People Are Sharing The Wildest Things They've Ever Witnessed At Weddings, And Runaway Brides Are Somehow On The Tame End

I'm not sure what it is about weddings, but they seem to bring out the worst in people. I mean, throwing a big party with not one but two inevitably raucous families, at which you're expected to make one of the biggest decisions of your life in front of a huge crowd of people you haven't seen since childhood — what could possibly go wrong?!

Ahem, a whole lot. Over on Quora, a user asked for people's wildest wedding experiences, and boy, did they deliver. Here are some of the most unbelievable:

Additional submissions from this thread and this thread.

1."In the 1970s, there were no MP3 players. If you wanted music at your wedding reception, you hired a band. Like the one I played guitar in. At one such wedding, the bride and groom were doing the first dance. Very romantic. Until the father of the bride walked over and confronted the groom about something (never did find out what it was). At that point, the groom and the bride's father began duking it out on the dance floor. Both were a little intoxicated, so they weren't doing each other much damage, but that just meant the fight had no reason to end. And then it got really bad. You know how the usher sometimes asks the wedding attendees, 'Bride's side or groom's?' Well, most of the wedding guests proceeded to jump to their feet, rush the dance floor, and square off against somebody from the "other side."

2."My dad's brother got married when my siblings and I were about 7, 12, 13, and 14. My uncle was convinced that my siblings and I were going to be horribly behaved at the service and at the reception. We were separated from everyone out of fear of what we might say or do. My uncle's brand new wife had an uncle. This uncle took great advantage of the open bar. This particular uncle was not only loud and unruly; he chose to urinate in the hotel's fancy water fountain and then puke on OUR table. So much for knowing who was well-mannered and who wasn't."

—Lisa D.

3."I was the wedding planner. The couple had pulled as many family and friends to cover tasks as they could (against my advisement), and then when those fell through, they expected me to handle it. But what took the cake was that the mother of the bride went ballistic on me. I had discounted my services just so they could have help, yet this woman accused me of being in on a scheme with this caterer I'd never worked with before to rip them off and make some extra money. I had already told them I would be speaking with the caterer as that was not right… but she went off and tried to attack me. She chased me around, threatening to rip the bun off my head and calling me names. I should have called the authorities and pressed charges, but I was concerned for the bride whom I adored."

4."When I was 15, our cleaner invited our whole family to her wedding and reception. Being 15, I didn't really want to go, but my mum said we wouldn’t have to stay long and we would just go to the reception, dance a bit, and come home. When we got there, we saw the bride and groom dancing, but hardly anyone else in the room. My mum checked the time, thinking we were early or late, but it turned out no one had turned up! There were my parents, my two brothers, and me, and then no more than seven other people in this huge, heavily decorated room with a large buffet that would have fed around 100 people. We felt bad for the bride and groom, so we tried to make up for the lack of people by dancing and eating a lot, but they were acting as if it was totally normal. They seemed to be having a really good time."

"After a while, a couple of people left, and the five of us in my family made up half of the guests! I felt very awkward, and instead of staying an hour or two, we had to stay the whole night, all the while pretending we were having a great time. We found out later why no one had shown — it turns out that the bride and groom had been married before. In fact, they'd been married and divorced 9 times! The reception we went to was their tenth wedding… which explains why none of their family and friends wanted to waste any more time on them. A match made in heaven! I wonder if they are still married or how many more weddings they’ve racked up now…"

—Theodora V.

5."I went to one where the Milwaukee Brewers' racing sausages showed up and danced with everyone. I was 7 months pregnant, dancing with the bratwurst."

6."I videotaped a lot of weddings in my last years in college. A few have stuck out over that time span. One wild one was at a reception inside a church hall in summer. The AC had broken down, and it was hot. The bride and groom had left to change into their casual clothes to drive to their honeymoon destination. Some of the wedding party (groomsmen mostly) decided to strip off their wedding attire and dance atop the tables clad in just their boxers or underwear."

—Michael F.

7."Unfortunately, my wildest wedding experience involved the death of the groom's father. He was happily dancing to a peppy Motown oldie with the bride and her matron of honor (ME) when he collapsed! We all thought he was joking until his skin changed color. The bride began CPR, and an ambulance arrived quickly, but it was too late. His wife was screaming hysterically and fainted as they took him away. Many guests were crying, and there was complete chaos for the next half hour or so as the reception came to an end. Shockingly, in the confusion, some heartless people stole liquor, food, and gifts."

—Harriet J.

8."Everything went well despite the weather and some minor glitches until the time came for the bride and groom to drive away. They were to drive a hundred miles or so to a port where they were to board a cruise ship for the honeymoon. I was the mother of the groom. I went up to the car to give him some money that had come in as a late wedding gift — and went ballistic. Someone had filled the dashboard of the car with shaving foam. It covered the instrument panel and the air conditioners. I knew that the foam made him cough. Later, he was diagnosed with asthma and hospitalized for a week after an asthma attack, but at this time, he hadn't yet been diagnosed. Soaping the outside of a car is one thing — one just drives it to a car wash, and all is well. Tying pots and pans to a car or even old shoes — one can easily remove them. It is very difficult to get shaving foam off the dashboard of a car."

9."An old high school buddy invited me to his wedding when we were having beers one day during one of my visits back to the old hometown. I was the only one of my high school friends to go off to the 'big city.' In the run-up to the wedding, a mutual buddy filled me in on the particulars: time, venue, and so on. When the day came, my girlfriend and I arrived at the venue and headed in. The catering staff looked quizzically at us, and we said, 'W and J's wedding…?' A chef gestured to the open French doors. We walked through and found ourselves between the priest and the couple, a singer to one side serenading the couple and, of course, in front of everyone. A wave of titters and gasps flowed through the crowd. We ducked down and scurried into the nearest seats we could see — in the second row. We later found out that those were left empty for a pair of dead relatives."

"After the ceremony, many people came and chatted with us — old friends, their friends who thought it was funny/rude, and the best man, who awkwardly let us know that the groom — my 'buddy' was furious."

—Jeremy S.

10."I was invited to my husband's cousin's wedding. In a meeting the night before the event, I (and other cousins) were given our 'assignments.' We were to be servers at the reception. Yes, you read that correctly, SERVERS. I was tasked with bringing drinks, offering refills, and other miscellaneous chores. And trust me, some of those guests were demanding and rude. And for our trouble, we got to eat in the hall kitchen. I was told later that it was supposed to be an honor to do this. Please, don't honor me again! Needless to say, I was hesitant to attend other weddings on his side of the family."

11."Over a decade ago, my husband and I were invited to a wedding by friends we'd been close to in college but had been on opposite coasts for the past few years. The invitation was only for the reception. No big deal, we thought; some people like intimate ceremonies. The bride also connected us to a couple of mutual friends in the same situation and suggested we all meet for dinner before the reception. At the dinner, however, we learned from our friends that there were actually THREE tiers to the wedding invitations. The ceremony was in an outdoor park. A larger group was invited to the second stage, a barbecue dinner at the same park. We arrived at the reception roughly on time, which was in a giant one-room hall with long tables and benches and maybe 20 other people. We only knew the couple we carpooled with — everyone else was equally confused, distant relatives..."

"...About 20-30 minutes after the reception was supposed to begin, the rather inebriated wedding party (14 attendants on each side, it turned out!) and maybe another 100 guests began to arrive. The barbecue had 'gone longer' than expected. The party was hurriedly bringing in kegs and partial cases of soda leftover from the barbecue. As they began distributing large bottles of wine onto the tables, I asked if there was any water or anything without caffeine (I was 10 weeks pregnant). Nope — I apparently missed the 'couple of Sprites' that had made it over, and the rest was Coke and Diet Coke. Everything was consumed at the barbecue. So I asked if there was a water fountain in the hall — nope. OK… so were there more cups? Nope — they had passed out the leftover cups from the barbecue with the wine bottles."

"Long story short, after my rinsed-out Coke can (after my husband finished it) went missing, I was off to drink water out of the bathroom sink in my cupped hands. For food, there were strawberries and chocolate truffles, but they were also gone rather quickly. I did make quite a dent in the strawberries, though. There were toasts from people who had not given toasts at either of the previous two events. We noticed that the other Tier Three guests began to leave even before the bride and groom did their first dance. The night continued with more drinking and partying, including a giant group circle swaying to "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses, complete with air guitar solos in the middle. I felt like such an afterthought and wondered why we'd even come."

—Anonymous

12."The bride did not show up. The guests were at the church, along with the bride's and groom's families. The bridesmaids were missing, but the groom and the groomsmen were waiting. We all waited. For an hour and a half. Finally, the maid of honor showed up and announced that the bride had decided she was not getting married. It seems that she used the airplane tickets for the honeymoon to elope with someone else. We all left the church somewhat rattled and felt very bad for the groom. However, that was only the bride's first wedding. Almost 40 years later, she is on to husband #6. I did not attend any of the other (elaborate) weddings."

—Sharon B.

13."I was supposed to be a bridesmaid at this particular wedding but got kicked off the bridal party because I couldn't buy the particular shoes that the bride requested the bridesmaids wear. I couldn't get these shoes because, due to a birth defect, I cannot wear heels higher than 2 inches (even then, it's painful). She knew I couldn't wear high shoes before she even met her now husband. When the wedding day came around, it was fine at first, but things started going downhill at the reception. The bride put me at the worst table in the room, and I was sitting next to an ex-boyfriend who I'd had a nasty breakup with. The bride *forgot* that I didn't eat meat, so I couldn't eat the first two courses. During the bride's speech she made comments about how she was glad that all her *true* friends were able to be bridesmaids. Later on, I heard her make nasty references to me, using the word 'cripple' instead of my name."

14."As a wedding coordinator, I had a very drunk groomsman hold a broken champagne glass to my throat because I cut him off (stopped his alcohol supply). It went a bit wild from there. There were fights, someone landed on the dessert buffet, and cream and custard were everywhere. One of the bridesmaids used a butter knife and cut her dress off. There was banshee screaming from the bride. It was the most out-of-control wedding I'd ever witnessed."

—Sara E.

15."My eldest son's wedding was a fiasco from beginning to end! The wedding took place in a bar where my son had played gigs, and it wasn't set up for weddings. The man who was to officiate was drunk, didn't know their names, and had a difficult time climbing up on the stage, nearly falling off! During the ceremony, he turned to my son and said, 'Do you take her as your awfully wedded wife?' The wedding colors were red and black. On the white wedding cake, the red icing ran, making the cake look like it was bleeding. My son's father-in-law had planned the reception to be a concert at the bar. The band was good, but the volume was at ear-damaging levels. All the wedding party drank Jägermeister, got incredibly wasted, and quarreled loudly with each other."

16."Literally the wildest? That would be when a bear ambled into a chapel in Vail where I was attending a wedding. Fortunately, they have rangers to deal with that kind of thing."

—Barbara M.

17."We were invited to the wedding of our friend's daughter. We were only going to the reception as we couldn’t make it to the ceremony due to time and distance. The reception was held on the second floor of a VFW post in July. We got there and sat with about 50 people in a room with a stage and no AC. Nothing happened. After about an hour, we got word that the ceremony was delayed by two hours due to the bride being late. The room was like an oven, and there was no water or snacks. People were drinking from the bathroom tap. When everyone else showed up, the room, which was supposed to hold about a hundred people, now had way more than that. There were not enough chairs or tables, so people were lined up against the walls. Still no food or drink. All of a sudden, there was music, and a liturgical dance group went onstage."

Do you have a wedding experience that was stranger than fiction? Let us know in the comments or by using this anonymous form.