A video of a teenager “sneaking off” at her sister’s wedding before the bride’s first dance with the groom has gone viral on TikTok, where it had 3.2 million views.
The clip, shared by TikToker Laura Beck, showed a bride and groom standing and looking at each other at the center of a dance floor in a tented wedding reception space outdoors. A caption shared with the post said: “Trying to enjoy videos of my wedding and I spot my baby sister sneaking off!! She didn’t even watch my first dance.”
As drama-filled as the moment may have seemed, the bride actually found the incident “hilarious,” Laura Beck, the 28-year-old owner of a clothing store in Baker, Florida, told Newsweek.
The video later showed three women walking away from the venue, while a man looked towards them. A message overlaid on the clip read: “Can’t even stay for my first dance?”
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Beck, who got married on her parents’ farm in May, said her 16–year-old sister did momentarily leave but only to walk to the other side of the venue where the cars were parked. Her sister’s friends had brought a bottle of sparkling grape juice “to toast with the rest of [us] after our first dance,” Beck said.
The bride said her sister, who is the youngest of six siblings, is always doing the most “out of pocket” and “outlandish” things. “You really never know what she’ll say or do next…she’s just her own free spirit,” Beck explained.
The incident “caused no issues” because she knows her sister didn’t do it to hurt her. “She really had no clue,” Beck said.
The latest nuptials follow a record year for weddings in the U.S., where an estimated 2.6 million couples got married in 2022, according to the Knot, a wedding planning website.
Farms/barns and banquet halls were set to remain top picks for wedding venues in 2023, according to the Knot, which surveyed both couples who married in 2022 and newly-engaged couples. The most popular day to get married in 2023 will be September 23, marking the first time in over five years that the most popular date has not occurred in October, the Knot said.
The bride in the latest viral video said she confronted her sister about what happened only because “I thought it was hilarious.”
Beck said: “I don’t think she realized the significance of the moment being that she’s never really been to a wedding! I had no clue, in that moment during the reception, that she had walked away. The man in the video is actually our dad trying to tell her to come back but she’s stubborn.”
The poster said she only made the TikTok clip “to be funny and tease” her sister. When she showed her sister the video, “her mouth dropped laughing.”
Beck said: “She genuinely did not know it was improper or disrespectful. Especially in the south where we treat our weddings like the queen’s coronation!
“There was so much to be stressed about that day, but after we said our vows nothing else mattered. We had the greatest night, my little sister had fun with her friends and their bottle of sparkling juice…,” she added.
Several users on TikTok were sympathetic towards the original poster, with many not realizing the clip was meant to be a joke.
Joseph Miller wrote: “People have no respect for special events anymore…”
Mariah Ann said: “Little sisters have little to no care about anything, I swear!”
Hailey said: “The way I would have been p****d if this was done to me
User _sav.x3_ wrote: “Why I refuse to invite certain people. If you can’t stay and respect the bride and groom, you’re low and should never be spoken to again.”
Some were understanding of the little sister, such as user twist101013 who said: “They needed a drink sis come on!”
User whiteboy_yeti said: “I usually bounce after the meal [at weddings] tbh [to be honest].”
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