I went, against my better judgment, to a wedding of a guy I’d been friends with in junior high school, who got married to someone who sorta-stalked me in high school & college.
She was on wedding #3… I think; including #1 to a guy she’d met on a BBS chat in college, flew down to Texas next week sight unseen, moved into his trailer and got married, and then couldn’t figure out why her marriage to the manic-depressive acrophobic misanthrope who spent all his time online didn’t work out. And #2 ended up leaving her with his infant son, but no support.
He on the other hand, had denied fathering a daughter for almost a decade of court fights, and when finally forced to provide support, sued for custody. Oddly, the court thought his rampant alcoholism made that a bad idea, so he quit his job to work at Panera since he’d owe less child support.
So there were abundant reasons I had cut these people out of my life for years and years… but my mom was friends-of-friends with both families, and several of my friends were still kinda-sorta friends with either one of them. So I agreed to attend the reception, with friends, just to see the two families (who were mostly wonderful people, bewildered by the chaos-spawn they’d produced).
We lasted about fifteen minutes. Bride was ignoring both new husband and her poor kid to go around bragging about the house new FiL was buying them. (new FiL was, by the way, dying of cancer and had hoped chaos-spawn was finally on the mend.) Groom was drinking beer after beer, mocking his fat ugly bride, and looked about 8-months pregnant due to the acites from apparent liver failure. I said “hi” to everyone, then bailed.
The marriage didn’t even last the few months that FiL survived. FiL did manage to die before the divorce was finalized – in which bride got sole claim to the new house, leaving groom basically homeless.
My friends and I still shudder at mention of that fiasco. My mom - who didn’t see the trainwreck - thinks it couldn’t have been that bad, and doesn’t understand why I don’t talk to either of them.