People Keep Inviting Celebrities To Their Weddings In Hopes Of Getting Autographs And Expensive Gifts

There's trend that's been growing quietly deep within the trenches of social media platforms, and it's becoming cause for concern.

People are inviting celebrities, pro athletes, news anchors and politicians to their weddings.

Even if the happy couple knows Barack Obama may have plans on the day of their nuptials, that hasn't stopped them from shelling out the bucks for an extra invite to be sent off to the White House.

In December, a couple who invited Peyton Manning to their wedding landed themselves an autographed RSVP card (checked decline).

And Famously reports that last month, Taylor Swift attended the bridal shower of a longtime fan when she realized she'd be busy on the actual wedding date.

The proof was in the Instagram:

Like engagement photography and wedding hashtags, inviting notable figures to attend the weddings of common folk has become more of a norm. You can blame social media for that - everyone knows it's all about showing off and raking in the 'likes.'

"The Obamas will unfortunately, not attend our wedding," a woman named Lacy wrote on her personal blog in 2011.

People all over the internet discuss the idea in wedding forums and comment sections, asking one another which celebs they should mail invites to.

This couple went looking for ideas on WeddingWire:

Here were some of the suggestions people left: Prince William and Kate Middlton, Jon Bon Jovi, Bono, Carrie Underwood, Megan Fox, The Pope, Madonna, Ellen DeGeneres, and the cast of Friends. Someone even said "invite Oprah, I hear she'll sometimes send a gift."

It's in that sentence that this trend, annoying but for the most part harmless, becomes incredibly tacky.

Send an invitation to the president as a joke? Fine. Spend time crafting a list of celebrities, athletes, and politicians hoping one of them sends back an autograph or a gift so you can brag about it? Yikes.

Lacy also received an autographed RSVP card (marked decline) from Jimmy Kimmel:

Swimmingly - a site from dating service HowAboutWe - recently wrote a plea to couples looking to stock their dance floors with A-listers on their wedding nights and made a really good point: On a day that's supposedly "yours," what do you think would happen if Beyonce actually showed up?

Though social media has, of course, blown this trend out of proportion (even teenagers get in on the act by starting Twitter campaigns to score celeb prom dates), it's popped up once or twice before the internet takeover.

In 1997, the late Harold Ramis of "Ghostbusters" and "Caddyshack" fame received a wedding invitation from the Schiros - two Milwaukee-based teachers who were tying the knot.

Accoring to the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinal, The couple had sent out nearly 100 invitations to celebrities, whose addresses they found in a library book. 29 responded, including Diana, Princess of Wales, just a month before her death.

Ramis' assistant called the couple to make sure that Ramis was not a friend or distant family member. He was not.

A few weeks later, they got this joke reply in the mail: