Kalina Marie was left devastated after she walked into her wedding venue, only to find most of her friends and family missing as the lavishly decorated hall wore an empty and sad look. Ms Marie had long dreamt of a fairytale wedding, surrounded by her loved ones but what she saw was every newlywed's nightmare. Documenting the incident on social media, Ms Marie, hailing from Oregon, US, posted a video where she alongside the groom, Shane, could be seen walking hand-in-hand into the reception area with long faces as only a handful of people cheered the couple.
The only silver lining was the couple's son who came alongside and walked them down the aisle as Miley Cyrus' "When I Look at You" played in the background as the entry song. According to Marie, she had 'digitally' invited 75 people and personally sent 25 invitations to the masquerade-themed event.
"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 of the past, adding that only "FIVE PEOPLE SHOWED UP!!!!".
The couple, together for nine years, had announced the wedding date in January and were eagerly looking forward to their long-awaited special day.
"Like, are you kidding me!?!? As you see in the video, we enter the venue. And no one is there. The invite said 1 pm. My mum messaged me at 1:15 pm that no one was there. My husband and I finally showed up at 2 o'clock, to five people, in a venue planned for 40," she added.
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'Little embarrased'
Feeling low by the disappointing turnout, Ms Marie decided to pick herself up and headed to the dancefloor to have her first dance with Shane. The video clips showed the few people in the venue joining the couple as well to make the best of the situation.
"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?" she questioned. "Why couldn't we matter enough for people to show up?"
Ms Marie posted an update a few days after the wedding, admitting that she and her husband were "a little embarrassed and still moving through the stages of grief" as well as "still dealing with anger".