Photographers hit back after NRI bride denies them food at 5-star wedding
An NRI bride left a team of Delhi-based photographers a one-star review on Google after sparring with them over the issue of food at the venue.
An NRI bride left a team of Delhi-based photographers a one-star review on Google after sparring with them over the issue of food at the venue. Richa Oberoi, business head of the photography service in question, told HT.com that the bride refused to provide food for the photographers at the 5-star Delhi hotel where she was getting married. She also refused to let each team member take a one-hour break so they could eat the food they ordered themselves.
The bride, who is working in the United States, said as much in her one-star Google review.
“Weddings in 2025 are expensive, and vendors working with us need to understand that they are there to work, not to enjoy the wedding as guests,” she wrote. She said that the team at photography business We Don’t Say Cheese (WDSC) initially insisted they would eat at the venue itself – a request she found “unreasonable”.
Added cost of ₹1.5 lakh
The bride cited an added cost of ₹1.5 lakh as part of the reason she did not want the team of photographers eating at the venue. She explained that at a five-star venue, where each plate of food costs upwards of ₹6,000, it would be a hefty cost to feed seven to eight extra people across multiple functions.
“On a heavy Saaya day in New Delhi, it’s simply not possible to account for 7-8 extra guests at all wedding functions, especially in a 5-star hotel where the per-person cost is ₹6,000+. That adds up to nearly ₹1.5 lakh just for F&B—completely outside reason,” she wrote in her review.
Photographers hit back
Richa Oberoi shared a screenshot of the Google review on Instagram as she called out the bride. “On wedding days, our team works 12-15+ hours straight. We're often on our feet, carrying heavy equipment, running across venues, without pause,” she wrote. “The least we expect is a meal onsite so that our crew can recharge and keep delivering at their best. Asking us to leave the venue to find food is disruptive, stressful, and directly impacts the quality of work.”
Oberoi further told HT.com that the photography team was willing to compromise by sharing plates to keep the costs down. The bride still refused to let them eat with the guests. Eventually, they agreed to let the photographers order their own food and have the cost reimbursed later. Or that a wedding planner would order food for them.
The issue with time slots
Even here, however, the bride had a problem.
“They agreed to us ordering food for them from an external vendor. However, they again insisted that their team members would individually need to take a one-hour break during the function to eat, since they weren’t being allowed to dine on-site,” the bride wrote.
“This struck me as bizarre—they would have already had breakfast at 10 a.m, maybe a late lunch at 4 PM but they would have had running snacks available during the event . Still, I agreed, as long as no key moments were missed,” she said in her review.
“This is about basic dignity”
Oberoi told HT.com that the bride insisted on the team having lunch after 4 PM – after the completion of haldi rituals – and dinner before 8 PM, so that it did not interfere with the sangeet.
“That’s when I said this is not going to work at all,” said Oberoi. “You cannot tell anybody when to eat.”
“This is not about fine dining. This is about basic dignity. At no point did we ask to be treated like family or to be considered *guests." We simply asked not to be treated as invisible labor,” Oberoi clarified further on Instagram.
“We were even okay to order our own food and eat it. But being told when to eat and when not to eat? That's a new low we stumbled upon,” she said. “Imagine being given time slots for your meals, not eating when you're hungry, not when your body gives up after to hours on your feet, but only when the bride decides it's convenient.”
The final dealbreaker
For the bride, the final dealbreaker came when the photographers “demanded full advance payment before the wedding, refusing to budge.”
“This is not standard industry practice—advance payments are normal, but withholding all leverage to ensure deliverables are met is risky,” she said.
Oberoi told HT.com that the bride insisted on withholding a large portion of the payment before she got the deliverables. “We said we are okay for you to hold off some money, but you can’t hold a very big amount,” she said.
Internet reacts
“Thank you for not staying quiet and calling such people out. Basic necessities = wedding enjoyment? Nah!” wrote one Instagram user.
“'I’ve been working for over 10years, and at no point have I expected my workplace to provide me with fine dining- experiences along with my salary' - Imagine with this same thought process the photographer decides to have lunch exactly at 1pm-2pm as any corporate employee would do, and there is pheras happening at same time. So think before comparing how individual professions work,” another pointed out.
“Sorry bro but gotta say that she is correct. You are there for doing your work and food breaks are not part of it, wedding photography is already expensive and accommodating a team of 10+ people is just too much,” one commenter offered as a counter argument.
