More brides-to-be are coming forward with fears about a Nova Scotia photographer they hired but later fell out of contact.
CTV News broke the story on Wednesday about Ariane Anderson, a wedding photographer formerly based in Nova Scotia, who left the province without delivering wedding photos to more than 10 paying couples.
She now lives in British Columbia, leaving in her wake seven complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau, earning her an “F” rating from the organization.
Courtney Smith hired Anderson and, after hearing the storyon CTV News, came forward with her fears.
“You don't want to be wondering the night before, the week before, three months before whether or not a photographer's going to show up,” said Smith, who lives in Ottawa but is getting married in Nova Scotia in August.
Faith Williams, a bride-to-be based in Yarmouth, N.S., says Anderson has not contacted her in any way.
“I consider myself lucky just losing money, not money and photographs of my special day too,” Williams said.
CTV News has been trying for two weeks to get an interview with Anderson, who finally responded by email on Wednesday just before the story went to air.
Anderson said she is still working on the photos already taken and will send her clients raw image files before the edited ones, as a show of good faith.
Anderson did not respond to questions about whether she intends to show up for the weddings she’s scheduled to photograph, or whether she intends to refund the money shehas already received.
While shooting their engagement photos, Anderson told one couple she was going through a divorce.
“So it was hard for her to look at wedding pictures at the time but that she was getting better at it, getting better at looking at pictures,” said Jessica Comeau, a bride-to-be also based in Yarmouth.
Alex MacAulay, who also shoots weddings, says he’s offering to process the raw images of Anderson’s slighted clients free of charge, to make up for the bad publicity his profession has received.
“It certainly does cast a bit of a negative shadow on the industry, and this looked like an opportunity for us to maybe be able to help with that a little bit,” he said.
Back in Ottawa, Smith is wrestling with a dilemma: whether or not to book another wedding photographer.
“Budget-wise, can we afford to do that? No.”
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kayla Hounsell
