New Jersey surgeon seeks $76,000 refund from photographer who made eleventh-hour demands for daughter’s wedding

An Indian-American surgeon has sued a renowned photographer after replacing him for his daughter’s wedding.

Amit Patel, a vascular surgeon in New Jersey, now wants the shutterbug - Clane Gessel - to pay him back his $76,000.

Patel organised his 28-year-old daughter Anisha’s wedding with Arjun Mehta in the presence of 250 guests in Turkey’s port city of Bodrum. The event, which cost Patel “a good six-figure number”, included 13 custom outfits for the bride and a feature in Vogue.

According to the New York Post, the festivities featured a Turkish themed-night that mimicked a local bazaar, saxophonists playing music on the beach, traditional music, decor and dancers and fireworks.

It was the family’s first wedding after a long time.

Award-winning photographer Gessel who specialises in wedding imagery was hired as the main shutterbug for the event. According to the arrangement, the wedding was to take place in the five-star Mandarin Hotel and the team of photographers was to stay at the Doubletree by Hilton.

When Patel was waiting to board a plane to Turkey for the wedding, Gessel allegedly emailed him demanding he be booked into Mandarin, the surgeon said in his lawsuit.

Gessel also allegedly said he would “decide who is shooting what and when”.

Patel said he fired Gessel days before the wedding because of the photographer’s 11th-hour demands.

The vascular surgeon had to find a replacement photographer for the wedding.

“It’s panic. You can imagine telling your daughter a few days before her wedding that the photog she selected, he’s not coming,” the New York Post quoted Patel as saying.