As I posted in this thread, we started off our wedding day by picking up the cake, and finding out that it had been iced wrong (there was a huge yellow umbrella on our blue and white cake). Rather than losing it (which I was darned close to doing), we talked calmly with the bakery ladies, and they gave us the cake for free after they re-frosted it properly, and the rest of our day was almost perfect.
So, all you former brides and grooms, what went wrong on your wedding day? (Future brides and grooms, take note - there is always something. Prepare for every contingency, then just sit back and enjoy the ride!)
It poured. Not just a little rain, mind you–it poured. As a result, it was quite cold in the reception hall. But frankly, I didn’t care. Didn’t mind the rain one bit, except it kept quite a few people from attending, apparently.
Originally, we were going to have a 4pm wedding. Then the wedding coordinator called us in a panic, months after we’d reserved everything–somehow, the church had double booked. “This has never happened before!” Yeah, yeah. The other bride was being a bridezilla about things, unwilling to move the date/time/etc., but we just didn’t care. We wanted to get married is all…so we moved it to 11am. It was easier than trying to find another place and such at a last minute.
Yes, there is always something. I didn’t panic, and was too friggin’ ecstatic to be marrying my best friend to care all that much. I told all the uh-oh-is-bride-upset-about-this-or-that people that “As long as DeathLlama and I get married, this will be the happiest day of my life so far. No rain or scheduling snafu will change that.” And it didn’t.
The Rolls Royce my wife (to be) and her father rode to the Church in broke down on the highway. Fortunately, the photographer was behind them, and gave them a lift in his Saturn.
We drank all the wedding champaign the night before the wedding.
I was fine, just lying in bed waiting to die, then my future MIL showed up and started cleaning.
Turned me into a nervous wreck.
We had a cake problem too - instead of being chocolate it was that dry white crap that most wedding cakes seem to be made of. Nothing to be done about it, though, because we didn’t find out until it was cut. Oh well. At least it was pretty, if not tasty!
The funny thing that went wrong was with the organist. See, my church had a fantastic organist, but then just about the time we started making plans, he announced he was leaving. The minister told me he’d get me the name of the new person they’d be hiring ASAP. It never occurred to me to try and ask anyone else to play instead, because the new person would at least be qualified, right?
Wrong!
I called the guy and asked for several pieces to be played whilst people were arriving, plus our choices for the processional and recessional. He didn’t know how to play any of the things we asked for, which I thought were fairly standard organ pieces. I finally ended up asking what he could play and made some choices from that.
Except that he couldn’t even play what he told us he could! He was awful - timing was off, wrong notes, you name it. The minister actually called me up a week later and apologized for how bad he was! Apparently he overstated his qualifications on his resume (didn’t anyone ask to hear him play?).
Now, I should have seen it coming - the last time I was in church before we got married was the first time we’d heard him play. And there were a couple wrong notes … but nothing too awful. I just chalked it up to him maybe being nervous, playing in a new place and all. Nope. He just sucked.
And of course you know what everyone remembers about my wedding now!
Well, for starters, it was held at night, on New Year’s Eve - in the middle of a huge ice storm. Attendance wasn’t very high! The minister was late, and I tripped on my train coming down off the alter (yes, we did capture that moment on tape, thank you very much. )
Well besides the fact that I got married let me see.
I worked nights at the time. I came home from work at 7:30, took a shower, got dressed, went to the court house, got married, then went to my first day of classes right afterwards. Got home around 12:30, got a few hours of sleep got up went back to school for a night class then straight to work. I didn’t see my new wife much at all that day, much like the rest of my marriage.
When the ceremony was over and the minister had us turn around and face the guests, he introduced us as Mr. and Mrs. Paperblob Smith*. Smith is my wife’s maiden name. After a couple seconds of shocked silence, someone in the pews shouted out “It’s Jones*!” Everybody, including me and my wife, got a big laugh out of it.
*Names changed in this post to protect the innocent.
Backstory: My sister-in-law was supposed to be one of my bridesmaids, but copped out (claiming long-standing health reasons that weren’t really a big issue) two weeks beforehand. No big deal in terms of the wedding, but we were peeved at her for being inconsiderate. She kept changing her mind about whether her husband’s two kids (from a previous marriage) would be there, and we added them back on at the last minute, apologizing to our caterer profusely.
So the day of the wedding, this sister-in-law showed up after the vows, for an 11:00 wedding - minus her husband and his kids, so we got stuck for those extra meals. Then she and another SIL got in a fight (just yelling) at the reception - at least they’d gone outside to do this.
It was fine anyway - we were so relieved that it was over.
Only one thing really went “wrong”, and it’s so small I didn’t notice it 'till the end of the day: my matron of honor, when she was zipping up my dress, forgot to hook the top. So after a few hours when the dress was slipping slightly off the shoulders (well, it was an off-the-shoulders type of dress, but it started to go just a tad too far south for comfort), I just assumed I must’ve lost a few more pounds since the final alteration. Found out the truth when I changed clothes to go to the hotel. Oh well.
Seemed like everything went wrong the day before , though. Oh, and the behavior of the younger contingency (teens & 20’s - my husband’s kids, a friend’s daughter, their dates, etc.) at the reception was not exactly, shall we say, respectful (no surprise there).
We had pre-recorded music for our pro- and recessional - “Chapel of Love” and 'When I’m Sixty-Four." The cds had been queued up by the dee-jay/keyboardist. Our good friend played the prelude music on the dee-jay’s keyboard, and then relinquished his seat to the dee-jay. When the dee-jay hit the button to play “Chapel of Love,” nothing came out. He was able to improvise on the keyboard, but afterward blamed our friend for “doing something” to the cd player.
He also played none of the songs I had requested, after I spent hours picking out cds from our collection and labelling them with Post-Its saying things like “good uptempo dance number.” So instead of Sarah McLachlan’s “Sweet Surrender,” I got to hear those old chestnuts, “Celebration” and “I’m Your Boogie Man.” :rolleyes: However he managed to play the music Huz requested, since he recognized more of it.
That said, we did indeed have a wonderful wedding. It had been incredibly stressful, as my maid-of-honor’s mother had died halfway across the country the week before. But she made it, and when I walked into the restaurant, and our friend was there playing the prelude (which was selections from I Do! I Do!, the show we were working on when we met), and everything had been set up just as I’d envisioned it, I just nearly burst into tears I was so relieved.
So the music being “wrong” was really the very least of it. Everyone had a great time, we had our friends and family around us, and I married someone wonderful. ::sighs nostalgically::
The wife of one of my groomsmen locked my car keys in the trunk of my car while they were decorating it.
The car had a dead battery when we went to leave that night.
And…
The cake people brought someone else’s cake. Not just icing or flavor but an entirely different cake. The worst part? I didn’t even know until the next day when Mrs. Gaffer told me. Apparently I wasn’t paying very close attention when we were picking them out :).
After months and months of planning The Perfect Wedding, the fateful day arrived. Friends and family gathered together to see the (now Ex) and I take our vows.
I had shopped around for the Perfect Wedding Gown and all the accessories for three months. Including The Perfect Shoes that went with The Perfect Wedding Gown.
I was a wee bit preggers at the time, and in all the excitement of last minute preparations for The Wedding; I was called out by my Matron of Honor at the last minute (C’mon! everyone’s waiting!). I forgot to put on my Perfect Shoes. I totally spaced the shoes.
Not halfway through the nupitials, my Matron of Honor whispered to me “You’re getting married barefoot and pregnant!”
We had a hard time keeping a straight face on after that remark. A good time was had by all.
The worst that happened at my wedding was that I dropped the ring under the chuppah. I guess I’m lucky.
I know of one couple where the groom actually got some glass in his foot (from when the groom breaks the glass at a Jewish ceremony). He couldn’t dance that night and spent the wedding night with his new bride in the ER.
Minor detail: it rained. No biggie, just would have prefered a nice day, but what do you want in late October?
Slightly bigger, much more embarassing, detail: I forgot our rings. Left them at home in a drawer, where they’d be safe. About 20 minutes before the ceremony, my Best Man says, smiling, “So, you got the rings? Ha ha!” And I pull a “Home Alone” -hands-to-the-face “AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHHH”. We borrowed my brother’s and sister’s-in-law rings. My father said “I asked if you had everything!”. Yeah, I forgot, ya see. I didn’t know I didn’t remember becasue I forgot.
Of course, doesn’t make any difference as they’re just ceremonial, but they weren’t blessed, which my mother-in-law was horrified to learn. Like I said, no biggie.
