Ah, wedding crashers, we’ve just about all seen the movie, where Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson go to wedding pretending to be a guest in order to drink, party and hook up with ladies.

Are Wedding Crasher’s real?

In fact, Yes, they are real and have even been in some recent news as of late 2020.

Before we get into some of the latest news and explain how to find them at a wedding, let’s take a trip back to 2002 when I was a young videographer in Virginia.

My Real Life Wedding Crasher Experience

I remember I was filming a wedding at the Hotel Roanoke, a Jewish couple was getting married in one of the new ballrooms and the couple’s family was spending a LOT of money at the wedding and reception. This was a $100,000 wedding.

Well, during the reception the groom’s mom noticed some people she’d never seen before and she went to the bride’s mom to ask and see if she knew them.

It was a couple in their 30’s but they looked out of place, they weren’t really dressed up and they were hanging out at the bar up front with Elvis, no not the singer, the employee that was serving drinks.

What was strange about the couple is that they were hanging out and not talking with anyone other than themselves and they kept eyeing the gift table nearby.

Well, long story short, the mom had hotel security come by and ask them to leave which they did.

Things could have been worse had they stayed and taken one or some of the gifts.

It’s estimated that 6% of weddings have a wedding crasher..png

Wedding Crasher’s in the News

In Comal County, Texas, there is a couple of women that apparently have been crashing weddings for several months, taking gifts from the table then making an exit, only to take the gifts back to the store for credit.

From the 2019 Facebook post, the couple has been doing this for a while and all across that part of Texas too.

The reality is that “wedding crashers” happen.

In fact, according to the Wedding Venue Professionals Association, it’s believed that 1 out of every 14 weddings will have a wedding crasher, about one in every 157,142 weddings in the US. That’s roughly 6% of the 2.2 million couples that get married according to Wedding Wire.

Wedding crashers don’t always come for gifts, sometimes it’s the food, sometimes it to pick up women, sometimes both, but in either case, there are a few tell-tell signs to look for at the wedding and I want to go over a few with you that can help you along the way.

The Fake Persona

The first thing to realize is that a wedding crasher is going to be a complete fake, fake personality, fake persona, fake name, fake backstory, and the like. That being said, with the help of family members and friends, you should be able to spot a fake at your wedding fairly easy.

First, they’re going to hang around people that are not their own age.

For example, seeing a younger guy getting his dance on with grandma might be a clue, as many older people are going to have foggy memories at times, they will use this to get information from them to reuse themselves later in the evening.

The more they learn about who they are hanging with the more they can reuse that information later in the evening if someone asks them questions about who they are.

That brings me to my second point, many times a wedding crasher will change the story from person to person whom they’re hanging with.

The Two Types of Wedding Crashers

There are two types of crashers, the professional that does it on a regular basis and the passer, the person passing by and they stop to ‘hang out’.

The ‘Professional’

The first, the professional isn’t a pro at all, they simply crasher weddings on a regular basis to entertain themselves and to use your wedding and your dime to do so. This is where you think of the movie,

The idea is to just have fun, sometimes it’s the thrill, other times it’s to cash in on the gifts, money, and gift cards sitting a the table.

The professional will know how best to blend in and many times will play the part with the way they dress, how they act and they usually are seen with the older crowd to gather than information.

Older people tend to forget, so the professional will do a great job at incepting something to an elderly person with those fake stories to help cover their tracks.

Watch this new video about a couple of real crashers that were the center of the wedding dance floor.

The Passer By

They seem more innocent, and they usually are. These are people staying at the hotel where the wedding is or they are literally just passing by and they get the bright idea of just hanging out.

There is usually no harm intended with these types of crashers other than perhaps a drink or two, they mostly just want to see what the wedding is all about and people watch.

Common Signs of a Crasher

Crashers will usually tell a story to fit in place.

Maybe the first person was told they were the bride’s second cousin from New York, while the next person they talk to they may say something like “I’m the bride’s college friend and we used to do (some event or club) together.”

A tell-tell sign is them always having to tell who they are to everyone and no one seems to remember them.

Many weddings will have assigned tables with a list of people for those tables, so use that as a key indicator if they should be there or not.

Another thing to think about, a wedding crasher will not really sit, they’ll be dancing the night away and trying to find some ladies they can take home after the wedding reception.

Usually, if you have a part of the reception where everyone is going back to their seats, like the speeches, you can usually find a crasher at the bathroom, bar or perhaps on a smoke break, but almost never at chair because they don’t have one.

A key factor that might signal they’re a wedding crasher too is that no one remembers them at the ceremony. That’s because the majority of crashers come to the reception, free food, usually free drinks, plenty of ladies to dance with and take home for the evening, although not all crashers are men.

I read an article where a woman came to a wedding wearing a wig so no one would recognize her only to come to see her boyfriend with another woman. When the boyfriend kissed the other girl, the crasher went crazy.

Asking great questions about the ceremony to a wedding crasher and watching their facial response is a good thing to do.

For example, you could ask about something at the ceremony that never happened, like “wow, I can’t believe the flower girl dumped all her flowers out right next to grandma’s chair….” If they go with the fake story, you might have found a crasher.

My piece of advice is this, have someone on the family, maybe a friend that can help be on the lookout for people that seem like they don’t belong and have them do some digging around.

Now, I’ve seen people that were not wedding crashers, but they were just very low key, that’s usually a common mistake as crashers want to party, not hang out on the sidelines.

Avg number of Wedding Crashers

Roughly 6% of all weddings have 'wedding crashers'

Best Way to Avoid Wedding Crashers

One of the best ways that I’ve seen in my career as a wedding filmmaker is to have each person present a ticket of sorts when they arrive. Having a welcome table setup is by far one of the best ways to ‘check’ people in if you will, much like a festival or event.

Although it’s not 100% fool proof, it’s a great way to help make sure that everyone who needs to be there, should be. Higher-end wedding managers and planners will sometimes offer this as a service and it’s worth checking out if you plan to have a much larger wedding, usually more than 150 guests.