The Biggest Red Flags People Have Ever Seen At A Wedding

Tying the knot with the person you see yourself spending the rest of your life with is one of life's greatest moments.

However, those who have an outside perspective of your relationship may see signs that your matrimonial bliss could be more of a miss.

Curious to hear from those who prognosticated doomed marriages, Redditor kinda_beechy asked:

"What are some red flags at a wedding?"

Omen

"Small fish in inadequate glass containers as center pieces. We all walk into the hall and find our tables, each with a belly up, totally dead, bloated guppy floating in its little glass coffin. Lots of people lost their appetites. Marriage didn't last a year."

– aloneintheupwoods

Scene-Stealer

"Mother-in-law in a white lace dress."

– ScaryPearls

"My MIL wore a cream dress to my wedding. The next year when she re-married… she wore the same dress."

– Early_Pin_5256

"My mom wore a white lace dress to my wedding. I was the bride. Almost 26 years later, I'm still happily married but cut off my mom!"

"I didn't feel upstaged, but I did feel like she couldn't give me just one day of being the center of attention. Not one day."

"She did say that after the bride, the Mother of the Bride should be the prettiest woman in the room. I told her it should be the Maid of Honor, who was my little sister and also her daughter!"

– _Internet_Hugs_

Neglected Bride

"I’ve been to a lot of wedding, two of which I vividly recall the groom spending 98 percent of the reception and dance with his friends rather the bride, both ended in quick divorce."

– SillySub2001

"Everyone talked about how much fun they had at my wedding, except me. Groom was outside with the other smokers the whole time except for cake cutting, etc. picture opps. We’re divorced now."

– Broad_Pomegranate141

"As the bride who danced the entire wedding reception without her groom, can confirm these weddings end in quick divorce. (Happily married to the love of my life now though for 15 years!)"

– Repulsive_Cost_5040

In Love With A Concept

"The bride is losing her sh*t over every little thing that isn't exactly as she wanted it. Some people are more concerned with the idea of being married than they are about who they're marrying. These are the people that have a 'dream wedding' in mind."

– Generico300

"Uhg I just know this is going to happen at the wedding I'm in this summer. The couple's stag & doe has just past and it was a smashing success. More people than expected attended, people had tons of fun with the games, music and dinner, we raked in thousands of dollars, which more than covered the costs of the game/raffle prizes, the hall rental, alcohol/food etc."

"So obviously the couple made good money off it overall. There were no issues at all throughout the night. Even the bride's separated parents played nice and they hate each other's guts!"

"The bride is still ranting about how apparently nothing went the way she wanted and it ruined her whole vision."

"I fear the bachelorette and the wedding day so much right now."

– bananicoot

Telling Speeches

"As a supposed supporter of the couple: none of the speeches mention them as a couple. Friends take more of a 'if you're happy, then I'm happy!' kind of tone. The couple isn't aligned on their wedding details and/or looks peeved the whole day."

"As a guest: where the cost of hosting is passed onto the guests. Or there is no lodging nearby so guests can't imbibe and the hosts are annoyed that no one danced or stayed late. Outdoors with very few accomodations or enough meals. Yes, I get that it's 'your day,' but hosting an event should account for guests' experiences, IMO."

– abqkat

"As someone who wrote a speech for a friend whose marriage I didn't support, you are spot on. I focused on just talking about the bride because I couldn't think of a single positive thing about their relationship to write about. They're heading towards divorce."

– bee3bee

"Went to my husbands coworkers wedding. It was an hour from where majority of people lived with hotels being about 30min away. Most people just opted to just drive the rest of the way home rather than get a hotel room."

"The DJ was also not great. The wedding ended an hour before it was supposed to with the bride finally caving and doing her send off early after some of her bridesmaids packed up to leave. Bride had apparently been a self centered bridezilla all day and everyone was tired of her sh*t by the end."

– saltwatertaffy324

Cake Ritual Gone Too Far

"I found out later that a wedding I attended was also attended by the groom's side piece. That marriage was doomed."

"And I've never seen a wedding where the groom smeared cake on the bride's face last. When they're cute and put a little smear of frosting on her nose or try to feed her a too big piece it's fine, but the ones where he just smears cake all over her are doomed."

"Not a single one has made it 10 years, most don't make 5. Now if the bride smears cake it's fine, those marriages last. But not the other way around."

– _Internet_Hugs_

Mother Pulls The Strings

"The mother of the bride/groom trying to control anything as if it’s her day.. not a good sign at all."

– still_on_a_whisper

"Story time: my husband and I got married in 2021. Originally, we wanted a very small wedding (like 10 people in attendance, max) in our small backyard with like a potluck for the reception. Very small, very intimate, and with our favorite people. When we told that to his mom, she was flabbergasted."

"She adamantly demanded that we have a larger wedding so that we could invite the entirety of my husband’s family. Including people I have never even met. My husband has always had issues with disappointing his mom, so when she agreed to pay for 90% of everything, including the food, we said okay. The only thing we had to pay for was the venue and photos."

"Fast forward to the wedding day. Because this was an all hands on deck situation, my husband and I had to show up early to the venue to help decorate and get everything ready since the venue was only booked for that day and we couldn’t decorate until after 11am due to conflicting schedules with the venue."

"Cue my mother-in-law losing her absolute mind when she found out that the flower decorations for the cake were not exactly how she thought they’d be. I never thought I would have to calm down another woman’s expectations on my own wedding day."

"So, after I assured her I would handle everything, she finally agreed to get dressed and ready for the wedding. I had to RUSH to get everything done to her liking so that I could have time to race back home to get ready with my bridal party’s help. The wedding turned out lovely, don’t get me wrong, and the day was one of the best of my life because I got to marry my best friend."

"The only thing that I was the tiniest bit upset about was the reception being rushed because we had to take everything down and clean up by a certain time that evening, so I didn’t get to enjoy the reception as much as I would’ve liked."

– Scarlet_dreams

Emotions Run High

"Crying.."

"I was at a wedding once where the bride and groom were weeping, the priest and altar servers were sobbing, the whole congregation was blubbering. Even later on at the reception, the cake was in tiers.."

– HugoZHackenbush2

Wise Observation

"My grandfather (he had 15 kids) used to tell the young people getting married this advice:"

"He would look at the guy and tell him, 'You need to do everything you can to make her the happiest woman on earth, and she, in turn will make you the happiest man.' "

"He said he could tell the ones that wouldn't last because they would interrupt him after the first part."

"It's noteworthy to say that my grandfather loves my grandmother very much."

– im-someone-else

Gut Feeling

"One of my best friends took the wedding ages and ages to start. We all had a bad feeling about it but soldiered on and waited and waited. (It turns out the groom was melting down, and they talked him into it. I wish they hadn't, for my friend's sake.)"

"Later that day at the luncheon, the bride is nowhere to be found. I hunt around a bit, and she's sitting with the groom in a side room while he eats because he 'wanted to be alone.' "

"Those of us close to the bride knew she'd been saving money for years as a nest egg. We watched on social media as they spent extravagant amounts of her money on their 3-month honeymoon in Europe (after he convinced her to quit her job)."

"More happened as the years went on (including a sweet little baby who's nearly an adult now), but that wedding was a red flag. And when she finally told me she was getting divorced, I couldn't help but blurt 'oh thank goodness', at which point she laughed. Got my friend back."

– beatriceblythe

Red flags are there for a reason, and it turns out that most of these examples of doomed weddings wound up in the eventual dissolution of marriage.

What are some red flags you're familiar with spotting at weddings? Would you intervene to prevent a potential love disaster?