Bride-to-Be ‘Ghosted’ by Two Maids of Honor Before Her Wedding (Exclusive)

When Alyssa Stout joked on TikTok that her maid of honor had “ghosted” her ahead of her wedding, viewers expected a messy friendship fallout.

Instead, they got something much more emotional.

“My maids of honor ghosted me before I could plan my wedding, so now we have to create them in cardboard cutout form,” Stout starts her viral TikTok, which now has 1.5 million views. “Before you start asking why they ghosted me, I mean actually ghosted me — they’re no longer here.”

The 28-year-old from Columbus, Ohio, quickly revealed the truth behind the viral clip: the two women who were meant to stand beside her on her wedding day — her older sister, Randi, and her best friend, Mallory — have both died.

“The ‘maid of honor ghosting me’ storyline is actually rooted in something much deeper,” Stout tells PEOPLE exclusively.

Growing up, Stout always imagined her sister would be by her side for life’s biggest milestones.

“My maid of honor was always supposed to be my older sister, Randi,” she says. “She was four years older than me, and like a lot of sisters, we grew up imagining being there for each other’s weddings — getting ready together, dress shopping, all of it.”

That vision was shattered on Mother’s Day in May 2018, when Randi died in a car accident at just 24 years old. Stout was 20.

In the days after her sister’s death, a message surfaced that made the loss even more profound.

“One of her friends showed me a text where my sister said that if she ever got married, her maid of honor would be me,” Stout recalls. “Knowing we would never get to stand beside each other in those moments was heartbreaking.”

In the years that followed, Stout leaned on her best friend, Mallory — someone she describes as her “rock” through unimaginable grief.

“She helped me through my grief and was there for me in ways I’ll never be able to fully put into words,” she says.

During one emotional night, Stout remembers opening up to Mallory about that text from her sister, and the pain of knowing those future moments were gone.

“She promised me that if I ever got married, she would be my maid of honor,” Stout says.

But in a devastating turn, history repeated itself.

In May 2022, four years after losing her sister, Mallory also died in a car accident. She was 24.

“At that point, I knew there was no replacing that role,” Stout says. “These were the two people who shaped me the most, and there was never going to be anyone else standing next to me in that way.”

Years later, Stout found love again. She and her fiancé have been together for six years and share a 2-year-old son. The couple got engaged on Valentine’s Day this year and are planning a September 2027 wedding.

As she began envisioning the day, Stout knew she wanted to honor both Randi and Mallory — but not in a way that felt purely somber.

“I’ve seen a lot of beautiful tributes at weddings — empty seats, photos, small memorials — and I think those are incredibly meaningful,” she says. “But for me, it didn’t feel like enough for the impact they had on my life.”

Instead, she leaned into something more reflective of her personality and theirs.

“My wedding is already very non-traditional — fun, bold, a little ‘unhinged’ — so I wanted to honor them in a way that actually felt like me, and like them,” she explains.

That’s when the idea struck.

Stout decided to create life-size cardboard cutouts of both Randi and Mallory, dressed in bridesmaid gowns, so they could still be part of her big day.

“It started as a joke,” she admits. “But the more I thought about it, the more it felt perfect.”

The cutouts won’t just make an appearance at the wedding — they’ve already become part of the planning process.

“I made ‘prototype’ versions to include them in the wedding planning process, which has been a fun and meaningful way for me to visualize them still being part of everything,” she says.

For Stout, the goal isn’t to center loss — it’s to celebrate life.

“It allows me to include them in a way that feels joyful, not just somber,” she says. “I want people to feel how much life and personality they had — not just their absence.”

Sharing that perspective online felt natural. Stout has long been open about her grief, previously going viral when people around the world painted rocks for Mallory’s memorial tree.

“My audience already knows how much they mean to me, and this felt like a natural extension of that,” she says.

The response to her latest video has been overwhelming.

“There are people who have experienced loss themselves and deeply relate, and others who haven’t but are still really moved by the idea,” she says. “It’s sparked conversations about grief, but also about creativity and individuality in weddings.”

Above all, Stout hopes her story gives others permission to grieve in their own way.

“If anything, I hope people take away that there’s no ‘right’ way to grieve,” she says. “It doesn’t have to look sad all the time — it can be joyful, weird, creative, even a little unhinged.”

“And the same goes for weddings,” she adds. “They don’t have to be traditional or cookie-cutter. You can honor the people you love in ways that feel true to you.”