Wedding Horror Story Time! It's Disaster on a Riverboat

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Welcome to Weddings Week 2013, our week-long ode to nuptials in Boston.

We've poked and prodded for your best (as in, totally worst) wedding horror stories in exchange for a chance to win an iPad mini. The selected Boston submission revolves all around a sinking ship—not literally, but it does involve a boat party which progressively got worse as the wedding celebrations went on. Read the account that will head on to compete nationally for that hot little tech gadget.

This is the story of my cousin's wedding. The wedding itself wasn't so bad, it took place at a public rose garden in my hometown. Other than the bride being late and it sprinkling a bit everything was ok.

The reception was a complete disaster. It took place on a riverboat and just about as much that you could think of to go wrong did. It started out fine; the plan was to go one direction down the river for about an hour then turn back so that those who wanted to get off could, then there would be a longer trip the other way. The first part went as planned and fortunately when we stopped my grandmother and drunkest uncle got off. After another hour or so, people started smelling smoke coming from the engine room, turns out it was on fire.

They got the fire out (I have several uncles who are firemen) but the boat lost all power. We were drifting in the river so several of the male guests (including groomsmen) jumped into the river to drag it to shore. The river is glacially carved and unfortunately the side we were closest to was very steep so the guests couldn't get out but a few did manage to climb up to try for help. They found the closest house and started banging on the doors. It was after 11pm at this point so the people in the house threatened to call the cops, to which we said "Yes, please." The rest of the people in the water came back onto the boat and proceeded to get everything wet and muddy. By the end of the night the bottom two inches of the bride's dress were covered in mud (the dress had been handmade by her mother too).

We had to sit in the dark and wait for the cops with the food going bad and the bar running out of everything nonalcoholic that we kids could drink. When the cops came they were on the other side of the trestle bridge and had to walk across to get to us. The cops got the boat owner and between all of them they managed to get the power back on so we could return to dock. We were almost back when the power failed again but luckily enough at that point we were close enough to coast to the dock. It was well after 2am at this point when we debarked only to find that my uncle's truck had been broken into—all of the wedding gifts and cards full of money had been stolen (the same cops responded).

That's all I can remember but I think that's plenty enough to have happen on one wedding day.

· Share Your Wedding Horror Stories and Win an iPad Mini [Racked Boston]
· Weddings Week 2013 [Racked Boston]