Weddings are beautiful. Right?
Reddit user, u/lolf-ckno, wanted to know who tried to upstage the bride and groom when they asked:
Those who have been to a ruined wedding, what happened?
You would think there wouldn't be as many grievous injuries at weddings as detailed in the stories below. However, turns out you can get hurt anywhere, celebrations of love.
A Tumble To Remember
"I'm a wedding photographer.
I was at one really fancy one a couple of years ago, typical outdoor deal at a swanky location in the middle of nowhere.
The place was really nice, had a large concrete stairway flanked by water fountains that led down to the altar area, so the bride could be seen by all like she was ascending from heaven.
The ceremony begins and the bridal party come down and take their places. Then the bride appears with her father. She takes 3 or 4 steps down the concrete steps and her shoe twists on her, she tumbled down a good 12 feet or more and busted out the majority of her front teeth in the fall. So much blood all over her.
With the place being so isolated, it took a good 40 minutes for ambulance to arrive and she was in intense pain. Ultimately she was ok and I got an email from them weeks later with the reschedule date. This time there was no stairs anywhere in sight."
Good Lord...
"This was one I worked at. After the ceremony, right at the start of the reception - photographer was taking 'jumping' photos of the bride and bridesmaids, so they were all jumping in the air while wearing heels. Bride landed and dislocated her knee, then passed out and kept going in and out of consciousness. We called an ambulance who turned up and fixed her knee etc, but she wanted to continue with the wedding. She then had the first course of the meal and threw up down her dress, and had to sit with her mum in another room while everyone else danced etc. Felt so bad for her as she spent the rest of the evening crying."
Never Trust The Swan
"A friend of my girlfriend was getting married. The wedding was quite normal: they got married in the local church and then there was the party in a nice restaurant. The photographer asked the bride and her bridesmaids (my girlfriend was one of them) to go outside for some photos. Some minutes later one of the bridesmaids come back asking for help: there were some swans that attacked the photographer and the majority of the people around him were not doing anything much more than laughing at this guy who was running around and screaming."
You plan, you plot, you arrange for everything to go according to a set script of directions, yet you can never predict the chaotic nature of the world.
Putting It To Good Use
"We attended a wedding for family member who didn't have a lot of money. It was hosted at an inexpensive venue but was nice. My heart broke when only a third of the people invited showed up. You could see the hurt in the couples face. They came up to our table and said do you have any friends in (city, we lived an hour away)? They had all this food for 100 people but only 30 guests. They were willing to have complete strangers come down just so their money and food wouldnt go to waste.
We hadnt handed over our card with cash inside yet so my husband hit the ATM and added another $100."
We're All Waiting On You
"The brides father was 45 min late to walk his daughter down the aisle.
While we were waiting the air conditioning broke in the venue. It was over 100degrees outside and humid AF. The place was overcrowded. You could barely move without bumping into someone else and in the heat that was extra miserable.
I guess the air conditioning problem had also affected the refrigeration or something because most of the food was spoiled. The only food on the buffet was salad, spaghetti and rolls. Not enough to feed even half the guests.
Most people left after the first dance. Two of the brides aunts fainted.
The bride and the wedding planner were crying."
Best Excuses For Late Assignments That Were Actually True | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
WE'RE ALL SPEAKING QUIETLY
"Not ruined, but marred .. my ex-wife's grandmother was in her 90s, in a wheelchair. While we're up at the alter, she won't shut up about the flowers and they might need water. She's not talking quietly to her neighbor, she's yelling in her old lady voice. She didn't have dementia, she was very with it ... she had no volume control or what she was doing was inappropriate. She thought the flowers need water. THEY LOOK TERRIBLE!! She yelled. One of the cousins, without saying anything, got up and started to just wheel her out. WHERE ARE WE GOING?!?!?? She yelled. We all got chuckle at grandma and went on with the ceremony."
Death, like marriage, are intrinsic facets of life.
You never want them to intersect but sometimes they do.
Double And Triple Check With The Venue
"A co-worker was at one of best friends wedding - there were very specific rules about the food - no nuts. There were a couple people there, including the maid-of-honor who were severely allergic. The venue served something that had nuts, maid-of-honor went anaphylactic. Epipen was not effective, and she died on the way to the hospital. Needless to say, there are lawsuits abound."
Really Consider Choosing A Better Spot To Take Photos
"The wedding was at a state park that's famous for its giant gorge/waterfall. I don't know whose idea this was, but someone suggested a photo overlooking this gorge and everybody was game. The wedding party went around a stone security barrier and the maid of honor literally fell off the cliff to her death. It was like 500+ feet."
Go Hug Someone You Love, If You Can
"I was studying photography and used to act as an assistant to a well known wedding photographer. Went to a couple's wedding. He shot digital and I shot black and white film. Spent all day with the couple from 9am through till 2am the next morning when we left. I could see how genuinely in love they were. It was only a day but I got to know them quite well and really liked them both.
The next morning, I get a call from the photographer and his voice was shaky. He explained that the groom had been murdered that night after the reception party. Three guys had broken into their bungalow to steal wedding gifts. The groom got out of bed to stop them and they executed him in front of the bride. I was in shock for about two weeks. This story was in South Africa if that helps explain how or why this happened. The next weekend, the photographer and I went to the bride's house to present her with the photos. We'd worked together to get the job massively accelerated so she had the photos of her husband. We did it at our own expense and didn't charge her a penny for the day or all the prints and album. Sort of the least we could do. Because my photos didn't matter as much, I'd been able to simply capture those natural moments between them, rather than staged wedding photos. So they had the normal album pics but also about 150 snaps of just them being a couple. She was in tears from the moment we arrived till we left a few hours later.
She was a shadow of the women I'd met only a week earlier. That sh-t still haunts me."
Go into your wedding day expecting things to go wrong. That's the only way you'll be able to make it out with your sanity in tact. You can't control everything. You never know which uncle is going to show up a little more drunk than they should be.
And that's okay.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.