I dreamt of seeing Claire walk down the aisle from the day I met her. As she walked towards me, I imagined how she would look in a white dress and a veil. Finally, that dream was about to come true. I proposed to her after two years of dating and we started planning the wedding immediately. Claire was a girly girl so she already knew what her dream wedding would look like.
“I want pure white roses and clear chairs with black bows tied around them. I want my bridesmaids to wear black dresses. Oh my God, I haven’t told Ava she’s going to be one of my bridesmaids.” She said excitedly.
“Anything you want, babe,” I answered.
As the days went by, we quickly realized that planning a wedding wasn’t a walk in the park. From finding the right vendors to making sure that all our friends and family were on the guest list, it was a bit hectic. However, we tried to make the most out of it and cherished the experience.
Thankfully, my brother had gone through the process so he recommended all the vendors that he had at his wedding. Most of them were available and those who weren’t recommended someone who could get the work done. The only one we had a challenge finding was a wedding photographer. Everyone we asked was booked during our wedding day but we managed to find one who was within our budget.
Like the other vendors, we paid a deposit to secure his services. However, there was something that rubbed me the wrong way about that photographer. I couldn’t figure out what it was but I had a bad feeling about him. I didn’t want to bring bad energy to our special day so I tried to ignore those feelings.
The wedding day drew closer and we were both starting to realize how real things were becoming.
“I went to look at my dress today.”
“Really? How did it go?”
“Amazing. The dress is perfect. You’ll love it. They just need to make a few adjustments then it will be ready.”
“Can you believe it’s only three months to the wedding?” I asked.
“I know. Time has gone by so fast.”
Though it was exciting, the planning had taken a toll on both of us and it was becoming very evident. Claire looked stressed so the following weekend, I treated her to a spa date to help her relax. It seemed to work and she was back to her bubbly and energetic self.
A few weeks later, tragedy struck. Claire was involved in a car accident and she lost her life. I never expected to receive such news and it took me a while to come to terms with the fact that I would never see her walking down the aisle.
I wondered what I did to deserve such a turn of events. Claire was also the sweetest girl that I knew and she didn’t deserve to lose her life at such a young age. It took a lot of support from family and friends for me to recover from the loss and be able to carry on with my daily routine like going to work.
I also needed to start the process of cancelling the wedding, informing the vendors and requesting refunds. We had paid a lot of money to secure their services and it would be a shame to see it go down the drain.
It was a nerve-wracking process since I wasn’t sure if the vendors would cooperate. I knew that most vendors had a non-refundable policy. However, my situation was unique and unavoidable.
Additionally, the wedding was still months awa and they wouldn’t go at a loss if they refunded me. I called the first vendor, who was the florist.
“I have bad news for you. We won’t be going on with the wedding.” I said.
“Oh no, what happened?”
“Claire died in a car accident a few weeks ago.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“I wanted to know if I could get a refund of the deposit.”
“Of course. I will send it to you within the week.”
All the vendors agreed to give me a full refund except one – the photographer. Unlike the other vendors, I only communicated with him through email. I sent him an email early in the morning telling him the same thing I had told the other vendors but I didn’t get a response till the following day.
“I’m sorry for your loss but you signed a legally binding contract that is non-refundable.” He emailed back.
I emailed back immediately saying, “I understand that but I’d love to talk to you on the phone to explain the situation and work things out.”
He stopped emailing me back and dogged all my attempts to contact him. As if things weren’t bad enough, he went out of his way to mock my situation.
He made a website dedicated to me with the tagline “Life is a b****”. He also made a post on social media which was shocking.
It read “We hope you sob all day for what would have been your wedding. Sorry, not sorry.”
He continued to mock me and my family online with offensive posts. It was no longer about getting a refund. He had made it personal by disrespecting the memory of my fiancé.
Thanks to social media, his identity and past was revealed. It turned out that he had been sued for failing to deliver wedding photos to over 100 couples.
It finally made sense why he was acting with such disregard for human life. However, I still didn’t understand why he preyed on people who were looking to have the best day of their lives or why he went out of his way to make my life a living hell knowing that I had just lost my fiancé. Such people have a special place in hell.
This story is inspired by @SomaKazima‘s post.
Oh nah baby he would've had to meet me OUTSIDE pic.twitter.com/6o5AWu33He
— Ichigo Niggasake (@SomaKazima) December 15, 2023
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