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Original poster

Have you ever been to a wedding where someone was jilted?

447 replies

JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows · 21/04/2021 22:50

Me and my friend tonight watched a (so bad it's good) film where a bride jilts the groom and he runs off with her sister as they sing a Cher song together Grin we were discussing jilting, she said at Uni her friend's wedding was called off the night before when the bride had discovered an affair. And I remember as a teen my parents coming home only a couple of hours after they left for a wedding. The groom didn't show up to the service, he was seen leaving the hotel in the car of a woman waiting outside Shock is jilting very rare? Have you ever known anyone jilted or a wedding cancelled last minute?

OP posts:
Milkywaystars · 21/04/2021 23:00

Not been to a wedding where the bride was jilted but got a cancellation notice 4 days before the wedding. Turns out the groom was shagging his friend and ran off with her. Shock

Also, someone local to us was discovered to be a bigamist with 2 families in opposite ends of the country. Shock Shock

AlrightTreacle · 22/04/2021 00:42

Not jilted, but I went to a wedding where the couple had broken up a few days before. The brides mother convinced her to go through with it because they'd spent about £30,000 on it and at least wanted the party Grin. They went through with the vows, posed for photos, the groom did a speech etc but they didn't really speak to each other. It was a weird atmosphere Confused. They're divorced now.

Aquamarine1029 · 22/04/2021 00:55

Not on the actual wedding day, but...

My cousin's daughter's fiance walked out 4 days before their very large, no expense spared wedding. Friends and family from all over flew in for the wedding and a lot of them were already here, making a holiday out of it. Awkward and just awful for my cousin and her family.

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HerRoyalNotness · 22/04/2021 01:24

Turned up to my aunts wedding and was met by someone to say it had been called off but please still go the reception, which we did. She managed to talk him around and they got married quietly a couple of weeks later. Ended in divorce.

StylishDuck · 22/04/2021 09:09

Not a wedding but I did know a couple who called off their engagement the day after they had a huge engagement party. Not sure what happened at the party... Confused

Crankley · 22/04/2021 09:42

I didn't attend the wedding but someone I worked with married a man from overseas, Standing at the altar at the end of the ceremony he apparently announced 'thanks, I needed to be married to stay in the country' and walked out of the church never to be seen again. She had a mental breakdown and ended up in hospital for a time.

Billythecandlestickmaker · 22/04/2021 09:48

@Crankley

I didn't attend the wedding but someone I worked with married a man from overseas, Standing at the altar at the end of the ceremony he apparently announced 'thanks, I needed to be married to stay in the country' and walked out of the church never to be seen again. She had a mental breakdown and ended up in hospital for a time.
Oh my gosh, this is harrowing, that poor, poor woman! Honestly this story will stay with me. What a ruthless bastard.
steppemum · 22/04/2021 10:02

@Crankley

I didn't attend the wedding but someone I worked with married a man from overseas, Standing at the altar at the end of the ceremony he apparently announced 'thanks, I needed to be married to stay in the country' and walked out of the church never to be seen again. She had a mental breakdown and ended up in hospital for a time.
and I very much hope she annulled the marriage as it was never consummated, she could have got it canceled.

Then wrote to immigration about his status.

what a bastard

NameChangedForThisFeb21 · 22/04/2021 10:09

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Icancelledthecheque · 22/04/2021 10:10

No, but a friend cancelled her wedding and left her fiancé two weeks before the wedding after parents had paid around £25k. I understand backing out but she behaved terribly around that time and lost a lot of friends over it.

Her parents have more money than sense and gave her another £20k two years later to marry someone else! The wedding went ahead and they were divorced within 18 months...

Bonkers.

KeflavikAirport · 22/04/2021 10:15

My ex dumped his GF (he had an affair with her), then went back to her, then dumped her again on their wedding day, then went back again and married her ten days later. Then wanted to stay in touch with me. Fucking idiot.

Hoppinggreen · 22/04/2021 10:17

Not jilted exactly but I went to a work colleagues huge Indian wedding, arranged marriage
When he got back from his Honeymoon (where she refused to have sex with him) her parents were waiting at the airport and said there was a family emergency and she had to come with them.
New groom went home alone to find that they had stripped out his house and emptied their joint account. She then filed for divorce and he never saw her again. He had a breakdown and was off work for months poor man.

UniversitySerf · 22/04/2021 10:18

NameChangedForThisFeb21

What a very sad story. I have found that people that are truly 100% lovely often get treated badly. I’m not suggesting that people need to be horrible but I wonder if deficient humans are attracted to these lovely people and sort of emotionally feed off them for a while to fill a void in their own souls.

I have a friend a bit like your cousin, I have never heard her say an unkind word or get angry even when people have questionable behaviour, she is too forgiving.

TenCornMaidens · 22/04/2021 10:20

Wow, there are some terrible terrible stories in this thread already. Sad

MorrisZapp · 22/04/2021 10:22

My DP was best man in this situation. His best mate called off his huge, fancy wedding six weeks before the date. No affair, just increasing sense it wasn't right. DP and other guys went to Las Vegas on the 'unstag do' anyway because it was all non refundable.

Huge ructions. Lost thousands of pounds and the groom hasn't had a healthy relationship ever since, because he knows the hurt he caused and he can't trust himself.

The bride was a brilliant girl, I was so looking forward to the wedding and all the fun as a foursome socialising etc but I've never seen her since.

Maggiesfarm · 22/04/2021 10:26

No but I always giggle when it gets to that bit where asked if anyone knows of any reason, etc.

Soap weddings are good.

The Graduate was good.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 22/04/2021 10:35

No, but I think there must be quite a lot of cases where bride or groom increasingly don’t feel it’s the right thing, but go through with it anyway, because so much money will be wasted otherwise, people will have bought outfits, etc., not to mention huge family expectations.
Roll on a while and there’s a divorce.

I do know of a groom who was told by a close friend literally on the steps of the church, that he would live to regret it, she was a nutter and was marrying him on the rebound.
And the groom said he was pretty much in agreement, but went ahead anyway, presumably because by then it was too late to get off the wedding ‘rollercoaster’.
That marriage (expensive wedding) didn’t last very long.

There’s IMO a lot to be said for relatively low-key weddings, where getting off the rollercoaster in time won’t be such a massive or expensive deal.

Supersimkin2 · 22/04/2021 10:39

Yep. Pregnant bride jilted night before altar at insanely pricy foreign wedding, to which we had all paid massive bills to attend.

A lot of guests went anyway... leaving the bride in floods alone at home in London.

giletrouge · 22/04/2021 10:42

No but I'm very, very glad to say when I was a therapist I managed to drop the whole 'give no advice' rule and persuade a male client who was going to marry a woman he didn't love and knew he'd leave to back out before the wedding rather than divorce her at some point in the future. I just made it clear that he couldn't do that and continue to delude himself that he was some kind of good person. She and everyone were furious with him but I just reminded him how much worse it would have been post-marriage.
Best bit of rule-breaking I ever did.

Cocolapew · 22/04/2021 10:46

Not me but DH about 30years ago. His friends brother was jilted at the altar, DH said it was excuriating sitting there realising she wasn't coming.
The groom went to a local shop that hired wedding clothes out and got his photo took with a mannequin in a bridal dress then they all went to the pub.
I think she ran off with a man from work.

DigOutThoseLemonHandWipes · 22/04/2021 10:48

Not jilted but one friend cancelled her fairly big wedding about a week out. Her DH to be was from a different country and she just felt it was "off" having a big wedding the was 99% her friends and family with just him mum there. They did tie the knot about a year later in a small ceremony in a country half way between the two home countries with just close family. Another friend was left by his wife on honeymoon.

Shitzngiggles · 22/04/2021 10:48

My friends fiance called the wedding off on the morning they were due to get married. She went ahead with the reception anyway. She was so brave all evening then at the end ifbthe night she just absolutely broke, it was heartbreaking. She and her best friend went on the honeymoon. About 6 months later the couple got back together, married very quietly and still together 35 years later.

Freshprincess · 22/04/2021 10:49

2 weeks beforehand is the closest I know. Was devastating for them, I cant imagine how it must feel to find out on the day.

I know Someone who left after 6 months, I’ve often wondered if she had cold feet before but didn’t want to call it off.

StormBaby · 22/04/2021 10:53

I worked with a woman who was left the day before. He just disappeared down south and moved in very quickly with someone else, obviously had been having an affair.

Persipan · 22/04/2021 10:56

Is it just me that feels like it's better for these weddings not to have gone ahead? I don't see them as a 'someone losing something they should have had' situation; to me it's more 'someone realising they actually didn't have what they thought'. Which sucks, yes - especially the closer to the wedding or the bigger and fancier the planned celebration - but the people who actually go through with it in that circumstance don't come off any better. Worse, if anything - however hard it is to cancel a wedding, getting divorced is surely more difficult? It just seems like the whole wedding industry and the attached social pressures are really ramping up the sunk costs fallacy for people who've realised they probably shouldn't be in that relationship, and they go ahead just to avoid embarrassment.

Obviously there's no excuse for treating people badly, but I can see how these things happen and marrying someone even when you know you shouldn't just seems like a really bad idea to me.

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