“Best $35K Loss Ever”: 25 People Reveal Why They Called Off Their Wedding

Being that a wedding day is supposed to be a most grand celebration, it piques one's curiosity as to what could provoke somebody to call off their wedding at the last moment. Tying the knot is certainly no cheap affair, often calling for non-refundable deposits, which means any cancellations will most likely leave someone out of pocket.  That simple shift from a ‘yes’ to a ‘no’ can have lasting consequences, yet we hear about cancelled weddings too often not to wonder about what drove them to such a stance. A curious Redditor wondered the same thing and decided to ask folks online, “People who called off their weddings, why?” Scroll below to read the raw responses detailing what made someone jilt their prospective partner right before walking down the aisle. 

#1

Image source: Tate_0_tot, RDNE Stock project She got pregnant and I do not have a p***s to facilitate that. It ended up being the best thing for me in the long run! I moved cross country and have a better than I could’ve ever imagined having with her!

#2

Image source: 2angel22, Polesie Toys I had two of my own very young children. I told him while we were dating I wasn't sure I wanted more children so if it was what he was looking for we should split. About 8 months later, he asked me to marry him. The more arrangements we made he kept talking about growing the family. I agreed when my youngest was in school I would have one more so he could have a bio child. He kept talking about having 5 more. I kept telling him it wasn't too late to call off but I wasn't having five more. He insisted he loved me and didn't care if we had any more but he always dreamt of a big family. A WEEK out from the wedding I heard him talking to a buddy that planned on forcing me into creating his family. Four days from the wedding, I canceled and ended our relationship. 27 years later, he is married w/6 kids and one on the way. I am married w/ my 2 adult kids in their 30's and my nephew in his early 20's. We were out thousands of dollars but it saved us both from being unhappy. If you are asking because you are considering it. DO IT. Trust yourself and do not worry what everyone else will think.

#3

Image source: Margray, YuriArcursPeopleimages We hadn't sent the invites yet but had booked the venue. They started talking about starting a family right away. They had known I was child free for the duration of our relationship. I guess they just thought that I was trapped and would change my mind? I did, about marrying them. I'm so grateful to younger me for sticking to my guns.

#4

Image source: Septopuss7, freepik She turned out to be an antivaxxer.

#5

Image source: Hereibe, rthanuthattaphong Not me but my older cousin. She was engaged to a man who had previously had a drinking problem. She refused to get engaged to him until he got sober. He did, so they got engaged and planned their wedding. Nine days before the wedding she found out he started drinking again. She instantly cancelled the wedding. I remember being a very young teenager at the dinner table where all my aunts, my mother, great aunt, and my grandmother were gossiping about it. And by gossiping I mean they were all heavily praising my cousin for sticking to her guns and knowing when to leave. They ALL agreed it was so much better to leave before the wedding. It was a formative moment for me. Here were all these older women, who were country club members and old fashioned and had already spent all this money to fly in, and they were ALL absolutely on my cousins side from the jump. This wasn’t a cheap wedding. These weren’t “new age” women. And since it had been hidden so well, they all had no idea about the drinking problem and had actually loved the soon-to-be-groom. He’d had total family approval. It made me so much more comfortable than my peers leaving relationships that just weren’t working. I knew my family wouldn’t judge me even if he seemed nice and it would be a hassle for them if I decided “no”. So I didn’t stick around bad relationships and never felt pressure to keep up appearances that everything was perfect around my family. I’m so grateful to my cousin for having the courage to cancel that wedding. And I’m so happy for her she’s in a rock solid marriage now with wonderful children she’s raising to know they’re loved and supported.

#6

Image source: darybrain, Dolina Modlitwy Even though the bride wasn't a practicing Jehovah's Witness she still wanted the atheist groom to convert to please her very religious family who weren't coming to the wedding and hadn't spoken a word to him during the three years they had been dating.

#7

Image source: jbp216, Annu1tochka Two weeks out I walked into her on top of my (now ex) friend on Valentine's Day. That'll do it.

#8

Image source: SchmoopsAhoy, YuriArcursPeopleimages His mother. It felt like she was planning her own wedding. I had no say in anything. She uninvited my best friend and cousins from my bridal party behind my back because they were single and instead invited a niece of hers I never met and the groomsmen gfs who I barely knew. She booked a hall and picked the menu without consulting us even though she wasn't contributing a cent. Whenever I brought up all this to my now ex, he took his mother's side. That to me was massive red flag and knew she was always going to be butting in and he would always take her side so I called it all off. His now wife is a mini version of his mother. She used to be cute but now has same Karen haircut and colour as his mother and even dressed the same as her. Glad I walked out of that mess while I could.

#9

Image source: Gold_Platform_8781, dmytros9 My friend's fiancé turned out to be a flat-earther. Guess that was the tip of the iceberg. Wedding's off, sanity's intact.

#10

Image source: 100percentapplejuice, ipolly80 A coworker called off her wedding because her fiance did none of the planning with her. He just starfish’ed his way through. The final straw was when she pulled up a catering meal plan she tried to plan with him *for six months*, and he lost it on her because “she should’ve known his father hated cottage cheese.” Broke up with him there, reimbursed him for the measly “half” he paid for everything…which was like only 25%.

#11

Image source: nopersh8me, Pavel Danilyuk I had a medical crisis requiring multiple surgeries, and his reaction was to yell at me for faking illnesses to get out of housework and breaking my things to “motivate” me to get out of bed. He seemed so relieved when I ended it, that I’m pretty sure that was exactly what he wanted without looking like the bad guy.

#12

Image source: darth-skeletor, maksymiv Caught her cheating 3 months before.

#13

Image source: Whackles, ImageSourceCur She went to a party, found someone better and called it off about 2,5 months before the wedding. 10 yrs together, 2 kids. That’s 2 years ago, I’m not doing well.

#14

Image source: TwinkieHead, Pixabay Had a cousin that called off his wedding a month before. He found out she had already been married before and had 2 young kids that she left back in her home country.

#15

I was 19 and about to marry a loser but I was “in love”. My best friend said she wouldn’t be my maid of honour if I went through with it. She was not a bossy woman, nor was she comfortable saying it. I walked away and am extremely thankful I did. Image source: Pellegrino22

#16

She hit me. Image source: anon

#17

Image source: LuvMyD0ggo, RDNE Stock project He became violent during our engagement, finally choking me until I was unconscious. I visited my parents a few days later. I assume my dad saw the bruises, because for the first time I can remember he had a sit-down, emotional conversation to ask if this was the life I really wanted, where I saw myself in 5 years. I realized my now-ex was probably going to k**l me, and indeed he did point a gun at me when I broke up with him. I had to get a restraining order and actually ended up studying abroad that summer in an attempt to get away from him. He moved schools and later married (then divorced) my step-cousin.

#18

Image source: Jadeport, nd3000 Her best friend crashed the wedding, she spilled something that utterly shattered me, she had s*x with her ex the night before our wedding, I’m glad cause I would have ended up in a paternity court to determine which child is mine and I bet I won’t be the father of them all.

#19

Image source: Optimal_Character516, Gustavo Fring I was engaged and one night my fiancée was leaving my place and went to say bye to my two young kids. My son said “Bye, I love you!” My fiancée didn’t say it back, looked like he saw a ghost. I gave it a few days before saying, “You know we need to talk about the other night, right?” And he said, “I don’t know what happened, all I could think was I need to get out of here now”. That was it, I called it off. In hindsight I shouldn’t have ever accepted his proposal before he told my kids he loved them. That said, he was a wonderful boyfriend and I’m thankful for the fun times we had. He just wasn’t ready to be a step dad at all.

#20

Image source: FatPabloParty, Media_photos He said, if I knew you had a chronic illness, I never would have dated you. While beating him to arrange all the refunds, I found out… 1. He was on parole for a cyber fraud crime 2. He was trying to pull a dodgy on our home loan application during settlement which placed all the risk against my parents home.

#21

She told me that she was settling for me and had viewed our relationship as transactional for some time. I wanted a spouse not a roommate. Image source: PoorlyDrawnBees

#22

Image source: Horror-Fruit1942, Yan Krukau Few months before the wedding found evidence that he’d been cheating with my (married) ex best friend and bridesmaid. They were both total gaslighting AHs after I found out and made sure to get everyone we knew to think I was crazy. Fun times….

#23

Image source: Hungrytapeworm-, Kindel Media Two months before the wedding, police showed up at the house stating they had a warrant for his arrest. For robbing a gas station of Kratom. (OTC d**g?) Dude had a raging a*******n and I realized this was not the life I wanted to live. Dumped him and the house like a sack of rocks. Few years later I rekindled with my highschool sweetheart and we now have a beautiful baby, hold out until you find what you really deserve and never, ever settle for less Edit: no more wedding police

#24

Image source: omgkelwtf, wirestock He punched me in the face. I was going to type the story but it's not interesting or important. We got into a fight and he was an emotional troglodyte who reacted accordingly. I called the cops and took half the money out of our checking account. We were living paycheck to paycheck so everything bounced. I laughed about it to his bestie when he called to tell me to give it back.

#25

Image source: deceasedin1903, Sora Shimazaki We fell apart after a miscarriage and he drew farther away from me, to the point I wasn't recognizing the person I was with. We never fought, and then we were fighting about the most minor things almost every day, and he refused to apologize when he hurt me, always hurting me more and more. One day I walked 40 minutes in the sun to meet him after work at his house and he picked a fight because I wanted to hear one (seriously, one) Fleetwood Mac song to relax after a very stressful day. He was such a d**k that I chose to go back to my home walking after that (another 40 minutes walking) and he just sent me a message to ask how I was the other day. No apologies, no nothing. All this time we started planning the wedding and while I just wanted to set a date and make it as intimate as possible, he wanted a big shindig with all the bells and whistles, the mere thought of it scared me. Then he started saying he wanted to explore his bisexuality (we're both bi, he never "lived" it, I did) and a little later he asked to open the relationship. I didn't want to, but did it, and it unfolded as the classic tale of reluctant open relationships: he got out with so many people the first weeks (men and women) and asked me to give it a try. Even helped me install tinder. I started going out with people, then realized I was having so much fun and being treated so much better by strangers than in my almost five year engagement. And I got SO MANY dates. Meanwhile, he realized he wanted to be only with me after all and started having jealousy fits. I realized I didn't want that for my life anymore. I broke up with him and when I did, he became again the person I longed for all this time and tried to win me over again, but I just didn't love him like that anymore, although I still had a lot of appreciation for him. We tried again three times, which of course didn't work, took some needed time apart and now we can call each other friends again and mean it (it's not all black and white--example: he saved me from s*****e after I was drugged and r***d a year later). I'll be a bridesmaid at his wedding this year and he'll be a groomsmen at mine. We both had a say in "approving" our current significant others, cause we know each other upside down and know if someone wouldn't be good for each other. He apologized a lot for his actions in the past and redeemed himself. In summary, we realized we were better as friends than romantic partners, and found people we're way more compatible with (and I'm pleased to say my now partner sings Fleetwood Mac at the top of his lungs with me).