There were 140 of their closest family and friends in the room, every detail had been planned to perfection and they'd made sure to capture every moment of their perfect day on camera.
It was a video Katie and Robbie McManus wanted to watch on their first wedding anniversary and show their children when they grew up. But it never arrived.
They had already paid in full and chased their videographer — who trades as Wonderlust Films — for months.
At first, there were reasons given for the delay, but eventually he just stopped responding.
One day, almost 12 months after they were married, Katie spotted a story on Instagram, posted by a mutual friend, asking anyone who had worked with the same videographer to message her.
"My heart sank," she said.
"That was the moment I realised we might never receive our footage."
The woman, Maddy Castle, had used the same videographer and despite following up with phone calls, texts and emails, had never received her footage.
And as she told Katie and Robbie, they were not alone.
Many excuses given for video delay
Katie and Robbie were added to a group containing other couples who had booked the same videographer — who the ABC has made approaches to.
The couples had done their research — the videographer had shot lots of weddings in the past, produced stunning videos and was well regarded in the industry. But that was no longer the case.
There were couples in the group that were in the same boat as Katie and Robbie — the videographer had showed up to their wedding, been "a dream" to deal with and then after their wedding the communication dropped off until it dried up completely.
In the early months, he had given them reasons for the delays and sparse communication. He had back-to-back weddings, COVID was still disrupting the industry, he was burnt out, struggling with his mental health and he really wanted to focus on quality — so the video was going to take a lot longer than he initially said.
After long waits, many simply ended up asking for the raw footage, no refund needed. None of them have received it.
But while he was "ghosting" some couples, he was still shooting weddings, booking new ones and taking deposits.
The ABC has confirmed he took a payment from one couple as late as September 2022, despite the backlog of videos and frustrated couples, and shot a wedding in December 2022.
He cancelled on one couple in December 2022, just over a month before their wedding, telling them he had carbon monoxide poisoning.
They were understanding, and it gave them enough time to book a new videographer, but after sending their bank details for a refund for the $3,500 they'd paid, he stopped talking to them.
In other cases, he had taken the deposit, eventually stopped communicating and then never shown up. The couples all realised before the day, but they'd paid deposits, if not the full amount.
Joey was added to the group chat days before her wedding
Joey Stuart found out a couple of days before her wedding that her videographer was unlikely to show up.
"It was the weekend before we were supposed to get married and we hadn't heard from him," Joey said.
A few weeks earlier, she had received an email from him, suggesting they catch up to talk about the details of the wedding. She replied but never heard back.
She raised her concerns with her photographer, Lucy, who told her not to worry.
Later that week, Lucy got back in touch. She told her she had heard from other people that the videographer had been "ghosting" couples.
It was Wednesday night, and Joey's wedding was on Saturday.
"It was just deflating," she said.
"I had a gut feeling anyway that something was off, but to have that confirmation so close to our actual wedding date was frustrating and disappointing because we didn't get the time to organise an alternative."
That same night she was added to "the group chat".
"It became very real because we were hearing these stories [from the group chat] that had happened months before us and it was frustrating all over again because maybe we could've heard about it sooner or had time to organise someone else," she said.
It was later she realised the "catch-up" email was automated. On top of that, Joey and her husband Alex had already paid the $2,500 in full.
They emailed him asking for a refund, warning that they were prepared to take it further. They have yet to hear back.
But Joey said she still felt "lucky" because she found out before her wedding.
"For the couples that had him there and never got their footage, I think that's also an extremely hard thing to deal with," she said.
At least 10 couples involved
Joey and Alex got married on January 7 this year, but they were not the last couple to discover their videographer had vanished.
At least two other couples who had booked him in for February figured it out just a week or two before their wedding. They managed to get replacement videographers but appear to have lost their deposits.
The ABC has spoken to 10 couples that have been affected. They paid a combined $25,000.
It is understood there are more.
The couples are now at a loose end. Some want their money back, others just want the footage.
What can the couples do?
Police say that because it involves contracts, it is a civil matter, meaning there is little they can do.
But as most of the of the claims are under $5,000, there is the option of lodging a minor civil claim in a magistrates court.
Tasmania's Consumer Building and Occupational Services (CBOS) can also review allegations of non-supply in some cases where a business has accepted payments if they do not intend to supply or know/should have known they would not be able to supply within the period specified or a reasonable time.
"If CBOS is satisfied an offence has been committed by a person wrongly accepting payment for goods or services, CBOS can issue a penalty of $1,810.00 for each identified offence," it said in a statement.
"CBOS may also refer the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions, which can result in court penalties under the Australian Consumer Law of more than $200,000."
Looking back on their wedding day now, Robbie and Katie cannot quite believe that they told friends and family to put their phones away.
"We had close to 140 people there … it is almost impossible to get them in the one place at the one time," Robbie said.
“To be telling people to put their phones away and don’t stress about anything because we’ve got six cameras on the whole day so all of our forever memories are just going to be captured in so many different angles … it's gut wrenching to know that you're just not going to be able to see that."
The ABC made multiple attempts to contact the videographer, but has not received a response.
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