Fairy Tale Wedding FailsDespite months of careful planning and thousands of dollars poured into every beautiful, unforgettable detail, here are some weddings that were ruined anyway.
Updated September 24, 2021 26.9K votes 5.7K voters 2.8M views
Over 5.7K Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of Wedding Planners Reveal Their Worst Horror Stories
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Vote up the most nightmarish horror stories that have happened to wedding planners who somehow lived to tell the tale.
From drying a bride's tears to making sure guests know where they need to go, a wedding planner always has their work cut out for them. When things go wrong, they are the first line of defense - working tirelessly to get everything back in order and create the perfect day for their clients. But there are some crazy wedding disasters no planner can avoid or predict, like wild dogs and passed out officiants. When it comes to wedding planner horror stories, the ones on this list are the worst of the worst.
Whether you're already married or still planning your wedding, you can't help but feel sorry for the wedding planners who have dished on the terrible things they've had to deal with. Scroll through this list of wedding planners' worst stories, and vote up the ones you hope never happen to you!
As one wedding planner shared with Planners Lounge, "At one wedding we planned, a little girl went up to the cake and swiped her fingers across the icing. The first few times it happened we didn’t know about it until the Maid of Honor called us on her cell phone and said, do you mind coming and doing something about this little girl, she’s ruining the cake. Sure enough we looked at the cake and there were little finger marks all along the bottom of the cake, literally ruining the design. When we approached the girls mother about it asking if there was something we could get little Sally to bid her time and occupy her the mother replied 'You can cut the cake.'"
As wedding planner Samantha Goldberg told NY Daily News, "One couple on a half-million-dollar budget could have held their wedding anywhere. But the groom insisted on having it in a huge underground, walk-out basement belonging to his parents. There was only one exit and 300 guests. I strongly recommended a tent in the backyard in case there was an emergency. But the groom and his family wouldn't listen. What happened? It turned out to be a blisteringly hot, rainy night. It got increasingly hot inside the basement and, eventually, at the end of the cocktail hour, the air conditioner blew. There was silence. Everyone was trying to eat by candlelight and suffering from heat exhaustion."
As a wedding planner described to Huffington Post, when she sat down with the couple the day before their wedding to fill out "the marriage license paperwork, the whole vibe at our table suddenly changed." The groom then pushed the papers back and announced, “I’m not sure we’re ready to take this step. We’re not ready to get married yet.” The groom then proceeded to break up with the bride, right in front of the wedding planner!
As a wedding planner confessed on Kai Squared Events, "At one wedding I planned, the cake went missing after the bride and groom cut it. The bride soon asked where the cake was. Turns out the servers had taken it upon themselves to eat it! We cut the pieces smaller and the bride never knew."
Planner Samantha Goldberg once had to share "the sweetheart table with the bride. The groom was a politician and was too busy networking with his guests! The bride didn't want to eat on her own and she asked me to sit with her." As she explained to NY Daily News, "It did feel a little strange."
At one wedding, a planner had to deal with a mother of the bride who made a 22-minute toast, during which she name-dropped every famous person she had ever introduced her daughter to.