Better late than never.
A young bride-to-be from the Midwest woke up next to her fiancê on the day of their planned $40,000 wedding — and decided it was time to dump him.
Alexis Saya, of Huntington, Indiana, had gone to bed the night before excited for what she said would have been a “beautiful” celebration of love.
But when the big day arrived, she found herself facing a surprising realization — she wasn’t happy.
Sharing a child with her hubby-to-be, the 24-year-old said the pair were high school sweethearts who began dating at age 16.
Both “young” and “stupid,” according to Saya, the pair intentionally became pregnant and engaged in 2020, despite the on-again, off-again nature of their tumultuous union.
It was a rocky romance that lasted from 2019 until their scrapped big day in April 2023.
“I knew that I wasn’t happy in the relationship,” she admitted. “I just always tried to make myself believe that I was because I loved him.”
Finally faced with the prospect of unhappily ever after, she took action.
“It was about 6 a.m., I said ‘I’m sorry, we can’t get married today,’” Saya told Kennedy News.
“I didn’t want to but I knew that I had to,” she continued, adding, however, “it’s best decision I’ve ever made even if it’s hard to accept. The relationship wasn’t a good relationship.”
Saya has since shared a few sordid details about the breakup with her TikTok audience of over 15,000 viewers. In one post, she refers to her child’s father as an “abuser.”
“After my daughter was born we had broken up a few times and got back together a few times,” Saya explained. “I think I had, in total, three or four rings because of how many times we’d broken up.”
“I said, ‘We’re not getting married today,’ she remembered of breaking the news to her groggy groom.
“He looked at me and was like, ‘What are you talking about?,’ and I said, ‘Do you really think this is a marriage?.”
The bolting bride’s baby daddy wasn’t the only betrothed to be blindsided by a day-of ditching.
Kayley Stead, a 27-year-old Welsh woman, was stunned and “sobbing” when her no-show groom left her standing solo at the altar during their September 2022 ceremony.
And abandoned bride Andrea Noel admittedly became “unhinged” after her groom-to-be gave her the slip that same month.
Exacting virtual revenge, the content creator blasted the dope on social media, divulging his many flaws — which included sharing a bed with his sister.
“I was so in love with him,” said Noel in a viral TikTok. “And I had convinced myself that [he] was the best I could ever get.”
After delivering the painful news, Saya and daughter Avielle fled to her mother’s house.
“I cried that whole day. It was awful,” said Saya. “I took it harder than him. You’re giving up everything you’ve known.”
“I was a stay-at-home mom at the time so I had nothing,” she added. “I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have money of my own. Everything was his.”
But Saya was most fearful of the flak she stood to receive from family and friends — namely her mother, who’d laid out the five-figures for their extravagant fête.
“When you do make decisions like that you think everyone’s going to hate you,” said Saya. “That’s how I felt. I thought I was going to lose my mom because she paid for the wedding. I was terrified.”
Almost immediately after pulling the plug on her nuptials, the runaway bride was hit with a wave of remorse.
“I remember thinking, it was about 3 p.m., ‘I’d already be married now,’” she said. “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,” Saya revealed.
“Then it came to a point that I was really happy that I did it.”
She recently shared a series of selfies online.
The post, which amassed over 144,000 views, featured one photo of her tear-stained face, which was taken on her canceled wedding day. The other was a smiley snapshot labeled “It’s now been 16 months.”
“It’s something that I’ll always have with me and it’s a trauma that I think I’ll always carry,” Saya said. “But I’ve found a way to cope and deal with it better.”
“I think it was absolutely the best decision for me and my daughter,” insisted the mom, who credits her toddler as the “biggest reason” she walked away from the toxicity.
“It came to a point where if I couldn’t do it for her, then it just isn’t fair,” Saya asserted. “This is her only childhood and I’m in charge of it.”
But her reason for ending the relationship on her wedding day remains a bit unclear.
“People think just because I say I left on my wedding day, ‘She just must not care or be able to do whatever,” Saya scoffed, clarifying that the decision to put the kibosh of her bash was, “terrifying.”
“Even my own family said, ‘Well, why did you wait?,” she said. “I genuinely went to bed that night thinking I was going to wake up and get married.”
“I would never have chosen it to be that day. I never did anything maliciously towards him,” she swore. “I never wanted to hurt him.”
Questions from confused critics notwithstanding, Saya’s virtual supporters have praised her for making the “brave” move.
She’s now beginning to find peace after the storm.
“Everytime I see him it’s a reminder of why I left,” said Saya.
“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,’” she said, acknowledging that in those fleeting moments of sorrow she’s only thinking of their “good times” together.
“Then I see him again and it just reminds me all over again all of the bad that outweighs all of the good,” Saya said. “And that’s why I left.”
Hopeful to one day marry her perfect partner and welcome more kids, Saya encourages others to follow their hearts concerning matters of the heart.
“I would tell anybody that if you even have a question of if you should leave then you should,” she said, “it might be the best decision you ever make.”
“It is the hardest thing to do to leave. I still can’t believe I did it,” Saya copped.
“There’s still times it’s hard but I have to remind myself I will find somebody that loves me and my daughter,” she said.
“I cannot wait to get married one day. I can’t wait to have more kids.”
