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What tops the list of a bride’s worst wedding nightmares? Too much tequila (or the now-way-too-intoxicated guest/bridesmaid/groom’s drink of the choice) and wedding photos you’d rather not have framed on the mantle. Combine those two together and you’ve got a big day disaster horrific enough to make a bride scream… or sue. A San Francisco newlywed is legit suing her wedding videographer for capturing the most humiliating moment of her big day — and then uploading the offending clip to YouTube. That’s enough to get a girl sweating in her gorgeous gown…
The bride, who is choosing to go by the moniker Jane Doe (you know it’s really bad when you don’t even want to use your real name…), is bringing her wedding videographer to court after the footage of her very out-of-order groom ended up on Youtube. The clip features a big day disaster for the books — the groom sloppily trying to remove his bride’s garter while heavily intoxicated and continuously falling on his new wife. Oops…
The moment left Jane Doe in tears, but her and her hubby quickly moved past it, according to NBC. “My husband joked that we’d renew our vows in a couple years and he’d make it up to me,” she said. But when the sad scene — clips of which are featured in the news story below — resurfaced on the Internet last summer, the bride was humiliated all over again. “Within a few days it was up to like two million views,” remembers Jane Doe.
And thus, this bride is hiking up her wedding dress and heading to federal court, suing the videography company for “intentional infliction of emotional distress.” But she might have an uphill battle ahead of her due to a copyright technicality not many brides realize exist.
“Any photograph by any photographer is considered a creative work that belongs to the author — the photographer — and they have full rights,” University of San Francisco law professor Robert Talbot explained to NBC. That means that even though you paid your wedding photographer and videographer to capture all those big day moments, they’re the ones who actually own those images.
So what’s a bride to do in order to not have an embarrassing nuptial slip-up go viral? First of all, read the fine print of all your vendor contracts. “You can negotiate,” says Talbot. “And you can try to get the release of the copyright to you. That way, you would be the owner of the copyright.”
Or you know, cut your groom off after his first few pre-ceremony shots…
See More: How to Not Get (Too) Drunk at Your Wedding Reception