Weddings can be a hotbed of drama—but nobody expects it to come from the photographer. So, needless to say, wedding photographer, Michael Betzner, was horrified to discover that his hookup wasn’t just part of the wedding he was working at—he was the groom.
As part of a viral trend that involves mouthing the phrase “I need to buy a gun,” Betzner tried to process what had happened. “When I showed up to a wedding as the photographer and the groom was a man I’ve hooked up with in the past 6 months,” the on-screen text read.
Commenters couldn’t believe it
In the comments, users didn’t know what to make of it. “I’ve never been married,” one wrote. “Do grooms usually not meet the photographer until the wedding day?”
“Were there exchanged glances or did he avoid all eye contact?” another asked.
“… but was it a straight marriage or a gay one?” a third inquired. “Because I feel like there may be more issues if it’s a straight marriage…”
A fourth suggested that “it might be an open relationship,” and a fifth despaired, “Noooo, my soul would have left my body.”
Many other commenters urged him to tell the bride. But did he?
@michaelbetznerphotograph It went smoothly and the photos are actually some of my best work ?? #durhamphotographer #raleighphotographer #gaytiktok #ohno ♬ I want to buy a gun – Teagan
The photographer did a storytime
Later, at the commenters’ insistence, Betzner shared a storytime, during which he revealed that he did tell the bride. However, any further awkwardness was avoided as she revealed that she and her husband-to-be were in an open relationship.
In fact, the woman revealed that the husband took such a shine to Betzner, he specifically recommended him as a wedding photographer.
“So I was like, OK, period. So, like, I actually got that job because I had sex with her husband.” He then continued with his work, and things went on without a hitch (pun intended).
“It was never, like, inappropriate or weird. It honestly was one of the more comfortable weddings that I’ve shot. Like, it was super comfortable and just like, easy and fun. They were super laid back and just very fun to be around.”
Betzner didn’t immediately respond to The Mary Sue’s request for comment via TikTok comment and Instagram direct message.
Photographer gets harassed at wedding
As it turns out, photographers bear witness to all kinds of weird happenings at weddings. Photographer @kp23710, for instance, experienced sexual harassment after she lay down to take a specific shot of the bride and bridal party.
As she found out later on, one of the groomsmen said, “Now whenever you girls are done, let us guys do that. But we’re gonna do something a little different.”
“You may think that it’s really easy for us to just like laugh [expletive] off like that,” @kp23710 she said. “Laugh sexual harassment off. You don’t know what women have [expletive] been through in their past. I laughed it off, did my job, [and] finished the drive back home. [But], I’ve never felt so [expletive] sick in my entire life. So just degraded and violated that like I was looked at like that.”
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