30 Wedding Photographers Reveal the Worst Moments Caught on Camera(2/3)

The ceremony started, and the groomsmen came up the aisle in a parade. The groom stumbled and almost took a knee at one point.

Then, the bridesmaids came in, and watching their anger and concern bloom on their faces as they took in the groomsmen standing unsteadily on the dais was hilarious in hindsight but felt like a slow-motion train wreck at the moment.

Then the bride entered the church, and even through the veil, you could tell she was vacillating between fury and sadness.

She stepped up to the little platform, and in the silent moment between the music fading away just before the pastor could begin speaking, one of the groomsmen ripped a horrendously loud fart.

The bride’s face fell, and half of the people in attendance started laughing while the other half let out a breathless, disgusted gasp.

The groom barely stifled a laugh, and one of the other groomsmen turned and punched the farter in the arm.

It was as if these guys had no clue where they were or how important the event was to everyone but them, apparently. The other photographer and I did our best to get shots and just do the job we were getting paid to do.

It was difficult to get any close-ups of the bride or groom as the bride settled on furious facial expressions for the remainder of the ceremony, and the groom could barely focus his eyes on his bride. She uttered her vows through gritted teeth, and he slurred through his while slowly rocking back and forth.

The reception only spiraled out from there.

The groom threw up on the floor before the cake-cutting and was ensconced somewhere.

After one of the groomsmen struck out with the bridesmaids, he set his sights on the other photographer. Eventually, our agreed-upon time ran out, and we left. I handed off all of my RAW files to the company that hired me and wished them luck editing that travesty.

u/Bonzaigiraffe: We got married in a friend’s front garden I had helped put together as a teenager.

Just as we got to the vows, you could hear people sniffling, just about to cry, when the tell-tale sound of an ice cream van started to build.

It got louder and louder until it abruptly stopped. The driver noticed what they were approaching and shut off the music at the property line to the next-door neighbor.

Silence as they crept by the house. Then, as soon as they hit the next home full blast again, “Do your ears hang low…” Everyone burst out laughing.

The driver should have returned 10 minutes later because they would have made a lot of money.

u/Nelly0112: Not me, but my buddy was the videographer for a wedding. During the ceremony, they had candles lining the aisle, and the bride’s mother decided to get closer so she could get a better picture.

While she was taking pictures, she started walking backward. Well, she walked backward right into one of the candle holders and knocked it over right into someone’s lap.

Commence chaos!

The guy jumps up, trying to put out the fire that’s now in his lap. His wife starts screaming at the woman. It took about 20 minutes to get everything calmed down.

The wedding went on as planned afterward.

And yes, it was all caught on camera. The bride insisted it be cut out of the final video. So, my buddy put it on a separate tape for us all to laugh at later.

u/VealIsNotAVegetable: Not a photographer, but ours caught a truly perfect moment.

In the foreground, I leaned forward to kiss my wife’s hand in a lovely romantic gesture, perfectly framing the bridesmaid in the background.

The background—a lovely view of the small cove we’re in, with one of the bridesmaids bent over to look at something in the tide pool, accidentally exposing her bottom to the camera.

u/[deleted]: I was helping a friend, who is a wedding photographer, take shots of everyone else at the wedding.

When it was time for the signing, my friend had a problem with his camera, so I took over for a few minutes. The bride and groom were sitting at the table, signing the book.

The groom, best man, and ushers all wore kilts. I had been paying attention to the happy couple, but for a couple of photos, I knelt to get some more eye-level shots.

Little did I know that I had accidentally taken photos of the groom’s private parts exposed because of his outfit.

I didn’t notice until I reviewed the images later on the laptop.

u/baviddowie23: I was 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.

On a Monday, I got booked to shoot the wedding.

On Wednesday, the hotel called me to cancel because the bride backed out.

On Thursday, the hotel called to rebook me because the wedding is back on. It was the same groom but a different bride.

On Friday, I shot the wedding with the new bride, who was around 19 years old (the groom was early twenties). It’s clear they barely know each other.

The bride just kept saying, “This is so crazy. I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Neither could I.

Here’s a sad one: An older couple, I’d guess in their forties or fifties. The limo driver calls and tips me off that the bride is being a problem.

She arrives and is extremely rude to the staff, while the groom is apologetic and super nice.

The ceremony starts, and she fast walks down the aisle and 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, “Yeah, whatever,” in an annoyed tone. The groom says, “I do.” You could cut the tension in the room with a knife.

The minister keeps things on 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 aisle, signs the paperwork, and leaves. The groom was in tears.

I never saw them again, and I’m sure it didn’t last.

Here’s another: I would guess the bride was in her seventies, and the groom was in his early twenties.

One side of the chapel was all walkers and oxygen tanks, while the other was intoxicated people in their twenties. I’m pretty sure it was a money grab, but it was notable because, usually, the genders are reversed in these kinds of weddings.

Another fun one: The 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 looks like an 1849 gold miner—rope belt, floppy hat, three teeth, the whole thing.

The bride tells me there would be spirits and angels in the photos, and the reason they got married at the stratosphere is because it’s the closest place to heaven where 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 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.

The wedding happens, and they start chanting nonsense words, then proceed to have the grossest kiss I’ve ever seen. It turns out they met that week in AA.

u/Greylings: 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 at a campsite where the wedding and reception were being held.

About halfway through the reception, I hear the groom start laughing maniacally.

I peeked over his way and saw two groomsmen hauling the screaming bride toward the lake.

They threw her into the cold water with her veil and dress still on. When she got out of the water, I genuinely thought she might get furious. Her hair, 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 terrible move, even as a teen.

Apparently, she thought so, too, because they didn’t even make it six months.

u/EndlessOcean: The bride was so terrible 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 bad 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.

He was told that he should’ve brought his lunch, and she would be taking the cost of the food (like an open buffet style) out of his paycheck. The bride was divorced within three years, but not before having three kids that have stupid names.

u/Past-Independent2575: Wedding photographer from India here. The bride’s mom dissed non-stop about the groom to a couple of our photographers.

She believed that her daughter was too beautiful for the guy they promised her hand to and that she’d rather have him die sooner than see him with her daughter after the wedding.

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

This 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 was 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.

u/samprimary: Her three kids from a previous marriage (8, 9, and 12) were screaming, covering themselves in soda, and overturning tables while making extremely hostile, profanity-laden demands for a drivable Hot Wheels car, and escalated to just randomly hitting people with baseball bats.

The entire time, the mom was going, “Haha, aren’t they so crazy? Oh, it’s okay. They just get to express themselves.” The marriage lasted somewhere between four and five months.

u/Portly_pug: When cutting the cake, the bride playfully got some on the groom’s 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: Many 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 terrible could happen if those two got near each other.

After the incident, it was awkwardly silent as the groom apologized to the family.

If I remember correctly, the groom and the Dad went outside for around 20 minutes, then came back in. The rest of the reception went as planned after that.

u/Pancakes_Whisperer: The wedding was on a golf course. The bride had a vision 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, looked back at us, and said, “Okay, I don’t want that. Let’s do the golf cart now.” And she sent him back up.

u/Aeri73: The couple had practiced their opening dance, a tango, in a large room, but the wedding venue was a long and narrow, tiny room.

So, one step forward in tango style, three steps ahead, but trampling in place due to guests sitting in their way.