Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
$1M awarded in fight over wedding photos
Jury: Photographer defamed over wedding photo charge
Jury says couple defamed photographer in dispute over a $125 charge for a wedding album cover.
An autumn affair at the Petroleum Club in downtown Dallas, the union of a full-time beauty blogger and the love of her life, appeared to be a gorgeous thing — marred by one misfortune.
Three months after the ceremony, in front of a local television crew, Andrew and Neely Moldovan showed off a box of glum, empty picture frames.
Their photographer was withholding the images, they told NBC affiliate KXAS in January 2015, and was demanding an extra $150 when they’d already paid thousands.
“It’s heartbreaking, because, you know, these are our memories,” Neely Moldovan said. And many agreed. “Wedding photographer holds couple’s pictures hostage,” blared the Daily Mail a few days later.
The Moldovans’ sympathizers descended on photographer Andrea Polito’s review pages, calling her a scam artist, or worse.
Her reputation was ruined; her business dried up; and she closed her studio.
And then the story changed.
Polito sued the Moldovans, claiming all they ever had to do to get their glossies was fill out a form, choose options for their wedding album, and pay a small charge they had long known about.
The photographer showed the court emails in which she and her employees tried to appease the couple — even as the Moldovans were calling reporters, whipping up a furor on social media, and plugging their newfound fame to fans of Neely Moldovan’s beauty blog, Polito said.
Last week, a jury in Dallas decided that the tale of the ransomed wedding photos was not heartbreaking, and not even true. In fact, the jurors concluded, the accusations amounted to malicious defamation for which the Moldovans should pay the photographer more than $1 million in damages.
When the future Mrs. Moldovan opened an order in early 2014, she struck Polito as a friendly, fairly typical client — “A 30 Something Dallas Lifestyle and Beauty Blogger,” as Moldovan describes herself on her website.
She and Polito worked out a schedule for engagement, rehearsal and wedding shoots.
Photographers from the studio shot the wedding ceremony that October, and the studio sent the couple proofs the next month, according to court records.
And then Neely Moldovan began asking when she could have high-resolution versions of the photos.
Polito said her studio, like many, withholds high-res images until the entire wedding package is completed, culminating in the delivery of a custom wedding album, usually months after the wedding. Otherwise, Polito said, “photographers will hand over the images and the bride disappears.”
Her studio explained as much to Neely Moldovan, she said, and asked her to fill out a form with her album options.
But it wasn’t until one week into 2015, the newlywed told her Twitter followers about the travails of choosing her photos.
She tweeted, “broke down and chose our wedding album photos... 80 out of 4000 yeah that was like sophies choice.”
“I’m finally getting around to filling this out,” she wrote to the studio the same day. “Do we [have to] pay extra for a cover?”
Yes, she did. Having already paid the studio thousands, Moldovan was not happy about this.
“She basically didn’t read her paperwork or contract,” Polito said. “She just couldn’t understand why she couldn’t have her highres images. It’s in bold in our contract.”
A string of explanatory emails between the couple and the studio unfolded over the following days.
In the midst of this, Polito’s lawyers argued in court, Andrew and Neely Moldovan began emailing reporters across Dallas and beyond, promoting a looming news story to their friends and fans.
“I’m going apes- on our photographer,” Andrew Moldovan texted a friend on Jan. 12, 2015, according to transcripts Polito’s lawyer shared with The Post. “We want our f-- wedding album, which we already paid for.”
“We are hoping that our story makes the news and completely ruins her business,” Neely Moldovan wrote to someone the same day, according to court records.
Polito knew nothing about this, she said, until her studio manager texted her a screenshot of Neely Moldovan’s latest Instagram post: “No big deal NBC in our apt.”
Though she declined to appear on camera, Polito sent the local NBC reporter a page-long email: about albums and album covers, contracts, schedules and “ala-carte items” the Moldovans had yet to pay for.
Almost none of that email appeared in the station’s first January broadcast, which focused on the Moldovans, their empty picture frames and memories held “hostage,” as the reporter put it, over a $150 album cover fee, which he said “the contract doesn’t mention anything about.”
Then, the station released a follow-up report a few days later, with many more details and a story not nearly so simple.
The NBC affiliate described months of conversation between the Moldovans and the studio. The minimum cost of an album cover was actually $125, and a wedding expert who had blasted Polito in the station’s first segment was now defending her, after learning more about the case.
But “the damage had already been done,” Polito told The Post.
Meanwhile, court records show, Neely and Andrew Moldovan were busy on social media, advancing the “hostage” narrative.
Polito’s lawyer, Dave Wishnew, said he expects the couple to challenge the verdict before a judge orders them to pay.