The Worst True Stories About Bridezillas And Groomzillas
A wedding is a huge milestone in someone's life, and as you can imagine, sometimes, emotions run high.
Everyone expects the bride or groom to be a little stressed out and maybe even unreasonable during this time. However, some people totally cross the line. When that happens, they get labeled as bridezillas or groomzillas.
Below are true stories from wedding event staff, friends, and families who witnessed this phenomenon firsthand. Some of these stories are almost unbelievable.
She Was Really Set On Blue
Here's one story about a bride who had a very specific vision for her wedding:"She asked 16 girls to be bridesmaids. In the year and a half between the engagement and the wedding, all but six dropped out (three were her sisters). She wanted 16 separate shades of blue and 16 different styles of dresses for each bridesmaid, then threw a fit when the store didn't have that many options."Sixteen shades of blue would be a tall order for any bridal store.
She Was Serious About The Cake Thing
"I worked at a reception venue, and one event really sticks out. Everything went well until the cake. The bride and groom go to feed each other; she does it very nicely, but he smashes it into her face.
Bride screams, starts bawling her eyes out, and runs out of the hall.
Fifteen or so minutes later, the father of the bride comes and asks the DJ for the mic. He proceeds to thank everyone for coming and says that if they would like to take their gifts on the way out, the couple has decided to break up.
I'm sure there were issues leading up to the event, but the bride had told everyone (including the groom) that if he smashed the cake in her face, it was over. She wasn't lying."
Seems Like A Bit Of An Overreaction
"Well, I was helping decorate a wedding, and the bride came in and literally threw a chair through a window because she was upset that there was one extra chair in the back of the room."So she was upset about an extra chair, but not about having broken glass and a gaping hole in the window?
When The Bride Has A Favorite Song
"I was DJing a wedding in a shabby little reception hall out in the middle of the sticks for a redneck bride and groom. The bride was wasted by the time I started playing my set (around 8 pm). She came up to me right away and told me that I need to play the song 'Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy' like every four songs, and I tried to tell her that it was a bad idea, but she insisted, so I agreed. About an hour into the night, I play the song for the 10th time, and people in the crowd start to boo. Please note that every time I played the song, I passed it off onto the Bride by saying something like, 'It's time for a special request from the bride, ' as not to destroy my reputation."
Eventually, people started to leave, and the bride got so angry that she kicked out the rest of the guests."
Imagine ruining your own wedding over one song?
She Must Have A Thing For Penguins
"Tuxedo salesman here. The bride and groom came into the store to get tuxedos. She said, 'I need a penguin suit for my fiancé.' Now I give this too much thought, as that's not a particularly uncommon phrase. But then she pulled out a picture of a penguin, and I had to match that. She made him get a tails jacket and black vest, spent over an hour figuring out what shoes looked like the most like flippers, and then made me special order a shade of orange bow tie that most closely matched the penguin's little scruff thing. The seven shades of orange we had were not acceptable.
She mentioned to me in our conversation that she made her boyfriend make a 300 dollar donation to the local zoo so that he could propose to her in the penguin tank.
The lady was crazy."
These Poor Caterers
"The bride wanted a buffet-style service, and she chose about a dozen different dishes plus sides and two different salads.
She had over 200 people at her wedding, so we cooked up a feast, and it was presented beautifully. The food was great. We tried everything, obviously, before putting it out. Everything went perfectly.
We were a pretty small company, so this was a big deal for us.
Anyways, about an hour into the reception, a few bridesmaids are wasted. The bride and groom are decently drunk, but nowhere near the maids.
One of them loses it and starts puking in the bushes. There are enough people there and enough going on at the time that it didn't cause a scene. No one was really paying attention, and the bridesmaid who puked did it pretty nonchalantly.
The bride flipped out. She automatically assumed it was the food, not the alcohol, that caused her friend to vomit. She stands up and screams, 'Nobody eat the food! You'll get sick!'
I calmly approached the bride (as best as I could) with a coworker and explained that the food was fine and that people would not get sick.
She wasn't having it. She took an empty pitcher that we used to serve water in, dunked it in the swimming pool, and proceeded to drown the food trays with chlorinated water, thus ruining everything. She then made a bigger scene by personally clearing everyone's plate, despite people telling her to sit down and relax."
But... How Would They See?
"[The bride] tried to make me and another bridesmaid walk down her outdoor, uneven, tulle-covered aisle WITHOUT GLASSES. She told us the morning of the event, so we didn't have any time to get contacts or anything.
She threw a near-hysterical fit because she was convinced that we would 'ruin the aesthetic of her wedding.' I told her that she would have a single groomsman walking that aisle if she made me walk without them. She started bawling, but her mom was able to get her calmed down enough for her to agree to let us wear our glasses so we could actually make it down the aisle in one piece."
They Act As If Money Grows On Trees
"My best friend just got kicked out of being a bridesmaid because she couldn't spend the $1500 to go to the bachelorette's party, and all the other costs were killing her. The bride told her to take out a credit card to pay for it."
Let this be a lesson for everyone: do not take financial advice from a bridezilla.
Trying To Get The Venue To Do Renovations
"Before I got into catering, I worked at an art museum, which also hosted a lot of really schmancy weddings. Big, beautiful old building that was very expensive to rent, so it hosted a lot of six-figure weddings, some of which were more tasteful than others.
One of my first brides was a girl who loved the building but HATED the wall color (at the time, the interior was painted a beautiful but very bright color). She was obsessed. For months, she tried to get me to have the walls repainted white.
The day of the wedding rolls around, and in an effort to downplay the wall color, she has made everything black. Tablecloths, chairs, bridesmaid dresses, everything. She also had these purple flashing LED flower vases that were pretty horrible."
When The Bride Forgets Her Own Flowers
"The bride wanted a 5-layer cake. The act of putting one cake on top of another is 60 bucks. Plus decoration fees if you want it to look seamless (ribbon or something). So this cake is going to cost her a lot. Decorative flowers are crazy expensive and not worth it, so we always advise brides to use fake plastic flowers or real ones. This bride wanted real ones. She said they would be at the hall, waiting for us.
We do the cake, just as she wanted, and go to the hall to set up. The wedding planner is there, too. We set up everything and start looking for our flowers. The wedding planner has no clue what we're talking about; she only had enough flowers for the table centerpieces. We start to panic. She wanted flowers and paid our fee for putting flowers on the cake. We start looking everywhere, can't call the wedding party since.. Ya know.. They're busy.
So, we steal a few flowers out of every centerpiece to fill the empty places on the cake. It isn't as full as it should be, but it looked okay.
The next day, she calls, crying her eyes out. We ruined her wedding day, and she wants a full refund. We told her what happened on our end, and she screams at us that we ruined HER day. My boss asks where the flowers are for her cake, and she tells us that she never ordered extra flowers. My boss just laughs and explains to her that we told her she needed to provide the flowers. And it was in the contract she signed with us."
A New Low, Even For A Bridezilla
"I worked as a bridal fitting assistant in a wedding dress shop, and honestly, 99% of the customers we had were absolutely lovely. People were so happy, especially if they'd just got engaged and were looking at dresses for the first time, that we rarely had bridezillas. Probably the worst I ever saw was a woman who claimed her fiancé had died, so she wanted a refund... then she came back in demanding the same dress back because they'd made up. Turns out he wasn't dead after all."
Faking your partner's death to get a refund has to be one of the worst things we've ever heard.
Does Every Bride Cry Over Things No One Can Control?
"Wedding photographer here; I had a bride crying because she thought her sister looked prettier in her wedding photos than she did. I can't even begin to unpick that level of crazy."
We have a sense that there must have been some intense sibling rivalry going on in that house growing up.
Alright, Party's Over
"The bride and groom were carried around above people's heads on chairs for a bit, which was not a standard tradition, but whatever, it looked fun.
They're getting drunker and rowdier, and then finally my shift is coming to a close (we were only booked til one), and I couldn't wait to get out of there. Nope. Bride throws a MASSIVE fit, crying, screaming, this is her special day, and it's not finishing now, dammit. FOB hands us over CASH for the next two hours (not 100% sure how much, but hundreds), and we all get on with things. The party gets rowdier.
Finally, like an hour later, a massive fight breaks out, and everyone leaves anyway, with the bride wailing and being pulled out by her equally drunk new husband. FOB demands a refund, but it was past two by a little bit, and cleanup would take us past three anyway, so he didn't get one. The whole night was a train wreck, but that wailing, drunk bride covered in mascara and tears really took the biscuit."
Everyone Knows Flowers Have Seven Petals, Not Five!
"There was one particular young woman who was very easygoing on the first meeting I had with her. She and her soon-to-be husband met me through a mutual acquaintance, and they seemed like nice people, so I was genuinely happy to be working with this couple at the start.
The most tedious part of making this cake was to hand-pipe the little flowers that would be placed all around the cake. All 250 or so flowers had to be made out of a kind of icing that hardens like mortar after a little while in the open air.
A couple of days before the wedding, I invite the bride and groom over to my place to take a look at what I've made for them. The bride was NOT happy with what she saw. Everything on the cake was beautiful, except the flowers. The flowers I had made only had FIVE petals, and she wanted SEVEN! The cake was absolutely beautiful otherwise, but could not be accepted due to the BLATANT error that I had apparently made in creating her wedding cake. If I were to be paid for my time and energy, I would need to redo the cake."
Needless to say, this baker didn't redo the cake and just piped the new flowers on top.
Just Call Her The Ice Queen
"I'm a violinist who plays in quartets at weddings.
One October, my group was to play at an outdoor wedding. It was 45 degrees Fahrenheit outside. The bride REFUSED to move the ceremony inside (even though there was a very nice facility to do so), even though her guests were freezing. Her poor bridesmaids wore strapless dresses with no shawls or anything to keep them warm! It was awful, and my group actually had to put in our contract that we will not play an outdoor wedding if it is below 55 degrees Fahrenheit, as it can ruin our instruments.
On top of that, the bride never thanked us, and apparently, everyone got so drunk at the reception that the venue kicked everyone out early. This is a venue that probably costs close to $10k to rent out for the day/night.
The bride and groom divorced a year later."
This Bride Had Some Crazy Demands
"Prior to the wedding, she had requested we tear out our landscaping to match her event and replace the carpet because she didn't like the fact that it was deep green."
You just know that in her mind, she thought these were minor fixes that everyone would be on board with, only to find out that venues don't do massive renovations to make one bride happy.
When The Bride Wants A Pinterest Wedding
"My brother's girlfriend works with a well-known local wedding planner and has been working at many weddings with this planner. She finally worked on her own one day with this massive bridezilla (she found out that day).
The couple had hired her a couple of weeks before the wedding, and clearly had no clue what the job was supposed to be. When she showed up early in the morning on the wedding day (for an outdoor wedding down a hill from the house that was locked for hours), she was met with essentially an entire antiques market. The bride wanted a rustic Pinterest look, but had gone overboard and bought way too many tacky items. The entire day was horrendous, with this planner working without eating until about 11 pm."
They Broke That Poor Woman's Heart
"A renowned florist in the Milwaukee area did flowers for a wedding that I was a server at. The bride and the other girls came up to the reception hall before the guests to look at the room. Sees these orange flowers (that the bride picked out) and just gets flustered. Tells the florist she feels let down. Now this florist is a little older than most and takes it well, but as soon as the bride leaves, the florist starts to cry, and it just broke all of our hearts."
That poor florist probably poured her heart into her work, just for the bride to dismiss it.
He Definitely Dodged A Bullet
"When I was 16, I used to be a server at a banquet hall. During one wedding that I worked, the bride started screaming at the groom in the middle of the reception because she was angry that he had taken a break from dancing. He was very polite to her and was trying to explain that he was just tired because it had been a really long day. But she continued screaming at him, and eventually he left for their hotel room.
The wedding party came down for brunch the next morning, sans the bride and groom. I casually joked about how they must have been too tired to make it to breakfast, and the party informed me that they had decided to annul their marriage. I think he dodged a bullet there."
Some marriages aren't meant to last, especially if it starts off with one person being yelled at for no reason.
When The Bride Doesn't Even Know Her Own Schedule
Here's one story from a person who worked at a wedding venue and had to deal with a demanding bride:"A bride walked up to me and started yelling at me for pouring champagne for everybody because it wasn't time for the toast yet. We were doing everything according to her schedule, but since she was upset, we stopped pouring the champagne. Her father knocked on the kitchen door five minutes later to apologize to us and inform us that we were, in fact, correct in pouring the champagne."
When The Couple Needs Multiple Gifts
"My wife's best friend is a florist by trade and gifted her services to decorate her friend's wedding. (Big cost savings)
The wedding goes as planned, and all is good. Afterwards, the bride and the bride's mom get upset at the florist friend who didn't give a gift in the wedding card, and 'didn't even cover her/husband's plate.' Let's conveniently forget the $1000 in floral products gifted to the wedding; it's a rift that never healed between them since."
Seriously, how greedy can people get?
What Did She Think Would Happen?
"The bride was walked out on by her entire bridal party, except her maid of honor. Of course it was because no one loved her and everyone wanted to ruin her day – not because she ripped a bridesmaid's dress from the neck down in an open area because it was too white ... it was the dress the bride insisted all the maids wear."
Yikes, at least the bridal party did the right thing and walked out on her.
As If He Planned For This To Happen
"My mom was a wedding photographer for many years. Long story short, the father of the bride had a heart attack, and as he was being carried out on the stretcher, the sobbing bride yelled, 'How could you ruin my wedding like this?!!!?'"Moments like this show you where people's priorities really are.
Who Needs Friends With Enemies Like This?
"I didn't make it to the wedding. I was best friends with the woman; literally, we did everything together. She assembled her wedding party and didn’t invite me. She threw me my bachelorette, witnessed my marriage, etc. I found out later I wasn’t invited because I was overweight and her mother thought that would limit bridesmaid dress choices and throw the wedding photos 'off’. At least I know, dodged a bullet."
People show their true colors at events like this, so it's safe to say this woman definitely dodged a bullet.
She Just Couldn't Win
"My mom was the bride, she didn't have bridesmaids but I (her daughter) was going to walk her down the aisle.
I've had purple or blue hair for quite some time, and I checked almost a year in advance with my mom that it would be okay for my hair to be blue for the wedding. Checked every few months again, every time I was told to stop insinuating that she was a bridezilla, of course my hair was fine.
Two weeks before the wedding, my own mother threatened to disinvite me from the wedding if I didn't fix my hair. So I went and got it done, came home, and my mother told me I was shallow for changing my hair to keep up appearances. Sigh. Getting it redyed back to blonde cost me over $300."
Shockingly, People Don't Want To Give Things Away For Free
"I worked as an assistant to a low-level celebrity as his assistant. I was expected to get a wedding planner for free, a free venue, free everything, because, as he put it, he was a celebrity and they would want to give it to him free. I tried hard to find free, but cash is king, and nobody really knew who he was. I managed to get him free catering, a free suit, and free bridesmaids' dresses... he got mad at me because I didn't get everything for free. I quit shortly after that; his demands and reality were very different."
Even A-listers have to pay for stuff, so why did this guy think he would get it all for free?
Not Even Death Can Stop Them
"I was my sister's maid of honor. During a peak planning time, our aunt - her godmother - passed away. I kept trying to get in touch with my sister all day that day. When I finally reached her, I explained I had been trying to speak with her all day to let her know our aunt had [passed away]. I got blasted about how busy she is, and then she ripped into me about where I stood with my tasks. She was pretty rotten the day of the wedding, too. The best was two years later, I’m getting married, and she’s screaming at me over the phone how I didn’t help her, forced her to buy a dress she didn’t want, and let her florist ruin her flowers. We’re not close."Nothing ruins a family bond like acting entitled and not even allowing family members to grieve.
Demoting The Maid Of Honor
"I was the maid of honor. I helped plan the whole wedding, and I went to all the awkward parties with family members I had never met. I was close with the bride and groom, not their families. The whole time we were planning she kept talking about being a bridezilla like it was an inevitable phase she would go through. Fast-forward all the way to the end. She suddenly decided that her sister needs to be the only one involved, but I can still be the maid of honor. She calls me the day of the bridal shower and asks why I wasn't there, and insists she told me the date. She hadn't. She fires me on the spot, and I don't talk to her again until a few days before the wedding. She tells me that I can still come, but she had asked one of her husband's ex-girlfriends, someone she didn't know, to be her new maid of honor. The day before the wedding, she asks me to be the usher. Says I can show people to their seats, the gift table, and the bathroom. I didn't attend the wedding."
Not attending sounds like the right call.
No Birthdays Allowed!
"Her bachelorette party was the same weekend as my birthday. We weren't allowed to do anything for my birthday at all on the trip – not even mention it. On my actual birthday, some of my friends got some balloons and a little cake from the hotel. They tried to keep it a secret, but Bridezilla came in the room, saw everything, didn’t say a word, and walked out. She was upset because our friends wanted to do something small for me on my actual birthday."Would it really have been that much of an inconvenience to celebrate her friend's birthday?
Groomzillas Can Be Just As Bad
"A drunk, screaming groomzilla screamed and pointed in my face (while his poor bride cowered behind him) because the venue ran out of Grey Goose at 11:45 pm. The wedding ended at midnight. I filled up an empty bottle with water and served it to him and his friends."
They should have just called security and had the groom removed.
You Mean The Instruments Don't Match?
"Wedding band member here. I had a bride flip at me and my bandmates because our instruments weren't white or salmon-coloured to fit in with the decorations, and she was saying we would ruin the photographs. Even though I was playing during the reception, all the photos were already taken. A sunburst jazz bass, a blue Stratocaster, and a red drum set aren't going to ruin your pictures, darling."
It's not like they were going to buy new instruments for one wedding...
One Dirty Knife = $60,000
"Mother of the bride found a single spot on a knife on a single setting. Demanded that the entire reception ($60,000) be free. She was not writing the check, so she was shot down pretty quickly. But there was much rage."Her demand was insane, but imagine if they actually comped the reception for that?
A Dry Wedding For Everyone, Except The Bride And Groom
"Went to a wedding that was a dry wedding only. She refused to let anyone bring alcohol, and the wedding was in the middle of nowhere. The wedding was several hours before the reception, and there was absolutely nothing to do. There was no entertainment, no food, no drinks, etc. We had to wait for over four hours for them. Then the bridal party shows up, and they had alcohol for themselves. Our entire group left."You can't make guests wait for hours with nothing to do. You just can't.
When A Friendship Goes South
"I recently went to a friend's wedding. I’ve known him for 20 years, and he always tells me he considers me one of his best friends. Top three sort of thing at any given time. 'I don’t know what I’d do with you,' and 'I hope we always remain friends.'
I asked to give a speech at his wedding. He told me they weren’t doing speeches. I asked if there would be wedding parties in case I was in it. I was told there would be no wedding parties or best man/maid of honor.
I attended the wedding. There was a wedding party, I was not in it, there was a best man, I was not him, and there were, of course, speeches. Some friend. I’m done with him."
Ma'am, That Isn't Your Cake
"I once worked in a bakery, and we had this bride freak out that her cake wasn't right and proceeded to smash it to bits with her fist. She smashed the wrong cake. Anyway, the cops allowed her to wash her hands before placing her in handcuffs. I felt bad for the future husband, and the couple that ordered said cake. People are cray cray."
Getting arrested over a smashed cake is just not worth it.
These Poor Bridal Store Employees
"A bride who kept gaining weight would scream every time the wedding dress fit wasn't the same as the previous fitting appointment, claiming that the store was switching out different dresses each time, ripping her off or something. Ugh."
That must have been so awkward for the employees.
Leave The Zits Alone!
"I'm a former wedding photographer. The last wedding I ever did, the bride had a huge zit on her forehead, which was just ruining everything. It was the end of the world. So, thinking I was being generous, I zapped it off in all of the photos in Photoshop. Cut to a few weeks later, after I delivered them, I got an irate phone call saying that she couldn't believe I would edit off a zit. She wanted to remember the day as it was, not how it should have been. So I went through and restored all the zits... Weddings are too emotionally fraught to mix with business..."
Those Must Have Been Important Shoes
"There was one wedding that I was working at that was humming along right on schedule. But about 45 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to begin, a bridesmaid grabbed me in a panic and told me the bride forgot her shoes. She told me that the bride absolutely needed her shoes.
So I asked where they were, and she told me they were about an hour away. The wedding planner talked to the bride and told her that no one would notice if she didn't wear her shoes. The bride pitched a fit and made an uncle drive and get them. It took him about 2.5 hours to get them. The whole time, we were trying to convince the bride to start the ceremony, and she refused.
The worst part was that her family came from another country and didn’t really speak English, so they had no idea what was going on at first. They got super restless, and some people even left. We told the bride that people were leaving, and she didn’t care; she just wanted her shoes. Everything was delayed by about an hour and a half. People were angry. By the time the reception rolled around, about 50% of the people had left the venue."
Just Hire A Professional Baker
"The bride and her mother insisted that the mom make the wedding cake. This was the wedding the week before ours at the venue we used for our reception. They included the cake as part of the package, but these folks insisted on their own. The wedding planner at the hall, who did all the planning stuff for all the weddings held there, told them that they need to include a stand in the middle of the cake for support if they are going to use a wedding cake topper. The mother insisted she knew what she was doing and that her three cakes piled on top of each other were sturdy enough to support the large figurine cake topper.
Fast-forward to them setting up the reception, which we were there for in part, as we had a meeting with the planner about final arrangements for our wedding. The whole time we were meeting, the planner kept apologizing for having trouble focusing because she kept looking past my then fiancé and me over at the cake, thinking it was looking off.
We were wrapping up our meeting when suddenly she screamed and bolted out of her chair. The topper had collapsed through the three layers of cake, then through the front, leaving the entire front of the cake a pile of crumbs with frosting."
This One Takes The Cake
"As she was walking up the aisle in her dress, the bride tripped over her gown. And instead of just getting up and moving on, she let loose an absolute huge tirade of cursing and screaming at everyone. When her dad tried to console her, she just got up, slugged her dad in the face, and started just throwing [stuff] everywhere, screaming about this wreck of a day. She just lost it and proceeded to rip up her own dress and run out of the church into the rain. I mean, I know the stress is high, but she lost her mind."
How does anyone recover from something like that?
Emily McWilliams
