After a bride's wedding idea went terribly wrong, nearly 100 goldfish were left dead in the water- as was the friendship between the bride and the maid of honour.

Apparently, the bride was a 'big animal lover', particularly loved fish, and an 'on and off vegetarian/vegan, PETA supporter etc'.

With this in mind, she wanted her centre pieces to be filled with live goldfish - which could also double up as wedding favours, and each guest would be given one at the end of the night.

What could possibly go wrong?

Would you want a goldfish when you go to a wedding?

Naturally, her maid of honour was very concerned for the welfare of the fish - and concerned that not everyone would want to adopt the fish at the end of the night.

According to the Mirror, she voiced her concerns to the bride, but the bride-to-be didn't see things the same way.

In her mind the only potential issue was that the fish might not survive the whole ceremony and meal, so she asked her maid of honour to be on "floater duty".

Writing on Reddit, she claims the bride told her: "Well, that can be your job during the reception, just keep an eye out for dead ones and replace them before anyone notices."

The bride put her friend on 'floater duty'

The full conversation went like this: (M=original friend, B=bride)

M: "What happens to the fish after the ceremony?"

B:  "Oh, the guests can take them home! They'd be like wedding favors! Keepsakes!"

M: "But not everyone is going to want to take home a new pet from a wedding. People tend to like having a say in what pets they want to take care of."

B:  "Well not everyone has to take one. There's only a pair for every table, not everyone could take one anyway."

M: "But still, you're expecting... what, 25% of your guests to want to adopt a pet that day?"

B:  "They're only goldfish! Plenty of people already have fish at home."

M: "Wouldn't the fish be pretty stressed out being in the middle of all the wedding chaos with no where to hide?"

B:  "But they have, like, three-second memories, it wouldn't even matter. The ones in the tank at Wal-Mart don't seem to mind people walking by them all the time."

M: "Yeah, speaking of the ones in the tank at Wal-Mart... there's always a fair few of them floating at the top. What if you get floaters during the reception? I mean, it's not an appetising sight for the people eating their dinners. Besides, it wouldn't make for the best representation of your relationship. There's a lot of... not good... symbolism there."

B:  "Well, that can be your job during the reception: just keep an eye out for dead ones and replace them before anyone notices. They're called feeder fish for a reason. They don't live long, everyone knows that. We'll buy them that morning, they only need to survive through the reception."

M: "I thought you loved animals."


The marriage and the friendship didn't last too long after the ceremony

Unsurprisingly, many of the guests didn't really want to take a fish home and the maid of honour was left with 80 goldfish at the end of the night.

She wrote: "Isn't it strange how not a single guest was willing to take home some goldfish?

"It couldn't have helped that the bride didn't think to provide containers for them.

"So, will the bride and groom be adopting these 80 goldfish plus about 10 "spare" still in the back swimming around in the giant bag from the pet store?

"Alas, they can't! They're headed off on their honeymoon. Such a shame. 'Gotta go now, bye!'

"With that, they were gone. Now I was literally the only person from the wedding left in the building. The hosts still needed their globes back.

"That night I strolled into a big-box pet store in my big fluffy red satin floor length gown, heels clacking on the tiles, and purchased a big-ass rectangular tank, a filter, and some fish flakes.

"A few were dead by the time I got home, then more the next morning. More again in the afternoon, and the evening, and the next morning.

"By the third day, we were down to five, and we lost one a day after that until there was only one left.

"And that last one? Five years. I named it Sun. It lingered far longer than my friendship with the bride, and far far longer than her marriage."