3 SOCIAL MEDIA DON’TS FOR WEDDING GUESTS

Being invited to someone’s wedding is an honour. Sometimes, we take this privilege for granted and act in less-than-desirable ways because of our social media practices. In this piece, we give you the three main social media pitfalls to avoid as a wedding guest.

Social media is a great tool for many purposes. It’s a lovely way of keeping in touch with old friends, and it’s very useful to make new friends too. We all now have an online journal of sorts that keeps all our mates and loved ones updated on our whereabouts and activities.
However, social media comes with its own set of pitfalls. Some of the guffaws may be forgotten and forgiven quickly – because, after all, who doesn’t put a foot wrong now and then? – but if you commit any of these classic mistakes with respect to someone’s wedding, then you’d had it because you will need to hear it from them your whole life.
So do us a favour and avoid these five social media pitfalls when you’ve been invited to someone’s wedding.
1. Don’t take a selfie with the invitation card
This sounds like the most natural thing to do, and yet it’s fraught with risk. You may think that taking a selfie with the invitation card and sharing it on your wall will make your friends feel special. But stop a second and consider: what if they chose not to invite some of your common friends? What if they had not yet informed some of your common friends and were waiting to tell them first-hand. No one will appreciate that situation.
To avoid this from happening, keep the big news under wraps at all times. Remember that it’s not your news to begin with, and that anything that the bride and groom have not yet made public is not for you to share.
2. Don’t upload pictures of the bride trying out outfits
Picture this. The bride-to-be is trying outfit after outfit, and like any other loyal friend, you’re documenting her journey with pictures. And like any other modern ‘social’ person, you choose to ‘document’ it on Instagram or Twitter. In the end, the bride-to-be selects one of the many garments she has tried, but the catch is that the whole world now knows what she looks like on her wedding day.
How would you like to be walking down to the pulpit and not have anyone look back at you in curiosity? So just refrain from posting stuff on the internet and keep all the photos that you take in a personal scrapbook that the bride can decide what to do with.
3. Don’t send public messages to the couple before their wedding
It feels so innocuous. You dash off a question about the wedding to the couple on their social media page, and before you know it, you have a few hundred comments from people surprised at the news of the wedding.
It is not possible for people to invite everyone they know on social media, so they tend to keep big news like a wedding a secret until it happens. If you really need your questions answered, you’ve heard of email, haven’t you? Or better still, call up your friend and ask. If you don’t have his or her number, you’re probably not much of a friend anyway.