5 most surprising wedding stories of 2024: Which one takes top honors?

Brides, grooms, wedding party members and others shared their personal stories - while etiquette experts and others weighed in with professional opinions and advice.

There were plenty of tales to pick from, but here are five over the past year that stood out.

Which one takes the cake for most surprising of them all? 

Kareem ("Reemo") and Nova Styles charged guests $333 each to attend the "wedding experience," which amounted to a full day of activities throughout the city, as they described in their video. 

The two pared down their guest list to just 60 people. 

"They chose us," said Nova Styles in a TikTok video. "They 'hashtag' trusted the process by purchasing a ticket to attend our wedding." 

She donated the venue to Parents Helping Parents (PHP), an organization that provides support to children and adults with special needs, as well as their families.

"The family of the bride shared that our agency, Parents Helping Parents, provided services for the family in support of the bride's sibling, who has special needs," said Maria Daane, executive director of PHP. 

PHP decided to use the already paid-for space to host "a party for people with disabilities 0 to 100," Fox News Digital previously reported.

The party, dubbed the "Ball for All," was complete with food, music, dancing, and a photo booth.

PHP moved quickly. Within three days, the event was planned down to the catering, said Daane. 

"I imagine weddings are canceled now and then, but never have I heard of one turned into a community party for those with disabilities and their families," Daane said. 

"It makes me feel grateful for the resilience and kindness of people - that this bride could do something so generous and thoughtful in the face of her own sadness is inspiring," she added.

An amusing story from England showed that mistakes can happen to anyone - even on one of the most important days of someone's life.

At Totty's wedding, Crossley started walking down the aisle toward the altar - without his daughter. 

He said there was a "miscommunication," and he thought that he had been instructed to begin walking. 

Crossley eventually turned around, fetched his daughter, and proceeded on a much more traditional march down the aisle.

Guests can be heard on video laughing at the awkward moment, which Crossley said he later referenced in his father-of-the-bride speech. 

His daughter particularly got a kick out of the whole mix-up. 

"I especially appreciated it as I was trying very hard not to cry, and he helped me compose myself," Totty said. 

She added, "It was a special moment none of us will forget."

"AITA for ordering pizza at my friend's wedding because there was no food?" asked user "Adorable_Distance_15" in a post on the "r/AITAH" subreddit, an advice forum.

In the post, the man said he and his wife recently attended his friend's wedding, which had about 70 guests, "mostly family." 

The bride's family, however, ate all the food at the buffet before all the guests could go for their first plates.

"To my surprise, by the time we were called, there was nothing left," he wrote. 

Adorable_Distance_15 and other hungry guests then ordered four large pizzas and some chicken wings to the venue. 

As the pizzas ran out, the trouble began. A man, who turned out to be the bride's father, asked if he could have one of the remaining two slices. 

"I then took the two slices, I put them on my plate and started to eat them, then looked at him and said something like, 'No, you and everyone at your tables had way more than your fair share of the buffet and ate all of it. This is the reason we ordered food in the first place. And now you have the nerve to ask us to share,'" he wrote.

These comments got the man kicked out of the reception - but after emotions cooled, the father-of-the-bride apologized.

To make up for the wedding reception issues, the father-in-law planned to throw an "after-wedding shindig" for everyone who was at the original wedding, plus other people, said the Reddit poster

Earlier this year, Reddit user "joyousfoodie" posted about her cousin's upcoming wedding, which she described as a "semi-destination wedding" that would be relatively small. 

While the woman said she was fine with both the location and size of the wedding, several aspects of the upcoming wedding did concern her.

"I just found out that the wedding couple are sending 'cards' to people [who] are not invited that they are getting married soon and 'you are in our hearts on this special day' before the wedding," she wrote.

"Their excuse is for the sake of 'curiosity and thinking of them,'" joyousfoodie wrote, "but what I don't understand is why send this before the wedding?" 

The action that prompted the Reddit post, however, was a text from the couple stating that "everyone has a role to help set up." 

"Once the ceremony is done, the wedding party will leave to take photos while the guests set up the tables for the reception," said the woman in her text. 

The couple never asked guests if they would be willing to help out and "just dictated [to] people what to do," the Reddit poster said. 

The couple claimed they could not afford to hire help to set up at their wedding, but the Reddit poster said the couple "went traveling" instead of saving up for their big day. 

Other Reddit users told "joyousfoodie" to skip the affair altogether.

"That's when you decide you are sick and do not go. They are being horrible hosts, and frankly, it's gross," user "byteme747" said. 

Another Reddit user was a bit more blunt. "The only reason I'd go to this is morbid curiosity," wrote "Obrina98."