Weddings are an expensive business. That’s not a secret to anyone, whether they’ve been involved with one or not – but if you have ever worked a whole wedding day, you realize how utterly exhausting it can be.
OP is an amateur photographer, but when a friend who wanted a cheap wedding asked her to take pictures for a few hundred dollars, they agreed.
I’m not really a photographer, I’m a dog groomer. I take lots of photos of dogs all day to put on my Facebook and Instagram, it’s “my thing” if that makes sense. A cut and a photo with every appointment. I very seldom shoot things other than dogs even if I have a nice set up.
A friend got married a few days ago and wanting to save money, asked if I’d shoot it for them.
I told him it’s not really my forte but he convinced me by saying he didn’t care if they were perfect: they were on a shoestring budget and I agreed to shoot it for $250, which is nothing for a 10 hour event.
The day of the wedding, though, they had been there over 8 hours, working the entire time, without food or drink.
On the day of, I’m driving around following the bride as she goes from appointment to appointment before the ceremony, taking photos along the way. I shoot the ceremony itself, and during the reception I’m shooting speeches and people mingling.
I started around 11am and was due to finish around 7:30pm.
Around 5pm, food is being served and I was told I cannot stop to eat because I need to be photographer; in fact, they didn’t save me a spot at any table.
I’m getting tired and at this point kinda regretting doing this for next to nothing.
It’s also unbelievably hot: the venue is in an old veteran’s legion and it’s like 110F and there’s no AC.
When OP asked to leave for 30 minutes to go get some food and water, the groom told them they weren’t there to eat. He said if they wanted to get paid they had to say, otherwise they were no longer the photographer.
I told the groom I need to take off for 20min to get something to eat and drink. There’s no open bar or anything, I can’t even get water and my two water bottles are long empty.
He tells me I need to keep shooting or leave without pay.
So, OP deleted the pictures and went on their way.
With the heat, being hungry, being generally annoyed at the circumstances, I asked if he was sure, and he said yes, so I deleted all the photos I took in front of him and took off saying I’m not his photographer anymore.
If I was to be paid $250, honestly at that point I would have paid $250 just for a glass of cold water and somewhere to sit for 5 min.
Was I wrong? They went right on their honeymoon and they’ve all been off of social media, but a lot of people have been posting on their wall asking about photos with zero responses.
The bride and groom haven’t said anything yet, but OP is wondering if maybe they went too far.
What does Reddit think? You know they’re going to tell us!
The top comment does not blame OP for being upset.
This person thinks OP should post on social media so the couple doesn’t make them look bad.
This commenter says it’s just bad manners.
Overall, people don’t think OP is losing much kicking these friends to the curb.
This behavior is honestly appalling, no matter who your photographer is.
If it’s a friend? Getouttahere.