A Raleigh-area wedding photography company will have to pay nearly $1.7 million after consumers reported hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses for services they said were never delivered. On Monday, a judge sided with the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office in its motion for default judgment against the company Holly Christina Photography. According to court documents, the company did not fully comply with a judge’s order to turn over all undelivered photos and videos within 30 days to the couples who paid for them. Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s office initially sued the company’s owners, Holly Christina Scott Ayscue and Christopher Ayscue, in February after receiving more than 220 consumer complaints about the company. 142 consumers had not received refunds of any kind, Deputy Attorney General Mercedes Resucha said during Monday’s hearing. 82 were able to get a refund through their financial institution. 5 On Your Side first reported on the issue in January; the company announced it would close in February. The state’s motion sought $600,000 in refunds to customers and more than $1 million in civil penalties. Holly and Christopher Ayscue did not appear during Monday’s hearing and did not immediately respond to WRAL’s request for comment. Monday’s ruling comes weeks after the co-owners of Holly Christina Photography spoke to reporters outside a Winston-Salem courthouse and said they were doing everything in their power to comply with what they could. Holly Ayscue said illness contributed to the failure of the business. In May, a judge issued a preliminary injunction ordering the company to turn over all edited and unedited photos and videos within 30 days. The order also required the company to cease operations and prohibited its owners from moving the company’s assets. As part of Monday’s ruling, the Ayscues will not be able to offer photography services, or even accept advance payments. They are ordered to turn over all photographs and videos that consumers have paid for.
