Holly Christina Photography homeowners charged with felony fraud

Deputies filed criminal charges this week against the couple behind a Triangle-area photography company accused of scamming several hundred couples.

Holly Christina Scott Ayscue, 26, and Christopher Ayscue, 26, of Franklinton are each charged with felony obtaining property by false pretenses in Forsyth County, as first reported by ABC11, The News & Observer’s newsgathering partner.

The Ayscues co-owned Holly Christina Photography, a company that specialized in weddings, The N&O previously reported. Questions about the company’s health emerged last fall, after brides posted on social media they couldn’t reach anyone with the business.

It’s the couple’s first criminal charges as other investigations and lawsuits proceed.

The charges are tied to the company’s failure to show for a couple’s April wedding after signing a nearly $6,000 contract last year, according to their arrest warrants. The charges were filed July 9, and the Ayscues were arrested Tuesday, court records show.

In May, Attorney General Jeff Jackson estimated the couple owes more than $1 million to over 200 customers. His office sued the company and the Ayscues in February.

The couple is accused of pressuring couples to book their company, then disappearing and failing to honor their contracts for dozens of weddings, The N&O previously reported. Other couples said they never received images or videos that already had been taken.

A judge ordered the company to deliver all raw and edited photos and videos to clients by June 11, though it’s not clear if that has occurred.

The Ayscues are barred from doing photography in North Carolina until the state’s lawsuit is resolved, The N&O previously reported.

Holly Ayscue was released on unsecured bond, while Christopher Ayscue posted a $20,000 secured bail bond. Christopher Ayscue is completing a year of supervised probation for charges of assault on a female and domestic violence after pushing his wife last fall, court records show.

Timeline of wedding company complaints

It’s not clear what led to the company’s abrupt shuttering, which was announced in January. Previous posts from the company claimed Holly Ayscue had been hospitalized several times. A civil suit in Wake County from another affected bride claims Holly Ayscue “began posting bizarre stories” about singer Taylor Swift and Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, to the company’s Instagram in late December.

“Around that same time, Scott began posting politically charged direct message arguments between herself and others on HCP’s business account,” the complaint states.

Two judges have already entered judgments against the Ayscues in civil suits. One judge ordered the couple to repay a bride $14,207.01 earlier this month, while another judge awarded a bride $3,000 in March, court records show.

“As a wedding photography company, you really have to screw up to get sued by your state’s attorney general,” Jackson said in May at a news conference. “But here we are.”