#25. The Countdown
But let's get to know the full story, way before the woman received these texts. A couple of weeks before the ceremony, Casey was already enjoying the countdown to her wedding day, together with all of her closest friends and family. She was anxious, hoping that her wedding would turn out to be perfect.
On the days immediately before the wedding, the soon-to-be bride and her friends spent their time in a really fancy hotel room, chosen just for the pre-wedding catch-up. Casey wanted to open up to her friends about how she was feeling. It was quite a special moment for her since she logically expected these to be her last days as a single woman.
#24. A Long-lasting Relationship
Casey and Alex had been boyfriend and girlfriend for quite a while. They were together for six years until they decided to get engaged. According to Casey, on their very same day that they met, she realized that he was "The One".
Apart from that, as the years went by, their families had become acquainted too. And luckily, she got along really well with her in-laws! So on the week before the wedding, everything was in place for what she thought would be the happiest day of her life. But her life was about to take some unexpected turns.
#23. The Phone Rings
Two days before the wedding, while she was gathered with her friends in that posh hotel room, her phone buzzed, announcing that she had received a message. Throughout the whole week, she had constantly received messages from different friends and family members who wanted to congratulate her and wish her luck for her happy day.
So when she grabbed the phone, she was naturally expecting it to be yet another person wishing her the best. As one of the bridesmaids remarked, with a glass in hand, she jokingly danced her way across the room to pick up her phone and read the message out loud.
#22. Infidelity
But it turns out that as soon as she read the message, she froze. She began crying out of sorrow and disbelief. According to the message, her soon-to-be husband Alex had not been an honest and committed fiancé. At first, she chose not to believe it, but it turns out that the message came with undeniable proof.
The messages revealed that Alex had been seeing another woman for some time, and there were copies of some of the X-rated messages that he had exchanged with her. So the proof was clear: it was there, in unpleasant detail.
#21. The Extent Of The Betrayal
Casey lay speechless and heartbroken. Meanwhile, her friends were all outraged, as she showed them the screenshots of the conversations between Alex and this other girl. One of her friends screamed out: "I wouldn't marry him. Will you?".
Casey didn't know what to answer. She picked up her phone again, and scanned all of the screenshots that she had received, but with further detail. She was shocked at becoming aware of the extent of Alex's behavior. Because it hadn't been a one-time thing: many of the messages ranged from several months back up to just a few days ago. So she couldn't just let it go and pretend nothing had happened.
#20. Heartbroken
Of course, Casey's first reaction was to disbelieve everything she was reading. However, the last of the screenshots not only contained text messages but also pictures. Therefore, there was no way of denying the truth behind those conversations.
Casey cried desperately as she read the last messages out loud to her friends. "Every word was like a dagger in my heart", Casey told the writer Danielle Colley, who told the story on Whimnin November 2018.
#19. Reasons Behind Infidelity
Among the thousands of things that rushed through her head, Casey kept asking herself what had been the reason behind his fiancé's infidelity. When Casey's story was later published on Whimn, the writer included a video of Dr. Rowan Burckhardt in which he explains the main reasons why people are unfaithful.
According to Burckhardt, there are two main reasons why people are unfaithful. One of them is when someone sees a problem in their relationship, leading them to start seeing someone else. The second reason is failing to have romantic feelings towards their partner. And according to his hypothesis, when people don't talk about these issues, “attraction for a person outside the relationship becomes all the greater." But are these really the only possible reasons? Casey honestly felt that neither of these two situations was the case.
#18. What To Do With The Wedding?
But no matter how confused she felt, one thing was for sure: she had to decide whether to cancel her wedding or whether to go on with it. As one can imagine, she couldn't get any sleep the whole night thinking about this. She kept going over the pros and cons of canceling the wedding in her head.
One of the things that troubled her the most was that many of the guests had traveled from other cities in order to attend the wedding, so canceling it would be a major problem. Besides, even though this wasn't the most important part of the issue, the fact was that the wedding funds had already been spent and that if she were to cancel the wedding, she wouldn't get any of that money back. Taking these factors into account, she decided to get married anyways... but at the same time, she decided to seek revenge in some possible way.
#17. Seeking Revenge
So the day of the wedding finally came, and Casey was shaking with nerves. But this was no ordinary wedding because the bride wasn't concentrating on the idea of spending her life happily ever after with his soon-to-be groom. On the very contrary, she couldn't stop thinking about how to pay Alex back for the hurt he had inflicted.
The truth is that she wanted her revenge to be as public as possible. The way she thought it, she had the chance of embarrassing him in front of an entire crowd. As she told Whimn: "This was supposed to be the happiest day of my life. Instead, I knew it was the end of my dream relationship, and everyone was going to witness it".
#16. Walking Down The Aisle
During an interview several months after her wedding, Casey confessed that while she was walking down the aisle her dress felt like a "costume" since all she could think about was the dramatic scene that was about to follow. In other words, the ceremony was pretty much a farce, because revenge was the only thing that she truly had in mind.
During one of the many interviews that she gave, she opened up and talked about what she was feeling in the exact moment when she was walking down the altar: "I stood at the front of the room in my wedding dress and looked out at the excited faces of our friends and family. My hands were shaking, but not nearly as much as my insides quivered", she told Whimn.
#15. The Wedding Is Off!
Once she reached her anxious groom, she knew that she was supposed to recite her vows. However, she had no intention of doing so. Instead, she kicked off a shocking speech by announcing there would be “no wedding today”, leaving everybody startled.
And after such an unexpected announcement, she decided to read something else. You probably know what she read out loud, don't you? That's right! She took out her phone and recited the incriminating texts out loud for everyone to hear.
#14. Revealing The Secret Messages
It's needless to say that everyone lay in bewilderment while Casey started reading the text messages out loud. Some of the guests, like Alex's parents, were appalled since they found it inappropriate. But careless about what other people would have to say, she began revealing the embarrassing details about Alex and the mystery woman's relationship.
Naturally, many messages contained explicit sexual references and went into quite a lot of detail. Too much detail, to be honest. Some of them were even humiliating, such as the one that said: "I wish my GF had half the skills you do".
#13. The Humiliation
Not all messages contained sexual references, though. Some of them were more toned down, to put it some way. For instance, in one of them, Alex told the woman: "I miss you so much. I can’t stop thinking about L, S, F’ing you. I’ve never had this kind of connection before". It really seemed like Alex was into this woman!
Let's be honest: Casey decided to reveal way too much information. However, she couldn't care less about what the guests would think. She was just focusing on humiliating Alex the way that he had humiliated her. And she was convinced that this was the most strategic and effective way of carrying out her goal. Would you have done the same?
#12. The Groom's Reaction
I know what you're all wondering. How on earth did Alex react? It appears to be that as soon as his secret was leaked and as Casey read the messages out loud, he ran away. It was just too much for him to take. He hurriedly left the church while both of their families stared at him, shocked.
After Alex fled, it was clear that there wasn't going to be any wedding. Alone at the altar, Casey had the final word, and you won't believe what she said! She told the guests that if they still were in the mood, she was willing to celebrate anyway.
#11. The Show Must Go On
Evidently, Casey took Queen's words too seriously: the show must go on, and at any costs! She grabbed the microphone and said to the audience: “I love all of you and as horrible as this is, I’m glad you all are here. There will not be a wedding reception today, but instead, there will be a celebration of honesty, finding true love and following your heart even when it hurts".
And true to her promise, the party was held despite the fact that the groom had escaped and that the couple had not even got married. But not only that! According to one of the guests' testimonies, it was "one hell of a party". It was probably the first step she needed to get some closure!
#10. The Talk Of The Town
As expected, from one day to the other Casey's story became the talk of the town. All of a sudden, this unbelievable tale appeared all around the web. In fact, the famous webpage Elle Online even asked readers to vote on what they would've done on Casey's shoes: whether they would've exposed a cheating lover at the altar or canceled the wedding.
Do you know what the results of this survey were? It turns out that 60% of the people said that they would have done the same as Casey. Apparently, most of the users also believed that dark deeds must come to light. What would you have done?
#9. Impact On Social Media
As the days went by, hundreds of people began to empathize with Casey. For example, many respondents on the website IrishCentral praised what they thought was a brave decision. In this sense, Will Agee said: "Wow!! Very strong and forward-thinking of her!! Honesty is the best policy with self and others!! Blessings all!".
But this doesn't end here. One of the users that went by the name "Intolerant Liberal" suggested that the story could be made for the big screen. As he categorically stated: "Hollywood will no doubt be making a version, a rom-com, set in Boston, starring Brad Pitt as the baddie, Jennifer Aniston as the wronged, and a plethora of other B-list stars".
#8. Precedents
However, Casey is not the only person in the world who decided to take revenge, though not everyone did it at the altar. As it turns out, several people have resorted to similar revengeful strategies over the past couple of years, and as you may imagine, all of these cases have made it to the Internet and social media. Apparently, people just love to gossip!
For example, in 2014, a man named Charlie Fisher cheated on his girlfriend numerous times and with numerous women. As a result, she was approached not only by one girlfriend but by three! One may wonder, how did he ever manage to keep up with three relationships simultaneously?
#7. Fisher's Story
According to Cosmopolitan, it all began when Fisher's girlfriend Becky Connery noticed a weird text that she found suspicious. It was a message from a woman called Lizzie Leeland-Cunningham. So Connery decided to contact Lizzie on Twitter on her own. And unfortunately for her, she confirmed her worst fears: it appeared to be that Lizzie was Fisher's girlfriend as well.
But this doesn't end here! Apparently, Fisher even had a third girlfriend out there, whose name we don't know because she specifically stated that she did not want to be named by the media. So Fisher had been cheating on all three of them for quite a long time. This story is even worse than Alex's, isn't it?
#6. Revenge At The Airport
It's so impossible to defend Fisher, that we must admit that the girls deserved to take at least some revenge. And can you guess what they did? It appears to be that they agreed to meet at the airport, where Fisher was returning from a trip, in order to confront him altogether.
As soon as Fisher showed up, the three women began shouting "cheat" and "liar", in front of the dozens of people that surrounded them. Funnily enough, Fisher's grandmother was there, and the girls took the time to tell her about what his grandson had done. And she was so shocked that she did nothing to intervene. Fisher had no one on his side, not even his own grandmother!
#5. Girl Power
But the girls' revenge didn't end here. Connery made sure that people on Twitter found out about Fisher's behavior. In fact, she even uploaded a picture of all the three women together at the airport waiting for Fisher to appear. And if you take a look at the photo, they look like they're really enjoying themselves, really looking forward to carrying out their plan.
The photo they posted had the following caption: "Just been at the airport to meet my cheating boyfriend with the two other girls he was seeing". As you may imagine, the message gained over 24,000 retweets in no time, and tons of people praised Connery and the two other girls.
#4. Relieved
Funnily enough, Connery ended up making friends with the two other girls. As she later told the Daily Mail: "They’re great. I’m seeing both of them for nights out soon. We can’t think what we saw in [Fisher] in the first place. I’m so glad we confronted him. It’s not the 16th century any more; girls don’t have to put up with this".
So in this case, we can say that the story had somewhat of a happy ending. These three girls proved that women should and must stand up for each other. Who knows, maybe there's even room for Casey in their group, don't you think?
#3. The Other Way Around
However, men are not the only unfaithful ones. Sometimes, it works the other way around. For example, in 2015, a video of a man embarrassing his cheating girlfriend went viral on the Internet. But his way of seeking revenge was quite different compared to the stories we've just talked about.
The brief footage of the video shows a woman blindfolded, as a man sings "Happy Birthday" to her. But when the woman removes the blindfold, there were no presents at all: on the very contrary, the man had packed the woman's belongings in order for her to leave the apartment. Ouch!
#2. Public Shaming
But some people found greater satisfaction in embarrassing their cheating couples in front of much bigger crowds. For instance, in 2011, during a Packers-Bears match, a woman was spotted holding up a sign saying "My cheating ex-boyfriend is watching from [the] couch instead". If you don't believe me, then take a look at the photo below!
Her boyfriend had terrible luck, because not only was the sign seen by all the surrounding fans, but broadcaster NBCpicked it up as well. So people all over the US saw it! If this doesn't teach people to be more honest, then I don't know what will!
#1. You Gotta Think It Through
As you can see from these stories, people seem to like to hear about stories of cheating partners getting what they deserve. And the wide range of social media platforms and apps give people the possibility of declaring their anger to millions of people with just one simple "click". Casey's story is proof of that.
However, sometimes it's advisable not to make rushed decisions and wait until the anger passes. In her piece for Whimn, Casey confessed that she wasn't sure about how she felt after everything was over. Let's just hope that she'll never need to take revenge ever again!