17 Anniversaries That Turned Into a Total Disaster

Relationship anniversary is a day when you want romance and pleasant surprises. But sometimes this date can go wrong and give a variety of emotions. We put together 17 stories about how dreams about the celebration were shattered against the cliff of the harsh reality.

• My husband and I have our 10th anniversary. We are going to go to China, and I made the itinerary in a way so that the trip would be both active and informative. We agreed to leave the children with my mom.
  A week before the date, my mother-in-law calls and happily says that she received a passport, and wants to come with us. My husband, filled with joy for her, agrees and says that she will like everything, because we have such a great program. And she can stay in our room, because it is cheaper this way. © Overheard / Ideer
• Last summer, my parents celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary. The whole big family gathered. They reminisced about the past years, Dad swore his love to Mom. 2 days later, he announced that he had a long-awaited heir, and he was leaving for a 20-year-old girl.
  To my sisters and me, the dad said that we were forever in his heart. A month later, he changed his phone number, they moved to another city, and he didn’t leave his new address. He just cut us out of his life. © Overheard / VK
• His sister invited herself over for our anniversary weekend. She didn’t think it was a big deal and thought she would do us a favor by going out for a few hours to give us some privacy.
  I was also mad at him because it’s his sister, and he’s super protective of her because she is so sensitive. Somehow, I ended up being the one to apologize because I hurt her feelings. Sigh. © Concave-Convex / Reddit
• My husband was away on a business trip before our anniversary, and my sister invited me to karaoke. There’s a lot of people, and I notice a couple kissing. I look closely and see that it’s my husband!
  I climb the stage, take the mic and say, “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! My husband is among the guests. Today is our 6th wedding anniversary. And I want to sing this song for him. For the last time!”
  And I sang “Je t’aime” by Lara Fabian. I’ve never sung with such feeling, tears flowed down my cheeks. The audience gave me a standing ovation. My husband was shocked. And I... I filed for divorce. Tomorrow I’m leaving for France. © Overheard / Ideer

• I’ve been dating my boyfriend for a year. It’s our first anniversary. My mom doesn’t like him very much because she thinks he doesn’t look after me well.
  Then she told me that if I don’t get flowers from him, he’s worthless. I had to buy a bouquet myself. I love him very much, and he loves me. I’m fine without flowers, I just don’t want my mom to think badly of him. © Overheard / Ideer
• My wife and I agreed that we save money until we can move from a 2-bedroom to a 3-bedroom. This rule applies to gifts to each other as well. I honestly put all my income into the family piggy bank.
  And here is the anniversary of our marriage, I realize that it’s not a good idea to leave it without attention. I book a table at a restaurant, buy good expensive roses, which she loves. And she...
  She presents me with an expensive gold bracelet and takes offense that I am so bad, and she deserves more. We’re saving up, yeah. © Overheard / Ideer
• My wife suggested writing notes with messages to each other and dropping them into the box. I reluctantly agreed.
  And so on the day of our anniversary, my wife takes this box and with tears in her eyes reads my scribbles. And I was stupid enough to write some rubbish like, “Darling, your stew is surprisingly tasteless” and all that sort of thing. I thought I was super funny.
  But in reality, we had 216 notes from her telling me how great I am and 12 of mine, lousy and disgusting. I’ll never forgive myself for her tears. © Overheard / Ideer
• I saw a guy and a girl the other day. I was walking past them. The couple was obviously having some sort of anniversary.
  The guy gave the girl a Raffaello pack with several candies. She stuffed them all in her mouth and asked, “Where’s my present?” The poor guy didn’t know what to do. © Overheard / Ideer

• My terrible Valentine’s Day was when he told me he wasn’t sure if he loved me anymore. I said that was fair enough, and then we spent the entire night dividing up all our possessions and who would get what if we did break up.
  We had a pretty crap anniversary too, because it was like 2 weeks after that, and it was the same day as my birthday. Hence, he got me a present and called me a terrible girlfriend for not getting one in return. I didn’t care about presents at all, and it felt pretty lame to be expected to get him a present on my birthday.
  We went out, came home and had a bit of heart-to-heart and a cry that it was pretty crap because of said Valentine’s incident. Bad day. © Unknown author / Reddit
• This last year we had our 10th wedding anniversary, and we both forgot. About a week afterwards my husband just walked up to me and said, “By the way, Happy Anniversary!” We both laughed a lot about that. (Hey, we were busy!)
  The time he forgot my birthday was a little rougher. I didn’t care about a gift, I just wanted an acknowledgement. “Happy Birthday” would have been fine. © CalamityJaneDoe / Reddit
• Anniversary. I’m out of town. I ordered a gift for my girlfriend. A few hours go by — no response.
  I text her, “Are you home?” She says yes. I go to the app to check delivery status and see that I sent it all to my ex.
  I explained it to my girlfriend, and she first yelled, then laughed, then freaked out again. It was an epic fail. © Not everyone will understand / VK
• My girlfriend reproaches me that I forget everything. Well, yes, I am sometimes absent-minded and inattentive, but I got used to it. Several times we had quarrels because I forgot about some of our plans or important dates. But I got out of it quickly, and we made up.
  A couple of weeks ago, I was driving home, my girlfriend calls me and asks me what time I’ll be home, because the sushi has already arrived. I was surprised, sushi? We don’t usually order food in the middle of the week. She was in a suspiciously good mood.
  I’ve already parked at the house when my mom calls and asks how we’re spending the evening. I replied that I just arrived from work, nothing unusual, maybe we’ll watch a movie. Mom was surprised, “Aren’t you having a nice dinner together?” I was completely confused. She reminded me that it was our 5th anniversary.
  It’s a good thing I have such an attentive mom. She saved my evening! I rushed to buy some flowers and a teddy bear. It’s definitely time for me to keep a calendar with reminders. © Chambers ** / VK

• My parents forget about their own anniversary every year. I don’t even know what exact day it is because they never remember or celebrate it.
  I know it’s sometime in August, and I’ll ask my mom, “Hey, isn’t your anniversary sometime around now?” and she’ll gasp and look at the calendar. “Ohhh, we missed it! It was yesterday! Hey [husband], you forgot!”
  “You forgot too!” And then they both laugh. © thunderling / Reddit
• My boyfriend was at work, so I decided to surprise him. Ordered food, decorated everything. I sent him a photo to tease him a little bit, and he stormed out of work and came running!
  I thought, “Wow, my romantic missed me so much.” And then it turns out he was just afraid I’d eat all his favorite food myself. © Mamdarinka / VK
• First anniversary with my ex. I got all dressed up ready to go out, and waited for him to come and get me. And waited. And waited.
  I was living at home at the time and getting awful pity faces from my mother, which didn’t help. I waited some more and phoned him, and got no answer. I assumed he was on his way over, so I waited. And waited. Still getting pity face.
  Eventually, he turned up, hours late, looking like a hobo. He’d taken a nap and failed to wake up. He didn’t apologize, and we didn’t go out after all — it was too late by then. He’d made no comments about how I looked (and I’d really made a massive effort to look good for him). © ConnieC60 / Reddit
• My boyfriend’s ex sent me a screenshot of his message with a declaration of love. It was sent on our anniversary. He knew how I felt about this day: it was our day, our happiest day in years, the day we first met, smiled at each other. And now it’s all ruined. © Overheard / VK

And here are 90+ anniversary quotes from favorite authors and movies. Check them out, you might find them useful.