Why I Won’t Do Weddings …
Which took place in 2003.
And ended in a separation in 2008.
Then a divorce in 2010.
Mr. Remis is demanding the wedding photographers pay $48,000 to recreate the last 15 minutes of his wedding because there are no photos of that portion of the event. That fee includes money to fly his ex-wife back to New York. Though he does not know where she is.
Ahem.
Groomzilla?
You can generally tell these types of people during the vetting process. The crazies are pretty easy to spot.
Needless to say, you do not want to work with them.
Ditto what Dylan said. But still not sure why you this type of thing would preclude you from shooting weddings. You could just as easily get a crazy corporate, advertising, marketing or editorial client who blows their lid and wants to sue you for something. And it’s happened quite a bit, as I’m sure you know, since you seem to read lots of these photo blogs. And in most of those corporate/advertising cases that I’ve seen, the numbers are much larger than what is going on in the wedding case.
I look at this and see three big issues. One, don’t let crazy people hire you. Two, have a solid contract that states precisely what you’re providing and what the expectations are and three, deliver on each and every item within your contract. Oh, it’s a good idea to have liability insurance as well, but that’s necessary no matter what kind of business you’re engaged in. Having that will help you deal with these rare, crazy instances.
In the article, you’ll note that the judge dismissed most of the grounds for the lawsuit, but has allowed the case to proceed to determine whether there was indeed a breach of contract. So it sounds like the only issue is that the photographer didn’t deliver according to what the photographer had agreed to do. That in itself is grounds for a dispute no matter what type of photography you do, or what type of business you’re in.