You can't always pinpoint why someone would get cold feet on the day of their wedding––surely they would have figured out that they didn't want to marry someone before the blessed day, right?––but the reasons for taking such an action are more complicated than they might appear.
Societal expectations can play a big part in why a bride would go with the motions up until the moment she's meant to walk down the aisle, as we discovered when Redditor scipio2000 asked the online community:
"Runaway brides of reddit, what's your story? What was the final straw? How last second did you leave?"

"Got engaged..."
"Got engaged after 3 months and started planning pretty much straight away was very young and his mother wanted to decorate the entire wedding redneck AF. I had a falling out with her over it as I felt she wasn't letting anyone have a say and we were paying for it. Red flags started popping up his temper, he got a huge neck tattoo with my name, started becoming possessive and verbally abusive. Then dress shopping I broke down and said "No this isn't right" it was like a store of thousands of dresses was telling me there wasn't a single one that was in there for this occasion so it couldn't happen. I sat in my car went home, placed the ring on the counter packed my stuff and left."
"I was 17 at the time..."
"I was 17 at the time, and still in high school. Met an alleged Army guy (pre-full swing Internet, so no way to really check), and we hit it off. I was young and fell in "love" with guys really fast, so when he proposed, I was ecstatic."
"The red flags were there. He asked my parents for permission. He proposed loudly at a pizza shop (which, socially, would have been too awkward to say no anyway). He didn't have his own place. I never met his family. I never saw any evidence of being in the military."
"Cue a few weeks later. We had a fight because he called out his SISTER'S name during sex. He then told me that everything would be fine because he was going to take me to Kentucky to live on an Army base. He also told me he wanted me to be "barefoot and pregnant" most of the time, ha ha ha. We were going to get married and leave the day after I graduated high school."
"I did some real soul searching. I became withdrawn and quiet. I was visiting my nana one day and she asked me "are you in love with him or in love with the idea of a wedding?"
"And just like that, the bubble burst. I cried and broke it off with him...2 weeks before I graduated."
"Apparently, he had already booked the Justice of the Peace. But he got married anyway 3 weeks later...with the same ring he gave me. Poor girl. I wish I knew her so I could warn her."
"My mom..."
"Not me but my mother."
"My mom called off a wedding just weeks before the ceremony date because she found out her fiancé had lied to her about his whereabouts and was partying at a hotel with friends and other women. She caught him in a hot tub at 1am with twin sisters."
"Fast forward about 3 years later. She starts dating and later marries the man who is my biological father."
"She said meeting the family was especially awkward when she discovered my father had three sisters.. two of which were the twins she caught her ex fiancé with in the hot tub."
"Dated my high school sweetheart..."
"I was almost the runaway bride, and I regret not making that decision."
"Dated my high school sweetheart for almost two years before the jealousy became overwhelming. I broke up with him a month after we'd graduated, but we were going to the same college and met up again that fall. I found myself pregnant by that October, and was kicked out of my Catholic home. His parents let me stay with them, but we could no longer "live in sin" and had to be married. I didn't want to go back to living in my car so I agreed."
"Parents wiggle back into my life before the wedding. Fast forward to day of the ceremony and the music begins playing, I stand to start walking down the aisle, my dad takes my hand and says, "you know, you don't have to do this, you could come home with us." WTF. Could he have mentioned this an hour, a day, a week before??? I have always hated drama, and didn't want to be that person, so I just said that I couldn't, and I got married."
"My ex was controlling, manipulative, and how abusive he was had become much less subtle side I became pregnant and turned overt when we moved out of his parents house a year later. I ran when he nearly hit our baby's skull with his shoe, which he threw because he'd found something in the carpet I didn't vacuum properly."
"Yeah, totally should have picked the 'runaway bride' option."
"We had been together..."
"We had been together for 6 months when he proposed. We were both young at the time and weren't even living together. My gut told me right away that it was too soon, but I said yes anyway and went along with it because I thought he loved me and I loved him. I really thought that we could build a nice life together. I made it clear that I wanted to wait a while before we actually got married but he was keen to speed things along as fast as possible. I didn't even want to tell our families about it yet because I knew they would give us grief over getting engaged so young and after only a few months of being together."
"As things moved along, I made it clear that I wasn't ready to get married at my age and wanted to spend more time with him before we went through with it. He sort of threw a fit and accused me of cheating on him because there was no other reason in his mind I could possibly want to wait to marry. Things started to get really toxic and I eventually left him for good."
"I gave him the ring back and parted civilly, but he wasn't about to let it go so easily. He was calling and texting me constantly for weeks. Accused me of being obsessed with him and following him around and I started to realize that he was not in a normal state of mind. I was scared, but it calmed down after a while and things started to get back to normal. Unfortunately, he started spreading all kids of nasty rumors about me of how I accused him of rape and was abusive towards him. His entire family turned sour towards me because of it and it was difficult because we shared most of our friends."
"He ruined my reputation and my self esteem but it made me realize that I really dodged one hell of a bullet by refusing to marry him. Every so often he messages me on social media asking to get back together. I either don't reply or give him a polite but very firm no."
"This doesn't really matter but it's another funny little detail. He have my engagement ring to his mother as a mother's day gift and now she wears it all the time. She has to know that it used to belong to me but still finds it to be a sweet gift from her insane son."
"A few were before the engagement..."
"Was ENGAGED, so almost a bride. And there were several 'final straws'. A few were before the engagement: he lived in his car (no judgment on that but this is relevant) at the time, so was not financially stable and this was just a couple weeks into dating. Another was him wanting me to send selfies of myself 'proving' where I was at all times and what I was wearing, which was 99.9% my work clothes (black long sleeve shirts and pants cuz am server) and at work. So if I wasn't texting back fast enough, apparently I was 'with another man'."
"About a month into the relationship he demanded a key to my condo, so he could see me whenever HE wanted. The 'final straw' was when he proposed, for down on one knee and said "I knew we were meant to be the moment we matched (on Tinder, go figure). I love you so much. Now I can show everyone I OWN you. Will you marry me?" Boy bye. That was 3 months into the relationship, I had never met his family but heard a lot about them, he had only ever met my mother but that wasn't planned. I said no immediately and walked away. He tried getting into my condo countless times and calling me. Unfortunately, I had to change my number and get a restraining order against him. He was and probably still is crazy AF."
"In a crazy small world twist..."
"Not me but my cousin was supposed to marry a girl who fell head over heels in love with a guy she met two days before the wedding and left him not literally at the altar but about as close as you can get. I was 5 or 6 and supposed to be a flower girl and my 16 year old brothers were the ushers. We lived about 6 hours away and I remember being so confused the whole ride home as to why I hadn't been a flower girl while everyone else was dead silent."
"In a crazy small world twist the guy that she fell in love with is a professor at the same university as my brother and has an office down the hall. He and the bride have been married for I guess going on 20 years now. Meanwhile my cousin has been married 3 times, busted for DUI so many times I don't think he can even get a license and ballooned up to like 300lbs, I think she made the right choice."
"My father left us..."
"Not me but my mom. My father left us when I was 1yo, so she was single most of her life until 10 years later she found a great guy that we all loved and wished him in the family, he and my mom dated for years (maybe 6) and then he proposed her, she said yes and I remember them planning their wedding, she even got a nice wedding dress but one day, ONE DAY before the wedding she called him and told him that she couldn't marry him."
"He is a great guy, still in contact with him but he is one of those guys that doesn't have a passion nor has a goal in life and to be honest he is in a very bad position right now, so for much love my mom had for him I think she saw a bleak future at his side and decided to remain friends. A little bitch on my mom to say it till the last day but we're humans after all I guess."
"I was a dancer. Doing mostly ballet, some trade shows and stuff, had a small role on Broadway, but that didn't last. Anyway, I met this guy and, although he was a bit slow, I fell for him."
"We're all set to get married. His dad was the local sheriff, so he got everything set for us. It was the day of the wedding, and I was literally at the altar when I got cold feet. So I took off in my wedding dress. My car broke down, but this guy was kind enough to stop and pick me up. His name was Bo"
"Now remember, my father in law to be was the sheriff. He didn't take kindly to this, and was on my tail, eventually learning that I was picked up. He started chasing Bo. Now it turns out Bo, and his friend the Snowman were running illegal alcohol across the state lines, so naturally he got a bit worried about being followed by a cop. It crossed several states, with other agencies trying, and failing to stop us. Nearing Bo's home, it got bad. We narrowly escaped capture. But all through the chase, the Sheriff kept on us. But in the end, we delivered the illegal Coors"
"I fell in love with Bo and it was good for a while. But he took to the bottle too much, and I left him. Not knowing where to turn to, I went back with my fiance."
"We worked out problems out, and set to get married again. And again, the sheriff got the town all done up, and it was the wedding day. I was in the church, when I received a phone call. It was Bo's friend, the Snowman. Bo was in a really bad place, and they had a chance to make some big money, and get life back together. However, he needed my help to get Bo. So I left my wedding, again. Got started on a new trio, only this time it wasn't Coors, it was an elephant we had to transport. But a that's a movie story for another time."
While many of us loved the Runaway Bride film, we can't imagine this actually happening -- let alone witnessing it!
Do you have similar experiences to share? Let us know in the comments below.
As much as we think we can get along with everyone, that's not always the case.
There are certain types of people you gravitate toward and making a connection with them is easy. But there are also those with specific personality traits you know very well to steer clear from.
Try as we might, we can't be friends with everyone. The best we can do is be the best version of ourselves and stay within a community of people who you vibe with.
Curious to hear from the types of people strangers online prefer keeping a distance from, Redditor KnownNormie asked:
"What type of person could you never be friends with?"

Some people like in the following examples should be put in their place.
Too Many Theatrics
"Someone who constantly makes everything dramatic."
– Anxiety_Ridden_Camel
Space Hoggers
"Someone who obviously doesn't care about anyone's boundaries."
– Jay4025
Embracing The Dark
"Guilt Trippers"
"Those who think its cool and edgy to be negative about everything."
– Stormflier
How can people who think the world revolves around them expect to maintain or gain friendships?
All About Me
"Self centered people."
–needtofreemyself
The One-Upper
"Yeah, that gets old really fast. I am a reformed one upper. I would also interrupt people. I was hard to take when I was younger. I didn’t learn to STFU until I was forced to take a sales job and discovered just how crap I was socially. The last twenty years I’ve gotten a lot better and now enjoy listening to other people’s stories more than telling my own."
– MobileAccountBecause
Not My Problem
"The one who always blame others."
– Reasonable-mcArdles
We could all benefit from personal growth.
They Wait For Life To Happen
"Someone who doesn’t want to learn more about life and its intricacies. I only want friends who think deeply about things and can have varied conversations on religion, politics, the world, and all of life. This life is too vast and insane not to seek depth in it.
– Glass-Philosopher302
Don't Take Life Too Seriously
"Someone who is always serious and can't take a joke. As well as someone who gets offended on the behalf of others."
– HoarderOfPaper
These are hard "no's."
You Can Bet Your Life On It
"a serial killer."
– LongjumpingReturn555
All Creatures Great And Small
"Someone who doesn't like animals."
– InterestingMall8958
It's complicated to categorize exactly the kind of person I would prefer to not to be friends with, but I know that one of my biggest pet peeves that can jeopardize how much effort I put into all kinds of relationships is a person's lack of punctuality.
It says a lot about an individual who is perpetually late outside of an acceptable window between 5 and 15 mins–with a heads up about their tardiness.
If they're always punctual in regards to work obligations and business meetings but very late to meeting up with you for a coffee date, you're clearly not important enough for them to make an effort to avoid keeping you waiting.
And I got no time for that.
There are numerous advantages to being bilingual.
Knowing the language of the country you may be traveling to, being able to translate for those who need help, not to mention, knowing what some people might be saying as they are literally talking behind your back.
Indeed, many people wish they could be fluent in at least one other language.
Though these same people likely also wonder, how exactly does the brain of a bilingual person work?
How easy is it to jump between multiple languages?
Is it really as easy as it looks to jump between languages?
"Bilingual people, what is a thing that non-bilingual will never understand?"
They All Blend Together
"The fact that I no longer 'translate' in my head when I use my second language."
"The fact that I can be unaware which language I am reading."
"I have a bit of a stutter in one language but not the other."
"Jokes that work in both languages are the funniest."- Mortlach78
"Speaking two languages at the same time."
"Usually because you forget certain words in one language but remember it in the other or because a word is easier to say."
"'Je n’ai aucune idée what the f*ck you’re talking about'.”- ctwheels
There's Not A Word For Everything
"Literal translations rarely work."
"A lot of monolingual people seem to think other languages are like their language but with other words, and every word as an equivalent."- TheAmazingKoki
Knowing The Language Doesn't Mean They'll Understand You
"Having an 'accent' regardless of which language you're speaking."
"Learning a language allows you to feel better understood as we interact and build connections with others."
"So it's frustrating when you feel as though you're not communicating as clearly as you would like to express yourself. It's been great to feel understood!"
"I've enjoyed reading through the comments and learning that there's a lot of people that are actively becoming multicultural."- Silv3r_lite
Less Gets Lost In Translation Than You Think...
"Translating is a whole different skill than speaking another language."
"When I first learnt English, I would translate things in my head to understand them."
"As I became fluent, I stopped doing that because I didn't need to."
"When someone speaks to me in English, I don't translate stuff in my head back to french to understand them, I just automatically understand it."
"Cue to if someone speaks English, and another person doesn't, and ask me 'hey, can you translate what he said ?'"
"I completely suck at it, I can ultimately do it but it means I need to take what was said in English, and reprocess it in French and find the most adequate words for translation and it's honestly not that easy to do."- Matrozi
Words, Words, Words
"How near-impossible it is to translate words when there is only one word for something in one language but multiple variants of it in another."
"For instance, the word 'cousin' in English is just 'cousin', but there are eight different words for cousin in Chinese, all extremely specific."
'Older male on maternal side, older female on maternal side, younger male on maternal side, younger female on maternal side, older male on paternal side, older female on paternal side, younger male on paternal side, and younger female on paternal side."
"There is no general cover-all term for 'cousin'."
"So when an English speaker says, 'I was having dinner with my cousin last week', how do you translate that into Chinese, for a Chinese audience, without knowing which of the 8 cousin categories it falls into?"
"It creates a '404 Error: Cannot Compute' in the interpreter's brain."
"If you are ever giving a speech in English to a Chinese audience and want to see a look of crazed terror on your interpreter's face, just use the word 'cousin' and watch the panic and despair unfold."
"Was an interpreter."- SteadfastEnd
There's No Simple One And Done
"That the way language is constructed is not straightforward."
"It's not just a different set of words and rules of grammar, it's kind of a whole different way of processing thoughts into speech."- Peanut_Butter_32
It Ain't As Easy As It Looks
"Real-time translation takes a LOT of mental energy."- selfawarescreen
What's The Word?
"Brain fog, when asked to translate, at a critical vocabulary moment."
"You need that one word to make the perfect translation."
"But it is not there."- toyoung
Forgetting Your Native Tongue
"Forgetting words from your native language if you are using the second language too much."
"I have lost count of how many times I knew what I wanted to say in any other language, yet I forgot how to say it on my own native language."
"I end up remembering them later on anyways, but it is such an embarrassing feeling."
" Also, another little thing."
"Accidentally switching languages in the middle of a conversation."
"I may be talking to someone in English, and when I didn't understand something, I would be like 'Qué?'(What? In Spanish), all without even thinking about what I did until I realize that I spoke in Spanish by mistake."
"It's not really common for it to happen, but I do remember each and every single time it does."- AruPeachy
"When some word only comes to mind in another language, and you just can't remember what that word is in your native tongue."- Acceptable-Damage43
Not All Sayings Are Universal
"The struggle of explaining / understanding sayings."
"Americans use a lot of sayings like “'et’s play it by ear', and in Spanish we also have sayings that don’t quite translate."
"Also when I’m too excited/ angry etc my brain switches to my native language and can’t quite express myself correctly the other language."- immigrantme
Humor Isn't Universal
"Some jokes make no sense in other languages."- Dukanduu
The Emotion Behind What You're Saying
"You have different personalities based on the language you’re currently speaking, and your native language has emotional ties that aren’t always present in other spoken languages."- P-Wizzl
One needs a fairly active brain to be successfully bilingual.
Though, one can only imagine that internally worrying about your everyday problems in French would likely make them seem a little more romantic.
"Qui sait?"
People Divulge The Real Reason 'That One Guy' Hasn't Been Fired From Their Job Yet
Much as we might try to deny it, who hasn't found themselves dealing with one of "those colleagues" at work?
The sort of colleague where work gets done in spite of them, who doesn't seem to possess any of the basic qualifications their position requires, who uses up all their paid sick days at the very beginning of the calendar year.
The kind of employee where we're often left wondering, "how did they get that job?"
Then, when we actually do a little digging, we might learn the answer to that very question.
Often resulting in our making a surprising, if not downright humbling, discovery.
"Why hasn’t that “one guy” at your job been fired yet?"
Unfortunate Timing
"He ended up leaving work the day management was going to talk to him about his behavior and got into a severe motorcycle accident."- eatsbrainz
Just Not Possible
"Cuz he’s the boss."- Hotline-Furi
A Little Manipulation Goes A Long Way
"Because his supervisor is in love with him."
"He’s 'charming, charismatic, and everyone loves him'."
"He’s really close to the manager and his mom used to work for the company as well."
"She left a path for him to walk on."
"As my co worker once said, 'he harasses us but gets rewards'.”
"If you were ever to meet him, he makes you feel like you’re the king of the world but he’s really scummy."
"He’ll make you believe you’re incredible and valuable but will talk sh*t about you to other people."
"It’s a shame because he’s taken advantage of a lot people and a lot of things at work."
"I thought he was the coolest guy around until I started observe him and his demeanor around others."- Low_Excitement_5339·
A Sign Of The Times
"We are so short-staffed and ratios need to be met in classrooms."
"A body is better than no body, in the eyes of admin at least."
"Some days I'd rather work short-handed than work around a useless/annoying person."
"I end up doing their job anyway."- quietly_anxious
Just The Way Things Are...
'Office politics."- defensiveminded2020
...Rather Not Answer...
"What if that one guy is you?"- dizzyrazor
Nepotism
"Because he goes to my boss's church."
"My boss has somehow hired at least 8 people from his church."- SparklesLuvsScotch
"She’s the boss's daughter."
"In the past 6 months, they have hired over 100 people, 3 of them are still working there."
"Every one of them quit because of her and very outwardly expressed that but no one will fire her."- Reddit
Do We Really Want Them To Get Fired?
"The one guy at my job just got fired 3 days ago, after years of doing nothing."
"Now I can't use his continued employment as my assurance of job security."- i_make_potholes
Who Knows?
"I legitimately don't know."
"I've been sending my bosses emails about her dropping the ball on many things and even causing several catastrophic failures for our customers."
"They promise me they are documenting everything and to be patient but my boss has his head in the sand and is not really doing anything."
"I think it's catching up to him though because corporate is starting to look at this office more closely."- CamStorm
"IDK, he sits and f*cking texts WHEN PEOPLE ARE IN LINE FOR THE REGISTER."
"Pisses me off."- Public_Living_3344
Charisma Overshadows Many Flaws
"He’s 'nice' and chatty and gets along really well with our customers."
"He will go into an office, not do anything or make something worse than it was before the repair, bill them hundreds of dollars, someone else will have to go in and fix it right and bill them more, and they’ll still request him."
"They’re actually more likely to complain about the guy who went in and fixed it correctly and would have billed them half as much and been done in trip had they started the job."- makenzie71
Fear Of Feelings Getting Hurt
"Because his boss avoids conflict."
"So we get to deal with the sh*t for brains creeper instead of him being thrown out on his a**."- No-Patient1365
Hopefully, Just A Matter Of Time...
"You don’t get fired for being bad at your job, you get fired for making a scene."- sleekandspicy
Everyone deserves a second chance.
But if people are incapable, or worse unwilling, to learn, is there really any chance their work will improve?
When "that employee" is your boss, then the question is ultimately irrelevant.
Audiences today are too savvy and unforgiving.
There are so many cinematic aspects that leave so many of us irritated.
And one of the big reasons is that they know they can make them better.
Give me a quick million, you won't be disappointed.
Redditor Ecstatictobehere wanted everyone to vent about everything wrong with movies and Hollywood, so they asked:
"What pisses you off about new movies these days?"
I'm exhausted with the lack of originality.
There are too many talented out there for this.
Turn it down...
"The disparity in volume, explosions are so loud that they hurt and conversations are whispers... I stopped going to the cinema and started waiting for them to be available at any streaming service so I can turn it down or up and so I can enjoy it."
hollowntolerance
LOLs...
"Forced Comedy."
ThorHammerscribe
"I have a bone to pick with comedy in general. I felt that ever since the Anchorman era, we just decided that comedy movies were in the line of sketch comedy."
"Create funny situation, let a comedian riff for 20 minutes, take the best take and move on to next funny situation. Which is why comedy movie plots have SUCKED since the early 2000s."
"Sure I love Kristen Whiig, Will Ferral, John C Reilly, Mellissa McCarthy, etc, but damn, I can't help but think that some comedies that have come out int the last 20 years would be memorable if they wrote a funny script instead of making a 120 min sketch show."
ReferenceError
Appeal
"Most movies are getting watered down for the sake of mass appeal. I get why, but it just sucks."
Apprehensive_Set300
"Some say this is a result of streaming platforms. People used to be able to take risks on movie making because if they didn't do well in theatrical release, there was still a chance for it to become a cult classic and make money with DVD sales down the road. That is no longer an option because everything is streamed for free so now making a movie that doesn't immediately appeal to a large audience is a bad investment."
KrispyKremeDiet20
Lost in Translation
"Not just movies but TV shows - they take a book that's got great reviews, make a poor job of translating it on screen and then flip the ending so it's the opposite of what happened in the book. Proceeds to blame the audience when they pan it for being crap."
MissionSorbet2768
Blah
"Lack of originality and a reliance on franchises."
811545b2-4ff7-4041
Enough with franchises and reboots. Lord.
Some light please!
"How dark they are. Like literally dark. It's difficult to see what's going on, especially for those of us with vision problems."
Raloris
Break it Down
"For horror and mystery, everything having to be explained."
"A movie like the original Alien would be lambasted by online critics if it were released today, for the simple reason that by the end of it you know next to nothing about what happened. What was the creature? What was the derelict? Why did the company want it, really? The movie has stood the test of time precisely because it avoided answering those and other questions."
stratarch
Too Much Redo
"The overuse of cover songs. Recently been a lot of classic rock songs covered by an artist who recorded a slowed version of it. Just saw the trailer for the new Ant Man. It also does this."
bromygod203
"This has been bugging me lately. They do it in commercials too. The cover is slowed way down with a melancholic, reverb-heavy voice. Extra points if you take a classic 'happy' song and add minor chords to it so it sounds threatening."
fairygenesta
Too Many Cooks
"A lot of movies feel like they were written by a marketing department. It feels like they got 10 execs in a room and everyone wrote down ideas, characters, plot-points, etc that they know will sell - and then tried to organize them into a narrative structure."
"There's no vision. There's no plot progression. Its just one random event next to another random event, and characters delivering sh*tty one-liners. Like writing madlibs. Even B-movies from the 80's and 90's have better narrative structure and story-telling than half the new movies out today."
Ganglebot
Giveaways
"Trailers. They're always about 4 minutes long, give away the entire plot, show all the best scenes and jokes and basically ruin the movie before you've even watched it."
IJustStoleYourWaifu
Do better filmmakers.
We're watching. Sadly...