Relationships
Bridesmaids helping slender bride lacing her wedding white dress, buttoning on delicate lace pattern...

5 Cringeworthy Stories About Maids Of Honor That Will Make Your Jaw Drop

by Sarah Ellis
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
Shutterstock

Wedding planning can be super fun, but also stressful, which is why many brides choose to have a wedding party stand beside them on their special day. Bridesmaids and the maid of honor work together to support the bride through all aspects of wedding planning, and they help ensure all the little details go according to plan. Well, in an ideal world, that is. In reality, some people have the worst maid of honor stories to tell, and you won’t believe everything that went wrong.

I’ve been a maid of honor once, and I’ll admit, it can be a big job. But when you care about the person getting married, you’ll bend over backwards to make sure they have a meaningful day. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen, and sometimes brides and maids of honor just don’t get along. To learn just how bad it can be, I went to Reddit to read stories about maids of honor who didn’t exactly live up to their assigned role. And honestly, I’m feeling like a pretty great MOH right now (even though I wasn’t always perfect!). If you’re ready to cringe, check out these insane tales of weddings gone awry. Even if your MOH story is less than ideal, you’ll probably feel grateful you didn’t end up in one of these situations.

All That Glitters

Bridesmaids Dresses

Shutterstock
I was at my friend's wedding and the maid of honor out-staged the bride at the wedding. She chose to wear a sleek golden backless dress that sparkled and shined at the ceremony and reception. Everybody at my table just referred to her as the Academy Awards (Oscars) for the night.
Also, no body knew if she was coming to the wedding or not because she dropped out of contact for a while other than a confirmation the week before that she will be there. The bride and groom were just happen when she finally showed up the night before the wedding.

ENDofZERO

Change Of Plans

My MOH is no longer my MOH. I asked her to step down a few months ago because she wasn't being as supportive as I would like, and didn't take the wedding seriously. I still wanted her to be a bridesmaid.
Then she texted me and said she wanted to speak to me in person, and it couldn't be over the phone. I made room in my schedule to see her on Friday while I was in town for my bridal shower. She said she wants to move to Korea in the next three to four weeks rather than next year like she planned. She also decided that it "might be too much" to drive an hour to come stay in a gorgeous hotel for free and attend the wedding if she's still in the country. She already bought her dress. There is literally no money that she would be spending from now on. Oh, but she can't just tell me what her plans are, because they might change and there's a possibility she will be at the wedding after all.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

krelseybelle

Competing Weddings

So bored. Sad cheerless woman waiting for her friend while drinking sparkling wine in the wedding dress salon

Shutterstock
I got engaged last year and we had our date and venue sorted early this year. Then my sister (MOH) gets engaged a few months later. So exiting!!! She always said she wanted a small summer wedding, with bare minimum guests, not in or near the town I grew up in (parents lived somewhere else when she was in school etc). In short, she'd always been after something different than I wanted for my wedding.
Well... all that changed and she's now having a very large winter wedding with all our family in the town she'd always said she didn't want to get married in... 4 weeks before my wedding...
I'm trying to not let anything get to me - all that matters is we're both happy... but damn if it isn't difficult sometimes not to feel frustrated or competitive. I'd really been looking forward to sharing my ideas with her as we planned stuff but now I don't want to tell her anything I'm doing. It feels so childish and I hate myself for it.... but I'll never understand why she picked a date that was so close and before mine. If I'd got engaged after her never have entertained the idea of picking a date 4 weeks before her wedding. It just seems so rude.
I know if roles were reversed she'd be super pissed at me.
My fiancé is baffled I don't get more annoyed about it but what good would that do? I think it's important to just try to keep in mind why you're having a wedding and nothing else matters :)

kuoki

Not Feeling It

My little sister was my Maid of Honor, and kind of a similar outcome. We are very distant in age. She was 19 and just too cool for everything. I asked her if she wanted to be my MOH and told her everything she had to do. I was actually a very easy bride. I hardly asked anyone for anything and DIYed my wedding. She didn't want to go to the bachelorette party even though I planned it to happen in an all-ages gay bar (drag show!) just so she could go, she did nothing for the shower unless my mother asked her directly and even I ended up making up games and things to do. Luckily, my bridesmaids were amazing and picked up her slack. I love my sister and glad she held my bouquet and said a few words, but if it weren't for my friends, I would have gone crazy. So, yeah, it sucks to not have a gung-ho MOH. but its just a title. Tell your bridesmaids your frustrations and you will no longer have 1 lackluster MOH, but a few pseudo-MOHs that are all about it.

ScarlettEH

Budget Cuts

Glamorous woman in the pink dress with the phone and notebook standing near the colorful wall, blonde, makeup, style, texting messages

Shutterstock
my wife's MOH said she could not come to our semi-destination wedding (8 hour drive or 1 hour flight) because she was broke. a few days before she broke the news to my wife, my wife saw on the MOH's IG that she bought a louis vuttion clutch? and purse.
my wife called her out and that was the end of their friendship.

VTEC_8K

I mean, can you believe?! I feel so bad that these brides had to deal with all this mess. I hope that when my wedding day comes, I can trust my MOH to be a bit more communicative and less shady. After all, your friends are supposed to be a source of love and support throughout the stress! Thankfully, for the most part, maids of honor are there to help their bride manage the responsibilities of the big day — no drama included.

This article was originally published on