Wedding photographers have a unique opportunity to experience what has the potential to be one of the most beautiful days in our lives. The reverse side of that coin, however, is that they can also experience disastrous weddings as well. When one online community asked wedding photographers to share stories of weddings where they knew the couple wouldn’t last, they delivered!

This list has it all – from trashy drunken flops to toxic family feuds and heartbreaking infidelity. Grab your popcorn and settle in for some good stories!

#1

When the groom told the bride she couldn’t have cake because she was overweight. Lasted a year. He gained weight

Image credits: MysticalPhotographer

#2

Third wedding and the best man, the groom’s brother, starts his speech…. “Well, welcome back everyone. Good to see some new faces and some old ones.”

Image credits: TheFlyingScotsman60

#3

Ooh ooh finally one of these I can contribute to. My mother was a wedding photographer till I was about 18-19 and I helped out on many of them. The one that stands out the most was when we were at a campsite where both the wedding and reception were being held.

About halfway through the reception I hear the groom start laughing maniacally. I peaked over his way and could see two groomsmen hauling the thrashing and screaming bride towards the lake. They threw her into the freezing cold water with her veil and dress still on. When she got out of the water I genuinely thought she might shoot somebody. Saying she looked like a drowned rat would have been an insult to rats. Her hair and makeup and probably the dress were ruined beyond repair. The fact that the groom laughed and didn’t do anything stuck with me as being a dog s**t move even as a teen. Apparently she thought so too because iirc they didn’t even make it 6 months.

Image credits: Greylings

#4

I used to be a wedding photographer in Las Vegas at several hotels and downtown wedding chapels. I’ve got so many of these stories.

Here’s a fun one.

Monday – I get booked to shoot the wedding
Wednesday- hotel calls me to cancel because the bride backed out.
Thursday- hotel calls to rebook me because wedding is back on. Same groom but different bride.
Friday – I shoot the wedding with the new bride about 18 or 19 years old (groom was early 20s) and it’s clear they barely know each other. Bride just kept saying “this is so crazy, I can’t believe I’m doing this”. Neither could I. No, it wasn’t a mail order bride.

Here’s a sad one…
Older couple, I’d guess in their 40’s/50’s. The limo driver calls and tips me off that the bride is being a problem. She arrives and is extremely rude to everyone on the staff while the groom is being apologetic and super nice. The ceremony starts and she fast walks down the isle doesn’t wait for the groom. The groom sheepishly catches up at the altar. When it’s her time to say “I do” she says “yea whatever” in a b****y annoyed tone. The groom says “I do”. You could cut the tension in the room with the knife. The minister keeps things in track and finishes the ceremony and we get to the kiss. Instead of kissing the groom she turns her face and gives him her cheek. She then fast walks back down the isle, signs the paperwork and left. The groom was in tears. Never saw them again and I’m sure it didn’t last.

Here’s another…
I would guess the bride was in her 70s and the groom was in his early 20s. One side of the chapel was all walkers and oxygen tanks while the other was drunk 20 something’s. Pretty sure it was a money grab but it was notable because normally the genders are reversed on these kind of weddings.

Another fun one….
Wedding was at the top of the stratosphere tower. The couple shows up and the bride is a new age crystal type very, let’s say, spiritual and the groom straight up looks like a 1849 gold miner. Rope belt, floppy hat, 3 teeth the whole thing. The bride tells me there would be spirits and angles in the photos and the reason they got married at the stratosphere is because it’s the closest place to heaven that they could get married. They were so weird about it and said so many times that they wanted to be with god and go to heaven that the hotel had the bomb dog sniff them before getting on the elevator to go to the top. We lie and tell them it’s standard practice to have the dogs sniff everyone. Wedding happens and they start chanting nonsense words (speaking in tongues?) then proceed to have the grossest make out session I’ve ever seen. Turns out they met that week in AA.

Image credits: baviddowie23

#5

Her 3 kids from a previous marriage (8, 9, and 12) were screaming their as*es off and covering themselves in soda and overturning tables while making extremely hostile, profanity laden demands for a driveable hot wheels car, and escalated to just randomly hitting people with baseball bats. whole time mom was going “haha, aren’t they so crazy. oh its ok they just get to express themselves. we unschool,”

lasted (afaik) somewhere between four and five months

Image credits: samprimary

#6

When cutting the cake, she playfully got some on his face. He proceeded to grab a giant chunk and PUNCH her in the face with it, several times hard. She was digging it out from underneath her eyelids bawling and her Dad needed to be held back.

EDIT: Alot of people have been asking, so here is a bit more backstory. My guess as to why people were holding the Dad back was that the Groom was in full Marine dress uniform and they used his sword to cut the cake, that sword was very much in arms reach of the Groom after this happened, so everyone was probably worried something really bad could happen if those two got near each other. After the incident, it was really awkwardly silent as the Groom apologized to the family and if I remember correctly (this was 10 years ago or so) him and the Dad went outside for around 20 minutes, then came back in. The rest of the reception went normally after that.

Image credits: Portly_pug

#7

The bride and groom were stepsiblings whose parents forced them to get married after finding out they were hooking up, and they lived six hours apart and had no intention of changing that living situation. That was also the most extravagant and expensive wedding I had ever shot. I don’t know how long they lasted but it was not long.

Image credits: thebachelorbowl

#8

No joke. I recognized the groom from a Grindr.

Image credits: ElricBrosPlumbing

#9

Bride stabbed groom’s mom.

Image credits: Salvidrim

#10

Wedding photographer from India here:

1. Bride’s mom dissed non-stop about the groom to a couple of our photographers. She believed that her daughter is too beautiful for the guy they promised her hand to and how she’d rather have him die sooner than seeing him with her daughter post the wedding.

2. Bride and the groom had the first dinner separately because the bride wasn’t just in the mood to have their reception dinner together.

3. This is one is the final nail in the coffin – post the wedding when we were about to photograph portraits of the couple, the groom walked up to us saying that he’s too tired from the wedding, so it’d be better if we could use the photos from the previous weddings we shot and morph his face on to those and walked away.

They divorced three months later.

Image credits: Past-Independent2575

#11

Wedding was on a golf course. Bride had a vision she wanted of her husband driving up on a golf cart to see her for a first look.

He got one look at her from the top of the hill and vaulted the cart, ran down the hill, picked her up and twirled her around to tell her how gorgeous she was. We caught it all. It was the best first look ever.

Once he set her down she straightened herself and looked back to us. “Okay, I don’t want that. Let’s do the golf cart now.” And she sent him back up.

Image credits: Pancakes_Whisperer

#12

When right after the ceremony we took a moment to have canapés and the bride started making out with her bridesmaid in front of all of us, her new husband included.

And another time where the groom went missing during the evening and the bride found him in bed with another women the next morning, also the bride had a gun and yes the groom was shot.

Image credits: Black-Eyed-Dragon-

#13

When the Maid of Honor tells the story of when the Bride had sex in a Burger King bathroom with someone that wasn’t her now husband. They broke the sink, then you see the groom start tearing up. We found out later that the groom ended up paying for the damage to the sink and the Bride made up some BS story.

Image credits: xdirector7

#14

One of the bridesmaids cried the entire time from makeup till reception. Would have nothing to do with the groom. Kept wanting photos of just her and the bride. 8 months later, bride and groom are separated and she up and elopes with the bridesmaid.

Image credits: Toasted-Ravioli

#15

Bride was such a monumental b***h her mom gave me a $500 tip for not walking out on the event when she was treating everyone (even her now husband) like a piece of s**t employee.

She did the whole clicking fingers thing when wanting someone to do something for her, and she berated the dj for grabbing a sandwich when he’d been there for about 8 hours and was told that he should’ve brought his own lunch and she would be taking the cost of the food (like an open buffet style) out of his paycheck.

They were divorced within 3 years, but not before having 3 kids that have stupid names.

Image credits: EndlessOcean

#16

I was asked if I wanted to come up to the hotel room and film “a movie” wink wink nudge nudge… with the bride… It was not the groom asking this…but the best man… and she was right beside him…The groom was hanging out with some friends and her dad…

I kindly declined

Image credits: WWGFD

#17

When the groom looked at her like she was the love of his life, and she treated the day like her Prom and ignored him. I think they lasted six months.

Image credits: girlabides

#18

At the rehearsal dinner, every toast to the bride was some euphemistic variation of “I’m so glad you finally found someone to put up with your b******t.”

They barely made it to the 6 month mark.

Image credits: Anonymous_Goat

#19

Asked the groom in a recorded interview why he asked her to marry him and he said, “The pressure to get married”. They lasted less than 2 months. Hadnt even finished the video and they were over.

Image credits: davehorse

#20

Over coffee, at our initial “do they want to hire me” meeting. They argued bitterly the entire time and eventually, the groom just sat back in his chair with his arms crossed and wouldn’t speak to either of us. I went home and the next day, emailed them the old “something suddenly came up” and that my schedule had unfortunately changed. Red flags aren’t just for the people in the relationship. Vendors, see them and heed them. ?

#21

I did a wedding for an acquaintance and her husband. Day goes great, I’m really happy with almost everything I took, everyone was feeling it and having fun. But, (and this is one of the reasons I quit photography) the bride sees some of the photos I had sent her, and immediately is calling me. “I need you to do the editing magic and make me look skinny, John was saying I was going to look too fat in my dress and wanted me to lose weight but I knew you could just edit it, so haha I didn’t”. So I have to explain (this is like 2010) I can only photoshop so much, I.e. I can make you look a tad slimmer in certain photos without making it noticeable. But I can’t do it to all of them, and if I was to, the editing would be noticeable, and I will have to charge you a lot of money to edit you in all the photos. She tried to convince me to edit hundreds of photos for a couple hundred bux, and I have other jobs going and had given them a great deal already so explained I couldn’t. So she insist I do at least some of her main pics, I tell her when people see the rest of the pics they will see the difference, she didn’t care and insisted more. So I do, and a couple weeks later when I thought it was all done and history calls me and leaves me a voicemail of how I ruined her wedding, her new husband is upset at how she looks in the pics and keeps making remarks about her weight. So didn’t seem like they were in a great place from the get go.

Image credits: Jadedsatire

#22

I think my first clue was when the bride showed up with some bad make-up clearly trying to cover her black eye, while most of the rest of the family seemed far more into the free food and booze than the wedding itself. Oh yeah, never paid me either. Classy people.

Image credits: HappyPorridgeBird

#23

The engagement session.

The couple was in from out of town because she had just taken the bar exam to become a lawyer. At the end of the session, I gave them a prompt to share with each other what they were proud of each other for. He couldn’t think of a single thing.

Somehow they still got married, complete with: the groom drinking 11 IPAs + several shots before the ceremony, mother of the bride so drunk for family photos she pretended to strip, and the groom and all the groomsmen wearing camo hats with neon orange letters that said ‘titties and beer.’ For the entire wedding day. Including sunset couples photos where he refused to do anything I suggested, nearly spat chew right on my feet, kept farting on purpose, and loudly complained about how all he wanted was to go have sex.

Image credits: V-Savage

#24

While shooting video, I attached a microphone to the groom for audio and proceeded to prepare for the ceremony. Just as I was about to adjust my audio settings, the groom stepped into another room with a friend. As I put on my headphones, I overheard the groom confiding in his friend, describing the wedding as a “wedding of convenience” and reassuring them not to be concerned about what would happen in their relationship.

Image credits: NoodleMaps

#25

Back when I was in college, I worked a few weddings for a Christian church near my school. The congregation was very god fearing people that you only see in cult movies and don’t expect to actually exist irl. Two of the couples live in my head rent free to this day.

While doing the getting ready photos, the videographer did pre wedding interviews with the bride and groom and asked questions like “why are you getting married?” “When did you know he/she was the one?” Etc.

Couple #1: Both admitted they just wanted to have sex, but were afraid of going to hell. They literally got married just to have sex. I believe they lasted 7 months.

Couple #2: Because getting married was “the next logical step” and it’s “just what people do”. They had dated for 2 years, never lived together, never had sex, just “dated”. I put dated in quotes because I have more intimate relationships with platonic friends than they had. Because they didn’t break up, they just felt compelled to get married, like it was part of a routine. They ended up having a kid, but only lasted 2 years together.

EDIT:

Just to add one more that I blocked from my memory. I photographed a wedding for a couple named Ben and Lorraine. They actually seemed like a fun nice couple except Ben just wanted to be a dad and Lorraine definitely gave off “fun aunt” vibes. She ended up getting pregnant about 6 months after the wedding. I bumped into Lorraine at a mutual friend’s baby shower about 6 or 7 months after she gave birth. She ended up sitting with me and my cousin even though she was assigned to sit at a different table. While the momma to be was opening presents Lorraine said, “you know how they say you instantly fall in love your child when you become a mom? That’s not true. I love my dog more than I love my baby.” My jaw dropped. I like to tell myself she was likely suffering from PPD, but I don’t know. I just felt so bad for Ben in that moment. They divorced when the baby was 18 months old. He got custody.

#26

I actually have a story for this!! Years ago I got into amateur photography and a friend of the family invited me and my camera to come to a wedding. I was basically there to get candids, nothing super formal (that was for the main photographer); I was dressed in all black like the wait staff so kinda blended into the background.

Anyway, since I was practically invisible, I got to hear ALL the tea: apparently the bride had hooked up w a stripper during her bachelorette and never told the groom. Of course ALL the bridesmaids knew, and it sounded like at least a couple of their SOs did too. Worst part tho? He was looking at her like she hung the moon and was his entire world; she was deadpan through the entire ceremony and hung out w her girlfriends during practically the whole reception. When it came time for cake, he fed her nicely and she smeared it across his face, cackling the whole time (the only time I saw her smile at him during the ceremony/reception).

I knew it wouldn’t last, although they weren’t my friend group. Ended up running into that photographer friend a few years later and asked, apparently the bride had gotten pregnant before the wedding and it was pretty much a shotgun wedding. Baby was born, then they split up like immediately after. Shocker.

#27

First Dance: I still haven’t found what I’m looking for, by U2.

Image credits: GreyFoxNinjaFan

#28

The groom-to-be got drunk at a house party the night before the engagement shoot. He did not make the shoot but the bride did, we just did a solo shoot instead.

Image credits: MapleSyrup928

#29

Groom didn’t want to participate in any wedding pictures after the ceremony.

I believe he was more interested in drinking beers with his buddies.

I don’t think they lasted a year.

Image credits: Mushu_Pork

#30

I had a young lady hire me for her wedding. I met her fiancé and he had a cast on his right hand. Didn’t think too much about it. She later told me he had gotten mad at her and punched the hood of his car. I wanted to refund her money and tell her to run away as fast as possible. They were divorced before I could deliver their pictures to them.

#31

I’m a wedding videographer, but my moment is when the bride constantly made everything about the photos.
During the first dance—and this is the moment I had a feeling this was more about the wedding than the marriage—the bride was never focused on her groom. The groom was being so careful and loving with her, smiling all the way while she made sure to stop dancing with him every five seconds to reposition them to always be facing the camera. She would stop the most intimate moments to always remind him where the camera was and to ALWAYS look at that camera.
I felt so bad for him from the moment they shared their first look too cause she just kept forcing him to tell her how pretty she looked and to make sure that he cried when she actually walked down the aisle.

Image credits: Shammieohs

#32

Worst one for me was when I was second shooting and with the guys getting ready. The groom was in a rowdy mood with his boys while they were getting dressed and he went into horrifically graphic, disrespectful detail with them about all the ways he was going to ‘give it’ to his wife that night…. like 15 mins of just flat out nasty detail about stuff she would have been horrified to hear. I’m a guy… Im not a prude… Sure, me and my friends have said some things we wouldn’t like our wives to hear about ‘so and so being hot’, or ‘did you see the size of that…’ but nothing… NOTHING like this. Just absolutely no love or respect, or kindness toward the woman he was going to marry and just completely demeaned her in front of all his friends. I was totally repulsed.

Then, same guy, during formal photos of the wedding party… after maybe five mins of taking photos with the wedding party, he just stormed off… “This s**t is stupid. Im done!” Left his bride in tears with all her best friends on her wedding day.

The sad part is I don’t know if they divorced, but I hope to god for her sake they did. If not she’s had probably a pretty abusive 10 years.

#33

At the rehearsal, the groom refused to sit next to the bride and insisted on sitting next to his female best friend. The priest said ” Don’t you want to sit next to your soon to be wife?” Kind of chuckling like the groom had just not gotten around to sitting next to her yet.

He says “I have the rest of my life to sit next to her”.

The gasp from both sides of the family was AUDIBLE. Everyone was horrified. He did not move.

Bride spent the rehearsal dinner crying in the bathroom.

They still went through the wedding the next day, which was in October. She kicked him out and filed for divorce AND annulment (Catholic) by that December.

#34

I met with potential clients to go over the details of the wedding and to see if we would be a good fit to work together.

I tried to schedule something at a cafe, but they insisted on me coming to their house. When I arrived, there was a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket of dirty diapers on the front porch. I had a feeling this wasn’t going to go well. A young kid probably 7 or so answered the door, all I could see and hear were children running around everywhere. The soon to be husband was sitting on his bed that was in the living room watching TV and the bride was in the kitchen with two kids on either hip. She told me to sit at the kitchen table to go over the wedding details. She shouted at her fiance to come and join the meeting where he didn’t acknowledge that I was there to talk about shooting their wedding. The bride was annoyed, then asked if I saw the bucket full of dirty diapers on the porch. I said that I had, and she said her fiancee has so many kids with other women that is the only place to keep them so they don’t stink up the house.

I did not take the job. I always wondered what happened to that couple.

#35

This was 15 years ago or so, I left wedding photography a few months later.

The reception was at their home, they didn’t want photos at the ceremony, and didn’t want wedding party/family photos between the ceremony and reception triggering the first raise of the eyebrow on my end. At the reception the groom didn’t want his brother, the best man, in the photos. Other eyebrow goes up. The mothers of both the bride and groom both scolded me to let them be and told me to eat instead of take photos. The groom and the best man got unholy drunk and had a weird by play of brother making way too many toasts and the groom making grossly inappropriate speeches of what he’s going to do to the bride on the honeymoon.

As the newlyweds were making their grand departure the bride tosses the bouquet, everyone cheers. The groom shouts “I knocked the b***h up so hard she’s got two babies in her coochie”. Guest react in various ways of shock and happiness about the pregnancy test but the best man lunges at the groom shouting and swearing. Family holds the best man back as the couple runs out to a car. The groom flipped off the spectators, and pulled out of the driveway. Two houses down the car stops, the groom gets out and pukes on a neighbor’s lawn, the bride gets in the driver’s seat and takes off, leaving her husband yurking into a flower bed, and the best man ran down the street trying to flag down the car.

Divorced four months later.

Image credits: OmicronPerseiNate

#36

I do wedding videos. I shot one wedding last year that is still together, but I’m still weirded out by it.

They wanted a wedding video, but didn’t care about photos so asked if I’d do both. I’ve done it before, so I figured it wouldn’t be too bad. Just bring a second shooter and it’s chill.

So I get to the bride’s parent’s house where she’s getting ready and it’s a mess. So naturally, my second shooter and I start trying to salvage an area we can use for the staged getting ready photos. We finally get ready, and the bride is like “No, I don’t really want getting ready photos.”

So we don’t do them. We get to the venue, and suddenly the bride wants to change what I was originally giving them in their video/photo package because she desperately needed a video just of her brother’s speech (which I already had in their package, but she decided she didn’t want vertical videos for social media anymore and wanted to exchange it.)

We do the ceremony and get to the first kiss. It lasted all of 0.01 seconds because she would not kiss him.

We go to do family photos, breeze through those just fine.

Then, I say it’s time for my second shooter to go shoot their cocktail hour while the couple and I go out into their nice venue and do photos of them.

She refuses. Doesn’t want to do it. Instead she wants to hang out at the cocktail hour with her mom. Eventually I get them outside into the garden area, but she’ll only take photos if her brother is also in the photos.

Outside of the ceremony, I have 2 photos of just the bride and groom. It’s always bride, groom, brother. Or just bride and brother.

The rest of the night went on like normal, then we got to the first dance.

They danced for about 15 seconds, and then invited everyone else to join in. As soon as they did, she ditched the groom to go dance with her brother.

I got their photos done, and sent them off, super stressed because I had so little of the two of them together. She went through them and loved them, but wished I had more of her and her brother.

Oh, and the speech that she NEEDED on video was literally the brother talking about how well he was doing in university and how he’s smarter than her.

EDIT: One other detail I forgot. When they were getting ready she spent the whole time bragging about the prenup and all the fine print in it and how good it was for her.

#37

Walked in on the bride and the wedding planner making out and dry humping. Yea, f*****g most awkward day of work ever.

#38

Groom said to me before the first look: “thank god it’s not so hot today, if it was I’m gonna call this wedding off. I love her but I don’t want to sweat.”

Wedding happened… and 4 years later, I happened to book the brides sister from that wedding and she told me that they are divorced and that he is a jerk and cheater on her.

#39

I started as a wedding photographer, haven’t done that in ages. I used to photograph for a bunch of TV shows where the wedding was a disaster and the show stepped in to save the wedding. On more than one occasion I was contacted later for documents because the couple was involved in an ugly divorce.

The one that was obvious, and their shoot came out absolutely amazing, was when the bride’s entire family just didn’t show up to the wedding without announcing it. Her father showed up alone for the reception after I think he snuck away from his family. It was really sad, I felt awful for her. The father daughter dance was so touching and sad because he showed up and danced with her. She was distrought and you could tell in that moment, she actually felt safe and happy.

They got divorced not that long after.

#40

The bride looked like she was about to cry the entire time, looked absolutely miserable in the posed photos, shockingly little chemistry, the groom seemed utterly disinterested.

Fundamentalist evangelical wedding that occurred in the middle of 2020 and they’d met less than 6 months prior.

#41

I’m a videographer and the groom called me a couple days after the wedding. He wanted me to make sure I didn’t include any footage of him checking out the women at the wedding.

Image credits: Tim0281

#42

Oh man, I was a wedding photographer for about 5 years.

I get being awkward on camera and not wanting to do any public PDA. I’m very awkward myself! But when prompting couples for fun poses like whispering obscenities in each others ear for a laughing shot, nuzzling close together, etc, most couples eventually let their guard down and enjoyed holding each other. It was so sweet.

A few times though, I had couples that visibly didn’t want to be near each other at all. Once the shot was done, they went back to standing a foot apart. They would complain about each other and make fun of each other in front of me. It always left me with a bad feeling in my gut – and most of the time the marriage didn’t last long!

#43

Bride looked visibly miserable the entire ceremony. While photographing the men’s “getting ready” portion, the groom repeatedly kept joking about killing himself.

During the toast, the bride ran off to the bathroom for about 30 minutes and came back wiping her tears with her eyes red and puffy. Neither of them had any chemistry at all, it made no sense why they were together to me. That was the last wedding I shot.

#44

The maid of honor very drunkenly said in her speech for the groom to call her once the marriage was over ( a couple of her friends said that in their speeches actually) and the best man told the bride the groom’s phone lock code in his speech because “she was going to need it”. Those two last maybe a year. The bride ended up moving states for a new job which made sense to me after seeing how s****y her friends and family were during that wedding.

The other couple I can think of had 12 bridesmaids/groomsman EACH, yes 24 people just in the wedding party. Not including users, guest book attendant, flower girls etc. The bride and groom belonged sorority/fraternity at the same school, that’s why there were so many people. The bridesmaids/groomsmen had all dated each other and several of them had dated the bride and groom in college too, so it was a ton of fighting and drama the whole day.
Those two lasted a while. I think 5 years. But the bride got pregnant on their honeymoon. I doubt they would have lasted a year if she hadn’t gotten pregnant so quickly. Years after they broke up, I was invited to the bride’s younger sister’s bridal shower (they were family friends) and the og bride got drunk on champagne and talked about how miserable she was planning her first wedding, and besides her daughter it was the biggest mistake of her life blah blah, so that was fun.

**Edit: For the confused comments, the last bride regrets the marriage, not the daughter. Sorry I should have been more clear. She regretted getting married to her first husband/wedding but NOT having her daughter. The daughter is in Jr high now, seems very happy and loved.

#45

Was about 10 years ago now, the bride was a 10 and the groom was maybe a 5. During the reception everyone was hanging around talking and the bride and groom were talking to us (the photographers) when the groom drops something and goes “pick that up b***h.” I make a noise at the unexpectedness of it and the bride and I lock eyes in shock as she bends down to pick it up for him. No idea if they are still together but I hope not.

#46

One of those hotel venues that can run two weddings at the same time. Bride from our wedding is found in a hotel room with the groomsmen from the other wedding doing coke before the first dance. End result was we got paid and told no need to edit or deliver pics. Safe to say It didn’t last the night.

#47

The groom didn’t want to put on his suit to take portraits , even after the bride insisted , because ” it’s uncomfortable and hot “.

Different wedding, saw the groom down an entire bottle of wine in one go when he finally had a minute to himself. I took the picture thinking it was just going to be a goofy moment, until later on while I was editing pictures, I realized what I was seeing.

Oh wait, another one, the bride was 30 minutes late, when I was in the room with the bride while she was getting ready, she told bridesmaids how her sister drove her all around town because she couldn’t make up her mind about if she really wanted to get married.

#48

I shot many weddings and there were a couple that have stuck with me. One was a drunken soirée at a cheap vfw. That’s not so strange, but one year later I got a call from the brides mother for another wedding for the same bride – at the same vfw (another drunken soirée).

Another was a rather nice event at a local yacht club. The groom and his groomsmen were all psychiatrists. The mother of the bride(my contact and eventual confidant) didn’t like the groom much despite him being quite successful and handsome (she called him “the psychiatrist”) because the bride had caught him wearing the brides underwear. He brushed it off and gaslighted her so they got married. A year later I got a call from the mom because the older sister was getting married. I asked how was the psychiatrist and she responded “he turned out not to be the person everyone though he was”.
As soon as the honeymoon was over he started pressuring his now wife to support him in transitioning to a female. I guess you just never know …

#49

When you tell the bride they make a beautiful couple and she’s like “yeah, he will do. For a first husband, anyways! Ha ha” Never found it funny and always thought it was such a s****y way to start out a convo about your “forever mate”.

#50

I did an engagement session on a boat and about a year later shot the couple’s wedding.

The groom was “seasick” and vomiting the entire engagement session even though the water was perfectly calm and the boat was completely still for 2 hours.

They got divorced about 6 months after the wedding.

Image credits: joseph_jojo_shabadoo

#51

My husband and I were wedding photographers and he spent the morning for the wedding with the groom and his party getting ready while I was with the bride and her party. We both saw the same thing from each half-downing drinks and sh*tfaced by the time the ceremony actually started because they both couldn’t be faced with the fact that this would be the only person they could sleep with for the rest of their lives. They lasted longer than we expected but the bride recently announced the divorce.

#52

As a gift, I did the wedding photos for my niece and her intended. When she got to the alter, with priest and husband there, she looked so miserably unhappy–I knew the marriage was doomed. Why in f**k she went through with it is still a mystery –they divorced later on that year.

#53

Omg so many to choose from. Two that immediately come to mind:

– Groom would not make any eye contact with the bride. So many photos where she is gazing lovingly at him, and he’s just like 10 yard stare right over the top of her head. Was a tough edit

– Groom’s speech included a line about how opposite he is from his bride because “her friends have never even been to Paris!”

#54

When the groom engraved “F**k You” on the bride’s ring.

(It’s what he says to her when they fight.)

#55

We always ask the couple to tell their story, and in this one case the couple glowingly told us about how they were both cheating on their prior partners. That was more glaring but also pretty regular are couples where one person is having a drink-fest with their dudes and barely aware of their partner all day. Those ones bum me out.

#56

He was a popular real estate agent and I think she was a kardashian wannabe. He looked like he was desperately in love with her, she looked like she had a serious case of resting b***h face and just didn’t seem to want to be there. After the ceremony they arrived at the reception early because she couldn’t be bothered with more than a couple of the formal couple/wedding party photos. It was just a weird vibe all round. I heard through the grapevine at the end of the year he was caught in a broom cupboard with his receptionist at the office Christmas party.

#57

When the bride is not enthused as the groom. The kiss is a big hint. Avoidance.

#58

I mean … seeing the bride getting out of the toilets with a man that is not her husband … during the weeding dinner, is a good hint.

#59

While I was taking pictures of the bride and her bridesmaids, the bride constantly making remarks about me while the groom looked on. “See girls, I told you I got us some hot, man candy to look at.” It wasn’t just one time, she kept doing it almost like it was to p**s off the groom. By the time of the ceremony, all had had way too much alcohol, a food fight broke out at the reception completely ruining the venue. Was a good one. Also was both of their second or third wedding, sure it wasn’t their last.

#60

I photographed my friend’s wedding about 10 years ago. Neither of them seemed very excited by each other, the speeches didn’t mention the couple at all, and there was just an odd vibe.

They divorced a few years later after his failed campaign to force her to flunk out of her PhD (turns out he was quite against women in education, and assumed she’d just give up and want to be a housewife when they were married,) and I got lots of other pretty sad details from her that made much of the wedding weirdness make sense.

#61

Oh! I know this one!!

When the groom was angry talking about the photos we were going to get and then at the engagement shoot couldn’t be bothered to hug the bride-to-be or smile for any of the pictures.

Edit: Thank you all for your stories. I’ve had relationships where I’ve missed signs too.

People like this guy are tough to identify in relationships but of course there are ???. It turns out her girlfriends warned her; they saw him show no interest in helping prep for the wedding, not wanting to help with a location, go food tasting to find a caterer, and show a lack of interest in being a partner.

#62

I’m a wedding photographer. Most of my couples are super awesome.

Occasionally couples are grumpy with each other during photos and it’s not a great look, but honestly, I like to give them the benefit of the doubt. Your wedding day should be a happy day, but sometimes it’s just stressful; stress can get to people and make them act in a way they normally wouldn’t.

I think the “worst” moment I witnessed was when a couple clearly didn’t know each other very well. The guy made a comment about not knowing she had OCD during photos and her mom whispered behind me “You have no idea…”. I have no idea if they’re still together.

#63

I never got follow-up info, but at one wedding, it took 30 minutes to coax the bride out of her limo, including a visit from the priest. She may have just been incredibly nervous, but still.

#64

It was actually for a friends wedding which made it all the more awkward. I knew they weren’t going to last when the bride made a massive deal out of me wanting to be compensated for not just photographing the wedding but also editing pics, putting a book together for them etc. my friend desperately wanted to pay me bc he is an artist as well and knows how much work goes into this, I got to stand in the middle of a blowout fight between them. For the sake of moving on, we ended up agreeing that this was their wedding and gift and that was it. Flash forward to the wedding, groom took a bunch of acid and tripped balls the whole time. Bride was drunk as a skunk. Bride then spent the entire evening trying to sleep with various friends of the groom and then they announced that they had opened up their relationship prior to the wedding. I ended up getting very stoned with the grooms mom who then walked around and took bets on how long the marriage would last. Idk if they’re still together as we ended up having a bit of a falling out a year later but hell I hope they figured their s**t out. The pictures turned out beautifully tho!!

#65

Best man’s speech made the groom out to be a gold digger.

He wasn’t entirely wrong tbh. And this guy was the groom’s best friend.

#66

My dad did wedding photos for many years. He said once while she was taking photos, the wife’s breast slipped out and he accidentally got a photo. Of course he deleted it, but the husband was super bothered by it and even yelled at the wife for it, kept like interrogating my dad about it, and was generally weirdly paranoid about it.

#67

Both was very drunk, arguing and fighting, both of the families don’t like each other, they didn’t stay married to long.

#68

Only one red flag. This was early days as a wedding photographer.

A friend recommended me to his boss. The boss’ sister was getting married. Boss and sister were Australians with well-off Greek immigrant parents – it was going to be BIG. So big that I hired an assistant to stand next to me and duplicate with her camera every photograph that I took. I could *not* afford to f**k this up, and a good result would open doors to a traditionally insular community. I knew some of the greek community and they’re friendly and welcoming to guests, but they tend to do business within the community unless there’s no other option.

The red flag? Sister was marrying a non-Greek Australian.

The wedding and reception went off without a hitch and I had a bunch of beautiful photos. I sent contact sheets off to Boss (he was the one who’d engaged me), and waited for the orders to roll in.

It was going to take a couple of weeks because the bride had to head off interstate for work.

She came home to her husband cheating on her. She gave him two weeks to make up his mind. His response was “I’m outta here”.

I felt bad chasing up for payment, but I’d already incurred costs. Boss paid me 50% of the invoice and I figured I wasn’t going to get any more, so I left it at that.

#69

I was a photographer for a wedding. I’d line up the group for a family shot, look down into my camera and the bride would be…..gone. She was SO flaky. The pictures weren’t the best but the shop I worked for wasn’t terribly worried. The marriage was almost immediately annulled.

#70

When the bride is over an hour late for wedding!

#71

If the grooms grandmother nearly choking to death at dinner wasn’t foreshadowing enough, the bride cursing out the groom’s entire family at the after-party certainly was.
They lasted a few years, surprisingly.

#72

When the uncle’s second wife was trying to tell the bride how to do the wedding.
Source: boredpanda.com