Nothing is more heartbreaking than finding out the one you love, no longer loves you. But when they make the decision to ruin an important life event, like the wedding, is when their hidden but true colors are expressed.
She Doesn’t Believe Anyone Will Ever Love Her?
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“My aunt was left at the altar. Her husband just basically never showed up for the wedding. They had been dating for almost 2 years and lived together for 1 of them. He was the one who suggested getting married.
She came back to her house and his stuff was gone all her stuff left intact. No note and no reason why. It sucks.
She described the experience almost like having a heart attack. One if the happiest days of her life turned into her worst nightmare. She has dealt with abandonment issues for years and has seen many therapists.
Her biggest problem now is she doesn’t believe anyone actually loves her. She doesn’t think she’s pretty, nice, and rarely speaks. She used to be one of the most outgoing people I know. I still love her, but this was 3 years ago and I’m losing hope fast.”
School Teacher Walked Down The Aisle To No Visible Husband
“My entire fourth-grade class was in attendance at our teacher’s wedding where she was left at the altar.
The whole situation was ugly. My teacher was the bride and was about 3/4 down the aisle when the groom decided he couldn’t do it. He walked off to the side and at first, my teacher and her father didn’t notice and kept walking, smiling radiantly. There was about a minute of really solid confusion (last minute cold feet? bathroom emergency?) before everyone realized what was going on.
My teacher was whisked out of the church and an announcement was made that there was not going to be a wedding.
This happened the second or third week of June; she didn’t come back for the last week of school.”
All She Did Was Spend His Money!
“My brother left his wife a few days before his wedding:
My brother’s wife has a higher standard of living than my family does; her wedding was going to cost roughly $70,000 when my sister’s wedding cost $5,000 and we thought that was a lot. I guess she wanted her wedding in a magazine, and my brother and her fought over it endlessly because she doesn’t have a job and he’s in the construction industry and could not afford to pay for all of the things she wanted to buy.
My brother went to his bachelor party and she called him non-stop. He ended up shutting his phone off because he didn’t want to talk to her anymore because she was being crazy about his having a bachelor party when she had a just-as-crazy bachelorette party.
He came back from the bachelor party really angry with her because she wouldn’t let him have fun, so there was a lot of fighting in the week before the wedding. In the meantime the whole family flew in from other states and spent a lot of money that we don’t really have, to be there for his big day.
Three days before the wedding he decided to leave her because all she did was spend his money when she didn’t contribute to making the money, and get into fights with him when he couldn’t give her money so she could go shopping. Not only that, but her mother was involved in planning the wedding, and most of the ideas were the mother’s, pressuring her into having this extravagant lifestyle and air of superiority.
Flash forward a year and a half: they’re married, they have a child, they’re about to be kicked out of his house because it’s being foreclosed on and they don’t have the money for the upside down mortgage, she still doesn’t have a job, and he’s threatening to leave her if she doesn’t get a job or go to school by January.
The whole family thinks he’s crazy because we know she’s not going to change. We think the only reason she got pregnant was so she wouldn’t have to get a job.”
Why Do People Write Notes About Their Departure?
“Not quite left at the altar (2 weeks prior, well 16 days but close enough). I found a ring with a note that simply said: ‘I don’t want to marry you anymore’ on my bed. All her things were gone, changed her phone number and everything.
I cried for days and when I stopped crying I couldn’t muster the courage to leave my apartment. Four months spent in my apartment, the only time I would leave was to throw out garbage down the chute. A full year until I was able to pay off the debt (I had covered down payments on everything so we wouldn’t lose the things we wanted since her parents were expert procrastinators when it came to money). Two and a half years before I even considered dating again and I still struggle with depression.
BONUS: I found out this summer the reason she left me was to shack up with a childhood friend of hers. She called me while drunk and told me (Well she left a message as I didn’t pick up). Apparently, he died last summer in a longboarding accident.”
Embarrassment In A Small Town…
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“My mom was left at the altar on her wedding day. She said it was a horrible and embarrassing experience. Coming from a small town, she often heard people gossiping that it was probably something she did since her current boyfriend was a policeman.
Sometime after that, she met my Dad, who just came out of another marriage (it wasn’t working for both of them, so they kind of called it quits). They started dating and got married 6 months after that. Very quick I know.
My parents tell me now that they both know they married each other out of rebound and can be considered a mistake, but they made it work and now love each other even more.
So in a way, it affected me, cause I was born.”
Cheating On Him With His ‘Best Friend’
“I wasn’t left at the altar per se, but I was dumped two weeks before my wedding.
We’d been dating for five years, and I’d popped the question in the same place we’d had our first kiss. She looked so happy I thought she’d burst. The next few months we spent excitedly inviting friends, hiring a cake Baker, and planning a venue. Our relationship was pretty low maintenance, and I trusted her entirely.
So entirely, I didn’t even bat an eye when, after I had to leave a trip we were on a day early for work, she decided to hang behind with a friend of mine from college.
I’m not sure if the cheating was premeditated. I honestly think it just happened, because she panicked and told me that he took advantage of her. I was something shocked, I took nearly a week off from work to console her and try to get her help. I began to grow suspicious when she began to change her story, saying he ‘may not have’ taken advantage of her (kind of a hard thing to forget). Then it changed to it being forced on her, but she ‘enjoyed it.’ Then the story changed to it being consensual, and finally, she’d decided she’d imagined the entire thing. Unfortunately for her, as bad of a liar, she was, my former friend was even worse. He came clean about the entire thing when I told him that she had.
Before I even had time to process all of this, she dumped me after I came home from my first day back at work and told me that I ‘made her too happy’ and that she ‘did not want to be happy.’
Having my entire world disappear in a single week devastated me. My brother and friends looked after me for the next few days. My brother said I looked like Griffith from the Berserk series after the king’s men tortured him.
It took quite some time to find myself again. I like to believe I’m over it, but even retelling this story fills me with the same feelings of betrayal and rage.
There really are few things worse than being left at the altar.”
Ex-Relationship Drama At The Wedding!
“Here’s my story:
Basically, we had been dating for about a year, things were going great and life was good. She had never been married before, but she did have an eight-year-old daughter, who I connected great with, plus she was starting to feel like my actual daughter, which was awesome.
So yeah, things were moving pretty quickly. Especially after her sister’s wedding broke off, which is when we decided to get married, with only a couple weeks notice.
The weeks following the wedding went by as fast as lightning. My best friends were skeptical of our relationship at first, but in the end, they were happy and confident for me, so I could not wait to spend the rest of my life with her.
I should let you know that my best friends and I are very close and one of them I even dated for a year, which ended because we both wanted different things. Anywho, that’s important to the story.
Then the wedding began and the guests started to arrive.
So yeah, everything was going fairly well, except for one thing, my (supposedly) future wife, did not approve of my friend/ex coming to our wedding, because she thought they might stir up tension over unresolved things in their relationship, which I thought was completely bogus.
There was also another problem, the father of my future wife’s daughter did not want my future step-daughter to go to the wedding. So I decided to take matters into my own hand, hoping that convincing my fiancée’s ex to allow my future stepdaughter to come watch the ceremony would make my fiancée less mad about me inviting my ex to the wedding.
Yeah, that didn’t work out.
I decided to bring both my fiancée’s ex and my future step-daughter to the wedding because I’m a soft guy who’s no good at backing down.
Well, my fiancée was mad.
We argued over what to do about both the exes’ presence at the wedding (I was particularly heated about letting mine visit since she flew all the way from Japan to come.) My fiancée wanted to talk to my ex and vice versa, but I thought we should talk to our own exes, which she finally agreed on.
I talked to my friend/ex, and she was actually grateful, saying it was extremely awkward and she was completely fine with it. Which was really relieving for me. Now I just went back to the room to wait and see what my fiancée had done to convince her ex to leave.
But when I got back, there was only a note, from my fiancée. It talked about how she was leaving with her ex, because she still had feelings for him, especially since he was the father of her child.
My heart was broken, time stopped, and so did my heartbeat.
The next few months were tough, but with the help of my friends, I got myself back together. Fifteen years later, I now have two kids and a wife that I love very much, and a home that I rebuilt myself.
Things are great.”
Ended Up Marrying The Girl On His Run?
“One of my neighbor’s had a nephew who was getting married in our town (it was his fiance’s hometown). He comes into town several weeks before the wedding and stays with my neighbor. Turns out, the guy’s a runner, so every evening he goes jogging. The first night, he passes a cute girl jogging in the neighborhood next to ours.
A couple of nights later, he sees her again and they begin talking and jogging together. This goes on for a couple of weeks and then 2 days before the wedding he calls everything off.
Six months later, he married the jogging girl. The family was apparently mortified, and I get the same attitude from women who hear the story.
But while I think it sucked for the first woman, isn’t it better that he figured things out before they got married, rather than 3-4 years later when they have a kid and a mortgage?”
They Still Had The Reception!
“A wealthy cousin’s husband disappeared the day before the wedding. There was no explanation, he just left with a friend.
His entire family and her entire family were all in town for the wedding already—so they skipped the ceremony and still had the reception. It was a huge party and the most fun (non) wedding I’ve ever been too.
There was a ‘screw-it’ attitude under the circumstances, so all the kids were allowed to drink and the band played whatever they wanted.
It was a blast, and as far as I could tell the ditched bride had a great time.”
Groomsmen Accomplices To Runaway Groom?
“A buddy of ours was going to marry this girl he had known for a few years. He was expressing doubt but racked it up to being nervous about marriage.
The night before he broke down crying and thought he was making a mistake. We offered support and told him it would be ok. We said that if he didn’t want to do it he didn’t have to but we encouraged him to go through with it.
Day of the wedding and everything is happening.
The wedding has started and he is at the altar waiting. I dunno about other religions, but Mexican Catholic weddings have this moment before the bride comes out where it’s quiet with anticipation and everything is just waiting.
My buddy is sweating like a mad man. My other friends and I notice and think he is about to pass out.
Then it happens.
The groom starts rocking back and forth. He looks like he is about to faint and he slowly starts side shuffling.
My buddies look at each other and just know what is about to happen.
The groom turns to his right and starts heading to the side door. Some people in the church notice and there is a gasp.
He beelines to the door and goes outside. My buddies and I follow him. At this point, I just thought he needed air. Nope.
He heads straight towards the sports car he had rented. We yell at him and he yells at us to get in and we do.
He turns the car on and starts making his way out of the parking lot as the people in the church start to come out and yell.
He takes off!!
We are yelling and screaming in the car and he has this dead serious look on his face.
We end up in Vegas for the next few days. His phone is blowing up but he never answers it.
The dude ends up joining the military and leaves to Bootcamp just 2 weeks after all of that happened. He stayed with us couch surfing for 2 weeks and disappeared from his bride, her family, and even his.
Last I heard of him he had served multiple tours overseas and was part of a recon unit. Haven’t heard anything else from him for a few years now. None of us have actually.
The bride was devastated of course, but last I heard she got married for reals this time and is very happy in her new relationship.”
They Already Set Three Wedding Dates!
“My mom has been in an on/off (mostly on) relationship for almost 6 years now with the greatest guy. They had set three weddings dates and she eventually backed out of all of them. I ask her about it and she gives me these dumb reasons like he’s too friendly with strangers (she feels neglected), doesn’t clean the kitchen correctly (how could she ever live with him), and he’s too clingy (maybe I could understand this one, but whenever he does try to back off and give her space, then she’s sad and misses him).
The first wedding date we bought dresses and booked the church, the second and third, not so much. They are still in contact and are friends, though no longer technically in a relationship, I don’t think. I think he’s had enough of being jerked around, and I don’t blame him. He is the greatest guy, and he’s been more of a father for this fraction of my life than my dad has been (we live in the same zip code but he never contacts me).
It’s sad, but I’m totally on my almost stepdad’s side. My mom can be so flighty and do things in the name of ‘protecting herself,’ and not really care about who she’s hurting when she’s guarding against these fears that mainly only live in her head.”
Sneaky Cheating Fiance That Ruined The Whole Day
“This happened in Calcutta / Kolkata and my dad was present (we live in Canada). The couple had been introduced to each other and after like 6 months of hanging out and getting to know each other they got engaged. They had known each other for almost a year up to this point. These are well off people who are of an upper-income range so it’s not the village or anything, just to set the tone correctly.
There had been events the day before the actual wedding ceremony, which about 500+ people attended and of course, people talk, hence word got out.
So then on the evening of the wedding, a group of people showed up and literally blocked the street so the groom couldn’t come to the wedding venue.
The groom had been sleeping with a female of said blockade family under the promise of getting married. Even introducing himself to her parents and family, planning a future date for his parents to meet hers. Mind you all (500+) the guests had arrived and witnessed this.
For about an hour there was a stand off and the information got back to the venue/ bride and her family and they called off the wedding. The guests were half in shock, half trying to eat and drink as much as they could before the inevitable cancellation happened.
The bride’s family actually took the matter to court (expenses of the wedding and such) and the guy settled out of court with them. As well they (the bride and her parents) personally went out and returned all the gifts they received.
My dad didn’t allow them to (return the gifts he had given them) and told her to keep them all, due to the circumstances.”
The Didn’t Tell Him The Wedding Was Never Happening?
“It was my own wedding. I was there waiting, and my bride to be texted me letting me know that she wasn’t feeling well and that she needed to go to the hospital. I got suspicious when I noticed that no one from her side of the family had shown up. Turns out, they had never sent out their half of the invitations and never bothered to tell me that there was no wedding.
So there I was with my friends and family at a wedding that didn’t actually exist.”
Changing Her Mind The Night Before…
“I went to a cousin’s wedding a few years ago, and his fiancee changed her mind the night before and said she didn’t want to go through with it. Everyone had obviously flown in and everything was set up to do the wedding and it was totally out of left field.
Apparently the day of the wedding she said she was sorry and did want to get married – but my cousin said ‘No’ because of her prior backing out. He got married to someone else about a year later.
My cousins, their families, and I all had a blast the day of the wedding anyway. We went to some museums, ran around, and all sorts of things – it was like we were little kids again, but even better.”
Dumping Him In An E-mail
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“One time I was in Ventrilo and a friend who was a girl invited another girl into chat server. Obviously, as a Vent server full or nerdy guys, we are deadly silent. I cracked a joke about it, she laughed and like an idiot, I fell pretty darn hard for a voice. It stayed silent so she left shortly thereafter. So I did what any reasonable guy would do, found out her guild wars character name and stay online forever waiting for her to log on.
After a few days of this, she finally did, I talked to her, she had a boyfriend but I got close to her waiting for the time to be right. We hung out all day every day playing video games. I helped her with her online school and was her ‘Confidant’ about all things. One day, someone basically told her how I felt and she confronted me, blah blah blah ‘Maybe someday’ she says.
WELL a month or so into this she told me she dumped her boyfriend, I kept asking her out and she said no, then one day shortly after my senior year began she said she felt something.
At 6:15 pm on September 16th, we became a couple. We played lots of games with her friends, sometimes alone, on and off for months. I woke up at 4 am every day (She was east coast) played with her, went to school, came home, played more. One day she was sending me screen shots of her changing her characters face or something. In the chat, I noticed she had sent a guy a Photobucket link. I copied this into my browser and BAM. Galleries FULL of nudes. She said it was an accident. I didn’t really care, I just wanted to know if she actually loved me. LOL, I was a dumb man.
Months go by of it being only us hanging. I find out she told some random guy she was single, and they were dating. I forgave again. Oh, yeah. And I should have explained she was literally on the other side of the US from me. Give me a break, I was 17.
Anyways, more months go by, I visit here in real life and things seem great until I visit her again, and then things take a weird turn. Come to find out she is both bulimic and anorexic. I figure everyone’s got their stuff and move on. For Christmas, I buy her a beautiful ring.
The next time I visit, I stole it from her and as she was frantically searching for it, I proposed to her. Derp.
Fast forward to a year or so later, she finally flies out to see me, I plan on taking her to elope and she doesn’t know (Spoiler I don’t end up following through). And things go terribly wrong, she’s like 100 pounds, we don’t get along, I paid 1000’s to take her to Blizzcon, Knotts Berry Farm, blah blah. She leaves and 2 days later breaks up with me via email whilst I was at a Yngwie Malmsteen concert.
How it’s affected me? Well, I can’t get close to women anymore without getting scared. It’s weird. I had a girlfriend after, but for some reason whenever I make someone a little sad, I feel absolutely horrible, like I’m the very worst person in existence. And that girl was great but I just wasn’t in a spot to have a relationship. It still messes with me, I realize that the whole situation was quite dumb, but it put up certain hurdles in my life I have trouble moving past.”