Latest news with #November2023
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Man Adopts a 'Fitness is Fun' Mindset and Loses 85 Pounds Playing This Trendy Game
For Ethan Noblesala, 32, a diagnosis of prediabetes and a blunt prediction from his doctor in November, 2023, motivated him to improve his health. "My doctor told me, 'If you don't change your lifestyle, you're going down a route that's leading to more surgeries, more operations and more medication,'" Noblesala tells TODAY. He says he was at his healthiest during college, but as he built his career as an entrepreneur, he neglected his health and focused on building his businesses. 'As I started that corporate lifestyle, I was slowly gaining weight,' he says. To foster business growth and connections, he was spending a lot of time at happy hours. He was lucky if he slept four hours a night. Uber Eats was the cornerstone of his diet. Exercise or even spending any time outside was practically non-existent. And his habits only got worse during COVID. His weight climbed to 235 pounds, which was a strain on his 5-foot, 6-inch frame. 'Even though I was running a successful business with my co-founder, I decided to take a leave to really focus on what was most important to me — my health,' he says. That attention to his health worked. He lost 85 pounds, and he says he feels 10 years younger. Here's how he did it. Noblesala has a background in finance, so he's motivated by numbers. He honed in on them to make changes, tracking his protein, fiber and calories. He discovered that when he ate mainly protein and fiber-dense meals, he felt satiated even when he was only eating 1,500 calories a day: 'Your body needs nutrition, but I never felt like I was starving myself or restricting myself.' He built on small goals and habit changes: Drinking a glass of water every day: 'I was 85 pounds heavier. I wasn't going to go out and run five miles, or try any of the crazy trends I see online. This was something I could do.' Shopping for groceries and checking the nutrition labels for protein, fiber and calories instead of eating out — and overeating — five times a week. Having a go-to, high-fiber, low-calorie meal that he liked to eat: Shirataki noodles with chicken breast in a low-fat buffalo sauce. Finding healthier swaps for foods he likes, such as Costco chicken nuggets instead of McDonald's: 'I found it exciting to make these new discoveries. It's something I love to do.' Noblesala grew up playing sports and loved how they kept him active while also being a way to connect with others. He'd often ask his friends if they wanted to play basketball, tennis or something else together. 'Through tennis, I discovered pickleball. That was the hook for me in terms of living a healthier and active lifestyle. I've become a pickleball fanatic,' he says. In December 2023, he joined Life Time. 'One thing I appreciate there is the community. I get to play pickleball, my favorite sport. Some people say going to the gym is a chore, but I'm excited to go." "There are endorphins you get from exercising, from being around others and from having that community," he says. "In the past, going to the gym was a solo grind, and I had to force myself to go. Now, it's not a chore. It's part of my lifestyle." Having friends at the gym and at pickleball builds accountability for him, too. 'My friends will say, 'Ethan, I'll see you tomorrow.' And, of course, then I go after work. They're expecting me,' he says. He has also joined some running clubs, such as Pitch & Run, and now he's working toward an ambitious goal — running the New York City marathon in November. He earned the opportunity to participate through his alma mater, Chaminade High School in Long Island. 'I'm nervous for the marathon because I know it's a daunting mental task. I'm focusing on the interval training and the strength training,' he says. Noblesala recognizes now how his lack of sleep was making his health worse: 'Your body needs to recover. I'm averaging six and a half to seven and a half hours of sleep a night now, and I definitely feel it when I don't get seven hours of sleep.' He's also careful about balancing his workouts with rest. He finds fitness data so valuable that he wears an Apple watch, a Whoop tracker and an Oura ring. After a day where he ran seven miles and played two hours of pickleball, he saw that his Whoop told him to take it lighter the next day. 'You can make these informed decisions with technology. It was harder to do this 10 years ago,' he says. Now that Noblesala is 85 pounds lighter and his life is centered around healthy living, he has no intention of returning to his old habits. In fact, it inspired Ethan's new company WeFit Labs, which is a gamified social fitness app designed to help motivate people to move together. If you're looking for a fitness community, join our Start TODAY walking club on Facebook and connect live with members and experts during coaching calls on the Start TODAY app! This article was originally published on
Telegraph
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Diddy took hip-hop excess mainstream. Now he's killed it off
On a glittering night in November 1997, Sean 'Puffy' Combs was celebrating his 29th birthday amid the Corinthian columns of Cipriani's at 55 Wall Street. Guests included movie stars Kevin Costner and Denzel Washington; director Francis Ford Coppola; the Duchess of York, fashion designer Donna Karan, entrepreneur Martha Stewart and the real-estate mogul, Donald Trump. 'I just think he's a good guy,' the now president told a reporter from the New York Observer. Combs, or Puff Daddy, or P Diddy, or just Diddy as he would later be known, appeared in an immaculate three-piece suit, pumping his hands in the air. He was the man everyone wanted to know, offering an irresistible combination of street cred and conspicuous success. 'I go from Harlem to the Hamptons,' was how he put it. 'Have I read The Great Gatsby?' he would say later. 'I am the Great Gatsby.' Fast forward 26 years, to November 2023 and Combs in a soft brown velvet suit on Graham Norton's sofa promoting his record, The Love Album, on which he had collaborated with The Weeknd, Justin Bieber and John Legend, explaining how his name changes matched different eras of his life and that he was entering a new one, 'I have become Love.' Days later, his former partner Cassie Ventura filed a law suit accusing him of rape and years of violent abuse. Diddy settled quickly and privately, but it had opened the floodgates. Allegations began to pour out, from other women, other men, that Diddy was a sexual predator on a monstrous scale, that those glittering parties and the infamous 'Freak Offs' that occurred behind closed doors were a byword for depravity. Cut to a federal court in New York of May and June this year, where Combs was being tried on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, and a different figure appears in the court sketches – bearded, greying, watching on as the government called 34 witnesses against him to the stand. Now he stands convicted on the transportation counts, while being cleared of sex trafficking and racketeering. Can the career of one of pop's great movers and shakers, the man who made hip-hop socially acceptable to those who had recoiled at the radical politics of Public Enemy and the thuggery of gangsta rap actually survive this verdict? And what a career it has been. The title of a track from his 1997 debut album, No Way Out, told the story. It's All About the Benjamins was a slang reference to the Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, who sits proudly on the US currency's highest denomination note – the hundred dollar bill. Combs's ambition and acumen would enable him to accrue a fortune once estimated at close to a billion dollars. But his cultural impact would be deeper still. By the time the album came out, Combs was already a star on both sides of the Atlantic. I'll Be Missing You by Faith Evans and Puff Daddy had spent six weeks at number one in the UK that summer. It was Combs's response to the murder of rapper Biggie Smalls, the Notorious B.I.G., in a drive-by shooting in March of that year. Biggie (known to his mother as Christopher Wallce) had been Combs's first signing to the label Bad Boy Records, which he'd founded in 1993, after he'd been fired from André Harrell's Uptown Records. The clash of style, and egos, had become too glaring, despite Diddy's obvious talent, hustle and ear for a sound that would sell. On I'll Be Missing You, the song's central use of a sample from The Police's Every Breath You Take showcased Combs's gifts as a producer and commercial maestro. Combs had already created the genre of hip-hop soul at Uptown, producing Mary J Blige's debut album What's the 411?, fusing soul vocals with harder-edged hip-hop beats – a new direction that would be followed by R Kelly and TLC, and later find its way into the sound of Lauryn Hill, All Saints, John Legend and others. It was present in I'll Be Missing You, too. In time, Combs would redefine what it meant to be a showbiz multi-hyphenate: label boss, executive producer, marketing visionary and artist-as-brand; self-directed and absolutely driven. His influence has been huge. Jay-Z learnt vital lessons about how to be a rapper-mogul from him; Kanye West combined fashion with music like Diddy did; 50 Cent copied his branding moves all the way to the bank; and all caught a blast of the power of a classic pop sample, which Combs understood so well. He had talked Biggie into including Juicy – with its sample of the R&B number one Juicy Fruit by Mtume – on his Ready to Die album in 1994, and it proved to be the rapper's breakthrough hit. Combs would later persuade Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page to add live guitar parts to the sample of Led Zep's Kashmir on the song Come with Me, which he had added to the Godzilla soundtrack in 1998. The song reached the top five at home and abroad. Diddy's cross-over cut-through was total. Combs was a trailblazer in all sorts of unusual ways. By the time of that debut album and the party at Cipriani's, he was investing in magazine publishing, in the restaurant business, he was exploring film producing for Harvey Weinstein, he was even toying with writing a book in the style of Trump's The Art of the Deal. His Sean John fashion line, which he launched in 1998, brought hip-hop street style to the luxury end of the clothing market. When he won the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) award for Menswear Designer of the Year in 2004, Combs was following in the footsteps of Marc Jacobs, Helmut Lang and Calvin Klein. And the launch of his own fragrance – Unforgiveable – in December 2005 leveraged his couture image to launch the P Diddy brand into a new arena. It wasn't the first branded men's perfume – another notable 'hustler artist' had launched Andy Warhol pour Homme in 1999. But would there have been a Jay-Z's Gold, David Beckham's Beyond or Donald Trump's Empire without it? Probably not. Similarly, his 50-50 deal with vodka brand Cîroc, which made millions for both parties, paved the way for the sort of celebrity brand deal that is all around us today. So where had this combination of acuity and street smarts been nurtured? Combs was born in Harlem and grew up in poverty after his father – who had served in the US air force – was shot and killed in his car when his son was just two years old. Combs has said that his father was involved in selling drugs and running his own crew when it happened. He'd heard that his mother had worn a full-length chinchilla coat to the funeral, while he had been dressed in a mink coat. 'That was the story of the glamour and the decadence of our family, and how he was the kingpin of Harlem and how he'd got assassinated,' he said in a TV interview, explaining that he was not interested in following in his father's footsteps. Instead, he had been a Catholic altar boy in Mount Vernon, north of the Bronx, where his mother had moved after the murder, working multiple jobs to support Combs and his elder sister, Keisha. He had gone on to study business at the prestigious Howard University in Washington DC, whose alumni include Kamala Harris, Toni Morrison and Chadwick Boseman, although he left after two years, without graduating. Allegations of abusive behaviour towards women date all the way back to this time. In a wide-ranging investigation published last May, Rolling Stone reported several sources claiming to have witnessed Combs attack a girlfriend with what appeared to be a belt during his time at the college. He left in 1989, the same year that he appeared as a backing dancer on a single by Motown Records' Stacy Lattisaw, who'd had a top three hit in the UK back in 1980 with the disco classic Jump to the Beat. At this point, it appears, Combs, who in high school had dreamed of being an NFL star, just wanted to get as close to the music scene as he could, in any way he could. He would soon join Uptown Records as an intern, then become an A&R executive, but to say that the path to fame and fortune opened up before him at this point would be to misjudge how many times Combs moved beyond the expected outlines of that path and forged his own. The marketing wiz made it to the role of producer and helped turn hip-hop into the dominant pop culture, but he still wasn't satisfied. Though never a natural rapper, Combs would make himself one of the best-known hip-hop stars on the planet, then turn his public persona into product – selling an aspirational lifestyle by living it, becoming the king of bling, arriving at the Met Gala in a crystal-studded tux, partying on yachts, quaffing champagne and Cîroc, throwing his famous White Party every year, hanging with everyone from Leonardo DiCaprio to Prince Harry. The baller, the shot caller. And on and on. Moving into media and television, generating reality show formats, founding his own MTV-like cable music channel, Revolt TV, focused on black music. He turned to philanthropy, sponsoring a scholarship programme at Howard (which the university ended after the lawsuits began to emerge). He has been a committed activist, who has championed political engagement, especially in black communities, through initiatives, such as 'Vote or Die!', and who set up a political party, Our Black Party, in 2020 to try to counter the influence of Trump's Maga movement. But there were always rumours that away from the limelight, Diddy was a creep. A 2009 book written by former Bad Boy rapper Mark Curry, Dancing with the Devil, alleged that Diddy exploited his artists, billed them for 'special appearances' on their records, inserted himself into songwriting and production credits, and that at his parties, drinks for women were sometimes separated, suggesting they had been spiked with drugs, and that he was controlling and violent, especially towards his then girlfriend Kim Porter. A series of pay-offs and out-of-court settlements hinted at a very dark side. And there were brushes with the law dating back years. In 1999, for instance, while dating Jennifer Lopez, Combs was involved in an altercation with a drug dealer in a New York nightclub, during which shots were fired and three bystanders wounded. After fleeing the scene in an SUV, which was stopped by police, Combs was arrested in connection with the incident. Lopez was released without charge; Combs was later acquitted of weapons' charges. One victim gave sworn testimony that she saw Combs pull out a gun before the shot was fired that hit her in the face; despite the rapper's acquittal, she continues to maintain her side of the story. It's impossible now to separate Diddy from the welter of allegations against him. And almost no one among his high-profile friends and associates, and those who enjoyed his largesse at his famous White parties has stuck by him. High-profile figures such as Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Naomi Campbell, Lopez and Justin Bieber have kept their views to themselves ('Although Justin is not among Sean Combs' victims, there are individuals who were genuinely harmed by him,' read a statement from Bieber's representative). Diddy's mother and his children (he has seven) have regularly been present in court, but only Kanye West of his celebrity friends has publicly backed Diddy, denouncing the charges and asking the US president to 'PLEASE FREE MY BROTHER PUFF'. Others, such as R&B crooner Usher, who lived with Diddy for a year when he was 13 years old, have remained silent. The singer previously said in a 2004 Rolling Stone interview that the man who made him a star introduced him to 'a totally different set of s--- – sex, specifically… There was always girls around. You'd open a door and see somebody doing it, or several people in a room having an orgy. You never knew what was going to happen.' When asked later if he'd have let his own children spend time there, he said, 'Hell no.' The convicted felon and the man who set hip-hop on its way to becoming a global economic force are one and the same. His cultural impact (especially his influence on celebrity branding) will continue to have a life of its own, yet hip-hop has long since moved on from the bling style of ridiculous excess that Diddy popularised and made his own. It has a special kind of naffness that now seems more Jeff Bezos than Kendrick Lamar, the sort of studious superstar that the genre produces these days. The effortless chic of Pharrell Williams and the rage boiling up out of the likes of streaming giants Travis Scott and Playboi Carti make Diddy look like a dinosaur. Few listened to his most recent album – if this was the Love that Diddy had become, people sure as hell weren't buying it. He has a bit of time to think of a new direction, though. Just not as long as many of us thought.
Forbes
02-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Mark Wahlberg And Municipal Plan Performance Footwear Expansion
The Municipal Origin was the first footwear launch from the brand. Mark Wahlberg tells me he's not really a patient person. But he wasn't about to rush the technology that defines his Municipal brand's footwear: 'When I say it took years to get right, I'm not kidding,' he says, adding that he knows it takes time to build something special. 'I personally must've tested at least 10 versions of it myself, but it's about having a mentality that isn't satisfied until you reach the vision you set out.' As Municipal—a brand co-founded by Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson and Harry Arnett—has crafted apparel and footwear to 'inspire people to get out there and start making it happen,' the brand has used the technology in its Origin premium trainer and All-Terrain Golf shoes, with plans to expand into additional performance categories over the next 24 months. The technology within the Origin trainer marks a comfort-focused technology from Municipal. 'We want to make the most comfortable performance footwear. Period,' Wahlberg says. ' combines layers of premium materials to create that feeling where you're almost sad to have to take them off at night. And then taking that technology across the new and different franchises we have and have on the way, again, never satisfied.' Arnett, Municipal CEO, tells me that when the Origin launched in November 2023 it was an entire line of a single silhouette, six colors 'straddling the fence of lifestyle and performance.' Less than 12 months later, they launched the golf shoe and now footwear is 30% of Municipal's business. 'We are incredibly bullish about the category,' Arnett says. 'We think we have the chops to really compete in a unique way, doing our own thing.' Arnett believes people are drawn to the style because of Municipal's technology. Calling a system, the tech features five layers of multi-density materials interacting with a supercritical foam for a 'luxury comfort, style experience.' Municipal plans a footwear expansion over the next 24 months that includes a mix of performance ... More models. The comfort value was the key. 'We were focused on occupying the comfort lane so when people think of Municipal.,' Arnett says, 'they think of comfort, performance and style coming together in a clean, elegant way.' The success breeds more silhouettes, with the next 24 months including a relaunch of the Origin and three new models: a trainer, a court shoe and a performance runner. 'There is a lot of technology work we are doing that is more advanced than in the past,' Arnett says, 'with carbon fiber and supercritical foam. We feel we have the product market fit box checked and are ready to put the pedal down.' The ownership group wants to attack the footwear category as an outsider. Wahlberg believes the mix of founders helps with that. 'That's our biggest strength,' Wahlberg says. 'We come from entertainment, sports, business, branding and we all bring something different to the table. That mix of perspectives helps us create a dynamic and well-rounded brand, and incredibly well-made products that not only perform but also deeply connect to real life. You know when something makes it as an actual product, it went through a lot of debate and collaboration to get there.' The Municipal Origin. Wahlberg is hands-on. 'Every day is something new, both exciting and challenging,' he says. 'I talk with Harry multiple times a day on anything from product ideas, business development, things I'm seeing, opportunities, long-term vision. The energy and the passion that goes on behind-the-scenes is what I love. Everyone looks at the finished product as being the goal, and that's true, but the community we're building is probably the most exciting part of the whole experience. When people come up to me and say they love the brand and everything it stands for, that's really gratifying.' As the young brand looks to evolve, Wahlberg says they remain focused on connecting with people who want to make a commitment to getting better every day. 'That's really why we started,' he says, 'to inspire people to get out there and start making it happen. It's an authentic mindset we all share.' Municipal began in 2019 and launched product in the middle of 2020. Built from scratch with the three co-founders, they saw an opportunity to combine the best elements of athleisure, health and wellness, street style with luxury underpinnings for both men and women living the type of life that starts and sometimes ends in the gym. Finding limitations with the brands already on the market, the group decided to build what they wanted themselves, calling it a 'sport utility performance' design. 'Municipal is the brand and gear for modern ambition,' Arnett says. Footwear now makes up roughly 30% of the Municipal business. Arnett says one of the cool parts has been the range of demographics drawn to it. The core group of young professionals, both men and women aged 25-35, is joined by the next gen category of those age 18-24, now about a quarter of the business. Also in the mix is the 36- to 54-year-old segment. 'We are kinda the favorite brand of old dudes like me and the high school and college kids who love the brand and love the style,' Arnett says. 'In that segment, they are not used to the quality being accessible to them.' With the community growing, the launch of shoes happened earlier than expected, giving the brand the head-to-toe solution it knew it wanted. The move into footwear for Municipal was natural, especially for Wahlberg who has a well-known love of shoes. But it was having true innovation in the footwear—and not just a fashion style with the brand name on it—that was going to be the first to release from the brand. 'It had to have world-class level of comfort you couldn't find with other brands,' Wahlberg says. Engineers worked with the layers of materials to interact with each other in a way that 'when people try it on, they have an immediate wow factor.' Municipal aims to broaden its appeal. 'There's a healthy degree of outsiders' perspective that drives the innovation and experience,' Arnett says. 'We are bringing a new approach to this type of category we felt like hasn't existed before.' MORE: On's The Roger Footwear Line Modernizing And Growing MORE: Lululemon Brings Brand's Approach To Wildfeel Trail Shoes
Forbes
24-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How AI Agents Can Take Your Business Analytics To Another Level
Alon Goren, CEO and Cofounder of AnswerRocket, transforming your analytics with AI. In my last FTC piece, I provided a primer on the capabilities of agentic AI, the value of the tech and how it can be tested and tweaked to improve accuracy. AI agents can make a major impact in many ways, such as cybersecurity, robotic process automation and customer support. But there's one use case where I've seen them really shine: business analytics. Back in November 2023, I discussed how generative AI is accelerating enterprise analytics. LLMs allow normal business users to tap into their organization's data and uncover critical new insights. Agentic AI is taking things to an exciting new level here, and I believe they will eventually make LLMs obsolete when it comes to driving value from business data. Agentic AI Analytics: Fulfilling The Role Of An Expert Analyst Traditional GenAI analytics is powerful, making enterprise data more accessible and yielding far more insights versus plain business intelligence (BI) analytics. It works within clearly defined guardrails, learns as you interact with it and provides precise answers. LLM analytics ultimately fulfills the role of a junior analyst for organizations. Agentic AI plays the role of a manager or expert analyst. It teaches itself new things, researches things on its own and delivers insights autonomously. The key differentiator for agentic AI analytics is its proactive nature—it delivers valuable insights without needing explicit requests or prompts. For instance, consider a consumer goods company specializing in beverages. An AI agent could proactively alert business users that sales of a seasonal product line, such as flavored seltzers, are projected to decline significantly over the next quarter due to shifting consumer preferences. At the same time, AI could highlight emerging trends, such as rising interest in non-alcoholic spirits, recommending that the company explore opportunities in this growing market segment within the upcoming year. As is always the case with AI and analytics, the important thing is that insights support meaningful actions. In the first example, the liquor company might want to consider pivoting away early from the declining category before sales tank. In the second example, they would want to think about launching a new product to get ahead of their competitors. Here are the features that define early-stage generative AI analytics solutions: • Rule-Based: Performs only the tasks it's explicitly programmed to do • Opaque: Offers answers without explaining how it reached them • Tool-Limited: Can only operate within a fixed set of preloaded tools • Inflexible: Needs manual corrections or instructions to adapt • Requires Oversight: Relies heavily on expert oversight to function properly Here's how agentic AI analytics contrasts in the same categories: • Autonomous Decision Making: Weighs options and makes choices independently • Explainable: Clearly shows how it reached its conclusions • Tool-Agnostic: Can choose and use tools on its own as needed • Self-Adaptive: Adjusts behavior in real time without external input • Self-Monitoring: Performs built-in checks to stay compliant and accurate Don't Fall For Regular GenAI Posing As Agentic AI The AI market is evolving rapidly. It can be difficult for enterprises to make heads or tails of all the various moving parts. Complicating things further—and this is always the case with the rise of significant new technologies—there are a lot of vendors that cling to buzzwords even when they don't fit their offerings. Organizations looking to leverage agentic AI to accelerate their analytics efforts need to be careful not to fall for plain generative AI that rebrands itself as agentic. This will become less of a problem as the agentic AI market matures and winners and losers emerge within the next two to three years. In the near term, organizations will just have to do a little research. The best place to start is with this checklist, reflecting the points I hit above. Agentic AI analytics should: 1. Make decisions independently. 2. Explain reasoning. 3. Use tools autonomously. 4. Self-correct and adapt on its own. 5. Be overseen by verifiers to ensure optimal accuracy. A Step Further: Multi-Agent Networks Looking even further ahead, agentic AI gets even more groundbreaking. Eventually, singular AI agents will evolve into multi-agent networks. Here, several AI agents will connect into a network with broader access to enterprise datasets, tools, models and domain context. These agents will be highly goal-driven and capable of completing more complex tasks that span multiple systems within a business. AI Agents: Transforming Enterprise Analytics In 2026 And Beyond AI continues to develop at a breakneck pace. It wasn't long ago that LLMs were a brand new, cutting-edge way to support analytics. It should be repeated that traditional GenAI is still a fantastic, powerful method to improve analytics workflows and uncover more insights. However, AI agents are going to raise the bar. The tech is still in its nascent stage, though the market will start to take shape in a year or so, delivering insights that will prove transformative for organizations across the spectrum. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Daily Mail
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Outraged couple sues photographer who made incredible demand to guests at their wedding
A furious couple has accused their wedding photographer of having to ask guests 'how to take proper pictures' and insisted he bungled the pictures from their big day. Patrick Brown, 46, and Cheryl Carley, 54, are suing New York photographer Michael Ivory for breach of contract. The couple hired Ivory to photograph their wedding on November 12, 2023, as part of a $3,200 Wedding Package. However, they were thoroughly disappointed when they received photos that were 'blurry, poorly composed, and missing key moments,' according to a copy of the lawsuit viewed by 'Throughout the event, [Ivory] appeared rushed and unfocused, requiring guidance from guests and [the couple] on how to take proper pictures,' the lawsuit said. '[Ivory] failed to capture important aspects of the wedding, despite plaintiffs emphasizing their importance.' Court documents stated that the Wedding Package included up to nine hours of shooting, unlimited photos, and up to 250 edited photos, noting that they explicitly requested two photographers for the event. 'On the day of the wedding, [Ivory] arrived alone, significantly impacting the coverage of the event,' the lawsuit said. The filing stated that Ivory failed to capture 'traditional and customary moments of the wedding.' Those moments included group photos with the bride, candid moments with guests and capturing the ambiance of the venue. Once they received sample photos they claimed fell 'far below the professional quality promised and expected,' the couple also said they had difficulties viewing and selecting images because of 'prominent watermarks and reduced quality.' The couple alleged that Ivory failed to offer any resolutions or alternatives. In December 2024, Ivory texted them that he would cease all communication and would process the photos within 10-12 months. '[Ivory] misrepresented their ability to provide professional services and quality photos, as evidenced by the poor quality of the sample photos provided and its failure to deliver the promised services,' stated court filings. When contacted by the couple's lawyer, Ivory's attorney claimed 'the bride was four hours late.' 'Mr. Ivory will expeditiously provide the photographs selected by your clients. No refund will be forthcoming. Mr. Ivory will vigorously defend his interests.' The couple told The Independent they hired Ivory to photograph their big day because he had an impressive portfolio and was affordable. 'When we were seeking different vendors, we came across him and said, "Let's give this guy a try,"' Brown said. 'He was like, in the middle between the low tier and the high tier [price-wise]. He came across very charming, attentive, he showed initiative and follow-up: "Hey, let's do this, let's do that," all the right things that you want to hear. On-point.' The couple then said they were forced to turn to their wedding guests to help them compile photos from the wedding. 'We had to rely on family members and guests to pull in all of their photos,' Brown said. 'If we would have known that they would have done a better job than this guy, we would have never hired him. Our guests' photos came out ten times better than his did. It's been very, very, very disappointing.' The outraged groom said he felt he had no choice but the sue and get their money back. 'When we told him our concerns, he started to become very unresponsive, belligerent, disrespectful,' Brown said.
