Today we bring you a tale from the Reddit message boards that sounds like a particular vision of a photographer’s hell but that is probably more common to those of us that work at weddings than anyone would like to admit.
We’re talking about a bridezilla, a gig that pays in “exposure,” and irate, irrational people. Basically the recipe for a great drama and so it begins.
First posted by SLR Lounge who found Reddit user Breathofthemild420’s post, the story starts off as your typical entitled client tale but quickly devolves into a batch of insanity all of its own.
At first, Breathofthemild420 was asked to photograph a friend’s wedding (already a bad start) if he first paid the bride $USD 50 for the privilege of doing so.
What?
You read that correctly: The bride wanted the photographer to pay her to capture her wedding. She then said Breathofthemild420 could sell the photos at the wedding to people who wanted them.
As many of you are probably already aware, that isn’t how it works at all. Yet it gets better.
Naturally, no photographer in their right mind would take such a job. And Breathofthemild420 tried to turn down the job multiple times according to his account. But that didn’t seem to work.
Breathofthemild420 recounts:
“Phone calls and messages persisted, getting all scorched-earth. Several dozen calls in the same day, and several HUNDRED texts…We would get a ‘stop-in’ at least once per day which became increasingly threatening. It was turning into a s— show. …So I finally just told her I’d do it and pay her on the wedding day,” he said. “I never had [the] intention of showing up at this point.”
While not the most professional route to take, it is probably understandable on some level given the clients were harassing the photographer.
His answer apparently worked and, come the day of the wedding, he followed through with his plan to not show up to the event.
This understandably angered his “clients” who continued the seething barrage of texts and voicemails that apparently was their modus operandi prior to the wedding as well. The bride’s father even showed up to the photographer’s house and started threatening him with physical harm.
At this point, given the phone calls, texts, and social media interactions, Breathofthemild420 has enough evidence to get authorities involved.
“Got a call from an officer, my wife and I went down and did one more statement. The bride and her dad were both arrested last night after I called it in…They had all the evidence they needed from the social media and the messages I submitted.”
As always, we’d love to know what you think about this story. Do you have your own experience you’d like to share? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. And thanks to Redditor Breathofthemild420 for the story.
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