29 People Who Called Off Their Weddings Days Prior

Buzz Feed

8 hours ago

A while back, we wrote about weddings that were called off literally the day of, and now we're back for more from the BuzzFeed Community, along with a few from Quora. Check out the wild stories below.
"We were supposed to get married on Saturday night with a rehearsal, dinner, etc., on Friday. On Wednesday of that same week, we were fighting over something dumb in our newly rented apartment. I told him we had no business getting married. We were young, and we fought constantly. I cared about him, but I had no business marrying him. After lots of yelling and then lots of tears, we told our parents and started the process of returning gifts, cancelling venues, contacting guests, etc. The wild part of this story is that— after completely parting ways — we met up again seven years later. He wanted to reconnect. He had SAVED my engagement ring all those years. I ended up getting pregnant, and we got married a few months later. We were married for 32 years and had three kids who all turned out pretty great."
"Two weeks before the wedding, my cousin got into a big argument with her future MIL. The woman didn't like her and was always making snide remarks. My cousin usually ignored her to keep the peace, but at a gathering to go over the last few details, the woman kept making remarks and saying she'd be glad when it was over, and how she wished he were marrying his ex. My cousin exploded, cussed her out, and told the groom — who never said a word — that no way in hell would she marry him and put up with his mother. She tossed his ring at him and walked out. She threw his stuff out of their apartment and cancelled everything."
"I called it off two days before the wedding. It was an arranged marriage. I got engaged to him after a month of knowing him. He insisted we get to know each other before tying the knot, so we dated for a while. He wasn't my type at all, but I was under enormous pressure to get married. I really went into a state of confusion a month before the wedding. He was controlling, manipulative, and abusive. He threatened to kill himself, as it was a prestige issue for him if the marriage got cancelled, and he also blackmailed me and said he'd leak our private messages and pictures. I got scared. Even my parents were not supportive about calling it off, as they liked him. Finally, I decided to say no two days before the wedding. It was difficult, but I did it."
"Things between me and my fiancé had been strained for a while, but I chalked it up to wedding stress. The weekend before the big day, I overheard him on the phone using the 'sweet' voice he used when he spoke to me. After living with him for two years, I could pretty much tell who he was talking to by the tone of his voice, so alarm bells were ringing. We'd been sharing a laptop since mine died (I needed it for wedding planning), so I decided to investigate. It didn't take long to find photos and emails from women on match.com and other hookup sites. I was enraged, but also angry at myself for ignoring my intuition for so long."
"My cousin was getting married in New Orleans. We are from California. The bride's family was coming in from Florida. My aunt called me three days before our flight to let us know the wedding was called off. We decided to go anyway. The bride's mother didn't say anything to her family until after they got there. We still had dinner before the day the wedding was supposed to take place, and it was very awkward. The bride scratched the groom's name off all the wedding favors and threw her dress in a trash bin. Our family had a great time partying in New Orleans."
"I played the organ for hundreds of weddings, but only once did the wedding get called off. I played the prelude, the mothers and grandparents seated, and the groom and groomsmen came in. Then I started the Wedding March, and the bridesmaids came in. Then nothing. No bride. I kept playing, three times through, and no bride. Finally, someone came up and told everyone it was canceled. The look on the groom's face was priceless. I would have taken him to a side room or something, not just made a huge announcement. At least I got paid upfront."
"I was supposed to get married at a very famous resort in the Bahamas to a man who pushed the entire thing on me. My mother was sick, and my ex wouldn't let my kids go out of the country, so I had no family or friends to support me, and he still insisted we get married. While at the airport, I saw his phone, and there was an exchange with a woman he must have been seeing, talking about how dumb I was to go through with this, and he agreed. I got on the plane and went to the Bahamas anyway, and when the time came to get ready for the wedding. I calmly told him no and let him go downstairs and tell people whatever he wanted. That was 17 years ago. I'm still single, and it just gets better and better."
"This is my co-worker's story. She and her fiancé were both in their early 20s, set the date, picked the church, and arranged the reception. He was a bit of an immature frat boy, so she arranged and paid all initial (non-refundable) deposits, and he was to make the final payments for everything a week or two before the wedding. An hour before the wedding, as she was in full wedding dress, hair, make-up, drinking champagne with her bridesmaids, her father came to her. He took her aside to tell her that the fiancé hadn't paid ANYBODY — including the pastor performing the ceremony, musicians, caterers, photographer...the whole lot of them. They were coming to the father looking for payment before the wedding took place. Her father asked her what she wanted to do and said he would happily pay everyone and settle up later with her fiancé."
"I went to a wedding which never took place because the groom was still married. It was a registry office rather than a church, and the wedding got stopped when his ex came in with a solicitor (attorney) and said they were still legally married until he paid the GBP 11000 he owed. The ceremony was halted, although the reception went ahead. It was a rather tepid affair, to say the least, as nobody knew what to say. Unsurprisingly, they never did get married and split up very soon afterwards. I can't say what happened to him, but she married somebody else two years later, and last I heard, she was very happy with two children."
"Not personally, but a few decades ago, we heard this from a family acquaintance who was present at the ceremony. The bride's parents had been more keen on the match than the bride, but she had evidently not been able to stop the process once it was underway. So it came to the moment where the vicar asked her, 'Will you take this man…' and after a moment's pause, she said, calmly and clearly, 'No. I won't.' And that was that."
"I had to call off a wedding two days before I was supposed to be married. I'm an Orthodox Jew, and was introduced to my fiancé through a friend's husband. He was nice, well-mannered, seemed smart, and was from a nice family. As Orthodox Jews are encouraged to try not to drag out the dating process if we seem to match, we decided two weeks was enough time to start making wedding plans, and we were engaged three weeks into our relationship. I was over the moon, and happily launched into preparations for the wedding, which was to take place two months later. Only as we started to seriously discuss our future, I began to realize that he seemed to behave weirdly around his parents — his mother was a very dominating, controlling type. He completely allowed himself to be controlled by her."
"My father was the minister who was appointed to undertake the wedding service and was also designated the registrar. My brother was the best man. The groom is a close family friend. The bride was not really known to us as she lived away from our area. We lived just up the road from the church. About 30 minutes before the service (pre mobile phone days), our home phone rang and my mum answered it to be told by the bride herself that she would not be turning up. My poor mum had to run down our road and tell my Dad, who took the groom and my brother into an antechamber and broke the awful news. The groom was extremely brave and told the wedding attendants the bride had changed her mind, that he would not be going to the reception venue, but as it was all paid for, would we please all go along and enjoy the meal and eat the cake. He took my brother on the honeymoon!!!"
"The groom was my wife's first cousin. Everyone was surprised when he announced he was getting married — all the more so when it turned out that his fiancée was not pregnant, as everyone had assumed that was the reason for the marriage. He was a notorious ladies' man and a well-known party animal. To give you an idea of his character, he was the editor of Playboy when it launched in his country. He was challenged at the launch event as to whether he would be willing to pose naked, and so he stripped off all his clothes there and then. The wedding was to take place in a swish hotel out in the country, and the bride, groom, bridesmaids, best man, usher, and close family stayed at the hotel the night before. Drinks were drunk."
"The first was mutual. Nothing was actually wrong, but both had been having doubts about their readiness to be married. I was someone's date for that event and don't know about the particulars, but they walked to the front of the church hand-in-hand and announced that they had decided to hold off on getting married. They said they would happily still be staying together and invited everyone to the dinner afterwards to celebrate their decision to continue living in sin."
"It was the most embarrassing moment I have ever had the misfortune of witnessing. The bride arrived at the wedding, which was a huge event. Everyone was seated and waiting for the grand entrance. Suddenly, the wedding music started, and everyone stood. By unhappy chance, I was seated behind the groom. He turned around and, as the bride was within earshot, said, 'What the hell are you wearing?' It was the most cringeworthy moment of my life. The bride looked at him, understandably annoyed, and they started to bicker. I think they must have had words before the service. The person officiating the wedding had to intervene. Nobody knew where to look. The bride suddenly took off her veil and threw it on the floor yelling, 'Well, if that's the way you feel, you can f**k off!' and marched out screaming, 'It's off! It's off.' The groom was left standing there with a red face."
"I was a musician hired to play a wedding where the groom decamped five days before the ceremony. The bride decided that, as everyone (venue, caterers, quartet, band) had been paid for, she and her guests would have a party anyway. She called us to ask if we could change the scheduled music, actually apologizing for the late notice. (No problem, considering the reason!) Speeches were given by the bride, matron of honor, and other guests. It was a great party, and the classiest response I have ever seen to a heartbreaking situation like that. Given how she acted, we could only say that the groom was an idiot. His loss. Unfortunately, we had no way to know how her life turned out. She sure deserved better."
"When I was a kid, I was also an altar boy at my church. On Saturdays, especially in the spring and summer, I would be asked to attend a service as an altar boy for a couple of the priests at the church. I saw three brides, four grooms, and one priest stop weddings, including four instances where people in the congregation objected and paused or stopped the wedding. The best case was where the groom showed up to church at noon, still drunk from the bachelor party the night before. The bride didn't see him until she got to the altar, noticed he was drunk, and stopped the service by saying, 'If you can't keep your promise to me about not getting drunk, you won't be a good husband.' She then turned around and walked back to the changing area for the bride, and chaos ensued."
"I called off my wedding two weeks before I was supposed to get married. I was 23 years old. My then-fiancé and I had been together for over five and a half years and engaged for close to three. We had planned a church wedding and country club reception, and over 100 friends and family were invited. All of the arrangements were made, the seating charts were done, and the deposits for everything from the flowers to the music to the catering were paid. And I called it all off."
"My former friend called off his wedding due to comments made by the bride. A mutual friend of mine told me that the bride turned into a mega-bridezilla and apparently told off three bridesmaids….One of whom was his sister-in-law. They said the groom had simply had enough and called it off the day before the rehearsal dinner."
"Years ago, in the 1980s, I played keyboards and guitar in a wedding band. One Saturday afternoon, my bandmates and I arrived at the reception hall, set up all our gear, and prepared for the wedding reception. But only the bride arrived, absent the groom. As it turned out, the groom got cold feet. He called the bride that morning to let her know the wedding was off. He didn't even have the decency to tell her in person. The jilted bride was left with a church full of guests, a decorated reception hall, a catered dinner for 150 people, a photographer, a wedding cake, and the band, all set up and ready for a reception."
"One of my dance classmates called off her wedding just one month before the wedding date. Later, she told us the entire story at a reunion. She was around 23 when she got engaged. One evening, they went to a restaurant. Both of them ordered different dishes. While eating, my friend felt like tasting the other dish. So, she took a spoonful from his dish. The world stopped. He stopped eating and looked at her with absolute disgrace in his eyes and said, 'I don't share food. Don't put that in your mouth. Put it back on my plate, NOW.'"
"I had, what I like to call, my Ariana Grande moment. I met a guy at a bar who was visiting from NYC. We hit it off and became official before he went back, said 'I love you' a week later, and proposed two months later. We decided to elope. On the day of, we were having breakfast together in his apartment in NYC. He was saying how excited he was for us to move in together and sharing all his plans for us. I suddenly felt like I couldn't breathe. I hated the idea of having to give up my life to join him in his. And I realized I knew nothing about him. I was swept up in the thrill of fancy dinners and luxury outings, and his plans for me once we were married were not what I would ever want. I tried my best to act normal and told him I wanted white nails for the elopement. He gave me a couple of hundred bills, and I used that for a one-way ticket home. All I took with me were my purse, my phone, and the clothes on my back."
"My sister worked for a church, and a coworker's daughter was getting married. The bride's father escorted his lovely daughter down the aisle and presented her to the man she planned to marry. As they turned to face the officiant, the groom vomited all over this poor man! The groom was suffering from a huge hangover as a result of the previous night's stag party. He was not in any physical or emotional condition to commit to marriage, especially after telling his fiancé he would not be drinking the previous night. Much to her credit, the bride turned and announced to all their friends and family gathered that there would not be a wedding. She invited all to attend what was to be their reception and enjoy a meal and a reunion of sorts. She never married him but did find someone else."
"My cousin dated this seemingly nice young man, and after living together for three years, they decided to get married. However, I knew there were problems in the relationship. The groom had been laid off some years before the engagement, and my cousin was the only one working at the time. The groom did some work for his family, but it didn't last. He had years of experience in computer graphics, but he didn't seem interested in working in that anymore. The day before the wedding, we had a rehearsal party at my aunt's place. I noticed that my cousin did not return after the rehearsal. Then, my other cousins (her brother and sisters) went up to her room, and they came back to fetch their mom and my mom, who is a woman's counselor. I followed them."
"My son-in-law's sister was dumped by her fiancé a week before the wedding. It turned out he'd been having an affair with someone else, and that woman had a baby about six months later."
"My mother was invited to the wedding by the groom's family. On the day of the wedding, everyone was gathered at the church for the ceremony. The bride and groom were at the altar, and the ceremony was going smoothly. After asking for objections, the bride said, 'I don't' instead of I do. Everybody was shocked, including the bride's parents and the groom's family. When they asked her why, she said that her parents were pressuring her to get married and she was actually not ready to get married."
And finally, let's end on a few where they went through with it, but things felt apart very soon afterward:
"I thought it was a beautiful wedding, and everyone looked amazing. Everything was going well up until that point. A woman stood up and said she had been sleeping with the groom for several months behind her back. She told the bride that if she continued to marry him, it would be a mistake because he was a cheater. The woman then exited the building as if she hadn't just stopped the wedding."
"It was one of my best friends' brothers' weddings. They were dating for about five years by then, and both of them were in their early twenties. She looked happy, he looked happy, and it was a grand affair, so all went well until then. Eight months from then was their wedding. The bride was just not herself throughout the ceremony. Her irritation and restlessness were glaring through her behavior. She hardly smiled and was rude to everyone around her. We thought she was just tired and nervous. The ceremony went on smoothly, so technically she did not say no during the ceremony. But, four days into their marriage — literally just after four days — she took off. Everyone was frantically looking out for her; she wasn't taking calls. The new groom cried and prayed for his bride's safety."
"The groom was so drunk he could barely remember where he was. If not for an alert best man, he would have fallen many times. Twice, I asked the bride if she would like to complete the wedding later on. Although she was sober, she elected to proceed. During the couple's first dance as husband and wife, he slapped her. She lost balance and did not fall. Within seconds, her father and brothers were in the groom's face. His family rose to his rescue. I left the license with the bride. She phoned a couple of days later, telling me her father's attorney was taking care of the wedding ceremony that should not have happened. She was so sweet and wanted a bad guy to be good. It did not work. A couple of years later, she phoned with a new guy in tow. I married a much happier bride. The marriage and three kids are intact."
Have you ever witnessed or heard about a wedding being cancelled at the last minute? Let us know in the comments below!
Submissions have been edited for length/clarity.