Bride Kalina Marie shared a heartbreaking video of herself walking into an empty venue with her husband and son after inviting 100 people to her masquerade-themed wedding. Only five people out of the 100 showed up. Her video went viral on TikTok, having garnered over six and a half million views. Marie was devastated but tried to make the best out of it nevertheless.
The couple’s history
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Marie explained that she and her husband have been together for nine years, having been engaged for four of them. Their wedding was delayed due to the pandemic. She explained that she had talked about her masquerade-themed wedding “excessively” for the past 10 months.
The wedding cost them plenty
Embed from Getty ImagesMarie virtually invited 75 people and sent physical invitations to 25 others as they didn’t have social media. What was supposed to be a venue full of people celebrating turned into an empty one with “wasted food and drinks” in addition to “empty tables and chairs.”
The day did not go as planned
Embed from Getty ImagesThe wedding was supposed to start at 1PM, but the bride decided to wait in the hopes that maybe the guests would be late. However, her mother called her at 1:15PM to tell her that no one had shown up. By 2PM, she made her entrance with only five people in attendance.
Still, she persisted
Embed from Getty ImagesHer dream of walking into a room full of people celebrating her was soon shattered by the reality of their absence. Instead of being on cloud nine as a bride, she was “a woman trying to hold herself together,” since she couldn’t handle the sight of an empty venue.
Trying to create rainbows out of storms
Embed from Getty ImagesDespite all the hurdles she faced in her wedding, Marie and the rest partied on, having written: “Did we still make the most of it?? You bet your SWEET [expletive] we did.”
She also felt thankful despite all that happened, having added: “But 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.”
So, why did no one show up?
Embed from Getty ImagesMany users on TikTok wondered if the invitees gave any explanation as to why they never showed up, to which Marie answered: “I haven’t really received a lot of messages explaining why people weren’t there or giving me excuses, and I’m kind of thankful for that.”
She was left with a lot of hard questions
Embed from Getty ImagesThe whole experience left Marie wondering, “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?”
She also added that her “friends” didn’t even congratulate her. All this made her “sick.”
Lesson learned
Embed from Getty ImagesIn the wake of the events that unfolded in the wedding, the bride stated, “For the most part, we’ve done a lot of deleting and re-evaluating our lives and just spending a lot of time appreciating what we have and what we had.”
TikTok users quickly stepped in to support her
Embed from Getty ImagesTikTok users tried to show Marie some support, having said that they’ll attend her wedding if she decides to re-do it. In addition, they congratulated her and some have asked her to open a gift registry so they can send her wedding gifts.
Marie is not the only one
Embed from Getty ImagesSome users shared that they have been where Marie was, with people not attending their weddings. One user shared: “Me & my husband sent out over 200 invitations w/ over 150 RSVP’ING & even calling the night before telling us they’re coming. We had less than 40 people actually show. spent over $9,000 on the venue.”
