"She cried walking down the aisle, not because she was so in love with her groom, but because she wished that the groom and the officiant were switched."

I'm a New York City-based Staff Writer who enjoys covering lifestyle, relationships, and women's content.

"So, I'm no longer invited to the wedding. All my siblings and my mom are. I want to believe it's finances, but I'm worried it's because my partner and I are gay, or maybe because I'm transgender. These aren't new facts about me, and I've always found my cousin incredibly accepting, but her fiancé is very religious. The wedding is in a church. Perhaps she had to take his family's lead on who could and couldn't be there. Long story short, I'm very sad about the whole thing. I feel quite rejected and am wondering if it's about more than just money."

"We had everything set up: tables, chairs, fine china, candelabras, the whole nine yards. The ceremony went off flawlessly. We had the cocktail hour while the wedding party had pictures taken, and we were ready for dinner. As guests started to stroll over to the dinner tent, a massive storm hit — totally unexpected. A large, 100-year-old oak tree fell, injuring six people who slipped while trying to get out of the rain. One tree came down on the dining tent. Luckily, the tent was so strong that it held the tree. 

The fire company had to cut their way into the property to get ambulances in. They condemned the tent because of the tree leaning on it. The storm ended as quickly as it started, and the sky turned blue again. The wounded were taken care of. The bride came up to the catering sales executive and me, and instead of crying and freaking out that her wedding was ruined, she looked at us and said, 'So, how can we salvage this?' We proposed that we still had food in my kitchen tent and could sneak into the main tent, get plates and utensils, and serve a buffet-style dinner at the inn. She agreed that would be the best course of action. She then said, 'Well, at least everyone will remember my wedding.' What a great bride."

"But the real fun happened after the groom and I left. My MOH, who happened to be my brother's wife, got super drunk and picked a fight with my MIL's best friend, also super drunk. The two of them tore into each other before landing in the swimming pool. And needed to be rescued by FIL in his tux and my brother in his only good suit. It turned out to be an omen of things to come; we divorced nine years later. It was very messy."

"Part of me almost feels bad because my fiancé is her only child. I even asked him if he wanted to reconsider inviting his mom to the wedding, but he assured me it would be a better day if she wasn't there. I don't have social media, but my fiancé's cousin told him that his mother has really doubled down on posting MAGA propaganda since then, and my fiancé's dad says his mom stays in bed and cries a lot. I have to admit, I'm so relieved she won't be there at our wedding, and my fiancé seems to feel the same."

"I wanted her to put something personal there. She knew both of us, and she knew how special this day was — especially to me, as this was my second wedding, and she had been there for the disaster my first marriage turned out to be. I had never thought I would ever want to be married again, and yet, I found this wonderful man, and she had seen how wonderful he is as well.

Well, the day of the wedding came, and it all went to hell quickly. I'll spare the full details, but basically, leading up to me walking down the aisle, it was all about her and her life drama. I ended up being incredibly stressed the entire morning trying to manage her feelings when it should have been my day.Now, for the ceremony, she walked down ahead of me. She enters and immediately exclaims, 'Fuck!!' Everyone is shocked. Still, my husband tries to recover and get her set up with a clip microphone for our live stream (we were running everything ourselves with no wedding planner). She didn't want a mic, which, in retrospect, was probably good because at least our live stream viewers couldn't hear what happened next.I walk in with my dad, and we are finally ready to begin the ceremony. She says a few housekeeping things and then turns to us. Here are the highlights of what happened: After saying sweet things about me in her intro, she looks at my husband and says, 'I don't really know you.'She then gestures to us to start our vows. We hadn't done the 'I dos' yet, which was in the script. I had to stop, get a copy of the script out of my own folder, and hand it to her. She stops, reads a little, and then does those.After our vows, she went completely off-script again. She didn't have me repeat after her for the exchange of rings, but then turned to my husband and made him repeat after her. None of which she said was in the script either. After he finished repeating after her, she said, 'GOOD BOY!' and slapped his ass.She didn't say our introduction as husband and wife correctly either. She just made it up and spoke like a ringmaster in a circus.Throughout the ceremony and reception, she kept trying to fluff out the train of my dress when it wasn't necessary at all, even while my husband was reading his vows to me. She got up out of her seat, walked over, and grabbed the train on my dress. Did it twice.This is all recorded, too. Every time I watch it, my blood pressure rises. It was so straightforward, and all she had to do was look down and read. We had gone over the script, so it was not a surprise to her at all.I have since ended my friendship with her. While I don't think it was intentional sabotage, the fact that her nervous reaction made it all a big joke and a spectacle really, really hurt me. She has told everyone that she felt pressured into it when that was not the case at all. I have other friends who happily would have done it, but as I said, I had thought she would have it together for her best friend's wedding."

"My cousin's plus-one tells me she used to do makeup for events (nothing major, but better than nothing). She pulled up to our hotel with her kit and did an amazing job. Literally saved my ass, but I still can't believe how good she was under that kind of pressure. The wedding turned out great, but I don't know what I would've done without her. The artist created a lot of stress for us, which showed how life can throw shit at you when you least expect it."

"From my perspective, that means we are fully funding the remaining costs ourselves, while she recovers more than what she contributed, and still expects repayment on top of that. It does not feel balanced or fair, especially when my side does not even reach 100 guests, and my parents are not contributing financially at all.

I'm from Singapore. Yes, 80k is a lot, but in Singapore, it's mid-range, and 80k is inclusive of everything, like venue, food, decor, tables, my dress and outfit change, etc.At many Asian weddings, guests don't usually give physical gifts like in the US. Instead, they give cash in a red envelope called an angbao (or red packet). The angbao money is a wedding gift, a way to cover the cost of the guests' meals, and a blessing for the couple's future. The amount usually depends on how close the guest is to the couple and how expensive the wedding venue is. For example, if the dinner is costly, the guest may give more to help offset the cost. So instead of buying a toaster or a blender from a registry like Americans often do, the tradition is to put cash inside a red packet and give it to the couple at the wedding.It's practical because it helps the couple pay for the wedding, it avoids unwanted physical gifts, and it symbolizes prosperity and good wishes."

"I should also note that his coworkers threw him a 'baby shower' at his office when I was pregnant, and she got us a gift of like a $20 pack of bibs or something. Of course, I'm grateful for any gift, but I guess he thinks that, since she bought something off our baby registry, he needs to give her a large wedding gift. Either way, it's not like he can take it back, so I hope she enjoys, I guess. And we got no thank-you card. But it's all good, I guess. Are wedding registries normal to send out to people who aren't invited to your wedding?"

"Sara and Lewis have pretty much all their wedding preparations done, or so they did, until Tia immediately jumped headfirst into planning for her wedding (which she doesn't want to happen for about two more years), and then began talking about things like color schemes, venue, what the catering will be, bridesmaids' dresses, etc. Sara has mentioned a few times that she's considering changing certain things, which is always conveniently brought up shortly after Tia has told us something she's thinking of having for her day. I think this has stemmed from Tia almost bragging about going to more expensive venues than Sara and from her parents being more involved in the financial side of things, since they are in a position to do so compared to Sara's. All I can really say is there's a part of me that thinks that they might not be friends for much longer."

Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.