‘Fun, but still a wedding…': Groom disappoints bride after not wearing a costume for their Halloween wedding, others share their themed wedding debacles

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Oct 29, 2025 6:00 PM EDT

Everyone knows that, according to the culture, there are set dress codes for weddings. The most commonly known one in America, is you never wear white to a wedding, white is only for the bride. Usually it will say on the invite whether it's casual or cocktail-fancy. And to be a good wedding guest, you dress accordingly. It's not that hard and it makes your friends who are getting married happy. 

 

Some weddings go all out and make it themed. This particular wedding was happening on Halloween and costumes were required. Unfortunately, the groom did not seem to care for his own dress code… The bride and her guests made sure to not only go all out with their costumes, they also made sure to still be somewhat fancy, because it was, after all, still a wedding. However, the groom wore a cheap store-bought costume and his guest were made to think the event was much more casual than it actually was. I mean, the bride had a hand-made epic costume and he didn't even think to match her??

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  • "I'm super disappointed in the groom and angry for the bride."

    Halloween themed costume wedding party
    via Unsplash+ (and Jonathan Cooper)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Went to a halloween wedding that requested people come in costumes. I thought it was fun but still a wedding so I made effort to make sure we had nice costumes that would look nice in photos years from now.
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  • Literally, maybe only 5 people (including the bride) wore actual costumes that looked nice/actually fit
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  • The vast majority of people were wearing literal footie pajamas or regular clothes with a random superhero mask or cat ears.
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  • We had almost a year of advance notice for this wedding. It wasn't last second. Even the photographer seemed perplexed by some of these costumes.
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  • The groom (who we knew) wore an ill-fitted Spirit of Halloween costume that didn't match the bride at all.
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  • He didn't write his vows, was surpised he was expected to have it, and didn't tell his half of the wedding party they were in the wedding party until less than 5 minutes before the ceremony.
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  • At first, I thought maybe the wedding was just more casual than the groom led us to believe.
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  • Then I saw the bride. You can tell she put so much effort into her costume.
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  • Homemade. She had a heartfelt speech prepared. They had a professional photographer arranged and everything. She didn't seem upset, and I'm glad for that, but I was super disappointed in how uninvolved the groom appeared to be in the whole affair (dude had no idea what they were doing, when, etc.).
    via birdbrainmcstickums
  • I was super disappointing in how many people were dressed like it was a frat house halloween party and not a wedding.
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  • Maybe the bride literally gave zero shits what anyone, including the groom, did. I want to believe she was happy with the outcome.
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  • I don't want to believe she trusted everyone else (including the groom) to be adults and they just half-assed everything.
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  • Halloween themed costume wedding party
    via Unsplash+ (and Getty Images)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • The fact that this groom didn't wear a costume to his own Halloween wedding and then didn't participate in any of the wedding schedules, INCLUDING writing his own vows… Well, that's a very large red and waving flag if I've ever seen one. I bet there were just regular Halloween parties more epic than his own themed wedding… 

  • Eva_Luna I'm sorry, maybe the groom just has issues, but it sounds like he didn't care that much about getting married. These women have got to stop accepting scraps from men. Edit; I didn't expect this to blow up, but thank you to those who agreed with me, and those who shared your lovely stories of amazing men who clearly adore you. For those who feel offended by what I wrote - it must be because you're one of the loser men I was referencing and you feel called out. lol, sucks to be you
    via Eva_Luna
  • StrawBerryWasHere I performed (I'm a fire dancer) at a costume themed wedding a few years ago - everyone came in force to that wedding wonderfully dressed up. Not surprised tho, the couple getting married were long time burners. This wedding also had a llama (the groom's favorite animal, this was a gift from the bride) and a contortionist for the reception doing several sets. I was also there to read tarot for 2 or 3 hours during the reception which a lotta was fun. These weddings themes can abs
    via StrawBerryWasHere
  • Caturday Everyday https://preview.redd.it/uefxsib0rw: width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=w I went to a Halloween wedding last blackface, "tribal woman" costume
    via Caturday_Everyday
  • thatburghfan I don't blame them for requesting costumed guests if that's what they want. But they should have anticipated a serious lack of effort from guests who didn't share their vision and just wanted to attend a wedding and/or had no interest in being in their pictures. Although I personally would have declined to attend rather than come in costume or come in street clothes. No excuse for the groom not telling people they were expected to be participants though.
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  • Annual_Bowler5999 I went to a wedding this weekend and it was IMMACULATE. My husband and I have been close friends with the bride and groom for several years now. The groom knew everything that was happening, and took so much pride in the wedding that he and his new wife threw. He wrote lovely vows, they had a beautiful and well rehearsed first dance, he picked their cake flavor and their food vendors, and he wore a unique suit that showed off his personality. It was so wonderful and refreshing
    via Annual_Bowler5999
  • alanlight I was at a Halloween wedding years ago and it was just the opposite. Everybody went all-out on costumes and the wedding couple had hired a Hollywood makeup artist to make them Frankenstein and bride-of Frankenstein. One of the most memorable weddings I've been to.
    via alanlight
  • Toxic_Orchid This sounds like there wasn't good communication between the bride and groom about the vision of their wedding...
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  • Fabulous Bullfrog9610 honestly, very few adults are into costumes. i'm not a fan of specific dress requests for weddings.
    via FabulousBullfrog9610
  • Ok_Alps4323 Honestly, I would have been one of those people wearing cat ears with a regular dress. I'm not coming in anything over the top if I don't know how the rest of the guests will be dressed. Who wants to get stuck walking around in full costume among a bunch of strangers wearing regular clothes? IMO, this theme lends itself to frat house Halloween party. How classy can it be if everyone in the audience is an inflatable T. rex or Cookie Monster? Most people are something silly for Hallowe
    via Ok_Alps4323
  • BrokenDog Toy The groom sounds like a dickhead but I don't think the guests did anything wrong. It's absolutely not reasonable to expect guests should buy a new outfit for every wedding (and pretty shit environmentally too). If you're going to have an unusual dress code, like costume, people are going to make do with what they have/can easily get their hands on and if they aren't costume type people, they aren't going to be very good.
    via BrokenDogToy

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