Wedding Photographers Share Their 'That Couple's Not Gonna Last Long' Experiences
Reddit user Arknight40 asked: 'Wedding photographers of Reddit, what was your "they're not gonna last long" moment?'
Emotions are high at weddings, with the bride and groom going through various stages of anxiety and excitement.
During those stages, seeing how well a newly wedding couple interacts with each other as well as with other family members and friends under pressure can indicate how well they work together as a team.
If professional wedding photographers had years of experience capturing one of the most monumental milestones for couples, they would be able to identify if a couple can make it for the long haul.
Curious to hear from them, Redditor Arknight40 asked:
"Wedding photographers of Reddit, what was your 'they're not gonna last long' moment?"
Some marriages had problems before saying "I do".
The Last Session
"Bride looked visibly miserable the entire ceremony. While photographing the men’s 'getting ready' portion, the groom repeatedly kept joking about killing himself."
"During the toast, the bride ran off to the bathroom for about 30 minutes and came back wiping her tears with her eyes red and puffy. Neither of them had any chemistry at all, it made no sense why they were together to me. That was the last wedding I shot."
– Majestic_Storage_563
Groom's Wandering Eye
"I'm a videographer and the groom called me a couple days after the wedding. He wanted me to make sure I didn't include any footage of him checking out the women at the wedding."
– Tim0281
Party Bride
"One of those hotel venues that can run two weddings at the same time. Bride from our wedding is found in a hotel room with the groomsmen from the other wedding doing drugs before the first dance. End result was we got paid and were told no need to edit or deliver pics. Safe to say It didn't last the night."
– mysticsika
Red Flags Galore
"The engagement session."
"The couple was in from out of town because she had just taken the bar exam to become a lawyer. At the end of the session, I gave them a prompt to share with each other what they were proud of each other for. He couldn't think of a single thing."
"Somehow they still got married, complete with: the groom drinking 11 IPAs + several shots before the ceremony, mother of the bride so drunk for family photos she pretended to strip, and the groom and all the groomsmen wearing camo hats with neon orange letters that said 't*tties and beer.' For the entire wedding day. Including sunset couples photos where he refused to do anything I suggested, nearly spat chew right on my feet, kept farting on purpose, and loudly complained about how all he wanted was to go have sex."
– V-Savage
Demanding clients indicated how difficult they might be as a spouse.
Once More From The Top
"Wedding was on a golf course. Bride had a vision she wanted of her husband driving up on a golf cart to see her for a first look."
"He got one look at her from the top of the hill and vaulted the cart, ran down the hill, picked her up and twirled her around to tell her how gorgeous she was. We caught it all. It was the best first look ever."
"Once he set her down she straightened herself and looked back to us. 'Okay, I don’t want that. Let’s do the golf cart now.' And she sent him back up."
– Pancakes_Whisperer
More Photoshop Please
"I did a wedding for an acquaintance and her husband. Day goes great, I’m really happy with almost everything I took, everyone was feeling it and having fun. But, (and this is one of the reasons I quit photography) the bride sees some of the photos I had sent her, and immediately is calling me. 'I need you to do the editing magic and make me look skinny, John was saying I was going to look too fat in my dress and wanted me to lose weight but I knew you could just edit it, so haha I didn’t'. So I have to explain (this is like 2010) I can only photoshop so much, I.e. I can make you look a tad slimmer in certain photos without making it noticeable. But I can’t do it to all of them, and if I was to, the editing would be noticeable, and I will have to charge you a lot of money to edit you in all the photos. She tried to convince me to edit hundreds of photos for a couple hundred bux, and I have other jobs going and had given them a great deal already so explained I couldn’t. So she insist I do at least some of her main pics, I tell her when people see the rest of the pics they will see the difference, she didn’t care and insisted more. So I do, and a couple weeks later when I thought it was all done and history calls me and leaves me a voicemail of how I ruined her wedding, her new husband is upset at how she looks in the pics and keeps making remarks about her weight. So didn’t seem like they were in a great place from the get go."
– Jadedsatire
A Secret Arrangement
"While shooting video, I attached a microphone to the groom for audio and proceeded to prepare for the ceremony. Just as I was about to adjust my audio settings, the groom stepped into another room with a friend. As I put on my headphones, I overheard the groom confiding in his friend, describing the wedding as a 'wedding of convenience' and reassuring them not to be concerned about what would happen in their relationship."
– NoodleMaps
The best man shouldn't have too much to drink. They might overshare.
Cold, Hard Truth
"Went to a wedding during college to my friends that got married who graduated 2 years prior to me. They had a beautiful wedding on a boat off the Keys and as the best man gave his speech, he was really drunk by this point, just shouted out, 'You don't deserve her, you literally got a bj from a stripper no make that two strippers at your bachelor party. Peace out.' He dropped the mic and tried to do a dramatic exit but by this point we were all stuck on this boat in the middle of the ocean. It took an hour to get back to port, and it was the most awful and awkward hour of our lives for everyone on that boat."
– breakitupkid
A Harsh Roast
"in another life, i worked catering shifts. loads of saturday weddings. i'll never forget the best-man's toast of the groom. it was a shameless roast. he spoke openly about the groom's willingness to shag anything when he's drunk. he then went on and on about the groom's deadly gambling habit and his short fuse when he doesn't win. he asked the stone-faced groom 'how many thousands of dollars in golf clubs have you destroyed or lost in countless ponds?' nobody was laughing. the bride had tears in her eyes and the groom's parents sat in stunned silence."
– dys_p0tch
Some people aren't marriage material.
Disasterous
"This was 15 years ago or so, I left wedding photography a few months later."
"The reception was at their home, they didn't want photos at the ceremony, and didn't want wedding party/family photos between the ceremony and reception triggering the first raise of the eyebrow on my end. At the reception the groom didn't want his brother, the best man, in the photos. Other eyebrow goes up. The mothers of both the bride and groom both scolded me to let them be and told me to eat instead of take photos. The groom and the best man got unholy drunk and had a weird by play of brother making way too many toasts and the groom making grossly inappropriate speeches of what he's going to do to the bride on the honeymoon."
"As the newlyweds were making their grand departure the bride tosses the bouquet, everyone cheers. The groom shouts 'I knocked the b*tch up so hard she's got two babies in her c**chie"' Guest react in various ways of shock and happiness about the pregnancy test but the best man lunges at the groom shouting and swearing. Family holds the best man back as the couple runs out to a car. The groom flipped off the spectators, and pulled out of the driveway. Two houses down the car stops, the groom gets out and pukes on a neighbor's lawn, the bride gets in the driver's seat and takes off, leaving her husband yurking into a flower bed, and the best man ran down the street trying to flag down the car."
"Divorced four months later."
– OmicronPerseiNate
These are but a mere sampling of weddings gone wrong or couples that should never have gotten together in the first place.
Do you have any stories to share? Let us know in the comments below.
Woman Stunned After Finding Her Deceased Grandfather On Google Maps Years After His Death
Google Maps is a convenient tool to look up and find routes to various locations.
Unbeknownst to the unsuspecting user, it can also be a time capsule.
One woman browsed the web mapping service and was led to a destination she never saw coming: A trip back in time.
A Twitter user named Yajaira said she never got to say goodbye to her grandfather when he passed away a few years ago.
But thanks to the magic of Google's street view photography, she was able to see an image of him when he was still very much alive.
She shared a clip of her virtual navigation through a Google street view of a farm in Mexico that belonged to her grandfather.
There was grandpa, in plain view, sitting on a chair outside his farm.
Her poignant video post went viral – currently at 447K likes – after tugging on the heartstrings of thousands of social media users.
It also prompted others who made similar discoveries of their late loved ones immortalized on Google Maps.
@yajairalyb Omg same thing with my nana!! It’s gonna be 3 years since she passed 💗 https://t.co/3Igo77fczM— IRI (@IRI) 1578510635
@Buenrostrohhh @yajairalyb my grandma passed away in 2014❤️ found this and it made my day. she was my rock🌹 https://t.co/qrj3R1CXqk— jen (@jen) 1578538438
@yajairalyb same as my buddy lucky, rip :( https://t.co/GtDWqcaL4d— liz (@liz) 1578518072
Here is the image from Dre Day's above tweet.
@mermaidbissshh/Twitter
@mermaidsbisshh @yajairalyb @grizzziii_ Something about the fact that he’s waving has me sobbing— void lars (@void lars) 1578531467
@yajairalyb Same with my Grandpa, it’s gonna be 3 years since his passing. This is him walking towards his daughter… https://t.co/9QtKnJtlRF— Brayan Cuin - Tinoco (@Brayan Cuin - Tinoco) 1578514115
And here is the screenshot from Brayan Cuin's tweet of his grandpa when he was still alive.
@brayan_cuin_/Twitter
The viral post inspired others to search for and be reunited with their late family members.
@yajairalyb Because if this thread I found my dad... it’s been almost 4 years. 😭😭😭 I never knew. Thank you https://t.co/KaxTMaqXg2— Paula (@Paula) 1578534595
This is the screenshot from Paula's tweet of her late father.
@yajairalyb Same with my grandma 😢almost 5 years since she passed https://t.co/XnxXeFcot2— Vλ₦E$$λ🇲🇽 (@Vλ₦E$$λ🇲🇽) 1578517264
This is Vanessa's screenshot.
@v_salazar24/Twitter
Here is Jordan's screenshot of her late grandma.
@sojordann_/Twitter
Even those who tragically passed were found in this street-view image.
@yajairalyb My dad who died in March from Brain Cancer and my Nephew who took his life in November at the age of 14. https://t.co/27pO8g4DlW— James Burke (@James Burke) 1578890408
@yajairalyb I did the same thing a few months ago, my mother hasn’t seen our grandpa since I was 3 years old, he re… https://t.co/FYfMoXPOlb— Quintana (@Quintana) 1578520959
The Google Maps Twitter account gave an emotional response after being overwhelmed by the sentimental thread.
@yajairalyb Our tissue box is officially empty. Thank you for sharing this. 💙— Google Maps (@Google Maps) 1578598164
Pets were no exception from being featured through the internet time capsule.
@yajairalyb same as my buddy lucky, rip :( https://t.co/GtDWqcaL4d— liz (@liz) 1578518072
@HangryAF/Twitter
@Thomas_Wayman/Twitter
Yajaira told TIME about her surprise reunion and the resulting viral status of her post.
"I felt chills and I couldn't help but to cry."
"I shared it with my family once I realized the tweet was getting so much attention. I wanted to wait, but I decided to send it them before they saw it somewhere else."
Google Maps' street view photography is captured courtesy of a fleet of drivers whisking through cities around the world in vehicles mounted with cameras.
Each car is equipped with 15 cameras enabling 360-degree view shots at a height of 8.2 feet.
There is something poetic about a grandfather watching a passing vehicle having a role in posthumously connecting him to the future.
"He was so old and I am sure he was confused with the car and what was on top it of. He was probably wondering what was going on."
According to Techwalla, the satellite data information on Google Maps is between 1 to 3 years old and it is hard to predict when the maps and images will be updated.
However, even after they disappear, Google does archive old images and they can be accessed through the Google Maps Website.
If you are one of the lucky few who stumbles upon an image of a loved one on who has passed, take a screenshot of your beautiful reunion.
The book Never Lost Again: The Google Mapping Revolution That Sparked New Industries and Augmented Our Reality is available here.
Wedding Party Searches For 'Scooter Girl' After She Hilariously Photobombs Their Wedding Photos—And The Internet Steps Up Big
Wedding photographers know that the moments they capture on camera for a couple on their special day are memories that will be cherished forever.
So when something unexpected happens, the photographer is there to soak up every second.
For Molly Giangreco, a photographer in Omaha, Nebraska, one of those moments came last month as she was snapping the last few shots of a wedding party downtown.
As she gathered the groomsmen for a few final pictures on the strip, "this girl on a scooter and her husband came rolling through," Giangreco told Buzzfeed News.
It was unclear if the woman even knew that she had just photobombed a wedding photoshoot, but when the groomsmen started cheering, asking her to come back through again, she didn't hesitate.
"She just nailed it with her facial expression," Giangreco remarked.
After one final pass through, the woman was gone.
It wasn't until Giangreco was editing the photos on July 4 that she decided she wanted to find the woman, affectionally dubbed "scooter girl."
So she posted the photos on her photography business's Facebook page asking the community to help her find the woman so she could see the joy that she had spread that day.
It only took an hour for Facebook to do its thing and track down the woman, Kenyatta Jefferson, a local business owner from Omaha, who left a grateful comment on the post:
Jefferson was tickled by the reaction, and has since embraced her "Scooter Girl" persona, telling Yahoo Lifestyle:
"I love doing spontaneous things and making people laugh. And this one happened to go viral."
And people were clearly loving the joy Jefferson was bringing in the photos.
Jefferson was perhaps more inspirational than she even realized.
Many people started tagging Ellen DeGeneres to try to get Jefferson on the show.
It certainly seems like something Ellen would love.
So if you're reading this, Ellen, get Scooter Girl on your show STAT!
With all of the negative news out there, it's always refreshing to see heartwarming stories like this.
Giangreco echoed those sentiments, saying:
"Some people might get mad about things like this happening on their wedding day, but this is a story about embracing whatever happens."
We couldn't agree more.
Have your own scooter moment with this electric scooter available here in a variety of colors.
*up to 120lbsAmazon
Or go with this electric scooter model for adults, available here.
*up to 220lbsAmazon
American photographer, West Phillips, has traveled all over the world, photographing various cultures of people, landmarks and traditions.
Much of his work, however, has centered around his photo sessions with swimsuit-clad muscle men.
Phillips began to notice, in his travels and in the work by some of his favorite photographers, that there was little representation of male Asian models, especially in the gay community.
Once he recognized this pattern, Phillips decided to launch a project of his own to help to mend the social gap.
Enter Asian Male Portraits, West Phillips' latest photography collection, focused on male Asian models. This coffee table book aims to enrich Asian representation and attractiveness in photography, as well as celebrate the gay Asian community.
According to the project's website:
"With over 100 models from over 10 countries, this book is a sort of 'best of' collection from what Phillips has amassed so far."
Asian Male Portraits, PHOTO BOOK by West Phillipsyoutu.be
In addition to providing more male Asian models to the current photography landscape, Phillips' project also addressed an important, if muted, social problem: sexual racism.
By social definition, sexual racism is one's statement of personal dating preference, in regards not only to sex and gender, but also race.
People fairly commonly will state to their friends, for example, that they enjoy dating men, but they find one "other" race unattractive, and therefore, undateable.
With the few examples we have of Asian males in photography, commercials and dating publications, it's clear that the Asian population may be a more frequent victim of sexual racism in Western Culture. While Asian women are fetishized and overly sexualized, Asian men are neutered.
Of the origin of his project, Phillips said:
"I think the mass media in the West don't find [Asian men] to be appealing, they don't find them to be sexual, and that's something that I didn't understand."
Phillips' coffee table book collection, Asian Male Portraits, features the men in a variety of artistic and diverse settings. The book does include nudity.
You can see some examples from the collection below.
As more people become aware of the project and see more examples of Asian models, the photographer hopes the ideology around what is "sexy" and "dateable" may begin to shift.
With more acceptance around what is attractive, maybe there will be less "otherness" between peoples. And gay dating apps may finally lose the prevalent request of "no Asians."
Phillips' Asian Male Portraits book as well as calendars and other products are available through his website here. And they're currently having a sale.
Phillips is also featured with an interview and photographs in Volume 5 of Vitruvian Lens: Fine Art Male Photography, available here.
Professional models get used to seeing their face in unexpected places, but stock photo models are often amateurs. They may only appear in one set of photos and never think about it again—until they suddenly see themselves staring back from a billboard or magazine ad, or even a PSA.
Reddit user u/FreddTM asked:
"People in stock photos, what's the weirdest way you've seen your photos being used?"