37 Real-Life Stories of People Who Called off Their Weddings

Getting married is a beautiful life experience, but it's not always a bed of roses. Some folks in this article met their Mr./Ms. Right, only to learn that their marriage would be far from a 'happily ever after.' Such people took the bold step and canceled their weddings.

Comments have been edited for clarity and grammar.

1. It Had Gone Too Far

u/zeroshiftsl: My dad called off a wedding before he met my mother. He was with this woman that really pressured him into getting married.

Basically, she just started wedding planning without a proposal. And my dad let it go too far. One night, she and her mother were discussing what food would be served at the reception.

So, they asked my dad what he thought, "Roasted chicken or beef?" To which my dad replied, "I don't care which one you're having because I'm not going to be there."

2. The Uninvited Guest

u/cwtches10: The groom's secret girlfriend turned up at the bride's parents' home with her newborn baby at about 11:45 on the morning of the wedding.

The service was due to start at 12:30. Everyone was already at the church when the bride's father stormed in and told everyone the wedding was off.

u/Interesting_Buyer943: I've been at a wedding where I had to sit the bride down to explain that the groom had run away.

It was the worst 10 minutes of my life. I'd prepared everything I was going to say. I was just bleeding with pure sadness and adrenaline and feelings of "I can't believe this is happening." The groom didn't actually run away.

Turns out he had gone through a fire exit to use a bathroom and thus locked himself into a disused part of the building with his best man.

We found him 10 minutes later limply knocking on some reinforced glass door because they were too afraid to use the external fire escape and re-enter the building from the ground floor.

4. Once a Cheater, Always a Cheater

u/throw_away_it: I called off my wedding four days before the big day. Two of my bridesmaids (my best friend since high school and my cousin) got into a huge fight. The reason behind everything was my to-be husband.

I found out he was cheating on me with my cousin and my best friend. They had a fallout when they learned that he was cheating on both of them.

It was cheating within cheating and was easily the most surreal and heart-breakingly awful experience of my entire life.

5. It Was Too Late

u/countrytime: I was not in attendance because I was like two at the time, but one of my Dad's cousins was on the altar, ready to go, when the groomsmen arrived with the groom, who was still wasted from the night before.

He threw up on the altar when he got up there. The wedding was called off, and the two never married. My great-grandfather prevented everyone from eating all the food at the reception, and everyone just kind of went home.

6. Arrest At the Altar

u/HollaPeno: My own wedding got called off mid-ceremony. I had just finished saying my vows before being arrested by local police on an assault/domestic violence charge.

It was all thanks to my 'almost' brother-in-law. We had gotten into a physical fight because he stole my car. He was the one who started it, but that doesn't matter in my state.

The police didn't care what was going on. I was taken away in handcuffs in front of my entire family. I did marry her, but I've never been able to repair my relationship with her family.

7. 'I'm Sorry'

u/WolfColaCo2020: At one of my old jobs, a woman was very proud of the fact that she was getting married. Like visibly excited.

She would tell people in massive detail how things were going to be and how besotted she was with her husband-to-be. He left her at the altar. Like classic didn't turn up and just left an 'I'm sorry' note.

She took it hard and had to be signed off sick for the longest time. She eventually came back, but it was extremely awkward.

8. It Was a Wild Wedding

u/Katietori: I once went to a wedding on super short notice (like 3 or 4 weeks). I wasn't close to the bride, who was a colleague of mine, so I was surprised to be invited and even more surprised as I didn't know she had a boyfriend, let alone a fiancé.

Turns out the wedding was re-instated at the last minute. The groom was previously going to marry someone else that day, but the wedding got called off within ten weeks, so he began dating this new girl. They kept his previously booked venue, church, etc., but just switched the bride.

9. It Took a Crazy Turn

u/spacedude86: I have a brother who is about ten years older than me. This happened when I was fourteen, and I didn't learn about the full extent of the events that happened until a few years later when I was older and had a better understanding of things.

My brother was one of the groomsmen at a friend's wedding. Typical college sweetheart story: the bride and groom had dated all through college, and he had proposed on their graduation day. Everything was all set for a beautiful summer wedding.

However, the bride-to-be was having doubts. She had only ever got intimate with one man, her fiancé, and knew the groom-to-be was in the same situation. One lover his whole life, his fiancée.

Apparently, she had been reading a lot of self-help books on intimacy and concluded that lack of intimacy led to marriage failure.

So, she came to my brother's friend (the groom-to-be) with the idea that they participate in a partner swap with the best man and maid of honor, their two best friends, the night before the wedding.

Brilliant, right? I swear you can't make this up. The groom-to-be fights the idea for a while, but his fiancée threatens to cancel the wedding if he doesn't go through with it.

He talks with his best friend, and he reluctantly agrees. She talks with her best friend, and she reluctantly agrees. Everybody's in (no pun intended).

So, the night before the wedding, the four drink at the happy couple-to-be's apartment. Apparently, the groom drinks too much and can't get intimate.

Feeling humiliated and distraught, he leaves the apartment and drunk drives his car straight into a freeway median. The wedding is called off due to the accident, and the groom ends up paralyzed.

10. She Wanted the Planning, Not the Wedding

u/Asleep_Equipment_355: My friend decided a week before the wedding that she didn't really want to get married but had been swept along by the planning, etc. As everything was booked and paid for, the wedding party happened!

Both sides were there, including my friend, who had no intentions of getting married, and the groom. One of the best wedding parties I have attended. Both are now married to other people but remain good friends twenty years later!

11. Thank God I Didn't Marry Him

u/[deleted]: I was 18 and had just had a kid with my first boyfriend. He always ill-treated me, but I'd been putting up with it because I didn't know any better and didn't have any family to help me out.

The wedding was two weeks away, invitations had gone out, I had my dress, and everything was ready. Then, one night, he started up with his craziness (you never knew what set it off), and I was tired, so I didn't argue with him.

In response, he ran into my infant son's room, woke him up by snatching him out of his crib, and threatened to leave with him and never come back.

I did what I had to to appease him that night, and the next day, when he came home from work, he had no idea where I'd moved to. His mother helped me escape, although he had asked her to get rid of me if she ever saw me again.

12. They Deserved It

u/UnicornPrime: After a day of trying on wedding dresses, just me and my maid of honor, we met my family and hubby-to-be at my brother's house for dinner.

While showing my mother a picture of myself in a dress on my BFF's phone, she got a text message from my fiancé. I read it, of course, and it was a huge confession from my fiancé to her about how they had fooled around a few weeks ago, and he regretted not taking things further with her.