Yahoo Lifestyle 15 Ex-Brides And Grooms Confessed Why They Canceled Their Wedding RIGHT Before It Happened, And Yiiiikes
A while ago we asked the brides of the BuzzFeed Community who called off their marriage on the wedding day (or very, very close to the wedding day) to tell us their stories and why they did it. In the comments, even more brides (and some grooms) shared why they called off their weddings. Here's what they had to say:
Note: Some submissions are from this and this Reddit thread because they were too good to ignore.
1."My sister is a bridal stylist, and a bride at a wedding she was contracted for called off the wedding right before the ceremony. She finished the bride's makeup and hair, then left to chill with a coffee before doing pre-reception touch-ups. When she returned, the wedding was off. Turns out, the bride walked in on the groom being breastfed by his mother! It was the wildest discovery, and the bride was done. The groom is from a prominent family in our city, and no one knows this is why the wedding was canceled."
2."Two weeks before the wedding, he got super drunk at my house and proceeded to hit my 75-gallon fish tank with a baseball bat, shattering the glass, spilling water everywhere, and killing a few fish (I rescued a few by placing them in buckets, but several were killed already/died soon or were never found). There was also apparent water damage on the floor, flooded, table legs ruined, as well as the carpet. He collapsed dead out drunk. When he was finally sober, I told him what he had done. He laughed that fish were not real pets, and he said that the water damage was no big deal, laughing it off. I got him to leave the house and told him that we were not going to have a wedding after he got to his car. I ran back to my house, locked the door, and told him if he tried to come in, I was going to call the cops."
—Aria, 35, USA
3."I was about to get married, but about a week before the wedding day, my fiancé and I had a talk, and he came out as gay to me, and I told him that I wasn’t feeling the connection anymore. We called it off, and I got back together with my middle/high school boyfriend and got married to him. My ex-fiancé is married to his partner. He was the best man at my wedding, and I was the 'best woman' at his. We are best friends, and he and his husband are my kid's godparents."
—Amy, 29, New Hampshire
4."I bailed right before I was supposed to walk down the aisle. I was in the room at the venue getting ready when my mom said something that really struck a chord. I had been with this guy for two years, and we had just graduated from college. Looking back, I can say he was an asshole. Arrogant and sarcastic. He had zero respect for women, which was evident to everyone but me. My friends were constantly dropping hints that I wasn’t the same when I was with him. I became a wallflower as I was always walking on eggshells around him. On my wedding day, my mom looked at me and said how much she loved my dad because they had an equal partnership and loved and respected each other. It was the way she said it that woke me up."
"I started crying, and she asked me if I was sure about this, and I said no, that I was minutes from making a huge mistake. My mom, with the help of my grandmother, went out to break the news to the guests and my friends helped me get out of there. My only regret is that I waited so long to figure it out."
5."My dad was engaged to this girl who came from a very wealthy family. He proposed because she gave him an ultimatum after she tried to make him jealous by flirting with his friends. He was Catholic, and his church required them to go to counseling before the wedding. He slowly realized they had absolutely nothing in common and called off the wedding three days before. He was at her parent's house for a wedding shower three days before the ceremony and told her he didn't think they should get married. She didn't take it too well, so she flipped out and refused to let him leave the room."
"He slammed the wall with his fist, and she stepped aside. My dad went downstairs where her mother and the other ladies were, picked up his hamster (I have no idea why my dad would bring his pet hamster to a wedding shower), told her mom she might need to go upstairs and check on her daughter, and walked out of the house carrying the hamster under his arm. A few months later, he met my mom, and they've been married for over 30 years."
6."My boyfriend at the time proposed to me the summer before he left for medical school across the globe, and I was still finishing my last year of college. We were both making little to no money, and our respective families were going to have to straddle all costs. The stress of planning a wedding, trying to graduate and holding it all together while I spoke to my S.O. only a few times a week eventually took its toll on me. I cracked, and first canceled the wedding and eventually broke it off together. Life can take you in so many directions."
7."My fiancé called off our wedding ten hours before go-time. She did find me in my own apartment with her nineteen-year-old twin sister, but the sister did come on to me, and it's not like we were married yet. I was a young jerk at the time, and this was how I rationalized things. I later married the sister, we divorced six months later, six months later she gave birth to twin sons (not mine) and a while after that, she came out as a lesbian. Coincidentally, so did my ex-fiancé. I got the money back for the rings and went to France a year later on that cash. I met my wife in Brussels on that trip, so it all turned out great."
8."We had been together for three years and were in our late 20s. Looking back, we both had serious communication issues and undiagnosed mental health issues (anxiety for me and depression for her). Not long after we got engaged, she suddenly lost her job. She struggled to find work, but she was determined. However, it started to take a toll on her mentally and financially. I wasn’t making much, but I helped her where I could. Add to that the stress of wedding planning and a growing guest list (she came from a big family, and I was looking at work friends to fill the gap on my side), and things started to go downhill. Soon she started hanging out with new friends, and a few months before, I found out she'd kissed another man."
"I was devastated, but we both said we would go through with it. Then, about a month before the wedding, we got into a big fight. Her family wanted to invite some family friends to the rehearsal dinner, which had already grown into a full-blown deal, as all the aunts and uncles on both sides wanted to come. It was at that point I decided to call it off. It was so embarrassing and painful, but my parents were supportive. We tried to stay together, but it was definitely over."
—45, Washington, DC
9."I realized that she was more in love with getting married than she was with me. I was her avenue to marriage, and she felt that I'd be a loyal husband and good father. But she didn't care about me more than a friend."
10."I'm a groom who called off the marriage. The bride told me three things on the day of our marriage: 1.) She wanted a limo, 2.) She didn't want to have sex with one person for the rest of her life, and 3.) She thought she might be a lesbian."
—53, New Jersey
11."I went on my first date at the age of 23. Having never been in a relationship before, I thought everything was going well. About three months in, we got pregnant. She had told me that she was on the Pill and it was possible that she couldn't even get pregnant. This was a shock to my system, and we separated briefly following the announcement. We got back together, though, and really tried to make it work. My daughter was born in August, very near our one-year anniversary. My daughter is the greatest person in the world, and she's done more for me than she'll ever know. I've learned so much through her about responsibility and being an adult. Shortly after my daughter's birth, her mother began pushing the marriage issue, and I saved up to buy a ring. I proposed, and for some time it made things better between us."
"The situation was just too difficult, though; we had nothing in common other than our daughter. Before long, she was again verbally and psychologically abusive to me, but having never been treated like that, I didn't understand what I was doing wrong. I began seeing a therapist, who helped me realize that I wasn't in a healthy relationship. Finally, after an argument in which she threatened me with physical violence, I knew that things were just too toxic to continue. I definitely looked like the bad guy, but I had to make the best choice for the futures of all those involved. The most difficult part was coming to the conclusion that having this situation continue around my daughter would actually be worse for her than us being apart."
12."We were together for seven years and were getting married in a few months. We'd already bought a house and started tying our lives together. She was emotionally distant for some time, but I ignored it like a fool in love. Eventually I noticed that she was spending significant time chatting with a guy she'd met on World of Warcraft. She was also taking phone calls 'from a friend' in private. I called her on it, and our wedding was called off the next day."
"We bought our house during the mortgage bubble, and now I'm stuck with an underwater mortgage on a house that's lost 50% of its value. I also still have the ring. It's been almost five years, and I'm still not sure what to do with it."
13."My mom was engaged to a guy who called off their wedding two weeks beforehand. At the time, he said it was because his family didn't support his remarriage. She stuck with him and eventually married him a few years later. Turned out, he had at least two other wives during this time."
"She found this all out when he had a stroke and died, and another wife showed up at the hospital. In the end Mom lost everything, and now she lives with me."
14."Two weeks before the big day, I called off my wedding. It all went down the weekend after her bachelorette party. Speed up to late Monday morning, and I get a phone call from her maid of honor — it may have been the only call I had ever received from her. She tells me, 'You cannot marry this crazy bitch.' She then begins to explain that at the party, all of my fiancé's lies caught up with her. She had about three small, different groups of friends together sharing stories. While they were out and about doing what they do, different stories from different friends started running into each other. One example was when she claimed to have a modeling contract at an agency. Then another friend would say, 'No, she doesn't have a modeling contract, I do with that agency.' Basically, she used her friends' stories as her own."
"After the conversation, I was stunned for a moment. I felt empty but emotionless. The next thing I remember is walking back to my computer on the sales floor and changing passwords to important accounts. I told my manager that I had to leave. My reason? I wasn't getting married anymore, sir. It was good enough. After I got out of there, I went and talked to the priest. Told him the wedding was most likely not going down. Called the reception hall. That guy was pissed because I was supposed to write him a check the next day. Lost the deposit, though.
"I met up with the maid of honor, another bridesmaid, and a friend. They took her out to dinner to stall/confront her about everything while I tried to move as much stuff out of the apartment as I could. I had help from a friend. Filled up my car and drove to my parents' house. My mother was shocked but happy because she hated my fiancé. She called when she got back, but I didn't answer. Didn't even talk to her for a few days. In hindsight, I could see all her lies. Some things seemed a little unbelievable, but she was always able to back it up when I started to get curious. I dodged a huge freaking bullet."
15.And finally, "My uncle got left at the altar on his wedding day. It was a five-year relationship. My grandad had to go up on the altar, thank everyone for coming, and say there would be no wedding. My uncle was heartbroken and went on a trip to New Zealand. He sat on the plane next to a dude from there. He invited him to his family's home. And my uncle ended up marrying his sister. They are still together and have had three kids."
Responses have been edited for length/clarity.
Brides — and grooms — if you've ever called off a wedding last minute, feel free to share your story in the comments below. Or, if you want to remain anonymous, tell us your story using this Google form.
