Veteran Wedding Guest Who Has Seen It All Compiles List of Wedding No-No's, Sparking Hilarious Discussion of Atrocious Wedding Experiences

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Ely Bulnes • Writer and Editor
Nov 28, 2024 5:00 PM EST

Welcome, tea-lovers. We've all been to a bad wedding before. Maybe the wedding party was made up of people that obviously hated each other, creating a suffocating air of tension during the event. Maybe the bride and groom were so, so in love that they completely tunnel-visioned on each other and forgot that the wedding was a celebration meant to be enjoyed by guests. Perhaps you were led to believe there would be a dinner but were ultimately led to a small buffet table of finger sandwiches despite the wedding being held at dinner time. 

Anyone that has had to plan a wedding knows that it is easy to overlook some details that could result in guest's discomfort. Thankfully, a well-seasoned Reddit user has helpfully compiled a list of no-no's based on her extensive experience with terrible weddings. Commenters joined in with their own tales of their trials and tribulations as unfortunate wedding attendees. Scroll down to get all the tea. 

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  • 01
    r/weddingshaming u/OPMom21 4d Do Not....A List of Wedding No No's From a Guest Who's Seen It All
    via u/OPMom21
  • 02
    We wouldn't be on this sub if we weren't appalled by what we've personally seen and experienced at weddings. Reading posts here reminds me of all the awful shameful embarrassing stuff I've personally been subjected to at the weddings I've been invited to/attended over many years. So I'm putting together a list I'll call Wedding No No's based on painful personal experience. I'm sure you can all relate to at least one and have a few of your own....
    via u/OPMom21
  • 03
    1. Do not ask a friend or relative with zero talent to sing a solo during the ceremony. This may cause loud outbursts of laughing disguised as coughing. 2. Do not use the word "dinner" on the invitation unless you are legitimately serving dinner. Finger sandwiches piled on a table in the corner do not constitute dinner.
    via u/OPMom21
  • 04
    3. Do not invite strangers in order to pad attendance and for gift grabbing purposes. I once received an invite from someone I'd never heard of. Turns out the guy was a new hire at my husband's company who had been there all of a month.
    via u/OPMom21
  • 05
    4. Do not hold a reception two hours from the ceremony site. In this case the hosts had everyone pile onto school buses in the rain for a long trek down the New Jersey turnpike in bumper to bumper traffic on a Friday night. On the return trip, a large contingent of friends of the groom loudly told X rated jokes that were not appreciated by my uncle who, equally loudly kept shouting, "Knock it off! There are women on here!"
    via u/OPMom21
  • 06
    5. Do not hold the ceremony in a public park without nearby parking available. In this instance, there was only a narrow road near the ceremony site at the top of a hill lined with "no parking" signs. People parked there anyway and every car was ticketed. Also, make sure there are clean restrooms available. The only restrooms in that park were filthy and lacked toilet paper and towels.
    via u/OPMom21
  • 07
    6. Do not make your guests wait for hours with nowhere to sit and nothing to eat or drink while you take hundreds of photos after the ceremony. 7. Do not fail to hire a day of coordinator to help assure that vendors are on schedule. Nothing worse than sitting around hungry waiting for food to arrive from a wayward catering company.
    via u/OPMom21
  • 08
    8. Do not design a seating chart that puts guests with strangers, especially when there are others present they haven't seen in a long time and would love to catch up with. Once got stuck at a table with a group of church lady types who made faces when wine was poured and had nothing pleasant to say.
    via u/OPMom21
  • 09
    9. For the happy couple..... Do not ignore your guests. Make a point of greeting everyone if only briefly. Once flew across the country for a male cousin's wedding and never got so much as a hello from either him or his wife. They never came by our table. A year later I had occasion to see the couple at another family event and, when the wife finally introduced herself, I told her I had been at her wedding. Her response came back, "I don't remember you." No sh!
    via u/OPMom21
  • 10
    10. Do not fail to thank anyone who gives a gift. That's just good manners. Anyone care to add....I know there are dozens more. 2,744 944 D
    via u/OPMom21
  • 11
    well-isnt-that-nice • 4d I'd like to add: if the majority of your guests need to travel 8+ hours for your wedding, maybe don't have it 3 days before Christmas. Reply 1.3k
    via u/well-isnt--nice
  • 12
    ToTwoTooToo • 4d Or Christmas Eve or the day after. My x-brother got married on Christmas Eve the first time and the day after the second time. I left small children to fly across country to be there. Never again. ... 419
    via u/ToTwoTooToo
  • 13
    DogsandCatsWorld1000 4d Protect your guests from the elements. Do not expect people to spend a lot of time in the heat or cold. Also protection from rain, snow and direct sun light.
    via u/DogsandCatsWorld1000
  • 14
    There should be at least one seat for each person. Bales of hay don't count unless you have them covered properly to protect the people from the hay. Unless you want your guests thinking of their sore feet, legs and/or backs instead of how lovely your wedding is. Reply 536
    via u/DogsandCatsWorld1000
  • 15
    cefriano 4d Fe My friend had her wedding outdoors in Park City, Utah. In February. In a blizzard. You might be wondering, "Was there a tent or an awning or something at least?" There was not. People sat on the uncovered patio at a ski resort in their suits and dresses with only the blankets they handed out to shield them from the elements. My hair was literally frozen solid by the end. 96
    via u/cefriano
  • 16
    Immediate-Screen8248 • 4d This also reminded me of the three people I know (all at different weddings) who have gotten Lyme disease from wearing open shoes and bare ankles while sitting on a chair/hay bale in a field - the ticks were feasting! 205
    via u/Immediate-Screen8248
  • 17
    imhereforfun72 • 4d I have one for the brides out there. When planning your wedding, keep in mind that your bridesmaids have jobs and bills to pay: Having a bachelorette weekend party in an expensive town; the cost of the dresses and make up/hair; gifts for showers, etc; and don't choose a bridesmaids dress that they'll never use again that costs as much as a mortgage payment. I understand that this is the bride's big day and everything, but friends and family should be have to go broke just to
    via u/imhereforfun72
  • 18
    that_was_way_harsh. 4d And also, FEED THEM day of. I've been a bridesmaid exactly once and I wanted to rip off my own arm and eat it because we went so long with no food from the required arrival time at the bridal suite to the cocktail hour. 310
    via u/that_was_way_harsh
  • 19
    WeeWeirdOne • 4d If any of your speech makers are known to ramble on a bit, find a way to cut it short. Having listened to the father of the bride list the bride's every achievement - and I mean from birth - to highlight how proud of her he was, I wanted nothing more than to set off the fire alarm. His speech went on for over half an hour. The poor bride was mortified. Reply 230 ♡
    via u/WeeWeirdOne
  • 20
    Supe_scienceskilz ⚫ 4d Or the opposite, the father of the bride went on about how much of a terror his daughter was as a teenager and gave some examples that really should have been for family ears only. ... 139
    via u/Supe_scienceskilz
  • 21
    JustALizzyLife • 4d . A destination wedding is not the same as eloping. If you do have a destination wedding realize that you're not going to get as many guests accepting as you would a local wedding. An invitation is not a summons and no one cares about your "big day" as much as you do. ← Reply 207
    via u/JustALizzyLife
  • 22
    ClubExotic 4d • Make sure to include what type of reception you are having. Is it Cake and Punch? Then don't have it during dinner time. Reply 161
    via u/ClubExotic
  • 23
    Sunnyok85. 4d You can have a dry wedding, but please make sure you have enough juice or something so your guests have more than just water. Juice ran out within the first hour. Even the water ran out (they stopped filling the "large" decorative jugs in the kitchen, so people were filling drinks in the bathroom. That's a really hard wedding to forget. Reply 59
    via u/Sunnyok85
  • 24
    slamminsalmoncannon • 4d If you expect your guests to wear black tie, provide a black tie level experience. Reply 57
    via u/slamminsalmoncannon

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