Wedding season is in full swing, which means the next five months are set for celebration. Wedding trends for 2024 include metallic color palettes, earthy tones, and a retro vibe.
But there’s one thing that’s never in style: humiliating the bride on her big day.
A groom sprayed a bottle of champagne all over the bride during their wedding reception.
While the original TikTok post was deleted, women around the world united online to express their outrage at the groom’s juvenile behavior.
A wedding guest named Emma shared footage she recorded of her friends getting married in Lake Como, Italy, tagging it the “Best day ever!”
The venue was lavishly decorated, and the bride’s look was immaculate as her father walked her down the aisle under the cover of an umbrella to protect her from the rain.
The last shot of Emma’s post captured the bride and groom standing by the cake table as the groom popped a bottle of champagne.
Internet sleuths did their jobs well, sniffing out the scene of the wedding-day crime, reposting and stitching the exact moment where the groom pointed the open bottle of champagne at his wife and let loose.
Guests’ voices could be heard over the commotion, calling out, “No, no,” yet the groom kept spraying champagne directly into the face of the woman he’s pledged to spend the rest of his life with.
As one appalled woman commented, ‘Annulment. Annulment immediately.’
Another woman named Ingrid Bisu offered her perspective on the groom’s booze-soaked prank, saying, “I guess if it’s not the shoving of the cake, it’s the spritzing of the champagne in the face.”
“They find a way, every time,” she said, calling out the groom’s emotional immaturity and complete lack of foresight and empathy in a way that’s sure to receive major “Not All Men” backlash.
Bisu was ready for whatever critique was heading her way, noting, “Before you go, ‘It’s not your wedding, maybe she enjoyed it,’ you think she enjoyed having her face splashed with champagne while she’s about to take photos with her whole family there?”
She touched on the extreme level of viral notoriety the bride is on the receiving end of, saying, “If you don’t want people to comment on your stuff, don’t post it online. You could have kept this, honestly, ‘cause you already know what we’re gonna say.”
“This isn’t a frat house celebration,” she continued. “This is a classy wedding. In Lake Como, nonetheless.”
A different version of the bride’s worst/best moment ever captured the warnings that guests yelled as the groom popped the champagne.
Their cries of “Look out for the cake!” quickly turned into an avid wave of “No’” as the bride turned away, trying to shield herself from being blasted in the face with alcohol as her husband completely ignored her reaction.
One woman tried to give the groom the benefit of the doubt, saying, “Some argue that the groom did not mean any harm; he was just excited to get married, got caught up in the moment, and was celebrating.”
She acknowledged that “Some people think he took it too far by spraying her directly in the face, especially since women go through so much to get ready on their wedding day: There’s the expensive dress, the lashes, the make-up, the hair, all of which got soaked in a matter of moments, thanks to him.”
“Now people are calling the whole relationship a red flag and that the bride should beware,” she said.
“A lot of people nowadays are not fans of grooms doing the whole ‘Gotcha!’ on the wedding day with the cake smashes and champagne baths. Some view it as disrespectful and feel like the groom is taking the marriage as a joke,” the woman noted.
She gave her honest take, saying, “I feel like she wouldn’t have married this guy if she wasn’t familiar with his antics already, so this could very well be a case of the internet blowing something out of proportion yet again.”
For whatever it’s worth, the bride herself weighed in on the debacle, sharing her own post of their wedding week in Italy.
“Waiting to hear the justification for drenching you,” one woman said in the comments and the bride answered.
“Nothing to justify!” she said in the TikTok, posting from a private account. “Right before this, we went on a boat ride in the pouring rain. Hair was already drenched and make-up stayed intact for most of the time! My dress has no stains other than mud!”
It’s important to take people at their word. If the bride says she’s not upset, then the world should believe her.
But in many ways, her explanation misses the point, glossing over the issue at the root of the champagne spray: Without asking if it was OK, her husband, who ideally would center her emotional needs, took it upon himself to turn a sentimental moment into a joke, which wasn’t actually funny, at all.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango’s news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture, and all things to do with the entertainment industry.
