Kate Hackett
You normally hear about brides behaving badly (and grooms!) but sometimes, it’s the goddamn wedding party who acts like complete monsters.
Yes, I am as sick of weddings in this, the year of our lord 2022, as you are. And no, I won’t stop writing about how terribly everyone behaves before, during, and after them. We have 20 truly atrocious stories of bridesmaids and bridal parties acting like complete monsters. Please enjoy.
1. The MLM
“Within a week of introducing herself to the rest of my bridal party, my MOH used their contact info to aggressively try to sell them skincare for her crappy MLM. It was tacky and humiliating.” —Anonymous
2. She flaked
“I was a bridesmaid for my friend, then a few years later when it was my turn to get married, she agreed to be mine. Then, she flaked two weeks before the wedding. Which like, I understand — people have other things in their lives and that’s OK — but it was all done with very little communication or explanation. Things only got more and more distant from there and it got to the point where she never replied to my messages, so I’ve given up trying. I miss my friend, and I have no idea why I was ghosted.” —delorienaz
3. Tried to talk her out of it
“I had a bridesmaid that literally tried to talk me out of proposing to my husband, because her boyfriend thought it was too soon. Our relationship deteriorated when I got engaged and I thought maybe she was just a bit jealous, but she didn’t calm down afterwards. Actually, it got worse. I didn’t even want her as a bridesmaid, but she asked me to be one, so I felt obligated. She proceeded to make me miserable by criticizing everything I was doing. I confronted her about that and she ‘compromised’ by saying she would stop questioning all my decisions in front of others, but would still do it privately. My fiancé and I ended up with a bit of a long engagement and had to cancel because of COVID, but planned to reschedule. My bridesmaid told me that everyone was annoyed that they were in my wedding and didn’t want to be anymore, and also that none of them thought it would actually happen, but that she was standing up for me. As it turns out, no one was saying any of that. She just didn’t want me to be happy, I guess. Luckily, it all came to a head before our actual wedding and she wasn’t in my life anymore by that point, so she’s not in any photos or anything.”— Anonymous
4. Main Character
“My then-sister-in-law — who is a major narcissist — was in my wedding along with my other SIL, who I had selected to be my matron of honor and flew in for the ceremony. Then-SIL totally took over the MOH role unasked, and then stood in front of me in all of our wedding pictures until I put my foot down. She did the same at my daughter’s baptism — stood in the center of the group family photos, blocking me and my Dad. She has massive Main Character Syndrome™️, so I guess she thought these occasions were about her.” —peashootbiscuit
5. Co Maids of Honor
“My fiancé’s best friend started dating this woman about three months before my fiancé and I. She was always complaining about my fiancé showing me affection and that saying he wanted to marry me made her feel bad, because her man never said any of those things to her. So, we toned it down when we were around them. Anyway, her man said that he would propose by the end of 2021. Fast-forward to last summer, my man gave this guy seven months to pop the question and decided that he didn’t care anymore and proposed to me. His BFF insisted that she was my best friend and should be my maid of honor. I reluctantly said yes, because she was constantly trying to spread lies to get us to break up. Then, I started getting sick whenever I would eat at her house. She was poisoning me because she was jealous. When I called her on it, she blocked me. Good riddance. I had co-maids of honor for a reason. I also heard whispers that she planned to take a knife to my dress at the church, all because we got engaged before her.”—Anonymous
6. Missed everything.
“I only had three bridesmaids. One of them decided to get her nails done right before the wedding and completely missed getting ready with us at the hotel, and all of the getting ready photos. Then, my MOH decided that she needed to drop her car off at her house (30 mins away) and Uber back during the reception, even though it was 24 hour parking and she could’ve left it there all night. She missed nearly all of it.” —summerstagg
7. Fitting
“One of my bridesmaids did not try on the dress she’d had tailored before the wedding. It no longer fit and was now two sizes too small. I don’t care what her body looks like or if she gained weight, just get it fixed before the wedding! She then proceeded to scream at my mom and MOH that they were zipping it wrong. Then, the clasp pinged off. She was embarrassed and tried to get everyone to lie about it. We had to roll the back of the dress and tape it to her back, it was awful.” —Anonymous
8. No help
“My MOH did me dirty. I had a pretty long engagement, so I had enough time to take care of the majority of my wedding projects alone. I figured it was my wedding and I didn’t really want to burden anyone else, and if I needed help, it would be something super minimal. Anyway, fast forward to my actual wedding day. It was going fine, things were going as planned and it was a beautiful day. Cut to my MOH speech — at first it seemed like a nice, typical speech about friendship and us as couple.
Then, my MOH started going on about how we’ve had many ups and downs, and sometimes she just wants to *makes a choking gesture* in front of all my guests. I was like, WTF? I didn’t hear the rest of the speech because I was so turned off by it. The icing on the cake was that her then-boyfriend came up to me during the part where the bride dances with the guests and says, ‘I’m so glad this wedding is over, [insert MOH’s name] has been so stressed.’ Mind you I haven’t asked her for much if anything at all, and if she was stressed she had plenty of help considering I had a lot of bridesmaids. I don’t know what she was stressed over, I planned this wedding on my own! Since then I can’t look at her the same way, because I just felt like she held something against me.”—Anonymous
9. Trouble!
“I had a bridesmaid who was trouble from the word ‘go.’ She was nasty to my youngest sister and the shop owner when we were dress shopping. She picked fights with my MOH constantly. And after she completely shit the bed on the decorations for my shower (I’m not being a bridezilla — she literally dropped off scraps of children’s party decor after swearing she had all this over the top decor covered), she refused to show up because of the fight she picked the day before with the MOH’s girlfriend. The icing on the cake though: was pouty my whole wedding day — including in all the photos — after I pulled out all the stops as her MOH a few weeks prior.” —kmms
10. Bar crawl
“I’m not a big partier. For my bachelorette party, my bridesmaids set us up to go to a pub and drink, have appetizers, and do a little bar crawl. Around 11 at night, we were all pretty wasted and I said I would rather just go back to my house and hang out all together. My one bridesmaid — who had come in from out of town — freaked out and started hysterically crying and screaming that she had been looking forward to meeting up with friends she hadn’t seen and I ruined her night. Then, she yelled that she had to put up with it because ‘it was my day.’ Her words, not mine. I was a very laid back bride — I didn’t make them pay for anything. She had also invited her boyfriend to join us immediately after showing up at the pub and I didn’t even care. Later though, I found out that she hadn’t helped pitch in for anything that night from the other bridesmaids. It completely ruined the night and made things so awkward at the wedding the next day. We stopped talking after that and she never apologized.”—hellohellokitty
11. Absolute hell
“For my wedding, I decided to have my best friend, my cousin, and my SIL-to-be in my bridal party. My bestie and SIL made it hell. My very sick now-husband planned and paid for my hen party, and SIL fell out with me because I didn’t thank her specifically on Facebook. A lot more to it, but ultimately that resulted in my husband’s parents not coming to our wedding in support of my sister in law.” —pr433bf96a3
12. Paying for the dress
“When my fiancé proposed, we set money aside for things for the wedding, including the bridesmaids dresses. I asked my SIL if she would want to be a bridesmaid, and she said no. But when my family saw the bridesmaids’s dresses, they were in absolute awe. I admit they were beautiful, but they also cost a lot of money. Later that day, my SIL asked me if the offer to be a bridesmaid was still on the table. I told her of course, but she was going to have to pay for her own dress.
She told me that it was unfair that I paid for the other girl’s dresses but not hers. I told her that the money for the dresses was saved up and buying one more would cut into the expenses for other things. I thought the conversation was done from there, but I got a text from my brother telling me that I am acting like a middle schooler by leaving my SIL out the wedding and that all she is doing is trying to bond with me, but I am not giving her the chance. I explained the situation to my brother and he was aware of everything that happened, yet he kept pushing this false narrative of me trying to exclude her from the wedding.”—u/lizzyM20100303
13. The long text
“I asked my best friend to be my maid of honor and she insisted on throwing us an engagement party even though we didn’t want one. This was my husband’s second marriage and my first, we were both in our early 40’s and didn’t want our family and friends to feel like they had to give us money and gifts. As the wedding got closer, my maid of honor started coming around less and less, always saying that she couldn’t make it to whatever we were doing because she had to work. At least one of those times was definitely a lie, because she posted pictures on social media of her and another friend at the zoo.
My husband and I paid for all the groomsmen’s suits, the bridesmaid dresses, hair, and makeup, because we felt it just wasn’t right to expect everyone to lay out a bunch of money for our day. The maid of honor decided to contact the dress shop a few weeks before the wedding and curse them out because the dresses weren’t in yet.
She left them a bad review and screamed at them on the phone, so the dress shop called me to complain about her. She couldn’t make it to our bachelor/bachelorette night out because of work, but later said she wasn’t invited. She didn’t come to the rehearsal or dinner and said she had to leave the wedding early because she had to work. I asked another friend/bridesmaid to stand next to me at the wedding instead of the original maid of honor and I asked the DJ to just announce people as the wedding party instead of maid of honor and best man to avoid calling out the former maid of honor and risk causing a scene.
She caused a scene anyway and spent most of my wedding sitting at the bar crying her eyes out. She then sent me a breakup text that I received when my plane landed in the Bahamas, as we were starting our honeymoon. This text went on and on about how selfish I am and how my husband is a horrible person and how I hurt her by having our other friend stand next to me, how I’ve used her over the years…blah blah blah. She also blasted me all over social media with all those same lies and then sold everything from the bridesmaid gift bag that I had given out to all the bridesmaids. She even put a stop payment on the check she gave us as a wedding gift. I haven’t spoken to her in four years and I am so happy to not have her ridiculous drama in my life anymore.”—Anonymous
14. Old friends
“Two of my bridesmaids were old friends from childhood that I wasn’t as close to as other members of my bridal party, but who I still wanted to include because they were an important part of my young life. Instead of spending time with me, they spent the entire weekend cliqued up together, not talking to anyone else in the wedding party. For my bachelorette party, we rented a cabin in the mountains. Even though we all left the city at the same time, they arrived two hours late. That wouldn’t have been that big of a deal, but the food for grilling was all in their car. Instead of joining in on the games and hanging out with everyone else, they stayed in the hot tub all night, even when I asked them to join us multiple times. Then the big day came. I had to have a dry wedding because there are multiple recovering addicts in my family. I asked my entire wedding party to please not drink, and they knew why. Still, those two broke off and did shots together alone. We’re not friends anymore.”—kamcalste
15. Should’ve known better
“My cousin/best friend was my maid of honor. I should have known better though, because I moved back to my home town and we had started to grow apart ever since. I wasn’t well off, so whenever I would get a chance to travel with my job, I would make it a priority to see her. She never came my way, and the one time she did she saw me for, like, an hour. She didn’t want to be a part of any planning and she didn’t come to my bachelorette party, which was fine. She was at UBC doing her arts degree and I fully supported her. I knew she was busy and I didn’t mind it as long as she would be there on the wedding day.
She passively said something about her band preforming around the time of my wedding and I got really upset. I decided that if she didn’t want to be an active maid of honor, I would make it my best friend who lived in the same town as me. I still wanted my cousin/best friend to come to the wedding, though. A month before my wedding day, she called to tell me that I made her feel like a shitty friend for not being super involved and that she didn’t want to be my friend anymore. We haven’t spoken since. I’m happily married and my other best friend is still my best friend to this day.”—sarahdanger36
16. Speeches
“I asked my three best friends Anna, Kelly, and Laura to be my bridesmaids two years before the wedding and found them very helpful when planning. For the morning of my wedding, I rented a fancy penthouse apartment for myself and the bridesmaids to get ready. We had champagne and as we were pouring it out, Laura said none for her. Now Laura is the biggest party animal of us all, so naturally we questioned why she wasn’t drinking. Laura then told us she was pregnant. Of course I was happy for her, but obviously the focus was then on Laura and her pregnancy and not us getting ready for my wedding, something I had been planning for two years. Anyway, we all got ready and headed to the venue. The photographer kept us outside the venue for a short while so he could do posed photos with myself and the bridesmaids. Anna, Kelly, and I were holding out bouquets, but Laura placed hers on the floor and was standing with her hands cradling her stomach as if to emphasize her bump (which wasn’t noticeable as she’s barely 12 weeks). The photographer asked her to pick her flowers up so we were uniform. Laura refused and said, ‘Oh, it’s OK, I’d prefer to stand like this,’ and carried on cradling her stomach. So now those photos just look weird.
The rest of the day went smoothly until it came to the speeches. As Laura was my oldest friend, naturally I asked her to speak at the wedding. She stood up and said some nice words, then ended her speech with, ‘And I’m so excited to announce that as the bride’s best friend, I’d like her to be an honorary aunt to my baby who is due summer 2020!’ With her being an old family friend, of course my family was over the moon, and again the attention was on her and her pregnancy and not me and my husband. I felt so upset on my wedding day and haven’t really spoke to Laura much since. She has since sent me a text saying I’m acting like a spoiled brat and the world doesn’t revolve around me.”—u/hipposarelife
17. Didn’t like the dress
“One of my sister’s bridesmaids didn’t like the color and style of the dress. This was back when it was the big thing for all the bridesmaids to look alike. She didn’t have her dress altered to fit her (even though she told my sister that she did) and she didn’t show up to her hair appointment in protest of having to wear the dress. It was a black strapless floor length A-line dress, super plain and not a big deal. She showed up to pictures last minute with wet hair held up by a banana clip, no makeup, and a really ill-fitting dress. She stayed through dinner and then told my sister that she stayed in the wedding just to mess up her pictures on purpose. Then, she left the reception and never talked to my sister again. I have to assume she had some other issues with my sister other than being asked to wear a dress she didn’t like for a day, but who knows. But she’s a genuinely shitty person, so I wasn’t too sad to have her gone from my sister’s life. My sister, though, is still bummed to have her in all her wedding photos.”—capybaravsllamawhowins
18. Jealousy
“My MOH was my best friend from childhood. At the time we were still very close, but I was also very close with another friend who seemed jealous AF that I didn’t choose her for MOH, but as a bridesmaid. She didn’t make a scene though, so I didn’t pay it much attention. I gave myself a year to plan, but evidently I never specifically told them until a week prior to the wedding that rehearsal would be the night before the ceremony. I also had two bridesmen whom were close to myself and my husband, so when it came to the bachelor/ette party, we decided to do a big dinner party with everyone, but then split up for strip clubs. I had invited some of my groomsmen’s girlfriends too, because I considered them friends. My bridesmaid asked to bring her boyfriend, whom I did not like and my husband had never met, so I said no to the bachelor party, but of course he was welcome at the wedding. Her boyfriend didn’t allow her to go to the bachelor party then and when I did get a final time for my rehearsal dinner, she said she had plans and knew how to walk. I was pissed because I’ve spent a year planning this wedding and I felt like she was treating it as if it were just a house party and told her so. She told me I was a terrible friend and she would not be in the wedding. I haven’t spoken to her since.”—Anonymous
19. Who cares, lady
“For me, one of the most exciting parts of my wedding was the bridesmaids and the dresses. I don’t consider myself to be a bridezilla, but on my special day, I wanted everything to be as perfect and coordinated as it could possibly be. So, I decided to invite my bridesmaids over so we could discuss dresses and stuff, as I was paying for all of theirs. Let’s call the bridesmaid I had the issue with ‘Joy.’ Before they came over, I already had a nice dress in mind. The dress was burgundy, form fitting, cut a little above the knees, and had one shoulder strap. I thought it was gorgeous and very feminine for women our age, but Joy and a couple of other girls weren’t exactly comfortable (mostly because it was form fitting), so I let it slide. I really wanted a dress that all of the bridesmaids would love and feel comfortable in, but they had to be the same. So the next dress was still burgundy, but it touched the floor (no slit) and it had spaghetti straps. Everybody loved the dress except for Joy, who claimed that she didn’t want to wear the dress because she’s insecure about her shoulders. Fair enough. At this point I knew that Joy was going to be difficult to work with, but I kept going because, again, I wanted to be accommodating. I think we went through five or six more dresses before the last one. The complaints she had were always something small like, ‘I don’t like how the dress shows the shoes, then my toes would be out’ or ‘my hair isn’t long enough to compliment those sleeves.’ Yes, I’m 100% serious.
The last dress I showed them was a floor length burgundy dress, loose, had beautiful long sleeves. The only thing that was keeping it from not being a burgundy maxi dress with long sleeves was the fact that there was a slit that came up to below the knee. It honestly was one of my least favorite dresses out of the ones I chose, but I wanted to try to be accommodating. Again, everyone seemed to agree with the dress except for Joy, who claimed that the slit was a little too provocative for her taste.
After this, I was a little frustrated, so I just said we’d try looking at dresses again another time. While the girls were leaving, I pulled Joy aside and explained that I didn’t think she’d be a good fit for my bridal party because this aspect of the wedding meant a lot to me and her demands were too ‘nitpicky’ to be a part of the group, but that I still wanted her to be at the wedding. She got upset and said that I was excluding her because of her insecurities. I said that I already tried to accommodate her by showing many different styled dresses, but she didn’t want to hear it, and left.”—u/bridesmaiddressthrow
20. No drinking
“I got engaged to my fiancé in December 2019, around the same time as my BFF Chelsea. We decided that we’d be each other’s MOHs. Chelsea and her ex split up shortly after the engagement because he cheated. Meanwhile, my fiancé and I started planning a laid-back fall wedding. I asked Chelsea if she was still up to being MOH and she excitedly said yes. A few days later, she sent me a list of dates for a wedding shower at the place hers was originally scheduled at. I told her we weren’t planning on a shower because a lot of our friends/family were hit hard by the pandemic. She was upset but let it go. Something similar happened with the dress shopping. She had a list of places ready to go. I told her I wanted my friend (who’s a seamstress) to make the dress. She convinced me to go shopping anyway, then ended up trying a lot of the dresses herself. I was [WARY] when she mentioned a bachelorette party, but she presented plans that seemed perfect: a hike, a nice dinner, then a drive-in movie with my dog. I agreed. She picked me up that Saturday but instead of driving to the park we were supposed to hike in, she took me to a lake house. My heart dropped because I knew she’d planned a house party. Lo and behold, I walked in and my bridesmaids were there, as well as the women who I suspect Chelsea would’ve picked as bridesmaids. There was also a lot of liquor.
I don’t drink. My mother is an alcoholic and I want to avoid the same fate. While I don’t mind being around people who are drinking, it’s uncomfortable and — depending on the situation — triggering. When I walked in, half the people there were already drunk. To make matters worse, Chelsea neglected to tell me until 9 p.m. that she planned to stay the night. My fiancé was out of town and I had no one to watch my dog. Chelsea said, ‘He’ll probably be okay, it’s only one night!’
Long story short, my future BIL came and picked me up and took me home. I didn’t tell Chelsea myself (she was trashed at that point) and asked one of my bridesmaids to. The next day, I woke up with 20+ texts and calls from Chelsea and a few others asking where I was and if I was OK. I texted Chelsea back, who told me she was headed to my place to talk. As soon as she walked through the door, she started berating me, telling me she put so much effort into that party and I was so ungrateful. She told me that she wished I were a ‘normal bride.’ Admittedly, I thought she was coming to apologize, so I lost my shit. I told her I’d been walking on eggshells and compromising so I didn’t hurt her feelings but I wouldn’t anymore, and that she needed to stop living vicariously through me and planning what she’d want for her own wedding. She called me a bitch and a bad friend and left. We haven’t spoken since.”—u/BrilliantDeer259
