A bride claims to have been left devastated after she walked down the aisle to an empty wedding reception.
Kalina Marie, who documented the whole sorry saga on TikTok, claims she had ‘digitally’ invited 75 people to the masquerade-themed event. However, her new husband and their son were forced to walk into the celebration in silence.
The couple, who have been together for nine years, had been engaged for four years, but their wedding was delayed due to the pandemic. Finally able to celebrate, the pair say they were left devastated at the turnout.
“POV: You planned the most beautiful entrance. Just to open the doors to an empty venue” Kalina (@kalina_marie_23), the bride, wrote over footage of the seemingly bleak event.
Two people are seen opening the doors for the newly married couple, as another sits alone wearing a red T-Shirt on a folded chair. One person is seen taking photos and another appears to be performing some technical role on a laptop. The rest of the scene comprises empty chairs and tables decked out for the celebration.
“This is our entrance to our masquerade ball,” wrote Kalina in a devastated narration of the events.
“The masquerade ball that I have talked EXCESSIVELY about for the last 10 months. The same ball that I not only digitally invited over 75 people to. But ALSO spent money to send 25 beautiful invitations out to.
“FIVE PEOPLE SHOWED UP!!!!!!! Like, are you kidding me!?!? As you see in the video, we enter the venue. And no one is there.”
She added that she had attempted to delay her entrance into the hall under the impression that people may be late. Although her invites instructed guests to turn up at 1pm, at 1:15pm her mother messaged her with the sad news that no one had turned up.
Nevertheless, the couple waited a bit longer and made their entrance at 2pm to 5 people. The venue was reported to have been set up to receive 40 people.
“I dreamed that I would walk into a bunch of people cheering us on. Hooting and hollering for us in celebration,” she said.
“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.”
Kalina remained defiant though, despite “all the wasted food and drinks” and “all the empty tables and chairs”. Once the tiny group made some adaptations, the party went on.
“Did we still make the most of it?? You bet your SWEET a** we did,” she said.
“But did this video just take all the good moments and shoot them out of the water for a second, f**k yeah it did.”
She was left with questions and wondered if she had done something wrong, “It just makes me think, 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.”
Although she said that the situation made her “sick” and she couldn’t understand it, she was grateful for the people who did show up for her.
“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,” she wrote.
Supportive followers urged her to “redo this! We all showing up!”
A week after the failed celebration, Kalina confirmed that she had not received many explanations as to why people had not turned up.
