Stress can do strange things to a person. When planning a big wedding stress weighs heavy on the bride to be. If ever there was a reason to step back and re-think your wedding plans, the following account would be it.

If you are planning a wedding, you probably have heard every wedding horror story out there by now. Urban legends abound in wedding disasters. Unfortunately, most of the stories are 100% true. I was an eye witness to the bride in the diaper debacle, and I can tell you, I will never look at weddings in the same way again.

I have three weddings of my own under my belt, plus I was a bridesmaid in countless weddings. Believe me, I know weddings! I can simply look at a photograph of a wedding and tell you exactly what year it took place from the style of the wedding dress. When it comes to weddings I have seen it all, from a vomiting groom to a comatose bride that was hauled to the hospital in all her finery. It got to the point where I could figure out a potential wedding disaster long before it was destined to happen. However, a bride in a diaper was something I never imagined. Not even in my wildest dreams.

If people knew of all the embarrassing episodes waiting to explode on their big day, they would probably run away screaming to the justice of the peace. Never are you open to disaster at any other time in your life as when you decide you want a big wedding. If something can go wrong, it probably will, and big weddings seem to be especially jinxed. I mean people are basically putting on a Hollywood production without the benefit of experience. If they think hiring a wedding planner is going to help, they are badly mistaken. From my vast experience a wedding planner just adds another element of tension.

Our diapered bride was an average 25 year old who never had any medical problems or any indication that one day, on her wedding day, her bowels would simply and totally betray her in a most devastating way. She was happy-go-lucky, planning her big day with a spirit of gusto reserved for drunken sailors. Nothing, and I mean nothing seemed to faze her. She went about her wedding planning duties like a general planning an ongoing war. And with military precision the entire thing seemed to be going off without a hitch, or so it was thought!

Even by today's standards, the wedding was huge with 10 bridesmaids and 3 flowers girls, all with male attendants of course. The guest list groaned under the weight of 1200 people. Money flowed like wine at the last supper. Coming from wealthy parents this girl was used to having her own way her entire life. Everything, and I mean everything was the best money could buy. I cringe to think how much money was spent on this wedding. With my bridesmaid's dress costing well over 1000.00 dollars, I was about to be part of a gala extravaganza, the likes I have never seen. It took me months to save for that dress, and months more to pay for a gift that was expensive enough not to embarrass me.

The wedding dress, hand made in France, was a vision of pure loveliness. Tiny rows of rubies and pearls accented the hem, neckline and sleeves. The wedding took place in the deep of winter, and I have yet to see a dress more suited to the season. Created out of a heavy antique gold satin, it was two years in the making, and was rumored to have a six figure price tag. The bodice plunged deeply to expose the bride's voluptuous, and I might add expensive, cleavage. Her head was crowned by a real diamond and ruby tiara with an attached 12 foot veil of the sheerest gold silk. Exquisite, this wedding would be the talk of the town for many years to come. Nothing could be closer to the truth.

The bride was truly breathtaking, as it turned out in more than one way, as she walked down the aisle to her beloved. She floated on air to the altar. Everything seemed perfect, that is until there was a strange muffled rumble coming from the area of the bride. Could it be that she was passing gas? At first everyone simply ignored that sound, but then, like returning thunder, it rumbled again, LOUDER! I could barely hold back my astonishment. The wedding party tried their best to get on with things and simply ignore the obvious. I glanced at the bride to find her face a deep shade of red, a sure giveaway that something was going horribly wrong. The groom looked even more embarrassed than the bride, if that is possible. The minister carried on like the professional he was, as if this happened all the time. Maybe he knows something we didn't.

Suddenly the vows were over and everyone sighed collectively in relief, hoping the bride could make a quick exit before embarrassing herself further. The bride and groom were now walking down the aisle to freedom and fresh air, their thoughts, no one could fathom, but the groom wore a worried look on his face, a trapped look, a look that said, "What did I get myself into?"

It did not take long before a plan was formulated. We dosed the bride with great quantities of an anti-diarrheal medication. This crying mess of a bride needed to be showered and diapered and thrown back into the fray of her wedding day. It took some doing too. We finally got her cleaned up and outfitted with an adult diaper, assuring her that no one would ever know. Certainly none of us would tell. As her wedding veil floated over her once again, indeed, no one should have been the wiser of the little drama that just played out.

I don't know if that diaper was actually needed in the end, but I do know she needed it on for the confidence it provided. In spite of everything, it took less than an hour before our secret got out. We could see women all over, eyes wide and exaggerated, whispering behind their hands in a conspiratorial tone. If the groom was caught having sex with the best man, that would be a secret everyone could keep, but not this. No, in a very innocent sort of way, it just slipped off the lips of a grandmother, and from there it traveled at the speed of light through out the room!

If you are a bride to be, let this story be a lesson to you. In my circle of friends and relatives, there has not been a big wedding since. No one wants to take the chance. At first it was thought the incident was due to laxative use or some other problem, but in the end the doctors agreed it was simply from stress. Money can buy you a big wedding, but no amount of money can relieve the stress of a big wedding.