A wedding photographer was criticized for offering to edit photos of the bride on her big day.
In a recent post shared on the popular Reddit forum “Am I the Asshole?”, a woman asked if it was wrong of her to tell the bride “the truth” about how she looked on her wedding day. She mentioned that she has tried her hand at photography and is considering making a career out of it. When her brother – who she called Jake – asked her to “photograph his wedding,” “of course she said yes.”
While she believed the bride, whom she named Chelsea, “has stylistic preferences that can be a little wild at times,” the photographer claimed that she “doesn’t judge at all.” The Reddit user then described details about the bride’s wedding outfit, particularly one look that didn’t seem to fit the wedding.
“Chelsea showed me her wedding makeup and she was wearing these bright green contacts. They looked extremely reptilian on her as they didn’t match her undertone. When she showed me the picture, I told her she looked pretty but that the contacts weren’t the best,” the photographer explained.
According to the photographer, the bride seemed “a little offended” by the comment about the green contact lenses. She admitted that she offered to get her “more natural contact lenses,” but Chelsea was unwilling to do so. The woman also claimed that she told the groom that the green contact lenses did not look good on his bride.
“When I took photos on their wedding day, the contact lenses looked even worse, like a neon green sign,” the photographer continued. “When Jake had a moment, I showed him some pictures. He called Chelsea over and she seemed happy with the pictures, while Jake seemed a little unsure.”
When Chelsea asked how she looked, the photographer stated that she thought the bride was “stunning” but recommended making some changes to the pictures. The bride was extremely upset by her suggestion.
“I then asked her if she wanted me to edit the contrast in the pictures a little. She then became extremely defensive and accused me of calling her ugly on her own wedding day,” she concluded. “That was obviously not my intention, but I left early to avoid a scene.”
In an edit to the post, the photographer clarified that she “asked for the edits at the wedding itself (because the bride wanted them posted ASAP”), both on the photography account and on Chelsea’s social media platforms.
The Reddit poster added: “I didn’t want her to receive rude comments from our relatives, my followers, or anything like that, but I also didn’t want her to be edited without consent.”
The post quickly went viral, garnering more than 5,000 upvotes. In the comments, several people criticized the photographer for her remarks about the green contact lenses, especially after the bride had already expressed that she wanted them for her big day.
“Giving her advice before the wedding was fine,” wrote one Reddit user. “There was absolutely no reason to show them pictures, give them advice, or ask them about editing ON THE WEDDING DAY. That could have been saved for after the wedding and done much more tactfully (give them a few options for a sample photo and see if they choose the one with less contrast).”
“You’ve expressed your opinion once. It sounds like you’ve mixed your personal opinion (‘her style choices can be a bit wild at times’) with your professional opinion about the contacts, which makes me a little suspicious of your motivation here. But still, once is fine,” said another commenter. “But then you brought it up again on their wedding day. Again when you (unnecessarily) got a second opinion to cover yourself. AND AGAIN when you suggested editing the photos the same day.”
“You mentioned it the first time and she disagreed. That should have been the end of it. But on the big day you brought it up again!?!?” wrote a third person. “If her contacts really hurt you that much, you should have just sent her two edited examples (one with adjusted contrast) and asked her after the wedding which one she preferred for the rest.”
