A bride who left her husband-to-be on their £32,000 wedding day has recalled the moment she 'knew she had to' call off their big day.
Alexis Saya, 23, was on the verge of marrying her ex-partner but left on the morning of their wedding in Indiana, US on 16 April 2023.
The former couple - who share a four-year-old child - were forced to abandon their expensive celebrations, which Alexis' mum paid for.
Over on TikTok, the student nurse went and shared a photo of their wedding day, captioned: "The day I left my fiance on our wedding day."
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Despite the heartbreak, Alexis said it was the 'best decision' she made.
"I don't think that I've genuinely ever done anything harder. I felt like it was a decision I had just made but almost I didn't have a say in it. I didn't have control over it," Alexis said.
"It was about 6.00am. I said 'I'm sorry, we can't get married today'. He kind of looked at me and went back to sleep.
"I went into another room and called my mum. My sister was on the phone with other family telling them that I wasn't going to go through with it.
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"I wanted him to go grab our daughter so that I could leave because I didn't really want to be there when everyone woke up and realised that I wasn't going to get married.
"I woke him up again and said 'I need you to go get her'. He was super confused and I said 'we're not getting married today'."
The mum-of-one decided to take daughter straight to her mum's house before moving back into her old apartment.
But leaving the relationship was tough because the couple first met when they were 16, before getting engaged in 2020.
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"I was a stay-at-home mum at the time so I had nothing. I didn't have a job, I didn't have money of my own. Everything was his," she continued.
"Right after I had wished that I'd gone through with it. I remember thinking, it was about 3.00pm, 'I'd already be married now'. I got into a really bad place after the wedding.
"I just couldn't believe that I'd actually made the decision. I regretted it so badly for probably a while. Then it came to a point that I was really happy that I did it."
Although Alexis said she loved her former partner, she went through a phase of 'pretending' she was happy.
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With all the challenges ahead, the American still believes it was 'absolutely the best decision for me and my daughter.'
"[My daughter] was probably the biggest reason I left. It came to a point where if I couldn't do it for her, then it just isn't fair. This is her only childhood and I'm in charge of it. That's the best decision I've ever made even if it's hard to accept," she added.
"Every time I see him it's a reminder of why I left. I always wonder sometimes when it's late at night and I'm in bed and I'm lonely and I'm just like 'oh I wish I just had my family back'.
"I think of only the good times and then I see him again and it just reminds me all over again all of the bad that outweighs all of the good. And that's why I left."
Topics: Weddings, US News, Sex and Relationships
Anish Vij