Photographer Forgets To Rename Files Before Sharing Them With Bride And Groom

There are some mistakes in life you just cannot recover from. One wedding photographer learned this the hard way when they forgot to recheck the files before sending them to his client. Unfortunately, what started as a small joke for the photographer himself, left a serious and permanent impression on everyone involved.

The ex-photographer revealed the sad but weird story on the u/tifu sub-Reddit. He begins by explaining that the event took place nearly 6 years ago, and this mistake had cost him his career as a wedding photographer. Since he offered a reel of highlights the day immediately after the wedding, his service was highly sought after. As such, he carried out his work as usual during this particular wedding as well. However, the post-shoot work was monotonous so he had a secret solution:

“If you have ever edited videos before, you know the most boring part of it is watching, organizing and naming 100s of clips. So, just for self-amusement, I did something. Instead of naming the clips how you’d usually name them, I started naming them funny. Mind you, these are raw footages that will never be seen by anyone else other than me.”

Nevertheless, he kept his promise of sending the highlight video the next day. His client, the bride, loved the work so much that she requested him to send over his raw clips as well. Since it was a weekend, the bride planned to watch every clip with her entire family as a memorable way to mark the beginning of her new life. This was when OP made a mistake.

A Moment Of Carelessness Ruined The Wedding Photographer’s Career

Unfortunately, OP had an important exam the next day, since he was still at university and made a horrifying error:

“Although, in 99% of other cases, I would have been smart enough to send her the original clips, this time around, I had an important statistics exam the next day and my brain was fried. I unknowningly copied my ‘funny name’ clips and gave them to her.”

The next day, just as OP was entering the classroom for the exam, he received a call from the bride. The bride was absolutely furious, saying, “You are the most horrible person I’ve ever seen. You humiliated me in front of my entire family, I will file a police report against you, You won’t get away with this”. *Cuts the Call*”

This left OP stunned because he still did not realize his mistake. He believed that perhaps he was being ripped off. So he contacted his classmate who had set up the client in the first place. The bride was the classmate’s aunt. Her reply to his question about what was going on finally made him realize what an idiot he had been:
““Are you kidding me? What the hell were those names? Are you out of your mind? Is this a prank? She’s swearing at me so much, you are unreal, why did you do that?”
“What names………. WAIT…… VIDEO CLIP NAMES???????”
” I don’t know if you’re joking at this point but I’m in a lot of trouble because of you, you’re really weird man” *Cuts the Call*”

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A Heavy Consequence For OP

Needless to say, the realization left him mentally reeling. He somehow managed to collect and pass his exam. After that, he sat at his computer to go through the names of the files that he had sent. OP did not make a point of remembering the names, since they were just meant for a little laugh to himself. The names, unfortunately, were not flattering, to say the least:

“Ugly bride trying to pose”
“annoying loud bride friends”
“Old Grandmas last wedding”
“Perv brother eying girls”
“Fat ass groom standing”
“dumb af kids running”
“short bald dad eating”

These were the first couple out of around 60 final clips. I deleted the whole folder without proceeding further, I couldn’t take it.”

The wedding photographer admitted to not being creative enough to think of witty names. So his humor relied on shocking the reader, but it was only meant for his eyes. The following day, OP contacted the classmate again and had a proper conversation after she had calmed down. She explained what exactly happened:

“We were all gathered at the bride’s house, it was at least a 30-person gathering. We were supposed to all sit in the hall and watch all the clips one by one. The first clip was the highlights that you made which everyone enjoyed. Then she plugged in the flash drive you gave to her and to everyone’s horror. All the funny names were in front of everyone. The bride tried to close the folder immediately but her dad was furious and proceeded angrily reading everything out loud, until the bride started crying and left the room. It was something. The groom stayed still and said nothing”.”

The Wedding Photographer’s Aftermath

After the explanation, OP apologized once more. Fortunately, the classmate understood, even though she clarified that OP would probably not get any payment for the work. Apparently, the grandma had laughed out loud at the name of the clip. OP never had the heart or courage to contact his client again. In fact, he completely stopped being a wedding photographer. His classmate has since gotten married, but of course, OP did not get contacted to be the wedding photographer for her case either.

So, what did Reddit have to say about the case? Well most of them shared similar incidents. Apparently, it is a common case at bars, as u/plopseven recounts:

“This happens at bars more often than you’d think.
We had a POS system at a bar I used to work at that would print the table name on the final check, but it was up to the servers to put the name in.
It’s all fun and games when you write “Blue Collar Shirt” instead of “B1” or something, but I had a coworker who would write “Annoying Mule Lady” and I would have to edit the tickets before printing them and dropping them off.
Fun fun.”

Others pointed out that these were the actual learning points in life like u/gOldMcDonald says:
“Moments like this are exactly when you mature. It isn’t always gradual. I imagine this lesson has stayed with you and shaped some of your behavior and humor.”

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