'My maid of honour ghosted me the day after my wedding. The reason why broke me.'

Shona didn't expect that her wedding day would mark the end of her closest friendship.

For four years, she and her best friend were inseparable. They'd met through their partners, who were just close, and the four of them fell into a comforting rhythm, alternating nights at each other's houses.

"We just seemed to click; it was quite easy," Shona told Mamamia.

Their lives were running in parallel in so many ways, it felt like they were both getting to live out the milestones they had always talked about together.

"She was a few years older than me, but at the same point in life, engaged, getting houses, having kids, all that type of stuff."

So, when Shona got engaged, there was never a question of who her maid of honour would be.

Watch: Kayley Stead carries on with her wedding after being left at the altar. Post continues after video.

In the lead-up to her wedding, Shona's best friend was everything you could want in a maid of honour.

Shona had a baby at the time, so her friend stepped in without hesitation, taking charge of all the classic bridal party duties.

"It was a really easy experience. We had lots of fun, all the bridesmaids. We had a lot of activities, and would go away on weekends and do stuff together that wasn't necessarily wedding-related," Shona shared. "There were no massive red flags or any issues leading up to it."

When the wedding day arrived, everything went off without a hitch.

"It was fantastic and a really fun day for everyone. My maid of honour and her new partner had a great time, lots of drinking, lots of dancing; a really, really good night, nothing dramatic."

Shona couldn't have known that just hours after dancing with her bridesmaids at her wedding, everything would change.

The next night, Shona went to tag her best friend in a post to say 'thank you for helping make the day so special'. But she couldn't find her profile.

"I didn't think too much of it, because we were about to head off on our honeymoon," she told Mamamia.

Two days later, she tried again, confused, and still couldn't tag her.

"I was like, 'I wonder what's going on here?'. I talked to my husband about it, and he was like, 'I can still see her stuff, so it just looks like she's blocked you.'"

Shona's mind raced, replaying the wedding, the speeches, every conversation, trying to figure out what she could have done to upset her best friend.

"I think I must have just gone, 'I'll deal with this after the honeymoon'. So I left it and thought maybe she needed a bit of space or something."

Pushing it to the back of her mind, Shona focused on enjoying her honeymoon. But when she and her husband returned, she couldn't shake the need to understand what had happened.

Then came the truth.

Shona decided to send her friend a message to get to the bottom of it.

"I asked what was going on, and she said it was just a bit much for her seeing me have everything that she wanted, and she just needed to take some time away, that my happiness was a bit confronting for her at this point in time."

Shona's friend had been due to get married around the same time, but her fiancé cheated on her, ending the engagement.

"Even though she had a new partner by the time our wedding came around, and she was very happy, I think it was more maybe the timeline of thinking she was meant to be married and having kids at the same time," Shona said.

"Maybe my wedding brought up a bit more for her than she'd realised. But instead of allowing me to support her through it, she cut me out."

Shona was stunned, but she responded with kindness, even though her heart was heavy.

The truth was realised over text messages. Image: Getty.

"I said, 'I understand. I'm sorry it makes you feel that way, but take as long as you need.'"

In the days and weeks that followed, Shona couldn't stop thinking about it. She replayed every moment, searching for clues about what she could have done differently.

"It made me question a lot about myself. Have I rubbed it in her face? Was there anything that I should have done differently? And I think everyone around me was quick to say 'No, this is something within her, not something that you did.'"

There was no explosive fight, no falling out at the reception, no tearful screaming match.

And that, Shona said, made it even harder.

"There wasn't any big problem. There wasn't something dramatic that happened. There was no reason for it to all go downhill so quickly.

"If we had a horrible experience, or an argument or falling out, or I'd hit on her partner or something, I would totally understand. But it really came from nowhere. And to lose your best friend because you were living a life that she wanted, that's really hard."

It wasn't as though Shona had a picture-perfect life.

"She saw all the ups and downs in my life, you know, having a baby that wouldn't sleep and all the messy parts. It's not like she was experiencing the highlight reel, so it was a bit of a shock."

For six or seven years, they didn't speak.

Then, out of the blue, about four or five years ago, Shona's former best friend sent her a friend request on social media.

"I just accepted it and went, okay, she's clearly ready to see my life again, even if she doesn't want to be in it."

The friend is now married with kids, and Shona thinks "they're great for each other."

As for the two women, their relationship will never return to what it once was.

"There's just a mutual polite friendliness there, congratulating each other on your jobs and that type of thing, but definitely not ever where it was before, which is sad."

The experience left a mark on Shona — it's made it hard for her to trust people.

"It's probably been only in the last four or five years that I really started to make some deeper friendships again," she said. "It certainly traumatises you in a certain way, it's hard to open up to people, it's hard to let them in. It's hard to trust they say what they mean, and you're constantly almost guarding yourself, preparing for it to happen again."

On her 30th birthday, Shona's husband threw her a big surprise party. She had an incredible night, surrounded by people she loved.

But the next morning, old fears came flooding back.

"I found myself really anxious, going, what's going to come out now? What have I done wrong? Who's going to say 'you're too much for me'? So it's definitely an element of trauma still there, but I'm learning to trust again."

For a long time, Shona agonised over what she could have done to prevent losing the friendship.

"Maybe I shouldn't have taken away from it when she was saying, 'I'm fine being so involved in your wedding' when she was going through the breakup of her own future timeline. She said she was fine, and we were there for her, helped her move, helped her do everything.

"But maybe when she said 'I'm fine, I'm happy for you, I'm supportive of you', maybe I should have looked a little bit deeper into that, instead of assuming that people say what they mean. There's part of me that always wants to go back and probe a little bit deeper to see how she's doing on a different level."

It's taken years of healing and reflection, but Shona knows now it wasn't all on her to carry.

"I think it was really probably a hurt that she tried to hide for a long time … and it just all got triggered at the same point, and she had to protect herself in the only way she knew how," she said. "When you do love someone as your best friend, you want them to have that healing time, even if it means being away from you. If that's what she needed, I'm happy for her that she got that."

Feature Image: Getty.