Wedding photographer slammed after offering to edit pictures of the bride

A wedding photographer has been criticized for offering to edit photos of the bride on the big day.

In a recent post shared to the popular “Am I The A**hole?” Reddit forum, one woman asked if she was in the wrong for telling the bride “the truth” about how she looked on her wedding day. She noted that she’s dabbled in photography and was considering making it a career. When her brother – who she referred to as Jake – asked her to “photograph his wedding,” she “of course agreed” to the opportunity.

While she believed that the bride, who she called Chelsea, has “stylistic choices [that] can sometimes be a bit wild,” the photographer claimed that she “doesn’t judge at all.” The Reddit user then described details about the bride’s wedding attire, specifically one look that didn’t seem to be fitting for the nuptials.

“Chelsea showed me her wedding makeup, and she had these vibrant green contacts on. They looked extremely reptilian on her due to it not matching her undertone. When she showed me the picture, I told her she looked lovely, but that the contacts weren’t the best,” the photographer explained.

According to the photographer, the bride “seemed a bit offended” by the comment about the green contacts. She acknowledged that she offered to find her “some more natural contacts,” but Chelsea wasn’t up for it. The woman also claimed she told the groom that the green contacts didn’t look good on his bride.

“On her wedding day, as I took pictures, the contacts looked even worse, like a neon green light-up sign,” the photographer continued. “When Jake was free for a moment, I showed him a few pictures. He called Chelsea over, and she seemed to be happy with the pictures, while Jake seemed a bit iffy.”

When Chelsea asked how she looked, the photographer explained that she thought the bride “looked stunning” but recommended making some changes to the pictures. The bride became extremely upset by her suggestion.

“I then asked if she’d like me to edit the contrast a bit in the pictures. She then got extremely defensive, and accused me of calling her ugly on her own wedding day,” she concluded. “Of course that was not my intention, but I left early to prevent a scene.”

In an edit to the post, the photographer clarified that she asked “about the edits at the wedding itself [because the bride] wanted them posted ASAP” on both the photography account and 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 has quickly gone viral with more than 5,000 upvotes. In the comments, multiple people criticized the photographer for her comments about the green contacts, especially after the bride had already expressed that she wanted them for her big day.

“Giving her advice pre-wedding was okay,” one Reddit user wrote. “There was absolutely no reason to show them pictures or give them advice or ask about editing ON THE WEDDING DAY. That could have been saved for post-wedding and could have been done a lot more tactfully (give them a few options of a sample photo and see if they choose the lower contrast one).”

“You expressed your opinion, once. It sounds like you were mixing your personal opinion (‘her stylistic choices can sometimes be a bit wild’) with your professional opinion about the contacts, which makes me a touch suspicious of your motivation here. But even so, once is fine,” another commenter said. “But then you brought it up again on her wedding day. Again when you (unnecessarily) sought a second opinion to back yourself up. AND AGAIN when you suggested editing the photos on the same day.”

“You mentioned it the first time and she disagreed. That should have been the end of it. But you mentioned it again on the big day!?!?” a third person wrote. “If her contacts really pained you that much, you should have just sent her two edited examples (one with adjusted contrast) and asked which she preferred for the rest, after the wedding.”