35 People Who Cancelled Their Wedding At The Last Minute Share What Happened

Most people look forward to their weddings as one of the happiest days of their lives. Despite all the planning, booking, and rehearsals, it takes a lot of work to ensure the big day goes smoothly. The last thing anyone expects, after making non-refundable deposits and inviting their closest friends and family, is to call off the wedding at the last minute.  But this doesn't happen only in the movies—sometimes people really do cancel their weddings at the eleventh hour for various reasons. Recently, a Redditor online grew curious about what could prompt such a drastic decision and asked, "People who cancelled their wedding at the last minute, what happened?" We've gathered some bizarre, surprising, and interesting explanations in the gallery below.

#1

Image source: Reeeeallly, Getty Images My fiance met me for lunch and slid a prenup in front of me two weeks before the wedding. I would get nothing, ever, and I would have to help him take care of his mother. There was no such provision for my mother. He took me somewhere to get it notarized and I refused to sign it. He tried to bargain with me, but I was not having it. I took the dress back to the store, kept the shoes because they were cool, and canceled everything. He suggested couples counseling and I went once. The therapist told me she thought he had a screw loose. Then he stalked me. *shrug*.

#2

Image source: CountMeChickens, Getty Images Many years ago a colleague was getting married, I was invited to the wedding and his stag night. The stag night was on the Thursday night before the Saturday wedding. We went for a curry then onto a nightclub, by about midnight I left and went home, leaving the groom and others to it. This was pre mobile phone days, so on Saturday me and my girlfriend got ready, she'd bought a new dress and looked great, we'd booked a room in the hotel the reception was being held in. Got to the church and at the door, the best man, the groom's brother was explaining that the wedding was off, the groom had met a girl at the club and spent the night with her, now decided she was the one for him and the wedding was off. And was calling his brother every name under the sun at the same time. As the reception was all booked and paid for, he said we could go to the hotel and have the meal, stay for the disco and buffet if we wanted. Most of the work colleagues and various family were booked in there so we went and it ended up with about 50 people having an enjoyable but uniquely awkward evening.

#3

Maybe not "last minute" since we never got past the planning stage, but I threw all notion of planning a wedding out the window because every time we planned to announce our engagement and make plans for the wedding date and party, someone in my husband's family would pass away. It happened 3x in a row, then covid took the world by storm, then my grandfather announced a heart revision surgery after his risky inital surgery years earlier, and while he survived and is perfectly fine now, *HE* announced *his* wedding, *and* my husband's surviving family left the state to move to a LOC of living area, so we simply gave up. I never wanted a blow out event or even a hired planner, just an intimate vow ceremony, signing the paperwork, and a small private party, so it was fine by me. We ran off to the courthouse on our anniversary for vows and paperwork, and only invited our loved ones to meet us for brunch afterwards for an intimate yet casual "reception." We brought cheesecake and cannolis home for dessert as the "wedding cake" lmao. Image source: ijustneedtolurk

#4

Image source: cinogel, Curated Lifestyle Someone I know cancelled just days before the wedding. They said they loved the person, but something in their heart felt ‘not right,’ and they couldn’t ignore it anymore. It broke both families for a while, but looking back, it was one of the bravest, most honest things I’ve seen. Better a painful truth than a lifetime of pretending.

#5

Image source: escalierdebris, cottonbro studio Knew a guy whose mom [passed away] unexpectedly the week before the wedding, meaning the funeral would be a couple days before the wedding. He was emotionally wrecked and asked his fiancee if they could delay. Fiancée refused and started posting in Facebook about how she was being betrayed. At that point he formally called it off. Then her parents called him and demanded refunds for their deposits. Bride refused to return the ring, which had been his recently deceased mom’s, so he got a lawyer involved.

#6

Image source: TonySoProny, dylan nolte My fiancee won the lottery and wanted a bigger budget wedding. Thankfully I'm still the groom.

#7

Image source: LostFlute, Vitaly Gariev After a 3-year relationship and 18-month engagement, my ex decided he didn't want to get married after all. 10 days before the wedding. "You're not much fun to be around anymore (as I'm finishing up my degree, student teaching and planning a wedding...) And oh, by the way, would you mind me asking out your best friend?" My mom called all of the people on my side who were invited, left the rest up to him/his family. Apparently a good few of them showed up at the church on the date. He ended up hooking up with the wife of a frat brother, they ended up getting pregnant and married and quickly popped out 3 kids, then she cheated on HIM (and apparently she's married twice more since then.) He's been in one long-term relationship after another in the past 20+ years. I just celebrated my 30th anniversary. Dodged a bullet, I did.

#8

TLDR: pregnant bride to be cancelled 48 hours before wedding due to prenup When I met him (30 years ago) he drove an old car with close to 300,000 miles on it and lived in a small, poorly furnished house. My two bedroom condo was worth close to twice the value of his house. He did own a small business (restaurant) but they only served dinner so not a huge money maker. After 2 years dating we accidentally got pregnant. He wanted a pre-nup and I had no problem with that, thinking he wanted to protect his business that he obviously put everything into. The prenup he gave me showed all his assets. He was worth over a million. He owned the building his restaurant was in. Owned several properties and a small shopping center. And the pre-nup was insane - I had to give up rights of survivorship to any home we bought together. He would keep 100% of his income and gains. Even though I was pregnant and he wanted me to be a stay at home mom, I would have no protection. Basically I could be married 50 years and raise his kids and if he left me even the shirt on my back would belong to him if it had been purchased after the marriage. I didn't even try for a reasonable re-write. I couldn't marry someone that could suggest that prenup. We cancelled the wedding less than 48 hours before it was scheduled. Image source: butitsnotfish

#9

Image source: skalatitude420, Bermix Studio My fiancé saw me gardening and freaked out. He said he couldn’t marry someone who did manual labor lmao. Bullet dodged! Though technically he canceled it, with that explanation, I would have after hearing his discontent had he not….

#10

Image source: Elicyz, Getty Images I was diagnosed with cancer :( after already postponing our wedding due to COVID. I’m doing okay now and we just had a courthouse wedding, maybe we’ll do a vow renewal some day.

#11

Image source: decepticonhooker, Specna Arms Had to cancel two weeks out. He lied about serving in the military and I come from a Navy family. When we met he told stories about how he served in the army, fast forward 4 years to the engagement and he is telling people how he served in the Marines. Turns out he took his dad’s Vietnam war stories, changed the branch/country/small details, and would pass the experiences off as his own. After I confronted him, he chose denial & gaslighting, saying my memory was wrong. I went to my parents for help, they ran a background check and found no prior military service *and* criminal charges he’d never disclosed. They canceled everything while I packed up all his [things], crammed it into his car, and had it towed away while he was gone. Found out while doing all that he had been cheating on me the entire time too. Go figure.

#12

Image source: Exoticwombat, Curated Lifestyle I was 18 and he was 23 in the navy when we met in Sicily. We decided to elope in Malta with a few of his friends over a quick weekend trip. I had just started bc pills so when we got there, I was feeling very nauseous and blah. So he went out with the boys the night before the elopement. Around 3am the door loudly opens with him in the arms of his friends being almost carried. He is DRUNK and he is ANGRY. He punches one of his friends in the face and they immediately looked at me and said “This is who you’re gonna marry”. And they left. Meanwhile, he gets more volatile, I’m crying. I did the fawn response that night and then next day when he was too sick to remember or care about eloping and then noped the [hell] out. No.

#13

Image source: rmilhousnixon, Dibakar Roy Met a couple on their way to the courthouse to get married a few years ago. Apparently they had to cancel their ceremony because a mudslide caused by Hurricane Helene flooding took the church they were supposed to get married in right off the side of the mountain.

#14

I had to cancel the wedding with my fiance about a month before the scheduled date. As she sat on a hospital bed. In a psychiatric unit. That'd I'd placed her in against her wishes. I'd had to choose between her health and our relationship, and I chose the former. Image source: shaidyn

#15

My Wife's ex colleague had a wedding cancelled on her by her boyfriend with days to go. She wanted to get married because everyone else around her was but boyfriend wasn't on the same page: they broke up. Then she completely melted down, she was on the train home and told my wife she was nipping to the loo, and then she came out of the loo [bare]. She had flushed all her clothes down the toilet and didn't make any sense. My wife placed a coat around her and phoned her parents, who came to the station to get her. I think she went to a hospital. She had just broken down with no apparent warning. Mental health is no joke. My wife left the company and I don't know what happened to the lady after, but I sure hope she's ok. Image source: idreamofthought

#16

Image source: probridgedweller, Curated Lifestyle He said “I don’t wanna marry you then you just get fat.” I realized I didn’t want to marry him.

#17

Image source: travelcat33, Fa Barboza My coworker's best friend was getting married in her hometown of Charleston, SC. It was going to be a huge celebration with many in attendance. The morning of the rehearsal dinner, literally the day before the wedding, a sobbing young woman arrives at the rental where most of the wedding party was staying. She confessed that she had been having an affair with the groom-to-be for months. The bride was an emotional wreck, and her family lost a lot of money, but she definitely dodged a bullet.

#18

Ooof. This one hits close to home. We met while hiking across America. Both of us were hiking from Mexico to Canada that summer, and met a few hundred miles into our hike. Spent the next 1,500 miles and four years together. Eleven days before our wedding she claimed to have a "spiritual awakening" that led her to change her mind. She canceled everything. We had already put down deposits and paid for everything. The travel, the venue, the... everything. Both our families had purchased tickets to fly out to Colorado where the wedding was planned. It led me into the worst chapter of my life. Shortly after I ended up moving out into my car. I was still in love with her. She was my entire world and I thought she was the one I'd spend my life with. It left me devastated, but it was like a light had just flipped in her head and she decided she was no longer in love. We tried living together for a while, but it was the most painful experience of my life. She just completely flipped and saw me as nothing more than a roommate. It destroyed me. And that's why I had to leave the home we shared. I thought I might have to change cities. She was still close with all our shared friends and I suddenly found myself completely alone. I couldn't attend social gatherings without seeing her and watching her date the friends we used to share. Even writing about it now, years later is hard. I ended up living out of my car and in my work office for about six months before finding a place for my own. But even that gave me pain. I'd still see her in town more often than I could believe. And every time I saw her it led me into another downward spiral. Eventually I made the decision to physically leave our shared town for my own mental health. I left and went back to doing what we were doing before we met. I left this last summer to hike the Appalachian Trail and try to find peace within myself again. In what would have been our second wedding anniversary I woke up with a hang over from drinking the night before and decided I needed to do something for myself. I quit drinking that day. For good. I made our anniversary into the day that I became sober. Life has still been a big struggle for me since then, but sometimes I feel like I'm making progress. Literally just last night I dreamed that we were meeting again. I still have those dreams often. That event, and her "spiritual awakening" have been the most detrimental experiences of my adult life. Image source: TheLostAlaskan

#19

I was diagnosed with Stage 2B cancer 40 days out from my luxury destination wedding in Italy. My doctors wouldn't tell me I wasn't allowed to travel, but they highly advised I not postpone treatment. We had a 12 person ceremony on my 3rd to last treatment day instead. Image source: amandarasp0516

#20

Category 3 hurricane, roads were treacherous, threatened vendors and guests on the way to the venue. Parents and in-laws shamed, blamed, and accused us of all manner of things in addition to not being true believers of God because we didn’t want to risk anyone’s lives. Image source: Ikemkagi

#21

Image source: kirsten714, Getty Images I found out he was living with another woman in another state. She was his “broker.” Not. Additionally, when people started finding out about me canceling, a male friend of mine reached out to ask if it was because of his cheating? I hadn’t shared any details so I asked what he was talking about. Turns out they had been [texting] each other. So apparently he was just hooking up with anyone willing. I’m no longer friends with that male “friend.” I left my ex. He stalked me. I prosecuted him.

#22

Image source: JimERustled, Getty Images My ex was having an affair and told me less than a month before the wedding after lying about invitations, vendors, etc. She then gaslit me into saying it was me before finally confessing to the affair once I found evidence at our house. It was for the best. I'm now happily married to a normal, stable woman and have a family. I do wish ill upon my ex and hope she has a [bad] life still, though.

#23

My fiance's mom [passed away] of a rare and unexpected brain cancer a week before we were supposed to get married. She was the sweetest and most vibrant person ever. My mom isn't very sweet or emotional, so I was so excited to have her as my mother in law. It didn't seem appropriate to get married for the obvious reasons. We're still together but I'm hesitant to plan an entire other wedding. We'll probably just get eloped at this point... Image source: chefmegzy

#24

Image source: PancSutt, Dmitry Schemelev I spent the weeks leading up to our wedding horribly depressed, hurting myself, and afraid I was going to commit. My fiancé didn’t know how to handle it, wasn’t trying to get me to stop, and couldn’t accept that I needed major changes in our life to be happy (mainly that I couldn’t live in the small town he grew up in and moved us back to; he refused to leave.) I felt stuck and hopeless and like my life was over at 24. I had no local friends or family close enough to see the alarm bells, I was so afraid for my life. I called off the wedding about a month prior because I thought, “I just shouldn’t feel like this as a bride, this is supposed to be one of the happiest times of my life.” I got a new job in a new city (that was actually a city) and built a new life. I’m still suffering financially from the mortgage in our names that he won’t refinance after 7 years, but at least I’m [alive].

#25

Image source: CharlieSierra8, Maxim Tolchinskiy Not us but the other couple that our planner was working with at the time. They were, according to our planner, super-non-committal about the preparation. Or at least the groom was. He kept kicking the can down the road on any big decisions. Then it became clear why - not only had he been cheating for a while, by the time the couple cancelled, the other girl was 3 months pregnant.

#26

Image source: SassyHeadlessUnicorn, Vitalii Khodzinskyi Not me, but my aunt and her ex-fiancé. My aunt was found out to be stealing from my grandma... a lot. Like over $50k. And my grandma had dementia, too. My grandma had spoiled my aunt her whole life, bought her everything she wanted with no strings attached no matter how much she [messed] up... but that wasn't enough for my aunt, apparently. She got arrested (I think felony grand larceny?), disowned by the family, and her fiancé dumped her when he found out, and now is with a much better woman.

#27

Image source: Jululz, Chen Mizrach Called it off six weeks out when I realized it was all just wrong. Instead of a honeymoon, I took myself on a 'oneymoon' (one-ee-moon). Best solo trip of my life.

#28

I was engaged for 3 years to a single mother, she was great, a fantastic girlfriend/fiancé, the relationship was near perfect.. except for one thing, her 8 year old boy. Over the 3 years, his behaviour was getting progressively worse, mostly at school, but he started to bring the behaviour home. Around my fiance, he’d be as good as gold. The moment her back was turned, or she’d pop out to the shops, he would turn into an absolute terror. He’d break things and blame me, he would harm my dog (I caught him trying to pull my dogs eyes out ffs), he’d steal my things etc. My home life was miserable because of it, my only happiness came from when he was at his fathers every other weekend, and at 4pm on the Sunday when he’d return home, it was like a storm cloud coming over all of a sudden. I was depressed, stressed, which caused me to gain an enormous amount of weight, I would lock myself away in the bedroom just to be away from him. Then one day I realised I could leave, so I did. 2 months before the wedding. My family were pissed, her family were pissed, but nobody saw how miserable I was. Fast forward 2 years, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been, I’m the leanest I’ve ever been, I managed to secure a high paying job, I’m debt free with a healthy amount of savings, and for the first time in my life I feel like I’ve achieved something, and I’m proud of that. God knows where I’d be if I had gone through with the wedding. Image source: Immediate-Mind-6931

#29

COVID happened. We already had a private BnB booked for the two of us, so we went ahead and drove the 9 hours to our intended ceremony site (outdoors in a park) and privately said the vows he had prepared. Came back two years later and actually had the official wedding. It ended up really working out, because my brother, the originally-planned officiant, ended up stabbing us in the back and burning bridges with everyone in my family. We're very grateful he didn't end up actually being a part of the best day of our lives and tainting those memories. Image source: Statistactician

#30

This happened the day before I was due to send the invitations out. 9 years together. Comes home from a work trip looking like a kicked puppy. Refused to say a word to me. I finally say “it feels like we’re breaking up” to which he nodded, while still maintaining zero eye contact. No explanation other than “I’ve never found you attractive” (do they all have the same playbook?) Turns out he was banging a mutual friend back in our home country, who he then flew over to the US where we lived. She quit her job and lost all of her friends (my friends), gave up her house to be with this loser. She stayed for the duration of the visa - around three months - after which he then very unceremoniously dumped her because she had served her purpose (distract him from the breakup and help him get his life and new apartment together.) Even I thought that was cold as hell. Image source: ayatollahfuckboy

#31

Image source: rosesforthemonsters, Getty Images Three weeks before the wedding (during Thanksgiving dinner), he told me that he had been cheating on me the entire time we were together. After our guests left, I proceeded to destroy his kitchen. He threatened to call the police if I broke anything else. So, I threw a chair through a window. I called a friend to come pick me up. He never did call the cops. I seriously thought he was going to. Three months later, he married his girlfriend. The day he got married, I sold my engagement ring to my neighbor for $20. Within five years time, his wife had a baby with another man, they got divorced, he moved back to his home state, and I got an email from his sister telling me that he had a heart attack while on a ski trip and didn't survive it.

#32

Didn't happen to me, but a mate of a mate - let's call him Tom. The Bride turned into a bridezilla, which he could deal with, but the family were adding to it as well. So he was marrying into money, but certainly wasn't from money, and he told her, *"Look, we can do whatever you want, but we can't do black tie. I want all my people to be able to wear their suits and not have to worry about the cost".* She said fine - her dad said that they'd pay for it, so the wedding was shaping up to be one of those mega weddings - in a castle, she'll have two wedding dresses, a massive iconic church for the ceremony, etc. A big wedding, so to speak. About a month before the wedding, she sent updated dress codes to all the guests without telling him. He got a phone call from his brother saying that he thought it wasn't a black tie and there wasn't much time left. So he spoke to her and she said he's got it wrong or whatever, to come to the house (her parents were buying it as a gift - and she was decorating it). He went there, and her dad was there - and she wasn't. Basically, the dad laid out all the expenses that were going into this wedding, the gift he was giving them, the location, the strings pulled to make this perfect for her daughter and how it would just not look right if only her side of the family were wearing black tie. He was asked that no one would be able to get tuxedos now, but it turns out that all her side was informed it was black tie from the get-go, and they were hoping that he would come around to the idea of the tuxedo naturally when they saw the venue/church, etc. Tom said that he's going to message everyone on his side of the wedding and tell them to ignore the last message. The dad said something about being ridiculous, the whole event will be a massive waste of money, and he has a mind to pull the whole thing because it's costing him too much. Oh, I should mention, Tom isn't really normal, he has very strong opinions of principles and told him something to the effect that he's going to message everyone on both sides of the family that it's no longer black tie as this the agreement that he made with his wife, and there will be a notice on the wedding site that only suits are required. The dad said if he does that, he'll pay for nothing, and the wedding is off. Tom said Sounds like the wedding - obviously the fiancé heard from her father and told him to grow up, that she spoke to Tom's parents and they don't mind. Tom then sent an email saying the wedding was off. I wasn't invited, but I spoke to Tom, and I said from the outside, I think he massively overreacted. For him, though, he said he no longer trusted the person he was marrying, that he asked for one thing, and instead of being truthful, she went behind his back three times. He also said that the father unveiled himself that day, and he absolutely did not want to be in debt to him. TLDR: Wedding was cancelled due to the dress code. Image source: Action_Limp

#33

Image source: Bachame, Getty Images Our wedding was scheduled for March 21st, 2020. The world kinda shut down on us. We are finally getting married March 21st, 2026, so I guess it was more delayed than cancelled.

#34

Image source: snow_big_deal, Getty Images Not me but wedding I was supposed to attend. Bride had a burst ulcer the night before, lost like half of her blood, and spent a week in ICU.

#35

My ex was a narcissist and let his mask fall before the wedding so, I had time to cancel everything 6 weeks before we were suppsed to be getting married. Broke up for good 2 months after that, and I've been blooming ever since. He doesn't deserve me. Image source: steffie-flies