Woman flies 3,000 miles to friend's wedding before turning up at wrong ceremony

After eight hours cooped up on a plane on a 3,000 mile flight across the Atlantic, Arti Mala was excited to celebrate her friend’s wedding.

She had flown from her home town of Washington DC all the way to Glasgow, Scotland, to witness the big day, only to fall at the last hurdle.

Arti turned up to the ceremony, only to realise she had gone to the wrong wedding.

It wasn’t her friend Gaurav’s celebration, it was the wedding of Caitlin and Stephen, which Arti very quickly figured out as the couple exchanged their vows.

Arti had gone wrong when she booked a taxi to Pollokshaws Burgh Hall, Caitlin and Stephen’s venue, when she was meant to get a taxi to nearby Pollokshields Burgh Hall.

The venues were just a mere mile away from each other, with her friends ceremony in Glasgow’s Maxwell Park.

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Arti, founder of First Seed Foods, even documented the ordeal on TikTok, with the video showing her rather concerned expression as she pans round to the wedding sign, which says: ‘Caitlin and Stephen. 12.08.2023. Thank you for sharing our special day with us.’

Although she didn’t mean to share their special day with them, the groom and his bride’s brother both had a sense of humour about it.

The pair were seen laughing in the video. The brother says: ‘You’ve come to Scotland from America and come to the wrong wedding.’

Arti replies, laughing: ‘It’s true, oh my gosh I’m at the wrong wedding’.

The groom chimes in: ‘My wedding and her wedding (he points at the bride).’

Arti spoke in another TikTok about the moment she realised. She said: ‘Once I got there, I sprinted into the hall because I knew I was running late and immediately no one looked familiar, which is okay because I’m coming from out of town.

‘I didn’t know a lot of the wedding guests but then I saw the big board that said “congratulations Caitlin and Stephen” and I though oh I must just be at the wrong entrance. Maybe it’s a big building and it’s hosting multiple events.

‘It didn’t dawn on me until later that I’m actually at the wrong venue. So I’m at the entrance trying desperately to call another Uber, not getting any luck.

‘Two guys walk out and I said “oh my gosh I can’t believe it I’m at the wrong place”. It turns out it was the bride’s brother and the groom.

Replying to @Kate the story gets crazier! #storytime #glasgow #scotland #punjabiwedding

‘They said “hey we made the same mistake this morning. We went to Pollock Shaw instead of Pollock Shields, but they’re actually pretty close and the names are just so similar”.’

While Arti was waiting for her Uber the bride also came out. Arti added: ‘I can’t believe I met the wedding party at this other event and they were so sweet.

‘They must’ve asked me to come in for a drink and to stay at the reception maybe five times or more.’

Arti then filmed herself in the back of an Uber she caught saying she finally made it to her friend’s wedding but that she missed the speeches.

She said: ‘I finally did get an Uber and sprinted inside but by then that entrance was over, all of the wedding speeches were over, appetizers were well under way and I had missed all of it.

‘I think the father of the groom was particularly upset that I wasn’t there on time. I made it up to him later in the evening over drinks, but the bride and groom were super chilled.’

Upon her arrival Arti filmed the reception of Gaurav’s wedding which was a mix of traditional Scottish and Punjabi elements.

The wedding party were clad in kilts and traditional Punjabi outfits as they did the conga around the reception room, while Punjabi music played.

Despite such a dramatic misstep, Arti had only attended the wrong wedding because she’d been unaware there were two venues with such similar names when ordering the Uber from her Airbnb.

But it took only six minutes for her to get from one venue to the other so it wasn’t a complete disaster.

She shared the footage to TikTok on Monday documenting the events, writing: ‘Congratulations, Caitlin and Stephen. Thanks for being such good sports and inviting me in for a drink.’

The video has received 46,000 likes but Arti then shared that her slip-up was made even worse by the fact that she was meant to be their ‘unofficial wedding videographer’.

She said in a second TikTok: ‘I was meant to be capturing all those moments on video and I wasn’t there for it!’

She added: ‘The wedding that I was going to was a cross cultural wedding. It was British, Punjabi and Scottish.

‘And the couple had all of these really fun surprises and thoughtful details like bag pipes, playing with a dhol player and a bunch of really cool things and I missed all of it.

‘The reason that I wasn’t there on time was that I completely misjudged the break time between the different events.

‘The ceremony started at 1pm just after that, and I knew the reception was going to run until midnight so I figured the Airbnb was just five minutes away let me just relax for a little bit.’

So it looks like taking a relaxation break between a wedding ceremony and the reception isn’t advisable.

However Arti said that the bride and groom were just glad she got there in the end. She said: ‘They were just happy I made it and it was one of the most fun and thoughtful weddings I’d ever been to.

‘It was an insane start to the day but a magical and memorable evening.’

One commenter on Arti’s TikTok said: ‘This needs to turn into a rom com movie now! Lol!’

Another wrote: ‘I would have stayed if it was alright with them’, to which Arti replied: ‘They were the best humans!’

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