A woman traveled more than 3,000 miles to a Scottish wedding only to show up at the wrong reception – but the bride and groom invited her in for a drink anyway

19.08.2023 - 10:07 / insider.com

A woman said she flew 3,000 miles to attend a wedding in Scotland only to end up at the wrong reception where the bride and groom, who were complete strangers, invited her in for a drink anyway.

Arti Mala, founder of vegan food brand First Seed Foods, shared the tale of her wild wedding mix-up in a TikTok on Monday that's received nearly half a million views. In the clip, Mala wrote: "POV: You traveled >3,000 miles and accidentally showed up to the wrong wedding."

The video then cuts to two men wearing kilts and a bride in a white dress, who Mala said made up the wedding party of an event she was not invited to.

"Congratulations Caitlin and Stephen," she captioned the post. "Thanks for being such good sports and inviting me in for a drink."

In a follow-up TikTok shared two days later, Mala explained that the mix-up was made worse because she was the "unofficial videographer" at the wedding she actually was invited to. 

"I was meant to be capturing all those moments on video and I wasn't there for it," Mala said. 

She shared that the wedding she was supposed to be attending all day was a cross-cultural event, showcasing the bride and groom's English, Punjabi, and Scottish heritage. She managed to attend the ceremony, but said the day took an unexpected turn when she decided to head back to her Airbnb to change before the reception. 

"I completely misjudged the break time between the different events," Mala said. After swapping outfits at her accommodation, she said she booked an Uber to head to the reception.

Unwittingly, she typed a slightly different venue address, which led her to arrive at a location that was a 25 minutes walk from the event she was supposed to be at. "I was flustered, I was just trying to get out the door," she added. 

"Once I got there, I sprinted into the hall because I knew I was running late and immediately no one looked familiar, which is ok because I'm coming from out of town so I didn't know a lot of the wedding guests," Mala said.

However, upon noticing the wedding welcome sign, she began to suspect something wasn't quite right. "I saw the big board that said 'Congratulations Caitlin and Stephen,'" she said. "It didn't dawn on me until later that I'm actually at the wrong venue." 

Once her unintentional wedding-crasher situation became clear, she "desperately" tried to get an Uber to the right venue but said she was approached by the groom, the bride's brother, and the bride. 

"They were so sweet, they must've asked me to come in for a drink and to just stay at this reception maybe five times," she said. "But again, I flew all this way for this specific wedding."

When she finally arrived at the right reception, Mala realized she'd missed the entrance and the wedding