Heartbreaking moment bride tries to hold herself together for wedding entrance after only FIVE guests show up
IMAGINE spending time and effort trying to organise the perfect picturesque wedding – only to discover that practically no one has showed up.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened to distraught bride Kalina Marie, who recently left TikTok users heartbroken with a viral video.
The gorgeous bride documented her big wedding day on the platform, where she was seen trying to hold herself together in an empty room.
In the saddening clip, which has since racked up close to a whopping 8million views, Kalina, her hubby, and their son can be seen walking into a venue where their masquerade ball-themed reception was being held.
But as the doors are opened and the couple make their way down to the front of the room, they quickly realise that barely anyone has showed up.
”POV: You planned the most beautiful entrance. Just to open the doors to an empty venue,” the newlywed wrote over the footage.
One guest, a woman dressed in red, can be seen clapping for the loved-up pair as a photographer captured their entrance.
The only other person in the 55-second long clip was a woman who appeared to be working on a laptop and possibly responsible for controlling the music.
Devastated Kalina captioned her video: ”This is our entrance to our masquerade ball.
”The masquerade ball that I have talked EXCESSIVELY about for the last 10 months,” she continued.
”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.”
The bride, who looked gorgeous in a full-length gown, added that she delayed her entrance by an hour after her mum broke the news that no one had turned up at 1pm.
By 2pm, the hall was still almost completely empty, with only a handful of guests.
”I dreamed that I would walk into a bunch of people cheering us on.
”Hooting and hollering for us in celebration,” Kalina shared her heartbreak.
”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.”
Why it’s time to ditch wedding favours once and for all
By Josie Griffiths, Deputy Digital Fabulous Editor and bride-to-be
Josie Griffiths said: When was the last time you spotted something in a shop window or browsed past it online and thought “that would be the perfect gift for 120 of my closest friends, work colleagues, relatives and boyfriend’s mate’s partners I barely know”?
I’ll tell you when, never, because there is NO universal gift everyone is going to love – unless you want to bankrupt yourself buying Rolexes and Tiffany jewellery, and even then they wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste.
So why do brides still pile the stress (and expense) of wedding favours on top of everything else we have to organise?
I’ve been to dozens of weddings over the past five years so when I got engaged, I already had a mental list of dos and don’ts for my own big day, and ditching wedding favours was firmly on it.
The cost of buying an individual present for everyone coming is huge, meaning many couples try and keep it in the under-a-fiver category.
But the reality is no-one wants a cheap, ill-thought-out keepsake – they’d probably rather one more free drink from the bar.
It’s not only that, wedding handbags are notoriously small, with no room to stuff an unexpected gift in, and catering waiters have a bad habit of whisking away the wedding favours when they’re clearing the coffee mug off the tables.
I bet none of my guests will even notice the lack of random gift on their dining table.
If you really hate the idea of not buying something for your guests, charity donations are always a nice gesture.
But the last thing your friends and family need is more random tat cluttering up their homes – so it’s time to save them the guilt of binning your Etsy-bought keyring.
The newlywed added that while the pair ultimately ”made the most of” their big day, the lack of support from her ”friends” left her feeling ”sick”.
”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.”
The bride ended her upsetting post by saying she was grateful to be surrounded by family ”that shows up when I need them” before adding the hashtag #whereisthelove.
The post received loads of support from TikTok viewers, who promised Kalina they would attend the party if she ever decided to ”redo” it.
One kind social media user said: ”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!!”
Another person chimed in: ”Now you have 52k people to watch you enter! We’re cheering you on and hooting for you!!!”
”I say do a redo and all of us can come support you and your beautiful family!” a third added.