Carly Akers A heartbroken bride-to-be has told how she still had to go to her wedding even though she got dumped by her fiancé thre...
Carly Akers
A heartbroken bride-to-be has told how she still had to go to her wedding even though she got dumped by her fiancé three days before the big day.
Carly Akers, from Faversham, Kent, was excited to be marrying Shaun (not real name), whom she’d been with for nine years and has two children with, in April 2016.
But three days before the couple were due to get hitched, Shaun called off the wedding. As they’d organised a joint celebration with Carly’s brother, the devastated bride-to-be still had to go.
Having promised her two daughters, aged two and six, that they would be bridesmaids, Carly walked down the aisle clutching her bouquet in front of a room full of baffled friends and family.
Carly claims she was told Shaun cheated on her on his stag do, which he denies. But Shaun said he called off the wedding after finding out Carly was the one who was unfaithful years ago – something she denies.
Carly, 30, said: “I don’t know if I’ll ever get over being jilted at the altar. A wedding is supposed to be the best day of a woman’s life. But it was the worst day of mine.”
The mum recalled how Shaun had made her feel like the “luckiest girl alive” when he popped the question on Valentine’s Day in 2015.
When the couple told Carly’s brother and his fiancée they were getting married, they decided to have a double wedding and booked the date for April 29, 2016.
“I launched into full wedding planning mode,” said Carly. “We chose a hotel, separate wedding cakes and even booked to go on honeymoon together in Tenerife.
“I bought my dress and my daughter chose dresses for her and her sister.
“I also had two friends as bridesmaids who both bought aqua green dresses to wear.”
“We sent 100 invites out to guests for the ceremony and a further 100 for the evening do.”
A week before the wedding, Carly travelled to Mallorca with three friends on her hen do, while Shaun went to Bournemouth on his stag with 20 mates – including her brother.
But when she returned to the UK, she told how a friend whose boyfriend had been on the stag said there were rumours Shaun had strayed.
When she confronted him, on April 26, she told how Shaun called off the wedding and stormed out, refusing to talk about it.
“Two days before the big day, Shaun wasn’t talking to me,” Carly said. “On Friday morning, the day of our wedding, I got the keys to the bridal suite and laid my white dress out on the bed.
“I thought Shaun would turn up. I called him and told him me and the girls were all dressed up ready.
“But his voice was cold as he said he’d told me the wedding was off and he hung up.
“I broke down in tears as I looked out of the window. Friends and family were arriving all dressed up ready for the double wedding.”
Carly had been with Shaun for nine years before he popped the question on Valentine’s Day in 2015
Carly admitted that friends and family thought she was joking when she went downstairs and tearfully told them it was off.
She then returned upstairs and broke the heartbreaking news to her daughters.
“I told them Mummy and Daddy weren’t getting married anymore – but that didn’t mean we couldn’t go to the wedding,” she said.
“It was my my brother’s big day too.”
Carly couldn’t bring herself to wear her dress so she borrowed one of her bridesmaids’, who’d brought a spare outfit.
She recalled: “As the wedding march began I walked down the aisle holding my bouquet with the girls at my side.
“Only as the bride said ‘I do’, my eldest daughter burst into tears and shouted, ‘That should be my mummy and daddy!’
“We didn’t pose for the official wedding photos and I couldn’t face cutting into our wedding cake.
“But I forced myself to sit down with the guests and enjoy the wedding breakfast. We’d paid for this, the girls were looking forward to it – I wasn’t going to let good food go to waste.
“That night I slept in the bridal suite with a girlfriend, and a few days later we flew out on the honeymoon.
“As she said, I thought I might as well enjoy the holiday.
“Now I’m determined to keep strong. My wedding dreams may have been ruined but I won’t let what happened ruin my life.”
Shaun said: “It was a joint wedding and she didn’t have to go to the wedding.
“Three days before I decided I didn’t want to marry her, and I told guests the wedding was off.”
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Via The Sun
