Distraught bride explains why no one showed for her wedding
The heartbroken bride who went viral after no one showed up to her wedding has updated her followers on the events leading up to the big day.
Kalina Marie, a bride from the US, went viral after she took to TikTok to share the gut-wrenching video of the moment her and her new husband Shane stepped inside the lavishly decorated hall with their son, as they tried to come to terms with the fact that only a handful of people showed to celebrate with them.
“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 wrote in the caption of the video before adding, “It just makes me think, like, why? What did we do? Am I that bad of a person?"
Her video raked up millions of views with many people sharing words of encouragement, and thousands of people asking for an update on the situation.
Hundreds of comments asked Kalina if she had heard from any of the invitees who didn't show up, wondering if they had provided her with a reason.
In response to the comments, Kalina made another video to share some context with her followers.
She first explained that and her husband, who have been together for nine years, got engaged in 2019 and weren’t able to have their wedding when they had intended to, due to the pandemic.
In January this year, they announced they were finally tying the knot in October and for the past 10 months, Ms Marie said she has been “blabbing about it” all over Facebook.
“I created a Facebook event and invited everyone I could and also sent out over 25 invitations to our elders and those not on social media to make sure they were included as well,” she said in a video.
Ms Marie said she received notice from 40 who said they would be coming to the big day, so she planned for that number by setting up the venue accordingly and ensuring her mum had catered enough food.
She also made sure to check in with everyone the week of to confirm their attendance, and said “at least 20 people” had gotten back to her saying they were coming, leaving her asking why those people chose not to show up at the last minute.
“If I could answer that, I would tell you. And no, I haven’t really received a lot of messages explaining why people weren’t there or giving me excuses,” she said.
However, the newlywed said she was actually grateful for this because it meant she could get a clear understanding of who actually cared about her and her husband.
“We’ve been having to deal with the grief of deleting a lot of people out of our lives,” she admitted.
“For the most part, we’ve done a lot of re-evaluating our lives and just spending a lot of time appreciating what we have and what we had.”
To anyone who has had something similar happen to them, Ms Marie says: “I am truly very sorry as I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”
The comments section of the video was again flooded with words of support and encouragement for the newlyweds, as one person wrote, “My heart aches for you,” while another called it “cruel” and “unbelievable.”
Others emphasised that it was a powerful learning moment: “You really find out who your friends are when you have a wedding. Sorry, you went through this,” insisted one commenter.
“The people who didn’t turn up you don’t need in your life,” another reassured.
Image credits: TikTok