Weddings are just downright stressful events, and usually people recognize this and cut the bride some slack. However, it can be hard to cut the bride slack when they’re taking their demands to the extreme and being downright obnoxious about it.
These 33 AskReddit users know just how terrible a bridezilla can be.
1. Wig out
My friends were getting married, and my girlfriend and I were both in the wedding party. The bride’s mother suggested that my girlfriend get hair extensions to be in the wedding to not “ruin the photos” for her daughter. My girlfriend has very short hair, because she has Grave’s disease. Her hair has become very brittle and started falling out in clumps.
I’m sure it wasn’t intended to be rude, but telling somebody they have to put on a wig because you don’t think they look good enough to be in your daughter’s photos seems pretty terrible to me.
2. Walmart Feast
Got asked to stand up for a wedding during culinary school for a high school friend. She said she didn’t want us to buy presents, but wanted us to help with various wedding things since it was a backyard wedding, like someone help with the flowers, another do favors, table setting, etc. She wanted to know if I could help with dinner. I said sure, and asked her what she wanted help with, figuring it was prep work for someone else to do.
No, she wanted me to handle the whole dinner. As in cooking for 200 people, as a 19 year old having only done a year culinary school. She also wanted me to help pay for the food I’d be making, as their gift. She wanted me to make caesar salad, potatoes au gratin, and roast enough ducks for 200, by myself, and pay for about half of it.
I was learning how to be a pastry chef. I explained and she just stared at me blankly. I told her I could do the cake easily enough, but she insisted she wanted a ‘real’ cake, from a bakery.
I told her there wasn’t any feasible way I could do it, not only because that’s freaking unreasonable, but because I literally wasn’t trained to do it, and I got disinvited from the wedding.
They apparently served bagged salad, boxed potatoes and broasted chicken from walmart.
3. Opt out
It was my wife who was one of the bridesmaids. The couple wanted the entire wedding party to do a group pic in just their lingerie/boxers (except the bride and groom, “of course”) – she noped out of that but apparently the other two girls and the groomsmen went for it – they still did the pic anyhow. Then they wanted the groomsmen and maids to pair up and kiss for a picture – none of them knew each other. Apparently she was the only one who didn’t. Then they basically shamed her for opting out of both of those to the point she was crying and came and found me, so we went home.
4. Go on and dust your shoulders off
The groom asked me to “keep an eye” on his tux for signs of dandruff (he had a bad case of it at the time).
I told him to choose a light-colored tux, but the bride insisted the guys wear black – a color that, of course, showed every particle of dandruff.
So I placed a small brush in my pocket, and every so often would “dust him off” as discreetly as possible throughout the day.
5. Talk about a grudge
My friend decided to get married at a resort in Aspen. We don’t live in Colorado and he wasn’t offering to pay for flight, hotel, tux, etc… for anyone except him and his wife. They were broke 23 year olds just like us. Neither parents had the money either. It was a noon wedding and a 2 hour reception immediately following. That’s it. Everyone fly home. The bride and groom didn’t even stay the night. He got so mad at me when I told him we won’t be able to make it. 5 years later he still doesn’t talk to me.
6. Oh man…
Years ago, I was part of a wedding where the bride was actually fairly reasonable considering:
Her biological father showed up very drunk
The preacher got sick, so a substitute was made at the last minute who didn’t have his stuff together.
There was a storm that knocked out all the power to the church, and it was pouring outside
Her aunt and mother in law were old rivals who fought about some 30 year old thing the entire time
Despite specifying no children, several people brought small kids anyway
Two relatives wore white -with veils- in the audience
The catering company was going to be late due to the storm
Cell reception only worked outside the church in the pouring rain.
But the groom was the one who freaked out. He insisted on a Scottish themed wedding of sorts, but it wasn’t authentic Scottish, more like a fantasy in his head about Braveheart or some such thing. Some of the groomsmen apparently refused to wear “a dress” (tartans) so he threw them out of the wedding only hours before, including his best man. He switched his best man to his soon to be brother-in-law, who had a Mohawk and face piercings and lots of rings on his hands. This 17 yo BIL was pretty stoked but not taking it very seriously, and goofing around with a decorative sword until, inevitably, he accidentally hit the bride in the back of the head. She said she was fine, that she was hit with the flat of the blade.Even without the power, there was enough light from all of the windows in the small stone church so that you could see everything. And what you couldn’t see was decorated by lit candles. But the groom was incredibly surly through the whole process, especially when it was discovered that the rings were still with the groomsmen who had already left after being thrown out. So the 17-year-old brother-in-law with lots of rings loaned two of them to the bride and groom.
When the ceremony was over they ran down the isles to open the door in the pouring rain, only to find out that the limousine was missing. A few days later, we found out that the groomsmen had actually convinced the limo driver to drive them back to the nearby hotel, and due to a miscommunication, the limo driver thought that was all he had to do for that day. Luckily, somebody had a Buick that could fit the bride’s dress. While waiting to have the Buick cleared out, somebody realized that the back of her wedding dress was stained with a hefty amount of blood.
It turned out that being whacked by the sword and actually cut into the back of her scalp, and like most head wounds, even superficial ones bleed extensively.
Shortly after the bride and groom went back to the hotel, she got patched up, and only the back of the dress was ruined. The photos were from the front. They tried to make light of all of the rain, but it was really apparent that the bride was starting to wear down. Their photos looked terrible. The groom was grimacing, the best man was messing around, and the bride looked tired. In addition, all the added stress was making everybody else fight, the children who were not supposed to be there were are all crying and being bad, and there was no food to be had because the catering was still stuck somewhere because of the storm. The hotel that they were at, which was a small and rather quaint small town hotel, comped them all free food, mostly because their power was out in the kitchen and it would’ve gone bad anyway.
That night, the honeymoon night, the bride and groom had such a big fight with one another that the bride actually packed her stuff, and her maid of honor drove her back to her house where she spent the night there. The next morning, she came back and everyone just kind of blamed it on her head wound.
7. Best wedding ever!
One of the best man’s tasks in the wedding preparation was to place an orange card underneath each person’s assigned seat. each one of these cards had a customized “task” for that person to do. for the old folks it was things like “say hello to three people from the other side of the family” or “dance with one of the younger kids for a song”.
For the rest of us though, hilarity.
My father’s card was to always be the last one to stop clapping after a speech. there were about three other cards with the same instructions.
One of the other groomsman’s was to catch the bouquet (he did).
Another favorite was to take a selfie/photobomb on as many other people’s phones/cameras as possible. In almost every picture from that wedding you can see him in the background wearing the stupidest grin on his face.
My brother’s simply read: “CONSTANT VIGILANCE!”
Here are some more:
“Try and high five everyone you meet. when they go in for it, juke them and say “too slow!”. After about an hour, this guy was running away from a group of angry children who eventually held him down, and repeatedly hi-fived his trapped hand.
“Try and steal as much silverware as you can. you must keep it on you.” (It was heavily implied to not actually steal the silverware, just take it off the tables). Eventually the girl who got this one was carrying around a very heavy and noisy handbag.
“Constantly swap sunglasses. You must wear a pair at all times.” I still have someone else’s pair of knock off ray bands. I treasure them dearly.
“When shaking hands, don’t let go.” There were a few of these as well, and when two of these card bearers met, they ended up just holding hands for about an hour.
And that’s all that I can remember off the top of my head!
I will note that some of these only worked because it was a fairly small gathering, about 150 people all told. most of them were close friends or extended family, so we all got on very well.
It was great fun, 11/10 best wedding ever.
8. Oops
Outdoor wedding with no back up plan on the shores of Lake Michigan. Pouring rain and wind but the happy couple requested no umbrellas because they wanted to be able to see the faces in the crowd.
They were able to see the very wet and angry faces of people whose clothes were ruined while the bride and groom stayed dry under the gazebo.
9. Sisters
Bridesmaid to my sister. She demanded that I grow my fringe (bangs) out months before because quote “I don’t want anyone’s hair blowing in the wind, it all has to stay perfectly still”.
Also, I’m quite pale so she insisted I had to wear fake tan. I originally went bought a pale tan color but the morning of the wedding she made me pile it on. It was pretty hot that day so subsequently, it stained my pale pink dress.
Was still an amazing wedding regardless. Also, I like to think that when I get married I have two ridiculous request cards. Two things she has to do and I’ll bring up her wedding if she refuses.
10. Outrageous
I was a bridesmaid and my SO was a groomsman, and we were banned from looking at, speaking to or dancing with each other for fear of ‘out-cuteing’ the happy couple. We’d been together for 5 years at this point.
We didn’t do it, but the request alone was outrageous.
11. Better friends needed
My sister just came home from a weekend trip to Miami that the bride demanded she attend. Why Miami you may ask? To get drunk and spend time in the sun, and party all night? Apparently not. She forced her bridal party to go to Miami (on their own dime) to go to some spa’s, and be in bed by 10.
She also only booked 2 hotel rooms with 1 bed each, for 8 women.
I advised my sister to get some better friends.
12. Actually nice
Throughout the entire wedding, family from the groom and bride (who my significant other and I had never met), kept coming up and telling us we were SO nice and nothing like how the bride had described us. Yes… screw her, screw her very much.
13. 6 years later
In college I was a best man for a wedding where the bride demanded we all wear designer suits. I had to sell a guitar to afford just the rental. I had no money before, and after I had no money and one less guitar.
Then at the reception the groom pulled me aside and told me it was my job as best man to make sure their marriage went well. I was supposed to check in and help them with marriage stuff to make sure they didn’t get divorced.
I looked him in the eye and said I can’t be responsible for your marriage. He didn’t talk to me from that second until just a couple months ago. 6 years after his wedding.
14. Gardener
I was the maid of honor. She demanded I come pull weeds out of her parent’s yard a day or two before the wedding because the reception was at her parent’s house. I had already gone through multiple ridiculous requests the week leading up to the wedding, so this one I put my foot down and said no. Got through the wedding. No longer friends. She did send a gift when I got married. A centerpiece from HER wedding, that I had helped make.
15. $500 pants
500 dollar pants. After I refused the bride freaked because it made the wedding party uneven. Groom bought my pants, I wore them once, they divorced. He seems a lot happier with his new wife.
16. Friend of the Groom’s
I was supposed to be a bridesmaid in a wedding of a male friend. I had tried to befriend the bride because the groom was a childhood friend.
All of the planning leading up to the big day was a total crap show, and she used our wedding chat to constantly discuss all of her problems with the groom (ring was too small, they never talked about finances before getting engaged and now she’s not sure he makes enough, can you get a prenup for children you don’t have yet? Constantly telling us we were bad friends – keep in mind we are all friends with the groom for many years before she was in the picture). I could write a novel about it.
The final straw for me was when she asked me to plan a bachelorette party, but couldn’t tell me anything about what she was interested in doing (clubbing vs spa day vs beach trip etc.) other than “nothing too wild, but definitely cost effective,” and when I presented her with a plan, told me I was a terrible friend and that was the worst bachelorette plan she had ever seen.
I was replaced as a bridesmaid, did not attend the wedding, and do not speak to either of them anymore.
17. To-Do List
My friend was set to get married in November of 2016. He got engaged in October of 2015.
From the time he got engaged until April 2016 he continued to add things on to my to-do list for the wedding. It seemed like once a month he’d say, “By the way, I need you to do this and buy this for the wedding.” My wife was also a bridesmaid. The bride had picked out very expensive outfits for the bridesmaids. $300 dresses, $150 shoes, and $75 costume jewelry. There was also a weekend at the beach planned for the summer and my wife was responsible for the food at the bride’s shower. I still have no idea what they meant by “being in charge of food,” as no matter how much we asked they acted offended. Does that mean provide food? Organize food? What kind of food was expected for the 40 people who were expected to come? No answers were given.
In March 2016 my friend had pneumonia and was hospitalized. In total, he was down with it for about three weeks. During that time the wife and I talked about the wedding and totaled up how much it would cost us. We ended up with a figure of about $1,500 for a wedding an hour away from where we live, which we thought was absurd. The wife and I both worked, but didn’t make enough money to drop that much on someone else’s wedding.
So when my friend healed up, I went by his house and told him the wife was going to drop out as a bridesmaid as the cost had risen too high. We were also upset with how they had been treating us as friends. He was initially surprised, but then we continued talking. The next day, after getting an earful from the fiance I’m sure, he called me and told me I was out as the best man and to never speak to him again.
18. Plan Ahead
The bride bought us all earrings to wear on the day. I was met with a blank look when I told her the holes in my ears were closed over a while ago… so one of the other bridesmaids (who happens to have quite a weak stomach for this kind of thing) and I went into the other room and re-pierced my ears.
19. Blonde Ambition
My best friend asked me to dye my hair from blonde to brown, because her other bridesmaids all had brown hair and she wanted to be the only one with blonde hair. She did pay for me to get it done at a professional salon, so I didn’t mind too much, and her photos did look amazing after. However, I definitely have a few friends who thought I was odd for agreeing to that request.
20. Just a minor detail
My husband & I were just in a wedding where the bridal party was asked to “stay until the end and help clean up.” Now, I’ve stayed late at weddings before and done this. Generally it means help get all the gifts to the car, make sure the centerpieces and decorations get packed up and put away, and check that nobody left anything behind. That’s totally fine, and usually expected of the bridal party. HOWEVER. At the end of the night when the lights came on and mostly everyone left, we noticed that there were plates still left on the tables, glasses half filled with liquid everywhere, all the napkins and stuff still strewn about. Then this lone janitor from the venue comes out and goes “So, who’s cleaning up?” … Apparently in their contract with this modest venue, the bride and groom, (who have by now left the building for their hotel room) agreed to have the entire place cleaned up by the bridal party. Including: loading up all the dirty dishes into dish washing racks, removing all the linens, folding up and storing all the chairs and tables, removing all the trash, and sweeping up the floor. No one knew that “help clean up after the wedding” was to this extent, not even the couple’s parents! Oh, and some of the bridesmaids had left already. So….
21. Unaffordable
It wasn’t one single request but more rather an unreasonable accumulation of requests. That have added up. I am a bridesmaid in a wedding for a friend out who moved to another city 5 hours away, and she and the maid of honour just keep planning event after event that all the bridesmaids are expected to attend. Had to drive in for her wedding dress shopping and bridesmaid dress shopping, they planned a three day long bachelorette party in a third city, she’s having TWO bridal showers, her wedding is at a resort in yet another town where we’ll have to take a three day weekend to get there and there is only one (expensive) hotel option, and of course, I also have to pay for my own dress, shoes, make up, hair, and jewelry that she picked. Oh and the whole bridal party is making her extra DIY style nostalgia presents as well as the regular wedding present I’m expected to bring, so I have to buy craft supplies (which aren’t cheap) and stuff for a fancy scrap book, photo album, letter book, “wedding day emergency kit” and a bunch of other stuff the maid of honour keeps thinking up. All of the things sound normal and reasonable until you start adding up the costs ($2500-$3000).
I had a teeny tiny super considerate wedding when I got married, and to be a bridesmaid in this wedding is literally costing me more than my entire tiny wedding. I do recognize that it’s not an entirely fair comparison when mine was unusually small, but I think spending less than $3000 to be in someone else’s freaking wedding is a fair expectation. I 100% regret accepting being a part of her bridal party and I would never do it again except for my sister. It’s a huge honor to be asked, but I simply can’t afford it.
22. Selfish
My future sister-in-law has made it very clear that she wants her bachelorette party to be a week in California. We live in New Jersey. That means I would have to take a week off from work, my husband would have to take a week off from work to stay with our children, I would have to pay for my airfare and hotel and all the weeks activities, and pay my share for her, since ” everyone knows the bride doesn’t pay for anything on her bachelorette party”. When I said I’d have to see if it’s something that we could make work she basically just said, ” well only the people that really love me will be there, I’m only going to get married once so I have every right to be selfish”.
23. 4 Page Email
My roommate in college was a bridesmaid and nearly quit because of how unreasonable the co-Maids of Honor were. Six months ahead of the wedding they sent a four page email detailing how the bridesmaids were to dress for each event. I’m not talking dress code I mean it was, “For arrival from the airport to the hotel please wear light, pastel colors (remember no white!) and dark jeans with close toed shoes (but no black). We know we’re in Florida but there’s no need to wear flip flops unless we are on the beach. Hair down (no ponytails or braids) but not curled as the bride will have her hair curled.” They went that detailed for every outing from the bridal shower, wedding shower, 4 day bachelorette trip, honeyfund party to the actual wedding. My friend spent nearly $3000 buying all of the outfits for the various parties, not even counting the bridesmaids dresses.
24. Tantrum
My girlfriend was a bridesmaid and the bride wanted one of those pics where the bridesmaids lift their dresses to show their bum and the bride pretends to act all shocked. None of the girls were really down for it including my girlfriend since the dress was really tight and she was wearing a thong. Not to mention, the groomsmen and family members were hanging around. The bride got really upset because she saw the same kind of picture on Pinterest a few days earlier and wanted to replicate it.
She stormed off in the middle of taking pictures and didn’t return for about half an hour delaying the reception and their hungry wedding guests.
25. Arm Day
My best man had to hold / hover a 5″ mini crown 1″ over my head non stop for 40 long minutes of the ceremony, a feature of my brides’s Greek Orthodox church tradition. The maid of honor visibly outperformed him, with half as many right / left arm switches. His shoulders burned for days.
26. Going All the Way
Maid of Honor to my sister’s wedding. She asked me if I could sleep with her husband’s Best Man. In her words, “Jake’s saying he won’t go unless there is a guarantee lay for him. I know you’re single and everything…” I thought it was a joke at first. It wasn’t. I of course said no. Surprise, Jake still showed up as Best Man without the promised booty. And boy was I glad I said no, because this guy was greasy and had an odor like piss.
27. JEEZ
I knew a woman who was a bridesmaid in a relative’s wedding. She was married and had been trying to get pregnant for a while. Finally, her and her hubby got lucky and she conceived.
The bridezilla got furious and kicked her out of the wedding because she would be pregnant in the pictures. 3 months later, sadly, my friend miscarried. The bride called her with a response along the lines of “good, well now you can be back in the wedding.”
Needless to say, she did not even attend it.
28. Free Photos
I’m a photographer and my cousin wanted me to shoot their wedding for free as a gift to them. Wedding was also on the other side of the country, and they wouldn’t be paying for my flight or room. My pricing typically starts at a few grand and goes up. I was still willing to do it until my cousin wanted me to also throw in finished prints, 350 retouched pics…basically about $3k worth of photo work. Suddenly I came down with a case of “something else to do that weekend”, she still doesn’t talk to me, and that’s just fine. She never really talked to me before either, come to think of it.
29. Never again
The bride insisted that all the groomsmen be clean shaven for the wedding. Every single groomsman was a burly, mountain man looking guy who had been rocking a beard for years. We all argued to keep our beards, the groom even argued for us, but she was insistent that the pictures be beard free. We all sucked it up and shaved, and we all look so stupid in those pictures. None of us look anything like what we look like in real life, and a couple of the guys even had beard tan lines on their faces. Never again…
30. That’s just too much
My sister was just required to rent a tux for $194 for her 4 year old son.
31. Snow Day
I was in an outdoor wedding. In Cleveland. In March. It snowed. We spent the morning of the wedding chipping several inches of ice off the space where the ceremony was to take place. The pictures turned out really cool though.
32. WTF??
Apparently they wanted us, and their parents, to watch them consummate the marriage because of an old European tradition.
33. Drunk sounds nice
Oh, my sister… sigh. I asked my bridesmaids to wear any knee length, navy dress, any nude/natural shoes, and hair up in their choice of style (I paid for hair/makeup). Basically, PLEASE buy something inexpensive you’ll wear again. She “couldn’t find anything because I was being ridiculous”, and had my mother hand make her a dress from scratch three days before the wedding.
Two years later, she gets engaged. Asks for my measurements, a photo of my tattoo, and if I have any requests for the dress. I said, I need to be able to wear a bra. If you don’t want to see my tattoo, get a dress that covers it. She orders a dress two sizes too small, backless, deep plunge front… unable to be returned/exchanged. She says, oh, you’ll be able to fit in it by the wedding, right? I lost 15kg to fit in it (back to my high school weight, I was 28) in nine weeks. It made creaking noises as I zipped it. Somehow, it didn’t split straight down the back. Why ask for measurements if you’re going to ignore them?! Oh, and remember my tattoo? It was sprayed with makeup until it looked like a giant bruise. I looked like I’d been abused, and the body paint ruined my husband’s suit. FYI, it’s a tattoo of our mother on her wedding day.
She made me (very pale) get a very dark spray tan (then complained it was still lighter than the other bridesmaids’ tans), dye my hair (it was an auburn, chin length bob – but I had to have a brown up do!). I refused to pay $300 for a full set of hair extensions, so had to wear hair pieces. They looked like dead guinea pigs. I named them Gertrude and Stanley. She still brings up how I ruined her wedding video by almost falling over in the background. We had to wear 6″ stilettos. On sand.
I got so drunk that night.
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