I do disasters

[MissAva]

It happens to even the nicest brides... you try so hard to think through every last detail of your big day, but then, an I Do Disaster strikes. For at least a minute, it seems like you should call off the wedding (or at least hide behind your veil). But fear not -- as these disaster stories from real brides show, it is entirely possible you''ll live to tell the tale -- and even laugh about it later! Most of the names have been changed to protect the innocent, but take our word for it -- these stories are real.

Burning down the house
"While my new husband and I were taking pictures following the ceremony, unbeknownst to us our cocktail hour was being evacuated for a fire! We arrived at our reception space to find all 175 guests standing outside. Fortunately, the fire turned out to be a false alarm, and we wound up posing for pictures with the firefighters and their trucks. Everyone was allowed back inside soon after, and afterward everyone said it had hardly ruined the reception -- it actually added to the excitement!"
-- Anne, 31, Washington, DC
License to wed
"We had a destination wedding in Mexico that almost didn''t happen. As we were boarding the van to go from the airport to the resort, I realized I didn''t have my passport -- which I had to have so we could legally marry down there! After ransacking my bags, I dropped everything and ran back into the airport, where the police promptly stopped me. When they asked why I was running, I screamed, ''I lost my passport!'' I was about to lose it when a woman stepped forward and asked my name -- I had dropped it, and thank goodness, she had happened to pick it up!"
-- Michaela, 25, Buffalo, NY
Guess who''s coming to dinner
"My fiance and I were running behind on writing out the place cards, so we asked a couple of my cousins who were in town early to help us out. We gave them the cards, our guest list, and pretty much told them to get to it! We should have taken a second look at them before the reception. Apparently at some point during the writing, they lost their place, and since they didn''t know most of the people on the guest list, about half of the cards had pairs of complete strangers on them where there should have been couples. When our guests went to pick up their place cards, they thought we were doing some kind of crazy spouse swap!"
-- Cassie, 29, Springfield, MA
Packing extra-light
"I knew my wedding day would have a tight schedule, so I decided to get my manicure and pedicure the day before, on my way to the rehearsal dinner. Big mistake! There was an enormous accident on the highway, and I spent two hours getting detoured -- and then getting lost in the middle of nowhere. I completely missed my appointment and wound up 20 minutes late to my own rehearsal! I got home from the dinner around midnight only to remember that due to my diversion I''d also neglected to pack for our honeymoon -- and we were leaving right after the reception. I threw some stuff in a suitcase as quickly as possible and hit the hay. Needless to say, the next night when we opened our luggage in Jamaica, it turned out I''d packed two T-shirts (and nothing else) for my new husband to wear!"
-- Lisanne, 28, Hartford, CT
Sparks will fly
"I really wanted us to have a grand exit from our wedding, so my fiance and I decided we''d have our guests line up and hold sparklers for us to run past at the end of the night. My maid of honor offered to pick them up well in advance of the wedding, and once she told me she had the sparklers I didn''t really think about it again until the day of the wedding. Fortunately, she handed them over to the catering director, who was taking care of a lot of the details for us -- it turned out she hadn''t bought sparklers at all, but boxes and boxes of Roman candles! We didn''t get our big exit but, thankfully, we didn''t have to deal with an unexpected fireworks display either."
-- Alexis, 24, Charleston, SC
Dress distress
"As I was putting on my dress, one of my bridesmaids noticed that the snaps didn''t line up in the back. My seamstress took one look at it and decided we needed to remove the snaps, and that she''d just sew me into my dress. Everything was going fine until she accidentally stabbed her finger with the needle, spilling blood on my gown! A little saliva got it out -- yep, just good old spit -- but it definitely didn''t help calm my nerves before heading down the aisle."
-- Alexandra, 30, Boulder, CO
Mood music
"We gave our DJ a do-not-play list, but apparently it wasn''t inclusive enough. He played James Brown''s ''Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine'' during our reception dinner!"
-- Sarah, 26, Fort Worth, TX
Fit to be wed
"I was so excited the day I had my final fitting and took my wedding gown home that I decided to try it on again that night -- by myself. When I went to take it off, the zipper got stuck, and I found myself trapped in the dress! I tried everything I could think of, but my bridal salon did a great job -- it fit like a glove, and there was no way I was sliding out of it. I finally called a friend and begged her to come over and help me. The zipper stuck so hard we had to use pliers to get it open! Fortunately, my seamstress didn''t laugh too hard when I begged her for emergency repairs the next day."
-- Jennifer, 29, Fort Wayne, IN
Time to hit fast-forward
"My husband and I got married in an orchard on a large farm, which was totally beautiful and romantic. The only part of the site that was kind of strange was the petting zoo, which was near the area where we were holding the tented reception. It had ducks, chickens, goats, ponies, and this enormous pig. We ''hired'' one of my cousins to be our amateur videographer, and apparently his prankster brother wrestled the camera away at one point -- there''s an entire section of our wedding video devoted to close-ups of the farm animals'' private parts!"
-- Amy, 24, Spokane, WA
The great unveiling
"My sister was my maid of honor, and one of her duties was to arrange my gown once we made it to the altar. As she stepped out to make sure the train was perfectly spread, she slipped and did a total face-plant! Physically she was fine -- but boy, was she humiliated! And to make matters worse, as she fell she tore a slit all the way up the middle of my veil! Luckily I wasn''t planning to wear it at the reception anyway. And just so you know, we do all really laugh about this now -- even my sister!"
-- Amber, 23, San Fernando, CA