Now, some brides, apparently, enjoy having cake rubbed in their faces. (Or perhaps, more accurately, they tolerate it?) This bride was distraught. She ran out of her wedding reception, called an Uber, climbed in, and drove away.
“This was supposed to be the happiest day of our lives,” she wrote on Reddit, “and he embarrassed me in front of everyone for some prank that he knew I hated.”
Despite pressure from the groom and her family, she doesn’t intend to return home.
Is it ideal to leave your marriage on your wedding day? Definitely not (although the Uber driver has an interesting story to tell at parties). Was it the right decision in this case? Absolutely. The groom ignored his wife’s boundaries and humiliated her in public. He destroyed her day, her dress, and – most significantly – her trust. The only reason to stay would have been to keep up appearances, and that is a very poor reason to stay married.
We need to normalise leaving relationships in which we are disrespected (and abnormalise smashing cake in a woman’s face). Yes, marriage can be challenging at times, and yes, all relationships involve compromise. But at the barest minimum, a marriage is supposed to be respectful and safe. If it is not, it is time to go, no matter how much time has elapsed since the wedding.
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It can be incredibly difficult to leave a long-term partner, particularly for women. It would have been far easier for the bride to just plaster on a smile, push down her distress, and do what was expected of her on the day. After all, there is intense cultural pressure on us all to couple up, and being single as a female is severely stigmatised. Divorce is considered by many to be a failure, and cancelling a wedding can be embarrassing in the extreme.