1. IT’S AN EMPTY HOLE IN MY BODY THAT FEELS BOTTOMLESS

“The person I love most in the entire world has left me. Gone. Vanished. And the real kicker here folks—he left by choice. You all know this and yet you still say it’s ‘his loss.” As if that is supposed to make me feel better, console me; make me the ‘bigger person.’ It does none of the above because the truth of the matter is: I have experienced a loss….I cried so much for the first few weeks that I thought I would get dehydrated from all the water loss. I cried at any moment I could get alone, and around people with whom I felt comfortable….When I see other couples holding hands, when I turn on sports, when I hear his name, when I dream of his touch, when I get another invitation to a fucking wedding, I am jolted with a pain that knocks me off my feet for a bit. It’s an empty hole in my body that feels bottomless some days, and will never be filled.”

—Megan

2. ‘I DON’T LOVE YOU ANYMORE’ IS ALL HE TOLD ME

“Not so long ago, I had my whole life planned out; wedding invites were mailed, future kids’ names were picked out. I even had monogrammed hand towels with my new last name on them. My fiancé at the time had been getting kind of distant, but I assumed it was just wedding jitters. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. ‘I don’t love you anymore’ is all he told me—and just like that my entire world came crashing down. I would find out later my best friend and would-be bridesmaid who needed a place to stay and was living with us was sleeping with him. They’re now publicly together, and I don’t talk to either of them.”

—Chelsey

3. HEARTBROKEN, HUMILATED, DEVASTATED

“I was an hour away from the wedding I’d always dreamed of—on a beach in Hawaii—with the man who was my best friend….He came into the room and said we needed to talk alone. He was crying. I assumed he was letting the emotion of the day get to him. Then he said it. ‘I don’t think I can do this.’ I couldn’t understand. I asked: ‘Are you joking?’ He shook his head. I stood there—with the veil already in my hair. This man who was supposed to be the love of my life was telling me he was calling off the wedding less than an hour before we were due on the beach. I didn’t even ask why. I told him to leave. That hotel room suddenly felt so small….While I’d been out that morning, he had taken all his clothes and passport. He’d actually left me. I was heartbroken. Humiliated, devastated.

—Cyndi

4. I WAS AS LOW AS A PERSON COULD GET

“It’s the happiest day of your life. And then, in a moment, it’s the worst day of your life. Just like that…He said, ‘I can’t do it.’…You know that feeling you get when you get bad news?…I was as low as a person could get….I can remember lying on that couch one day and thinking, you know what, how in the world did I get here? How did I get here?”

—Marilyn

5. FIVE WORDS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER: ‘I JUST CAN’T DO IT’

“We were there, and everybody was happy and excited, and he was late. I didn’t think anything about it at first because he was kind of always late. When he finally came in, I didn’t see him at first. His sister came into the sanctuary, where we all were, and said that he needed to see me. I knew. I knew something was wrong. I went back into the priest’s office, and [he] looked horrible. It was kind of surreal, because I saw him in a suit, like he was getting ready to go through with the rehearsal, yet the look on his face didn’t correspond with being in the suit. So I could see. I knew. I just knew before he said a word that the wedding wasn’t going to happen. And then he said the five words that changed my life forever. ‘I just can’t do it.’…I think anybody who has been through a shock like that, you know how you feel. Your body is just really numb.”

—Kimberley

6. I WAS IN COMPLETE SHOCK

“Five days before the wedding the unexpected happened. My fiancé and I sat down and he told me that he was not in love with me, and did not want to marry me, or spend the rest of his life with me. I was in complete shock and had no idea what to think or do. I was numb. The next couple days were a blur of calling guests, canceling services, and figuring out our living arrangements.”

—Shelby

7. I WAS DEVASTATED AND HUMILIATED BEYOND BELIEF

“While guests are arriving to the church they find the church locked and no one inside. Out from nowhere the groundskeeper appears and asked why the guests are there? They responded they were there for a wedding. The groundskeeper informs them no wedding was set to take place. After many phone calls back and forth between my guests, the groundskeeper, and my potential groom it was discovered that the groom NEVER asked his pastor to officiate our wedding, nor did he book the church for the wedding. By that time it seemed to me, and others, that he simply DID NOT want to get married….I was devastated and humiliated beyond belief that I could have been left at the altar like that.”

—Name Withheld

8. THE WORST REJECTION A GIRL CAN FACE

“I was LEFT AT THE ALTAR!!! How does a girl get over the worst rejection a girl can face? So much rejection you feel like you just can’t handle it!! I mainly guess I want to give that sorry piece of YOU KNOW WHAT a piece of my mind and tell him how I feel. He won’t even speak to me and even went on ‘our honeymoon. ’ We were supposed to go together!!!!! I feel so torn and one day I am angry and I hate him but then night creeps in and ALL I can think about his him….The fun things we did together. All those times we laughed and made love, I mean how can he just throw it all away like that :( doesn’t he care about me at all?”

—Name Withheld

9. IT DAWNED ON ME I’D BEEN STOOD UP ON MY WEDDING DAY

“When I put on my beautiful white dress on my wedding day I felt like a million dollars. I couldn’t wait to become [his] wife. When I arrived at the register office and he wasn’t there I tried to make light of the situation by joking I was the one that should be late. But as the minutes turned to hours it dawned on me I’d been stood up on my wedding day. I was devastated….I’m still reeling from being jilted on my wedding day by a groom with an alter-ego but I’m glad to be rid of the rat.”

—Katiejayne

10. THE BAD THING IS, WE HAVE A BABY

“My fiancé left me at the altar…the wedding was planned, we had booked everything, had my dress, bridesmaids, dresses, etc., I mean EVERYTHING was prepared. I had given invitations to my family and all. Well, out of nowhere he text me and said he didn’t care if I moved on to someone else because he didn’t want to marry me. I asked him what I did wrong and I asked for an explanation and he wouldn’t tell me anything. He said that I am perfect for him but he doesn’t want to marry me. He played head games with me telling me that he loved me and a bunch of other stuff…but then turned around and said he wasn’t marrying me and wasn’t going to be with me. The bad thing is, we have a baby. My heart is so broken. My chest has literally been hurting all day.”

—Name Withheld

Stacey Becker was dumped right before her wedding day–find out why it was the best thing that ever happened to her in her new book Knot the One.