Prudish Wedding Photographer Turns Down Groom’s Picture Request, Reddit Disapproves

Wedding photographers must be ready for anything, including spur-of-the-moment photo requests. But one such picture inquiry proved too much for a prudish wedding photographer who turned down a groom’s request that he and his groomsmen be photographed in their boxer shorts.

Taking to the infamous “AITA” subreddit, the 30-year-old male photographer recalled the incident that took place at a recent wedding.

He explains that he was one of three photographers hired for the “lavish” event, and he was assigned the groom and his groomsmen who were “all very close from their frat days.”

After taking plenty of photos of the merry party, he asked if there were any special photos before they wrapped. One of the groomsmen suggested getting a “rush” photo and the groom immediately agreed.

“To my surprise the groom and five of the groomsmen all started removing their pants, right there on the lawn of the venue,” the wedding photographer writes in the Reddit post. “I asked what was happening. A groomsmen took out his phone and showed me a photo of them in college, during what looked like hazing, where they all had to do a lap around their university in boxers.”

The groomsmen explained to him that they recreate the photo at their weddings, in which they pose in just their dress shirts, jackets, ties, and underwear.

“I immediately shut it down. Not only is it tacky, but we were on the lawn. Granted, the only people around were staff,” he says. “But I do a lot of work at this venue and wanted to keep a good relationship.”

The photographer also adds that he “just felt uncomfortable,” and that if he had received this photo request before, he would have turned the wedding down outright. “I get enough work,” he adds.

Unsurprisingly, the groom was annoyed and an email followed highlighting that the couple’s needs were not met.

Reddit Response

The point of the AITA subreddit is to ask a large forum whether the Original Poster (OP) is in the wrong. In this case, the wedding photographer was overwhelmingly told that he was out of line.

“Not your job to worry about if something is tacky. And it’s not like they got naked,” says one comment that has received over 7,000 upvotes at the time of writing.

“You are the photographer, it’s your job to take pictures. Not judge them. Especially since they were doing nothing wrong, nothing illegal. Boxers are just shorts,” writes another comment.

It’s a pretty savage rebuke of the photographer’s behavior, but it might make him think twice before turning down a photo request in the future.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.