'Bride showed up [with a] black eye': Wedding photographers spill the most shocking red flags of soon-to-be failed marriages

Author image for Jesse Kessenheimer
Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Jun 17, 2023 5:00 PM EDT

Your wedding day is supposed to be the happiest day of your life. The whole idea is that you join your life to another person's, ideally someone you love, and you can walk off into the sunset together for the rest of eternity. By all means, it should be incredibly romantic and filled with fine memories, but for some folks, clouds of gloom hung over their wedding day, dooming their marriage for all to see. If your wedding isn't going great, does your marriage have a bad omen on it forever? 

Wedding photographers and guests recently compiled a list of red flags they noticed on the wedding day that screamed the marriage would fail. Teary eyed brides, insane mothers, and tell-all groomsmen are just a few of the tidbits that revealed the marriage might be a sham. The only ones sober enough to remember the hinted relationship failures would be the photographer, someone employed to follow the couple around all day and capture their love, or their hatred, on camera. Keep scrolling for this revealing list of marriage cynicism, straight from the eyewitnesses who were there at the beginning. 

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  • 01
    Font - Posted by u/Arknight40 22 hours ago Wedding photographers of Reddit, what was your "they're not gonna last long" moment? 2
    via Arknight40
  • 02
    Font - Majestic_Storage_563 17 hr. ago Bride looked visibly miserable the entire ceremony. While photographing the men's "getting ready" portion, the groom repeatedly kept joking about Kung himself. During the toast, the bride ran off to the bathroom for about 30 minutes and came back wiping her tears with her eyes red and puffy. Neither of them had any chemistry at all, it made no sense why they were together to me. That was the last wedding I shot.
    via Majestic_Storage_563
  • 03
    Font - Noodle Maps 19 hr. ago While shooting video, I attached a microphone to the groom for audio and proceeded to prepare for the ceremony. Just as I was about to adjust my audio settings, the groom stepped into another room with a friend. As I put on my headphones, I overheard the groom confiding in his friend, describing the wedding as a "wedding of convenience" and reassuring them not to be concerned about what would happen in their relationship.
    via NoodleMaps
  • 04
    Font - justprettymuchdone. 16 hr. ago I know two people who had a wedding of convenience. He's gay, she's a lesbian. Their parents are Chinese (immigrants to the USA on one side, still in China on the other). They have a marriage that makes their parents happy, they're really good friends/roommates, and they do what they want on the side. It works, but the logistics must be... intense.
    via justprettymuchdone
  • 05
    Font - dys_p0tch 17 hr. ago in another life, i worked catering shifts. loads of saturday weddings. i'll never forget the best-man's toast of the groom. it was a shameless roast. he spoke openly about the groom's willingness to shag anything when he's drunk. he then went on and on about the groom's dly gambling habit and his short fuse when he doesn't win.
    via dys_p0tchArknight40
  • 06
    Font - AusXan 11 hr. ago Hope he warned the bride of all this before the wedding too. 931 46 more replies Reply Share FridgeKing994. 4 hr. ago I suppose the best man and the groom didn't last any longer than the groom and the bride.
    via AusXan
  • 07
    Font - breakitupkid 16 hr. ago Went to a wedding during college to my friends that got married who graduated 2 years prior to me. They had a beautiful wedding on a boat off the Keys and as the best man gave his speech, he was really drunk by this point, just shouted out, "You don't deserve her, you literally got a bw job from a st per no make that two stropers at your bachelor party. Peace out." He dropped the mic
    via breakitupkid
  • 08
    Font - ItsDangerousBusiness 13 hr. ago Do go on 3.5k 33 more replies Reply Share Anen-o-me 11 hr. ago Wait, you can't leave it there. Did they still get married? Because earlier in your comment you said they got married...
    via ItsDangerousBusiness
  • 09
    Font - breakitupkid 11 hr. ago They got married first on the beach and the reception was on the boat after so yeah they got married. I'm pretty sure they tried to work it out for like a few weeks after the wedding, but by then it came out he had cheated a lot. Reply Share 1.8k Anen-o-me 11 hr. ago Yikes.
    via breakitupkid
  • 10
    Font - The FlyingScotsman60 16 hr. ago Said this before..... Third wedding and the best man, the groom's brother, starts his speech.... "Well, welcome back everyone. Good to see some new faces and some old ones."
    via TheFlyingScotsman60
  • 11
    Font - graveyardspin. 14 hr. ago At his third wedding, my Uncle's best man started his speech with, "I told you buying my suit would be cheaper than renting." He got his third divorce after about 6 months. Which to be honest was longer than we expected because we all saw it coming like the steamroller security guard from Austin Powers.
    via graveyardspin
  • 12
    Font - HappyPorridge Bird 18 hr. ago I think my first clue was when the bride showed up with some bad make-up clearly trying to cover her black eye, while most of the rest of the family seemed far more into the free food and booze than the wedding itself. Oh yeah, never paid me either. Classy people.
    via HappyPorridgeBird
  • 13
    Font - Mushu_Pork 19 hr. ago Groom didn't want to participate in any wedding pictures after the ceremony. I believe he was more interested in drinking beers with his buddies. I don't think they lasted a year.
    via Mushu_Pork
  • 14
    Font - V-Savage 18 hr. ago The engagement session. The couple was in from out of town because she had just taken the bar exam to become a lawyer. At the end of the session, I gave them a prompt to share with each other what they were proud of each other for. He couldn't think of a single thing.
    via V-Savage
  • 15
    Font - girlabides 19 hr. ago When the groom looked at her like she was the love of his life, and she treated the day like her Prom and ignored him. I think they lasted six months.
    via girlabrides
  • 16
    Font - SebastianFlytes 18 hr. ago. edited 13 hr. ago When I worked as a wedding planner for a hotel chain, the groom had found out his bride was having an affair with her brothers best mate. The brides mother knew about it, but insisted on the wedding and paid a fortune. The groom wasn't drinking much and at the speeches, stood up and revealed he knew and said he was getting an annulment. He then took his best man on his honeymoon. The honeymoon the brides parents had paid for.
    via SebastianFlytes
  • 17
    Rectangle - SC487 17 hr. ago It's not gay if you make the ex mother-in-law pay 17.6k ↓ Reply Share
    via SC487
  • 18
    Font - Past-Independent2575 18 hr. ago Wedding photographer here: from India 1. Bride's mom dissed non-stop about the groom to a couple of our photographers. She believed that her daughter is too beautiful for the guy they promised her hand to and how she'd rather have him die sooner than seeing him with her daughter post the wedding.
    via Past-Independent2575
  • 19
    Font - 2. Bride and the groom had the first dinner separately because the bride wasn't just in the mood to have their reception dinner together.
    via Past-Independent2575
  • 20
    Font - 3. This is one is the final nail in the coffin - post the wedding when we were about to photograph portraits of the couple, the groom walked up to us saying that he's too tired from the wedding, so it'd be better if we could use the photos from the previous weddings we shot and morph his face on to those and walked away. They divorced three months later :P
    via Past-Independent2575
  • 21
    Font - ClownfishSoup 19 hr. ago "Derek, you're a great guy for marrying my sister. She is a complete b h and I'm begging you to leave her now or you will lose your soul forever. I have nothing good to say about her at all and I can't believe I'm even here. Anyway, run now. If you choose to stay with her, well, you've been warned. Good luck. I'm not even joking. This is for real bro"
    via ClownfishSoup
  • 22
    Font - Anonymous_Goat . 20 hr. ago. edited 19 hr. ago At the rehearsal dinner, every toast to the bride was some euphemistic variation of "I'm so glad you finally found someone to put up with your bulls t." They barely made it to the 6 month mark.
    via Anonymous_Goat
  • 23
    Font - firemogle 16 hr. ago Just deep fake me in boss, I'm tapped out 434 Reply Share qervem 12 hr. ago Now I'm imagining their one wedding album where the groom is placed at multiple weddings with multiple brides in different clothes and body types
    via firemogle
  • 24
    Organism - what's your Wedding photographers- worst "they're not gonna last" moment? "the groom walked up to us saying that he's too tired from the wedding, so it'd be better the if we could use the photos from the previous weddings we shot and morph his face on to those and walked away.
    via u/canva

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relationship bride marriage groom drama wedding fail failed intentions wedding photographer failed-relationship wedding day wedding red flag married marriages
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