on church workers. After that and other demanding people, I told the church I don't want to do weddings, so now volunteers for the church do it.
67. Won’t Somebody Think Of The Children?
I worked at a wedding venue in college. This isn't so much a Bridezilla story as it is just a bizarre...bizarre wedding. It was a 70-top, pretty small for our venue and banquet style, but this was actually less pressure on the servers. We basically just had to keep things running smoothly from ceremony to reception to send-off. It was an easy night for us…not for them.
First, they got married in our vineyard. One of the little kids was the ring-bearer and he dropped the ring. A few staff members were out for two hours searching through the brush for it, to no avail. We think one of the geese ate it. Next, the reception. It was closer to a daycare because more than half of that 70 headcount was children under 10.
The groom was super great with them, like maybe he was a teacher or something. The bride didn't interact with them at all, and overall seemed to have a lot of disdain for them. At one point, the groom even procured a guitar from somewhere and was having a sing-along on the floor with the kids. Meanwhile, the bride was just off eating her dinner alone at the little sweethearts' table.
Last, the cake. How it works: The bride and groom cut the cake out on the floor so everyone can get pictures and people cheer, then two servers bring the rest of the cake back to my station where we cut and dish out the rest of the slices for the guests. We separate the top of the cake and pack it for the bride and groom to take with them.
The intent is they share it on their first anniversary, as you guys probably know. Well, this cake went fast, because kids probably. So as we were finishing up the station and packing the top, groom comes back and tells us to cut the top. We double-check that is ok…turns out he went behind the bride's back because the kids wanted more cake.
She didn't look all too thrilled with her wedding day, or with the groom. I didn't see them interact all night, and sometimes I wonder if they are still together.
68. Straight And Narrow
I’ve been DJing weddings for about 10 years. Most brides relax by the time I really get to work, and most of the time the groom is in charge of the music. So I don’t have too many stories—however, one bride was really, really into her wedding being symmetrical. She measured the entire room and wanted everything placed at the exact places she requested.
I had to measure the distance my table was from the wall and the other tables, I had to measure the distance my speakers were from each other and the dance floor. On the day, she was upset at me because I failed to inform her that I had lighting for the dance floor and she wished that she had time to determine where to place them.
69. A Cake Walk
I once worked in a bakery, and we had this bride freak out that her cake wasn't right, and she proceeded to smash it to bits with her fist. Well, she smashed the wrong cake. Like what the heck. Anyways, the authorities allowed her to wash her hands before placing her in handcuffs. I felt bad for the future husband and the couple that ordered said cake. People are cray cray.
70. Frame It Up
While the photographer was waiting for the extended family to gather for formal photos, he photographed couples and families already present. The bride bristled that he wasn't taking photos of her and that these were not the photos the bride had requested. This was after the photographer had already finished photos of the bride and groom in several locations.
Because the bride was upset, she didn't ask the photographer to take photos of her and her special friends during the following reception. So, when she finally saw the photos a few weeks later, she regretted that she had taken out her (unwarranted) anger, and she was missing dozens of photos she would have wanted. Karma’s a witch.
71. Music To My Ears
I was at the wedding of an ex-boyfriend several years ago and he had planned and practiced singing a Frank Sinatra song to his new wife. He went up and took the mic and, with the band backing him up, began singing the song. His new wife suddenly stomped across the dance floor and up on the stage, grabbed the mic from him, and said, "I HATE that song and I don't want to hear it." They were divorced about a year later.
72. Not My First Rodeo
I used to work at a jewelry store. This young guy, about college age, came in one day to look at engagement rings. He was very polite and asking good questions. You could tell he’d been considering this for some time. As I’m helping him and showing him some rings in his budget, she walks in. She’s wearing a t-shirt from the high school senior class from the previous year, and she comes over by him.
“Oh my God, were you seriously considering that ring??? Ugh. It’s so ugly. Besides, it looks just like my LAST engagement ring.” How I wish I could have told him to dump her, run for the hills, and don’t look back.
73. A Little Over The Top
I just worked a wedding this past Saturday where they had booked for 100 people. When they gave me the guest list—I work at a country club with a security gate and we need everyone's names so they can get in—there were 117 people. I told them that I would have to charge them for 117, because that's how much food we would have to prepare.
Cue an annoying phone call from the bride being all, "every time we talk to you it seems like there are more charges." Well yes, but every time you talk to me you add something, like guests or bar packages.
74. If The Shoe Fits
I’m not a bridal worker, but I stood up in a friend's wedding. Less than 48 hours before the wedding, the bride suddenly decided that the shoes that came with our tuxes weren't to her liking. She wanted me and the groom to go to various stores and get some “better” shoes for the big day. My friend, the groom-to-be, was totally stressed out with all the various loose ends he had to tie up before the wedding.
Including, apparently, trying to find different shoes. Fortunately, I was able to talk some sense into him. I told him first that there just wasn't enough time to go shoe shopping and second, there are only four basic types of dress shoes for guys: shiny or not shiny, with laces or without. Finally, I said that no one cares what kind of shoes the groom and groomsmen wear.
He came to his senses and was able to persuade his now-wife that new shoes were unnecessary.
75. A Match Made In Heaven
I use to be a photographer’s assistant back in high school. I remember this one bride before the wedding kept yelling at my boss about me helping with photos as she didn’t want some “stupid kid” to ruin her wedding photos. She also kept calling her soon-to-be husband, berating him. I ended up getting sent to do the groom’s photos while my boss handled the bridezilla.
As soon as I walked into the room where the groom and his friends were getting ready, I almost puked because it smelled like a distillery. The guy was on the phone with the bridezilla on speaker while drinking and shaking his head. I could barely walk through the room with all the bottles on the floor and suitcases everywhere. Yeah, I don’t think they’re gonna make it.
76. Read The Room
I knew a woman who was a bridesmaid at a relative’s wedding. She was married and had been trying to get pregnant for a while. Finally, she and her husband got lucky and she conceived. The bridezilla got furious and kicked her out of the wedding because she would be pregnant in the pictures. But that's not even the most tragic part.
Three months later, sadly, the woman miscarried. The bride called her with a response along the lines of "Good riddance. Now you can be a part of the wedding again." Needless to say, she did not even attend it.
77. You Get What You Put In
My ex-fiancé was super normal…until we got engaged. She went from wanting a small, simple wedding with less than 100 guests to a grand hall and wanting to invite everyone she ever exchanged more than three words with. She even wanted to import flowers. But the final straw was when she scheduled an appointment with a real estate agent to SELL MY HOUSE to pay for the wedding.
Also, her family was loaded but they weren’t going to contribute anything. I broke it off, and she got engaged again one year later to an attorney…Unfortunately for her, she didn’t read the prenup before signing. They got married and divorced one month later. She got nothing and is still alone.
78. The Grandmother Of Tantrums
I had a friend who threw a temper tantrum complete with screaming and foot-stomping because her grandmother had the audacity to pass a few hours before her wedding. She said it would throw off the seating arrangements since there would be a big empty space. She is currently halfway through her second divorce.
79. Just Walk Away
My brother's fiancée went off on my mom in front of my sister and me, all because he was 45 minutes late to the rehearsal due to his best man's car tire blowing out. "Where is your jerk of a son?!" she screamed. The dude should have never shown up for the wedding. Not only was she a bridezilla, but she was also a total utter sociopath. Soon enough, the disturbing truth came out.
She had completely fabricated her life. Her parents—who didn't show up for the wedding—called my mom to tell her the truth about it the day after the ceremony. She had a rap sheet a mile long. But my brother, who just wanted to believe that people can change, stuck it out for seven years. Don't ever, ever do that.
80. My Way Or The Highway
My mother-in-law was a momzilla. My wife wanted a regular-sized wedding—nothing fancy, just a cozy celebration at a historic venue she loved. We had planned for about 100 guests at most, and we planned to do a lot of the work. Suddenly, my mother-in-law started to pressure us about having to invite tons of people, since she’s loaded and a social butterfly.
She also wanted us to change the venue, the photographer, etc. I didn’t care since I just wanted to make my wife happy. I did my best to adjust. Then, one day, about two months before the wedding, my wife had a breakdown crying because of all the changes from her mom. That's when I had enough. I told my wife I would handle her from now on.
I called her up and read her the riot act, telling her to cool it or we would just get a courtroom wedding and forget about the religious wedding, which was a huge deal to the family. She fought me for weeks. The whole family fought me. I told them all to pound sand. We had our original wedding; I was folding programs and favors the night before until 3 am, but by heck we got it done.
Of course, my mother-in-law still changed the DJ and photographers without me knowing, so we had completely wrong music, and we have yet to see the pictures (16 years later). To this day, we have minimal contact with the family.
81. Nice Try, Honey
I make custom, one-of-a-kind, wedding dresses. One of my many notable interactions: A girl asked me if I would send her an $1,800 dress for free because "I'm really pretty and I'll send you pictures of me wearing it at an event." I explained that while I did custom dresses, I couldn't possibly make one that would fit over such large balls.
82. To Your Health
I worked at a venue for wedding receptions. One time, a groom wouldn't drink because he had severe "Asian red face" so he avoided drinks all his life. Well, the bride convinced him to drink the champagne toast. Big. Mistake. Turns out he was severely allergic and almost went into anaphylactic shock. The bride got into the back of the ambulance in her wedding dress.
83. Can I Get A Rain Check?
I work for a florist and event coordinating shop, and we have several pretty high-end venues we are exclusive with. Lots of money breeds lots of entitlement, so we get pretty horrendous Bridezillas on the regular. One I remember was a woman who was very sweet up until after her wedding. We had to substitute peonies (every bride and their grandma's favorite flower) because they weren't in season.
To get them she would have needed to pay a ton, so she opted for garden roses instead. It rained on her wedding day, not like "maybe we should make a rain call," like tornado sirens and things falling over. The power went out and the hotel used all of their backup generators to light her ceremony and reception for the three hours the power was out.
The rest of the hotel guests just had to be rich by candlelight, I guess. None of that was her fault, but none of it was ours or the hotel's either. Nature gonna nature. She tried to sue not only us for “messing up her bouquet" but also the hotel for not letting her ceremony be outside and for not letting her ceremony be in "the prettiest area" of the inside of the hotel.
Thankfully, we always have two coordinators meet with brides from this venue, and we also record consultations and have contracts notifying all parties. So she couldn't do anything to us in a courtroom. She did, however, decide to blast us on Yelp, Facebook, and any other social media medium she could find while she rage-typed.
Thankfully, we threatened to sue her back for defamation and she removed them all. The hotel has similar practices but also a ton of money to throw against her in court, so they basically told her to bring it and she backed off.
84. Don’t Take His Word For It
The bride wasn't happy with her husband’s vows, so she requested a "time out" in order for him to go to the backroom and come up with better ones. When the guy marrying them politely explained that he was on a very tight schedule, she called him a "lying jerk” and huffed back up the aisle into the room where her husband was.
We kept everyone else seated, and she appeared a few minutes later with freshly written vows for her future husband. He read them, and the wedding continued as planned. Again, uncomfortable.
85. Keep Your Friends Close
I worked in stationery design in the wedding industry a while back. Invites, wishing wells, menus, you name it. If it was wedding-related and on paper, we sold it. Some of the customers we got were class acts, I can tell you. The worst was a detailed consultation with the bride and groom about their invitation design. Over the next two personal consults and many phone calls, I primarily dealt with the bride and her maid of honor together.
After the last revision, the maid of honor came in to make a relatively major change, insisting that the bride wanted it that way. Idiot me made the change, and the order went to print. This turned out to be an enormous mistake. As it happened, the bride and her maid of honor had a falling out, and the maid wanted to get back at her ex-friend.
Apparently, she had approached several of the wedding services acting as an agent of the bride and pretty much screwed the whole event over...
Pexels
86. Party For One
I work as a hotel manager, and we see Bridezillas all the time. The worst was when a bride was so upset that she couldn't fit all of her bridesmaids on one shuttle back from the reception that she tried to physically assault the driver. He got his revenge immediately. He left her on the side of the road when she tried to BITE him. And here's the kicker:
When the groom found out and came to get her with his parents, she was still in such a foul mood that they left her there, too.
87. The Mine Phase
My brother's brother-in-law was getting married. He had a daughter from a previous relationship who was 10 or 11 at the time of the wedding, and also had a second child who was 2 years old with this fiancée. The new wife wouldn't allow the older daughter to be at the wedding because, "She's not mine and I don't want her distracting people."
88. Family Matters
I am a wedding and special event planner in a major city. I own my own planning company, and I have been in the industry for about eight years. I have so many horror stories, but this one takes the cake. I had a bride who openly spoke utter and complete trash about the groom’s family, in front of his face. She would say that they were "crazy, unclassy, and annoying.”
Well, come the wedding, her family was actually the hardest family I ever had to deal with, and the groom’s family was absolutely lovely. On top of all this, the bride yelled at all of the vendors all day, resulting in the videographers leaving after just one hour of shooting and the photographer crying in the bathroom. The groom and the bride’s cousins apologized to me for her behavior all night.
89. See Spot Rage
I’ve worked as a caterer for decades and this is my favorite wedding diva story. The mother of bride found a single spot on a knife on a single place setting. She then made an obscene demand. This woman expected the entire $60,000 reception to be free. She was not writing the check so she got shot down pretty quickly. But there was much rage.
90. Food Fight
I had one horrific couple that didn't care about anyone. The groom was 30 minutes late for the ceremony, but it was no big deal, because the bride was TWO HOURS late. After the ceremony, we had to shorten cocktail hour to make up for lost time. We hoped the couple would hurry up and treat their guests with respect, but nope. While en route to the reception, they got wasted in their limo, and both ended up falling asleep.
They were both so late for their own reception, I had the venue serve dinner without them. Their parents were furious. The bride’s parents left early, and the couple didn't arrive until 11:00 at night. Half of their guests left before they arrived, and they yelled at me for allowing dinner to start before their arrival. This was a 400 guest wedding.
91. Picture Perfect
I work at a facility that we rent out for weddings. We probably host like eight weddings a year, and weddings bring out the worst in people. You can have the calmest, chill person on your first meeting, but by the time that the wedding rolls around, that bride will be a witch on wheels. But nothing compared to this one horrible Bridezilla.
She was obviously on her second or third wedding. She kept trying to use everything for free, even though she had signed a very specific contract that stated what she could and could not do. She pitched a fit over that. Then, on the day of the wedding, she threw a nuclear meltdown fit when her bridesmaids got tired of taking photographs after three hours and went somewhere to get warm.
She started screaming at the photographer that she was going to keep taking pictures and to heck with all of them.
92. Room For One More?
I was helping decorate a wedding when the bride came storming in and literally threw a chair through a window. The reason why was absolutely ludicrous. She was angry that there had been one chair extra in the back of the room...
93. Joke’s On You
I was a bridesmaid in this winter-themed wedding. We all wore blue silk dresses with white fake fur capelets and MUFFS. At one point, we were getting ready for the ceremony and the bride said to me, “Hey, let me see your muff." I batted my eyelashes and joked, "I've waited so long to hear those words from you!" That didn’t go down how I wanted at all.
The look she shot me could have felled a moose. She started going off on me about how I was not taking things seriously enough and suggested that I should go hang out with the groomsmen instead if I was going to make lewd jokes. Yeah. Maybe I should have.
94. Mr. Wrong
I married a groomzilla. I bent over backward to make the wedding as magical as he wanted, even though I would have been happy in someone's backyard with a potluck. In couple’s counseling seven years later, he made a disturbing confession. He admitted that he never really wanted to marry ME so much as he wanted a huge show and party.
Everyone liked and approved of me, so he wanted them all to see he was making a good choice and be envious of him. He wanted them to be proud of him. We used up most of the money I got from a car accident settlement on the wedding. It could have covered a down payment on a small house. After all that, he asked me for divorce in 2020.
95. Love All Of Me
She paid for a life-size portrait of herself in her wedding dress. It was very important at the time. The marriage lasted one year before she cheated. I hope her future suitors take that as a clue.
96. Photo Finish
Wedding band member here. I had a bride flip out at me and my bandmates because our instruments weren't white or salmon-colored to fit in with the decorations. She was saying we would ruin the photographs…even though I was playing during the reception and all the photos were already taken. A sunburst jazz bass, blue Stratocaster and a red drum set aren't going to ruin your pictures, darling.
97. Maid Of Dishonor
Management here at a bridal shop. You have no idea the sense of entitlement that walks into my store. I would consider us the Wal-Mart of weddings: We cater to everyone from poorer people to rich nobodies who think they’re somebody. I’ve seen it all. The best (by best I mean craziest) excuse yet was a spouse who had her wedding coordinator go in to refund the items because she was in a psych ward.
Why? Because she tried to hurt her sister…after the sister announced she was pregnant with the groom’s baby…at the bridal shower. We refunded everyone but the sister, who was ironically the maid of honor.
Flickr, Office of Public Affairs
98. Kissing Cousins
My cousin got married to this horrible woman who wouldn't let me and him take a picture together because she was jealous. I was eight years old, their flower girl, and also HIS COUSIN. She also got into a screaming match with her sister-in-law because she had a bigger engagement ring. Oh, and the Bridezilla was from New Orleans, and wanted to have the wedding there. There was just one problem.
She insisted on having the wedding there even after it got screwed over by Hurricane Katrina. Finding a hotel was a delight, according to my parents. She then made her husband, my cousin, skip our grandmother's funeral because she "didn't like her anyway." Honestly, no one has forgiven him for going along with this. But then the piece de resistance came.
She cheated on my cousin with her high school sweetheart after my cousin paid for her lap band surgery. She was a treat. I don't miss her at all.
99. This One Takes The Cake
I worked as a wedding planner and coordinator, and one bride stands out to me because she was so inconsistent with all the vendors. She was a complete sweetheart to me during the planning phase and I never saw any of the crazy until the day of the wedding. It was honestly like a Jekyll/Hyde moment. She wanted a big wedding, around 300 people, and spent a lot of money on the venue and food and wanted the best for everything.
No complaints about paying for it either, never asked for discounts or anything like that. And since she wanted the best and seemed to have a really large budget, I referred her to a popular baker for the cake. I let her handle the logistics for the cake since I've worked with this baker before and never had any problems. I figured they would do the standard cake tasting, pick a design with the baker, and I would see a gorgeous masterpiece on the day of the wedding.
Well, that didn't really work out. For some reason, she didn't want to tell the baker that it was for a wedding. I'm guessing she read that you can save money by ordering a regular cake because some vendors will automatically add an extra charge if it's for a wedding. By the way, this is true to some extent, but the extra charge truly is there for a reason.
Whenever something is for a wedding, the vendor puts in much more care, stresses about the timing, execution, etc. way more than usual, and often times will go all out and use premium materials or add upgrades. Not all of us are just adding extra charges for no reason. Anyways, she decided she didn't want to pay for a wedding cake so she told the baker it was for a birthday party.
The baker asked how many people the cake would need to serve and she said "around 50.” She also didn't want to pay the delivery fee, so she had her sister pick up the cake on the morning of the wedding and bring it to the event. At this point, it's important to mention one huge thing. We live in Texas and this is a summer wedding.
So by the time the cake got to the venue—about six hours after it was picked up from the bakery—it didn't look all that great anymore. Some of the decorations had melted, the cake got a little banged up in the car ride, there was icing on the inside of the box, and the entire cake was sagging on one side. It was also way too small for a wedding of her size.
I saw it and it looked like a complete disaster. But at this point, we're about an hour away from the start of the wedding and there's no possible way to fix this. The bride comes into the reception room with her makeup all done When she sees it, she unravels. Screaming, crying, throwing things, collapsing on the floor. Complete meltdown.
She threatens to cancel the whole wedding if we can't fix it. We try to calm her down as much as we can and grab the makeup artist before she leaves and ask if she can help fix the bride's makeup, which is a mess now. The bride sees herself in the mirror and has another meltdown because she ruined her hair and makeup and now wants to have the whole thing re-done.
After she gets everything done to perfection again, we're about an hour behind schedule. I let the guests come inside the reception room to wait because it seemed cruel to force everyone to sit outside in 100-degree heat, but when the bride saw that everyone was inside she had another meltdown. She spent the entire wedding sulking with a scowl on her face, and refused to take any pictures with people.
Her new husband kept coming over to hug her and try to cheer her up, and she would either yell at him or give him the silent treatment. Most of the guests left very early because the atmosphere felt so uncomfortable. So, pretty much a waste of the $200,000 budget for a lavish wedding, all because she wanted to save a couple hundred bucks on the cake.
100. Every Rose Has Its Thorn
I’m a florist. We had a bride and her mother show up at 9 am. They wanted to order a bridal bouquet, a mother of the bride orchid corsage, a boutonniere for the groom, and six smaller ones for the groomsmen. But there was just one thing. The wedding was scheduled for noon. Yep, three hours from then, and they wanted them ready by the time they were done with their makeup appointment at the beauty parlor a few doors down.
The bride was flipping through the sample book and pointing out the style and flowers she wanted. Think garden roses with long sweeping trails of stephanotis and variegated ivy, all three of which would require at least a week's advanced order with our suppliers. She was absolutely gobsmacked that we didn't carry extremely expensive and highly perishable flowers at all times.
Same with the orchid for the mom's corsage. My boss told them that since they didn't place an order beforehand they would be limited to what we had in stock, and simple styles that could be assembled quickly. The bride and her mom kept pointing at the book and arguing that we should have those specific flowers in stock.
My boss eventually took the book off the desk and tossed it behind the counter. The bride vacillated between tears and petulant whining that we were going to ruin her big day. My boss, who had a bone-deep loathing for brides in general, told her she had ruined her own day by not ordering her flowers before her actual wedding day.
The mom tried chewing out my boss for her lack of customer service skills. My boss told her that she was welcome to go down the street to Vons and ask their flower department to make their order with whatever they had in stock. The mom said she'd do just that, and reassured the bride that she'd have her flowers done by the time her appointment was over.
Both women stormed out. I figured that was that, but I was so wrong. My boss told me and the other girl to start on six simple corsages. Meanwhile, she threw together a ribbon-wrapped bridal bouquet with some white roses that were nearly past their prime and some. Sure enough, 20 minutes later the mother slunk back in and meekly asked if we were still able to assemble what they needed.
We did. We also charged her a very large rush fee.
101. Well of Course They're Hideous
The bride asked me what color her bridesmaids should wear (I was one). I told her that given all five of us were redheads, a pale, pastel lilac is the only color that should be avoided, as it makes us look dead. Guess what dresses she picked? Floor length silk, pastel lilac. I assumed she'd forgot. Her sweet husband later told me, completely nonplussed, that of course the bride has to put bridesmaids in awful dresses because she had to be the prettiest on the day.
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