It was true love – or at least dance teacher Rachel Siegel thought it was.
She and her bit-part actor boyfriend had been together through thick and thin for nearly nine years and now, at last, he had proposed.
Their bonds were so deep they even had a joint bachelor/bachelorette getaway in Las Vegas, where they paid a visit to the Graceland Wedding Chapel.
As the big day approached everything was going fine.
The guests had been invited, the reception had been planned down to the last detail and the happy couple were all set for the big wedding in the imposing Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Andrew in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Grant Gunderson, of Texas, is the runaway groom who ex fiancée Rachel Siegel says left her at the altar at their October 5 wedding. The couple had a joint bachelor-bachelorette party in Las Vegas months earlier, even visiting the Graceland Wedding Chapel
The couple’s story went viral last month after Siegel posted a 12-second video wearing her wedding gown and holding a can of hard seltzer on the street before speaking into the camera: ‘My name is Rachel Siegel and my fiancé just left me at the altar
But on the morning of October 5 – the very day he was due to make Rachel his bride – the groom, who DailyMail.com can reveal is Grant Gunderson, 34, got cold feet.
He suddenly realized he wasn’t ready for married bliss after all.
‘He called Rachel in the morning and tried calling it off,’ a friend who asked to remain anonymous told DailyMail.com. ‘She kinda wanted to still go with it.’
Now Rachel, also 34, has let the world know thanks to a TikTok video of her in her wedding gown and a jewel-encrusted cape on the street with a can of hard seltzer in hand, talking to the camera.
‘My name’s Rachel Siegel and my fiancé just left me at the altar,’ she said.
The 12-second clip – which neither pictured nor mentioned Grant by name – has been viewed an incredible 41 million times.
DailyMail.com can reveal that the jilter is a small-time actor from Texas whose IMDb reel includes a clip of playing a man with the superpower of being able to vanish at will – a talent he might have wished for on his wedding day.
Grant has stayed silent about the reasons for jilting Rachel and declined to comment when approached by DailyMail.com.
But his friend said: ‘I think that he just realized that it was a big commitment that he didn’t want to make.
‘I’d rather have him jump out of it now than go through a divorce.’
Rachel decided the best way forward was not to hide. She even went ahead with the wedding reception at the Blythefield Country Club in Belmont, Michigan.
She posted a video of of her first dance to Carole King’s You’ve Got a Friend online. Her dance partner was her mother Judy Siegel.
The TikTok, which has been seen by 41 million people, showed the jilted bride making the best out of her heartbreaking situation and carrying on with the festivities with her friends and family. She did not picture or identify the runaway groom.
Gunderson, who backed out of the nuptials after a nine-year relationship, is a small-time actor from Texas who once played a superhero with the power to disappear
Her subsequent TikToks have shown her oscillating between hope and positivity, and intense sadness at having to start over.
The couple first met in August 2015, after they each had moved to LA from their hometowns – Rachel from Rockford, Michigan, and Grant from Rockwall, Texas.
In a loving Instagram post from 2020, Rachel wrote ‘the universe chose to put us in the same place at the same time and my life forever changed’.
Residency records indicate they lived together in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom rented apartment in North Hollywood from at least 2020.
There was no indication of trouble in paradise through Siegel’s series of amorous social media posts documenting the events leading up to their big day.
She shared photos of his proposal in June 2023, which she showed off on TikTok with the caption ‘when your bf of over 8 years finally proposes’, their wedding shower in Texas in March, and their joint bachelor-bachelorette party in August.
Gunderson is an aspiring actor who has a number of roles to his name in indie short movies, but has failed to break through to any big Hollywood productions
There was no indication of trouble in paradise through Siegel’s series of amorous social media posts documenting the events leading up to their big day, including their June 2023 proposal (left) and Las Vegas joint bachelor-bachelorette party in August
The couple met in August 2015, after they each moved to LA from their respective hometowns of Rockford, Michigan and Rockwall, Texas. A description of how they met was featured on their wedding webpage
A member of the groom’s side of the wedding party, who also asked to remain anonymous, insisted that Grant didn’t ‘leave her at the altar’ – arguing there was a difference between leaving his fiancée shortly before the wedding, and actually at the church.
And he suggested an ulterior motive behind Rachel’s decision to post her videos for such a wide audience
The couple had planned to marry in the imposing Cathedral of St. Andrew in Grand Rapids, Michigan
‘Those videos were made in my opinion to build a social media following,’ the close friend said. ”No one was left at the altar.
‘When he broke off the wedding, they were not at the venue. She was not in her dress.
‘All of this happened prior to the wedding. He talked to her, her mother, her father and the priest, all ahead of time, and she decided to get dressed and go make those videos.’
Either way, the decision left Rachel devastated.
She has posted videos on TikTok of herself crying, puffy-eyed and miserable.
In one video on October 21 she showed family and friends ‘sleeping on floors and couches each night’ so that she wasn’t left alone in bed after Grant nixed their relationship.
‘My family and friends have been unbelievably supportive and I don’t take for granted how blessed I am,’ she wrote in a video caption.
‘Sleeping on floors and couches each night. My parents took over and made sure I never had to sleep alone even when I’ve had to travel for work.’
In another gut-wrenching video posted on October 10, she spoke about feeling the ‘phantom’ of her engagement ring despite having taken it off.
‘This was my dream ring. It was an heirloom diamond passed down from a grandparent,’ she said.
A friend of the groom insisted that Gunderson didn’t ‘leave her at the altar’, arguing that he had tried calling off the wedding the morning of October 5
Siegel’s story has earned her the support of thousands on social media as she continues to document her heartbreak on TikTok where she has been seen crying and puffy-eyed
‘By the second day at the end of the night I took it off and I gave it to my brother, to have some space for a while, while I decide what happens next with it.
‘Even though it’s gone it still feels like it’s there. I find myself constantly trying to play with it out of habit. I know I’ll feel ok again one day. But for a time it was my favorite thing I ever owned.
‘It was the most beautiful thing I ever saw in my life. It was my dream to have that ring, from that person. And I feel very empty and lost, because it’s so much more than a piece of jewelry.’
Despite the personal disaster, things are looking up for Rachel in her professional life.
She posted on TikTok on August 3 that she had just started ‘a dream job I’ve worked for, for over 18 years’. DailyMail.com has learned that is regioonal director of RevKids, the children’s branch of dance company Revel.
She said that the new dance teaching work pushed her and Gunderson’s Italian honeymoon plans to next year, but that she had booked a weekend getaway for them in Joshua Tree, in the Mojave Desert east of LA.
She went with her best friend and would-be bridesmaid Marissa Spencer instead.
When contacted, Rachel told DailyMail.com she was still grieving her relationship and was not ready for an interview.