The bride said I totally ruined her wedding over something I couldn’t control

Tara thought she did everything possible to help her best friend on her wedding day, but one small slip-up may have cost her their friendship.

A bridesmaid has recounted losing her best friend and feeling humiliated at a wedding, all over a small wardrobe malfunction.

Organising a wedding is no easy feat, but those who were getting married during the pandemic were handed an exceptionally difficult task.

*Tara’s best friend Holly* planned to host her ceremony and reception together, however, lockdowns threw a spanner into the works, meaning they had to postpone the reception for a full year. 

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Tara's zip broke before the reception. Picture: iStock

Bride accuses best friend of “ruining her whole day” over broken zipper

To make the planning process as easy as possible, Tara made sure she was available for help whenever her friend needed it. 

“Leading up to the day, I did everything I could to make her day special,” she said on Reddit. 

The wedding day was fast approaching, and thanks to Tara’s help, things appeared to come together smoothly. 

“I made her bouquet, decorations, signs etc., on top of working 40+ hours a week myself and renovating my new home with my husband,” she said. 

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On the day of the wedding, Tara picked up Holly and took her for breakfast before swinging past shops to pick up last-minute essentials.

Eventually, they made it to the salon, where the bridal party started getting ready. 

Then something horrific happened: Tara’s zipper broke. 

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A million thoughts started running through Tara’s mind. She was just about to walk in front of 200 guests and her dress had started to fall apart. 

“As a very anxiety-prone person, I started to freak out a bit,” she said. 

“A million and one things going through my head how to fix it, how I was supposed to walk and be in front of 200 people with my dress unzipped, how embarrassing it would be.” 

The other bridesmaids launched into action, trying to pin it back together, but nothing was working. “It looked horrible; I just couldn’t do it,” she said. 

All the while, the bride was starting to get angry. 

“No one cares what you look like, no one’s gonna be looking at you,” Holly shouted at Tara, who was still trying to secure her dress back into place. 

But at this point, it looked like nothing was going to save Tara’s dress, so she decided to call he husband and back out of the wedding altogether; if she couldn’t keep her dress up, how could she enjoy herself at the wedding?

But the women at the salon weren’t having it, and “somehow rigged up my dress” and urging her to go to the reception. 

That night, everything else went to plan. “We danced, drank, had fun,” she said. “[Holly] acted like everything was fine.” 

But the next day, Tara received a text from Holly telling her she “ruined her whole day.”

“Because the result of my dress situation caused her to be a little late, and she didn’t get all the pictures she wanted,” she explained. 

The broken zip and the kerfuffle it caused “made her so upset, so was shaken up the rest of the night”, she added. 

Holly then accused Tara of acting like a baby by crying over the broken zip. “Even her bridesmaid sent me rude messages after,” she said. 

“I feel horrible and I've been going through so much stress, I guess my emotions got the best of me.” 

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Some argued the bride needed "a sense of humour." Picture: iStock

“The bride needs a sense of humour”

The Reddit community disagreed with the bride and assured Tara her feelings weren’t overblown. 

“It doesn't matter if the zipper broke at the top of the dress or the bottom of the dress, every time you move, those little teeth are going to come undone more and more,” someone said. 

“The bride needs a sense of humour,” someone wrote. 

But others saw things differently, accusing Tara of stressing out the bride on her big day - one of the golden rules to avoid. 

“You should have played it cooler and told her you would catch up to start with,” someone suggested. 

“If you made her late, I wouldn’t say you ruined her wedding but you definitely caused unnecessary stress.” 

“Based on the fact that other people messaged you and that the bride was late to the wedding as a result, it seems like you may have made a scene,” said another.

“The first rule of weddings is don't stress out the bride and it sounds like you may have done just that.”

*Names have been changed

Originally published as The bride said I totally ruined her wedding over something I couldn’t control