Newlyweds told to pay £750,000 for ruining wedding photographer's reputation

Hoping your wedding photographer will capture your big day perfectly is worrying enough as it is.

But what if those photos never turned up?

This is what seemed to have happened to one couple, Andrew and Neely Moldovan, who claimed that a wedding photographer had added $150 to the original price of photographing their wedding – and was refusing to hand over the photos until they coughed up.

Soon, their story became of international interest, the accusation that their photos had been held “hostage” featuring on the Daily Mail and NBC.

That is until the photographer, Andrea Polito, came out to say that this isn’t what happened at all – and successfully sued them for $1 million dollars (£750,000).

After being shown screenshots of the emails Polito and her employees had sent the couple in an attempt to satisfy them, the jury concluded that the story of the stolen photos wasn’t true.

And on top of this, that the behaviour counted as malicious defamation, and that the Moldovans pay Polito $1 million (£750,000) in damages.

Polito recalled to The Washington Post that she had sent the couple proofs of the wedding photos soon after the event, but withheld the high-resolution images for longer (a common process among wedding photographers) until she’d completed the wedding album.

Which Polito says she explained to Neely Moldovan and then asked her to fill out a form with her album preferences.

After months of zero contact, Neely wrote to the studio asking if she had to pay extra for an album cover, which she did.

And wasn’t happy about.

So, the saga began, and Neely began contacting journalists.

“She basically didn’t read her paperwork or contract,” Polito said.

“She just couldn’t understand why she couldn’t have her high-res images. It’s in bold in our contract.”

Which the jury agreed with, leaving the Moldovans with a hefty sum to pay.

Neely Moldovan recently said in a statement:

“We are stunned. We did what consumer advocates say to do: When you are wronged, you fight back.

“We were unhappy with a situation, so we complained like anyone would. This court decision tells consumers not to speak up for fear of fat legal bills and painful judgements.

“If this is the cost of standing up for what’s right, we should have given in to start with. But we hope to prevail in the end.

“We’d love nothing more than to put this behind us and focus on raising our five month old child.”

Though the couple can still challenge the verdict before they have to hand the cash over, so watch this space.

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