“My in-laws complained about things that we just honestly couldn’t afford to add (e.g., more flowers, more guests, a plated dinner, etc.). They have a lot of money and never offered to help in the areas they had complaints in — not that they were obligated to do so, but it made it hard to continually hear comments about how ’trashy’ our wedding looked when we had a limited budget. I carried some shame walking into my wedding day, as if it was embarrassing to them and their friends and family.”

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"On top of that, my ex-mother-in-law got pissed because I refused to have a 'money dance.' I had to tell my band at the reception to announce that there would not be a money dance. Just nasty, disrespectful people. I'm amazed that I actually stayed with my ex-husband for 22 years. LOL."

"My FIL's speech was even about his daughter, not his son who got married. I was cringing the whole time and couldn't wait to leave the island. This only made my husband and me stronger; we are on better terms with my MIL and FIL now (they apologized profusely), but my SIL is still a narcissistic brat."

"My sister likes to make sure everyone else is having a fun time even if she’s not. I would’ve taken care of the child, but at the time, I was very pregnant and needed to constantly sit. So my sister spent her whole wedding taking care of a child she didn’t know because she insisted that the guests enjoy themselves when they offered to help. After the groom asked his mother to leave, the MIL caused a HUGE fuss about how my sister was manipulating and stealing him away from her. They're still happily married without her in their life."

"The same people took all of the cookies from our cookie table (local tradition; you have a cookie table, and every guest can take some home). Once again, no one else got to take any, and there was a TON of cookies. My husband and I had to take the small plate of food and cookies my dad snagged for himself that he drove over the next day. It’s even ruder because my husband’s family contributed NOTHING financially, not even any cookies. No big deal, but don’t feel entitled to everything and leave nothing for anyone else!"

"Weeks after the wedding, my father-in-law asked me to get his eyeglasses out of their truck. During the hunt for his glasses, I found all my stamped, addressed wedding invitations that my MIL was supposed to mail, crammed under the passenger seat in a plastic shopping bag. The return label on the invitations made it easy to tell if the guest being invited was from the bride's side or the groom's. My MIL had only mailed invitations for her son, which is why I had no one from my guest list show up for my wedding. When I confronted her, she said she dropped the box and didn’t realize she'd missed mailing any invitations — 150 invitations were to be mailed, 75 for each side. Uh, convenient that the only ones not mailed were from my guest list. Also, convenient that the invitations somehow were placed in a plastic bag and crammed under the seat. MIL also made last-minute changes to the reception menu and seating chart. I know everyone is probably shocked that the marriage did not work out."

"The officiant stopped the proceedings, asked her to step back, and then continued. Our witnesses later told me that she was the most obnoxious woman they had ever met, and they weren't wrong. Nine years later, my husband has cut ties with her toxic ass, and our life is significantly less stressful!"

"Without mentioning it to us beforehand or finding out anything about my house (which was tiny and had no spare beds). We spent a good portion of our wedding day making calls to find someone she could stay with, and a few days later,  we bought her a plane ticket back to where she lived. On top of that drama, my new brother-in-law sat with my sister-in-law's date in our living room for hours after everyone else was gone, ignoring increasingly blatant hints to leave. Finally, my husband said, 'Dudes, get out,' and they said, 'We can't. SIL is our ride, and we don't know where she is.' She was drunk and passed out in the parked car (it was a dry wedding too, so she must have had a stash in the car). They haven't improved one bit over the years, and they now all live much closer. Husband and I get a lot of practice holding firm boundaries!"

"This was the day of my husband’s bachelor party, which his brother and the best man knew about and said he couldn’t attend. My husband and I were obviously upset that they were planning on getting married without us knowing about it or inviting us, while also inviting both sets of parents, aunts and uncles, and their sisters, so it wasn’t as if they were eloping. We asked that if they got married, could they just let my husband’s extended family know before our wedding so it wouldn’t be surprise news for them on our wedding day. They felt as if we were interfering with their plans and decided to postpone the wedding (for the second time). They finally got married a few months ago in the courthouse, just the two of them, but it definitely caused a lot of unnecessary drama leading up to our wedding day."

"We had our wedding, and it was great. Fifteen happily married years later, and we don’t have much of a relationship with him. We tried, even after he asked right after our wedding if the reason his son married me was because I was pregnant (I was not). Oh well. Thankful for my husband’s wonderful stepdad."

"Another one of his sisters left on foot when her husband got drunk. Then my husband had to kick his grown son out of the wedding because he got sloppy drunk. For us trying to have a simple, backyard wedding with no drama, his family sure brought it. Twenty years later, we are still together, but I keep my polite distance from all of them."

"She gets lost, and we have to send groomsmen out to search for her so we can make it on time to the church. This is all while she is wearing a custom floor-length, white lace dress, obviously."

"She insulted my cooking (we made all our food) and insulted my mother and my daughters. She insulted several of the guests. My husband and I have been happily married for 18 years. She and I have had no contact since the wedding. She keeps trying to invite herself to our home, but my husband and I do not allow her to visit."

"She demanded that we find a better hotel for her and pay for it, which my brother did. She insisted on driving instead of taking the train. And then she arrived and began announcing how she didn't like the decorations, didn't like where they were getting married, didn't like the officiant, didn't like the flowers, etc. My brother and future sister-in-law tried to mostly stay out of it, but because no one was listening to her, our stepmom attempted to become more controlling. Finally, she picked a fight with me, and I told her off, so she went silent and didn't talk to anyone until after the wedding, because I 'ruined it' for her."

"She was so rude to my husband's friends; they’d introduce themselves and she’d roll her eyes and walk away. She talked badly about us all night at her table, and all of our friends heard. She cursed at friends, our planner, and guests and then proceeded to request that my husband wait outside with her for an hour for her car service — while our wedding was happening and we had guests! She then cursed him out in front of friends and family when he told her to wait inside. She embarrassed him and left without saying goodbye. She didn’t come to brunch the next day. My husband was so embarrassed and hurt by her; it was so sad that she couldn’t at least give him one day and be happy for him. Needless to say, we haven’t talked to her since. It’s been a year."

"Well, if his whole family is coming, I have to invite mine! Long story short, our little City Hall wedding turned into spending HOURS getting nine people from Queens to Manhattan, through security, and packed into a waiting room; we had to get three UberXLs every time we changed location. It wasn't the worst, but I had really wanted to spend the day with my husband where our relationship started. Now, when I look back, all I remember is how much I hated everything and how stressed I was."

"It was surprising, but we ended up being able to book somewhere else in time and pay with a credit card. They also complained about how we were planning the wedding, and it was so terrible that I was in tears the night before and half the day of; there was a total lack of understanding of or care for the budget for the wedding that my husband and I were paying for, with a small contribution from my parents. So all of their complaints were about things that we just honestly couldn’t afford to add (e.g., more flowers, more guests, a plated dinner, etc.). They have a lot of money and never offered to help in the areas they had complaints in — not that we wanted them to or that they should have felt obligated to do so, but it made it hard to continually hear comments about how 'trashy' our wedding would look when we were working within a very limited budget. I carried some shame walking into my wedding day (as if it was embarrassing to them and their friends and family), and it started off our relationship with them on a really challenging foot post-marriage. I look back and sometimes wish we had eloped, and wonder if it would have saved some stress those first years."

"Later, when we were taking family portraits, my MIL refused to come outside for them. ('If they want to take my picture, they can bring the camera to me,' she told my poor sister, who was simply the one running inside to let them know.) My husband’s uncle yelled at her until she came out, but sheesh. And then they left the wedding without even saying goodbye to me, their new daughter-in-law. Also, this didn’t happen the day of, but my MIL refused to do the mother-son dance. My husband at the time tried to act as if it didn’t bother him, but he ended up admitting to me years later at a friend’s wedding that weddings are sometimes hard for him because it’s hard to watch the mother-son dance he didn’t get. All of it still pisses me off. They couldn’t put aside their own selfish desires for their son for just that one day."

"She also wanted to decorate our cake topper, which I didn't want because it was tacky looking, but I agreed, as long as she didn't use any flowers on the beautiful Lenox piece I had picked out. She, of course, glued tons of flowers to it and paraded it around my bridal shower, just as she did with the glasses she bought us. I ripped the flowers off, though, and when she confronted me about it, I told her I had specifically asked her not to, and she said she didn't care. Finally, she was mad at us because we wanted to pay for the favors ourselves (she paid for his older brother's wedding favors, and because of that, she wouldn't let them choose their favor), so we opted to pay ourselves. She was mad about this and because I didn't want Jordan almonds given out because I'm allergic, so she brought a crystal bowl from home to the wedding and filled it with the almonds — and personally handed them out during cocktail hour. My ex found out and made her throw them away."

"He also went around and ate/stole the majority of our favors, which were color-coordinated candies at our guests' individual place settings, and wrote me — just me — a card with Scripture about how to 'have a successful marriage and be a successful wife in the eyes of God.' He has not been welcomed back to any parties since, and it's been five years."

Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.