A bride who was jilted on the morning of her long-expected wedding day has spoken out and revealed how the experience made her feel.
27-year-old Kayley Stead from Portmead, Wales, was head over heels for Kallum Norton, 24, whom she was dating for nearly four years before the couple was set to tie the knot back on September 15.
While she had long been looking forward to her wedding day, Kayley was left in shock on the morning of her much-anticipated event when the groom was nowhere to be found.
According to the young lady, her partner not only failed to show up but also failed to give her the reason for not wanting to go through with the planned wedding.
Heartbroken by the turn of events and her family’s reaction, Kayley decided to go through with the reception and make the most out of the photographer, food, music, and the venue that was already paid for and waiting for them.
“I saw the groom at around 4 pm the day before the wedding and I haven’t heard from him since. We’ve tried to reach out to him, but I’ve had no response from him, no reason why,” Kayley claimed.
“I’ve had no explanation – not that I want one now, because it’s too far along the line. It was an absolute shock, I had no indication he was going to do this but seeing my girls distraught as well made me want to turn the day around.”
The 27-year-old added: “I didn’t want to remember the day as complete sadness. The whole day, we were saying it felt like an episode of Hollyoaks or EastEnders. It didn’t feel like a real life situation.
“There were so many special moments, like my wedding entrance, the sparkler walk, the first dance and punching the wedding cake – so there was still happiness in the day.”
As Kayley also revealed, she last spoke to the groom the afternoon before the wedding, whereas they agreed not to speak to each other until the ceremony.
It wasn’t until the groom’s friends, who were celebrating with the young men the night before, called the bride and told her that Kallum had left suddenly without saying anything that she realized he might have decided to walk out on their relationship.
“We woke up at quarter past six when the make-up artist arrived, had breakfast together and then started getting ready,” Kayley added.
“One of the groomsmen contacted my best friend to say the groom was gone, and the bridal party hid my phone so they could decide what was the best way to tell me and I wouldn’t find out from someone else.
“They wanted to make sure he was definitely gone before panicking me. I found my phone and saw I had a missed call from his mum. I called her back and she was crying and told me he had gone for a drive in the early hours of the morning, and he was gone.”
While the 27-year-old first thought the groom simply went out to clear his head like he sometimes did, she was in for a shock hours later when her boyfriend’s father called her and told her that his son wouldn’t be coming to his wedding.
“At that point, I was gone. I was sobbing,” Kayley says.
“Once I told my parents, the hairdresser and the videographer, that’s when I had to tell myself that it wasn’t going to happen.
“As a joke, the videographer said: ‘Why don’t you carry on, girls? You’ve spent all this money, you’re not getting it back, all your guests are there, why don’t you just go?’”
She continued: “That’s when I was like, I’m going to do it. I’d spent all this money, I’d been looking forward to the food, a dance with my dad, spending time with my family, so why not?”
While plenty of tears fell during the ceremony, Kayley and her family made the most out of the event and took dozens of photos to remember the bittersweet day.
“I don’t believe in fighting fire with fire, I’d rather just deal with the situation as best as I can and hold my head high,” Kayley concluded.
“I don’t want anybody to think I gave him a reason to leave me because I had no inclination before that he was going to do this. I had no clue, no signal. He showed me no reason as to why he would leave me on that day.”
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