Laëtitia Nguyen recently celebrated her first wedding anniversary but without a husband by her side.
Nguyen, who was jilted by her fiancé three months before their planned wedding last year, decided to proceed with the ceremony anyway.
On May 27, 2017, the 38-year-old Vietnamese-French finance manager from Reims, France exchanged vows with herself via a $27,000 ceremony held on the island of Santorini in Greece.
According to Nguyen, she and her fiancé of three years had long planned the wedding, but three months before the big day, he had become distant and eventually decided to walk out of her life.
“My fiancé who abandoned me in full wedding preparation 3 months before the D-day,” Nguyen shared on her blog. “Everyone has had a broken heart once in a lifetime. The most difficult thing is to find energy when there is no left. Even so, very deeply in your heart, there is love for yourself and you must use it to nourish new energy.”
Looking back at the experience, Nguyen wrote that she made a choice to remain hopeful in spite of what happened.
“I could have remained cloistered in my bed for months after my fiancé canceled our wedding or fleeing very far away with my girlfriends on D-Day,” she wrote. “The problem is that we cannot erase a day of our life, it’s here now and forever. And rather than dwell on this bad day, this specific month, this damn year in my mind for an unlimited duration (a state that would probably have led me into a certain madness), I’ve anticipated and with the little strength, energy and self-confidence that were left, I’ve turned a dark moment into a magic moment full of hope.”
In an interview with Metro, Nguyen shared that in addition to plans of having an intimate wedding, they were also planning to have a child.
“We were both very proud to be marrying each other and we were both very involved in the preparation for the big day. In mid-February 2017 we split up and I don’t know why. ‘I am still very hurt and always will be, but life is a gift and I must enjoy it.”
With the wedding ceremony costing over $23,000 and the dress priced at almost $4,000, Nguyen thought it would be practical to just proceed with the wedding.
“You can’t erase a day, so I needed to turn it into something very positive. ‘It was exactly like a normal wedding, just without a groom,” Nguyen shared.
“In all, there were eight guests including my parents, my sister and her fiancé, and then some close friends. My ring is an antique cameo ring circa 1900, which I wear on my left middle finger.”
She noted that doing so has helped her affirm her own self-worth and gave her a big confidence boost.
“I’m very proud of myself and incredibly grateful to my family and friends,” she was quoted as saying.
“It was just a question of survival for me. I needed something positive from this day to forget about all the drama in my life. It’s always humiliating to be dumped but it’s even worse before a wedding. This ceremony gave me back my self-confidence and I reconnected with myself. It was my rebirth.”
For her solo anniversary, Nguyen revisited Santorini. She has reportedly had her eggs frozen in the hopes that she will one day have children.
“No man wanted to marry me, but I wanted to marry me because I’m amazing and I know it. I’m not ashamed. Some people don’t understand. Others said it was just so me and it was a great decision and very courageous.”
Featured Image via Instagram / blogaboutl
