They say never mix business with pleasure, which in many cases means don’t hire your friends.

Why? While mates rates may be great, it takes a very strong person not to bring any professional conflict into the friendship.

But when the man in this story hired his close friend as his wedding photographer, he never imagined their friendship would be under threat as a result.

Unfortunately, the man’s refusal to communicate has thrown everything into question.

Read on to find out what happened.

AITA for being upset with a friend for not delivering our wedding pictures on time?

My wife (female, 27) and I (male, 28) got married this June. The wedding was absolutely perfect in every way.

I asked my very close friend (lets call him Jon – male, 29) to be our wedding photographer.

Jon has unfortunately been quite sick the last couple of years, struggling with inflammatory bowel disease. He has quit his studies, his job etc, but in the last year or two he has started doing some work as a wedding photographer.

Him agreeing to take our pictures meant a lot to me, since he would be a big part of our special day (in addition to being a groomsman).

But he was keen not to put pressure on his friend.

It is important to highlight that when asking, I specifically told Jon that while having him as a photographer would be very special to us, I did NOT want him to agree at the expense of his health.

The most important thing was for him to be at our wedding, as our guest, sharing our special day.

Jon told us that he would love to take our pictures.

We had a contract signed, with pay, and with expected delivery of pictures early September, twelve weeks after the wedding.

The day was amazing, and we had such a great time!

And then…. silence. September was getting close, and we heard nothing about the pictures.

Read on to find out how he approached the issue with his friend.

The week before deadline I asked him for an update – he was not finished, but he sent over a few samples (about ten pictures), and said would finish the rest within a couple of weeks.

A couple of weeks passed, and still nothing. No updates, no word.

My wife and I decided not to bother him, as his own wedding was approaching, and we did not want to stress him out further.

After his wedding (a destination wedding, at which I was the best man), still nothing.

So he decided to probe again.

Last night I asked Jon if he had gotten any closer to the finishing our pictures, as we (among other things) were planning to use some of them as Christmas gifts to our family.

His answer? He had done NO EDITING since the beginning of September, and was now leaving for his honeymoon, meaning the pictures would be finished in January at the earliest.

This is where I might be in the wrong. I sent Jon quite a long message, expressing our disappointment and frustration with both the delay, but mainly the lack of communication.

Our pictures being four months delayed with no updates along the way is not ok. We are no longer looking forward to seeing the pictures, but rather stressing about whether or not we will receive them at all.

Uh-oh. Let’s see how Jon responded.

Jon responded this morning. He told me that the stress of our wedding, my bachelor-party and taking our pictures has been making him sick and burnt out, and that he has sacrificed the last six months of his life to help us.

He is accusing me of ruining their honeymoon for expressing my disappointment now and not later, and not caring about his wellbeing.

He says that I should have texted him more often to ask how he was doing.

For context, I have spent the last three months in compulsory military service, with almost no time off – I have seen my pregnant wife three times, and one of those times was at Jon’s wedding.

So AITA?

It’s clear that Jon is trying to push the blame onto his friend, rather than accepting that he has breached the terms of their signed contract.

Sure he might have had a lot on, and his health might have suffered – and his friends would surely have understood, if only he had communicated with them.

Instead he gave them radio silence, despite the fact that he knew they were waiting since they’d enquired in August, meaning that their lasting memories of their wedding are going to be received with bitterness – if at all.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit had to say about this.

This person agreed that Jon could have done much more.

While others encouraged them to take steps to safeguard the friendship.

Meanwhile, this person – who had been in a similar position to Jon – agreed that he should simply hand the photos over and put the friendship first.

He needs to accept responsibility.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.