A San Francisco couple is so upset over their wedding video that they’re suing the Chicago-based company that shot it. The footage in question, the bride — who’s identified in court documents as Jane Doe — told NBC, involves the moment her husband knelt down to remove the garter from her leg.
“It got a little messy and he fell down a few times,” she said, adding that the moment left her in tears, but that she recovered. The couple figured the awkward moment would be edited out and never seen again — until it showed up on YouTube.
According to the suit, the Huffington Post, E! Online, Cosmopolitan, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and other sites hosted the video, which was watched by “millions of internet users.” The views and comments left the bride “shocked, mortified, anguished, humiliated, and shamed.”
George Street Photo and Video, the company the couple hired to shoot the video, released a statement saying, “In our 12-year history of capturing, editing, and delivering thousands of wedding photos and videos, we have never experienced anything like this. We are very disappointed and upset by this situation, and we have spent considerable time removing our video from the internet.” The company added that it hired an independent contractor to shoot the Doe wedding.
Thanks to copyright law, George Street owns the video and can do what it pleases with the footage. But Jane Doe’s suit argues that publishing it online was an “intentional infliction of emotional distress” and that the company should pay her damages. Marriages come and go, after all, but viral videos are forever.
