A woman has been dubbed “Sepia Bride” after her wedding day ordeal went viral on TikTok. Alexandra Jaye Conder got married in a lavish destination wedding in Anguilla last November. As wedding photographs are any bride’s prized possessions, Alexandra took to social media to vent about her situation. What initially appeared to be the perfect wedding photos soon turned into a sepia-toned tragedy.
What is the viral ‘Sepia Bride’ drama all about?
The woman who goes by @alexandrajaye5 on TikTok shared her frustrations with wedding photographer Hannah Elise in a series of videos. “Imagine paying almost $8,000 for a wedding photographer. And when you raised your concerns, they threatened to sue you for slander if you spoke your truth,” she said in the first video of her 14-part series.
Alexandra explained that she hired Elise after going through her photography page on Instagram. “Her feed looks so bright, airy, but also had this golden-ness to it and I loved that the golden-ness still captured the beauty of like colours, blue, your skin tone, etc,” she said.
However, when it came to her own photos, the case was not the same anymore. “Our wedding day was overcast, nothing you can really do about that. However, photographers should know how to shoot in an overcast situation,” Alexandra revealed. She did admit that her rehearsal dinner pictures turned out to be “gorgeous.”
“So she delivered the photos and of course right away I’m like ‘Oh my God, I love them. I love every single one of them.’ I am like beaming with excitement,” the TikToker said. “And, then for about 30 days, I’m staring at the photos and I am like ‘Why is there something bothering me?’” “I couldn’t put my finger on it, until I realised.”
“I’m a makeup artist, okay? I was a makeup artist in the wedding industry for years. And I do my own makeup for my wedding. And I’m staring at the solo pictures of me and I’m like, hmm, I kind of look really pale and my makeup isn’t showing at all,” Alexandra said.
She explained that after noticing that her face seemed different, she raised the issue with Elise, who offered to re-edit her photos for free. However, the issue only escalated from there. Alexandra then proceeded to compare the edited photo with a picture of herself shot on an iPhone.
“What did she put on my lipstick? What blush am I wearing? Like what is all my eyes, my skin, everything?” the TikToker said. “I then came to the conclusion that I need to reach out to her and tell her that some of the edits felt like there were a preset that was copy-pasted, and I wasn’t happy whatsoever,” she added.
She revealed in the rest of her series that the photographer charged her $4,000 for the RAW shots. Despite the hefty amount, Alexandra agreed to pay and settled on editing them by herself. The “Sepia Bride” drama quickly gained traction on social media, drawing mixed responses from netizens. While many sympathised with her, others blasted her for being too nit-picky.
