weddings

10 people share their 'Speak now or forever hold your peace' wedding moments.

Image: Grammercy Pictures.

It’s the stuff of movies; just as the bride and groom are about to become husband and wife, the priest poses that question:

“If any of you has reasons why these two should not be married, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

There’s dead silence as tensions rise before out bursts a high school sweetheart/scorned ex lover/no-nonsense mother-in-law who jumps up and yells “I do!”

While rare, surprisingly this does happen in real life too. On a Reddit thread, people shared their own cringeworthy stories of wedding objections.

1. Brent-ing my heart.

“I was at the wedding with my then-girlfriend; her sister was getting married. At the moment in question, this guy I recognised from various parties and events stood up and said—this is as best an approximation as I can deliver, given that it was 17 years ago—’Lisa, I love you and I’m sorry that I never told you. It breaks my heart to see you marry him, when I know that our lives would be better than anything you’ve imagined with him. Brent, I’m sorry for saying this, but it had to be done’,” wrote one Redditor.

“He left in tears and more than one person was upset about it. The ceremony went on, but the tension was incredible.” (Watch: People share their biggest regret about their weddings. Post continues after video.)

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2. The Ex-Files.

“I was not present but a few co-workers were at a wedding in the late ’90s where a groom’s ex-wife raised her hand, said ‘I object’, sobbed, and hurried out. They said the wedding continued as if nothing happened.”

3. Nature calls.

Coincidence?

“The best one I have ever witnessed came at my best friend’s wedding. None of us really liked the woman he was marrying but at this point we had all just decided to let him do it because he wasn’t listening to us anyway,” wrote one Reddit user.

“We get to the day of the wedding and we are all standing there watching (I was the best man) and the preacher gets to the part ‘Speak now or forever hold your peace’… and at that moment lightning struck outside and knocked the power out with a large BOOOM.

“We all stood there in stunned silence for a moment and asked him if that was proof enough for him. It wasn’t and he married her anyway, was divorced within a few years.” (Post continues after gallery.)

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4. Public opinion.

Outside weddings have their drawbacks.

“I got married on a very busy bridge with a lot of foot traffic. It was just me, my husband, the officiant, and three friends. The officiant got to the ‘speak now’ part and a ton of passers-by shouted ‘DON’T DO IT!’ We did it anyway,” wrote one Reddit user.

5. Dog eat dog world.

“My sister was getting married up on a mountain near Telluride at the end of the summer. It was a beautiful evening, a beautiful ceremony in general. My sister and her (then) fiance had a dog, we’ll call him Badger, and they took him everywhere. If they didn’t he destroyed everything. Badger wasn’t just any dog, he was huge – part rottweiler, part boxer, part some other big-ass dog – he must have weighed 150-200 lbs,” wrote one Redditor.

“When it got to the ‘Speak now…’ part, Badger let out the most perfectly-timed, earth-shaking, thunderclap of a bark you can imagine. Following a brief moment of shocked silence everyone in attendance burst into a gale of laughter that went on for a good couple of minutes. A number of people, my sister included, were in tears by the end of it. My brother-in-law has always insisted that the best man must have grabbed Badger’s balls or something right then, trickster that he is.”

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6. Wedding surprise.

“I was in the Army with a woman who had run off to join up because she was standing at the altar with her groom to be and at the ‘hold your peace’ moment, a woman stood up and announced she was pregnant with the groom’s baby,” wrote one Reddit user.

“Afterwards it was apparently like a scene from a movie with all the screaming, fainting, punching you would imagine.”

Image: Colombia Pictures
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7. A lucky escape.

"A friend of mine in college had been seeing my wife before we got together. He was never too happy about that, and wasn't quiet about his disappointment that she broke up with him. He was my roommate for a few years, so of course we invited him to the wedding," wrote one Redditor.

"When the minister got to the 'speak now' part, most of the people in the room turned around and looked at Steve. He raised his hands in a 'who me' gesture and said, 'What?". Luckily, it wasn't more interesting than that, and he's a good guy so no hard feelings."

8. Children always tell the truth.

"When my aunt was getting re-married to a guy that my cousin (six years old at the time) didn't approve of, she stood up and yelled 'DON'T DO IT I WON'T LOVE HIM.'"

Not your fairytale wedding. Image: Friends
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9. Young love.

"I was at my cousin's wedding sitting in the back not really paying attention because I didn't know him that well. When the line was said, 'If anyone objects please speak now...' this very pretty girl sitting next to me said very softly 'I object'," recalled one Redditor.

"She then continued to sit there and watch them get married. She was in tears, but doing her best to hide it. I later found out that it was my cousin's high school sweet heart who was sitting next to me. It was really depressing."

10. Wild love.

"We got married at the zoo and during the ceremony two macaws alighted on a tree above a pool that was right beside us. As we said our vows, they decided to duke it out for top macaw in the flock, I guess," wrote one Reddit user.

"They started vocalising and headbutting and generally loudly carrying on. The preacher just kept going (guess he'd heard worse), but when he got to the 'or forever hold your peace' part, one of the macaws rotated around the branch until it was hanging upside down, and then SLOWLY let go. We're talking one claw at a time.

"The upside-down macaw fell off and down into the pool 10 feet below with a huge splash. The remaining macaw proceeded to do what can only be described as a victory dance, hopping up and down on one leg and then the other whilst squawking at the top of its lungs."

Have you ever witnessed an objection at a wedding?