Wedding photographer praised after video of her pushing stepmother aside at ceremony goes viral

This wedding photographer didn’t want to miss the perfect shot of the couple’s first kiss, and when the rude stepmother tried to block the view, she was harshly pushed aside. Wedding guests and the bride are praising the photographer, but the stepmother is not happy at all with the video going viral.

Being a wedding photographer is a big responsibility. Capturing the essential moments like the first kiss, dance or the throwing of the bouquet in the perfect angle and at the right time, is not that easy, much less when the guests get in the way of the camera lens.

Ashley Easterling was hired by Josh and Lorna Grant to get the perfect shots of their magical wedding day, and when Lorna’s stepmother showed a sassy and disrespectful attitude, Easterling didn’t hesitate to prove she wasn’t playing around with her job.

In footage of the wedding ceremony shared on Facebook by the bride, Easterling can be seen stepping her ground as she shoves the stepmother out of the way. According to some guests, Easterling had been politely asking the woman to move aside, but when she stepped right in front of the photographer to take a picture with her phone, almost blocking the couple’s first kiss from her sight, Ashley had enough and elbowed the woman.

The video of the awkward moment has gone viral with over 180k views on Lorna’s Facebook.

“Y’all. Watch until the end. Watch my photographer push my stepmom out of the way to try to capture our moment. She doesn’t find it very funny. But I do. Lmao Ashley is a savage,” Lorna captioned the video.

THE VIDEO CAUSED PROBLEMS BETWEEN THE BRIDE AND HER STEPMOM

Although some people have sided with the stepmom, calling the photographer “rude” for doing her job, the vast majority has been praising Easterling, including the gorgeous bride.

However, after posting the video and getting such an overwhelming response, Lorna posted a lengthy letter on Facebook clarifying that she never intended to cause any harm to her stepmom and that inevitably, the video had created some frictions between them.

“The viral video that was posted has caused a little bit of conflict between mine and my step mothers relationship, this is nothing new,” she wrote, and continued:

“We have always had a very rocky relationship and bumped heads a lot. She is terribly upset with the feedback of this video which is completely understandable. I received some very hateful text messages due to the ordeal […] She didn’t find it funny at first then she did, and now she doesn’t. That’s okay! My picture was still captured I applaud Ashely for that.”

THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S POINT OF VIEW

Speaking about the footage, Ashley Easterling told the Daily Mail:

“I politely asked several times for her to move. She popped off something smart… I told her I was the paid photographer; then she told me I wasn't doing my job and walked right in front of me. Nope. I'm paid to do a job, and dang- this girl is doing her job one way or the other.”

She also added on a Facebook post that she hopes this video can remind wedding guests that the main focus of every wedding is the groom and bride, not them or the blurry picture they could get with their phones. She added:

“They hired a professional for a reason. Please have respect for the bride and groom and the photographer. The photographer is there to do a job, and they were hired by the people there that matter the most that day.”

Lorna later shared the final shot of her and Josh’s first kiss from both devices, Ashley’s camera, and her stepmom’s iPhone, making it evident that the photographer’s actions were worth it.