A photographer has taken to Reddit to ask if they did the right thing deleting their cousin’s wedding photos after their relative refused to pay.
A Reddit user by the name of MostFitBobo explains that they are a “semi-professional” photographer and was hired for their cousin’s wedding in December 2022 who apparently agreed to pay $1,000 for their photo services.
According to the photographer, their agreement was that they would be paid in full before sending the pictures. After editing the photos, the cousin allegedly didn’t want to pay in full, preferring to set up a payment plan over eight months instead. The photographer tells their cousin that’s fine on the proviso that the photos won’t be delivered until it is paid in full.
“It’s not that I don’t trust her but once you start opening such doors you’ll find it hard to close,” writes the photographer.
“February rolls in and she asks to at least see ‘samples’ to confirm that they were worth the price. I sent four pictures and she says she’ll show them to her husband and get back to me.
“Cue silence for a week or two until I asked for an update and she responded saying she’s still discussing it with him. I told her this was getting long and she must just start paying now and she ignored me again.”
Family Problems
u/MostFitBobo goes on to explain they saved the photos on a roommate’s flash drive but just recently the roommate needed to use the flash drive and asked if he could delete all of the files from it — including his cousin’s wedding photos.
“I saw [sic] fine and he deleted them. I still had about 20 of the photos saved on my phone from when I was choosing/sending the samples so I just explained the situation in a message to her and sent the existing photos free of charge,” writes the photographer.
Unsurprisingly this did not go down well with the photographer’s cousin who is now “slandering” the photographer online.
“It’s quite literally created a division between our families and to the point that our mums don’t talk now,” the photographer explains.
“I obviously feel bad but also feel like given the circumstances, I wasn’t really in the wrong though still acknowledge that it’s obviously very s**tty for her that I would’ve wished to avoid.”
The photographer posted their story into the r/AmItheA**hole subreddit and most Redditors seemed to agree that MostFitBobo was not in the wrong.
“Your cousin contracted you for a service, with payment agreed. She failed to pay,” writes one user.
However, it seems there was no physical contract which wedding expert and editor of Hitched Zoe Burke tells Newsweek is “essential for couples and vendors as they protect both parties should something not go to plan.”
Last week, PetaPixel reported on another viral Reddit post where a photographer demanded $1,000 to be trained in the art of horse photography.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.