Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
Weddings remain one of those often discussed topics precisely because we all love a little bit of drama. After all, where else can you combine what is basically a big party with so much intrigue, angst and bad decisions? Of course, these sorts of stories often also include marriages that are doomed from the start or just never get off the ground.
Someone asked “Has anyone ever attended a wedding that got called off on the altar?” and people shared their most shocking stories. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own thoughts and stories in the comments section below.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I was a bridesmaid. All of her friends (including myself), her parents, and anyone else with half a brain had been telling her to get rid of him all along, and to definitely not marry him (no job, physically and verbally abusive). We'd given up by the time of her wedding, and I was trying to be happy for her. Instead of saying 'I do,' she was just looking around the room and then ran back 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.".
Anna Ekberg 5 months ago
Good for her but why do they always wait to the very last minute to call it off?
RELATED:
#2
Went to a wedding in Tuscany, the couple was from San Francisco, but both had family from around Europe and the East Coast, so Italy was a good centiral location. They rented a villa to have the wedding at, around 100 guest, gorgeous setting, impeccably catered, but the bride got cold feet and disappeared about an hour before the ceremony. The groom gave a very eloquent speech, thanking everyone for coming, explained what had happened and really put everyone at ease, and we had a great party. He got pretty smashed afterwards, but the social grace with which he handled it was remarkable.
Feelings are fake 5 months ago
If it was the other way around there would be Facebook groups and three lifetime movies already.
#3
This is actually kinda stupid, but during an Indian ceremony, when the bride and groom stood up to start their ceremony, the bride's skirt fell. The groom had a fit and stopped the wedding because of it. Apparently it was disrespectful on her part. They never ended up getting married later (pretty sure it was arranged though, so, good on her?).
#4
At my friends' wedding, everyone stood as the bride started her walk down the aisle...everyone expect the groom's great grandmother, who had died suddenly and quietly just moments before. The wedding was stopped and everyone disbanded so that the families could deal with the tragedy.
They held a (non-fatal) wedding a few months later that included many tributes to the great grandmum and, 10 years later, are happily married.
#5
So close. Couple of co-workers got married on a Saturday. At the reception, with at least a few drinks in him, the husband told his wife, "You know you weren't my first choice."
Monday morning, we found our wedding gifts on our desks.
#6
A good friend of mine was getting married to a guy we all liked. He was a strict Catholic, refused to have sex before marriage, always went to confession. I was a bridesmaid and my husband was Best Man. When the priest said, "Is there anyone who objects to this wedding? Speak now," everyone giggled because the guy's mom was giving the stink eye to the crowd, daring someone to speak up. The priest chuckled and began to talk again.
"We come together not to mark the start of a relationship, but to recognize a bond that..."
"SCREW THEIR BOND! She's pregnant with my baby!"
Turns out my ex-friend was having sex with the groom's cousin. She was, in fact, pregnant by him and was hoping to trick her fiance into thinking it was his. Her fiance was livid. In the end, he forced her to pay his family back half the money they spent of their $75,000 wedding.
#7
I've been at a wedding that got called off. The chick's ex-boyfriend came up and punched the groom in the face. It was a pretty bad altarcation.
#8
My mom was engaged to a guy before my Dad, and stood him up at the altar. About a week before the wedding, this guy she was engaged to started to grow a beard, with plans to shave it off before the wedding. Apparently, it had a very red tint to it, and she refused to possibly have kids with red hair.
She left the man at the alter day of the wedding, never walked down the aisle and just walked out.
Mom left a guy heartbroken because she wouldn't have a ginger kid.
Then I married a ginger.
#9
I've been to one wedding where the bride bolted about 20 min before the ceremony. She asked everyone to leave the room she was getting ready in, saying she needed a minute. So, family thought she was being super spiritual and talking to god, but in fact decided to do some blow and decided "f**k this marriage s**t" and left.
And another one where in the middle of the vows, the guy stopped the priest and said "i can't do this" and literally ran out of the place. From what I found out later, he hid on the resort's property in some bushes until his mother (who hated the almost bride) happened to walk by. He had her retrieve his cellphone and keys from his room. The groom also went on the honeymoon trip with his mom.. sooooo.. yeah.
#10
I have a friend whose fiancee ran his car off the road on the way to the wedding. Hey may have been trying to k*ll himself. Turned out he's gay and hadn't been dealing with it very well.
#11
I was not there, but my wife was (before we were married). One of the gifts was a set of nice new white sheets for the marriage night, so they do not ruin the bedsheets on their first time. During the reception post ceremony, the bride comes back and tells everybody to go home and take back their gifts, except the white sheets. They were used by her husband and sister.
#12
Two friends of mine were getting married. They planned to tie the know in Edinburgh and had booked a church, hotel, reception etc. About 70 people flew over to be there, most from Dublin, but some from as far away as Tokyo, New York and Dubai.
On the morning of the wedding the groom said he didn't want to be married and he did a runner after the bride (understandably) got a bit ~~angry~~ bats**t insane with rage.
Basically, he liked being single. He would get home, play his computer games, go and watch some GAA games at the weekend. He was happy doing his own thing and didn't want that to change.
He dissapeared the morning of the wedding and hasn't been seen since, that was two years ago. We know from speaking to mutual freinds that he is Okay, he's just living the life he wanted to. He has never apologised for what he did.
What made the bride so angry is not being jilted, it was the fact that he waited to the morning of the wedding to pull out. He admitted he had felt that way for some months, but didn't have the guts to tell her. A lot of money had been spent by a lot of people to get to the wedding and she had to do all the apologising.
Still, it turned out Okay. The bride calmed down after a few hours after realising she dodged a bullet and we all had quite a bender in Edinburgh that Saturday night.
#13
My mother owns a wedding photography business and she has personally shot well over 1000 weddings. She has so many stories that would go great in this thread. One of my favorite being when the groom put photos of his fiance cheating on him under everyone's chair and when the ceremony was about to begin he told everyone to grab the picture, called her a cheating wh*re and walked out leaving her father with the bill.
Huddo's sister 5 months ago
My only problem with this is that the father was stuck with the bill when he wasn't the one that cheated. If you know ahead of time, you should just walk away, rather than being dramatic and causing hassles for people other that your fiancée.
#14
My girlfriend at the time's best friend, Sara, was supposed to get married this past summer, and my gf was going to the maid of honor. At 8 AM on the *day of the wedding* gf gets a call from Sara, who is hysterical, saying that Tim, the groom, disappeared the night before and no one can find him (it is implied that his parents know where he is, but they've always hated Sara for absolutely no reason and so they claim ignorance). We wait around for hours just waiting to hear something, but we're getting tons of conflicting information, from "Tim just went out for a little bachelor hell-raising" to "literally no one knows where he is."
So gf and I end up heading to Jean's house, who was supposed to be the other bridesmaid, to wait around anxiously. Finally, Sara and her mother arrive, and Tim FINALLY calls Sara (after ignoring about 30 of her calls/texts). They have an obviously tense conversation outside, and Sara comes back in to announce to everyone there that Tim has decided not to go through with it (presumably because his (truly evil) parents have finally persuaded him not to be with her anymore). It is now 2 PM. The ceremony was supposed to be at 3 PM.
So we all get dressed up fancy anyway (except the 'bride' just goes in jeans, because, as she summarized so eloquently, "f**k it") and just go to the reception, since, as the mother of the bride stated to her daughter, "we paid for all that food and booze and it is NOT going to waste. let's go get smashed and say good riddance, baby." So we got fabulously drunk on the open bar and danced around with her little 3-year-old nephew and shared all the things we'd never liked about Tim.
The real kicker though? Tim was in the army, so the two of them were already on-paper married so that she could be deployed with him. The ceremony meant *nothing* legally - it was just the worst way that he could ever have ended the relationship. AND, by the time this happened, it had been more than 6 months, so they couldn't do a simple annulment. She's still wading through the divorce BS, but at least her dad is a Marine and he can get this scumbag guy in craploads of trouble for what he did. His (deadbeat groom's) CO was NOT HAPPY about having to reverse all the deployment paperwork and get the jilted bride's stuff back out of shipment to goddamn Germany. All in all, epic fallout that he deserved, thankfully. It was quite the day.
Frederick Hippchen 5 months ago
We thank the groom for his continued service. . . . Ales-Origi...2d0c69.jpg 
#15
A few years ago, a friend of ours was working as a waiter at a big venue where they host receptions for huge weddings.
Huge crowd in attendance - then the groom has a heart attack and dies right in the middle of the reception. They give him CPR in front of everyone but he died right there.
It was hugely traumatic (obviously) - a lot of the waiting staff had to have trauma counselling.
We all learnt to appreciate life better after that night.
#16
A friend of my family had been together with his lady for 7 years and decided to have a lavish destination wedding. We're from Australia and they wanted to have a Las Vegas wedding. If you wanted to attend you had to pay the ridiculous amount to fly over to America, and for most of the family it took a lot of saving. Apparently, for months before the wedding the sister of the bride had been saying to the bride spiteful things about marriage and about not going through with the wedding.
The big day came, everyone had spent a lot of money getting to their dream destination and the ceremony was beautiful. However, when it came to sign the documents and make it legal the spiteful sister decided to have one last "joke" about marriage being forever. The bride then proceeded to freak out and didnt sign the paper, she just said "I can't do this" and ran out. The sister and the bride ended up taking the honeymoon and the groom just wandered around the hotel for hours in a daze.
Needless to say everyone was pissseeddd that the bride insisted on a lavish overseas wedding that most family members couldnt afford and didnt end up going through with it.
Zoe Vokes 5 months ago
I can’t understand why a Las Vegas wedding would be anybody’s “dream wedding” if it’s a family wedding. I understand if you want to have a party wedding with your friends (gambling, drinking and having fun) but there must be a ton of nice places to go to in Australia with a style you”d like without needing international travel.
#17
Yes. I was at a wedding of a close friend in Manchester, UK. Everything was going on as planned - ish, when the police came in and arrested the couple. 'Someone' had notified the police that an 'illegal' (sham) wedding was taking place. Lots of people from both familes explained that they have known the couple for 2-3 years - not a f**k was given by the police. The case went to the court, and the CPS (crown prosecution service) got some bollocking. My friend and his then fiance (now wife) were compensated - £22.50!
#18
Wow this is so crazy it was posted today. I was supposed to be in a wedding yesterday that got called off three hours prior. (a lot of us were glad.)
The bride was crazy. Threw lighter fluid on her fiancé and had a lighter in hand. Threw household objects at his head. Tried to slash his tires with a huge butcher knife.
Then she put on Facebook that she hoped God had no mercy on his worthless soul.
She has no sense. Gladly he came to his.
#19
I was not in attendance because I was like 2 at the time, but a cousin of my Dad was on the altar ready to go, then the groomsmen showed up with the groom still f****d up from the night before. Groom threw up on the altar when he got up there. Wedding called off and the two never married. Great-grandfather prevented everyone from eating all the food at the reception and everyone just kinda went home.
#20
Wedding in Niagara, groom and groomsmen show up for the photos HAMMERED. They r so rude and horrible that the bride storms off saying she "just can't do this". Then the would-have-been mother in law reams out the a*****e groom. He flips out, tears his tuxedo off of his arms and body in a fit of rage, and runs in to the woods to escape.
True story. Happened this summer.
#21
I was to be married March 4, 2003. At my fiances bachelorette she ended up cheating on me with a guy from out of state, someone she had never even layed eyes on before in her life. We had everything paid for already. The night before the wedding I received a call from our good friend, (also the person to marry us) who told me everything that went down at her party. I guess to make a long story short, I went with her dad to the venue to let them know that there would be no wedding shortly after I broke the news to her.
tldr; We shot the cake that night.
#22
No, but a friend was in a wedding that ended up getting called off just before the ceremony. The groom refused to sign a pre-nup, so the father of the bride comes out and tells the guests that the wedding is off, the folks on the bride's side can stay for the reception (this was at some country club), but the groom's side can f**k off.
zububonsai 5 months ago (edited)
Smart bride and father of the bride. Though I lack more facts, my gut feeling says they were about to be living *not* in a decrepit hut with one rickety bed and two pans.
#23
My roommate was a bass player in a wedding band for 11 years. At one classy wedding, the groom's father caught the bride and the best man f*****g before the ceremony. The two families got into a huge brawl, the police came, and the band never even got to play. After the commotion died down, the bride's father paid the band anyway.
#24
I have a brother who is about ten years older than me. This happened when I was fourteen at the time, and 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 sweetheat 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 had sex with one man, her fiance, and knew that the groom to be was in the same situation. One lover his whole life, his fiance. Apparently she had been reading a lot "Sex and your Marriage" self help books and she had come to the conclusion that lack of sexual experience was the number one destroyer of marriages.
So she came to my brother's friend (the groom to be) with this idea that they participate in a foursome, or 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 s**t up. The groom to be fights the idea for a while, but his fiance threatens to call off the wedding if he doesn't go through with this. He talks with his best friend, he reluctantly agrees. She talks with her best friend, she reluctantly agrees. Everybody's in (no pun intended).
So the night before the wedding comes, and the four are getting plastered at the happy couple-to-be's apartment. Here's where s**t goes down. Apparently the groom drinks too much and can't get it up (at least that's what he says happened) and what essentially occurs that night is a threesome between the maid of honor, the bride to be, and the best man.
The groom to be, humiliated and distraught, leaves the apartment in the middle of the trio's lovemaking and drunk drives his car straight into a freeway median.
The wedding's called off due to the accident, and the groom ends up paralyzed from the waist down.
Great guy, the paralyzed wood-be groom. My brother and I play pick up with him once or twice a month at the local rec center. My brother was not the best man, FYI. The paralyzed groom doesn't like to talk about anything that happened, and I'm pretty sure he and his would be best man don't talk anymore. I saw the bride at an xmas party my parents threw a few years ago, her parents are family friends. I think she's married and has shat out a kid or two.
tl;dr Couple planned foursome night prior to getting hitched, didn't work out as planned, groom got in car accident and is paralyzed. Wedding was called off, bride ended up marrying someone else, still see groom from time to time.
#25
Ive had a wedding were the husband jokingly said no at the altar, the clerk from the local authority was a bit of an old school dude accepted that anwser... They married 2 weeks later.
#26
My own wedding got called off mid-ceremony. I had just finished saying my own vows before being arrested by local police on a assault/domestic-violence charge. (I beat up my *almost* brother-in-law for stealing my car. FWIW, he punched me in the face first but that doesn't matter in my state.) Police didn't care what was going on, I got carried out in handcuffs in front of ALL of my family.
There are many negative consequences to having your wedding day ending like that beyond the obvious. Have never been able to repair my relationship with her family.
TL,DR; got arrested at the alter.
#27
Wedding photographer here. I've never seen one called off during the ceremony, but before I started at the studio I'm at now my boss apparently showed up for a wedding and the bride was nowhere to be seen. Everybody was a little confused and eventually they were told, by one of the bridesmaids I believe, that the previous night the bride had slept with one of the groomsmen and that they had run away together.
#28
My Dad stood my Mom up at the altar. I had already been born (about 2 yo), the wedding was in mid swing at my God Parents home, guests in their seats and all, Dad just never showed up. Parents stayed together for another six years, separated when I was 8.
#29
I myself wasn't there but about 15 years ago, a female cousin on my dad's side of the family was stood up at the altar.
The only thing of this wedding that I've seen are old pictures of the event on facebook. A caption under one picture in which she is dressed in her wedding gown, complete with veil, is "I thought I was going to get married. Oh, well, it was a good thought at the time.".
#30
I was at a wedding where the grooms father spit on the bride. A 6 minute-long fist fight ensued.
Apparently she slept around on the groom and the groom couldn't believe it. His father was traditional Portuguese. The bigger surprise is why it was the grooms dad and not the mother that did the spitting.
What do you think ?
Captive 5 months ago
So many people cheating ON the actual wedding day? Even at the church? What the hell is wrong with people?
Andy Frobig 5 months ago
I think it's the panic of suddenly realizing you're only supposed to sleep with this one person for the rest of your life, and somebody else might be better. Didn't happen to me
Load More Replies...
The Dark Sun 5 months ago (edited)
Just for the records: Fiancée = Bride to be || Fiancé = Groom to be. Thank you for your attention.
Herringbone 5 months ago
I give up on many of these stories because I can't work out who they're talking about half the time.
Load More Replies...
Seanette Blaylock 5 months ago
Too many people depend on auto-incorrect to cover their lack of vocabulary or literacy.
Load More Replies... Captive 5 months ago
So many people cheating ON the actual wedding day? Even at the church? What the hell is wrong with people?
Andy Frobig 5 months ago
I think it's the panic of suddenly realizing you're only supposed to sleep with this one person for the rest of your life, and somebody else might be better. Didn't happen to me
Load More Replies... The Dark Sun 5 months ago (edited)
Just for the records: Fiancée = Bride to be || Fiancé = Groom to be. Thank you for your attention.
Herringbone 5 months ago
I give up on many of these stories because I can't work out who they're talking about half the time.
Load More Replies... Seanette Blaylock 5 months ago
Too many people depend on auto-incorrect to cover their lack of vocabulary or literacy.
Load More Replies... You May Like “Had A Bridesmaid Go Into Labor”: 40 Wild And Sad Things That Happened At Weddings People Share What Ruined Weddings They Attended, Here Are The 43 Best Stories “My Niece Was Ugly”: Teen Wears White To Aunt’s Wedding, Ends Up Photoshopped In The Pictures
Rugilė Žemaitytė
Mindaugas Balčiauskas
Indrė Lukošiūtė
Related on Bored Panda
