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After video of her "empty" wedding racked up millions of views, the bride answers questions from viewers -- revealing how many people RSVPed and didn't show ... and why they're now "deleting a lot of people out of our lives."
Nearly 5 years after getting engaged and following 10 months of planning, a Saint Helens, Oregon woman and her man tied the knot ... only for them to be left heartbroken and questioning their friendships after nobody showed up.
A woman named Kalina Marie shared her wild story to TikTok last week, in a video that has since gone viral.
"POV: You planned the most beautiful entrance. Just to open the doors to an empty venue," she wrote over the footage, which showed her, her husband and her son walking into their reception ... which was basically empty, save for a couple people.
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"This is our entrance to our Masquerade ball. 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," she wrote in the caption.
"FIVE PEOPLE SHOWED UP!!!!!!! Like, are you kidding me!?!?" she continued, saying her mother first warned her nobody was there at 1:15 on the day of the wedding ... despite the invitations saying to show up at 1pm.
"My husband and I finally showed up at 2oclock, to 5 people. In a venue planned for 40," she wrote.
"I dreamed that I would walk in to a bunch of people cheering us on. Hooting and hollering for us in celebration ... 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," added Kalina.
The woman went on to point out all the "Wasted food and drinks," before saying the group who was there still made the most of the day.
"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?" she asked. "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 yet."
She concluded her post, "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 ❤️"
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Influencer Mama Tot was one of the many who flooded Kalina's comments, writing, "This hurts my heart for you." In a followup post, the bride responded, "dont worry mama tot, I still made the most of my night 🥰 With my mama, my cousin and my best friend."
She also included video of the small group dancing to Backstreet Boys' "Everybody," proving a fun time was still had, despite the no-shows.
Many of the commenters asked about doing a "do-over," with viewers all promising to show up for the newlyweds if they tried again. It's a suggestion Kalina really appreciated, as she said she never expected her video to blow up as big as it did. According to her, the bride only had 6K followers when she shared the first video; now, it's been viewed nearly 9 million times, while she boasts 20K followers.
"I am completely overwhelmed. Between feeling the love and support from TikTok. But also having to deal with the grief of deleting a lot of people out of our lives. It has been a whirlwind of emotions since this happened just this last Saturday," she shared in another video.
"Thank you all so much for offering a redo, wouldn’t that be amazing? But, like many of you have said ... my little group is really all I need. And now I truly know, who is there for me and who is not," she added. "I will just be forever grateful that so many people got to see the entrance I dreamed about for so long 😭❤️🫶🏽😭❤️🫶🏽"
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In additional videos in which she identified herself as the woman "who got stood up by all my friends and family," Kalina explained the pair got engaged back in December 2019, before the pandemic and additional struggles put a delay on things. They announced their wedding date in January, she said, and "for the past 10 months, I have been blabbing about this" all over social media. She claimed she even made a Facebook Event and also mailed out 25 invitations to those who aren't online.
"I had 40 RSVPs, so that's what we planned for. We set up the venue for 40 people. My mom made enough food for 40 people," she said, adding that her mother is a chef. "I checked in with everyone the week of [the wedding] and at least 20 people had gotten back to me saying they had an outfit and they were coming."
But then, that didn't happen.
"The biggest question is why and I don't know. If I could answer that, I would tell you. I haven't received a lot of messages explaining why people weren't there or giving excuses," she said, adding, "for the most part, we've done a lot of deleting and re-evaluating our lives and spending a lot of time appreciating what we have and what we had."
"To all those people who had this happen to them, I am truly very sorry because I wouldn't even with this on my worst enemy," she added, later confirming those who did show up included her best friend and her cousin. "I couldn't have done any of this without them or made it through any of it without them," she shared.
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On Wednesday, as her story continued to make headlines, Kalia shared another video responding to haters speculating she "must be such a horrible person" because of her situation.
"Imagine hating on someone you don't even know because you're jealous of the attention they got for one of the most embarrassing moments of their life 👌🏽 yes im a real person," she captioned a video of her in the gym.
"Yes I have real feelings. And yes im still trying to work through everything. And I appreciate all the POSITIVE and ENCOURAGING words that have been shared," she added. "I will take them and keep them with me always 🫶🏽 much love to you all 🫶🏽"
While Kalina also said she appreciated people offering to start a GoFundMe for her, she instead asked for viewers to send them wedding cards -- giving out a PO Box address they could be sent to.
That address: Kalina and Shane, PO Box 1047, Saint Helens Oregon. 97051
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