There are some people that have to be invited to the wedding without favorable consideration. These unwanted guests display reasons they shouldn't have been invited in the first place.
His One Task: “Manage Mallory”
CREATISTA/Shutterstock
“I was the best man at my brother’s wedding. The bride’s sister, who we will call Mallory, was an insufferable twit who tried to make absolutely everything in the wedding about her.
My sister-in-law was pressured into making Mallory her maid of honor — mainly because Mallory would likely blow her stack and make an even bigger scene if she didn’t. My brother told me that I was to eschew all other Best Man duties and had one task: Manage Mallory.
Here are some of the highlights:
Since the bride and groom wanted to do a first look/not see each other before the wedding, we had to get creative with sleeping arrangements and people had to bunk together. Mallory didn’t want to share a bed, which left her sister sleeping on the couch. When pressed by the mother of the bride about how the bride needed to be well rested for her wedding day, Mallory responded, ‘Well, I’m the maid of honor and I need my sleep.’
Mallory decided that she wanted a tiara to sufficiently differentiate her from the other two bridesmaids. The bride was in a simple, white dress with no veil.
During the ceremony, Mallory suddenly refused to hold the bridal bouquet because of her allergies.
During the wedding couple’s first dance, Mallory wanted to ‘cut in’ and dance with her sister. I said, ‘Shouldn’t we do it together?’ And then spent the next few minutes distracting her by ‘planning’ how we would make a grand entrance on the dance floor, and then she would leave me and cut in to dance with her sister. I somehow managed to drag that process out long enough to allow the bride and groom and the parents to have their dances.”
That’s One Punchy Lady
Aaron Amat/Shutterstock
“I came late to a friend’s wedding and what’s the first thing I see? Some old lady getting punched right in the face.
Who hit her? Her son.
He was the groom and he’d started this whole speech about how he was ‘free’ and didn’t need to see or deal with her anymore and the fact that she was even invited was a mistake.
Apparently, the mother did not like the bride at all and was actively trying to sabotage the wedding by sending people to the wrong venue or turning people away at the door. I don’t know what happened that got her punched in the face, but she said she’d be back with muscle, though we never saw her again.”
An Overly Familiar Wedding Crasher Put A Damper On The Day
Ljupco Smokovski/Shutterstock
“I get angry just thinking about this. My husband’s best friend’s mom was not invited but showed up anyway and brought a bunch of small children with her. It was explicitly a no-kids, no-exceptions wedding. Then she tried to sit at the same table as me and tried to take pictures of me while I was eating. She also loudly criticized one of the caterers because she thought she saw him put a used spoon into a buffet dish (he didn’t). My mom, who is pretty blunt, straight up asked her, ‘Who are you and why are you here? I personally addressed all the invitations and I know we didn’t invite you.’
To which she replied, ‘Well my son needed a ride!’ My mom told her to leave, which was so unbelievably awkward, but she left without making more of a scene.”
“Who Does That At Someone Else’s Wedding?!”
AlikeYou/Shutterstock
“My sister and I aren’t super close, but I’m trying to build bridges. So at my wedding, she was a bridesmaid and I said she could invite a couple of friends to the reception in the evening.
She invited these two women, who were a couple. They proceeded to get HAMMERED at the open bar and locked themselves into one of only two women’s bathrooms to have a screaming row. Swearing and yelling, all completely audible to anyone who walked into the bathroom. This was at 7 pm, by the way, at a wedding with tons of kids around.
I had, like, three people come up to me and explain the situation and say they’d asked them to be quiet and got told off. They couldn’t find my mum to handle it, so they came and told me. No one knew these ladies were with my sister.
So I went knocking on the door and got told to kick rocks. I tersely said, ‘It’s the bride,’ and they opened the door. I told them they could get the heck out of my wedding or I could go and get my dad who would physically remove them. They left the bathroom and went and found my sister (who was pretty wasted herself) and told her they hadn’t done anything wrong and the bride had just ‘gone psycho on them.’
They eventually left and I know my sis was embarrassed but it was just drama I didn’t need at my wedding. Who even does that at someone else’s wedding, especially when you don’t even know the couple!”
Her Dress And Behavior Were Totally Inappropriate
“My aunt showed up to my dad’s wedding in a skin-tight short red dress and tall, high-heeled boots. She brought her own cooler of drinks to a wedding that had an open bar that served all night, which led to an issue with the venue director because of venue policy and the law. She was told to get rid of it, which she obliged at first but was then caught later drinking out of it again. To top off the night, she got fairly hammered and decided to dance with her daughter’s boyfriend (instead of her husband) DURING my parents’ first dance. Over a year later, she still doesn’t understand why my dad won’t talk to her.”
This Bridesmaid Would Rather Spend Her Time At The Bar Than With The Wedding
“It was a bridesmaid. At the rehearsal party the night before, she just disappeared. She’d asked my wife if she could charge her phone in my wife’s car. My wife said sure and gave her the keys. Mistake. She took the car. We didn’t know where she went. We texted her with no answer. She showed back up hours later with no answer.
The day of the wedding, she showed up an hour late to hair and nails that my wife paid for everybody to get done. That was in the morning. Somehow in between then and when they were to meet again, she got wasted and showed up with a couple of bottles. Which, hey, I get, it’s a wedding, people have fun, but we were specifically told not to be sloppy and no drinking since it was in a Southern Baptist church. We could have been kicked out.
At the reception, there is not one picture of her. Not one. She disappeared. We didn’t know where she went. Found out later she went down to drink at the bar down the street. It made zero sense considering every drink was free and paid for.
Two days after we got back from our honeymoon, she showed up on our front step with her two kids, saying her husband had been abusive and they needed a place to stay. We let her stay for a week. She and my wife both worked nights, so a couple of times, I took care of her two kids. I just wanted to be nice, considering her situation.
Come to find out, her husband being abusive was a lie. She was cheating on her husband and he found out. She’d left our rehearsal to meet up with the guy, left our reception to meet with the guy, and even left us with her kids one night to ‘work’ but really it was to meet with some guy.”
Her Abusive Behavior Was Much Worse Behind Closed Doors
Juan Nel/Shutterstock
“My best man brought his girlfriend along as his plus one and she was a nightmare.
She wouldn’t let him walk down the aisle next to my wife’s bridesmaid because ‘it was too intimate.’ She wouldn’t even let him stay for the reception because he had to sit away from her and not with her.
And this was all loudly proclaimed, too. Right up until the point he caved in and just left with her. But the thing was that I had saved up and bought two return tickets to Vietnam (his birth country) for them both just because he is my best bud. So instead of staying at my own reception, I went over to his place to give them to him, only to find her screaming like a banshee and throwing dishware at him.
I stepped in and had a big glass ashtray promptly smashed over my head. A whole bunch of stitches, a concussion, and two police cars later, and that psycho was in the back of a paddy wagon alternating screaming (literally) about how sorry she was and about how sorry she was going to make us. It turned out my guy was getting beat up on the regular by his arranged girlfriend who had been flown over by his family because she saw him as her prize/property. He’d figured he had no other choice but to do what his family wanted.
My wife was furious with me. Mainly because we never ended up getting it on our wedding night but also because I may have actually told her I was going for a chat outside with relatives. That backfired when I called her from the ER.
Long story short, I sent him over to Vietnam solo and he spent two weeks catching up with family he hadn’t seen in nearly 10 years. He also promptly reconnected with the funny little girl he used to live next door to.
They aren’t married yet but when they do get hitched my wedding gift is going to be the biggest glass ashtray I can find. My main dude and his lady have been together now for nine years and have two little girls. They are so disgustingly happy that it would make me puke if I didn’t love them so much.”
She Was Free Falling
“My sister, my maid of honor, drank all of the bubbly while we were getting ready and passed out during the ceremony. Yes, the ceremony. She started swaying a bit and then just pitched over. She didn’t go down entirely. Instead, she kind of braced herself against the floor and a relative in the front row jumped up and helped put her in his seat. I’m not sure if she was ever fully unconscious, it looked like she just kind of got woozy for a second and lost her balance.
All in all, it was probably less than a minute until we got on with the ceremony, it just scared me at the moment because I didn’t know what was going on. She did nearly take the chuppah with her but thankfully another bridesmaid stabilized it when my sister went down. That girl was the real MVP.”
There Was Literally No Need For Her To React That Way
Tess Mai/Shutterstock
“She was rude to the people working at the venue. There was a bag of trash outside before the wedding even started and she went off on the staff like, ‘THIS IS MY COUSIN’S WEDDING! GET THIS EFFING GARBAGE OUT OF HERE!’ I was mortified. If I, the bride, was not worried about it, she had no reason to be worried. She was also wasted when she showed up, was not wearing a bra, and the guys were taking bets on when her chest would flop out.
Her chest did not end up flopping out but in a number of my wedding pictures, you can see her having to hold her dress up to prevent it from happening.”
She Couldn’t Believe What Her Sister-In-Law Tried To Wear
“I invited my sister-in-law to be in lots of things to help her feel included on the big day. I invited her to go wedding dress shopping, get her nails done with us, all of which she declined. I didn’t want a bridesmaid but I ended up having one, a close friend of mine from childhood. I invited her to get her hair and makeup done with me, my bridesmaid and my mother on the day of the wedding and she declined, saying she had an appointment at 7:30 am instead with her hairdresser. For whatever reason, this didn’t happen. She lived with my parents at the time and she spent the whole morning in the separate living room, away from us (hair and makeup were done at my mum’s house), so that was weird.
Then she asked if we could help her pick out an outfit just an hour and a half before the wedding. She tried on five outfits, one of them being white. I assured her she looked beautiful in all of them but as it was my wedding, the white dress may not be the best idea. Not even 15 minutes later, she came out wearing the white dress. That was the last straw for me and I asked her to change. She argued it was more cream than white and felt I was being difficult. I again asked her to change, so she stomped off muttering something about shoes.
She then texted me while I was on the way to my wedding to say she was going to be late because I made her change and she just wanted me to know. She also asked me the address. To my wedding. That she should have known because I’d invited her to come and see the venue not two months earlier. I just don’t get some people.”
She Was The Best Dressed Out Of All Of Them
Roman Stetsyk/Shutterstock
“I got married at my house in front of my parents and in-laws. Very casual. My mother-in-law was ticked we didn’t have a ‘real’ wedding (her words, not mine) because everything is about her. So she went and bought a brand new, expensive, formal mother of the bride dress and wore it in my living room. So in all of my pictures, we are all dressed what I would call ‘business casual’ and she’s there in a blinged out formal dress. Ten years of marriage later, we still hear about how we deprived her of a wedding.”
His Best Man’s Speech Was Totally Ruined
Alexandru Logel/Shutterstock
“That witch was my best man’s relatively new girlfriend (they’re still together). We invited her as a nice gesture, even though we didn’t know her that well. She was really happy about the invitation and even canceled on her big family gathering to attend our wedding. He’s 34 and she’s 25, worth mentioning.
Fast forward to the dinner party. Everything was going smoothly and our big day was all we hoped for. My wife and I were with the photographer taking wedding pictures, while the guests were arriving at the banquet hall. I suddenly got a message from my sister, saying my best man had gone. When we got there, he was nowhere to be found, so I called him and he told me he had to go home because his girlfriend had become sick.
Turns out, she had discovered they weren’t placed together at the tables (him being my best man, were placed at our table, but we had made sure she had a place at the nearest table, maybe three meters from him). My brother-in-law told me he overheard her throwing a fit in the bathroom, crying and having a complete meltdown. My best man did not return to the party and I didn’t get to hear the speech he had prepared.
That witch owes me a best man-speech! We don’t have much contact with them as a couple anymore, although I still have contact with him.”
They Only Had One Request
“We told our DJ to play anything except group dance songs, we find them extremely tacky and didn’t want a single one at our reception. Sometime during the reception, my wife’s cousin went up to the DJ and requested ‘Cupid Shuffle.’ Per our instructions, the DJ denied her request. She continued to pester him for a few minutes before tracking down my wife and pestering her. Never mind the fact that my wife was trying to enjoy the reception and was catching up with friends and family.
The cousin spent five minutes pestering my wife about this, whining that ‘Cupid Shuffle’ is the only song she will dance to at weddings. Finally, my wife gave in just to get rid of her cousin annoying her and told the DJ to allow it. DJ played the song, my wife’s cousin (and hardly anyone else) danced to the song, and we were left resentful that the cousin didn’t have the decency to honor our request at our own freaking wedding.”
Cheapskate Parent Plotting
“It was my mom. She masterminded a competing after-wedding brunch to combat my own, and she didn’t tell me or my wife. No one from my side came to ours because they assumed that plans had changed. My mother stole them all away with her dirty trick. I found out about the plot when my aunt kissed me goodbye at the end of my wedding and said she’d see me tomorrow, at the hotel. The actual brunch was at my in-laws’ house.
When I confronted my parents about it, they said I should thank them for spending the money, and I should have been there. I think this all happened because my parents are jealous of my in-laws, who are successful, well off, generous, and loving.
Additional backstory: During wedding planning, my mother was constantly making ridiculous demands and threatening not to come unless she got what they wanted. Even though they live far away, my wife and her mom were planning the wedding, and my father-in-law was paying for almost all of it. It was a big, expensive wedding, and I felt my parents were taking advantage of my father-in-law, who just wanted to keep the peace.
About a month before the wedding, my parents said they didn’t like that the brunch wasn’t at the hotel. In an argument, they said, ‘We’re going to do our own!’ to which I said ‘whatever’ and hung up. Weeks pass, and it’s never mentioned again. My parents start to act nice as the wedding approaches. No one changes their RVSP for anything, not even my parents. The wedding was amazing and heartfelt.
Did I think there was a possibility my parents would go through with it? Maybe. I considered sending a ‘reminder’ email to family members a few days before the wedding, but decided it wasn’t worth inflaming tensions again. After all, they’d have to at least invite my wife and I if they were doing it—right? We were staying in the same hotel!
I haven’t spoken with my parents in a long time. I would like to see my dad again if I can get him alone. But my mom would not allow it.”
With Family Like This, Who Needs Enemies
Gumirova Elvira/Shutterstock
“My tables were supposed to have ten chairs but the venue only set up eight. This was noticed and in the process of being fixed by the staff as soon as people began to come inside and sit down. I was outside hiding with the wedding party because we’re supposed to make an entrance or whatever.
So my day of planner came out and informed me that my sisters were telling everybody to sit wherever they want. I believe I said something like, ‘Tell those hags to get out here.’ I told them to knock it off and they said my wedding planner was a bossy know-it-all. I’m paying her to do that!”
She Let Her Maid Of Honor Run Things
“We arrived at the reception venue and were told there was a delay and my wife’s maid of honor insisted she would sort it out and for us to do nothing. This seemed like the typical ‘do everything you would expect for yourself for the bride and groom’, so it was normal for her to insist we stay in the bar, or so I thought.
We finally went up and sat at the top table and about five minutes later, I thought to myself, ‘Why is my family at the back of the room, half behind a pillar?’ Then I look left and table one, where my family was SUPPOSED to sit, had the maid of honor’s family sitting at it. The maid of honor then went on to swear all the way through her speech whilst interrupting the others, much to the disgust of everyone.
That day I found out how much hold my wife’s maid of honor had over her as she excused everything that woman did.
Those two are still BFFs and my wife is now my ex.”
She Was A Total Stage Mom
Volodymyr Baleha/Shutterstock
“I was the DJ at the wedding. Mother-in-law wanted her youngest daughter to sing for the bridal waltz and more. The waltz was already planned, but then she started getting super heated about this 16-year-old girl singing during the dancing period – which this girl definitely did not want to do. The groom had to step in and explain that he and his bride definitely didn’t want the kid to sing some more. That’s when she decided to throw her arms up, take her daughter’s wrist and drag her out of the venue. I’m told she was yelling at the girl as they got into the car and left.
The groom turned to me and said the only reason they invited her was because his new wife wanted a picture-perfect family photo, but apparently, they both instantly regretted that decision.”
Scheming Runs In The Family
“My grandmother was that witch at every wedding I have ever heard of her attending. At mine, she was actually quite mild. She told a lifelong family friend that she was disrespecting and cursing us by wearing black. At my parents’ ceremony, I’m told that she stood up and loudly declared that only Catholics go to Heaven, and she blocked the aisle as my mum and grandfather were about to walk up it, apparently. She’d also attempted to pay my dad off to stop him getting married at all. And so on. When I was my aunt’s bridesmaid, I locked my grandma out of the dressing room to stop things escalating to tears, and she took that out on me for years after.
Another aunt comes to a close second though. She turned up at my brother’s wedding without being invited because our (other) grandmother doesn’t drive. Turned out that she’d blocked every attempt my cousins had made to help, so that our grandmother would eventually beg her for a lift. At mine, she just insulted all my in-laws to their faces, which is why she wasn’t invited to my brother’s.”
She Stole The Best Man!
“That witch’ was my best man’s relatively new girlfriend (they’re still together). We invited her as a nice gesture, even though we didn’t know her that well. She was really happy for the invitation, and she even cancelled on her big family gathering to attend our wedding.
Fast-forward to the dinner party. Everything was going smoothly and our big day was all we hoped for. My wife and I were with the photographer taking wedding pictures, while the guests were arriving at the banquet hall. I suddenly got a message from my sister, saying my best man had gone. When we get there, he’s nowhere to be found, so I call him. He tells me he had to go home, because his girlfriend had become sick. Turns out she had discovered they weren’t placed together at the tables (him being my best man, he was placed at our table, but we had made sure she had a place at the nearest table, maybe 3 meters from him). My brother-in-law told me he had overheard her throwing a fit in the bathroom, crying and having a complete meltdown. My best man did not return to the party, and I didn’t get to hear the speech he had prepared.
That witch owes me the best man-speech! We don’t have much contact with them as a couple anymore, although I still have contact with him.”