North Carolina AG scores preliminary injunction against wedding photographer accused of fraud

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]want to turn now to um an ongoing story we've been keeping an eye on here in the Live Impact News studio and uh we were um kind of deep in the throws of covering that breaking news out of Matthews when the North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson made a big announcement in an ongoing lawsuit and complaint against a wedding photographer. Um and he shared uh some details on winning this preliminary injunction uh just within the last several minutes or so. So, we want to share some details and some of that press conference. Um, a little bit of background. The complaint is against a company called Holly Christina Photography. And Department of Justice says that since the beginning of the year, they've received more than 200 complaints against this company with allegations of about $1 million in financial loss from multiple different couples who say that they paid for wedding photos and did not receive them.

[00:00:52]Let's listen in here to the attorney general.

[00:00:56]>> Good afternoon.

[00:00:58]We are gathered here today to discuss a wedding photography company that broke the rules and really hurt a lot of grooms and brides. We have some folks with us today, but we are at over 200 couples who have filed complaints about this wedding photography company.

[00:01:18]As you can imagine, as a wedding photography company, you really have to screw up to get sued by your state's attorney general. But here we are. Holly Christina Photography. Here's basically the situation. As of right now, we have over 200 couples who have filed complaints with our office with losses totaling about $1 million.

[00:01:43]Here's the situation.

[00:01:45]As people would call and inquire about their services, this company would use the hard cell and would say, "We are almost completely full. We only have one more spot on our calendar. You need to sign up right now. They would do this to try and sell photo and video packages that would cost five, six, $7,000.

[00:02:08]Truth was, they didn't have just one more spot. They were double and triple booking weddings for the same day. In at least two cases, they quintuple booked weddings on one day.

[00:02:22]Sometimes a completely different photographer would show up. We have somebody here who experienced that. And sometimes the photos would be taken, the video would be taken and it was never turned over to the couple. To this day, there are couples that had their day taken from them by this company that has refused to hand over the photos and the video.

[00:02:49]So, we told people to file complaints with our office about this. We had, as I told you, over 200. We opened an investigation. We quickly found that there was a lot of evidence. So, we took this wedding photography company to court and as of today, we now have a very good outcome. The entire case is not over, but we went to the court and we asked for a preliminary injunction.

[00:03:12]Basically, we said, "Judge, we need you to give at least some relief to these couples before this entire lawsuit is over." Because, as you all know, lawsuits take some time, and they deserve some immediate relief. Now, as of yesterday, the judge agreed with us.

[00:03:29]And here are the three things that are in that preliminary injunction.

[00:03:34]First, this wedding photography company has to hand over any photos and video that it currently has to all of the couples, and they have to do that within 30 days.

[00:03:46]Second, they are not allowed to operate as a wedding photography company for the pendency of this lawsuit. And part of our request for the ultimate lawsuit is that this company be permanently shut down. Also, all of their assets are frozen. so that we can go through their assets and do an inventory as part of a process of making things right by these couples.

[00:04:10]As I said, this is just the preliminary injunction. This has not resolved the entire matter. We are going back to court to seek civil remedies and refunds and a permanent shutdown of this company.

[00:04:24]We are doing a lot of work here at NC DOJ. We are tackling a lot of big cases, FEMA and fentanyl trafficking and ticket master. But these kinds of consumer protection cases will always be big cases to us because either we live in a state where you can mistreat people or we don't.

[00:04:44]And these couples will never get their wedding day back. But they deserve to know that NC DOJ, we will make their fight our fight. And we will do everything in our power to make things right. and other businesses that serve the public deserve to know that if they mistreat people, we are going to come after them. We are going to [snorts] stand up for consumers.

[00:05:08]I'm joined here by Caroline, who was married September 27th, 2025, and has yet to receive her wedding photos.

[00:05:19]Holly and Sam, married January 3rd, 2026, have yet to receive their wedding photos. Mary Beth, whose daughter was due to be married, is due to be married October 24th, 2026, and had paid a large deposit to this company before it without warning shut down.

[00:05:42]This company was taking deposits right up until the point where they shut down, then offered no refunds, didn't offer any help to any of these couples to try and find a new wedding photographer.

[00:05:54]Over two dozen couples have been left to scramble, having weddings within 90 days of the shutdown of this wedding photography company with none of the money that they paid to this company.

[00:06:09]That is the status of this case. I really appreciate the fact that I'm joined here with a small sample of all of the victims in this case. People feel really strongly about this. The outreach to our office about this has been extraordinary. The reason we were able to act as quickly as we were is because there was such strong evidence coming in from all of these brides and grooms. We are indebted to them for how well they assisted us in conducting our investigation.

[00:06:43]Now, are there any questions? Anything you all would like to discuss? Yes.

[00:06:46]>> Uh Dina Harley with CBS 17. Thank you all for this today. There have been there has been some talk on social media of somebody related to the business or the address being arrested and charges pending there and maybe some discrepancies in what the owner was able to offer because of some domestic violence allegations. Is your office looking into that at all? Does that have anything to do with the lawsuit here?

[00:07:08]>> We've seen some of those reports. This lawsuit is really about a business that broke the law and the remedies that need to be offered and need to be ordered by the court. There may come a time when some of the defendants in this case want to make a particular argument to the judge about what is and isn't appropriate based on their particular circumstances, and we fully respect that. But we're talking about over 200 victims and roughly a million dollars.

[00:07:33]We need to address that. Also, these folks should not be holding themselves out offering this service. Clearly, they're not capable of providing it.

[00:07:42]>> Yes.

[00:07:42]>> Key Arthur with News. I know so many people come to the DOJ to report consumer complaints. What was the difference maker here that allowed you to pursue this in such a force manner?

[00:07:57]Since I've been attorney general, there are very few cases where basically an entire community was screaming all at once. We were hearing about it with people on the phone. We were hearing about it through Facebook. We were hearing about it through the press.

[00:08:12]There was just no question that something really terrible had happened and we needed to respond quickly to it.

[00:08:19]the level of energy around this um almost unsurpassed with respect to any other issue that we have had. The the viscerality of the comments that we were getting and the conversations we were having with the victims in this case, really emotional stuff. I had a chance to speak with everybody here before we came in here and they used words like emotionally devastated.

[00:08:48]And when you're talking to dozens and dozens of people who all feel emotionally devastated, that deserves to be a very high priority.

[00:08:58]>> I know you've talked about uh getting the photos back for the brides and the couples. Uh what are we looking at in terms of damage seeking because so many deposits have, you know, been put down and then they didn't get anything.

[00:09:13]>> We want to get all the money that we can. The first step in that was freezing the assets to make sure they can't spend any more of the money than they already have. Now, we're taking an inventory of the assets. I will tell you, they are cooperating as far as sending us documents that we have requested. So, we're getting a sense of what this company still owns. Part of our ultimate request to the court in this lawsuit is refunds for people who lost money.

[00:09:38]>> Good to see you again.

[00:09:38]>> Good to see you.

[00:09:39]>> Um, you say that they are responding with documents. Have they produced pictures or videos to you? Are they giving you any kind of communication of the timeline? I know you said 30 days you want them to do this, but are they still communicating with you that they will produce what they've already shot the memories?

[00:09:54]>> Right now, we have asked them to produce to us documents with respect to their assets. They are under court order to produce to the couples the photos and the videos. They have 30 days from yesterday. If that date comes and pass and they haven't done that, then we will take them back to court over that specific issue.

[00:10:16]>> Yes.

[00:10:19]>> Do you anticipate any criminal charges um against the owners relation to this case?

[00:10:24]>> At this point, this is a civil case.

[00:10:26]That may change. I'll have more for you if and when it does.

[00:10:33]Anything else?

[00:10:36]Grateful for all of you taking the time to join us. Thank you very much.