Who says you need a groom to get married ?
One woman decided to go through with her wedding anyway after her groom-to-be stood her up at the altar .
Since the wedding cost her entire life savings, she felt it was wrong to let everything go to waste. What ensued was the party of the century — and an empowering message to women everywhere.
When Kayley Stead, 27, saw her groom the day before the wedding, she had no idea that he was about to disappear.
“The groom and I had already agreed not to speak the night before the wedding anyway, so I didn’t know what was happening on his end,” she told Birmingham Live.
“I didn’t have a clue, I was in complete, unknown bliss.”
Kayley said: “We woke up at quarter past six in the morning when the make-up artist arrived.”I’ve had no explanation, not that I want one now, because it’s too far along the line.”
It wasn’t until she started getting ready that word spread that the groom was MIA.
“One of the groomsmen contacted my best friend to say the groom was gone,” she explained. “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.”
Much like when Chandler was missing from his wedding to Monica on ‘Friends,’ no one wanted to panic the bride.
But then she found her phone and heard from the groom’s mother. “I called her back and she was crying.”
The mother explained that he had gone for a drive early in the morning and was still gone.
At that point, it was the bride reassuring everyone else. She explained that he often liked to go for a walk or a drive to clear his head.
But by 11 a.m., she heard from the groom’s father that he wasn’t going to attend.
“At that point, I was gone. I was sobbing. 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,” Kayley recalled .
As a joke, the videographer said, “Why don’t you carry on, you’ve spent all this money, you’re not getting it back, all your guests are there, why not?'”
Instead of brushing it off, the idea became a beautiful reality with Kayley going through with the wedding.
When she walked down the aisle with no groom in sight, everyone started cheering and hugging her.
After this, the photographer took pictures of her alone in the garden. Then, they did family and bridal party images. She even did a speech, thanking everyone for staying in an awkward situation.
“Everybody kept saying sorry to me, but I wanted that to stop. They hadn’t chosen that path, they’d chosen to stay, so let’s celebrate that.”
The bride didn’t let the absence of her groom stop her from experiencing a wedding’s most special moments.
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For instance, she had her father-daughter dance with her 71-year-old father.
She enjoyed the food she spent her life savings on. She even danced her first dance with the groomsmen and her brothers. No missing groom was going to steal her sparkle!
Of course, Kayley does wonder why her groom didn’t show.
“I had no clue, no signal. He showed me no reason as to why he would leave me on that day,” she said. Groom or not, we’re so happy she got to celebrate herself!
H/T: Birmingham Mail
