Popular photographer’s ‘worst wedding treatment’ goes viral

A North West couple has entered the contest for the worst wedding of the year after they allegedly mistreated their wedding photographer over the weekend.

The matter is heading to court as the couple, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are allegedly refusing to pay the photographer they had hired for his services.


In what he called a cry out for help, the popular photographer, SG Sizwe Graced, took to his Facebook page to blast the couple who allegedly booked him to capture their wedding over the weekend at their home in Bapong, North West.

In the post, which had elicited over 1 700 comments and was shared by over 3 300 people on Tuesday, the Brits-based photographer said he was ill-treated, not paid, starved and was only given R20 to buy an energy drink by the couple for the two-day event.

He captioned his post “a wedding from hell”, with a picture of the couple in their wedding attire. 

“They asked me to be in town by 7am on Saturday so they can pick me up. I arrived there on the agreed time. They only arrived after 10am. I understood. I should have come with my own transportation had I known,” he shared.

“I always secure my 50% deposit before switching on my cameras. They promised to give me that deposit later and I ‘understood’ again.

“The wedding only started around 1pm, imagine!! Fortunately, the makeup artist is my neighbour and she was also made to wait for hours. We shared our frustrations and laughed about it. We understood.” 

Sizwe added that while they waited, no food was offered to them and he was given R20 to buy a PowerAde energy drink for the two-day wedding.

He says he charged them a R3 000 fee, which was never paid – even after he was promised a transfer at the wedding.

“This groom told me how untouchable he is, because they are a family of Sangomas. He told me his wedding is unstoppable. Only to realise later, that those words were meant for me,” said the disgruntled photographer.

“I never received any deposit later. They took my number with some aunt and pretended to send me the money. It never materializsed.

“I had told them that around 5pm I am switching off my cameras. Guess what? By that 5pm they had not even changed to another attire… I am understanding mos? I went again on a Sunday to shoot Day two [of the wedding], hoping I’d get my money.” 

He added that he had still not received a cent and is in the process of opening a case against the newlyweds.

The couple had not responded to requests for a comment on the matter at the time of publishing.

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