Nowadays, it’s easier than ever before to become internet famous. All you need is dedication, the ability to take excellent pics, an understanding of what your followers want to see, and apparently, a complete disregard for everyone around you.

One soon-to-be bride recently reached out to the “Am I the Jerk?” subreddit detailing why she had to kick her aspiring influencer sister out of her engagement dinner. Below, you’ll find the full story, as well as an interview with the Editors of The Wedding Playbook.

The only focus of an engagement dinner should be celebrating the happy couple

Image credits: Anna Shvets (not the actual photo)

So after one woman put her influencer aspirations above her sister’s celebration, she was no longer welcome at the event

Image credits: ArtHouse Studio (not the actual photo)

Image credits: RODNAE Productions (not the actual photo)

“Engagement parties bring friends and family together to celebrate the news and get to know each other before the wedding”

To learn more about how to celebrate an engagement, we reached out to Kathy and Danielle, the editors at The Wedding Playbook, and they were kind enough to have a chat with us. Kathy and Danielle shared with Bored Panda that it’s quite common to have an engagement dinner or party to celebrate upcoming nuptials. “Engagement parties bring friends and family together to celebrate the news and get to know each other before the wedding,” the editors explained. “If your loved ones haven’t met before, there’s a long wait to the big day. Or if an intimate or destination wedding is on the cards, it’s (usually) a fun way to mark the occasion.”

Kathy and Danielle also shined some light on the responsibilities that family members usually have at occasions such as this. “Offer to help where you can, make an effort to mingle with guests outside your circle, skip the embarrassing family anecdotes and keep the focus on making it a special event for the couple,” they told Bored Panda. And if the bride and groom exercise their right to kick someone out of the event, the editors say it should only be done as a last resort. “If the person’s behavior is negatively impacting everyone’s experience and they haven’t responded to requests to stop, removing them is sometimes the only way to resolve the situation,” Kathy and Danielle noted. “As the hosts of the event, it’s also the couple’s responsibility to ensure a safe environment for staff and guests.”

“You can choose to have an unplugged wedding where guests are asked to turn off their devices for some or all of the event”

The editors also shared some advice for dealing with difficult family members in situations like this. “Try to limit their impact. Sadly, you probably already know what kind of behavior to expect from difficult relatives, so think about what they should be involved in and informed of during your wedding planning,” they recommended. “Your experience will be more positive if you understand your boundaries and hold firm on them. And if someone does cause a scene, don’t worry about what your other guests will think – empathy is more likely than judgement.” And before choosing to uninvite someone to the wedding altogether, Kathy and Danielle say that a bride and groom should think long and hard about that decision. “[It] can impact your ongoing relationship with them – and even other family members. You’ll need to assess whether the problem they might cause outweighs the benefit of them attending.”

Finally, the editors recommended a solution for dealing with a difficult guest like the sister in this particular story. “Got a perpetually online person in your life that’ll find it hard to resist posting every moment of your celebration? You can choose to have an unplugged wedding where guests are asked to turn off their devices for some or all of the event, so everyone can enjoy being fully present with you. You can also request for them to wait to post until you do.” If you’d like to gain more wedding planning advice from Kathy, Danielle and the rest of their team, be sure to visit The Wedding Playbook right here.

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Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)

Many people have a goal of becoming an influencer, but that doesn’t exempt them from being held accountable for their actions

Even if someone’s personal life is wrapped up in becoming the next TikTok sensation, they can take a day off to lay low and celebrate their sister’s engagement. And while it might sound silly to be obsessed with becoming internet famous, this aspiration might be even more common than you realize. According to one survey of 2,000 Americans, 41% of respondents admitted that they have contemplated “breaking into the content creation space,” and 49% of those surveyed believed they could make a “decent living” off of social media content.

When it comes to the incentives people have for becoming influencers, nearly 40% said that money would be a motivator, 37% noted that they’d like to share their passions, and 35% found the idea of being their own boss enticing. Oh, and 30% saw fame as a motivating factor. There’s no denying that internet celebrities have an extremely powerful influence on their followers, as 81% of Americans said they take advice from the content creators they follow online. So regardless of what the sister in this particular Reddit story had on her mind, she’s not alone in thinking she could gain a following with her social media.

Gaining internet fame may not be as glamorous as it’s cracked up to be anyway

As with anything else, being an influencer is not all sunshine and roses. There are definite downsides of being in the public eye, such the lack of privacy, being criticized and/or bullied online, being met with immense pressure to always do and say the correct thing, not having job stability and feeling pressure to document and/or broadcast their entire lives. The average person who goes to work every day in an office gets to enjoy a certain level of anonymity. The people who they follow on social media are likely all people they actually know, and they don’t have to worry about getting canceled for accidentally supporting a company or politician who they didn’t know had a darker past.

Influencers, however, are constantly put on blast for every little misstep they make. Not to mention the fact that fame can really go to a person’s head. The sister in this particular story is not even famous yet, as far as her sister makes it sound, but she is already using her social media as an excuse to treat the people in her life poorly. I can imagine this would only become worse over time, if she actually does manage to gain a larger following. We would love to hear your thoughts on this situation in the comments below, pandas. Would you have removed this internet fame-obsessed sister from your own engagement dinner? And if you’re looking for another Bored Panda article featuring engagement dinner drama to check out next, look no further than right here.   

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Readers overwhelmingly sided with the bride-to-be, assuring her that her sister was the one being unreasonable

Image credits: Marcel Strauß (not the actual photo)

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