Woman refuses to wear matching 'pickle dress' for birthday dinner, 'the energy was SUPER WEIRD.' AITA?

"AITA for refusing to wear the matching 'pickle dress' my friends picked out for my birthday dinner?"

So I (22F) just had my birthday last weekend, and a few of my friends decided to surprise me by planning a dinner and getting us all matching outfits. Cute in theory, right? That’s what I thought too—until I saw the actual outfit.

It was a bright green, shiny latex-looking dress covered in cartoon pickles. Literal pickles. With faces. And little speech bubbles like “Dill with it!” and “I’m kind of a big dill!” It looked like something a drunk Etsy seller would make at 2 a.m. as a joke.

Apparently, the whole “pickle theme” came from an inside joke I barely remember—something I said once during a tipsy game night about craving pickles when I’m stressed. That was it. That was the foundation for the entire birthday outfit.

I told them straight up I wasn’t wearing it. I didn’t want to walk into a nice restaurant looking like a rejected Nickelodeon mascot. They begged, said it was all in good fun, and that they’d already taken pics in theirs. But I just couldn’t do it. I wore a normal black dress instead.

Well…they all showed up in the pickle dresses without me. I could tell they were annoyed, especially the one who organized it. The energy was super weird all night. One of them even muttered “guess some people just don’t know how to have fun” when I went to the bathroom.

Now I’m getting passive-aggressive texts about how I “killed the vibe” and “made everything about me” on my own birthday. I feel kind of bad because they did put effort into it, but like…I never asked to be the queen of condiments. AITA for refusing to wear the dress, or were they just being too extra?

Here's what top commenters had to say about this one:

leasully19 said:

How dare you make your birthday about you! NTA.

Powerful_Put_6977 said:

You told them before you were due to go to the restaurant and you went through with what you told them. NTA. I could somewhat grasp why they might want to wear similar outfits if it was a hen night but once you're an adult and you're having a birthday celebration, you don't usually all decide to wear the same outfits...unless you're still believing that you're in High School!

FryOneFatManic said:

NTA. It's your birthday, they should have thought of something you wanted to wear. It really was about you.

ShortNSassy970 said:

You're birthday 100% should never be about you but your bad friends! Nta.

GeneralyAnnoyed5050 said:

"I never asked to be the queen of condiments." This is priceless. NTA.

Low-Employment3510 said:

NAH. This just isn't really your tribe.

Carradee said:

NTA. It was your birthday, so your friends should've either let you pick the dress or made it a group decision. That's pretty basic etiquette. They also should've considered the venue where they were going to be wearing the dresses. It sounds as if they didn't whatsoever.