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

Most people hope to find their perfect partner and tie the knot with them one day. But not all love stories make their way down the aisle, and sometimes, 'I don't' is the most liberating 'I do.'

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.

3. The Sudden Disappearance

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.

He had NO idea I had her phone in my hand. I stood up and walked 10 feet to him, held up her phone, and looked him in the eye.

The look on his face was priceless, and when I could speak, my entire family and I let them both have it verbally (we're black, so you can imagine that was quite the showdown). Needless to say, I don't speak to either of them anymore.

13. Navy To the Rescue

u/dear_science: My boyfriend's father joined the Navy and left on a ship to avoid his wedding day. His bride-to-be had lied to him about being pregnant to guilt him into marriage.

As the big day approached, she admitted she was not pregnant. She felt comfortable saying this because her father had ties to 'people' who could significantly hurt him if he left Daddy's little girl at the altar.

He joined the Navy to get away and dumped her as he was going to training. He ran into her decades later, and she acted like they were old friends.

14. What Goes Around, Comes Around

u/[deleted]: My fiancée had decided she was still in love with her ex. So, I had her call my mom and my grandma to tell them she was calling off the wedding. She did it and then drove three hours to see her ex, who then told her he didn't want to be with her.

At least I got back the ring I gave her. I proposed to her with the same ring my grandfather had used to propose to my grandma before leaving for WWII.

15. Lies, Lies, and More Lies

u/globalgrabass: My fiancé had baggage. I knew that and was going to be okay with becoming a stepmom to three children, a daughter-in-law to two terrible parents, and a sister-in-law to a horrible woman, and I knew that I would be bringing home the bacon.

I even bought a house that would be big enough for him and the three kids. But he told me he never married his baby momma and that he would leave my house at night for occasional night shift work as a cop.

I asked to see the court decision regarding the kids, just so I knew what was going on, but he kept the first page from me, which read "Divorce Decree."

So, when his parents made a "second marriage" comment, I was baffled. Our wedding was six months away. I told him to leave, and he promised that was the only thing he lied about.

But I learned he was no cop when I called his "employer." I have NO IDEA where he went after leaving my house.

16. She Was the Problem

u/Infinitywolf: My fiancée started having an affair with her supervisor. I found the conversations when she forgot to log out of her Facebook one day.

I worked hard for about a month to win her back but eventually gave up. We broke up, and she went on a couple of dates with him.

He tried getting intimate, and she stopped halfway (she had always been very conservative about it) because she wasn't ready.

He got angry and refused to talk to her ever again. That was about three days before I moved out of state. She begged me to come back. No luck.

17. How About We Get Married Now?

u/sawace: We called off our wedding because my fiance got cancer. We spent what was supposed to be our wedding day in the hospital.

He is cancer-free now, so we've decided to MAYBE start thinking about getting married again in a year. We've both decided we're not planning everything, though. Instead, we're planning on eloping!

18. Bob's Love Story

u/brittanyann77: My mom was engaged to be married to her high school sweetheart, let's call him Bob. Bob went to her doorstep two weeks before their wedding and told her he had joined the military and wasn't ready for marriage. He flew to Germany the next day.

Fast-forward 30 years and two divorces later, my mom was single with five children from two marriages. She runs into her old high school sweetheart, Bob.

He is also single and recently divorced. They fall in love and have been together ever since. Fun Fact: Bob was actually his name.

19. Money Doesn't Always Matter

u/ahydell: I got engaged in 2005 and called off the wedding about six months before I was supposed to get married. We were broke, in our 30s, and paying for it ourselves.

My fiancé kept pushing me to make the wedding bigger and bigger and inviting more and more people, and he really went off the deep end and wouldn't listen to reason that we DID NOT HAVE THE MONEY to do this.

He wanted to impress his father, who always thought he was a failure. It really showed me his true colors and how crazy he could be. So, I broke off the engagement and canceled everything.

20. Wedding Was Not On Her Cards

u/2023mustgo: A friend of mine has had four canceled weddings. The first one was due to cheating, and they broke up.

The second and third were due to the man claiming he was scared/overwhelmed/not ready weeks before; they limped along for a bit despite her being heartbroken and then eventually broke up.

Covid also played a role in the third cancelation. The fourth cancellation was also due to Covid. The fifth wedding finally happened in 2022. She has had four engagement rings and three wedding dresses but has only been married once.

21. Matches Are Made In Heaven

u/mejulies: 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. She didn't take it well.

He was at her parents' house for a wedding shower three days before the ceremony and told her he didn't think they should get married.

She flipped out and refused to let him leave the room. He slammed the wall with his fist, and she stepped aside. My dad advised her mother to check on her before he left the house. A few months later, he met my mom, and they've been married for over 30 years.

22. Caught In the Act

u/sweet_static: This girl I knew was left at the altar. Both families were there and even all the groomsmen but no groom. Everyone was clueless about his whereabouts until the groom's boss decided to track his location.

Turned out they could track him because the groom's boss had purchased his phone, and the boss looked up his GPS signal online.

They found him in his truck under a bridge about 45 minutes away. Then they went to find him, but the wedding was off.

23. Thank you, Jesus Christ

u/SFbaimei: I was a bridesmaid at a wedding that was called off on the altar. All of the bride's friends (including myself), her parents, and those who cared about her had been telling her to get rid of the groom and to definitely not marry him (he had no job and ill-treated her).

We'd given up by the time of her wedding, and I was trying to be happy for her. But instead of saying, 'I do,' she just looked around the room and then ran down the aisle.

We were all dumbfounded, except for her father, who yelled a variation of what we were all thinking, "Thank You, Jesus Christ."

24. She Didn't Know How To Take Jokes

u/McLovin03: My father attended a wedding that took a bizarre turn. The groom had cut a slice of cake to feed it to the bride. But instead of feeding her, he shoved it in her face, thinking it was funny. The bride didn't take it well.

She started crying/screaming and threw the cake at the groom. The bride's father intervened, things got heated between him and the groom, and a divorce was filed the next day.

25. She Wasn't Sure

u/zendak: My parents' friends were supposed to get married, but the bride panicked an hour before the ceremony, left a note, and disappeared for a few days.

The bride and the groom did get married a year or so later. I was too young to really understand the situation, but I remember the frenzied atmosphere.

26. Still Wondering What Went Wrong

u/RadagastTheTurtle: When my grandfather was a teenager, he was with his family, attending one of his parents' friend's wedding.

When the preacher said the whole "if there's anyone present who has a reason this couple should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace" bit, the bride's father stood up and said, "I do."

At that point, the bride's father, the bride and groom, and the preacher left to have a private discussion. They came back about ten minutes later and called off the wedding. My grandfather and I used to enjoy hypothesizing about what the bride's father could have said.

27. He Didn't Deserve To Get Married

u/AgentTypo: I had an awful history teacher in high school who used to brag about how he left a woman at the altar.

He was short, angry, and had a very negative character. He would even mock his students. He said that he went up to her, told her it wasn't worth it, and then went home to have a beer.

Ugh, he was so smug about it that it made me feel sick. I would have complained about him if I weren't so insecure in high school.

28. It Was Just Weird

u/snowbunnyA2Z: I attended my friend's wedding, that almost didn't happen. It was ridiculous. We were 18. She had only known her boyfriend for three months, and he was about to leave for Afghanistan as a marine, so he wanted to marry her so she would "be taken care of."

The wedding was in a senior center (old folks rec room). I was sitting next to the door where she was supposed to come out.

The groom comes out looking stoic. Next, the bridesmaids— barefoot, drunk, and missing shoes. Then the wedding march plays, no bride.

Again, it plays, no bride. IT PLAYED FOUR TIMES! Finally, we see her shoved out the door by her cousin. She's drunk and blubbering, which she continued to do through the whole ceremony. It was awful.

He left for the war three days later, and the last thing he told her was that he had given his father power of attorney and that she would be receiving no allowance or help while he was gone.

And if he dies, she would get nothing. They got a divorce, then remarried and had a kid. As far as I know, they are still married.

29. A Spooky Wedding

u/[deleted]: There was an old lady in my neighborhood whose fiancé conned her out of a whole load of cash. She found out about the con just before the ceremony. Things only took a scary turn.

She spent the rest of her days locked up in the house (all the clocks there stopped at the time of the ceremony), wandering around in her dress.

30. It Didn't Reach the Marriage Stage

u/pinkflower200: I didn't call off my wedding but ended my engagement. He was cheating on me with a woman named Kimberly. He married her a year later.

I met my now husband six months after my engagement ended. It's been a long time since my engagement ended.

Looking back now, I wish he had just told me about Kimberly. It would have saved all of us a lot of grief. It would have hurt, but finding out he betrayed me was so much worse.

31. Her Doubts Saved Her

u/[deleted]: My friend was supposed to be married to a Navy guy. While he was deployed, I visited her at her parents' place in Atlanta.

We went out drinking and wound up on the topic of her soon-to-be marriage. She said she was having doubts and that she didn't feel like she should get married. I asked if it was cold feet, and she said no.

She was worried because everything was already set, and her dad had invested $30,000 into the wedding and couldn't get it back.

I told her that this was her life and that no amount of money could add up to it. About a week before her big day, she called it off.

Her family celebrated. I celebrated. We had a party over it. And it was a good thing, too, because it turns out the guy was cheating on her the whole time with no remorse.

32. She Found Her Mr. Right

u/HatesMe: My mom met my dad about a month after she got engaged (they worked together). Her wedding was a week away when she called it off. She married my dad four months later.

The downside was that when it came to her marriage to my father, a lot of people mistreated her, joking/assuming it wouldn't last or happen.

Her father didn't even attend the wedding because he didn't want to "waste his time." They have been married for 30 years and have four grown children and a grandchild, so it didn't end badly!

33. The Bad Yet Good Timing

u/matafumar: I worked at a bar when I was in university. Two guys came in dressed to the nines. I asked what they were doing that day, and they told me the wedding they were going to was canceled. I was intrigued.

I learned the groom was cheating on his to-be-wife with the maid of honor. One of the other bridesmaids had known about it for some time but decided the best time to tell her was the morning of the wedding.

34. It Was an Ugly Situation

u/hubbishobbis: I attended a wedding where the bride was my teacher. She was about 3/4th of her way down the aisle when the groom decided he couldn't do it.

He walked off to his side, and at first, my teacher and her father didn't notice and kept walking 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 the wedding was off. This happened the second or third week of June; she didn't come back for the last week of school. It was an ugly situation.

35. The Priest Was At Fault

u/SweaterZach: I went to a cousin's wedding somewhere in Arkansas. I guess it was Little Rock. The wedding was paused when the priest started coughing uncontrollably, turned red, and fell onto the altar.

He survived, but there was a mild panic at the wedding when it was discovered that he had viral meningitis. The entire church (there were about 300 people) had to go to the hospital and get tested/prophylactic treatments.

36. The Little Maid of Honor

u/[deleted]: MY MIL SHATTERED ME. My fiancé and I were set to get married in a month, but our 2-year-old daughter fell ill, and she only had three months left to live.

We decided not to cancel the wedding and made our daughter my maid of honor. However, my MIL had her own plans for this.

Two weeks before the wedding, she took my daughter on a trip to the Grand Canyon. Three days before our wedding, our daughter's condition worsened.

Worried, the doctor asked, "Where has she been in the last week?" I answered, and the doctor began to cry and handed me an ultrasound report.

My life was over when I read that if we had started our daughter's treatment a week earlier, she would have had a better chance of survival.

37. Wedding Itinerary

Deleted user: My fiancé left me right at the altar. Three years have passed, and until yesterday, I didn't know the reason. My bestie invites me to her wedding in Seattle. Five days before the big day, she calls it off - her fiancé got cold feet.

I'm bummed, but I've got non-refundable tickets and a hotel booked, so I decide to go anyway.I get to the hotel, and the receptionist is like, "Oh, you're here for the wedding, right on time."

Me: "No, sorry, the wedding's off." Receptionist: "Ma'am, Check the Wedding Itinerary." My heart literally stops. I look at the photo in the Wedding Itinerary and see the photo of my ex-fiancé – the same guy who left me at the altar! He was the groom for this wedding.

Turns out, my bestie and my ex were the reason my own wedding was called off. I was in shock, my mind racing with questions and emotions. The trip meant for celebration turned into a revelation of betrayal. I never expected to find closure in such a dramatic and heart-wrenching way.

38. Wedding ring

Deleted user: The day before my wedding, I got a text in a group chat with the caterers, florists, photographers, and musicians, saying, "We're refusing to serve your wedding!!! All the answers are with your fiancé!!!"

And then they all left the chat. In a panic, I called my fiancé.Me: The caterers, florists, photographers... NO ONE'S COMING.Him: Yeah, I know.Me: WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO?! And honey... why did they say all the answers are with you?

Him: Well... It’s about your wedding ring...Get this – he admits he used our wedding fund to buy my ring. But wait for it... the ring was originally from someone he used to date! He thought he could cover it up, but when the vendors found out, they all dropped us like a hot potato.

I'm standing there, my world crashing down. This ring I've been flaunting, it's not just any ring – it's a token from his past affair. Our wedding, which was supposed to be the best day of my life, is now a complete disaster.

Thanks to his infidelity, we have no wedding services, and I'm left with a ring that symbolizes deceit. What a way to start a marriage, huh?

Calling off a wedding is not easy, and it definitely takes a lot of guts to do so on the big day. While some stories in this article provide one with the opportunity to laugh, some are a bittersweet explanation of why canceling a wedding is sometimes the best option. Have you ever been a part of a canceled wedding? Let us know about your experiences!