Matron of honor shares wedding planner horror story of the most 'exhausting 72 hours.'
"The most exhausting 72 hours of my life as matron of honor..."
Let me just start out by saying my best friend was my maid of honor and we have known each other since 4th grade. Going into the weekend I knew things wouldn’t go as planned (she is unorganized), but it was an absolute trainwreck.
Not only did I have to stuff the bridesmaid gift bags myself, my husband is apparently a taxi driver as he had to haul the bride and groom around town leading up to the wedding day. He wasn’t even a groomsman (which btw, there were 8 of them).
Anyways. Their wedding “planner” was absolutely horrendous. To begin, she did not know the bridesmaids and groomsmen were supposed to be in a specific order for the ceremony. I had to have the bride give the ordered list to the her from the PDF the planner made herself. I communicated all of this to the planner myself as well once I knew the order.
Next, the planning team couldn’t find all of the boutonnières. They were putting the father of the bride’s on him right before they walked outside to go down the aisle. The planner’s team had water glasses on all of the tables, but there was no water in them…not even at the head table. It was disrespectful.
Speaking of the head table, there weren’t enough table placements for the wedding party and their dates. They had to get extra chairs so one of the bridesmaids and her husband could fit in on groom’s side.
The planner had me doing everything the entire reception like packing up all of bride’s bags and things like that. She sent me upstairs and around the reception hall to tell people what to do pretty much the entire reception.
I was incredibly upset that I didn’t get much time at all with the bride, my best friend. I understand some of that was my duty as matron of honor, but it was absolutely ridiculous. She was at the bar hanging out while telling me to go do things that should’ve been taken care of by she and her staff.
The cherry on top was waiting for the bride and groom’s sparkler exit. I was yelled at by a staff member of the planning team to go back inside the venue. When I got up to the door she told me, “You need to unbutton her dress before she leaves.” I had my fill. I said, “That’s absolutely ridiculous. I cannot do that myself.” “Well that’s what I was told.” “Can you not help me?”
Needless to say, my husband yelled at them after the bride and groom left before we went home. Everything that happened I tried to take care of myself, and was extremely exhausted by the end of the evening. The entire weekend was exhausting with so many mixed emotions.
Tears of happiness and frustration, anger, and joy. I don’t know if I’ll ever tell the bride my experience as it was the best day of her life, but damn, it was the most unprofessional & unorganized event I’ve ever been a part of.
Of course, the jury of wedding shamers was eager to weigh in on this MOH headache. Here's what people had to say:
No-Firefighter3283 said:
I’d be straight on to Yelp etc., to give your honest review of the “wedding planner.'
imhere4blkpeople said:
We need to review this assumption that the matron/maid of honour role is indentured servitude. This is an individual you supposedly love and adore yet are willing to ruin years of friendship so you can feel like a princess. Tuh.
Use_this_1 said:
Now the 1st time the wedding planner told me to do anything I'd be asking how much I'm making an hour. I've been a MOH twice, and a Bridesmaid 4 times, I didn't do this much work between the lot of them. Sure, it's been over 12 years since my last stint as a MOH but still.
lambocj said:
This is ridiculous!! I work for a wedding planner and everything you did at the wedding was 100% the planner’s responsibilities. The fact that the planner started ordering you around with tasks is crazy. Sounds like you should have been paid by the planner since you were doing what her or her assistants should have been doing.
Apprehensive_Run_916 said:
People are acting like the bride made her do this…the MOH kept the chaos from the bride and I’m sure she would be livid to find out her planner did this. As MOH I had to run myself ragged too but the bride didn’t know all the stuff going wrong so I was ok doing it. She helped me when I got married too.