It's relatively normal to get cold feet before your wedding.
Whether it's because you've been building up a bundle of stress during your planning process, or because you're starting to choke on the nerves when you think about spending the rest of your life with just one person, pre-wedding jitters can make you want to pack up your things and run away.
So, what should you do if you start to feel like you're about to walk down the aisle and say hello to a lifetime with a person you're suddenly feeling iffy about?
Who should you talk to if you wake up in the morning of your wedding and wish you were single?
Last week, we dove into this topic from the groom's point of view. This week, we bring you the brides.
In case you feel any of the above insecurities, take note of what these six brides did after they got cold feet on their wedding day, and how it turned out for them after they made their decisions:
1. I ran away for a little while.
Like, two hours before the ceremony, I was feeling super strange. Everything wasn't making sense anymore when it came to the guy I was marrying and why I was getting married to him. I think I just felt a ton of stress and everyone kept saying to me, 'Are you ready? Are you ready?' I didn't know. The more people asked me that, the more I just wanted to get the hell out of there. So I did. I wasn't in my wedding dress yet, but my hair and makeup was done. I didn't tell anybody and just went for a walk around the hotel. I came back an hour later and felt like I was ready to get married and do this. I made the right decision. It's been two years of being happily married.
— Jessica G., 28
2. I called the whole thing off.
The hardest thing I ever had to do was look myself in the mirror on the day of my wedding — the wedding my parent's spent $75,000 on — and say I have to call this off. I was lying to everyone if I went through with it. I had caught my ex-fiancé cheating on me three months before. He told me he wouldn't do it again and that we should put this behind us. I tried so hard. I didn't want to embarrass myself by calling the whole thing off. But the morning before it all started, I just couldn't go through with it. So many people were shocked and upset. I still can't face a lot of family members.
— Royal K., 24
3. I told the groom.
After the ceremony, I got cold feet. It was so emotional and everyone was looking at us and expecting us to cry and laugh. We just didn't have much emotion through the ceremony. I think we were both nervous. After the ceremony, I took my husband in another room and asked him if he really wanted to do this because I thought maybe I pressured him to get married. He told me he wanted to marry me, but not in front of 250 people. The wedding was what was making our relationship awkward, not the marriage part.
— Cindie G., 29
4. I realized it was all nerves.
For a good two weeks before the wedding, I felt like I didn't want to get married anymore. I had no one to tell. Any of my bridesmaids would have judged me. All my family members would have been angry because they never liked the guy I was marrying, and now they spent a ton of money on our wedding. On the day of the wedding, I wasn't feeling right. I ended up locking myself in the bathroom and trying to get to the root of the problem. I guess I just realized that marriage is scary — nobody tells you that. Weddings are stressful. I wish someone told me that. In the end, both of those things were my problem. It was all nerves.
— Haley H., 26
5. I chatted with the Rabbi.
I couldn't stop crying before it was time to walk down the aisle. I told my bridesmaids I was just nervous, that's why. The Rabbi pulled me aside and we had a heart-to-heart. He asked me how I was feeling about the whole thing. I guess I was just honest and admitted that I was tired by the whole wedding planning process and unsure about the future. After talking to him for 20 minutes, I felt better about the whole situation and decided to get married.
— Leslie V., 29
6. I went through with it. I had no choice.
I told my wedding planner right before it was time to get married that I wasn't feeling right about all this. She looked me in the eye and said if I didn't want to get married, I didn't have to. That I could pack up my bags and just go home. She said she would even drive me back home if I wanted to go. Even though she was giving me an out, I felt like I had no choice. I felt like she was even using reverse psychology to make me go through with it. In the end, I felt like I didn't have a choice. So I just went through with the wedding. Our marriage only lasted a whopping six months.
— Veronica H., 26
