Normally, when we hear of a called-off wedding, we assume some catastrophic drama has occurred. But, as always with humans, the real causes might be a lot more mundane. Someone asked people to share the most unhinged, absurd, and bizarre reasons couples have canceled their weddings. 

From hating the number of the year to visions of the future in dreams, some marriages didn’t even get off the ground for the most inane bases. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorite examples, and be sure to share your own stories in the comments section below. 

#1

My Italian uncle cancelled his wedding because the bride's family (not Italian) would not serve lasagna at the wedding reception.

He ended up marrying an Irish woman whose family was okay with serving lasagna at the reception.

Image credits: rockyroadicecreamlov

#2

I had to cancel mine because the dips**t failed to mention he was still married to his second wife.

Image credits: YesImJen

#3

The groom had a fake SSN because he was dodging child support from a previous marriage. He told bride he had neither an ex wife or child. The SSN was figured out at the courthouse when they were applying for a marriage license. He’d created fake documents at a Staples that morning.

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#4

She found out that he had a birth mark in a place that she didn't like.

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#5

While dating the man for over 5 years, my egg donor called of her marriage to a MILLIONAIRE because she didn't like he didn't chew his food very well and she didn't ever want to be embarrassed in public if he choked.

Image credits: Ambitious_Twist_9809

#6

Bride is Italian, groom Jamaican. The dad told her if she marries him he’s going to go to the wedding dressed like a banana. He bought a yellow tuxedo and a banana hat. The risk of embarrassment made the bride cancel.

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#7

One of my friends was engaged and is Catholic. Her husband had to convert and he had a dream where he was in a Catholic Church but not getting married, he was a priest. So he had a vision of becoming a priest and now the wedding is off.

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#8

Groom was in a relationship with his "best man." Only people unaware were the bride and her family.

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#9

The dude was living a double life. Had a whole another family in a different state and said he traveled for work, but was actually going back and forth between family and fiancé.

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#10

Bride cancelled the wedding a week before because she was a hardcore Disney adult and she was offered a temp job at disney and felt she "couldn't miss the opportunity of her dreams."

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#11

My grandmother cancelled her wedding a day before because he was 30 minutes late picking her up for something. I like to say i got my pettiness from her.

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#12

Cos the man was gay and she was just his test to see if he could love a girl. She was heartbroken, but had her suspicions about him.

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#13

My wife’s cousin (M) fiancée cancelled the wedding because they couldn’t agree on where to put used towels after showering. She would put a wet towel in the hamper after each shower. He couldn’t get past the fact that (a) she was putting wet towels in the hamper, and (b) that she only used the towel once.
Though he is crazy, I’m with him on this one.

Image credits: Derroe42

#14

My grandfather was stationed in Italy during the war and met a girl there. He even flew his parents out to Italy for the wedding. The night before they wedding all the guests and were having a good time and his fiancée stuck her chewing gum in his hair. The end.

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#15

A friend of mine cancelled her wedding because her bridesmaids (I being one of them) couldn’t afford to buy the dresses she picked out for us. She called off the whole thing and they ended up breaking up anyway. Glad I didn’t waste my money.

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#16

Guy I went to school with called off his engagement when his fiancé admitted she was pregnant with her dad's baby and it was a very consensual situation.

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#17

The best man said in his speech that he slept with the bride about 2 weeks before the wedding. All hell broke loose. The groom demanded that the marriage be cancelled. It took a few days to get the truth out & for the groom to finally listen. The best man thought it be a great prank. The groom was apologetic to the bride, but she didn’t forgive him. Because he believed in others’ lies & won’t let her talk.

Image credits: RottweilerBridesmaid

#18

My friend realized that his girl never opens her mail and just lets it pile up. He said it’s a ?.

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#19

One of my marines has one that takes the cake. His marriage was cancelled because his spouse's parents had a dream that he would become abusive and an addict. She left him because of her parents dream. He's now a multi millionaire....that's an abusive addict.

Image credits: BlackFeign

#20

My cousin had a dream that her fiance cheated on her. She thought this was a "sign", so went on a deep dive to prove that he was being unfaithful.

She checked his phone, social media, emails, browser history, store receipts, etc. Put a tracker in their shared car. She even went so far as to get a friend to follow him from his work to the pub, sit there all night whilst he had drinks with his colleages, and follow the designated driver back to his home.

There was absolutely no proof he was cheating. There weren't even any inconsistencies with his timetable.

Anyway, the *morning* of the wedding, she paid a "psychic" to turn up and give her a tarot reading whilst getting strapped into her dress. The bloody psychic said a very wishy washy "maybe keep your romantic options open" comment, and my cousin took this as a divine revelation that she shouldn't marry the guy.

So she left. Without telling the groom. Just took off her ring, called an uber, and f****d off with her mum in tow, still wearing her dress.

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#21

Totally real and legitimate but crazy. Scheduled to get married in 2021. During lockdown, fiancé was out of work and went Q-Anon crazy. Didn’t want his future wife to get vaccinated. She did. That night she woke up to him running a magnet over her body. He said he was seeing if she was chipped or magnetized by vax and was happy that she wasn’t. She asked what he would do if he found it and he said “cut it out of you”. And that was the last straw, thank god. Wedding was couple weeks away at that point and they lost ton of money but she escaped the crazy.

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#22

My friend's former fiancé was a nice dude. Firefighter, easy to talk to, treated her well and got her a nice ring. Every now and then the ring would go missing but he would eventually find it, safe and sound.

She had a good job, too, and was giving him thousands of dollars a month to fix up a house they had bought to live in after they'd gotten married.

Turns out, dude was living two lives or attempting to at the very least: he's married for 10+ years and had two kids, the engagement ring was his wife's and he stole it back every now and then to "find" it for her. There was never a house, he never bought one, and used all the thousands he had been given solely on cocaine.

Needless to say, they cancelled the wedding.

Image credits: Zenthoor

#23

My cousin called it off 3 days in advance because the bride and groom couldn't agree on whether to hyphenate their last names, or use his.

In retrospect, there was a significant class/ culture divide of which that was merely one symptom.

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#24

One of the most absurd reasons I've heard of someone cancelling their marriage was because the groom insisted on wearing a costume from his favorite superhero movie to the wedding. The bride had envisioned a traditional and elegant wedding, but the groom was adamant about walking down the aisle dressed as a fictional character. The disagreement over the costume led to such a heated argument that they eventually called off the wedding entirely.

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#25

My friend’s brother was supposed to get married in a different country. About 4 weeks before the wedding, he got COVID, and got it pretty bad: he was hospitalized. As a result, he couldn’t travel and it was starting to look like he might not make the wedding, but unclear.

The bride and/or bride’s family was miffed at this and supposedly said, if he wanted to he would.

And the whole wedding got called off.

Image credits: dwthesavage

#26

I was working in the china and crystal department/bridal registry of a department store while going to school. A few days after 9/11 some people started returning wedding gifts off of the same registry. We assumed it had been called off but it wasn’t until the bride’s angry aunt came in to return her gifts that we got the story. The groom was a pilot who had lost some friends during the attacks and then the airline laid him off. The bride then called off the wedding because she was only with him for the free flights. Aunt said that their entire family was disgusted with the bride and doing their best to support the poor groom.

#27

I was going to be a guest at a wedding and found out it was canceled 2 weeks before the date. The bride found out that the groom had gotten a significant discount on the price of the venue and she was insanely angry that anything at her wedding cost less than premium.

Keep in mind, this was her dream venue that she had chosen. She was just mad that her fiancé was “cheap”. Or something.

I was never super close to either of them, but the last I heard they never ended up getting married.

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#28

They realized after everything was already planned, invites sent out etc. That they didn't like the date. They moved it to 2025 so there wouldn't be a 4 in their wedding date.

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#29

My brother played baseball for a minor league team. Never made it pro but he made about 65k a year and he loved it good for him. His fiancee called it off about a month before the wedding was she figured he would quit is " silly sports hobby" once he was a husband and get a real job.

#30

One of my former friends called off her wedding because she was convinced the guy was either cheating or would cheat in the future. He wasn't cheating on her and hasn't cheated on the woman he ended up marrying years later. The former friend found a new man, got married, had kids. The man has cheated on her from the very start of their relationship, but she refuses to hear about it..

#31

I was at the bachelor party when the text came in she was calling off the wedding that was in one week. Because we are super nerds we decided on going to Arcade hopping around LA instead of bar hopping, I drove because I am the sober friend. She was at her Bachelorette party in Vegas at the same with like 8 of her "closest friends". We all meet in the afternoon and drove to the earliest closing arcade, fiance was texting pics of the girls at a Vegas show. He start texting pics back, it was cute. They both kept it up throughout the night.

At about 8pm she stopped, we figured they were at a show where cameras should be away and he kept sending fun pics. At 9:30 he got like 4 long a*s texts in a row while I was driving to a barcade, everyone was a couple beers in for the night as the last place was also a barcade. Turns out after group discussion with the girls she did not want to raise a "child husband" and he would have to give up video games and D&D and get adult hobbies. There was some long explanation that I feel like was being fed to her by her friends. He said they should talk when back and it was not something to figure out that night while they were out having fun. She said agree or no wedding, he said no wedding. An arcade adventure with the guys got his wedding canceled. She was big mad he would not discuss it when she got back and tried to tell him she was drunk and someone else sent the text and she didn't mean it. But man that was a wild ride that night.

#32

My grandmother broke off an engagement because the man was losing his hair. When she was older she told me she wished she stayed with that man instead of marrying my grandfather :/

#33

My mom was engaged to be married to her high school sweetheart, let's call him Bob. Bob went to her doorstep two weeks before their wedding and told her he had joined the military and wasn't ready for marriage. He flew to Germany the next day. Fast-forward 30 years and two divorces later, my mom was single with five children from two marriages. She runs into her old high school sweetheart Bob. He is also single and recently divorced. They fall in love and have been together ever since. Spoiler Alert: Bob is actually his name.

Image credits: mama89q

#34

Grooms mother had a bad dream about her teeth falling out. Mind you he was 32 and his mother had that dream when he was around 5 years old. But literally an hour before the wedding he just randomly thought about his mom talking about that dream at the breakfast table all those years ago and well, yeah. Left the bride waiting at the altar. Afterwards he tried convincing everyone (especially those of us who wanted our damn money back from him.) He was right and why. The fallout was massive! However it was really a lucky thing for the bride because she has a much better life going on with a far better husband than she would have ever had with the groom. Seriously, he's my cousin and and just been nothing but complete dumpster fire trash since.

#35

My uncle and ex aunt called off the wedding because “god told them to wait” a month before the wedding. They lived across the country so my parents had to fly with three children under 10 years old and the tickets were non-refundable. My uncle called my dad with the new date, about 6 months after the original date. Ny mom called him later and when he asked if we would be coming to the wedding she said that she spoke to god and he told her to bring her kids to Disney instead. My parents still joke about it today and my uncle divorced that wife a year or two later. Happy ending though, he married his best friend about a decade later and they are truly perfect for eachother. She really is a wonderful woman and we couldn’t be happier for them.

#36

We were waiting for the bride to come and her reasoning was that she requested and I quote "if you really want to marry me, you will arrange for me to be carried to you". yeah she never showed up.

#37

They didn't have enough donations from friends and family.

They set a date, and when they sent out the invitations, they included a line stating invitations returned without the required minimum would not get seated in the hall, another not allowed into the wedding. The bride and groom would make an appearance outside in the parking lot so they could have a chance to congratulate them, though.

They received... $0.00!

Why? Their minimum was $100. $250 if you wanted food. $500 included "cake service." For alcohol $50 got you 6 drink tickets, and I think the cheapest drink was 2 tickets, and some were 10.

Image credits: Demorant

#38

A personal favorite is American mayor cancelling his marriage because he found out his wife is his cousin.

#39

They did nothing. They picked a date, sent mails with it to invite people. And then did nothing until a week before said date. Of course they could not rent the venue they wanted nor find another one. They couldn't find caterer, dresses etc on time. But also, legally, they couldn't get married in such short notice. So, they cancelled the wedding, and will get married later. It's been 5 years. They're still not married.

Image credits: Marawal

#40

One of the most absurd reasons I've heard of someone canceling their marriage was due to a disagreement over the choice of wedding cake. The couple had planned everything meticulously, but when it came to selecting the cake flavor, they couldn't agree. It escalated into a major argument, and they eventually decided to call off the wedding altogether.

#41

I worked at a wedding venue. 10 minutes before it was time to walk down the aisle, bride calls off her wedding because the clasp for her necklace broke.

#42

Absurd as in this is a stupid reason or as in this is wild?

Silly would be the girl that broke her engagement because the groom's last name wouldn't fit well with the names she wanted for her future children.

Crazy was the one where groom decided to call it all off with his pregnant fiance after his sister went to a party with her friend and find out her soon to be in law posing as the pregnant gf of the birthday guy. When groom and boyfriend asked for paternity test groom's brother step in and said he might should need to take the test too. Their dad was the father.

#43

The parents of the fiancé disagreed about the decor for the event and so convinced her to break up with my mate.

#44

He bought her a ring with "one ring to rule them all" engraved in Elvish.

#45

Groom cancelled his wedding because he doesnt want to ride the car that would bring him to the church and wants to ride his bike instead.

#46

A friend of mine dated a guy for 8 years, they were young, it started in high school. Had the wedding all planned and mostly paid for. A month before the wedding she found him stealing her money and gambling with it. She ended up selling her dress on e-bay. Gave the ring back to his best friend, who it turns out paid for it. Then eventually married the best friend. They are still happily married 10+ years later with a cute little boy.

Edit: Everyone keeps asking: No, they did not use the original ring. I believe they sold it. She wore that ring for a while before they were supposed to get married. So there were a lot of bad feelings when he (first guy, figuratively) stabbed her in the back. No way would I, or probably any woman out there, would want to continue wearing it.

#47

My friend works for a wedding catering company and a few weekends ago a bride's family saw the groom drinking a beer during the end of the rehearsal dinner. They said it was a clear sign of his true intentions....and yes, beer was served at the wedding because people do, in fact, drink casually. They said anyone who'd drink before their wedding was likely hiding things and refused to pay for the wedding, calling the whole thing off.

#48

Bride wouldn’t sign the prenup, turns out groom was trying to scam people out of their money and failing but fancied himself a millionaire so still wanted the prenup. Totally delusional, called off the wedding 2 days before the big day, still had a party, super awkward and weird “non wedding” then shortly after the groom filed for bankruptcy, went no contact with friends and family, found out he was Bi/maybe gay and started dating men half his age. Works at Home Depot and possibly still lives with the ex fiancé… no one knows. Ps groom and fiancé were over 65 at the time of the wedding.

#49

My cousin called of her marriage because her favorite photographer was not available for the event, and her fiancée was supposed to book the photographer.

#50

The groom overheard his bride telling her maid of honor that after the wedding, she was not going to be doing stuff in the bedroom that she had been doing to "hook" the groom.

He stood at the altar and when she got down the aisle, he walked up it and out of the church.

#51

My wife has a very "free spirited" friend. She just cancelled her 3rd wedding. Each time it was because fate led her to her one true soulmate who wasn't the person she was engaged to. They are always losers with no income and a drug and alcohol problem. The first to were dudes and this third time she was engaged to a woman. She moves all over the state with each person, basically finding a new love in a new county.

#52

Groom called off the wedding **just days before** because the bride said he wouldn’t be the first person she would save from a burning building (first person was her little sister that she basically raised). He said if he’s not her ***first*** priority, why are they getting married at all?? He’s the one who asked the hypothetical question of the top 5 people she would save from a burning building,and she said he would be the second person she would save, but he freaked out when he wasn’t first.

#53

My sister called off her wedding a month or so prior to the scheduled date as she didn't want to have pizza and watch movies every Friday night the rest of their lives. Her fiancé was in charge of Friday night plans: after a long work week, he wanted to unwind with her and their dog. So he's pick up pizza, they'd rent a movie, and just chill.

In hindsight, I think there was either another guy in the picture, or she secretly wanted the attention of calling off her wedding. I've heard her ex is now married with kids. He was awesome and he dodged a bullet.

#54

I got sick on Christmas, I was in the hospital Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after. I was alone (my family lived out of state) about 85% of those 3 days. (Aside from nurses and doctors, I had no personal visitors.) He went to Christmas at his family’s house, went to the gym, went and got food, you name it, he did it. Everything except visiting me. I finally went home but was still very ill. He told me on New Years that this isn’t what he signed up for and he didn’t want to take care of me. So it ended because I got sick.

#55

Many years ago, I was living with a girlfriend and her two young kids. We decide to get married, and things are good. Two weeks before the wedding, she says she can't marry me because she realized she couldn't change me. She hands me $1000.00 and gives me a week to move out.
I guess she decided she wanted someone else, and I wasn't it.

#56

A friend a couple of years ago. They just met and rushed to marry.
The very first time they actually slept in the same place was the hotel a few days before the wedding was planned.
He canceled the wedding in the morning.
Quoting: "She snores like a sport bike with open exhaust but not tuned and bad connectors. She also backfires in her sleep".

#57

My brother called it off on the morning of the wedding.
She was incredibly controlling, faked a pregnancy and didn't want to meet any of his family even though she lived a mile away.

Her mother got her to cancel the reception hall a week before because she wanted it at her house. Loads of people dropped out, and my brother felt the pressure.

I thank the universe that he called it off, I doubt I would have seen him again. Wish he didn't do it on the day though!

#58

It's not super absurd because the rules were clearly laid out to the couple beforehand but the Catholic Church is really strict about behavior before a wedding.

They groom and his groomsmen were getting dressed at the church and one of the guys had a bottle of whiskey so they all took one shot to celebrate. Well someone from the church saw them and told the priest. Because they had consumed alcohol he called off the ceremony. The bride's father was so upset he got refunds on as much as he could and refused to pay another penny for the reschedule.

The bride was humiliated and wasn't getting any money from her parents anymore so she called the entire thing off. Gave the engagement ring back to him and moved out a couple days later.

#59

My roommate said that if her groom to be shoved cake in her face, she’d cancel the entire wedding.

#60

S woman i worked with was a mormon and he was not. his parents did not like her because of her religion. since he was not religious, they decided that they would have a nonreligion ceremony. the invitations were sent out and a couple of weeks before the wedding, it was called off. his parents convinced him not to marry her.

#61

The younger sister of the bride confessed to being in love and secretly sleeping with her sister's fiance since the start of their relationship. They were together for 3 yrs and the younger sister was 19 at the time. Her dad ran up to the altar to tackle the groom but the old man didn't stand a chance. As soon as the dad hit the ground, EVERYONE came after him. The police were called, the groom was arrested but I don't remember him being charged for anything. He claimed self defense and there was no evidence to show that he slept with the younger sister. Although he never denied anything and just disappeared after that. No one knows where he lives these days.

#62

My ex cancelled our wedding because his brother called me a s**t and a terrible person for becoming an adult creator.

I started it to pay for our sons spinal surgery in the USA. My ex was fully on board, was absolutely stoked when the money started rolling in, and even created content with me, but became utterly spineless when his brother said something about me, and didn’t stand up for me at all.

#63

I heard about a woman who died from being poisoned after licking all the super low quality envelopes her cheapskate fiancé bought for the wedding invitations. Wedding cancelled. So sad.

#64

Many of the girl's family were old, didn't drive, and couldn't go so far to the venue (in some cases it was 4hrs on public transport) or in a few cases they were busy. Instead of rescheduling or figuring out some other way of getting them there the wedding was called off and never got back on again.

#65

Not really absurd but interesting.
Anecdotal story. A woman initiated a relationship with wealthy man. Everything was fine and at the peak of the relationship they went on vacation to a resort. Where woman stole bathroom accessories from the hotel. Upon return man broke off the relationship.

#66

Cousin - they'd been together for years, had a 2 year old child already. Less than a month before the wedding she finds out he was regularly cheating on her their entire relationship.

We still made the trip out there. Unfortunately it turned into a funeral trip for an uncle who passed.

Not exactly an absurd reason to cancel. I think the fact that we planned to go to a wedding and ended up at a funeral was the absurd part.

#67

His story was that she refused to sign the pre-nup. My guess is that there’s a whole other side because one typically does not wait until that close to the wedding to finalize a pre-nup. That’s just a recipe for having it thrown out as being signed “under duress”.

Guests had flown in from all over the country. They had the rehearsal dinner the night before and everything.

He texted my husband (I can’t remember if it was before or after the dinner): If I’m in the keys tomorrow, then I didn’t get married. He was indeed in the keys the next day.