Patricia Grisafi
It’s one thing to help a friend out with their wedding — it’s another to be taken advantage of and refused food and drink.
One Redditor who agreed to photograph their friend’s wedding found themselves without dinner or water in a hot venue and made a decision: to delete all of the wedding pictures in front of the groom.
Look, wedding professionals should all be able to take a break and eat. The OP, getting paid pennies and doing a favor, was given an ultimatum — and as many Redditors said, the groom surely “f*cked around and found out.”
“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,” the OP writes.
“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 OP says that they shot the bride as she went from appointment to appointment, the ceremony, the reception, and the speeches. When the OP stopped to get something to eat and drink, they were told they could not and to keep taking pictures: “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.”
“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 either be photographer, or leave without pay. 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 5min.”
Was the OP wrong to delete the photos or were they teaching the groom a lesson about taking advantage of friends?
“NTA at all. You could have risked your health and they treated you like sh*t,” said mon0chrom.
“They wanted mates rates but didn’t even save you food? NTA. The dogs are much better people than these ‘friends.'” — Cat_got_ya_tongue
“He told you to leave without pay and you called his bluff,” noted type1error.
“OP shouldn’t have deleted the pictures. As satisfying as it is, they should have just left and then when her friend asked about them later should have said she’d sell them the pictures for double or triple the price,” said TheeFlipper.
“ESH. This is one of those times where this sub needs the Justified AH rating. Was what you did sh*tty and petty? Absolutely. And it’s a general rule of thumb to never make big decisions when you’re grieving or hangry. But damn these ‘friends’ of yours were terrible. Complete cheapskate AH’s and the groom was a groomzilla. There is no pass for how they treated you. But again, your behaviour was justified, but still AH behaviour. I wouldn’t have deleted the photos, they are someone weddings photos, so at the very least I would have given them a second chance before deleting them. I would have said, ‘Ok, I’m done for the night since you won’t let me take a break. You want your photos, the charge is now $500 since you didn’t provide me with gas, food, water, or a food break. If you don’t pay the $500, I’m deleting the photos.’ I may be an AH, but I would have held those photos hostage and given them a chance to ‘earn them back,'” advised MangoWorking3057.
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