An angry couple sued a photographer for allegedly taking only 15 photos of them on their wedding day taking more pictures of herself despite being paid for a nine-hour service.
Paul and Chareen Wheatley, 42 and 37, from Leeds, sued amateur photographer, Chloe Johnston, 20 for more than £600 after she ruined their day.
Mirror UK reports that after paying £500 to book Chloe as their snapper, the couple claim she stopped answering their calls and only confirmed she was attending the night before their wedding.
The aggrieved couple also claimed that the photographer made the bride’s dress filthy after she took her through muddy puddles for a photoshoot in the woods.
Paul, who has mobility issues, wasn’t even able to clamber down to the woody area, leaving Chareen to have romantic shots with her bridesmaids instead.
The couple paid Chloe for nine hours’ work but received just 15 photographs from the evening of their wedding reception last September.
In December the couple won their appeal for a refund at the small claims court at Leeds County Court and after enlisting the help of bailiffs reclaimed £605 two weeks ago.
Paul, an insurance consultant, said: “She pretty much ruined our wedding day by not taking nice pictures for us to remember it by – she was a photographer from hell.
“The photos aren’t a true reflection of our day and we can’t replace that, we can’t redo the photos, it’s really disappointing.
“They are awful, most of them aren’t taken properly with some people partly cut out, the quality of the images were rubbish too.
“Chloe told us she was professional and was an up and coming photographer trying to make a name for herself, we took her at face value and were too trustworthy.
“After we paid her we couldn’t get in touch with her again, and we didn’t think she was going to turn up until she sent us at message at 10pm the night before our wedding.
“She turned up 45 minutes late to our reception with no equipment other than her camera and a photography bag, no camera stand, no wide lenses, nothing to bounce the light or even lighting.
“On my wedding day I was walking with a slight limp due to my knee placement, Chloe was aware of it but asked us both to go for a long walk in the muddy woods which I couldn’t do.
“Instead she took my wife and even though she was holding her dress up while walking through the boggy, damp woodland with lots of puddles it was covered in mud and got torn – it cost us £200 in dry cleaning bills.
“Not only that, Chareen had all the romantic shots with her bridesmaids instead of me, it was a complete disaster, Chloe didn’t have a clue what she was doing
“Throughout the whole thing she looked very chilled out and in the evening I hardly saw anything of her.
“Instead of having lots of photos from the evening there was 15 at the most, later we discovered that instead of doing her job she was having fun in the photobooth – we never even gave her permission to even be in there.
“I wouldn’t have minded her having a joke with a picture or two if her own pictures were adequate but they weren’t.
“I couldn’t believe the cheek of what she’d done, instead of concentrating on our reception she was messing around taking selfies at our expense.
“When I told her I wasn’t happy with the quality of the photographs she went onto forums and said some horrible things about me on there.
“She didn’t need to do that, we’d paid for the service and had been nice until then so decided to take her to the small claims court.”
The Wheatleys took the photographer to the small claims division of Leeds County Court and were refunded their £500, plus £35 for court costs.
But after she did not pay them they were forced to hire bailiffs and reclaim the money two weeks ago.
Paul said: “While it’s too late for us to get nice pictures that actually reflect our wedding day at least we can warn others to hire a professional photographer.
“We were too trusting with Chloe and while we’ve been able to get a refund from her it’ll never replace those moments we lost on our big day.”
Chloe Johnston, 20, said: “I was happy with the pictures, I showcased the day through their eyes, on the wedding day itself the couple were lovely… I did everything I could have and more at that wedding, I was happy with their photographs and they were.
“If he wanted a professional photographer, wanted lighting, this and that, he should have paid for that but he didn’t he paid for a student.
“When I went into photograph booth, I went in for a minute and a half, I did that because there was nothing going on.
“He will do anything to drag my name through the mud, when all I tried to do was help with him and his wife with whatever problem they had against me even though they loved the product, and he’s now done this to a young female.”
