A photographer in Georgia received a one year probation and a restitution order from a judge after she canceled on a bride just hours before her wedding.
Wedding and family photographer Danielle Caldwell says it “wasn’t done out of malice” and that she intended to show up until she started feeling unwell.
“I was getting ready for her wedding, already dressed and loading my equipment, when I started feeling very light-headed, and my chest started pulling and hurting badly,” she wrote in a Facebook message, per WXIA-TV.
Bride Allison Gardner says Caldwell “caused chaos” on her wedding day. She tried to get an immediate refund so she could quickly hire another photographer but Caldwell said the money had already been used “towards bills to pay rent as any job would be… so that’s why I didn’t have the money.”
Garder shared her experience on a local Facebook group where other people in Coweta County piped up with similar stories about the photographer also not attending scheduled photo shoots.
“I took off work three to four different times and never got any photos,” wrote one person. “The same exact thing happened to me,” wrote another. “Showed up with my pets and all the kids dressed for pictures and she no-showed on us.”
Gardner went to a judge with her concerns and a state court charged Caldwell with theft by conversion. WXIA-TV reports that court records show Caldwell cut a plea deal that saw her serve a one-year probation period and pay Gardner $900 in restitution within six months.
But that was in October last year and Gardner still hasn’t received the money with Caldwell reportedly saying that she got an extension to pay the bride before June and the “issue has already been handled through the courts.”
Wedding Photographer No-Shows
Photographers not showing up for weddings is not only terrible for the couple but is bad for the entire industry.
Officials will step in with the Better Business Bureau of Central Texas issuing a warning about a photographer in 2022 after eighteen brides complained about Olivia Seymour Photography being a no-show for their wedding and engagement photos. Fourteen of those brides say Seymour did not show up to shoot their wedding days and missed many engagement shoots as well.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.