Bride responds to why guests didn't show up to her wedding in an emotional video

A bride whose big day went viral after her guests failed to turn up has given her thoughts on why people didn't show.

As previously reported, Kalina Mari's wedding day turned into a moment of heartbreak when she made a grand entrance to a near-empty venue.

Weddings are supposed to be a joyous affair. Credit: Peter Cade/Getty

As the doors opened, the bride realized that only a handful of the over 100 guests she had invited had shown up.

Kalina’s story quickly went viral after she shared her experience in a TikTok video, capturing the moment she walked into the venue with her husband and their son to find only three guests in attendance.

In the video, which has gained millions of views, she expressed her disappointment, saying: “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 couple had delayed their wedding multiple times due to the pandemic, and after nine years together - including four years engaged - they were finally ready to celebrate their journey with family and friends.

In January, they had set a date for October and began planning in earnest, sending digital invitations to 75 guests and physical invitations to another 25.

“This is our entrance to our Masquerade [sic] ball,” Kalina wrote in the caption, explaining that the event was something she had “talked EXCESSIVELY about for the last 10 months.”

She added: “The same ball that I not only digitally invited over 75 people to, but ALSO spent money to send 25 beautiful invitations out to.”

With the absence of expected guests, Kalina described herself as “a woman trying to hold herself together,” facing the reality of “wasted food and drinks” and “empty tables and chairs.”

They even delayed the event by an hour, hoping more people would arrive, but when they made their entrance at 2:00PM, the room remained largely empty.

Determined to make the most of the night, Kalina and her small group of attendees pushed through.

Kalina still made the most of it. Credit: Ricardo Mendoza Garbayo/Getty

“Did we still make the most of it?? You bet your SWEET a** we did,” she wrote.

“But did this video just take all the good moments and shoot them out of the water for a second, f*** yeah it did.”

Kalina later addressed the widespread curiosity and speculation around why so few guests attended.

In a video response to a comment asking: “So what was the reasoning behind it, all those people just didn’t show, no explanation?”

Kalina explained that she had created a Facebook event for the wedding and that her mother prepared food for 40 guests.

“I checked in with everyone the week of, and at least 20 people had gotten back to me saying that they had an outfit and that they were coming,” she said.

But the turnout didn’t match the assurances she had received.

“And the biggest question is why? And I don’t know if I could answer that,” she admitted. “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.”

“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,” Kalina concluded.

Featured image credit: Peter Dazeley / Getty