This wedding was far from picture-perfect.
A New Jersey father who was forced to substitute the photographer for his daughter’s extravagant wedding at the last minute wants his $76,000 deposit refunded.
Dr. Amit Patel, 59, hurried to find another photographer for his daughter Anisha’s wedding to Arjun Mehta, 28, which took place over four days in Turkey and had 250 guests, 13 custom dresses for the bride, and a profile in Vogue.
The celebrations included saxophonists performing music on the beach, a Turkish-themed night resembling a local bazaar with traditional music, decor, and dancers, as well as custom-made necklaces for the bride and fireworks.
It was the family’s first wedding in “quite some time,” according to Patel, a vascular surgeon who estimated that the overall cost of the event was “in the six figures.”
But it was nearly a catastrophe. Patel asserts in his lawsuit that the renowned photographer he had originally recruited began making last-minute demands.
Anisha Patel and Arjun Mehta on their wedding day in Turkey.
Amit Patel spared no cost for the four-day Turkish wedding of his daughter.
According to the lawsuit, Patel fired renowned photographer Clane Gessel just days before the incident in Bodrum, Turkey.
“It’s chaos. Imagine telling your daughter a few days before her wedding that the photographer she chose will not be attending,” Patel said of the dispute with Gessel.
Patel alleged in his Manhattan Federal Court filing that Gessel and his namesake studio agreed in writing that the shutterbug would be the “main photographer” at each of the gathering’s multiple events and that he and his team would stay at the Doubletree by Hilton instead of the luxury, five-star Mandarin Hotel, where the wedding took place.
Gessel allegedly emailed Patel as the father was preparing to board a flight to Turkey for the wedding, stating that he would “decide who is shooting what and when” and requesting a reservation at the Mandarin.
»NJ parent suing photographer for $76K for daughter’s opulent wedding«