"I was instructed to lose a few kilos." 20 women share their bridesmaid horror stories.

We love a good story of a bride’s outrageous demands: whether it be the financial expenses pushed onto the bridal party or the insane pressure on some bridesmaids to look "perfect".

We spoke to 20 women to find the most bizarre demands bridesmaids have been given.

And my god: these brides definitely took their wedding requests way too far.

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Watch: The things people at weddings never say. Post continues below.

1. "The bride expected us bridesmaids to pay for the bachelorette party, which she insisted on being a destination event, as 'that’s what good friends do,' apparently."

2. "The bride kept getting angry at me because I was struggling to manage planning her wedding, hens and everything in between while raising two kids. The fact it was also a no-kids wedding and a week-long hens holiday: a bit of a challenge when you are a single mum."

3. "I was asked to have a haircut and grow out my fringe for a friend’s wedding day."

Image: Getty.

4. "Especially thanks to social media, it’s become a lot more common these days for some couples to want lots of funny viral dance numbers to take place during the reception. And my friend, the bride, was no different! As one of the bridesmaids, we had to choreograph and perform our own musical dance number in order to 'show our love for our friend the bride.' Needless to say, none of us were very impressed given we weren’t dancers at all!"

5. "After giving the bride a $200 wedding present, she then pretty much demanded I also contribute to her wishing well."

6. "As part of my bridesmaid duties, I had to look after the bride’s grandparents, who were a little cranky, drunk and tired. And let me say, they were irritable and bloody hard to manage the whole night."

7. "Look, I’m happy to take the bride to the toilet and help her do a number one. But a number two? I was not willing to assist, especially considering the bride wasn’t wearing a ball gown, rather just a slip dress."

Image: Getty.

8. "At 19, my friend got married and asked me to be the maid of honour. We had to pay for our own custom-made dresses (she chose the fabric and we were given a pattern and told to get them made). Then on the big day, she had a self-catered backyard marquee set up, and all bridesmaids were asked to set up all the tables: including putting goldfish in tiny vases for centrepieces. The entire bridal party went off to get wasted, and I was left to set up 50 tables with centrepieces and goldfish."

9. "There was an imposed bedtime the day before the wedding so we wouldn’t look tired on the big day."

10. "The bride wanted us to go to Fiji for five nights the month before the wedding as part of her hens-do. Catch is: she wanted us to pay for it all, including the accommodation and flights. Whatever happened to a hen's night? Now it seems people want to have a mini-vacation to celebrate, just wait for your honeymoon."

Image: Getty.

11. "While organising her wedding, the bride wanted to meet up with her five bridesmaids once a fortnight to go over planning details. Problem is, she lived about an hour or so away from us, so it was a pain in the butt."

12. "I was told to dye my hair, because apparently, my bottle-blonde hair wouldn’t meet 'the aesthetic' that the bride was going for."

Listen: Hitched is a Mamamia podcast and 10-week wedding crash course hosted by wedding planning guru, Aleisha McCormack. In this episode, Aleisha unpacks the topic of bridal parties. Post continues after audio.

13. "There were ludicrous expectations for the amount of time and money people should spend for the hens celebration. Why does the hens have to be an Instagram-worthy holiday now? Can't it just be a dinner or something simple? Also, as someone who has been both a bridesmaid and a bride, you can also get unreasonable responses from bridesmaids too, who aren’t willing to help out. It’s all give and take."

14. "I was instructed to lose a few kilos so that I wouldn’t 'stick out' from the other bridesmaids. Funnily enough, my friendship with the bride didn’t continue past her wedding day."

Image: Getty.

15. "The bride gave us eyedrops so it would look like we’d been crying after the vows."

16. "One time I was a bridesmaid, I found it really toxic, because the bride kept insinuating some people in the bridal party should lose weight. There were a lot of subtle jabs and veiled questions like, 'Do you think you’ll feel comfortable wearing that strapless dress with your arms?'"

17. "The bride kept asking me to organise the budgets for her wedding: I thought it shouldn’t really be my job to manage her money. Turning the tables a bit, I actually had an unreasonable request from a bridesmaid when I was getting married. My hair and makeup kept getting delayed because one of my bridesmaids kept asking the makeup artist to do touch-ups or change her hairstyle. I also had to spend a lot of money on the alterations for her dress: more so than mine as the bride!"

Image: Getty.

18. "Last year during COVID-times, the bride from Queensland expected me to do two weeks quarantine so that I could attend her hen's party (I'm from Melbourne). I had already planned to do the two weeks quarantine (at my own expense) for her wedding, but I really wasn’t keen to have to do the same thing for the hen's night the month before the big day. I was in the bad books big time for choosing not to attend the bachelorette event."

19. "The bride wanted me to wear a mustard-coloured dress. It was a hell no from me."

20. "I remember I was once asked to do the bride’s hair and makeup for free, given I am a professional makeup artist. Yes, I was happy to offer a very good deal, but for her to immediately assume I would give my services for free kind of irritated me. For example: if you had a florist friend, you wouldn’t expect them to give you free flowers for the whole wedding."

Image: Getty.

Feature Image: Getty.