Bridezillas, those notorious characters of wedding lore, often appear as a result of a combination of factors, not just anxiety and disturbing thoughts. While the stress of wedding planning can certainly contribute to a bride’s loss of poise, other underlying issues such as unrealistic expectations, financial pressure, and a sense of entitlement can also play a significant role. These stories from Reddit users provide insight into the various triggers that can lead to a bridezilla, and shed light on the extreme lengths some individuals are willing to go to in order to achieve their “perfect” wedding day.
In the case of u/ajlawford’s best friend-turned-bridezilla, it seems that a lack of communication and unrealistic expectations fueled the bride’s behavior. Despite a long-standing friendship, the bride’s refusal to involve her boyfriend in the wedding planning process and subsequent mistreatment over trivial matters eventually led to the breakup of their relationship. This story highlights the importance of clear communication and managing expectations when planning a wedding.
What triggers the emergence of bridezilla? Do brides lose their cool because of anxiety and worrying thoughts, or are there other reasons why they get angry?
Every woman dreams of the perfect wedding day, but when the pressure is on, brides either lose it or, let’s face it, reveal their true selves. These are the accounts of five Reddit users who have seen some of the most amazing Bridezilla events.
Grammar and clarity have been improved in the comments.
1. My best friend’s wedding
u/ajlawford: My bridezilla was silent.
With just two months between the engagement and the wedding, she was my best friend for fifteen years and didn’t ask for much in the way of wedding planning.
There were no face-to-face meetings, gift exchanges, dress shopping, or bachelorette parties. She didn’t want my opinion, but we were two hours away.
She wanted me to go to her wedding, buy a dress and look nice. I said to myself, “Well, do as you like. Since you are my closest friend, I am glad that you are getting married.”
On her wedding day, she refused to let me assist her with her hair and makeup. Rather, she just asked me to focus on hair and makeup.
The fact that I had short hair made her question my ability to get it right. Good good. Whatever, it’s your day.
Everything was going according to plan until the bride’s sister called. The sister of the bride challenged me during the two-hour conversation that I should never have agreed to be a bridesmaid if I didn’t want to attend the ceremony.
To see how I spent the money, she also looked at my Facebook profile. (for example, I wrote about joining a bowling league for fun). I should have used the money for the wedding, she said.
Her family didn’t even celebrate Christmas that year due to the wedding taking place two days after the holiday.
Even though I went with her the night before her wedding, which was a three-hour train ride the day after Christmas, I was chastised for not spending more time with her.
Apparently, I was supposed to stay and meet the other two bridesmaids on the wedding night, but I had to go home with my boyfriend to work.
The bride originally agreed to cover my wedding day beauty expenses but changed her mind two weeks before the ceremony.
She wanted me to buy an expensive makeup brand and drive two hours. I followed through on her wish and bought makeup even though I knew I was broke after Christmas shopping. However, she still believed that I was rude about it.
Even though the bride claimed that “being a bridesmaid was gift enough,” I still received criticism for not giving a gift.
The bride blocked me on Facebook and stopped communicating with me after these incidents. After months of abuse, I finally cut ties with my dearest friend and her sister.
Five years ago, on their wedding day, I saw one of them for the last time. I’ve never even seen the wedding photos. Seeing long-term friendships break up for no apparent reason makes me very sad.
Instead of assuming I knew what she expected and then criticizing me for not meeting her expectations, she should have told me what she expected. Plus she should have talked to me personally and not through her sister.
2. She was quite cruel.
u/sojadedblond: A friend borrowed $7,500 to pay for her wedding. Okay, it wasn’t that bad. It sounded reasonable and was doable. She then asked her fiancé to take out a $25,000 loan. (She threatened to leave him if he didn’t, and she obliged.)
He was granted a loan and had much better credit.
Then, without telling them that she had convinced their son to take out a loan, my friend’s parents asked them to pay for their honeymoon.
In the weeks leading up to the wedding, she often lied to them, leading them to believe that her parents were financing a small outdoor wedding in a nearby garden. If her fiancé didn’t do what she wanted, she wouldn’t stop threatening to leave him.
In any case, she didn’t think it was enough, even though his parents were more than happy to pay for a beautiful Alaskan cruise for their honeymoon.
She then pretended his parents were only giving them $250 for their honeymoon and lied to her parents. Her parents were taken aback because they had already paid for the wedding and the banquet and assumed that the groom’s family would cover part of the honeymoon expenses.
They urged her to either go full-time at her current job, working 20 hours a week as a receptionist at a nail salon, or to find a better career, but she protested vehemently, saying she had too much work to do with the wedding. /honeymoon preparations. She was the worst.
We were more acquaintances than close friends and hadn’t spoken since high school. She got my phone number from a mutual friend, so she called me to see if I could sing at her wedding.
She told me everything that happened during that phone conversation. She went on to say that she preferred her fiance to take two and a half weeks of vacation before the nine days he had previously taken.
I told her that she was being a bit unfair and quite demanding of people when she asked what she should do about the honeymoon.
I said it politely and gently. I didn’t just mean, “Wow, now you’re the worst person and your fiancé is really stupid to marry you for life.”
“You seem to be pressuring everyone around you to do things your way and your way only,” I replied. This is also Evans’ wedding. Maybe ask him what he would like.
It can be a lot more fun to plan it together than just you. You two are going to spend your whole life together, so stressing too much will only make things worse than they should be.”
After a moment of silence, she stated, “Well, I deserve this wedding and Evan will grant me my wish.” I’d rather not hear you sing at a wedding. You are so cruel to say that I don’t deserve a beautiful wedding!”
She exclaimed, “You’re just like everyone else,” when I tried to explain to her that I thought she could have a beautiful wedding with fewer worries and concerns. You are against my happiness!
Evan struggled to get a loan, and when my dad often encouraged me to find a better career, I wanted to give up.
Then she hung up and burst into a maddened sob. It was strange. That’s what she was in high school: incredibly dramatic, cruel, and self-absorbed.
But I don’t remember her being this crazy and hallucinogenic. Fourteen months after the wedding, they divorced.
3. The bridesmaids were tricked by bridezilla
u/ShamedShouting the Shamer: A few years ago I was asked to be a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding. There was one maid of honor (MOH) and six bridesmaids.
The bride has already chosen her dress, as well as those for the bridesmaid and each bridesmaid. At $400 each, the clothes were gorgeous, but a bit pricey.
Myself and two other bridesmaids were still in college; the other bridesmaids graduated. My money was pretty tight since I was still in school.
The bride asked the MOH to arrange for us to attend the fitting after choosing the clothes for us. MOH said that since she wanted Air Miles, she would use her credit card to pay for our clothes. She asked for full payment up front and offered us the option to pay it off over time if needed (which I definitely needed).
We all agreed.
Due to exams, I was unable to participate in the bridesmaid dress selection process, but everyone did. As a result, I decided to go next week.
The Department of Health promised to cover the cost of my group trip but asked me to call her if there were any problems with the clothing. She promised to take care of it.
I was pleased with how the dress fit and looked when I tried it on in the store. While I was getting dressed again, the shop owner left to get another customer, but she made sure everything was fine.
A store employee called out to me as I was leaving, “Hey! That’ll set you back $200. I was stunned and totally embarrassed. I apologized and said I believe the payment for the previous weekend was made by MOH.”
The owner of the store came to us immediately and helped ease the tension by saying that MZ had already paid for the dress. When I turned to leave the store, I found the owner quoted $200 instead of $400.
To make a long story short, the dress was only $200.
MZ revealed everything to me when I confronted her about it.
The bride and MZ apparently agreed to charge us twice as much to cover the cost of the bride’s outfit. After informing the other bridesmaids, the four of us decided not to attend the wedding.
4. Hesitant Flower Disaster
u/Haceldama: A bridezilla once came to my shop, a flower shop. At 9:00 the bride arrived with her mother.
They intended to buy a boutonniere for the groom, six smaller ones for the men, a wedding bouquet, and a corsage for the mother of the bride made of Cattleya orchids.
They gave us three hours to complete their order, with the wedding scheduled for noon. When they left the beauty salon a few doors down for their makeup appointment, they wanted to have everything ready.
The bride flipped through the FTD swatch and stated her preference for florals and style. She wanted to order variegated ivy, garden roses, and long, sweeping paths of stephanotis, all of which will need to be ordered from our suppliers at least a week in advance.
When we informed the bride that we don’t always have incredibly expensive and perishable flowers, she was taken aback. My manager informed them that they would only be able to choose from what we have in stock and easy-to-build models since they didn’t pre-order.
The bride and her mother insisted on arguing that we should stock up on those particular flowers while pointing to the book. After a while, my supervisor took the book off the table and threw it behind the counter.
The bride was torn between sobbing and hot-tempered complaints that we were ruining her special day. My supervisor, who didn’t like brides in general, told her that by not getting flowers before the wedding, she was ruining her day.
Mother tried to criticize my supervisor for his poor customer service. My supervisor informed her that if she wanted she could go to another flower shop down the street and ask them to buy flowers using whatever they had in stock.
The mother of the bride told her that her flowers would be ready by the end of the appointment, saying that she would take care of it. Both women ran out.
I assumed that was it, but my supervisor instructed the other girl and me to start with six basic dendrobium orchid bouts. Meanwhile, she quickly put together a wedding bouquet wrapped in ribbon and including almost vintage white roses.
After a quarter of an hour, the bride’s mother timidly returned and asked if we could still put together the required items. Yes, we did. We also rated her a hefty rush cost.
5. Bridezilla gets her reward
u/[deleted]: I got a call from a friend who asked me to be her bridesmaid one day. At first, I was ecstatic. However, things took a strange turn after that.
First, she asked me to dye my hair blonde which was weird and then she demanded $1000 for her freedom. I was amazed, but when she asked me to lose ten kilos, everything took a turn for the worse. I was surprised by her insistence.
I wanted to punish her, I thought with all my might.
But fate intervened before I could act.
A week after our questionable conversation, the day before her wedding, she called me in a panic. “What steps did you take? My bank just called me,” she shouted.
It turns out that her account has been frozen by her bank due to questionable activities. She spent so much money in her pre-wedding frenzy that the bank thought she might be lying.
After one of my ex-boyfriend’s accounts was suspended she asked for advice on what I did to support him. I was then employed as a banker. I hung up, refusing to help her.
In conclusion, these stories shed light on the various triggers that can lead to bridezilla. While anxiety and worrying thoughts certainly play a role in some cases, other factors such as unrealistic expectations, financial pressure, and a sense of entitlement can also contribute to a bride’s loss of peace. Whether it’s demanding exorbitant amounts of money, manipulating others for personal gain, or displaying unreasonable behavior toward vendors and loved ones, these bridezillas demonstrate the extreme lengths to which some individuals are willing to go in pursuit of the “perfect” wedding day. Ultimately, these stories serve as cautionary tales, reminding us of the importance of communication, empathy, and maintaining perspective during the wedding planning process.