People Are Horrified By Texas Wedding Photographer's COVID Story
The whole bridal party thought the groom having COVID was no biggie, apparently
You already know that any news story that involves a wedding THIS YEAR in particular is going to increase your blood pressure, so you’ve been warned. A wedding photographer’s firsthand account of shooting a Texas wedding has captured the collective rage of the entire internet because the story is so awful, and so selfish, and so undeniably American in its individualism, that it immediately blew up all over Twitter.
The article, published in Texas Monthly, anonymously details the events of a recent wedding where a COVID-positive groom continued on with his wedding — where no one wore masks, because of course they didn’t — and neglected to inform the wedding photographer (and most of the people in attendance) of his diagnosis.
The incident began when a bridesmaid spilled the beans to the photographer and appeared utterly non-plussed that one of the two leads of The Pandemic Show was shedding the viral plague right before them. The bridesmaid thanked the photographer for showing up, despite “everything that’s going on with the groom.”
Naturally, this immediately set off red flags for the photographer, who pressed for more information. “She was looking for me to be like, ‘Oh, that’s crazy,’ like I was going to agree with her that it was fine,” the photographer told Texas Monthly. “So I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And she was like, ‘Oh no no no, don’t freak out. He doesn’t have symptoms. He’s fine.’”
The photographer expressed concern that she is not only asthmatic, putting her at a higher risk of serious consequences should she contract COVID-19, but that she is also the mother of three children. She ended up leaving before the reception was over, and that didn’t go over so well with the bride, groom, or wedding party. One bridesmaid even accused her of “ruining” the entire day.
“She recalls one bridesmaid telling her, ‘I’m a teacher, I have fourteen students. If I’m willing to risk it, why aren’t you?’ Another said everyone was going to get COVID eventually, so what was the big deal? The friend of the bride who’d spilled the beans cried about being the ‘worst bridesmaid ever.'”
Yeah. Uh-huh. If you’re feeling a giant tidal wave of rage swelling in your gut, you’re not alone. The story began circulating on social media, where everyone lambasted these horribly selfish people to hell and back. We know weddings are superspreader events, and yet people refuse to not have them.
The wedding industry is, of course, feeling the effect of the pandemic. Wedding photographers in particular are in such a stressful predicament — they need to pay bills and put food on the table, but in order to do that they’re risking their health and lives. The least, the absolute least wedding-goers and wedding-havers (for the assholes still having big ol’ weddings right now because states won’t ban them outright), is to have everyone wear masks, ensure there’s some ventilation in indoor spaces, and be as gracious as humanly possible that someone is still willing to take photos of YOUR SPECIAL F*CKING DAY that you just had to have during a pandemic.
Pay them double! Tip them a lot! Buy them a car! WHATEVER. But this behavior? This shrugging off of mass death and basically committing a pre-meditated crime against other people? Welp, I guess we need to cancel humanity altogether.
The kicker is that the photographer ended up feeling sick and testing positive for COVID after the wedding and had to quarantine from her family. The piece ends with her recalling one of the many dead-end conversations she had with members of the bridal party and, I must warn you, you may need to go outside and take a walk to clear your head after reading it.
“I have children,” she told a bridesmaid, “What if my children die?” The bridesmaid responded, “I understand, but this is her wedding day.”
