Being a wedding photographer bears a certain level of responsibility. You hold the memories of your clients in your hands. In a ruling today, a New Jersey firm was fined $3 million for withholding the photos of thousands of weddings.

 Celebration Studios of Chester, New Jersey has over 1,800 violations of the State Consumer Fraud Act. Not easy, even with eight branches.

 Apparently, Celebration fell prey to the failing economy and the business went bankrupt. In the process, however, the firm failed to deliver wedding albums to 3,600 customers. The state has now seized all the company's photos and has begun the long process of doling them out to eager couples who have been waiting since before January 2008.

 Now, it is understandable that a photo business would come upon hard times in this economy. Neglecting to deliver photos to paying clients, however, is not only bad business practice, but irresponsible. Could this firm be the Bernie Madoff of the photo business? No, that's a bit of an exaggeration. But, if I owned that company, I would personally be knocking on doors, hand-delivering photos.

(photo by  Tim Farrell for The Star Ledger)