20 Wedding Photographers’ Stories of Recognizing Relationships Bound for Failure

Weddings are typically a celebration of love and happiness, but these weddings didn’t quite meet those expectations.

When cutting the cake, she playfully got some on his face. He proceeded to grab a giant chunk and PUNCH her in the face with it, several times hard. She was digging it out from underneath her eyelids bawling and her Dad needed to be held back. u/Portly_pug

Not a photographer, but at the ceremony, the minister asked the bride’s friends & family to say some affirmation (like “we do” or similar) about how they supported the marriage. Those people said the affirmation and cheered loudly. The minister then asked the groom’s friends & family to do the same thing. Dead silence. The minster, very flustered, said “hey how about I give you folks another chance” and again asked the groom’s friends & family to affirm their support of this marriage. This time – dead silence. Minister continued with the ceremony. Couple lasted maybe a few years. Backstory: many of the groom’s friends & family had *begged* him not to marry this woman, up to and including the day of the wedding. She was that horrible.

in another life, i worked catering shifts. loads of saturday weddings. i’ll never forget the best-man’s toast of the groom. it was a shameless roast. he spoke openly about the groom’s willingness to shag anything when he’s drunk. he then went on and on about the groom’s deadly gambling habit and his short fuse when he doesn’t win. he asked the stone-faced groom “how many thousands of dollars in golf clubs have you destroyed or lost in countless ponds?” nobody was laughing. the bride had tears in her eyes and the groom’s parents sat in stunned silence. u/dys_p0tch

Bride looked visibly miserable the entire ceremony. While photographing the men’s “getting ready” portion, the groom repeatedly kept joking about killing himself. During the toast, the bride ran off to the bathroom for about 30 minutes and came back wiping her tears with her eyes red and puffy. Neither of them had any chemistry at all, it made no sense why they were together to me. That was the last wedding I shot. u/Majestic_Storage_563

Went to a wedding during college to my friends that got married who graduated 2 years prior to me. They had a beautiful wedding on a boat off the Keys and as the best man gave his speech, he was really drunk by this point, just shouted out, “You don’t deserve her, you literally got a blow job from a stripper no make that two strippers at your bachelor party. Peace out.” He dropped the mic and tried to do a dramatic exit but by this point we were all stuck on this boat in the middle of the ocean. It took an hour to get back to port and it was the most awful and awkward hour of our lives for everyone on that boat. u/breakitupkid

Third wedding and the best man, the groom’s brother, starts his speech…. “Well, welcome back everyone. Good to see some new faces and some old ones.” u/TheFlyingScotsman60

Bride was such a monumental bitch her mom gave me a $500 tip for not walking out on the event when she was treating everyone (even her now husband) like a piece of shit employee. She did the whole clicking fingers thing when wanting someone to do something for her, and she berated the dj for grabbing a sandwich when he’d been there for about 8 hours and was told that he should’ve brought his own lunch and she would be taking the cost of the food (like an open buffet style) out of his paycheck. They were divorced within 3 years, but not before having 3 kids that have stupid names. u/EndlessOcean

I think my first clue was when the bride showed up with some bad make-up clearly trying to cover her black eye, while most of the rest of the family seemed far more into the free food and booze than the wedding itself. Oh yeah, never paid me either. Classy people. u/HappyPorridgeBird

When I worked as a wedding planner for a hotel chain, the groom had found out his bride was having an affair with her brothers best mate. The brides mother knew about it, but insisted on the wedding and paid a fortune. The groom wasn’t drinking much and at the speeches, stood up and revealed he knew and said he was getting an annulment. He then took his best man on his honeymoon. The honeymoon the brides parents had paid for. u/SebastianFlytes

Asked the groom in a recorded interview why he asked her to marry him and he said, “The pressure to get married”. They lasted less than 2 months. Hadnt even finished the video and they were over. u/davehorse

When the groom told the bride she couldn’t have cake because she was overweight. Lasted a year. He gained weight. u/MysticalPhotographer

The maid of honor very drunkenly said in her speech for the groom to call her once the marriage was over ( a couple of her friends said that in their speeches actually) and the best man told the bride the groom’s phone lock code in his speech because “she was going to need it”. Those two last maybe a year. The bride ended up moving states for a new job which made sense to me after seeing how shitty her friends and family were during that wedding. u/prospectofwhitby

At the rehearsal dinner, every toast to the bride was some euphemistic variation of “I’m so glad you finally found someone to put up with your bullshit.” They barely made it to the 6 month mark. u/Anonymous_Goat

I’m an artist and I do wedding sketches when I feel like freelancing, so not a photographer, but similar. It was a 250 person wedding in a big ballroom so there’s me and another artist and we’re super busy. These sketches are quick but every couple wants one and there’s a bit of a line/mob around our table of people watching/waiting. Bride and groom are slowly making their way to us when I see groom grab brides hand and shake his head/point to the back of the line/mob. Bride is shaking her head and they’re obviously disagreeing. Now people are starting to look at them and bride is getting louder and louder until I hear her say “Groom, this is MY wedding. I’m not wasting time waiting in a line when this is MY day. If YOU want to wait YOU can wait, but I’m NOT waiting when I’m THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON HERE!” The music had changed to a slower song at that point so everyone heard that and the grooms response of “ITS OUR WEDDING DAY AND I KEEP SAYING THAT. YOU DIDNT EVEN PAY FOR THIS SO IF I SAY WE WAIT, WE WAIT. START ACTING LIKE A GOOD WIFE AND LISTEN TO ME.” He was significantly older than her, he looked as old as her father if not older. They divorced within two years. u/justasianenough

There was a lot more but at the wedding, the groom did cocaine and called bride’s father a cocksucker in front of her friends. They didn’t last a full year. u/LemonTheTurtle

While shooting video, I attached a microphone to the groom for audio and proceeded to prepare for the ceremony. Just as I was about to adjust my audio settings, the groom stepped into another room with a friend. As I put on my headphones, I overheard the groom confiding in his friend, describing the wedding as a “wedding of convenience” and reassuring them not to be concerned about what would happen in their relationship. u/noodlemaps

I think the “worst” moment I witnessed was when a couple clearly didn’t know each other very well. The guy made a comment about not knowing she had OCD during photos and her mom whispered behind me “You have no idea…”. I have no idea if they’re still together. u/PlentyFull22

her 3 kids from a previous marriage (8, 9, and 12) were screaming their asses off and covering themselves in soda and overturning tables while making extremely hostile, profanity laden demands for a driveable hot wheels car, and escalated to just randomly hitting people with baseball bats. whole time mom was going “haha, aren’t they so crazy. oh its ok they just get to express themselves. we unschool,” lasted (afaik) somewhere between four and five months.

Mother of groom, when nut allergic bride asked for a nut free wedding: peanut butter cookies or no check, if accidents happen they happen, just pay attention (I cleared that check and forgot those cookies) u/Pandoras_Fate

Not a photographer but I went to a wedding of an old friend. Her maid of honor went to a grocery store during the “after party” at the couples house. She was busted for shoplifting a pack of smokes I think. Cops show up and arrest her because she’s from out of state and they knew if they ticketed her, they’d never see her again. So bride kinda freaks out at the info, rightfully so, and sets off on a scavenger hunt of which jail did she get sent to. After a few hours and spending some of her wedding gift money, maid of honor is bailed out. They all head back to the house to find that the groom and his buddies took off to go bar hopping. I think they made it 5 years maybe. A lot of that time they were not very happy.

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