10 Strange Stories of Weddings That Ended in Disaster

1. The wedding guest who shot himself playing Russian roulette during the reception

In 2010, a Russian wedding ended in tragedy after a game of Russian roulette went wrong, leaving one guest with a life-threatening gunshot wound to his head. A home video of the wedding in Astrakhan, southern Russia, shows a grinning friend of the groom unexpectedly pulling a pistol from his waistband, putting it to his temple and squeezing the trigger. The gun emits only a clicking sound and the smiling gunman asks who else wants to try his luck.

Another guest is shown taking up the offer, but this time the trick goes wrong. The second man pulls the trigger and immediately collapses to the floor as the gun releases a rubber bullet into his skull at point-blank range. He was reported to be fighting for his life.

The gunman, a 33 year-old Chechen man, insists he was sure that he had emptied the pistol's chamber of every bullet and says he only wanted to enliven the wedding. But local police do not believe him and have opened a criminal investigation into the tragic incident.

2. The wedding reception in which the deck collapsed dumping the couple and 80 guests into a muddy lake

Wedding couple Hoffman and Marli van der Walt along with 80 guests were dumped into a muddy lake as a wooden deck on which they were standing collapsed.

Shocked bystanders dived in to help as the guests – including the bride's wheelchair-bound mother, 88-year-old grandmother and a baby – thrashed about in the water. But only one person was slightly hurt in the incident at the Dragon Peaks mountain resort, in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province.

Despite the dunking, Hoffman, 38, and Marli, 34, were determined their big day would not be a complete washout. Once everyone was back on dry land, the Durban couple asked the photographer to continue with the photo session, then tucked into their wedding dinner as planned.

3. The bride who was arrested after baring breasts at own wedding

Your wedding is meant to be the happiest day of your life, but one lesbian bride was arrested after baring her own breasts during the ceremony. Sharon Hancox spent her first night of married life behind bars after baring her breasts at a bouncer and attacking him with a stiletto heel.

The 40-year-old wed Nicola Hutin before drinking eight pints of lager at the reception and arguing with doorman David Jenkins. He had broken up a fight between Hutin, also 40, and an inebriated woman – and then asked the wedding party to leave the Champers bar in Swansea.
Hancox confronted the doorman, calling him a pervert and claiming he had attacked her once before. She then pulled the top of her red dress down, exposing her breasts.

Hutin lunged at the bouncer before Hancox swung her red stiletto shoe at him. Hancox, of Swansea, admitted common assault and was handed a 12-month community order with 60 hours' unpaid work. She was also told to pay £100 compensation and £150 costs.

4. The registrar who refused to continue with the ceremony because the bride made a joke

A bride who jokingly replied 'I don't' during her wedding found that her joke backfired slightly - as the registrar then refused to go ahead with the ceremony. As a result, the entire wedding had to be cancelled, and the guests sent home.

Tina Albrecht, 27, was to marry fiancé Dietmar Koch, 29, at a castle in Steyr, Upper Austria. But the wedding had to be called off after Albrecht, a receptionist, tried to bring a bit of humour into the ceremony by saying 'I don't', before immediately correcting herself. Under an Austrian law intended to prevent forced marriages if either party replies to the key question in the negative the wedding is cancelled and cannot be rescheduled for a further 10 weeks.

Ms Albrecht said: 'We had to send all our guests home and now we have to wait until March before we can try again'.

5. The Best Man who robbed the DJ at the wedding reception

Cops hear a lot of crazy stories, but this one may take the cake – or at least the wedding cake.
Houston police have been trying to track down a wedding party member who allegedly pulled a gun at the reception and started shooting. It happened back in 2009, after Nadia Clay and Terrance Simmons tied the knot. Everything went off without a hitch, until the best man decided to rob the DJ. "He steps back, takes it [the gun] and then shoots it in the air," said Kendrick Shepherd, the wedding DJ. "And then comes and pushes me, grabs it and runs out the door and I'm like, did that just happen?"

The suspect grabbed an expensive crystal decanter full of liquor and fled. Even after two months later, police wasn't able to find the gun-toting best man. They have wedding photos of the suspect whose name, according to the newlyweds, is Johnny Smith. But the groom told investigators he barely knows the guy. He said he was a last-minute replacement for his cousin, who backed out.

6. The groom who set the reception hotel on fire because he was having cold feet

A man in Japan was arrested on suspicion of arson after the hotel he was scheduled to get married in was set on fire. No one was injured in the early morning fire at a resort hotel in Yamanashi Prefecture.

Tatsuhiko Kawata, 39, had gone along with wedding plans despite already having a wife. “I thought if I set a fire I wouldn't have to go through with the wedding,” he told the police. Kawata and his fiancee had been set to get married before 80 guests. Perhaps he should have just said “No.”

7. The wedding ceremony where the page collapsed, then the groom's mother collapsed and finally a guest received a text saying her father died

It could have been the wedding day from hell. First, a 16-month-old page boy turned blue and collapsed in front of the bride. He was recovering and on his way to hospital when the groom's 76-year-old mother collapsed as the wedding photographs were being taken. The paramedic team, which had helped the youngster, returned and she, too, had to be taken to hospital. Minutes later, a guest received a text saying her father had died.

At the reception, the couple's toddler son cut his head after a glass cover fell on him, followed hours later by their daughter cutting her head open. Then as the day was winding up, the groom, setting off to see his mum in hospital, found his car was locked in a secure car park.
But Paul Cassidy and bride Vilma are still smiling after their wedding at St Mary's Church, in Melton. The couple is planning an autumn honeymoon in the USA.

8. The bride who brought down a plane during the throwing of the bouquet ritual

The traditional throwing of a bride's bouquet for luck ended in disaster at an Italian wedding when the flowers caused a plane to crash. The bride and groom had hired a microlight plane to fly past and throw the bouquet to a line of women guests.

However, the flowers were sucked into the plane's engine causing it to catch fire and explode. The aircraft plunged into a hostel. One passenger on the plane was badly hurt. But about 50 people who had been in the hostel escaped unscathed, as did the pilot. Isidoro Pensieri, who tossed the bouquet from the plane, suffered multiple fractures and was taken to a hospital in Pisa.

9. The wedding limo that was carjacked at church moments before the ceremony

A wedding limo was carjacked as it sat parked outside a church - moments before the happy couple's ceremony was due to take place. Six bridesmaids - who'd been waiting for their cue to enter the church - jumped out of the car in Massachusetts when a thief smashed a window with a hammer, got in and threatened the driver. After fleeing in their flowing blue gowns, fuchsia bouquets in hand, they made it down the aisle with seconds to spare - though they didn't tell the bride what had happened until the ceremony was over.

After exchanging vows, newlyweds Jillian Sherlock and Nikhil Pereira emerged from the church to find the front of it cordoned off with police tape. Another limousine then brought their wedding party to the reception. The driver of the carjacked limo, which was later found abandoned down the road from the church, managed to get away from the scene of the carjacking unharmed.

10. The cowboy-themed wedding that was interrupted by real armed cops

Revellers wielding toy guns at a cowboy-themed wedding anniversary party got a nasty shock when armed police raided their venue. Roy and Val Worthington, from Castle Donington in Leicestershire, were celebrating renewing their vows with friends and family in a local pub when a police helicopter and cars with armed officers and a police dog descended on the party.

A member of the public had called the county's force after spotting a man walking down the street with what appeared to be a rifle over his shoulder. In fact, the weapon was a toy and the man was headed for the Worthingtons' silver wedding anniversary event at their local pub, The Moira Arms.

The Leicestershire force defended their actions. A spokesman said: "The police helicopter was already in the area at the time and assisted with the incident. No action was taken against anyone at the party".