Is it okay to use friends' birthdays to repost pictures of your wedding? | The Tylt

Reductress lays it out: 

“She’s on a five-friend birthday streak of posting bridal pictures instead of the hundreds of other pictures she could choose from,” said Jocelyn Kim. “The Instagram story she put up for Sara’s birthday was literally a picture of her first dance with Sara blurrily crying in the far background.”

The wedding reposting phenomenon reaches far and wide on Instagram and Facebook. Every Mother's Day, Christmas, Father's Day and birthday brings another dive into your friend's wedding. As bridesmaids and guests continue to age, former brides post the requisite "happy birthday" picture, complete with matching bouquets, golden-hour lighting and professional makeup (for the person not turning another year older that is). 

 It's one thing if the birthday you are celebrating is your spouse's, but for guests or anyone in the bridal party, the practice is annoying. Friends can see through the attempt to Insta-brag about your beautiful wedding, your gorgeous dress and your sweet, sweet guests. 

According to The Knot, the average cost of a wedding photographer is $2,679. That's nearly $3,000 for just a few hours of photos (and of course the editing thereafter). Wedding photos may not be intended for "happy birthday" posts—they're not even intended for Instagram—but if you have a gorgeous photo of you and your best friend on your wedding day, why wouldn't you use it? 

Most people choose their favorite pictures with their friends for birthday posts anyway. If your favorite picture with some of your friends is from your wedding, that is perfectly understandable. The pictures reflect just how much you've been through together, after all.

But even The Knot admits that posting pictures far after your wedding to celebrate friends' birthdays is a major no-no. Maria Bouselli writes that despite your own excitement for your wedding pictures, your Instagram followers won't feel the same way years after your big day happened. 

But still sharing additional photos six months after your wedding? Or even a year later? Don’t do it...sharing a photo of you looking amazing in your wedding dress with a friend who was a guest at your wedding (and whose eyes are half shut in the picture) to wish them a happy birthday? Not a good idea.

A friend's birthday should be about them, just like a wedding should be about the people getting married. By using a picture from your wedding to wish your friend a happy birthday, you take attention away from them and put it on yourself. 

On any wedding day, the couple, the guests and the wedding party are going to look their best. If you want to pick a gorgeous picture of everyone for your friend's birthday, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better one than a photo taken on someone's wedding day. 

If Patrick Stewart can do it, we all can.