NRI bride refuses to feed photographers at 5-star venue, cites ₹1.5 lakh added value | Trending

An NRI bride left a staff of Delhi-based photographers a one-star overview on Google after sparring with them over the problem of meals on the venue. Richa Oberoi, enterprise head of the pictures service in query, instructed HT.com that the bride refused to supply meals for the photographers on the 5-star Delhi lodge the place she was getting married. She additionally refused to let every staff member take a one-hour break so they may eat the meals they ordered themselves.

The bride, who’s working within the United States, mentioned as a lot in her one-star Google overview.

“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 mentioned that the staff at pictures enterprise We Don’t Say Cheese (WDSC) initially insisted they’d eat on the venue itself – a request she discovered “unreasonable”.

Added value of ₹1.5 lakh

The bride cited an added value of ₹1.5 lakh as a part of the explanation she didn’t need the staff of photographers consuming on the venue. She defined that at a five-star venue, the place every plate of meals prices upwards of ₹6,000, it might be a hefty value to feed seven to eight additional individuals throughout a number of features.

“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 overview.

Photographers hit again

Richa Oberoi shared a screenshot of the Google overview on Instagram as she known as 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 additional instructed HT.com that the pictures staff was keen to compromise by sharing plates to maintain the prices down. The bride nonetheless refused to allow them to eat with the company. Eventually, they agreed to let the photographers order their very own meals and have the price reimbursed later. Or {that a} marriage ceremony planner would order meals for them.

The challenge with time slots

Even right here, nonetheless, the bride had an issue.

“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 mentioned in her overview.

“This is about basic dignity”

Oberoi instructed HT.com that the bride insisted on the staff having lunch after 4 PM – after the completion of haldi rituals – and dinner earlier than 8 PM, in order that it didn’t intrude with the sangeet.

“That’s when I said this is not going to work at all,” mentioned 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 additional 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 mentioned. “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 closing dealbreaker

For the bride, the ultimate dealbreaker got here 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 mentioned.

Oberoi instructed HT.com that the bride insisted on withholding a big portion of the fee earlier than she bought the deliverables. “We said we are okay for you to hold off some money, but you can’t hold a very big amount,” she mentioned.

Internet reacts

“Thank you for not staying quiet and calling such people out. Basic necessities = wedding enjoyment? Nah!” wrote one Instagram consumer.

“’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,” one other identified.

“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 supplied as a counter argument.