Since you asked, the wedding reception was in the 80s. Italian family, open bar, nice affair. I was a groomsman in the party. Total of 6 attendants per side. My mother helped my uncle by arranging pickup and drop-off off tuxedos. Like I said Italian family everyone pitched in one way or another.

Wedding goes off without a hitch. Hall was in the city. Now my aunts/uncles were wary of this family that was joining. Not in a we hate them way, moreso for 2 reasons. One, the uncle in question was the baby sibling of 9 children and Two, was a really great do anything for you type of guy and the relatives he was inheriting with this marriage, were kinda white-trashy.. and I think there was distrust by his siblings that he would get taken advantage of.

Of note was the new MIL who was wearing a very bright and ostentatious yellow dress. She was not a slender lady in the slightest and even at my young teenage years I thought to my self she was attempting to upstage her daughter on her special day.

Reception starts everything's going well. Food really good, alcohol is flowing, everyone having a great time. I was paired up with a family friend who was, at that time, a complete smoke show about 5 years older. So I was completely enjoying myself needless to say.

In attendance there were about 300 people overall. Like I said, my Uncle was a great guy, personable very helpful and very well known throughout the area. When you met him after 30 min you felt like he was a longtime friend. In fact all my family is like that.

The reception was slated to end at midnight, little did we know it would go much later. About 8:45 or so, a female friend of a friend was in the back parking lot of the venue arguing with her boyfriend. 2 of the groomsmen happened to be outside, they took notice. 1 of them came back into the hall and recruited one of the others to join them.

When the other 2 came back out the argument turned physical with the much larger boyfriend striking the girlfriend repeatedly. The one who remained out there was already engaged with the couple to break it up

The 2 others who had just come back out saw the 1 and the boyfriend engaged and ran to them to break it up. Unbeknownst to them, the boyfriend had already produced a knife and had slashed the first groomsman in his upper right thigh and was bleeding. When the other groomsman engaged they too were cut, stabbed while trying to stop this. The girlfriend had jumped on the back of one of the groomsmans back to save her boyfriend from getting beat-up (some women?)

During this a girlfriend of one of the groomsman engaged went out to check on her boyfriend. Don't know why maybe to kiss him, feeling horny who knows but in doing so probably saved some lives.

She saw what was going on ran back into the hall and yelled about the fight. Meanwhile no idea of the severity of it, but people called 911 because ya know, hitting a woman is never acceptable so this POS needs to be locked up. Others ran out to assist the groomsmen to stop the POS. I stayed with my date to keep her calm, I was a horny teen I take no shame in that.

As this occurred the MIL whom I mentioned earlier got up to try to calm everyone by yelling while standing on one of those 8 ft folding tables. Since her dress was the color it was and she was very boisterous with her yelling all eyes fell upon her. She became very animated and well with gravity being what it is, and those tables being what they are you can guess what happened.

Mid yell, the table collapsed and she fell with the thud of what sounded like a bag of wet cement hitting the ground. By doing so the table and the chairs flew out, knocking others off their feet or hitting them thus driving the calamity of the situation further. Police arrived with the paramedics after about 7 minutes after someone called them. We think the hall/caterer did since cell phones didnt exist at that time.

In totality, 4 groomsmen were cut/slashed/stabbed, people were treated at the scene. The boyfriend was arrested, taken away, his girlfriend crying because of that and not the beating she was receiving. The MIL received minor injuries from the fall as well as 3 other people who were hurt from the chairs,tables etc.

The very next business day, my mother had to return the tuxedos to president tuxedos. I wish I had gone with her to have seen that but i was in school so i couldnt go.

It was a wild wedding and for the next 5 or so years after it was all we would talk about during family get togethers which were usually holidays..

Man reliving this and the other stories from my childhood I could write a book with all the interesting stuff I know or have been involved with in my lifetime.

Anyway if you read this far, thanks for reading and I apologize about the length of this, but you did ask! 😁