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People Divulge The Worst Experience They've Ever Had In The American Healthcare System

People Divulge The Worst Experience They've Ever Had In The American Healthcare System
Photo by Adhy Savala on Unsplash

Compared to the rest of the developed world, the United States lags considerably on the matter of health care. When so much of the world has a universal health care system worked out, why does the United States insist each year on driving its citizens into debt utterly impossible to get out of? And why should people have to live in fear of going to a doctor because of the medical bill?

The following stories are bound to make you angry, but we're certain Redditor Zippy_Zofia expected that after asking the online community,

Photo by Adhy Savala on Unsplash

"No idea how I'm going to pay it."

Went to the hospital when I thought I broke my ankle a few months ago. I'm in that fun income gap where I make too much for assistance but not enough to afford insurance through my employer or on my own. They checked my ankle, made sure it wasn't broken, put an ace bandage on it, and sent me home. Got the bill a few weeks later and it was $4500. No idea how I'm going to pay it.

ladylasa

"Had a precancerous lump..."

Had a precancerous lump growing in my chest, my health insurance said it wasn't developed enough to be covered and would be considered cosmetic unless it became larger.... so i had to pay for the entire procedure myself in order to prevent a possibly cancerous lump from growing.

StannisTheMantis93

"I was in shock."

I was in a horrible place mentally. I was suicidal and having anxiety attacks for the first time in my life.

Acting on the advice of my mother, I walked my broke @ss into the nearest hospital and checked myself in. Keep in mind I have no money and no health insurance.

2 hours laying in a hospital bed and a Xanax or two later I was released. The next month I received a bill for over $7,000. I was in shock. How could a 2 hour stay at the hospital amount to that much? Especially when it felt like I could get better accommodations at a Motel 6. To this day, I am still in debt. It disgusts me.

improved_living

"They refused to check..."

Went into an ER for a possible miscarriage. I told them I'd had losses before and that I'd like an ultrasound to make sure everything was ok. I'd had these cramps before with my loss before that one.

They refused to check and make sure everything was ok, only did a dipstick pregnancy test even though I told them I was pregnant. And then they wouldn't listen when I said I had no UTI, that I was going to lose my child. THEY TESTED FOR A UTI ANYWAY. (It came back negative like I said it would.)

They also decided to have the nurses press and squish my uterus to see if I was actually pregnant. I was roughly 8 weeks my uterus isn't even big enough to feel in my abdomen.

They sent me home, said I was fine and there was nothing wrong with me even though I insisted.

Why did they not listen you ask??? I wasn't established with a doctor at that hospital, didn't look to be in pain, and was texting my husband and I's roommate.

I ended up in another ER on the fourth of July (two days later) from heavy heavy bleeding and lost my second child.

( I will forever be holding a grudge against that ER. V-day was my due date and my husband's birthday. I should have a child right now.)

Nightshade_Blossom

"Call the hospital again..."

Getting a bill from a hospital for a procedure that I never had, for several thousand dollars. Call the hospital, talk to the billing department, they realize it of course could not have been me having this procedure because the person who had it was 30 years older than me, and they will correct the bill. Only to get another notice the next month. Call the hospital again, problem will be corrected. Then a late noticed the following month. Call the hospital again, told the problem will be corrected. Then get another bill the next month, rinse, repeat for 18 months.

lipsweater

"Eventually got a bill..."

Dad wasn't on blood pressure meds because of no insurance and couldn't afford the doctor and meds. Wound up having a stroke. Hospital pressured me for a couple weeks to get him out of the hospital and into a nursing home, but a couple of them wanted $10k-15k up front which we didn't have. Most nursing homes didn't even know how much they charged uninsured patients or just wouldn't even talk to us. Eventually the blood clot in his brain broke up enough that he was able to do a little bit on his own so he could just stay with a friend who was a nurse until he had enough rehab to live on his own.

Eventually got a bill from the hospital for several hundred thousand dollars for his 3 week stay. When he told them he had no insurance and couldn't afford it, they dropped it to about $65k as if the first bill was just a wild guess seeing if we'd pay it. He'll be paying it out of his retirement savings until he goes broke or dies.

spaceship_surprise

"As this was a necessary procedure..."

I've got gum recession on my molars. My dentist told me I'd need to get it fixed surgically or eventually my teeth would fall out (not to mention the pain of having the roots slowly expose themselves).

As this was a necessary procedure, the dentist and surgeon assumed my insurance would cover it. What actually happened was that, since my teeth weren't already falling out, the surgery was classified as elective. Aetna Dental and Aetna Medical passed the buck back and forth between them until eventually telling me to go fuck myself and pay the ~$1500 out of pocket. Good thing I opted to stay awake during the surgery! That would have cost me another two grand.

The thing that really grinds my gears about this is that my insurance company is basically saying that the correct thing to do would have been to spend another year or so in pain until my mouth was really fucked up, and then they would have considered the procedure necessary enough to help. How is it even in their best interest to discourage people from solving small problems before they turn into huge and more expensive problems?

PeggieGuenther

"The doctor stressed how time sensitive it was..."

My boyfriend (36) needed an amputation because he had a blood and bone infection, the bone was softening up like a marshmallow. The doctor stressed how time sensitive it was to have it removed but in the next breath told us she wouldn't be able to perform the surgery if we didn't have 25% down. We spent 2 months of our rent money trying to get his surgery taken care of. She tried to reschedule when we were $100 short. Our insurance doesn't cover preexisting conditions, which they claimed his condition was.

sm0kahontas710

"I'm tired of being a woman..."

I'm tired of being a woman and having everything being blamed on my vagina or reproductive system. Both female and male doctors like to brush off pain as being normal, when we know our bodies and we know it's anything but normal. And then you end up with bills for UTIs when you go in for intense acid reflux and food blockages. "We don't know what's going on but you have a UTI, bye." And I have to pay for that because my insurance won't cover it for whatever messed up reason.

So aggravating. Luckily I was finally diagnosed, but then insurance won't cover the medication because it's "experimental."

MeggIsAMachine

"I offered..."

I went to a hospital because I had bronchitis and didn't have a primary care. I told them it was bronchitis (because I've had it before.) And just asked for a quick diagnosis and the antibiotics. They said they needed an x-ray, several swabs for flu, bloodwork, and 5 minutes of listening to me breathing.

I offered to give them my insurance card, they said no need and gave me the prescriptions.

2 months later I have a $5,000 bill for bronchitis and my insurance lapsed because I lost my job. I still get calls from debt collectors because they immediately sold it off, before I even got the bill.

tatsuedoa

People Explain How They Climbed Out Of Poverty

Reddit user fromTheYear3969 asked: 'How did you come out of poverty/being broke?'

No one chooses to live in poverty.

It's one of the great injustices of the world that people find themselves in, often through no fault of their own.

Sadly, for the majority of people, poverty is permanent.

There are those, however, who have managed to defy the odds and climb up out of poverty.

If these people don't necessarily become millionaires, they still manage to have food in their refrigerators, and a roof over their heads.

A luxury they at one point never dreamed of having.

Redditor fromTheYear3969 was curious to hear the stories of people who achieved this remarkable accomplishment, leading them to ask:

"How did you come out of poverty/being broke?"

Hard Work And Dedication

"I was homeless, bouncing from shelter to shelter."

"One day my cousin took me with him to a place called Labor-Ready."

"It's just a place where construction companies etc. pick up a day laborer, and at the end of the day you go back to the office and they cut you a cheque for the day's work."

"Well when I got to that jobsite, the other punks I was working with from the agency were lazy and slow and complaining all day, barely doing anything."

"It pissed me off."

"We were hired to work."

"So I worked my absolute guts out."

"We were digging mud out of the basement of an abandoned farm house that was being restored."

'The boss came during the day and saw me carrying 2 steel 5 gallon pails filled to the top with mud up the stairs and out the back door constantly."

"While the other two were barely filling one 2 gallon drywall mud pail."

"He took me aside and said 'You're not going back to the agency tomorrow, you're hired'."

"From there I continued to work my guts out for him and eventually was promoted from laborer to a carpenters apprentice."

"I learned a few trades there since they were a general contractor."

"From there I moved on to other companies and continued learning new trades."

"Today I'm a jack of all trades, making good pay."

"I do everything. Windows and doors, flooring, brick and concrete repair, drywall, mud and tape, tile, siding and aluminum, you name it."

"I've got my own brand new van, fully kitted out with all the best tools I could possibly need to do any job."

"And my work is appreciated because I am meticulous and hard working."

"And that's how I went from pinching out of weed bags and sleeping at a mission to owning a house and vehicles with a good job."- Response-Cheap

Act Like Nothing Changed

"Finished grad school, got a decent paying job, but continued to largely live as if I was broke."- AgingLemon

"live like I'm still paycheck to paycheck."- Enshu

For Love AND Money

"Married my way out of it."

"I had no idea her family were doing well because they live so frugally, but when I moved in with them to 'save money' after marrying her as they put it, I was put in charge of managing everyone's bills and credit cards."

'When I saw my father and mother in laws bank accounts, I at first thought it was a mistake, but when I raised it with my wife she was like like no that sounds normal."

"I nearly fainted."

"I know for bloody sure that their grandkids are going to want for nothing."- An_Draoidh_Uaine

Wasn't Afraid To Ask For Help

"Sacrificed comfort and focused on getting the bare minimum of what I need and how to get more money."

"I at ramen and bread, slept outside, and took a shower when I could."

"I got a job at Wal-Mart, then Ross, the clothing store."

"Found a cheap motel to stay at with the girlfriend and we scrimped and saved."

"But $33 a night on a $50 a day salary eats at you and it was impossible to save."

"Like it would have been years before I could have afforded just a car to make sure I got to work on time."

"So I moved into my fathers place and could save up for a car."

'They paid for my TESOL and I used a lifetime of miles from flying between my mother and father to get a ticket to Poland, sold the car and found myself eating potatoes in Polska till i got a job teaching English."

"Then the gold(PLN) was steady."

"Moral of this story is that poverty is a scary f*cking thing and its really hard to get out of it without friends and family."

"There's no easy way out and the longer you're there the deeper the holes get especially if you start borrowing money."

"I still like to travel on nothing sometimes though."

"Hitch-hike, couchsurf, and eat nothing but bread for months."- Mixedstereotype

Never Underestimate The Importance Of Social Skills

"Being at the right place, at the right time, talking to the right people."

"You can be the most talented person in the world, but if you don't know how to play the social game, and have a lot of luck it sadly isn't going to happen."- ClearRefrigerator519

Strived For Something Better

"I grew up with drug addicted/alcoholic parents."

"I've worked every day since I was 16 and stay far away from my family."

"My wife and kids are my rock and keep me working hard and pushing to be better."

"Pro tip: leave your small town and never look back."

"Take control and grab life by the horns."- ForlornCouple

Never Took One Day For Granted

"Read, learned, exercised, went to night school, got a GED went to university (got a loan for that) learned to live on beans and rice for 6 years got a contract job in my industry worked, studied, learned took every minute of work that came my way."

"Gained the trust of the middle class people around me, made them believe I wasn't some white trash loser, read learned exercised, saved up $10,000 started my own buisness, struggled for years, failed many times and finally got here."

"I am 52 and still working 6 days a week 12 hours a day."

"Sad but true."

"No easy options for me, unfortunately."- lostinKansai

Work, Work Work...

"I went back to school at 24 to get a degree in cs, got an internship at a big tech company and converted it to a full time offer at the end of the internship."

"Now I make insane money."

"I worked full time with a lot of mandatory over time during the entire period I was in college.'

"It was brutal, but ended up being worth it."- Pwnskies

Took Advantage Of Opporuntiy

"Grew up poor."

"I am good at learning and my country has affordable education."

"Getting into university is a matter of getting a diploma from the right level high school, which I did."

'I then went to university and got a good job."

"I now pay more in taxes than my education cost the government."

"It should be that simple anywhere."- Xaphhire

Figured Out Who Their Real Friends Were.

"Might sound harsh, but I dropped the group of people I was hanging with."

"They all had no aspirations or drive to do anything or get out of the small town we grew up in."

"I knew that if I stayed in that circle of people, I wouldn’t go or do anything with my life."

"That was 8 years ago now."

"I got a college degree, have my own house, and make $120k a year."

"Everyone back at home that I left still isn’t doing anything."- HackJarlow23

One sobering thought after reading all these inspiring stories.

If all the world's billionaires each donated a small percentage of their massive fortunes, they could actually end world hunger.

And yet...

When two people decide to get married, everyone hopes for a “happily ever after” ending. Sometimes, though, the union is doomed from the start. These Redditors share some red flag moments from weddings that should have brought the impending nuptials to a grinding halt—but didn’t. Constant fighting and cheating are only the tip of the iceberg.

1. Work Wife Vs. Real Wife

The groom spent almost the entire wedding glued to his female work colleague, to the point that the bride had to drag him away for their first dance. They also kept going off somewhere together. You could see the obvious hurt on the bride's face throughout the day. But that’s not the craziest part.

Prior to the wedding, he'd taken his colleague away abroad for his stag. It was just the two of them, despite the bride's protests, and in his wedding speech, he pointed his colleague out and told her that he'd had "the best time of his life" that weekend.

They're still together at the moment, but I don't see it being the happy ending that the bride was so desperate for.

Hodifer

2. Nothing But Complaints

The bride-to-be told me two days before the wedding that she found her fiancé annoying and that she didn’t like him, and that he was AWFUL in bed. She was visibly, endlessly uncomfortable at the rehearsal wedding/dinner combination. Then, she cried the ENTIRE morning, the day of her wedding. She ended up not getting any makeup done because she wouldn’t stop scream-crying, and refused to get dressed, stalling the wedding for about 35 minutes.

She then said 45 minutes of “vows” that she had prepared. It was nine pages of things like inappropriate vows to friends and family, his parents and sisters, but none of them were to her husband. Then, she ALMOST didn’t say “I do”. They managed to get a, “Uh, yeah, okay, yeah I do” out of her almost a full 60 seconds after she was supposed to say anything.

I could go on for HOURS, but it was the most painful and awkward wedding I have ever been to. I’ve got my money on it lasting about 10 months. Two and a half months later, she would gossip about how awful her husband was, and they were in couples therapy. At five months, there were fighting non-stop and there were no more lovey-dovey images on social media. They seem to be right on track for a 10-month breakup as I predicted.

brbdead

3. Their Vows Didn’t Show Much Promise

woman with white floral headdress beside white wallPhoto by Valerie Elash on Unsplash

The groom hated the bride’s family, and the groom’s family didn’t approve of the bride, which made for a very awkward wedding! The bride’s vows made things especially awkward. She said something along the lines of “I promise to try and be worthy of your family”—and we all raised eyebrows at each other.

The groom’s speech was all about how much he has helped his bride change for the better and how he “made her what she is”. My eyebrows were practically falling off the top of my head at that point. It’s been a few months so I guess we will wait and see, but I found it to be very controlling.

harlot-bronte

4. Teenage Wasteland Wedding

My cousin was in the Army, and his bride was six months pregnant, a senior in high school, and she had just turned 18 the previous day. Her grandfather was the officiant and he gave a big speech about how marriage was only between one man and one woman and no one can tear apart what God puts together. They opened their gifts in front of everyone like it was a birthday party.

There was no booze, dancing, or food. Within 30–40 minutes after the gift opening, the "happy" couple peeled out of the Boy Scout lodge, doing donuts while her teenage friends cheered them on. They spent the night at the hotel everyone was staying at—separately—which consisted of him getting trashed with his friends while she was alone in their room. In front of our entire family, my sister said, "I give them a year."

She was wrong, though. Within three months of the kid arriving, they had split and my cousin swears the kid isn't his. The whole wedding was one giant red flag.

Siffinstein

5. The Groom’s Behavior Had The Bride Shook

After the ceremony, the bride, who had epilepsy, had a seizure and her family took her into a side room away from all the guests to look after her until she’d recovered. The groom’s reaction was brutal. He didn’t bother to go and help look after his wife, he was too busy getting sloshed and partying with all his mates. Even after the bride recovered enough to return to the celebrations, he didn’t stay with her or comfort her, and she sat there in tears for half the night. It lasted a couple of years before they divorced due to his selfishness and drinking.

Rayemonde

6. My Big Fat Gay Wedding

man in gray sweater sitting beside woman in gray sweaterPhoto by Renate Vanaga on Unsplash

The best man, the groom's lifelong best friend, was gay, and all but one of the groomsmen were gay as well. I knew the bride for years before the marriage, from before she met the groom. We never dated or considered dating, but we were part of each other's core social groups. The bride and groom met in college, where they dated casually.

He would always take her to family functions back home, but when they were back at school he would distance himself. A few years after the wedding, the groom's father passed. Within a week of the funeral, he told her it wasn't working and moved in with the best man. Everyone did their best to act shocked. From the first time I met him, I knew he was gay.

This was before I met or even heard about the best friend. He didn't react at all to her, or to other women. His eyes just didn't go where the eyes of a guy who's interested in women go. He was fit and well-groomed, and I saw more than one female flirting attempt crash and burn. All her friends tried to warn her; we literally took turns. It's just sad that he lost so much time to keep from disappointing his father, and that she lost so much time participating in his lie.

Permalink

7. She’s Just Not That Into You

The groom was madly in love with his fiancée, but always got the vibe she just wasn’t that into it. During the wedding, he was so nervous he stuttered. The bride rolled her eyes and looked mad. Then later in the night, after dinner and music had started, the bride got annoyed that people weren’t staying in their allocated seats. They had a “wishing well” for presents, and we added our anonymous gift with a card and thought that was that.

One week later, we got an infuriating call. They said that we did not put ours in. This ended up getting so bad it tore down multiple friendships for the groom. The bride wanted enough money to buy a house. It turned out the bride was cheating on him the whole time with someone who was also married. He ended up leaving her about two years later when a family friend told him about the cheating. She was then threatening to take half his business if he didn’t pay her rent for the following months.

soria1

8. The Bride And Her Lover

The bride was pregnant, and the groom might or might not have been the father. She also invited her lover to the wedding and got really angry with me because her lover was flirting with me. She had also slept with her sister's fiancé two months before the wedding. At the bachelorette party, she was snorting copious amounts of powder.

After her child was born, she got divorced and hubby got custody. She went back to live with her parents because she kept getting fired and couldn't support herself. It was the biggest trainwreck I've ever seen personally.

TwirlyShirley8

9. Friends Or Family?

a woman in an orange dress holding a bird on her armPhoto by Lance Reis on Unsplash

When I got married, it was a Renaissance fair-style wedding outside at a large gazebo and the maid of honor had promised to purchase a stylized dress for my bride that they had agreed on. Three days before the wedding, she revealed that she’d been keeping a secret. She called to tell us she had no money and was embarrassed to admit it. So, we literally hand-sewed one together in 24 hours. In my opinion, it turned out pretty nice for what we had.

The bride’s mother was supposed to pick up the cake and drive an hour south for the wedding. She left her house 30 minutes before the wedding to pick it up. When she finally showed up an hour late, the cake was DESTROYED. She had put it in the back seat and drove like mad all the way down, slamming it against its box with every turn. But then there was another twist. During the one-hour delay, there was almost a fistfight between two groomsmen because the maid of honor showed up in the dress that she was “unable to afford”.

It was an obvious attempt to upstage the bride. After the ceremony, during her speech, the same maid of honor started off by saying, “When we all met, I did not like [the groom] at all. However, I found that he grows on you like a fungus”. Needless to say, the entire side of my family didn’t appreciate all of this. Since all of these issues were on her side of friendships or families, I was told to suck it up, and we would discuss it later.

I sort of assumed that a lot of these “friends” had just shown themselves the door, but it was quite the opposite. In fact, two years later, when I accepted my first well-paying job out of college, it became an issue that it was an hour and a half out of Austin, where we were living. My wife decided to just stay in Austin to be with her friends. I mailed her the divorce papers and since she couldn't be bothered to even show up to the hearing, I never saw her again.

Drakkarim411

10. Bride-Beater Busted

Years ago, I attended a wedding and reception of a friend and neighbor. At the reception, the bride started crying. They were not happy tears either, but rather long, heartfelt weeping. Ten months later, she had a baby, and the next month he beat her up so badly she passed out on the front lawn. Her ex, who was a big, big guy and the father of her first two children, came over to their house.

He dragged the new husband out by his hair and beat him on the front lawn. The new hubby left town, and she divorced him right after that. Then we found out his first wife divorced him for beating her up too.

lovestobeme

11. It Was His Way Or The Highway

My ex-husband kept completely bulldozing the wedding plans. For instance, I didn't get to choose ANY of the music at all. He shut down things and made me feel small. I just kept acquiescing to his non-negotiable wedding ideas. He was also mad because people didn't execute them as he wanted. He wasn't smiling as I came down the aisle because the DJ got the music wrong.

All that should just have been a red flag that it was an unhealthy relationship. I was young, naive, and stayed way too long. It lasted 10.5 years, and those sorts of things never changed. We could never talk and compromise; it was either his way or the highway. If it didn’t go his way, I was a horrible human being for not giving him his way.

If I suggested a paint color for the living room, it was shot down. If he arrived at the same color on his own, it was great. I literally could not suggest something without being made to feel inconsequential. But, he expected me to jump, cater, and give in to anything he wanted, exactly as he wanted. He was always so critical of everything. Never again will I put up with that.

meadowpeace

12. He Just Needed A Hug

man in gray suit and woman in white wedding dressPhoto by Євгенія Височина on Unsplash

I attended the very big, very religious wedding of a 21-year-old bride and a 22-year-old groom. They lied about where they met—it was on Tinder. The night before, the groom and members of the wedding party were playing truth or dare. During a round, the groom admitted his biggest love language was touch but that his significant other hated to express affection physically.

He said that all he wanted was to be cuddled sometimes, and she’d refuse. He said he hoped it got better after they were married. All the groomsmen made frantic eye contact and changed the subject.

giraffewoman

13. The Judge Tried To Warn Her

I worked as a county prosecutor. I did a sentencing where the guy was sent to prison for about two years. As I was walking out of the courtroom, his girlfriend asked the judge to marry her to her boyfriend, who was going to be incarcerated. The judge said she needed a marriage license and there was a two-day waiting period—he was basically telling her not to marry the guy. But she’d planned ahead.

Then, she pulled out the marriage license. The judge told her that she needed two witnesses, and she was alone. The dude's attorney grabbed me by the arm and enthusiastically volunteered us to be the witnesses. The wedding went through. The guy was in an orange jumpsuit and was shackled during the ceremony.

Medicivich

14. The Counting Game

The bride and groom secretly married and told no one because their relationship would cost him his job. They had a wedding one year later, about a month after she graduated college. While at the reception, we were playing a “counting game” which consisted of “How many groomsmen has the bride slept with”? It was all eight of them. The groom had slept with three of the bridesmaids so there was that, too.

Then, we started the betting pool at the reception which only played country music and served grits three ways with beers. I won the bet. It lasted six months after the ceremony, which isn’t too surprising, as the bride went home with the guitarist from the band playing at the reception instead of with the groom.

tonks118

15. His Frat Boy Ways

a couple of men standing next to each otherPhoto by Nima Sarram on Unsplash

I went to my wife's coworker’s wedding. She was the sweetest person and her fiancé was a total slob. He was just a cocky, out-of-shape, burnt-out frat guy. He had told her to her face about all the girls he'd slept with and how he'd had perfect weeks where he'd slept with a different girl every night. I’m pretty sure this was a bad technique to try and make her stick around and think he was desirable. But he saved the worst for the wedding.

That was where he drank so much, he passed out before anyone had left and she had to take him to their hotel room while passed out. She didn’t get to finish her own wedding or have a wedding night. I felt so sad for her.

jonathanweb100

16. Dancing Around The Real Issues

My wedding was full of red flags. My ex-wife had a taste for theatrics and wanted a choreographed dance number for the first dance. She also wanted the whole wedding party involved, but there was no interest. I'd never danced, not even at a club, but was willing to take lessons with her with the understanding we would do something together, so she could have her dream wedding.

I sucked but got through a few lessons of slow dancing. The dance school wouldn't choreograph anything for us, so she promptly gave up. When it came to choosing the song, she decided she wanted “I Want You To” by Weezer, which was my favorite band and the song had just come out. It has a jamboree feel to it; it is not a song to slow dance to.

So, I suggested we choose something else, but she insisted we would just slow dance to it. I made her promise she wouldn't change her mind. Sure enough, 30 seconds into the song, she backed up and started dancing a jig. I just stood there in disbelief, fuming, while she kept shouting and motioning for me to dance in front of all our guests.

To boot, we had set a budget, and she exceeded it. Then her parents decided to chip in $5K, and rather than use it to offset what we were over budget for, she decided to spend more. In retrospect, that should have been a huge clue that she didn't respect me at all. She cheated on me and ran off with some guy a year later. She got remarried before we were officially divorced.

theradiomatt

17. No Arguing It Wouldn’t Last

I was a groomsman at my friend’s wedding. The rest of the groomsmen were guys he met while stationed in the Air Force, and they knew his fiancée much better than I did. During the entire week leading up to the wedding, she would call him constantly and just straight-up yell as soon as he answered; then, they would argue.

During the week, the other groomsmen kept telling me that they didn’t like her and how much of a pain she was. At the wedding, one of the groomsmen came up to me and said, “I can’t wait to see you guys at his second wedding”. I laughed so hard.

theOperentice

18. Big Wedding Gone Bust

a man and woman kissingPhoto by Chip Vincent on Unsplash

The bride didn't look happy to be walking down the aisle. She was smiling, but it was very much a pasted-on smile that I assumed was because she was nervous. I found out at the wedding that her parents had offered to pay for either a big wedding or pay for a small wedding then give them the money for a down payment for a house. She wanted a big wedding. Big mistake.

Where we lived, the housing market was insanely competitive and this was at the peak of the housing prices, right before the crash. Her parents basically offered her the ability to jump-start their lives together. Instead, she turned it down for the big party with her as the center of attention. It was over within two years, and she didn't even seem upset about it.

scarletnightingale

19. Knocked Up And Fed Up

My high school best friend got pregnant from the first guy she dated upon joining the Air Force. She grew up in a super strict, and really weird household. She didn’t know anything about birth control or dating. I moved back to our hometown a few weeks before she came home to get married. She asked me to be a bridesmaid, along with her five sisters, and I agreed.

The guy brought his parents and enough friends to fill out the party. We spent two days around her house just getting to know each other, which was pretty fun. I had been flirting with a couple of the guys, which annoyed one of the sisters. So, she called me out for having a “tramp stamp” and embarrassed me. I really hate being the center of attention, so it was extra awful.

I’m sure it was obvious I was mortified. The wedding went on. The bride bawled the whole time and was about six months pregnant at the time. After the vows, she disappeared for a little bit to clean up. The groom and I ended up chit-chatting while everyone was mingling. It was the first time I had even really spoken to him. He ended up talking about my tattoos, and how attractive they were.

I tried to play it off as him being polite until he said something about inviting me to his hotel room later to show me his own tattoos, which were apparently located in some inappropriate places. I had no idea what to say, so I laughed and said I needed to change out of my heels. It was awful, and I felt so bad for her, but I couldn’t bring myself to say anything.

Most likely, since they lived a couple of states away and had JUST gotten married with a baby on the way, I would have been the one who was blamed. So, I just lived with the guilt. She got divorced less than three years later, at about 22 years old. He cheated a lot, and she finally got fed up. She then took a vow to be celibate afterward.

Because she had a child with him, she chose to just be single rather than confuse her child with a new spouse. I never understood her logic, but I supported her choice. It’s been 10 years, and she’s still single. I don’t feel like she’s ever really even experienced what it’s like to be with a good spouse, and I feel terrible for her.

Cukimonster

20. Keeping With Tradition Spelled Disaster

I come from a very large Indian family, portions of which still strongly believe in "traditional marriage", such as child brides, forced marriage, and uncle/niece marriages. There was one wedding where a woman in the family eventually found the guy of her dreams and wanted to marry him. However, as her older brother was unmarried, she was not allowed to marry until he did first.

So, their parents forced the brother to marry an emotionally manipulative girl. He clearly understood what she was like prior to getting married. He went through with it anyway on the pretext that he was okay "sacrificing" his life for the sake of his sister. It was a complete disaster.

Within two years they were divorced. He eventually married again, for love, but got divorced again. He is now preparing to marry for the third time, again at the behest of his family because "it's not okay" for the older brother to be single while the younger sister is married.

hulidoshi

21. Lack Of Devotion

group of people dancingPhoto by Mitchell Orr on Unsplash

I went to a beautiful wedding a few summers ago. It was a quiet backyard wedding, in a beautiful woodsy neighborhood. The couple had been happily dating for eight years and were about to buy a house. The only thing that seemed kind of off was the fact that the groom cried tears of joy, but the bride didn't. She spent the entirety of the reception dancing by herself or talking to family, not really paying her new husband much attention.

It was a busy day, so nobody really thought much of it. Two years later, she cheated on him with a guy she had just met, filed for divorce, and moved in with the new guy immediately. The husband was devastated and still hasn't moved on despite getting constant offers. His wife very openly didn’t care and has since flooded her social media with cutesy updates and pictures of her new relationship. I suppose the wedding day was a glimpse into the imbalance of devotion in their relationship.

LemonFly4012

22. Princess Bride

A rich guy married a girl with stars in her eyes. The wedding was insane. As you walked in, there was a guy on each of the double doors opening them in unison. They actually paid two people to do this little dance and stand there all day. When you walked in, there was what must have been $10,000 worth of giant flower arrangements in the entryway.

Then there was another double door with two more guys opening them. The wedding was nuts with string quartets, and no expense was spared. However, during the reception, I overheard the bride saying something to her friends about how he better keep working to "keep her". I've seen this princess mentality before, it never works out. A relationship needs each party to be equal.

kperkins1982

23. A Tainted Tribute

We were friends of the bride. We met the groom’s parents for the first time just before the start of the wedding. Instead of offering nice remarks about our friend—their daughter-in-law to be—they spent the entire conversation talking about how wonderful their son was, which struck my wife and me as odd. The marriage lasted a little less than one month.

It also resulted in the birth of a boy who has never met his father, who not only demanded a paternity test but who has never set foot in the state where his son lives. If he did, he would be forced to pay child support, which he has never done, despite the wealth of his family, who were so effusive in their praise of him.

BrStFr

24. The Best Man Got Things Off With A Bang

I was a wedding videographer. About 10 years ago, I was filming a rather prestigious wedding. Everything was going great until the reception. The best man got up to give a speech, and started by saying, “Well, I guess now is as good a time as any to let the groom know I’ve been banging the bride for years”. The room parted into “his” and “hers”, and the groom ran out, never to be seen again. The bride’s parents asked me to send them the video, as they felt so guilty over what happened. I got paid, so it didn’t bother me either way, but it was the best red flag I’ve seen by far!

djillusions24

25. She Was A Gold Digger

people raising wine glass in selective focus photographyPhoto by Al Elmes on Unsplash

My cousin—who’s not a very nice lady—married some poor sucker rather quickly into their relationship. He was a super smart and successful accountant for an aerospace company and she was a nobody. Although that shouldn’t matter In love, in her case we knew what was up. We all knew the real reasons for this unholy matrimony, mostly because she was following in her mother’s footsteps, who was a raging forest fire of a magnum gold digger.

We took great pity for the pain, time, and large amounts of money this guy was sure to suffer. During the ceremony, this guy spontaneously developed a tick. He started throwing his head back and forth, almost as if the Good Lord himself was smacking him. His jaw must have started to lock up because he kept opening it as wide as he could and sticking his tongue out.

It was as if he had this sudden cramp in his entire speak-hole area, and he wouldn’t be able to utter the solidifying words. At the “I do” part, when it was his turn, he took three big violent shakes side-to-side and stretched his jaw super wide. A couple of months later, she was banging at least one other guy, accusing hubby of beating her and of being emotionally taxing, but we all knew better.

Permalink

26. Happiness Is Key

I had a destination wedding. The night before, another couple was getting married, and they had to pass through the restaurant we were in to get to the reception area. The looks on their faces said it all. They looked miserable. They weren’t holding hands, not excited, nothing. It was like the ending of The Graduate. I originally gave them some slack, thinking that having a wedding is hard and exhausting.

However, the next night, at our wedding, we didn’t stop smiling for a second. When we were alone, passing through the restaurant to get to our reception space, we were both giddy, excited, and nervous, but we were happy.

IcedBanana

27. The Bride Wanted A Frisky Frolic

woman in white sleeveless dressPhoto by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

My friend got married to his baby mama after their kid was a few years old. Their wedding had a good reception and the bride was a great wing woman, so the bridesmaid and I left to have a party of our own. We came back and joined the after-party and everybody was feeling pretty good. Soon enough, the bride was sitting at the bar by me, started making comments, and getting pretty grabby.

I tried to get away, as things were getting awkward. So, I waved my buddy—the groom—over and told him what was up and he should probably get her out of there. She told him she just wanted to feel my willie but I wouldn't let her, and they proceeded to get into a fight. Years later, they were still together, but there is no way she's been faithful, and he refused to see it. I wish him the best of luck.

Logisticsbtchs

28. Time For A Change

When my cousin met his wife-to-be, she gradually chipped away at him by molding his personality to how she wanted him to be. In the end, gone was the cheeky lovable personality, his friends, and his hobbies. I barely saw him anymore, and neither did most of his family. The last I saw him was at our grandad’s funeral after they had been married for about a year.

Aside from the fact it obviously was a sad occasion, he was a completely different person. Even at the wedding, he was noticeably miserable. They divorced another year or so later. Apparently, he was boring and not the man she fell in love with, so cheating on him was the logical thing for her to do. I haven't seen or spoken to him since the funeral but I hear he's doing okay.

LetOneRip

29. The Groom Became Texas Toast

My best friend was getting married. I met the bride-to-be about six months before the wedding. She was the southern Texas “treat me like a princess and I’ll tolerate you” type. I was the “loud obnoxious city slicker that will say things to see how you react” type. She started to disallow him to see me, even when I drove two hours just to see him for the day.

By the time the wedding happened, I walked down the aisle of the wedding party bus taking bets on how long the marriage would last. No one, including the bridesmaids, said over three years. The bride got mad at me for undoing my tie at the $30K reception. I looked at her and just shook my head. A year and a half later, I found out the dark truth about her.

She was banging the marriage counselor her father was making them go to see because he couldn’t have his clients knowing his daughter wanted a divorce.

I ended up helping my friend pack all of his stuff in a box truck and driving him across the country for a new start. I ended up being his best man in his second wedding and they are perfect together.

Permalink

30. The Odds Were Stacked Against Them

a large statue in a large room with people standing aroundPhoto by Michael M on Unsplash

I was at a poker table in Las Vegas over Labor Day weekend; it was late Saturday night. Next to me was a lady in her mid-20s, a naturally pretty country girl. She was a decent poker player, having a good time. Next to her was a dude, also in his mid-20s, in good shape, and rough around the edges. He was a decent poker player, but he was drinking and getting loud.

It was about 11 PM, and these two had been married for about 3-4 hours at that point. She had a bad hand, but it didn’t doesn't matter, as she was breaking even for the night. He dropped about $300-$400, and I noticed that a couple of players were keying in on him. By midnight, he was getting louder, and was warned for swearing at the table.

Everybody at the table was hoping to get a piece of his money when he started going crazy.

At 1 AM, he was down $1,000. They were going to play all night, as their plane was leaving in 10 hours, and they didn’t have a room at any hotel. At 2 AM, she was up $100 and was rock solid. She's gone from chatty to super-quiet. Her hubby was all over the place and was dropping about $200 an hour to the table.

At 3 AM, I left the table. I couldn’t help but wonder what possessed a “solid 8+ of a woman” to marry a pathetic trashed mess of a boy. I can't imagine a world where he didn't do something bad that night that she had to clean up. And, looking back, I can't imagine a world where he doesn't do something bad that she has to clean up every few days.

CatOfGrey

31. The Bride Had A Dark Side

A guy I know met, got married to, and divorced this girl in under two years. She was ten years younger than him. He came to find out that she was a pillhead and was buying all sorts of dope on the dark web. She had a rich family who kept giving her money and meddling in the details of their marriage, like buying car insurance, buying a mattress, and such.

Said rich family made them get married on the family property. During the wedding, the bride’s dad said to the groom, “That empty lot over there is a place for [my daughter] to have a house”. There was no mention of him. But that’s not the worst part. She was cheating on him with a guy elsewhere in the state, and when my friend found evidence of their relationship, she told him that the guy had assaulted her.

She took this claim so far with her family that they never knew the truth until the last round of divorce negotiations, when my buddy’s lawyer dropped all the evidence he got from her phone on them, along with transactions for her dope dealings. She got nothing.

TelaTheSpy

32. Double-Dealing Dog

I was the best man at a wedding, and the groom disappeared on the morning of the wedding. He went AWOL for several hours. My wife overheard the bride in tears in the bathroom at the reception, saying she shouldn't have married him, and asked what she was doing. It turned out his absence was to go and speak to another full-on girlfriend—who none of us knew about—to break up with her before he got married. He was leading a double life. They split up within a couple of years when it all came out, but sadly not before they had a kid.

TumTiTum

33. Early Intervention

group of people prayingPhoto by Samantha Gades on Unsplash

I brought my girlfriend to a buddy’s wedding, and a conversation about kids came up. She told me she wouldn’t want kids for at least another ten years. We were only about six months in at that point, but things seemed pretty serious. I was sure I wanted kids with her, and I told her I’d be totally supportive of her if she ever became pregnant, whatever her decision was. Well, that’s when I learned she’d been keeping a devastating secret.

A few hours and a handful of drinks later, she told me she had recently gotten an abortion during our relationship. I didn’t know if it was mine or not; it was kind of a red flag.

Permalink

34. An Exercise In How Not To Act

It wasn’t the couple getting married who had red flags flying, but the best man and maid of honor, who were married to each other. The best man's speech was all about how hard it was to be married. He said, "I've been married for a year and it feels like 100 years". The maid of honor stood up to give her speech and just said, "Ditto". It was so awkward and really brought the whole room down.

The brother of the bride stood up and gave a nice impromptu speech about teamwork, having a partner to go through life with, and how happy the family was to have the groom join their family. The best man and maid of honor were divorced within a year. The couple who got married was still married 30+ years later. I sometimes wonder if the speeches actually were helpful in how not to act as a couple.

designgoddess

35. All About The Groom, But What About The Bride?

I was the maid of honor at a wedding. They seemed like the perfect couple. They had been together for nearly ten years and had this big, expensive, beautiful wedding. The bride would have been happy with a small event, but she told me the groom had a big family and had insisted on a larger one. Alarm bells hit when I sat with her parents in the front row.

I realized the groom-to-bride ratio was so massively off. The groom had three best men, as well as ushers, etc. His sister and one best man read something during the ceremony, and then all three said long speeches about him at dinner. It was all about him. The photographer was even his friend’s mom, so she kept whisking away the boys for these “hilarious” guy shoots.

The bride was ignored most of the day and in the evening, the groom got too trashed, spilled a drink over her wedding gown, and danced with his friends. It felt more like a big birthday party than a joint event. I’d never seen that side of him, but I felt so sorry for my friend. It was like she was just there to be a prop to his plans and look good. Later, I learned the dark truth.

Three months after the wedding, he began being emotionally disparaging to her. A month after that, he admitted he’d been having an affair for years, then left. If I hadn’t seen the way he behaved at the wedding, I never would have guessed he had that in him. Four years later, my friend hasn’t been able to trust or date again yet, but I think she learned never to be a backseat passenger in a relationship again.

When he left, she told him that he would never see her, or hear from her, or about her again. She dropped all friends that had any connection with him and made sure he would always live his life wondering if he made the right decision and what she was up to.

GRC2772

36. A New Do And A Ring Too

shallow focus photo of man holding scissorsPhoto by Eugene Chystiakov on Unsplash

My college roommate was super reclusive. He never had any friends and never dated. One day, he told us he had a girlfriend. We’d never seen him with a girl, let alone talk to one. Toward the end of the semester, he ran into me near the apartment and asked if I was going to be gone around noon. I said I was and asked why. He told me he was going to propose to his girl, but he wanted me there and showed me the rather large diamond ring.

It was weird, but okay. It was the end of the semester, and everyone was busy with finals. The apartment was a mess. Dirty dishes were stacked high in the sink. My roommate’s idea to propose to this poor thing was to ask her to give him a haircut. She showed up before he or I did, so another roommate and she just sat there awkwardly.

We tried to clean up quickly, but we only had a few minutes. This was the first time we had met her and she was a supreme introvert. My roommate showed up and introduced her, and asked her if they could move along. He set up a chair in the kitchen and she started cutting his hair. He didn’t want to get hair on his shirt, so he got a big black trash bag and cut a hole in the bottom for his head only.

His arms were locked in the bag. She cut his hair, and his line to propose after she finished the haircut was, “If only I had something shiny to see my haircut”. She offered to get a mirror, but he repeated the same line louder and fumbled in his pocket and trash bag to retrieve the ring box. He was covered in hair, and his arms were awkwardly held against his body by the trash bag.

He opened the ring box, thrust it awkwardly at her, and went, “Hmmmmmmmmmmmm”? Meanwhile, she was backed into the sink with the dirty dishes. He didn’t really ask her to marry him. She put the ring on, said yes, and he left to go take a shower without kissing her or anything! She then sat on the couch, staring at the ring with a solemn look while the other roommate and I stared in disbelief at the train wreck that had just happened.

The semester ended, and they were still engaged. My roommate went across the country for an internship while she stayed in the college town. Then, my roommate got taken into custody at the airport and charged with possessing a fake grenade in his checked carry-on bags. He got out and came back to the college town. I ran into him about 4–5 months after the proposal mess. I asked how his fiancée was doing, and he replied, “I don’t know; I haven't talked to her since I left for the internship”. Somehow they are still married eight years later. It’s unbelievable.

harbormaster2

37. It Was A Losing Battle

I was friends with this couple for a couple of years in college. They got “secretly” married so they could live off campus. In the last year of school, they were getting “married for the first time” for their family and friends who didn’t know. The wedding day came around, and they had been fighting up to that point like cats and dogs. These two weren’t good for each other and made dumb decisions young.

Apparently, the first words they said to each other in two days was, “I do”. Even at the age of 21, I knew they wouldn’t stay together. Fast forward, and I ended up being roommates with them for one year. What a massive mistake. The fights, the throwing of things, the running out of the house during arguments, the lies told, etc., were crazy. They got divorced within a couple of years of that, and they both later remarried.

Permalink

38. Their Relationship Was Loaded With Problems

I was dating the best man at a wedding. The groom spent all his time hanging out with his buddies, and the bride spent all the time using illicit substances in the bathroom. I spent more time with the groom at the wedding than the bride did. She also flipped his brand new Jeep the day before the wedding because she was driving while loaded, and quit her job the day after the wedding because he was supposed to take care of her now.

They were married in November and separated by January. The groom later confided in my then-boyfriend that he thought getting married would solve everything.

bb_or_not_bb

39. Hitched On Hypocrisy

three people holding glass bottles while talkingPhoto by John Arano on Unsplash

Both the bride and the groom had their stags the night before. The groom and bride stood in the church, hungover, both mad at the other because they were hungover. At the party afterward, they practically refused to talk to each other because they were still mad at each other. It all came to a head at about midnight. They were fighting about literally being in the same condition as the other one but not wanting the other one to be in that condition.

I was kind of shocked, to be honest. There is a threshold of being just hypocritical and being entirely devoid of the ability of self-reflection. Both stood firmly in the second category. Here's the kicker, though. Both wanted a divorce because they both cheated just three months into the marriage. To this day, both blame the other for cheating and ruining the marriage because of it. In some very weird way, they fit each other perfectly.

UndeadBBQ

40. A Photo Finish

I was at a wedding where the couple had four professional photographers and two two-man videographer teams running around the wedding, capturing everything. The bride paid them more attention than her guests and only acknowledged the groom when she was being filmed. Her mailed-out wedding invitations were styled after a gossip magazine and were six pages—FRONT AND BACK.

They had about 12 photos of her looking lovey-dovey at her ring, or with a “surprised” face, and the groom faded in the background on his knee. There were more photos of her dog than the groom. They are currently in marriage counseling, but it’s not looking good. She has a laundry list of narcissistic things she’s done since the wedding, which was less than three years ago.

finlyboo

41. The Signs Were All There

I was the groom attending a Roman Catholic church for a wedding that was a full mass as well as the wedding nuptials. The priest’s sermon was about the effects of divorce in today's society, of all things. When it came time to exchange vows, the bride-to-be looked bloody terrified and not what you would expect a woman to look like at that point in time on her wedding day.

I, on the other hand, was well and truly in the moment, fully embracing the commitment I was about to make in front of my family, friends, and God. But, the emotional state of my fiancée was becoming more and more apparent to me. So, when the priest asked, "If anyone here has any reason that this couple should not be joined in holy matrimony let them speak now, or forever hold their peace", my expression and glances around the church were, in hindsight, a desperate cry for help.

It was the kind of foreshadowing that should have been laughably obvious at the time, but what does one do in that situation? I just wish I knew what I could have done at the time, and not gone on to suffer through a one-sided loveless marriage for over 26 years and lose everything in the process. While we were separated, I found out that she had somehow managed to divorce me without my being served divorce papers and had remarried.

DoctoreV

42. Rather A Roomie Than A Groomie

shallow focus photo of two men kissingPhoto by Glodi Miessi on Unsplash

My friend was gay and his best friend was getting married. We all used to joke that she was already his husband because they were roommates and had a very Will & Grace type of relationship. I didn’t know her that well but, I and some of our other friends, were invited to her wedding. After the wedding, at the reception, we were sitting with my friend.

The girl came up to our table, a little tipsy, and started crying about how she wished my friend was straight so that she could have married him instead. My friend took it all in stride while we and the other guests were horrified. The bride and her husband broke up 18 months later, and she and my friend are roommates once more.

NerdWithoutACause

43. The Bride Gave Off Some Bad Vibes

At my brother’s wedding, we were about to walk into the reception, and I assumed that speeches would be soon to follow. My family wasn’t all too fond of his wife, myself included, but I thought that I could at least give her a chance. I was talking to the maid of honor, who was also the bride’s little sister, and discovered that she had not prepared a speech.

She started freaking out, so I tried to calm her down and just give her some guidelines for something short and sweet to say that would go over well. She actually seemed like she was ready to pull it off. Then, the bride overheard our conversation and piped in, “Oh, no speeches. We’re not doing any speeches”. She was very firm on the matter, and my brother just kind of shrugged.

My reaction was something like, “Well then, why did I spend three days working on one”? I kept my cool, but I was mad. I had a really bad vibe from the incident, like their marriage was going to be a joke. She left my brother a month later.

taakowizard

44. Drama Was A Bonus

Many years ago, I was going out with a girlfriend, Kay, who had moved across the country to live with me, and was struggling to make friends. One night, I introduced her to one of my friend's girlfriends, and they became immediate best friends. This was an immediate red flag for me because this other girl was not exactly a nice person. However, I was glad that we now had a shared friend group and could go out together.

My friend’s girlfriend and my friend were getting married in a few months. A week before the wedding, Kay and I were spending the night in, and Kay was constantly texting on her phone. Eventually, she revealed that she was talking to the bride-to-be—and what she told me was seriously disturbing. The bride-to-be was with her ex in a hotel having a "bonus night" before she got "tied down forever".

My best friend was the best man; hence, I told him so that he could break it gently to our friend. However, the wedding went ahead as planned, surprisingly, and both have cheated on each other over their five-year marriage. I think some couples don't feel complete unless there is drama in their relationship, as my friends do seem very happy together when they're not shouting and fighting.

Ciderhero

45. The Icing On The Cake

a three tiered cake with figs on top of itPhoto by Melissa Walker Horn on Unsplash

In a lot of weddings, it is customary that the groom and bride feed each other the cake. It is not unusual that they will sometimes get some icing on each other's noses or even outright smash it against each other's lips. Usually, it's meant for good fun and whatnot. At this wedding, during the cake slicing, the groom got a little icing on the bride's nose, and she burst into tears.

She was full-on crying and accusing him of ruining their wedding in front of the entire party. It was hard to watch, especially since the groom was my cousin who is a sweet guy that's a playful goofball. He was pretty taken aback by her reaction and pulled her aside to console her along with her bridesmaids and maid of honor.

There were other red flags, like how the bride was insistent that the groom's family be seated 3-4 rows back, while her entire family, extended family, and all got to sit front and center. Then, she asked my parents and me to move from our assigned seats because she forgot that my cousin had invited us. She wanted some of her friends to sit there since it was close to the bride and groom's table. It was a bunch of things, but that cake-eating is what really made me know they were in a doomed relationship. They ended up lasting not even two years.

Keinnea

46. Taking Bets

I used to work in catering for weddings. There was this one couple, who got this beautiful old English Tudor venue, and they paid out a huge amount for the catering; it was for about 200 guests. They were all expected to arrive after the ceremony at 1 PM. Three hours later, they rocked up to the venue without so much as an explanation. There was no call that they would be late, no sign of any guests, nothing.

The staff was all standing around speculating “maybe they called it off, someone was stood up, etc.”, for hours. We started getting ready to pack everything up and just leave when we finally saw guests arriving. So, we started serving canapés and we saw the bride and groom for about two minutes before they walked off into the gardens to have a full-on screaming match.

The main topic of conversation with guests was literally betting on how long they would last, who is going to be the first to cheat, and things like that. They came back an hour later, now shouting at us saying, “Why aren’t the guests eating yet”? Meanwhile, we were waiting for them! After that, things actually went pretty smoothly. We finished serving and they started the toasts.

The guy’s friends were comedians, so the speeches are brilliant, but walking through topping up champagne, we could hear every table still murmuring offhand jokes or sarcastic comments about them not lasting, etc. I think they went off to argue a few more times after that. It was a lovely wedding with terrible people.

frankensteinsdoctor

47. The Butterfly Effect

My husband and I were doing the catering for a small wedding of fewer than 50 people. They had actually had their first date in our restaurant and asked us to cater their big day, which was sweet. It was a seaside wedding, very DIY, and even my kids helped set up. Under each folding chair in the wedding "audience", was a box to be retrieved and opened by the guests when the officiant told them to do so.

The goal of this was well-intentioned. The guests would lift the tops of the boxes to free what would become a sea of delicate butterflies, symbolic of their marital journey "taking off". Well, it ended in a truly gruesome scene. The butterflies all died in their boxes due to oxygen starvation, and when the lids were collectively released, their limp bodies were swept up in a vicious yet timely gust of wind. In one glorious moment, united, they were whipped off forcefully into the horizon.

owlsareahoot91

48. Dreaming Of Another

man in gray suit jacket sitting on chair beside man in gray suit jacketPhoto by Sam Balye on Unsplash

I was a groomsman at a wedding. As the night was winding up, the groom was nowhere to be found. The inebriated bride, whom I’d met maybe three times prior, asked me to dance. Then she made a disturbing revelation. She told me that when she pleasures herself, she would think of me!

That was the first time she ever expressed interest in me. They had three kids in five years, and both caught each other cheating on the other. They divorced at the 5-year mark.

AussieDuckMan

49. For Goodness’ Sake Forsake Already!

I filmed a wedding in Louisiana once. In the hours leading up to the wedding, the bride was getting pretty loaded with her bridesmaids. Rain delayed the wedding, as it was all scheduled for outdoors next to a rustic barn. In the final hour before it was time, the bride was getting pretty angry at her mom who was criticizing this item here, or this guest here, and her drinking wasn’t helping anything.

Somehow, they made it through without a catfight, but the biggest red flag came from the groom-to-be. During the vows, when it got to the part where the line is, "and forsaking all others", the dude simply could not utter those words. So much so, that he was getting emotional on his face, and shutting down completely. I focused on him with the camera, so when I edited the video later, I played that part over and over, trying to guess what was going on in his head.

The bride was laughing and smiling at him, so either she was too sloshed to care, or she was in on some partner-swapping action with him, and thought it was hilarious. The preacher offered to alter the line, and said something like, "Okay how about, and only loving the bride”. The groom regained a little bit of his composure, nodded, and muddled through the rest of the vows. The marriage was only about three years ago, but sure enough, she has a new man she is with.

cjlovesjc2016

50. Getting Even

The groom had his bachelor party the night before, got a handy, and kissed an exotic dancer. He was guilt-ridden and told the bride the morning of the wedding. She still married him. The next day, I was hanging out with the newlyweds and the groom's friends. The bride and I were the only two women there. The bride was drinking and hanging off me like we had been BFFs for years.

She made several trips to the bathroom to pee and insisted I tag along. On each trip to the bathroom, she was fuming over the bachelor party action and kissing the dancer situation. The kissing bothered her more than the handy, but she was still upset and talked about how she was going to cheat on him to even the score. Not a solid start for a marriage.

I-LIKE-NAPS

A black and white photo of a couple kissing
Photo by Pablo Heimplatz

Let's talk about sex, baby.

I love that song and that phrase.

Yes, sex is natural and fun.

It can also cause a colossal amount of drama.

But does everyone always do it for the right reasons?

Redditor Environmental_Log257 wanted to hear about all of the wrong reasons people used for shacking up with others, so they asked:

"What’s the worst reason you hooked up with someone?"

I like to think that all of my sexual choices were thought out and wise.

But who am I kidding?

I'm no better than the rest.

I did the deed

"My first long-term gf cheated on me when she went off to college. We broke up. About two months later she got hit by a transportation bus and lost her leg. We had seen each other a couple of times after her recovery and hooked up. Years later I meet another girl with the same first name through a different ex and she had lost her leg too. I was thinking what are the odds of someone else being able to say they slept with two girls with the same name with both missing a leg…. So. I did the deed."

Justsittinghere25

I hear you

"We both had the same name and thought it would be fun to call out our names in the heat of it."

RayRayJones

"Ok, this is like… the BEST reason to hook up with someone. That sounds hilarious."

hashtagsugary

"Honestly that sounds so fun. Too bad I’ll probably never meet anyone with my name since it’s not technically a real name and I’ve never HEARD of another person being called that. My middle name is Ashley, though, and I tend to go by that in professional settings (I’m a guy, by the way) so I probably have a decent chance of trying that."

___sephiroth

That Night

"Almost dated in high school. Had a falling out in college and didn't talk for years until we both attended a mutual friend's wedding. We were the only single people there and neither wanted to go home empty-handed. So we didn't. That was about four years ago. We talk sporadically but we've only seen each other in person maybe once or twice since that night."

Current-Revolution-4

"Interesting that you’ve never developed it. In my personal experience knowing myself, if this were to happen to me, I’d so relive the moment in my mind and want to be with that person forever, assuming the action was good and the person is happy with me."

HamaDDisco

Wingman Issues

Barney Stinson Wingman GIFGiphy

"She was hitting on my friend and he wasn’t down, so he said 'save me.' Reverse wingman lol."

SmokeAbeer

"Falling on a grenade for your comrade."

magcargoman

Bad ideas

Oh No Facepalm GIF by AminéGiphy

"My best friend (I'm Male she's Female) hadn't had sex in a year and asked me."

"We stopped being friends in any capacity after that."

cgulash

Feeling Unpretty

"I felt unattractive after my ex cheated on me and I needed someone to tell me I wasn't."

totalanomie

"Same-ish. Had a rough and very confusing breakup."

"She found me attractive and clearly was just looking for a little fun, with no attachment. We talked a lot and had a good time just being together, but we didn't really date. Just talked, sex, talked. It made me feel wanted again. She seemed to enjoy it and was clearly not interested in anything more than that. We parted as friends."

FaliedSalve

AOL Days

"Because she asked. I was visiting a friend in a different part of the state and she introduced me to one of her friends and she gave me my AOL username. This was back in the late 90s. 😉 A few days after returning home I received a message from that person asking for a one-night stand."

AnimeJoex

"A man has to comply to the AOL lady, it’s just sound reasoning."

hayitsnine

Truth

"I was emotionally compromised and wanted to use a person that I cared nothing about to make me feel better about a situation that I couldn’t fix."

Rounder057

"I appreciate your honesty. Honestly, 99% of people do this at one point in their life whether they admit to it or not. You're admitting to it, even if it’s anonymous, which says a lot Or maybe I’m just like you and want to feel better about myself and I’m just a crazy rando. Therapy here I come!"

dl-__-lp

Gotcha!

Wave Goodbye GIF by Beauty BrandsGiphy

"He cheated on me with his roommate’s girlfriend. So obviously his roommate and I hooked up for some revenge. It was excellent and I regret nothing."

HighQueenMarcy

Might as well

"We were bored. This was in the mid '00s when smartphones were not a thing yet and people still used CD players and DVDs. We both had no money or place to go and after doing nothing but talking with each other for 3 days we felt like we knew each other pretty well. I remember her complaining that 'there's nothing to do out here.' So I jokingly said back 'Well we could always do each other.'"

"Expecting her to punch me in the arm like she did when I made a comment about her boobs growing when she was talking about needing to go bra shopping. However, instead, she just sighed and said 'We might as well.' Before getting up and going inside her grandma's apartment. At first, I was a little confused and thought she misheard me so I followed. However once I was inside and saw her taking off her shirt I knew she heard me perfectly well."

alanalot

Wow. Sex has people doing crazy things.

It maybe a wiser choice to think things through sometimes.

Or at least get a hobby or two.

We've all heard of Thomas Edison's process of inventing the lightbulb and the Wright Brothers' many attempts at inventing the first flyable airplane. We've even heard of the ridicule they heard of their ahead-of-their-time ideas.

But there are so many other examples of major scientific findings that were heavily argued against when they were first presented.

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