Hello Inspy Readers,
I’m currently researching for my next book which will be called Holding Onto Hope. You may remember Hope from my new novel Healing Skye. She has always helped her mother plan events and weddings. She loves making brides feel like princesses, despite the fact that she’s never gotten to plan her own big day. (Yet!) In this novel, she’ll be helping plan a friend’s destination wedding in a very short amount of time, and a lot of things go off course.
I asked on Facebook about people’s wedding planning or engagement mishaps, and I received so many replies! A lot of veils catch on fire from unity candles and a lot of cakes fall, mold, or flop.
I started thinking about my own wedding. My husband called me from out of town one weekend and said akin to “We could get married,” and I answered something like “Sure. I can meet you at the courthouse during lunch Tuesday.” At 28 years old, I’d been in several weddings. I found them very stressful, ha! So, I thought we could just elope, but when we met and filed for our license, they said we had to wait three days. Then, my husband said, we might as well get a preacher to marry us. I asked my preacher, and he said he had to counsel us for at least three weeks. I called my parents and told them we were getting married in three weeks. They had offered my sisters money not to have a big wedding, but they made no such offer to me. My mom said we could plan a wedding in three weeks and reserved the church! I was their baby girl.
So the planning began. I bought a wedding dress off the rack, and my two sisters ordered matching bridesmaid dresses. We used overnight printing for invitations, and a friend addressed them all one night in calligraphy. The same friend went with my mother to pick out my cake and bouquets. I had cut examples from a magazine that I thought were pretty, but I was flexible. The reception was at my parents’ house. All went well EXCEPT for a few things.
One was that I had a friend set to video the wedding from near the front row. Unfortunately, a family member insisted they move to the balcony before I came down the aisle, and it made the ceremony hard to see or hear on the tape. :(
Also, my dad turned stark white while walking me down the aisle, and I told him, “Please don’t faint!” Who knew he’d be more nervous than me?
The last and worst mishap was that we left the reception and drove to our hotel, and the clerk said someone had canceled our room! I’m standing there in my wedding dress trying to nicely explain that we HAD NOT done so. Thankfully, they found us another room! Thankfully, we are still married thirty years later!
So, what about you? Have you experienced any engagement or wedding planning mishaps or disasters? Maybe I can incorporate them into my next book!
Do you have a favorite contemporary Christian fiction novel with funny engagements or weddings?
PS: My St. Simons 3-full-novel set is on sale this week only for 99 cents! If you own these novels, would you share with friends?! Thank you!!
Janet W. Ferguson is a Christy Award finalist and the FHL Readers Choice Award winning author of realistic inspirational fiction. An avid reader, she loved books so much she found a job as a librarian so she could be around them all day. Then she turned that love of story into writing faith-filled novels with characters who feel like best friends. You’ll laugh and cry as the quirky heroes and heroines chase their happily ever after. Janet and her husband live in Mississippi where they say y’all a lot, and she forces him to visit the beach as often as possible. They have two grown children, one really smart dog, and a cat that allows them to share the space. Connect with her at http://www.janetfergusonauthor.com/
It was awfully wet and muddy on my wedding day. I had to hitch my gown thigh high as I got out of the car at the church. VERY ELEGANT!!!
I love weddings in books, so much less stressful than real life. Elopement is wonderful but there is a price to pay in family upset when you break the news. So happy your marriage has flourished and your commitment makes it last.
The whole banquet at my cousin’s wedding went wrong… the meat was burned and the potatoes were raw, fortunately there was still dessert and fried empanadas to fill up. And let’s not forget the decoration she and her boyfriend asked for it to be white with candles but it turned out to be many white decorations and few candles the atmosphere was a bit gloomy and gloomy in the reception lacked light…literally.
My dad was a minister and performed the ceremony. He also walked me down the aisle. As we were going up the steps to the stage area, he had stepped on my dress. I couldn’t step up and almost fell off the steps!
I loved your story and congratulations on 30 years. Blessings
After a year engagement and lots of planning, the worst mishap was one of the groomsmen never picked up his tux till the morning of the 11am wedding. His pants were above his ankle! And the tux store didn’t open till 10! I told my fiance this was his problem to solve! I had a million other details to monitor!
Congrats for pulling off a beautiful wedding in such a short timeline!
That would make me a bit nervous!
Thank you, Dianne! I’m so happy too!
Oh, wow! The only thing I remember as mishaps from my three older sisters’ weddings was that at one’s reception, they “thought” we ran out of something, but we didn’t, they just didn’t check the freezer and refrigerator!! Only one of those weddings ended in a divorce, and that sister later married someone else. I’ve never been married. I’ve decided if I ever do, I’m following in my parent’s footsteps and getting married at my minister’s house!
Oh no! Not the food! I do love desserts and empanadas though!
Sad about the lights too.
LOL! Glad you didn’t! That’s sweet that he was your minister :)
You are so sweet! Thank you!!!
Groomsman can be like that from what I’ve heard. What can you do? Ha!
That was nice of the minister, and it would sure save a lot of planning, I think!
I enjoyed your stories from your own wedding. My husband and I got engaged while he was stationed overseas in the military, so all our planning was via letters (no email back then). Thankfully the military mail service was fast… but letters didn’t arrive in the order mailed… we learned to number the envelopes :-) Then we’d planned our honeymoon at a cabin in the mountains, about 3 hours from home. After the wedding we went to my parents’ house to open a few gifts, and then realized we’d better get on the road, as the place to pick up the key to the cabin closed at 11 pm. It turned out to be a foggy night, and we were driving fast on a winding mountain road in the fog! We got to the key place right at 11 pm, and told them we’d passed a couple other cars heading the same way :-)
We had planned to eat meals in nearby towns, but it snowed! Thankfully my husband had bought a few groceries in case we didn’t want to go out for a meal or two, so we had food to carry us through being snowed in.
We had our hotel room canceled too after driving several hours to get there. Luckily they found another room. We had to get up early to drive to our final destination.
Oops, my comment went below :)
Glad it all worked out! I miss letters. They were more personal than electronic communication.
Isn’t that crazy! I wonder if that’s some groomsman joke.
My mom was a wedding photographer when I was young, so she hired another photographer she that took pictures of stundents for the company she printed photos for yo shoot our wedding. He didn’t know how to load the camera my mom wanted him to use, so instead of telling her, we lost the first few pictures he took on every roll.
And a tornado went through the town as soon as we walked out of the church, so we had to run back inside very quickly to wait it out. I look at it as good luck since we’ll be married 33 years next Friday!
Goodness, tornados are stressful and scary! I hate you lost pictures, but glad it all worked out :)
My husband and I got married in 1975. At that time his car was a 1971 candy apple red fastback Mustang. He was afraid friends would try to decorate the car with shaving cream, so he parked off-site and got a ride to the church. I got to the church with my bridesmaids and panicked when I didn’t see his car anywhere! Was he late? Was he not coming at all?!? Finally someone told me that he was there at the church, safely sitting in the pastor’s study. Whew! This May will be our 47th anniversary.
That would be a bit disconcerting! He was wise to do that though. How awesome about 47 years!
My sister had her wedding a year ago January and she was supposed to have her wedding at a red barn since covid she couldn’t have a big wedding at church so she was going to have it a this red barn but then to the covid restrictions kept changing so she just had it at church with family then after went to my aunt and uncle’s for an reception and as many people could go to the reception and that morning her husband to be got a call that his grandfather passed away on the day of their wedding so his family went to the wedding bat the church and went to the reception for a little bit then they left to go home but they still got married usually they don’t see the bride before the wedding but since his grandfather died that morning they said he needed her so they where together before the wedding.Covid has messed up lots of church wedding .
That’s so sad. Covid has messed up so much!
Sorry about the loss of their grandfather.
Hi Janet! Been married 48 years and our marriage. We were married in the church I attended most of my life. The minister was rather new, but my girl friend had married 6 weeks before me. At her wedding, He forgot to tell the guests to sit after the opening prayer. So at rehearsal dinner, we made sure to go over the order thoroughly. Was a rainy day. At the end of the blessing, the minister said AMEN and God blessed our union with a loud thunder bolt. Only funny thing, was we used the maid of honor’s car and left my car in my parent’s garage since we didn’t want cans and other pranks. Well that didn’t work out to well. My dad put cans on the end of my car. On the way to the hotel, hubby removed the cans, but we still heard noises. Luckily hubby figured it out. Dad had put stones in a hub cap. Fortunately we figured out which wheel, so hubby didn’t have to remove 4 hub caps. I was surprised that I couldn’t even trust my dad. Best wishes. Happy writing.
I’m glad your guest got to sit! Fun about the thunder :) That would be a chore taking off the hub cap. Groomsman are so wild!
How about someone grabbing the bouquet that was clearly meant for someone else? (talk about reflexes). Another one I remember was when a page boy (not ring-bearer) was helping carry the bridal dress train, but it seemed that was the first time he had been in contact with hairspray since for every couple of steps he took, he had to stop and (with his hands full of wedding dress train) scratch his head. I’m sure it made for some interesting pics.
LOL, I had some pretty fast reflexes back in the days when I was single!
Also kids are so cute in weddings. Always have to be ready for the unexpected.
That sounds like a lovely wedding day, even with the mishaps.
My wedding cake was being made by a friend who lived out of town from where the wedding was taking place. He made it to the reception site only a few minutes before the reception started. One of the items on our menu was ham, turkey, and roast beef sandwiches on slider like rolls. The hotel staff didn’t make the sandwiches, they just set out un-sliced rolls. No meat, no butter, nothing. That was not what we were expecting.
That had to make you anxious! Sandwiches without fillings aren’t sandwiches, right?
It was! Thanks!
what a fun post. our wedding didnt have any disasters. the pastor forgot to do our unity candle. but his wife did not, so they brought it to the reception and we did it there. it worked out so much nicer there.
Isn’t that fun! I was too nervous to try the unity candle!
Congratulations on 30 yrs married. My husband and I had wanted to get married in the park , but we were kind of talked out of it, what if alot of people that we didn’t even know went. Well, we decided to get married at the house where my husband lived with his parents. One of my husbands friends was going to be his Best Man, well he didn’t show up, so my husband asked one of his uncles that had come to our wedding if he would be his Best Man and thank goodness he said he would. My husbands friend that should have been the Best Man later on told my husband that he had overslept, even though we got married at about 1pm. Have a great week and stay safe. I enjoyed reading your post, thank you for sharing your wedding mishaps. My husband and I will be married for 45 yrs in July.
There seems to be a common threat with the groomsman problems. Congrats on 45 years!!
nice stories to read
I know I already posted but I forgot that on my brother’s wedding the sound guy forgot he was supposed to come to the church and when they where ready to say their vows the microphone wasn’t working for about 5 or ten minutes cause the sound guy didn’t set it up and the sound guy was my cousin so after words he felt really dumb
Thanks!
Oh no! Why don’t people write things down in their calendar, ha!
When my Mom met with my husband’s parents, they stated that we should not get married. I was not Polish or Catholic. I did not meet their expectations for a daughter in law. My now husband backed off our plans to state maybe we should wait. I became angry and gave him back the engagement ring. A few weeks later we had made up deciding we needed to do what was best for us. We love our parents, but this is our future.
We had numerous issues with the minister. We had requested kneeling benches which he stated we did not. We had the receiption in the basement of the church. We were setting up the decorating and setting up tables after the rehearsal. He told us we were setting up too many tables. It was a Friday wedding. We would not have that many people come. We ended up setting up more tables .
My bridesmaids had walked down the aisle. My Dad and I were standing waiting to go down the aisle. The wedding march was playing. The minister was in the back of the church looking for his robe. I was in tears. We were finally married. That was what was most important. We have been married for 33 years.
As a side note, my husband’s parents grew to love and accept me. They found that I was not going to hurt their son. I loved him.
I was in my groom’s arms for the pictures and video when my veil flew away.
Then I hit my ear on the door of limousine while getting out 🙈 it was so red …
I never have had any engagement or marriage mishaps but have read a series where a girl has been through a few weddings to find your to be groom with someone else on wedding day.
I’ve never read or been in any of these mishaps. I’d love to read some though
A few of them will wind up in my next book, I think :)
That’s a lot of drama! I would be a wreck. Glad it all worked out though!!
So that sounds like a funny video if it caught the veil in flight! I bet you still looked beautiful!
That wouldn’t be good! Yikes!
I have no wedding mishaps to add to a story you might incorporate…lol! Thankfully, right?
My wedding (almost 25yrs ago) went off without a hitch and a good time was had by all. We were surrounded by beloved close friends who supported us. Everyone pitched in to make it a beautiful day :-)
I am so late. On mishap which wasn’t nice happened after the wedding. I was babysitting at the brides home for some guests (they wanted someone in the house to prevent someone trying to take advantage of them being away). After the wedding they were having photos at a local attraction. Well they didn’t give the details of how to get there to the grooms parents who didn’t live in the town and they finally came back to the house in so much distress cos they couldn’t find where the photos were being held. It was before cell phones. Thankfully I have the number of the reception also out of town and they rang and ended up going straight there. I felt so bad them. They did get to the reception and more photos were taken.
So happy for you!! Congrats on 25 years!
Wow! Glad you were there! That was the old days with maps, written directions, and a coin to put in a pay phone :) I remember them well!
Thanks for sharing your wedding hiccoughs. The best planning cannot determine how things will turn out. I’m always thankful and gracious when they go according to plans. Celebrating marriage is sharing a couple’s special moments. Nowadays, many are looking at the deeper soul searching parts and having more modest weddings.
I love that couples are wanting to have smaller weddings that mean something to them.
Ah, I love this series. I can’t wait to see your next release!
I’ve never seen any wedding mishaps… But I’ve also been to only 3 or so that I remember so there’s that too.
Thank you so much for your encouragement, Abigail! That’s a good thing if you don’t remember any mishaps :)