Some relationships are just not meant to be. These engaged couples called it quits before they committed their lives to one another. While some reasons for the breakup make sense, most of them are a little ridiculous.
Seeing That Really Messed Him Up!
“Two weeks before our special day, after five years together, I got home from work early to find her with some dude in our bed. Well, my bed. I bought it. I was so madly in love with her. And then out of nowhere, she’s bare naked, with some dirty-looking hippie dude.
Instead of murdering both of them on the spot, I walked away. Found out by text the next day that she was leaving to be with that other guy, whoever he was.
That sent me into a spiral of being blacked out around the clock and a suicide attempt. And of course, it was so much fun having to explain to my parents, family, and friends why they should return their crappy Sears gifts and they were now free to make some plans for that weekend.
Didn’t even get the ring back.”
His Crazy Epiphany?
“He went off camping with his brothers and decided then our city was just too much city for him and a life of going to work and coming home was just too mundane.
We were closing on our house (which I got since I had put down my entire savings on the deposit) in three days and getting married in two weeks. That was when he had his ‘epiphany’ that the life we were going to have just wasn’t good enough. He already cheated on me and we had moved on from that, so to lose it all again wounded me.
Jokes on him. He still has a job here in this city he hates. I have a beautiful house and he’s living with his brother in a college campus apartment.”
The Most Immature Reasons To Break Up
VGstockstudio/Shutterstock
“Part of our engagement was long distance. I moved for my job before he did.
He came to visit me and broke it off at the end of the visit. I was heartbroken and wanted to know why and kept asking.
Eventually, he sent an email with a long list of trivial reasons including that I didn’t believe in Santa as a kid and sometimes I wore jeans to bed (I forgot the others). In reality, he met someone new and his mom and best friend never liked me.
Eventually, he married the someone new and I married someone who also didn’t believe in Santa as a kid. I don’t still wear jeans to bed.”
He Just Wasn’t The Right Guy For Her
Federico Marsicano/Shutterstock
“Not me, but my cousin.
She called off her wedding two weeks before the big day. She attended another cousin’s wedding and didn’t see herself feeling the same way.
The man she was supposed to marry was uneducated and had been out of work with no desire to get a new job for months. He was a bit aloof, and while we liked him enough, it just never seemed right. She’s such a positive and warm person to be around, and he never was that. She gave him the ring back, and they went their separate ways, and as far as I know, they have had no contact since. It seemed forced, she was in her late-20s and wanted a family, and had never dated seriously really in all her days. I think this guy and maybe one other, were her only boyfriends in her lifetime.
She met a different guy a few months afterward. He was recently divorced after his marriage fell apart when his wife became emotionally abusive. She wanted to wait, to heal a bit more, and politely turned him down. He was persistent, to say the least, and they began to hang out more and eventually started dating. They got married in February 2015 on the beach in Florida with 50 guests. It was a great weekend, and they’re happy together. They had their first child two months ago.”
Nothing Seemed To Be Working Out For Them
“I was with my ex for three years before we got engaged. While we were engaged, we had our son (unplanned) and it pushed back plans for the wedding because of money troubles.
Her father then was diagnosed with terminal cancer and she started to withdraw from me after finding out the news. I tried to be supportive and help her through it, but we started arguing about small things constantly. Molehills started to become mountains, and we started to fall apart.
Not long after our four year anniversary, she got the news her father had passed away – on Valentine’s day, no less.
In our fifth year of being together and after a fairly large argument, I left work and grabbed a bottle and some flowers to try to signify a ‘new beginning’ for us, but when I got home she had taken my son and all his things, and moved all of her belongings out of the house. She left the engagement ring on the bed for me to find.
I never did get an explanation, only that she didn’t feel the love between us anymore. I never felt that way, but perhaps I missed something that she was trying to tell me. Who knows.
Now I see my son a few days a week, have a friendly relationship with my ex, and have moved on as best I can.
I still love her. A part of me always will, but I’m certain we will never reconnect as much as I would love to try again. Sometimes you just have to accept what happened and push on.”
The Phone Call She Wasn’t Expecting
“I bought a house and a few weeks from the wedding, he called me and said he couldn’t do it as he drove out of town. My family had paid for everything, including his wedding suit.
He has gone camping with his brothers the week before, did illegal substances, had a moment of spiritual awakening and then say he didn’t want to be tied down. He wasn’t happy anymore and I gave him panic attacks (even though I had put down the down payment on the house and done all the mortgage paperwork on my own). This was the guy who cheated on me and contributed to my depression and anxiety. He was a real peach.”
Working With Different Cultural Values
Lopolo/Shutterstock
“My sister was getting married to a Congolese guy. However, as the wedding drew closer he began to change and became more and more controlling, probably thinking he didn’t need to put on a mask anymore. It was becoming clear that he was basically still Congolese, with the cultural values common in that part of the world, and that their relationship would not be one of the equals.
The wedding was called off 10 days before it was supposed to take place.
To this day, he and his family believe that my sister was ‘forbidden’ from marrying him by my parents. They just can’t understand why she wouldn’t want to live with an abusive idiot, and that my parents, unlike Congolese parents, would never try to forbid their kids from marrying whomever they wanted.”
Affair With A Coworker?
antoniodiaz/Shutterstock
“We were together for nine years and were set to get married on our 10 year anniversary. He started hanging out at work a lot more than normal. He started to develop a friendship with a female coworker. I’ve had platonic male friends my entire life, so no big deal. But one time my best friend and I were playfully teasing that this female friend was his girlfriend, and he got mad, almost instantly.
After that, I knew they were together, but didn’t want to admit it. I went on a weekend beach vacation with my best friend, and he went camping with her and a gay couple. I’m sure they slept together that weekend if they already hadn’t.
About a month later, he went to a work event and purposefully made it difficult for me to attend, to the point of saying, ‘I don’t want you to go.’ She posted a status on Facebook and tagged him in it and I went ballistic. I called him and demanded he come home. We talked, and he admitted that he’s in love with her and doesn’t want to be with me anymore… eight months before the wedding.”
Could’ve Been A Big Mistake!
Sean Pavon/Shutterstock
“I got engaged fairly young and thought it was what I wanted. She was cool and our intimate life was good. We dated and lived together a while when I popped the question. I bought a Harly Davison motorcycle around that same time. A year into the engagement, I started to stray. I dated a couple chicks off and on and slept with strangers. About a month or so before the wedding, I talked to my stepfather and said, ‘What am I doing?’ I decided I didn’t want to get married and called it off. There was a lot of crying and hatred from her.
On the plus side, the two girls I was interested in/dating a little, well I wound up marrying one of them. I have two great daughters and my wife is cool.”
An Ironic Plot Twist
“He cheated on me the entire time we were engaged, but being young and dumb, I looked the other way.
Finally, one weekend he wanted to stay with his friends for a ‘man getaway,’ and on one of those nights he texted me and broke it off. Yes, I said texted.
He came back to our apartment four days later, and I don’t remember all the details, but he moved some of his things. I found out one of the girls he was cheating on me with had just gotten an apartment in the same complex as me. He moved in with her and their apartment kitchen window faced my kitchen window. It was great.
Eventually, his best friend laid it all out and told me how long this had been going on, and with how many girls; heartbreaking honestly. His best friend and I became good friends after this and one night he admitted that he had feelings for me the moment we met and knew my ex would leave me at some point because I was the third girl he had done this to.
Long story short, my ex-fiance married the girl he cheated on me with and she left him for a woman. I’ve been with his best friends for seven years, and we’re getting married next spring. I couldn’t have picked a better person.”
Too Many Red Flags!
Axel Bueckert/Shutterstock
“I noticed a few signs, such as the anger issues before I popped the question, but ignored them.
So I waited six years for it to change and hopefully get better all the while trying everything I could to help.
Then my dad died.
Nothing hits you harder than knowing I didn’t just waste my time, but I wasted his time too. He’ll never see his grandkids or be at my wedding or be there for all the things he should have been had I manned up and moved on when I knew things weren’t going to work like he told me years ago.
It’s my biggest regret in life, but something I won’t make again. I broke it off and am much happier now and looking for that special someone.”
“I Was A Victim About To Marry Her Abuser”
“I called off my wedding three months before it happened. Why? I was a 17-year-old about to marry a 26-year-old man that had been dating me for three years. I was a victim about to marry her abuser.
The engagement ring, which I did eventually find out was fake was to buy my consent/silence/whatever as he slept with everything that moved. He was a drinker, a narcissist, and a creeper. Seriously, I wasn’t a 14-year old that looked like an 18-year-old. I was a 14-year old that looked like a 12-year-old.
I loved him because I thought he was saving me from my horrid situation with my family. My mom and I moved in with her boyfriend, only to find out too late that he was an abuser. He’d take me away from it, even if it was just for a little while.
I was so messed up. I ended up living in a boarding house when things finally broke in my abusive household because, of course, I was 17 and he didn’t want me to move in until I turned 18. I ended up pregnant and had a violent end to my pregnancy that resulted in my daughter’s stillbirth.
Despite this all, I loved him. But he started picking at my appearance. I was ‘gaining too much weight,’ even though I was at a healthy weight for my age/height. I had gotten more of a feminine figure, so we talked about dieting. I stopped eating. I drank water when I’d get hungry. Everything had to be low fat/no fat, low calorie/no calorie, and sugar-free. It worked. I went from ‘healthy’ to ‘underweight.’ What made me realize that I wanted out was a box of chicken wings.
I ended up moving back in with my mother after she was able to escape her ex. We lived near an indoor flea market/farmer’s market that had the most amazing food vendors. I love food, and this diet was killing me. I was miserable. So, I decided to have a cheat day, and I went and ordered a box of hot wings from the chicken place in the farmer’s market. As I sat down with my favorite movie, eating my favorite food, I realized that the extreme dieting would always be my life. I also realized that he wanted me to be so unhealthy wasn’t right. I was tired all the time, cold all the time, hungry all the time. I decided, while happily munching on that box of wings that I was done.
I called him and told him that I was done. It took me another three years to truly be done, but the expensive wedding was done and over. He never got any deposits back. It took me almost a decade to realize that he wanted me to look like a 14-year-old forever. I was always dismissive about the age difference, citing that I was mature for my age. I now realize it didn’t matter. I was a child.”
Engaged For Far Too Long!
“He was a pilot in the Air Force and doing a bunch of training. He proposed before he left for officer training. Since we weren’t married, I couldn’t go with him, and he wanted to wait to live together until marriage.
We set the first wedding date for Christmas weekend of that year, and he asked to postpone it. We set the next date for Thanksgiving weekend of the following year while he would be in pilot school for a year and a half. He asked to postpone that one too, not because of training, but because he ‘wasn’t ready to get married yet.’ We set the third wedding date for after his training ended. Three months before the wedding (my dress was bought, my bridesmaids’ dresses were bought, stuff was booked, save the dates were sent, etc.), he asks to push it back again.
He wanted to just stay engaged, but he was going to be moving to the next base in a few months and would be deploying regularly. In order to stay together without being married and see him, I would have had to drop everything, call out of work, and drive six hours whenever he would happen to be stateside for a few days between missions. It would have been impossible. We had been together for five years at this point, and I figured if he still ‘wasn’t ready’ to marry me by then, he never would be, so I gave him the ring back. I had hoped it would scare him and that he would not want to lose me but he didn’t care much. When we broke up, I was visiting him halfway across the country and had two days left until my flight home. It sucked. He didn’t tell anyone what happened, any of our friends who asked he would just ghost. He didn’t cancel the DJ or anything like that; he made me do everything. I have never had anyone want to buy my old dress so we’re stuck with that too.
Two years later, he was engaged to a 17-year-old he met through his church at his next base. Bullet dodged.
All these years later I realized he never loved me. He loved the attention, love, and support I gave him. He needed a constant ego strike, and I gave it to him.”
Her Mother Got In The Way
“I have cyclothymia, so I get overwhelmed when it comes to big stuff and can get emotional, and yet my mom constantly questioned every choice I made. Not a joke. My dress, the place, my flowers, my choice of shoes – all of it was not ‘traditional’ or to her liking. We had to do ‘this’ or ‘that.’ ‘You need to have a sweetheart table,’ and ‘Don’t worry about if you like the food being served, you won’t get to eat any of it,’ and my favorite, ‘You won’t get to dance much.’
I didn’t feel like I had the support of my fiance. We weren’t sleeping together, and he refused to hold me or give me the human contact I needed to calm down. I felt like I was living with a stranger. I halfheartedly tried hanging myself in my bathroom because I was the most miserable I’d ever been, and his reaction was to make me go to a dinner party at a former co-worker’s house. I was overwhelmed, my fiance was unemployed, and I was fighting my mother every day on the dumbest things. I found out right before the ceremony she’d asked the DJ to speed up our entrance song because she couldn’t walk half of the time, to Vitamin String Quartet’s cover of ‘Starlight.’ She didn’t even ask me. The song was unrecognizable. I felt like I was doing all of this alone.
Everyone tried to tell me it was my illness causing my issues and that everything would be JUST FINE once we got through the day. Looking back, I think this event showed me that I needed to give my mom less control in my life, and my fiance wasn’t able to help me in the moments I needed him the most. I went through with the ceremony but didn’t sign the certificate. My fiance promised we’d be intimate on our wedding night, but he fell asleep while wasted and I cried while watching ‘Forensic Files.’ I don’t blame him these days. I was stable the years we’d been dating, so my breakdown was new.
My relationship with my mom has not fully recovered. We used to be close, but I can go weeks at a time not talking to her. I don’t introduce boyfriends to her anymore, and I’m much more willing to tell her she’s overstepping boundaries. This has been a years-long emotional process for me, but I think all of this needed to happen for me to grow up.”
Dealing With Deployment
“I proposed to my girl and we set a date for a couple of years later. I got deployment orders to Iraq, so we decided to do a simple courthouse wedding with just the parents and have a real ceremony when I got home a year later.
The deployment was a living nightmare.
We fought every time we communicated. We were on the verge of divorce, so we decided we should cancel the ceremony. Took a financial hit on the deposits and wasted invitations that never got mailed.
When I got home, we went through couples counseling and fixed our marriage, but we never ended up doing the ceremony. It has been seven years now, and we are better than we ever have been. We have talked about doing a thing for our 10 years, but I have my reservations.”