When you're invited to a wedding, you expect to attend a beautiful celebration of true love.
But even the greatest wedding you've ever been to was incredibly stressful to plan. Couples and their family's struggle to remain calm in the face of the insurmountable pressure to make sure the big day as flawless as possible.
Sometimes that stress explodes at the most inopportune time - right before or even during the wedding ceremony. For the unfortunate guests, the memory of seeing a wedding ruined before their eyes is unforgettable.
Redditor u/HarryIsPro asked, "People who left someone at the alter, what made you do it and what was the fallout?", and got all the dirty details in response.
10. At least the wedding party got a refund
"My wife was set to be a bridesmaid in this wedding of her college friend. It was an out of state wedding, and they had people coming in from all over the USA and Europe for this. Expensive sorta deal, just my wife's dress was over $1,000 easy.
Five days before the wedding, the groom called the whole entire thing off. The reason? He was Church of Christ and she was a Baptist and according to him, she was in the wrong church and since she wouldn't join his church then he had to break it off.
To the weeping bride's credit, her parents did pay back everyone, including my wife the money for her bridesmaid dress."
9. The bride knew it wouldn't be a fair way to live
"I was a guest on the bride's side. An acquaintance from a previous job that was kind enough to invite me. Everything was going well. She started walking down the aisle then stopped halfway. Her father and mother came over. She whispered to them then they all turned around and walked away. The groom immediately followed. Music kept playing then slowly drifted away. We all just sat there in dead silence. A couple of minutes later the father of the bride came back down the aisle and apologized but there was going to be no wedding today.
We all just got up and slowly left. There were a couple of angry family members on the grooms side but once they talked to the father of the bride they immediately just left. At the door the mother of the bride shook my hand and thanked us for coming, told us that they would explain everything later but for now we should just head home.
The story is that the groom the night before ceremony confessed to the bride that he was gay. He loved her. He still wanted to marry her, provide and raise children. But he needed her to know. She couldn't let him live like that and it wasn't fair to either of them."
8. The cows were the last straw
Giphy
"My mom called off a wedding to a man she was engaged to before she met my dad. It was only one week before. She said they got into an argument over something very trivial (something having to do with cows?) but it was enough of a wakeup call for her that they were not right for each other. I know this man and she was right not to marry him. There were people that did not get word the wedding was cancelled and showed up at the church."
7. This plot twist during the vows
"You could really tell the groom was trying his best not to explode, especially during the vows. Then when it was his turn to say 'I Do' he quickly capped it off with a loud 'NOT!' and just exploded on her. Like you could see his veins popping out of forehead and was shaking with rage.
Every body was confused, the brides family started screaming at the grooms family. The groom announced to everyone that he's calling off the wedding because, and I quote, 'Because she's an unfaithful s***k who's not even fit enough to work at Hooters'. The bride stormed off, fights broke out , and I was sitting in the back giggling in the background watching this all unfold while my friend was dying from embarrassment because the whole time she was talking about how rock solid the relationship was."
6. She could've gave them a warning...
"One of my friend's sisters
It was a few years back...it was an arranged Indian wedding and the lady was initially very accepting and happy with the groom. They talked and fell in love with each other leading to the marriage...she was really looking forward to the wedding because she was very much involved in her wedding planning and preparation
So about one months before her wedding the lady met her high school crush and started to bond with him. Then she fell in love with the highschool guy.
Well she eloped with the guy just hours before the wedding. Her parents disowned her.....she hurt a lot of people doing that."
5. This two-timing ex caused a scene
"Not my story but my ex. This wasnt completely at the altar.
My ex was once engaged to this really beautiful and independent woman.
During a wedding expo where his GF won some wedding package and was asked to come on stage, like any excited bride to be, she happy jumped on stage to accept the prize. This irritated my ex who said, her actions were selfish because she didnt take him with her to the stage and used this to Justify his next actions. He cheated on her 2 months before the wedding when all the venues and invitations were booked and sent out. Caused a huge deal of embarrassment to his poor over-religious mom. And it gets better.
Him and the new fling bumped into the now exfiancee at the mall a few weeks before the supposed wedding. The incident snapped his ex-fiancee and she beat up the new girl in public- who btw was unaware she was girl #2."
4. They were just at the finish line
"I was dating this girl for 5 years. I popped the question and she happily agreed, 10 months in and the day had come, everything was fine until that question from the padre... i didnt noticed at first but someone walked as a guest to watch, and she literally changed her tone, her demeanor instantly changed, so when the padre asked the question she said a loud NO. And she walked away with someone. As it turns out, she was cheating on me with some dude for 1 year, apparently that dude knew about out wedding and walked in to scoop her out."
3. Don't go where you're not invited
"My husband and I eloped. But we almost called it off because his cousin, who wasn't invited, decided he wanted to see us get married. My mil called to tell us this and we were pissed. We told her he is not invited, and we didn't want him there or his creepy gf. They ended up goin to the beach instead and came to hang out with us later. Still pissed us off that he just thought, he could just show up for our wedding with out an invite."
2. This bride wanted to be a princess
Giphy
"Didn't make it to the alter, but something similar in my life, few days before was given a multi-page list of demands and ultimatums along with a very clear explanation that she expected to be treated like a princess and I was a serf (one of the demands was that the $10k engagement ring needed to be replaced with something more appropriate)...yeah got real lucky on that one, hot only goes so far."
1. Children won't hesitate to ruin the big day
"Well, I wasn't the one getting married, it was my cousin's friend. I was 10 and was there only because he told me there was going to be food but it was taking too long so I just asked my cousin if we could go home and he told me 'no' so I started crying and eventually he called my grandpa to come pick me up and I got my butt whooped."