When the doors to Kalina Marie’s wedding reception opened, she expected to see the smiling faces of her family and closest friends. Instead, she was greeted by an empty venue.
Just five of the 75 guests that were invited showed up on Saturday November 2, forcing Kalina and her new husband Shane to walk down the aisle in silence.
The couple, who have been together nine years, had a private ceremony where they tied the knot and then attended a masquerade-themed reception, which had been 10 months in the making.
Despite the invites asking guests to be there before 1pm, Kalina’s mother messaged her at 1:15pm to tell her no one was there. And when she and her husband arrived 45 minutes later, no one else had arrived despite multiple RSVPs.
Kalina posted the videos of her empty venue on TikTok, where they racked up nearly nine million views and responses from people who were incredibly upset for her.
The bride wrote: ‘I dreamed that I would walk into a bunch of people cheering us on, hooting and hollering for us in celebration… but all you see is a woman trying to hold herself together because she had NO idea how to deal with her venue being almost completely empty.
‘All the wasted food and drinks. All the empty tables and chairs. Every moment of my reception changed to adapt. Did we still make the most of it?? You bet your SWEET ass we did.
‘But did this video just take all the good moments and shoot them out of the water for a second, f**k yea it did.’
In the video, two women can be seen pulling open the reception doors to reveal the bride and groom and their son. The venue is decorated with fairy lights and lanterns, but all the chairs are empty.
Kalina looks visibly shocked, shaking her head in disbelief as she walks hand-in-hand with her partner, before sharing a sweet kiss with him.
While she put on a brave face, inside the bride was distraught. She explained: ‘It just makes me think, like, why? What did we do? Am I that bad of a person? What did my husband ever do to deserve any of this? Why couldn’t we matter enough for people to show up?
‘I still have “friends” that haven’t even messaged me to congratulate me or tell me why they didn’t come. It truly makes me sick. I honestly can’t wrap my head around this yet. All I know is, I have my man. My baby. And family that shows up when I need them. And for that, I will be thankful.’
Despite being so let down by those close to her, the bride was determined to make the most of her special day, posting a second clip showing her dancing with her cousin, mother and best friend.
Kalina also shared her and her husband’s intimate first dance where they embraced and told each other they ‘were all [they] needed and it was [them] against the world’.
Thousands of people eagerly jumped into the comments on her videos sharing how beautiful she looked and trying to support the bride in any way they could.
@keep_aiming-forward wrote: ‘Let’s do it over. This time invite me and the rest of us. We’ll show up and out. I love you beautiful and congratulations!’
‘Girl! We are all over here hooting and hollering for you. BTW beautiful entrance to a life where you have now learned four quarters is better than 100 pennies,’ said Wisconie Mommie.
Another said: ‘The introvert in me would be so relieved but the empath in me hurts for you…’
Others shared that they had had similar experiences when celebrating their big day.
‘This same thing unfortunately happened to me as well three weeks ago. I spent all morning decorating myself making sure everything was nice. No one called to say they weren’t coming,’ shared TikToker Stacey Rae.
Another wrote: ‘I don’t speak to anyone that didn’t turn up to my wedding without even speaking to me. One person had a legit reason and I still speak to them. Everyone else is gone from my life.’
‘You’re not alone. I’m glad we didn’t do anything elaborate or fancy because hardly anyone showed up. You look beautiful and that was a stunning entrance,’ added @SailorJersey92.
Kalina gushed online at the outpouring of support for her and her family. She wrote: ‘I am completely overwhelmed. Between feeling the love and support from TikTok. But also having to deal with the grief of deleting a lot of people out of our lives.
‘It has been a whirlwind of emotions since this happened just this last Saturday. Thank you all so much for offering a redo, wouldn’t that be amazing?
‘But, like many of you have said. My little group is really all I need. And now I truly know, who is there for me and who is not. I will just be forever grateful that so many people got to see the entrance I dreamed about for so long.’
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