👰😠 Wedding Photographer SUES Bride ⚖️

👰😠 Wedding Photographer SUES bride ⚖️

So I wanted to react to this because unfortunately there are all kinds of things that can happen. Weddings are the happiest day of your life. That’s what they say. And typically it is. But just like in every situation, they can go really, really wrong.

 

So I am going to be reacting to Jessica’s video on her having to sue somebody ten years ago and giving my thoughts, not legal advice. This is just me, a guy that runs a company that does weddings and just happens to.

 

Like hearing about other people having to sue. So in today’s video, I’m going to be telling you guys a little story. This happened. Mood lighting is on point almost ten years ago. Love it back there in the background.

 

Because I like to bring up the past and relive all those wonderful memories. I’m going to be telling this story once again. I’m going to be reliving a wonderful memory of when I was in court trying to to somebody.

 

I am going to be withholding names and not giving specific details because I don’t want to put that person on blast. Even though they kind of like Loki deserve it. It’s not a big deal. Yes, if you have to take a client to court, then they low key deserve to be put on blast.

 

However, nevertheless and nonetheless, cooler heads prevail and doing something like that is not good mojo. Yeah, baby. Yeah. Anyways, other than that, let’s get to the story. I’m over it. It’s been ten years.

 

No, you’re not going to think about. It every night before I go to sleep. It started back in 2009. I was in Lebanon for the summer in the beginning of my stay there. Keep in mind, she’s like a really close family friend.

 

Like her mom and my mom have known each other a while. So she sends me this email basically saying, oh, I’m getting married this year and I need a photographer. And I would love like I know you do the art stuff.

 

I basically told her art stuff. I’m not really a photographer because keep in mind, in 2009, I had not started doing photography professionally. I started photography professionally in 2011. 2009. I was over there just trying to breathe in the air.

 

Basically she wanted me to shoot her wedding. So I told her I’m just an art student. I don’t know much more than that. I can color. It’s labeled, like, blue here. I don’t know what she was expecting.

 

I mean, it’s going to be a surprise for the both of us. Whatever happens, girl, I’m going to be there with you being shocked at the pictures because I don’t know how they’re going to come out too. Basically, I told her I couldn’t do it.

 

I mean, I literally have no experience. I don’t even know how to use a camera. I don’t even have a camera. There’s really not much to work with here other than my artistic background. I love the fact that she put that disclaimer out there her right away.

 

I don’t know what I’m doing. You might not be happy with my photos or whatever it is that she said. People out there that have the mentality of fake it until you make it, which is not the right approach when it comes to weddings.

 

You definitely don’t want to fake it until you make it. You tell people about your experience level so that way you don’t ruin their wedding. That’s the biggest thing. Like, have that weight on your shoulders.

 

This person is adamant about having you do it because you’re artistic. I don’t know what that means either. But hey, if they want to have you do it, then tell them your price and put it in the contract that I don’t own a camera.

 

I got to get this stuff, so you got to help me out with it. You got to pay me so that I can rent or whatever I need to do to provide the services that you’re hiring me for. But if you put it all in there, then supposedly it should all be good.

 

We’ll see. I thought it was over and done with. Little did she told her no, and. That’S the worst are very persistent. When you say no, they’re like, please no. She ended up asking me again, please no.

 

Please. Okay, fine. Well, if you don’t mind, then I might ruin your entire life. That is fine. She kind of just convinced me. Sorry. Remember this conversation we had? I was sitting in her car. She had just dropped me home, and I basically told her, look, you don’t have to pay me for this wedding stuff.

 

Consider it as a gift. So she basically said, no, absolutely not. I’m going to pay you, and I’m not going to let you do this for free, blah, blah. And I’m like, no, you don’t have to do that. And of course, we went into this back and forth about the payment stuff.

 

It which was really uncomfortable for me. And she just said, okay, I’m going to be tipping you. I’m going to give you a tip, and I want to give you something. I’ll pay you. She’s the one who basically was like, no, I’m going to pay you 100% no matter what.

 

I don’t know if there was a contract. I’ve said it in a million videos. And I know I always say that I’ve said it because it bears repeating. Please. I’ve said this so many times, have a signed contract.

 

The only thing that is true is what you both signed. So if neither of you signed anything, then you’re just throwing in some stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. Also, a tip is a gift and telling somebody that you’re going to tip them.

 

Hashtag not legal advice. A tip is a gift. And if you tell somebody that you’re going to tip them, that is a promise of a gift. You do not have to then tip them. So that is also relevant. I don’t know if it’s relevant to this particular case, but sometime, somewhere, somehow it’s going to be relevant.

 

Yeah, right. So if you give the tip and then say, I want it back, that is a no no. You have to a gift is a gift, but a promise of a gift is not something you can sue over. Well, again, anybody can sue anybody for any reason at any time, but you’re not going to win a lawsuit for a promise of a gift.

There are videos out there that talk about lottery tickets where somebody says, if I win the lottery, I’m going to give you half. If this ticket wins, I’ll come back. Tomorrow and split the proceeds.

 

And if it doesn’t, I’ll still come. Back and leave you a tip. What do you think? That’s not something that you’re going to win. You say, I’ll give you a tip and you don’t have to. So, yeah, let’s keep going.

 

That was it. That was really all that was left of that conversation. Again, I don’t know what was going to be. I don’t know what you get. Give me more. Jessica, how much was the tip going to be? Was there actually going to be a payment?

 

I don’t know. I’m so confused. Help me out. So she is the one that insisted that I get a tip and she was going to pay me for the work that I did, so I agreed. I was like, okay, that’s fine. The wedding was coming up, I did her engagement pictures.

 

So basically we went to a park. And again, I’m not a photographer. Okay, you guys, I literally had to rent a camera from my school, g seven X or something. It was like a small point and shoot. Oh, my God.

 

I’m pretty sure those are probably some of your favorite memories on how you were able to manipulate this point and shoot. So not mad at you rent this camera. I had to pay to rent it like an on camera flashlight.

 

I know, right? It was super awkward for me. It was my first time being around a couple that was really affectionate and everything. And I’m 19 years old, I’ve been watching like Winnie the Pooh. I had no idea what I was doing.

 

But I want no true blood. No nothing. After I sent Twilight it is, why. Am I doing all vampire stuff? I got bit on purpose so I could live forever and see future cars. She kept telling me that she liked them and I know you guys are probably going to be wondering why I’m not going to be showing a lot of these pictures or any of these pictures and.

 

Then she asked me to do her invitations for her bridal shower. Actually, that’s for a lot. Listen, I don’t know what the whole deal was with the invitations, but I ended up doing them for her. I literally custom made them.

 

So I created them from scratch. I designed them, I edited them. But you didn’t tell her how much you wanted for it. Cut them out with an exact donuts by hand, each and every invitation with. The hope of I don’t know why.

 

I did all this. Why was I so extra? And my sisters were invited to the bridal shower. I was invited to the bridal shower, which was kind of funny because guess what? Guess they took pictures of the bridal shower.

 

This girl right here, man, I got how was some bamboozled? You’ve been had you’ve been to you’ve been hoodwinked bamboozled? I don’t know why I did all that. I’m really just mad at my former self. I’m gonna have a I’m just going to have to talk to myself.

 

Come on, come on. Don’t do that. Don’t do that. First, all the experience that you got, everything in life is an experience, right? So you know what you won’t do next time, man, I worked my butt off for a friend who promised to give me a tip, and it wasn’t a bad situation.

 

So next time somebody asks me that, I’m going to say no. So former self keep do that. So that way latter self can have benefited from the experience of former self. That makes sense. That makes sense.

 

Make no sense. So let’s recap, shall we? Recap the engagement pictures, the invitations, the bridal shower. Now, at this point, I’m dumb as hell. I didn’t even realize what was happening. I’m like, yeah, I get to take pictures.

 

This is fun. So after all of that, I sent her all the pictures, gave her everything on CDs. And that’s how you know it was 2009. I was giving out CDs. Hey, CDs were the joint, man. I remember CDRs. I remember.

 

I remember burning up CDs and printing labels. And then when you got really fancy, then you had the CD printer. Remember the CD printers where you would actually print on there instead of printing a label?

 

So we would take a CD of our competitors don’t tell our competitors this. We take a CD of the competitors and scratch it and, like, see, it comes off. But look at ours. We print directly on there. It’ll never scratch off.

 

Except for when you never, ever use your CDs again. And then what’s the difference between CDR or CDR and CD plus R? What was the difference? I think one was only thing I know is one was cheaper. I think CDR was cheaper than CD plus R.

 

Is it supposed to be CD minus R? I don’t know. Then there was the wedding. As you know, I am the designated wedding photographer. Last minute, they wanted me to do video. Say what? Your girl doesn’t do video, too?

 

But guess what? She did video on that day. She was a videographer. She was a photographer. You got to give me some more dates. A camp counselor invitation manager invitation. Good one. Actually, we’re at that on twice.

 

This is not looking good for me right now. They lived an hour from me. So I drove all the way up there, take pictures with his family, who, by the way, were not very polite. They were, like, yelling at me to do stuff.

 

Oh, do this. Did you get this? And did you do this? Everything’s all over the place. Yeah. Probably didn’t have a shot. Probably shooting JPEG. He had a point and shoot. It has to be JPEG. Point and shoot was metal.

 

Mario and I had just jumped into an ocean, and I’m just trying to survive. Then to the bride’s house, which, again, was my close family friend and my mom’s friend. And it was such an awkward thing to do.

 

I don’t know. Someone walking down the street probably could have came in and assisted me because they. They would have had as much knowledge as I did. Zero. So after I took pictures of the groom family, the bride’s family, I took the bride and the groom to another location and we took pictures outside to the hall.

 

And I started setting up. And I don’t even know what that means because I literally did not know what I was doing. I had this video camera that I borrowed again from my college. I had no idea how to work it, but I knew that I pressed the record button and it does its thing, it records.

 

I had to take pictures. And then I had this rolling tripod in which I just rolled it and took video. So I was doing both of those things at once. Oh my God, it was a hot mess. I mean, I don’t even know how I did any of that.

 

And keep in mind, it was just, you know, those rectangular type video cameras, the little flip screen that comes out, that was what I was CCDR or whatever it’s called. CCDV. I tried CCDV. I really did try my best.

 

I didn’t know what I was doing most of the time, but she was really happy with what I did so far. So I figured if I just keep doing the same thing, I should be okay. So towards the end, I ended up dancing a little bit, and then I went home and I worked on the pictures for her.

 

Wow. That night. Edited a bunch of them and then I just sent them to her right away. Just like I had done with the engagement pictures, just like I had done with the bridal shower. I gave them to her on a CD.

 

So her wedding. What about the video? From November to February, I was sending her pictures through email. And you can see in these emails, like, I sent her quite a few look at me. I was like sending one or two pictures one at time.

There’s no space. That’s kind of just how I was doing things to begin with. I was sending her previews and showing her some of the photos through email. And then I believe it was mid February, she called me and I don’t know how payment came up, but she told me, email me an estimate of.

 

Deals, everything. Just send me like an invoice or something. And so I was like, okay, I’ll. Send you an estimate. That is when I sent her an estimate email, basically trying to justify the hours and everything and the rate per hour, all that stuff.

 

I had no idea what I was doing again, by the way, but I sent her an email. The amount that I charged her, which I thought was pretty fair for all the work, my gosh, that was $300 and so low. That would probably cover all the gas and all the paper and all the printing that I did.

 

Basically, I was breaking even with that number. So I was trying to be reasonable, very reasonable email. I didn’t think much of it until I got an email back from her, which shocked me. I don’t know we should do that.

 

Jessica I don’t care for how this situation has gotten out of control, and I want to put an end to it because it’s a waste of your time and mine. While I appreciate you offering to take pictures from my engagement and wedding, I am not very happy with many of the results.

 

First of all, I didn’t offer I. Was going to say you didn’t offer nothing. You asked me, begged to remind you. That in the beginning, we agreed as friends to have you take my pictures for practice and for free.

 

Wow. Oh, my God, I’m shy. That’s why we get a contract. Contract, you know, now, Jessica so if anything, you can teach your former self contract and then don’t let people take advantage of you. Don’t work for free.

 

You would be very upset. I love how she says, I want to remind you, many of the wedding pictures turned out blurry or had someone not completely in the picture. If this came from a professional service, I would not purchase them.

 

However, it was from my wedding and I really wanted to keep whatever memories I could from it in pictures and video, which also was not very good. I understand that you are asking for payment for your work now, but I’ve spoken to my father in law and husband, and after they reviewed the pictures and video, they are not agreeing to pay.

 

So at this time, I do not need any more of your services wow. Or any of the pictures from you anymore. And this is you got the stuff already sent her. You got everything? I plan to have my pictures retaken later this year, which is going to cost me more than if I would have hired a professional service in the first place, because I have to get my hair makeup done all over again.

 

I’m sorry that it has come to this, but I would prefer to salvage whatever is left of a friendship, because I have known you and your family for a long time now, and that is more important than money and things to me.

 

Well, then, pair to God made $300. You pissed me off. Also, I’m asking you to not use any of my pictures for public use. I understand. You can’t do that after the fact. God. I want you to say, I’m angry.

 

It’s okay. I’ll process my anger. I love myself. Sorry, Jessica, I’m getting heated. Sorry, I just got heated on here. Sorry. It just drives me crazy. When you do a good deed, no good deed goes unpunished.

 

And you can’t, after the fact, say, oh, yeah, by the way, remember that thing that we never really agreed to? Yeah. I’m going to make sure that you don’t do anything. I’m going to change that. We never agreed to anything.

 

So now I need you to agree to not use my stuff for public use, even though I never said that before. But afterwards, I’m going to say that. Get out of here. You feel these pictures are your property.

 

However, you do not legally own a business, nor did we sign any type of contract stating that I agreed to allow you to use my pictures. Always sign a contract. Always sign a contract. And the fact that she doesn’t own a business.

 

The fact that you don’t own a business see, now, the legal mean hat not the legal mean I should say the business hat comes on. And I get very passionate when I put on that business hat. You know, cuz keeping a slate doesn’t matter if you own a business or not.

 

If you take the pictures, whether you are in graphic school or photography school or if you’re a freelance photographer, you don’t have to have a business. There are tons of people that do business just under their name.

 

John Doe photography. And he uses his Social Security number and that is legal. And they have the rights to these damn pictures. I don’t care about the pictures of the flowers or the rings, but pictures of me, my husband, family and friends are not something that I agreed to have you post online or use on public.

 

You just said everything right there. In a nutshell, miss used to be friend. You understand that we did not sign a contract. Therefore what is customary is what applies. And what is customary is that the person who took the pictures owns the pictures.

 

Period. And then you want to pick and choose. I don’t care about the flowers or the rings, but anything with people you can’t use. No, you don’t get to pick and choose. You took photos at the wedding.

 

Carte blanche. Everything that’s included is included. Period. This just makes me kind of angry. To yeah, me too. Back on an hour. Me too. I’m so damn mad right now. So I contacted a family member who is an attorney and I asked for their help in taking this person to court.

 

Now it just became the principal. Principal. Treat me like this. I’m going to do all this stuff for you and then you’re just going to treat me like garbage. And you’re going to send me a very evil email.

 

I am going to guess. And say that it didn’t go well for you and I’m so sorry about that because I do feel for you. This was your first time, so I get the inexperience. But without a meeting of the minds of the contract, there was never a promise of payment, according to her.

 

So you’re saying there was. She’s saying there wasn’t. So in a court of law, unfortunately, I’m going to have to say you’re awesome, but you lose. Good day, sir. This family member told me to sue her for $1,500, even though the original amount was $300.

 

And bad idea. The whole purpose behind that was to get a settlement. If you’re not going to pay me $300, then you’re going to have to pay me what the full amount would be, which is $1,500. And this was not my idea.

 

It was my family member’s idea. And I trusted this person because is. That person a lawyer? No, they’re an attorney. Wow. I basically sent her a certified mail just demanding to be paid and all that.

 

I’m going to have it right here somewhere for you guys to look at. And I had to file again in her city. She lived an hour from me, so I went there, I paid to file this case. How much? I had no contract.

 

And I even told my relative, I’m like, is this going to be a problem because I don’t have a written contract? My relative basically told me a verbal contract is still just as good as a written contract.

 

Yes, if you both agree. So you have to both hashtag not legal advice. You both have to have a meeting of the minds. You both have to agree to the same thing. So the judge will say, hey, she did a friend.

 

Did you think you’re going to pay the photographer? And she’s going to say no. And then she’s going to look at you and Jess and say, you agree that you’re going to be paid and you’re going to say yes.

 

I’m like, okay, verbal contract is not there. Sorry. I was pretty confident that I would be okay and that I would win this court case. Trying to just speak my case and everything. I had all the pictures, I had all the proofs of everything.

 

So we’re going back and forth. And she basically said in a court of law that she never said that she would pay me. Then that guy that she brought, that random guy, ended up being another photographer from my city, and she basically brought him, and she’s like, you know, we had to hire this guy instead, and he charges only $400.

 

So why is she charging 1500? Basically, to be like, she’s overcharging us right now by trying to sue us for $1,500. Okay, first, in small claims, first, the way it works here in small claims, typically, the first meeting is a mediation because the courts are overburdened with cases, and so they try to settle them before having to go to trial.

 

And so mediation is the first thing. So for her to bring that person, never obviously, it’s something totally different. But in Florida, the way it works is you go to mediation. If you can’t come up with a settlement, some type of settlement or dismissal or whatever, then you set a trial date so that’s when that photographer who charges $400, she could have also found a photographer that charged $15,000 in her city.

 

It doesn’t matter what other people charge. It doesn’t matter how you do it. It’s what you’re charging. So Vita Shrin doesn’t matter, and the. Judge rules against me without prejudice. So basically, I can file again and try to retry the case.

 

I was livid. I was fuming. I was in shock. How could I lose? I don’t understand. Contract. And then I started thinking, did I. Contract, contract, contract, like $1,500? Because no, it didn’t matter.

 

My relative told me to. I felt really stupid. I was like, she won. Basically. She literally won. She got all of that. She she knew what she was. She lost because she doesn’t have you as a friend. So she’s the literally, you said $300, and so it was not worth it.

 

Your friendship wasn’t worth it wasn’t worth $300. By the way, when I was in court, the judge asked if I had. A contract, and. That was so important to him. Always have a contract. Always, always. Right there.

 

It’s right there. Right there. Always have a contract. I would not recommend doing business without a contract. So I hope that you guys took away something from my video. I like what she put down here.

 

If you’re the person this video is about, I forgive you, and I wish you and your family well. It’s probably inferred. We’re not friends. Sorry. When it comes time to do a contract, you can find the nearest toilet paper and crayon and write it down.

 

It has to be in writing. Another big shout out to Jessica K. Maybe she’ll see this video out there in the universe, and maybe she will tell me how to pronounce her last name.

 

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