A woman on Reddit was confused and torn when her bride-to-be sister asked if she could Photoshop herself into the woman’s own wedding photos.
“I got married about sic years ago (I’ve since divorced and am engaged again). Our mom died five years ago, shortly after my wedding. At my wedding six years ago, the photographer took a photo of my mom fastening a necklace around my neck,” the woman wrote.
Her sister had previously said that she planned “to hire someone with graphic design skills to remove me from that photo and Photoshop herself in my place.”
“So far, I’ve said nothing, but I’ve always felt hurt by that idea and now that she is actually planning a wedding, I am wondering if I should put my foot down. At the same time, I don’t want to add to her pain either,” she continued.
“We both wanted to use our mom’s wedding dress in our upcoming weddings, but she plans to alter it beyond recognition as it was a long-sleeve, A-line dress and she wants a strapless, mermaid-style dress. I proposed that we each wear it but not make significant alterations, but she brought up that ‘I’m the only one who didn’t get to have mom at her wedding,’ and I do feel for her, so I dropped my bid to wear the dress,” the woman explained.
Despite feeling sympathetic toward her sister, she feels she has to “draw the line at removing me from my own photo with my mom.”
“Yes, I did get to have my mom at my [first] wedding. I won’t have her at my wedding to the person I’ll be spending the rest of my life with, so I’m feeling some sadness there too. If someone is going to be Photoshopping someone out of that picture, I feel it should be me Photoshopping my 24-year-old self out for my 31-year-old self,” she wrote.
READ MORE: Woman Kicks ‘Goth’ Sister Out of Wedding for Ruining $300 Dress
Reddit users backed the woman in the comments section, with many suggesting her sister might be violating copyright laws if she alters the photos.
“You, or possibly the original photographer, own the copyright for the original photo. You absolutely can stop her from illegally violating copyright,” one person wrote.
“If she’s planning to ask a professional to do the edit, they should either say no or make her prove she has permission to do it. I also wouldn’t let her take your mother’s dress and tear it apart. It’s not your mother’s dress if she’s altering it beyond recognition. Removing the sleeves or changing something about it is one thing, but altering everything is not the same. I’d make her get a new dress,” another advised.
“You seriously need to set some boundaries with your sister. Normally, I wouldn’t say someone is using a parent’s death to use in their entitlement parade but that’s exactly what she’s doing and you’re so afraid of hurting her feelings that you’re letting her and she knows it,” someone else commented.
