Jilted Bride: 'In a Moment, It's the Worst Day of Your Life'

June 18, 2008 -- It was supposed to be the best day of their lives. Three women had meticulously planned every detail of their perfect weddings to loving fiancés.

But suddenly, instead of wedding bliss, these blushing brides' dream weddings turned into their worst nightmares after they were left at the alter.

"Good Morning America" caught up with these jilted brides.

Nicole Contos Liakeas was a 27-year-old New York City kindergarten teacher in 1997, planning her dream wedding with a lavish ceremony surrounded by family and friends.

She waited as the ceremony was stalled. Her fiancé was late.

That morning, her husband-to-be, Tasos Michael, had told her his feet felt like jelly, but then said he would see her later, at the altar.

But her fiancé never showed. Instead, he sent his best man with a message: The wedding was off.

"It was very shocking. I felt like someone really just kind of punched me," Liakeas, 38, told "Good Morning America." "I just lost all feeling."

Her outraged family decided to invite wedding guests to attend the reception at New York City's swanky Essex House and, instead of moping, the jilted bride decided to keep her head high.

She shed her wedding gown for a party dress and joined her family and friends on the dance floor.

"It was horrible," she said. "I just knew that I had to, you know, be strong, I guess, for my family."

But 11 years later, Liakeas says the worst day of her life was actually the best. She is now married to the man she calls her "true love," George Liakeas.

The couple runs a medical spa together and has two beautiful daughters.

"If you ask me, 'How do I feel that Nicole was left at the altar?'" said her husband, George. "I think it was the best thing that could ever happen to me."

Another jilted bride, Marilyn Chivetta, also threw a party after her fiancé called off their wedding a week before it was to take place in 2003.

"I was under the covers for two days and numb, couldn't really talk." But, Chivetta told "Good Morning America," "I just decided that I had to take it, the negative and turn it into a positive."