Wedding crashers ruin Adelaide couple’s special day

Having strangers ruin your wedding is a bride’s worst nightmare. But for these newlyweds, it actually happened – the uninvited ‘guests’ even posed for photos and defiled the guest book.

It’s a bride’s worst nightmare – having wedding crashers ruin your meticulously planned reception by stealing your drinks and then throwing them in pot plants while you chase them out the door.

But an Adelaide couple married earlier this year says that wasn’t even the worst of their experience, as they later found the uninvited man and woman had even written in the guest book and posed for photos.

It’s a situation faced by unlucky couples around the world – after doing months of preparation and in some cases spending tens of thousands of dollars on their celebrations – as unscrupulous crashers find a variety of ways to put a wrecking ball through their parties.

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in a scene from the movie Wedding Crashers (2005).

Adelaide bride Sarah, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she only noticed the uninvited guests towards the end of the reception, having fun on the dance floor with drinks in their hands.

“I went up to them and asked them who they were. They replied, ‘Oh we know the groom,’” she said.

“In my not-so-polite way I said, ‘The f*** you do, I know everyone here! Get out of my wedding!’

“I started absolutely screaming at them to leave and they promptly headed for the door, throwing their drinks in a nearby pot plant.”

Sarah, who tied the knot with longtime love Brad in front of about 90 guests, said the brazen couple had “defiled” the reception.

“The next day, when looking over the guest book, I had noted they even had time to write congratulations from Tim and Hayley in there,” she said.

“What was heartbreaking is that I could not rip the page out as our five-year-old cousin worked really hard on writing a special note in there on the next page.

“I can get over gate crashing and stealing a beverage. What I can’t get over is the audacity of these people to defile my personal keepsake of the day.

Crashing weddings is funny in movies, but not in real life – one Adelaide couple found out the hard way.

“When I got my professional photos back recently I noticed that they had even posed for a photo.”

Sarah said she shared the photo on her social media accounts to find the identities of the wedding crashers.

Within 10 minutes she was notified of their names and she has private-messaged them, but has yet to receive a response.

“Weddings are supposed to be a place with people you love. The night just feels defiled,” she said.

In May, a serial crasher was charged after he allegedly raided wishing wells at eight weddings across Melbourne. He allegedly stole $16,000 cash, as well as jewellery and gift cards, before being identified by a wedding planner whose dad put him in a headlock at a reception before he was arrested.

In Sydney, a drunk crasher got into an argument at a reception in 2015, before jumping into his car and attempting to run down the bride and other guests. While he avoided jail, was forced to do 250 hours of community service.

Cases in the US have included a woman who crashed a wedding party to spy on her partner who was a legitimate guest. She found him kissing someone on the dance floor and allegedly punched the other woman before hiding in a bathroom.