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Wedding is a once in a lifetime event, while couples will try the best of their ability to eliminate any possibilities for hiccups on their big day.
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But there are a growing number of netizens across the city complaining against irresponsible wedding vendors, with some even failing to show up on the day of the wedding.
A recent posting on social media Threads by a newly-wed, said the photographer they booked for their big day called them one day before their wedding, telling them he was “double booked for the day.”
“The photographer told me the other pair of couples are quite hard to deal with, therefore told us that we will have to cancel our booking,” the bride said.
The bride therefore asked for around HK$18,000 in compensation, which is the full price of the wedding photography package the couple booked, but the photographer refused.
The photographer only agreed to return the couple’s deposit, and compensate half of what the couple asked for, which is around HK$9,300, and offered a free family photo session.
“You have emptied all our trust in you, and you still dare ask us to take family photos with you?” the bride wrote.
Even worse, the photographer made a posting on his own social media account on the couple’s big day, saying that his photography session with another pair of newly-weds was “completed smoothly”.
“This is double jeopardy to me when I saw this posting. Your work went smoothly, while I was so stressed one day before my wedding,” the bride said. “You may have a lot of jobs, but I only have one big day. I may be calm, but I certainly am not forgiving him.”
The bride fortunately was able to find another photography company to fill the vacancy: “But it was a nightmare, I am so grateful to get help from many people, and my wedding went smoothly in a happy atmosphere.”
The newly-wed’s experience prompted multiple netizens to tell the irresponsible behavior they have experienced with the same photographer and his company in the comment section.
“I was notified three hours before call time, which is 4.30am, that he is unavailable and I do not even have time to find another photographer to replace him,” a netizen said. “He also did not follow up and did not say anything before I messaged him.”
Another said she was told at 12pm one day before her wedding that he is hospitalized and can offer her HK$1,600 to find another photographer to replace him. “All the happiness was immediately ruined by him.”
One netizen added: “I booked him for a full-day on my big day on November 16 last year, and we agreed to start the photo shoot at 7.30am at the hotel, and he sent me a message at 4.30am saying that he cannot leave his bed due to fasciitis, therefore cannot come.”
“He arranged another photographer to come, but obviously the photos are far from satisfactory,” she added.
After the posting was widely-circulated on social media, the photographer and owner of the company, issued an apology through a statement, saying that he is “deeply sorry” for the “unnecessary stress and disappointment” prompted by his mistake at work.
“I promise to step up internal management and ensure similar problems will not happen again, and I have also reviewed my own dereliction of duty,” the photographer said.
This came after netizens created a list of irresponsible wedding vendors, which started to gain popularity after a makeup artist did not show up and could not be contacted at a couple’s wedding late last year.
The bride could only resort to her bridesmaid’s makeup artists, who were under-equipped for a bride's makeup.
The makeup artist finally replied saying that he forgot to change his phone’s time zone after returning from Thailand, and told the bride that he arrived at the hotel lobby over one hour later than the call time.
The bride later found that the makeup artist was photographed being drunk in the afterparty of an online celebrity’s wedding one day before in Thailand, and the hotel told the bride that the makeup artist was not captured by any of their surveillance cameras.
(Michael Shum)
