Neetsie, I think I would have left right after the wreck if someone was walking around with blood on his tux! lol.

I found this to be extremely odd, still do. About ten years ago I went to a wedding at the local Catholic Church. As the wedding march began, the groom and his men walked up the aisle in pairs instead of the groom waiting for his bride at the altar.

Following the groom & his men, the bride walked up the altar along with her bridesmaid's, walking in pairs. The bride didn't get her traditional walk.

It was a big WTH moment for me. I later asked someone what was going on, and she said they had a new Priest and he forbade the bride to walk alone, or the groom to wait at the altar. Not sure if the Priest is still there. :)

I don't have any comparable stories and enjoyed reading all of yours. We were at a Lebanese Maronite wedding where the ceremonies are traditionally so long that even the wedding party gets chairs. The ceremony was about 30 minutes late starting and we found out that the priest had been in a car accident on his way to the wedding.

So we got the back up assistant priest who finished the ceremony in about 10 minutes flat.

I thought we all had a lucky escape until the original priest showed up at the reception and proceeded to tell an hour's worth of stories about his 50 year friendship with the groom's father. He had to have his day in the sun one way or another. Wouldn't have been so bad except he went before supper so we were all starving and could smell the delicious buffet waiting for us.

actually now that I'm on the car accident theme, I was at a Sikh wedding that was also taking a very long time to get started. The groom was supposed to ride out on a horse and I was extremely excited for this part, but it turned out the horse was in a car accident on way to the wedding! And never bothered to call! I had to wait three years to see my first groom on a horse.

Ok, this isn't wedding-related, but a Christening (I think) ... I want to hear the story behind it.

Grandma doesn't fool around! You kids behave!

The minister flubs up reminded me of this - at a funeral, the funeral director sternly reminded everyone to silence their cell phones. I thought, as I always do, who needs to be told that? Why didn't they silence it before they stepped foot into the building? If you can't be without notification because you're waiting for a call from Gift of Life that an organ is available, put your phone on vibrate.

Anyhow, the minister starts his talk and HIS cell phone rings. If that's not bad enough, instead of immediately silencing it, he looks at the screen to see who is calling and then, finally, mutes the phone. What call could he be expecting that was more important that the duty he was already performing? Why didn't he take a moment and check his phone was silenced when the FD reminded everyone else? I hope he learned a lesson and never did it again but I doubt it.

At my brother's wedding which was held outside at our house, I always thought it was so strange that the minister showed up without a bible and we had to go fetch him one...and her mother was so upset because the one we had was a *catholic* bible!

My dh's cousin's wedding was also held outside at our house. Some of it was so lovely and some so odd. The bride had a lot of sisters all of whom wore matching full length print skirts with different colored tops and looked very nice. Bride wore traditional wedding gown and veil. Groom was a musician so up on the hill, under the apple trees, there was a lovely brass quintet playing beautiful classical music. Groom, very hippy like, had no clue what to wear and brings nothing with him. So he ended up wearing bride's sister's white embroidered top she'd gotten in thailand with a pair of her white trousers. He had nothing for his feet, so he went barefoot. So the bridesmaids go down the aisle, the bride and her father go down the aisle, then the dog goes down the aisle!

Our niece was married in Pennsylvania and had a wedding based on Quaker customs. Beautiful ceremony in a meadow. Instead of an officiant her grandfather and the groom's grandmother said a prayer and gave their blessings. Not a dry eye in the crowd.

Maddielee, that sounds lovely.

When my first DH and I got married my MIL and DM, after the wedding, were commiserating over what a shame it was that a train ruined the ceremony. DH and I looked at each other and asked them "What train"? They proceeded to tell us that during our vows a train went by (it was a small country church right along a train track). DH and I never even heard it. We were so in love and excited to becoming life partners that I guess we only had ears for each other.

The weirdest thing I ever saw at a wedding was when my nephew got married. DH and I were dressed to the nines, not formal wear, but DH was wearing a nice suit and I had on a beautiful dress and pearls. We walked into the church and probably half of the guests were in jeans. We were so shocked that I couldn't concentrate on the service at all. We were definitely fish out of water. Who in the heck wears jeans to a wedding?

OK, this wedding was just odd from the get-go ;-)

Church Wedding. Bride has 5-6 bridesmaids, groom has a dozen groomsmen.

OK...popularity contest? Just struck me as odd, but carrying on.

The reception is at a huge hall, and the wedding couple rented out the entire place. We arrived at the hall and were greeted with offerings of champagne cocktails in the large vestibule reception lobby. Very nice. We then go to one side, into a large room with tables of crudite, cheeses and some items in warmers. Nice selection.

I suddenly notice someone with seafood on their plate. Hmm, where'd that come from? I spy a station with suckling pig. Wow!

I begin to look around and realize there were food stations set up all around, in various rooms and corners.

Well, screw the cheese and crackers- I'm going for the high-value offerings!

As I recall, in addition to the plentiful tables of nibblies, there was a suckling pig station, a raw bar station, a pasta station, a sushi station, a mashed potato bar station and another that I can't recall. Maybe it was petit fours.

It. Was. Insane.

The reception part went on for about 90 minutes (waiting for the wedding party to even arrive, and when they did, they just all blended in and started hitting up food stations).

DH, his family and I were wondering if they decided to change the food to buffet instead of sit down. After all, we had filled out our food choices for the sit down portion when we RSVP'd. But, this was SO MUCH FOOD! They couldn't do this AND a meal, could they?

Alas we were all ushered to the other wing of the hall, where it was set up for a formal sit down, 3-course dinner (with DJ and dance floor). Now, I wish I'd used a little more restraint.

The sit down dinner was nice-not as good as the food station orgy, but a decent mass production meal. Most people were just picking anyway because we had about 2 minutes to work up an appetite from the reception to the dinner!

After dinner and lots of music and dancing, they opened up the doors to the main entrance hall (where we'd arrived), where lo and behold, Willy Wonka had exploded.

Yes, dessert stations that would make Veruca Salt weep with joy. Lots of them.

It was a food orgy not seen since Roman times.

They divorced 2 years later.

My brother wears jeans to weddings.....well, almost. He refuses to buy or wear suits. We're lucky if he's in kaki's and a decent shirt. At my son's wedding he wore a fleece pullover. There are two family weddings this summer and he's already announced he's wearing Hawaiian shirts. I wont t be surprised if along with the Hawaiian shirt he's in shorts and flip flops....his daily attire.

MizGG......gotta love that granny dress....wow does that take me back!

MizGG that is an interesting photo. Who is holding the baby...at first I thought older sister, because she looks 11 or 12, but then I saw she had a corsage on??? Is she that baby's mother?! I thought the guy was the dad of both, the flowered dress woman the mother, but the more I look at it, the guy and the woman holding the baby may be the parents of the baby and the other woman the grandma? Aunt?

I was invited to a wedding that was held in an old theatre. Bride all decked out in her gown, some attendants, I think. When everyone was seated, they started showing a movie. Turns out it wasn't a wedding we were invited to...the movie was a video of them being married the year before in Las Vegas at a run through wedding venue (It was a 5K or marathon or something, with a wedding station along the way, where runners could pop in and be married along with a few dozen others). So we saw them being married along with the others, in their running clothes, then finishing the run. They'd kept it all a secret because they wanted to do this production instead of a traditional wedding, but for some reason it was all delayed for a year, so they were secretly married all that time. After the video and we all had a good, but kind of uncomfortable laugh about it all, they passed out box lunches so we could eat in our seats and they had an Elvis impersonator come on stage and put on a show. Oh, yes, the attendants of the bride and she sang a song on stage.

We were all captive in our seats, trying to balance a box of food, sort of stunned by the whole thing. After the "show" we could go get a piece of cake by the stage, but there was absolutely no place to mingle, no place to greet the bride and groom or meet their families, etc. Much more went into the production than the marriage apparently -it lasted only a couple of years.

I'd love to know if anyone has memories from my wedding that they view as odd. Could be, I suppose. The only thing that comes to mind was at the church an older woman, sitting on 'my' side towards the back, was crying noticeably as we were exiting the church. I asked my husband who is that and why is she so upset? It was a woman who knew my husband through his work and just came to see the wedding. He suspected she was crying because her own daughter had married the week before so maybe she was still overly emotional about weddings. There were 5-6 other old ladies from his church that came to see him get married.

My friend's sister had a wedding crasher. The woman attended the church, dressed casually per the photos she was caught in, asked someone where the reception was, went home and changed (!), went to the reception, and just took the spot of someone who didn't show up. At first, the couple both thought she was a guest of the other. When they realized they didn't know her, and no harm was done, they didn't do anything. The funniest part was when the proofs came back and there she was in the background of the church pictures. The mystery guest who ate a meal that would have gone to waste.

A friend went to a wedding that seemed pretty normal, then they go to the reception where there are some nibbles. The wedding party shows up and then disappears for quite awhile and then they return. People are getting hungrier and wondering where the family is. Turns out the wedding party retreated to a separate room where they enjoyed a lobster dinner while all their guests were left to "make do" with what they had!

Not odd but memorable - My sister's wedding was held in my brother's back yard. Beautifully landscaped, large corner lot & fenced backyard with a gate to the street. Someone around the corner was holding a garage sale that same day. People looking for the garage sale kept walking into his yard thinking it was the yardsale. Pretty funny! We put up a sign before the ceremony started & still had a couple people open the gate!

I did not realize until reading these how very uninteresting my life is! Olychick, I would have given a lot to attend that movie theater wedding!

My three nieces all married into oddball families, or maybe I should just say different from ours. At niece #1's wedding , the mother of the groom took over everything. She was at least 90 minutes late to the rehearsal dinner. Everyone was famished but her son insisted we could not start without her. Then she makes her grand entrance wearing a short skin tight spandex dress with a plunging neckline. She was in her 60's for pete's sake, plus she had had open heart surgery that left a huge scar where the neckline plunged. Eyes were popping, which is what she wanted. Next day the wedding she insisted on walking down the aisle in the spot where the mother of the bride walks (my niece's mom was no longer living). I was supposed to fill in for my sister and walk in the MOB's place, but she practically knocked me over in order to be the "star". I just let it go to keep peace.

At niece #2's wedding, her cousin (father's side) who is a large and geeky girl, noticed her family was sitting on the other side of the aisle so she jumped up said "oh there you are" are ran between the bridesmaids as they walked down the aisle.

Then a friend's daughter held her reception at Blue Hill Stone Barn in New York state. It is a foodie destination and renown for farm to table organic food. Well, the aunts of the bride proceed to create a table covered with white sugar and filled with crappy candy for people to take. I could see the restaurant people nearly faint. That was the same wedding where my shoes were destroying my feet so I took them off. I was standing quietly in a room off to the side where no diners could see me when a fuming waiter came charging at me and said Madam! This is a restaurant and you must wear shoes! I was mortified and spent the rest of the night sitting with my feet under a table. That was the most gawd-awful wedding I ever attended.

Shortly after we were married DH and I attended the spring wedding of a high school friend of his. I didn't know the couple but DH told me they were both party-types, crazy weekend drinking bashes and had a very stormy path to the alter. As we're sitting in the church, windows open for a breeze, the minister doing his thing before the couple, we can hear a car in the distance, sounded like a muscle car getting closer.... louder.... and when it was right outside the church it slowed and either passenger or driver (couldn't see who) yelled at the top of their lungs through the open window "Roseanne, you whore!" There was a brief moment of stunned silence and the minister picked right up. Nothing was said at the reception, people seemed to know better than to bring it up! The couple honeymooned in Hawaii and when the groom returned to their suite after a swim, the bride was gone. She flew home, cleaned out their apartment, took all the wedding presents (and $$) and filed for divorce.

This is a very entertaining thread!

I once went to a wedding where I wished I could have worn jeans, and hiking boots. The bride and groom sent us a fancy formal invitation, on quality paper, listing the venue as the amphitheater of a kids' camp where we all had volunteered for several years. Having been there many times, I knew the amphitheater was on a hill, up a rough, narrow trail through the trees, with sawn slab boards for seats, and no shelter. There were no special instructions on the invitation, so I asked hubby to find out if dress was casual. Noooo, he was told, the bride was going to wear a white gown, and the groom would be wearing a tux (second wedding for each), and they wanted the guests to wear dress clothes.

So, we wore dress clothes, although I chose a pair of flats. We gathered as a group, at the base of the hill, to follow the 'ushers' up the trail--IIRC, the happy couple were already on top, waiting for us. There were some guests who showed up in heels, of course, and one older lady (the grandmother of the bride's first husband) who didn't know about the hike, but gamely insisted she could make it. She did, slowly, and we ended up helping her back down the trail.

It was a nice wedding, and I'm sure the pictures were beautiful and romantic--the juxtaposition of the white dress and tux against the primitive background, but I felt they showed a disregard for their guests' comfort. The reception was in the next town, about 30 minutes away, in a small restaurant--I don't recall anything about the food or entertainment, although I'm sure there were both.

Love this thread!

A cousin got married (in the early 1970"s) to a guy who was nice, but a bit unusual. During the ceremony, the bride and groom "expressed their love for each other" by doing a short performance for each other (and all who were there). The bride sat down and accompanied herself on guitar, to a traditional Hebrew song, which was very nice. The groom proceeded to recite a love poem (don't remember which one, but it is well known, I think), and started to sob in the middle of it. Really sob. Then, his sister and mother started to cry as well. The bride and her parents just stood there looking very....troubled, like "what have we gotten into"? But, everyone settled down, and the ceremony resumed. Very uncomfortable, but they are still together and quite happy!

College friend of DH consummated the marriage between the wedding and the reception while the guests waited for them at the reception. It was a "tradition" from the wife's family. I have blocked a lot of it out but I think they were in a car somewhere. The college friends were all aware of why we were twiddling our thumbs at the reception. Not sure if it was common knowledge for the rest of the guests.

When we were living in SF, we were invited to a wedding in the ghost town of Tuscarora, Nevada where the groom's family ran a pottery school. We decided to take a train there with our 2-year old daughter. En route to Nevada, the Amtrak train broke down repeatedly, so we arrived in Tuscarora around 4AM on the day of the wedding, exhausted. We stayed at an old lodging house that looked like it was straight out of a movie set. About an hour later we woke to a frightful ruckus; the wedding party had formed a procession, banging pots and pans and whooping and hollering, winding their way up a small mountain where the wedding ceremony took place just as the sun rose. We joined the parade of guests, and at the top of the mountain we all released balloons when the pair were pronounced married. Our daughter remembers that scene to this day. So do I, but for different reasons.

Oakley...........our wedding was similar. Our priest was a real jerk with a Jekyll/Hyde personality. At the rehearsal he made the wedding party line up like a chorus line at the back of the church. I wanted a traditional procession with DH already at the altar and dad walking me down the aisle. He said that's not how it's done since Vatican II. I said I'd been to countless Catholic weddings since Vatican II and had never seen it done this way and his reply was, literally, "my way or the highway."

I was in tears. My dad said he'd track down a judge or officiant and he'd get someone to be at the church the next day directing people to go to the reception hall instead and we'd get married there. I freaked out that it would not work out so kept things as is. I was late getting to the church because my BIL was late picking me up and later dad said the priest was really ticked and when I finally arrived the priest said to my dad "let's get this dam show on the road." My dad turned and said "what did you just say?!". He grimaced and walked away.

Looking back, I wish I had gotten married at the hall and told the priest to shove it. I wanted DH to give him a penny instead of the usual donation. I did get some revenge......I wrote a two page letter to the archbishop stating this man had no business being a priest he was so un-Christian and how he had nearly ruined a happy occasion. A few weeks later I got a written apology which I'm sure the archbishop made him write.

olychick - OK, you are definitely a finalist!

mamagoose's story reminded me of another memorable wedding I went to...a wonderful young couple, her family was originally from the Philippines, he was Jewish, not sure where in the US they were from, but not from the NW, I believe, but the groom's father currently had ties to Alaska. They held the ceremony and reception at an outdoor venue in Oregon; I think it was some kind of retreat center or adult camp. The buildings were quite utilitarian, but the setting was in the forest on the edge of a nice river. We had to walk a ways on a trail through the forest and all of a sudden there was a clearing ahead with dozens of round tables formally set with linens, crystal, china, silver, etc. It was really stunning and so surreal. Then the guests started arriving and the Philippine guests were dressed very fancy with the brightest colors and exquisite fabrics, down to the littlest girl and the boys all had very fancy suits - really dressy clothes that I just don't see much of any more (altho this was probably 20 years ago). It was so colorful in that wooded setting. There were equally very elegantly dressed people from the groom's family, lots of people who just didn't have the more casual NW vibe, for sure.

Before the ceremony there were musicians out beyond the clearing playing lovely, ethereal music on flutes and violins, I think. They moved into the "sanctuary" for the actual ceremony. There were rows and rows of white folding chairs set up in semi circles for the guests, then we were asked to take our chairs to a table after the ceremony. They melded traditions from both cultures in a very personal way.

After they were married, the food was ready for the guests, served buffet style. The bride's family had prepared it and the tables were overflowing with Philippine special foods; oh my, was it delicious! The groom's father had flown in a salmon bbq outfit that he loved, grills, workers and all from Alaska. And some special beer, I think also from Alaska. But the kicker was that he also brought a bag of gold (real gold!) nuggets that he threw into the river and provided the guests (mostly the kids) with gold panning equipment and taught them how to pan for gold. So there we were, all lined up on the banks of the river, watching other guests pan for gold and once in a while someone would float by on an inner-tube (it's a river where tubers float in the summer), probably thinking we were all crazy. It kind of surprised me that there wasn't a mini gold rush on that river after so many passersby saw all the gold panning activity and some actually finding gold nuggets.

Oh my gosh, these stories brought back a memory I thought I'd buried, with me being the oddity. Back in college a couple had their wedding at their old farmhouse they were renting. I was already married. At 20. :) We were all outside and it was time for the bride to throw the bouquet. I stepped back because I knew it was for single women. But all these people, including guys, kept pushing me forward to catch the bouquet!!

I kept telling them "I'm married!", but they wouldn't stop. The bride and I gave each other a "WTH?" smile. She threw the bouquet in the opposite direction, thank goodness!

I'm assuming my friends were too young to realize the proper etiquette with bouquet throwing.

DH and I were also exposed to Hep. B at the wedding and had to be tested. Negative. I think it was "B", four of us shared a meal with one fork.

We had a blast!

I attended an arranged marriage of an Indian couple when I was friends of the bride in college. Even though I understood the concept of an arranged marriage, the traditions were still odd to me because I was raised with conventional Christian ideas of wedding ceremonies. Anyway, several members of the Indian wedding party went to the newlyweds' hotel room after ceremony... it wasn't explained to me why and I felt like I was interrupting a very sacred part of their wedding.

Other than that, my odd memories are of drunk uncles and crazy chicken dances at receptions. Standard fare!

Gotta wonder about some of these "stories". Weddings typically have rehearsals the night before with a grooms dinner to follow, so how does the minister FORGET and go golfing the next day? Brides with veils over their face...the brides father flips the veil just before he "gives" his daughter to the bride. It is very common for brides and grooms to come down the aisle together, AFTER the wedding party walks paired as couples, whoever orchestrated the men with men women with women. Sadly I am sure they are true but the REAL story is how do so many couples get so into wedding planning they miss all the "how to" magazines that are out there!! I am surprised we haven't heard more destination wedding stories, skydivers, scuba....I wasn't there but a co worker; daughter's wedding. Bride dressed as a fairy, Groom as her KNIGHT with wings, Dad like "The Duke" officiated...Mother of the bride said it was a blast. Another friend's daughter did an old west theme Matron of honor dressed like a saloon girl. To each there own!!

We had friends who were building a house. They sent out invitations to a pot luck "the roof is on" celebration at the construction site. Everyone, including the hosts and guests, wore jeans, t-shirts, sneakers etc. At one point the hosts disappeared and we heard heavy machinery. A backhoe came up the drive with the couple sitting in the bucket! His family had a tradition that for generations the groom wore a pair of cufflinks handed down from father to son, so the groom had French cuffs withe the cufflinks...not the whole formal shirt, just the cuffs. The ceremony was performed in the space that would become the great room in the finished house. A string quartet arrived, caterers for the cake and drinks, a magician for the little kids attending. It was a very different and happy event!

Not odd, I suppose, but wedding-amusing:

1) "Endless Love", sung by the brother/sister cousins of the bride, both of whom had mullets (it was 1990, but still).

2) Me starting my own wedding 20 minutes late because we were waiting for hubby's son to pick up his girlfriend. Grrr.

What wonderfully bizarre stories! And what a fun idea for a thread!

We managed to wrangle an invitation to a wedding in a Scottish castle a few years back. Friends of friends were to be wed at Dalhousie Castle, and the groom's cousin (from Texas, not Scotland) played bagpipes so he was going to pipe the bride down the aisle to the strains of Here Comes the Bride. So here we are, in this wonderful old chapel on the castle grounds. The men in the wedding party are all dressed in traditional kilts, and the bride is glowing on her father's arm, ready to walk down the aisle. The cousin-piper starts out ahead of her, and the first note he plays reverberates through the space. The next note though - not quite right. He proceeds to play Happy Birthday To You, and they all walk down the aisle to that instead.

Turns out the very first note in each song is exactly the same. Cousin-piper was nervous and flustered, and came out with the wrong tune. When he realized what he was doing, it was too late.

We laughed and laughed about that, and I'll bet their family still laughs about it to this day. Everyone was very good natured about the whole thing. That's maybe not terribly odd, but it was pretty darn funny.

DS tells the story of a wedding at which he was an usher. Several of the guests were coming from England, but their plane developed engine trouble and had to turn back. Eventually they got a flight that made it all the way to the U.S. However, the best man was refused entry, for reasons that I won't go into, but managed to convince the immigration authorities to let him in, with the provisio that he would be escorted out of the country right after the ceremony. Then DS, in charge of the rings, driving down to the wedding, takes a wrong turn, realizes that he has done so after driving 15 miles out of the way, turns back and speeds to the site, only to be stopped by a trooper. DS tells the trooper that he is on the way to a wedding, and the trooper lets him off, since the bride is the daughter of his boss, the Sheriff of the county. So with the best man available and the rings at the ready, the ceremony starts -- on time. The bride and groom exchange vows, the groom puts the bride's ring on the her finger, the bride puts the groom's ring on his finger and the groom suddenly turns blue and can't breathe. So groom, best man, ushers and photographer pile into a car to a fire station, where the groom's ring was sawn off his finger. As one of the guests later remarked, "at least he married her before he left her at the altar."

arcy_gw only 50% of the weddings that I officiate have a rehearsal the day before. We also don't follow the "typical" processional, it is whatever the couple desires. I have plenty of brides who walk down the aisle alone, and who also don't wear the veil covering their face. My peer group and I do a lot of specialized, customized, themed weddings. You are both "Harry Potter" fans? I have a ceremony just for you! :-)

Back when I was in my early twenties, a friend of mine planned her elaborate, special January wedding down to the smallest detail, as she wanted everything to be perfect. The night before the wedding it had snowed and sleeted. This was Michigan, so a pretty typical thing in January. As she exited the limo at the church that next morning, she slipped on the icy walk and fell injuring her leg badly. All the guests in the church already were asked to stay and be patient as an ambulance whisked her to the hospital where we both worked to be checked out. An hour or so later the bride-to-be was delivered back to the church by the same ambulance. She was pushed down the aisle in a wheelchair by her dad, her leg straight out in front of her and immobilized in a long, temporary half cast and on strong pain meds. The "happy" couple was quickly married and the bride was shuttled back to the hospital in her waiting carriage/ambulance where she spent the next weeks in traction for a fractured femur. They did eventually go on their long planned honeymoon to Disney World, months late.

LynnNM

Back when I was in my early twenties, a friend of mine planned her elaborate, special January wedding down to the smallest detail, as she wanted everything to be perfect. The night before the wedding it had snowed and sleeted. This was Michigan, so a pretty typical thing in January. As she exited the limo at the church that next morning, she slipped on the icy walk and fell injuring her leg badly.

*******

She sounds like one tough cookie. I like her determination.

Just this weekend, my nephew got married. What a fiasco! 3:30 pm wedding at a church the couple had never attended. They don't go to church.

1st, it is at a church with lots of steps in/out. Must have been picked for the setting. Elderly relatives could hardly get in. Ushers sat around and didn't "ush". We seated ourselves-had no idea where anyone was supposed to sit. The ushers were tipsy because they had been riding around in the party bus for three hours before the wedding.

Grandparents of the groom had to sit back in the crowd while the Grandma of the bride had a freaking shrine dedicated to her late husband next to her in the front row (complete with portrait, flowers and urn). Mother of the bride wore a black dress that looked like Morticia Addams. Plunging back showed off her tattoos well (dragons and demons). Remember, this was a church wedding.

Bridesmaids walk up to prerecorded music - that abruptly started and stopped - no fade/in out. They were wearing Realtree Camo dresses with rhinestone bling on them. Weird. One couple skipped up the aisle.

Bride comes in with Mother (Morticia), blubbering away. Spent at least three minutes in the front of the church fawning over each other before mom let go of her.

Normal ceremony until the minister suddenly said let's bow our heads for a reflective wedding prayer -- we did, but after a few minutes...we looked up and see the groom is gone! He had to go out an barf up last night's party. He wanders back in and the minister is trying to wrap it up quick.

When the ceremony is over, the bride and groom walk out and the "ushers" have to be told by the minister that the people need to be escorted out. When we get out of the sanctuary and down two flights of steps, there is the bride, alone in the receiving line -- everyone else in the wedding party had bailed. Hubby was retching in the waiting room, and the rest of the family was out in the street arguing with the cops that had taken out all the booze from the wedding limo (limo driver reported there were underage drinkers in there before the wedding and had barfed everywhere.) F-bombs flying everywhere!

Wow. Then we were supposed to go to the wedding dance which was being held at a bowling alley "banquet room". Open bar, no food. Cake to be served at 6:30. I passed on that drunk fest.

My husband turned to me and said, "So much for the wedding. If it were us, there'd be a funeral in 3 days - mine!" Hope this marriage makes it...but they had already been living together 5 years and had a kid. So why then the sham church wedding?

Wow, guess I need to go to more weddings. I've never witnessed anything out of the ordinary at a wedding. These stories are incredible and very entertaining.

loonlakelaborcamp

Just this weekend, my nephew got married. What a fiasco!

*******

Sounds like the "Shameless" episode I just watched! Are they "Gallaghers"?

(just kidding)

"Normal ceremony until the minister suddenly said let's bow our heads for a reflective wedding prayer -- " -- now THAT'S one quick thinking minister!!! Wow, I wish I were that fast on my feet. Ha ha!

My husband and I were both a little green around the gills on our wedding day. Turns out a rehearsal dinner/party with all your favorite out of town guests the night before your wedding might not be the best idea. Especially when you're in your thirties and don't bounce back the way you used to.

You can see the suitcases I packed under my eyes in this photo pretty well! This is well before the evening got underway!

late the night before...not my wisest decision (and not the most embarrassing photo on the internet from that night).

I thought that first photo was from a magazine, the two of you look so pretty and snazzy!

Concealer, concealer, concealer!

Mimi, trust me, the picture was taken after probably two different kinds of concealers and thick layer of foundation and powder. Did I mention the part about not bouncing back very well? :D

Thanks mtn, we got married at the local Maritime museum and I liked our setting very much. I like color and we'd already been living together for a few years and I was little bit older than most first-time Brides so I threw the white dress idea out the window. We got married in the winter so instead of flowers I got feather bouquets and corsages from Etsy, I thought they were pretty cool at the time!

What a lovely setting, Robo. and you were a lovely bride! Love your style!

Wow, Robo, gorgeous! Love b/w

I've witnessed weddings in Provincetown, MA, so I suspect I've got y'all beat on the "odd" weddings thing! ;-)

Robo, when I first saw that pic (and didn't realize it is you), I thought, "That woman looks like a glamorous, old-time movie star."

A few years ago my nephew and
his bride had their wedding on Halloween, and everyone came in costume. The
ceremony was held in a clearing in the woods near the reception hall. The
parents of the bride were dressed as Dracula and a witch, and the groom, who has
a curly head of hair and a big beard, was pretty convincing as the Wolfman, and
the bride wore a traditional white gown with a hooded red cape and came down
the aisle to a recording of the Animals’ “Hey, there Little Red Riding Hood”. She
carried a basket of flowers. The wedding cake was topped with the skeletal couple
from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It was actually a lot of fun, and
certainly the most different wedding I ever went to.

I was invited to the wedding of friend's sister, along with another friend of ours. The bride was a pretty obnoxious, spoiled brat but we were very good friends with her brother and kind of felt sorry for her because she didn't really have any friends and wanted the biggest wedding she could have.

The ceremony itself was fine but when we got to the reception, the MOB set my friend and me to work bartending. We were horribly embarassed (and had no idea how to bartend) but we muddled through it. What made it even more embarassing was when the MOB insisted on paying us at the end of the night. I have no idea where she got the idea that we were there to tend bar but suspect the bride had something to do with it.

As an example of how the bride's brain worked (or not) we visited her home a while later. I was helping her with something in the kitchen and noticed a bunch of tiny labels sticking off of a windowsill. When I asked her what they were doing there, she said that her parents had given her some Waterford glassware they had gotten on a trip to Ireland. When she served guests she wanted everyone to know they were Waterford so she would leave the labels on the glasses, then take them off before washing them and then put them back on.

Pugga...the labels...crazy stupid. So sad that someone is that insecure.

Just beautiful Robo!

There was the time we arrived at the reception (a fancy affair with place cards prettily arranged in trays of hydrangeas) to find MOG busily changing all the seating assignments while we guests waited...

I play in a string quartet and certainly witnessed many odd wedding happenings! One that really was shocking was when I walked in before wedding, went into the back before setting up and saw the most beautifully dressed bride (from the back) down the hall. The dress was huge, all lace and had a gorgeous, gorgeous long, long veil to top if off. (I had been booked without meeting any of the wedding party.) As I got close, the bride turned to face me and Oh, My Stars! The face that accompanied the elaborate outfit was at least 65 years old!! Unless you could have seen it, you may not be able to picture the shock of it! I can't even describe the shock! The groom was of equal age and had had his divorce finalized the day before the wedding! (The caterer told me this.) His children lined up at his side of the ceremony and glared daggers at the bride's party during the whole ceremony. Another time, I left my violin at home, called my husband, he couldn't find the church, etc. I had loaded stands, music, purse, stand lights, soft drinks and simply forgot to put the instrument in the car. Many, many crazy things happen at weddings.