Bride Says Her Wedding Photographer’s Work Was a ‘Complete Disaster’: ‘Please Learn from My Nightmare’

An upset bride is telling all about her nightmare wedding photographer. 

The woman shared her experience on Reddit’s “Wedding Shaming” forum, where she said her experience with the photographer was “a complete disaster.”

“I never thought I’d be writing something like this, but I want to share my story so no one else ends up in the same nightmare,” the bride cautioned. 

“I hired a photographer for my wedding — supposed to be one of the happiest days of my life — and the experience was a complete disaster,” she continued. “The photos we received were full of what looked like AI glitches, pixelation and bizarre editing choices that somehow made me look like I had gained 30 pounds.”

She added, “It was devastating and genuinely made me feel sick.”

The woman later consulted with a professional photographer to figure out what went wrong. At that point, she found out that her special day was photographed using an inferior camera setting, noting that the photographer “shot the entire event in JPEG only, not RAW.”

The RAW camera setting, the bride explained, “is the standard for professional photography because it captures full detail and allows proper editing.”

The Reddit poster also learned that the photographer seemingly edited the wedding photos on her phone, versus using a computer with professional software. “She claimed the photos looked fine on her screen, but of course, they completely fell apart when viewed properly,” the disgruntled bride said of the photographer. 

The woman got in touch with the wedding photographer and expressed her dissatisfaction with the photos, but was unable to reach a resolution. She said the photographer “flooded me with excuses: blaming her new computer, her children and even a funeral.” The shutterbug also refused to give the bride the unedited JPEG files from her wedding day.

Ultimately, the photographer cut ties with the bride and told her she would only communicate with her father-in-law, who paid for the pictures. 

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“Unbelievable,” the bride said of the situation. “This experience has caused me huge stress and heartbreak. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”

She urged future brides to “ask hard questions” when booking a photographer to ensure they get the best quality photos. “Learn from my painful mistake and protect your memories. Some damage is irreversible,” the bride concluded. 

People in the comments sympathized with the bride, but they also mentioned some red flags she potentially ignored while booking the photographer.

“Sounds like you didn’t properly research your photographer before hiring them,” one person wrote. “Did you even look at their portfolio beforehand? Check out their website? Look at their social media? Price is also a big one, did you find someone that was $500 and expect great work?”

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A second person wondered if the bride checked out the photographer’s previous work before booking her for the big event. “Did you… check this person’s gallery out? Are you saying this is the first time they did this kind of stuff? What [were] the meetings and consults like? What about the contract? Do they have like 5-10 galleries of solid shots you loved from their portfolio? Or what made you go with them,” they wrote. 

A third emphasized that even if the photographers pass all the criteria, they can still let you down. “My wedding photographer was a friend of the family and came highly recommended. I have exactly two pictures from my wedding—two. However, [I’ve been] married to the same man for 46 years, so I don’t really care about the pictures,” the commenter wrote.