Bridezilla Tales
 

The television show "Bridezilla" is entertaining but is obviously very scripted. I would like to hear true experiences that you have encountered with real-life Bridezillas. How did you deal with it? Few things are more stressful than a wedding and some people just don't handle it very well which can result in some strange behavior.

In a related vein, have you had any clients get cold feet and cancel the wedding on the day of it?

I've had a few tense brides over the years and maybe a couple you'd call bridezillas. I can pretty much get along with anyone so I just rolled with the punches and kept my mouth shut ;-)

Yes I did have a wedding cancelled some years ago on the day of. I talked to the bride the Monday before the wedding everything was fine. I went to the hotel on the day of to do prep, and the photog was there as well. Actually so was the DJ since he was doing the music for the ceremony as well so he wanted to get setup. The hotel had no information about the wedding. We all looked at one another and scratched our heads when the banquet manager appeared and told us the brides father had called on Friday, the day before, and told the manager to cancel everything. HUH?
So I called the brides house right then and the father answered and said maybe you'd better talk to her so he put her on the phone and she apologized to me, the photog and DJ and explained she had caught the groom in bed with another girl at their house on Wednesday. Opps! What a jerk. The wedding was cancelled and thru out the ordeal no thought to call any of us. Oh well, there's more to the story but it's for another time. Suffice to say we all kept the money paid since we were booked and no notice cancellation precluded any kind or thought of refund and the brides father was 100% OK with that.
I really flet bad for her as she was a real nice girl- the groom on the other hand was a jerk from the get-go. I didn't feel she lost anything by not marrying him.
Oh well, another sad saga of the wedding biz.

I don't see how people could cheat on their significant others. I know I can't even think about it. I would never treat my girlfriend in such a horrible manner, especially after we are engaged or married.

On the original topic of this thread: I have never dealt with a bridezilla or have a wedding canceled on me... but I've only been doing this for a few years.

well...
 

3 weeks ago I was at the brides hotel room with all the girls and mom filming the usual pre-wedding stuff, when the bride cam out of the bathroom nude, mind you she's in her 40's, and paraded around the room for the next 20 minutes doing this and that, oh, she did have her veil on. I promptly turned the camera off....I didn't need to see that...ever.

I've never encountered anything remotely close to what you see on that show. In fact, I don't think I've ever had a bride be rude to me at all on her wedding day. They sometimes get tense, or nervous, but never flat out rude.

I think that show is either:
a) faked
b) the worst of the worst humans on earth

Hi Ethan, Yes, there's no doubt that it's fake. It just made me wonder if anyone has encountered any real-life situations where a bride's nerves got the best of her. Hyper aggressive behavior is possible when someone is over stressed and nervous.

Hi All

Never had a cancellation in over 20 years of shooting weddings. The closest I came to was a groom who phoned me after the honeymoon saying that his bride decided on separate rooms at the hotel and they annulled the marriage after 2 weeks!! As I was a nice guy I let him off the final payment but never edited the footage. He didn't want memories like that!!!

I find that modern brides are highly organised and will almost choreograph the entire day (even down to minutes) on a spreadsheet. I think that they put in so much work that it gets to the stage where cancelling is not an option. Then again, most brides here plan at least two years ahead and book at least 12 months ahead.

I haven't yet had a "bridezilla" or even worse a "motherzilla" (Now THAT would make a really good TV show!!!) Funny that people will ALWAYS ask me if I have filmed any amusing incidents over the year ("Funniest Home Videos" style) Unfortunately I haven't!!!

Chris

That reminds me of a Philippine wedding I shot a few years back. The photographer suddenly appears at my side at the groom's place and says "crap, I just knocked on the bedroom door looking for the groom. I hear what I think is 'come in' so I do, and his 65 year-old mother is there stark naked. I apologize and leave quickly."

We laughed about it. The mom is fine, he tells me that's the last thing he needs to see at 9am on a Saturday, etc, etc.

Hours later, it's midnight and she comes up to us to thank us for a job well done. We shake hands, say goodnight.

As she walks away, the photog turns to me deadpan and says, "I've seen her naked."

I nearly peed myself!

OT: Chris, I just had to post because I noticed you are from Perth, and one of the most fun weddings I have ever been to was when my wife was the matron of honor at a wedding there. We had never been overseas, let alone that far, and it was fantastic. They had the wedding reception at a football stadium there, in one of the box suites. Soooo much fun! The ceremony was in a very beautiful old Catholic church there. You've probably done a wedding there! It was really a wonderful trip. We got to visit some of the wineries there, too, which were incredible. Hopefully we will go back again in the next few years - that was in '94.

Hey Bill

We have so many venues here I seldom work at the same one twice!! There are of course the favorites that are booked out until 2012 already!!!

You must be talking about Subiaco Oval ..that's the big stadium but I must admit I have never done a reception in a VIP box...nice reception venue as they are pretty plush!!!

As younger priests enter the Catholic Church, ceremonies now are a lot less stringent!! However the older die-hards are still strict and generally dislike photogs and videographers with a passion!!! I did a ceremony on Saturday and I was given the run of the place!!! but places like St Joseph's (that's close to the Stadium too and very grand) is still a nightmare to shoot in!!

We are getting more and more Wineries with "Function Centres" ..best of both worlds!!!! and they also cater for civil ceremonies which are becoming more and more popular.

Chris

The worst that I've ever seen was not a bridezilla but a groomzilla! I am scared to even describe what happened during that day, and even more, to describe the reasons that everything happened like that. Maybe I will write it at some point but I am thinking about it because it will look like the gossip type of talk (since we learned what happened but nobody knows we know :) )

I second this, the younger ones are more open, "this is once in a lifetime, feel free to move around during the vows but please refrain from doing so during the eucharist"

Back to the topic, never had a bridezilla, but I have one debutante who was such a pain, this was 5 years ago, she made her mom cry, she does not want to pose with relatives and when she did she looks really piss in the pictures. It was the mom who came to us and apologize for her daughter's behaviour. Maybe she saw how uncooperative her daughter was.

I guess if it was up to her she did not want her debut filmed or photographed.