‘This is dark’: Wedding photo goes viral for ‘sad’ reason

A photo of a groom working during his wedding has gone mad online, some even labelling it grounds for divorce. Now, the man who posted the shot has spoken up.

A photo shared by the founder of a US-based start up company has been given the title of “one of the most depressing LinkedIn posts to exist”, sparking hundreds of horrified comments from social media users.

The post was uploaded by Torrey Leonard, co-founder of AI company Thoughtly, who praised new groom Casey Mackrell for pulling out a laptop at his own wedding to get some work done.

“My co-founder Casey has built a reputation for himself as ‘the guy who sits on his laptop in bars’ from SF to NYC,” Mr Leonard wrote.

“Last week Thoughtly brought on a customer that needed to launch within 2 weeks. He just so happened to be getting married within that 2 week window.

“So, here he is wrapping up a pull request. At his own wedding. Congrats Casey – now please, go take some time off.”

The LinkedIn post was accompanied by this photo. Picture: Torrey Leonard/LinkedIn

The post was accompanied by a photo showing Mr Mackrell in a suit sitting at a table with his laptop in front of what appears to be dancing wedding guests.

Unsurprisingly, the post quickly went viral, gaining hundreds of comments on LinkedIn before being shared to other social media platforms and even meme pages.

Many have described the image as “tone deaf” and “sad”, with some even going as far to label it grounds for divorce.

Now, in an interview with news.com.au, Mr Leonard defended the post, and Mr Mackrell’s decision to jump online during such a pivotal personal moment.

“As a company, what we do is very high-stakes. Every single one of our customers, they depend on us to function perfectly, 24-7, around the clock, no questions asked,” he explained.

“We work with many publicly traded companies across the globe, and we spend long hours of the night, early mornings awake, monitoring these calls, proactively fixing issues, fixing problems, building new features.

“The context of this post, he had to solve a problem, and it was really only something that he could solve. It was a three- to five-minute task.

“We understand that this lifestyle is not for everybody. It’s obviously something that is a lot of work, but it’s something that we love.”

The post was shared by Thoughtly co-founder, Torrey Leonard. Picture: Torrey Leonard/LinkedIn

Fellow co-founder, Casey Mackrell, claimed he was back on the dance floor seconds after the photo was taken. Picture: Casey Mackrell/LinkedIn

The reality some commenters seem to be overlooking is that groom or not on the day in question, Mr Mackrell is the co-founder of a big and rapidly growing company that started just over a year ago, he said.

“If you’re a co-founder, if the person below you and the person below them and the person below them can’t solve the problem, it’s not like it just goes away,” Mr Leonard added.

“The problem still exists. And so we either accept, okay, we’re going to fail a customer, or we’re going to make a happy customer. And so we always do the latter in every situation. No question.”

Mr Leonard revealed Mr Mackrell’s bride, Grace, wasn’t fussed by the brief interruption to their happy day.

The couple is now bemused by the avalanche of online attention, which they’re occasionally monitoring from their honeymoon on a cruise.

“Casey is just as devoted to Grace as he is to the company,” he said.

“If she needs something, he acts the same way. He would drop everything for her. And so she gets that, and she loves that about him.

“They were dating for many years, so she’s seen him pull a laptop out at a restaurant dinner table. I mean, it looks crazy, but that’s just who Casey is. She’s obviously fine with it.”

The groom himself even commented on the LinkedIn post, writing: “Don’t worry I got back to dancing and champagne 2 seconds later.”

But these assurances that Mr Mackrell wasn’t away from his wedding celebrations for long weren’t enough to appease their fellow LinkedIn users

One wrote: “So your company has such terrible work/life balance that you can’t have a WEDDING without having to work? That’s just sad as hell.”

Many users found the whole situation so ridiculous that they questioned its authenticity, suggesting it may have been made purely to create engagement.

One person claimed the photo had to be staged as they couldn’t believe that someone would be “that ridiculous and disrespectful to his bride and family”.

Another said: “Aside from the fact that this is probably staged, pushing people to sacrifice their private life and mental health is not the flex you think it is.”

One commenter jokingly claimed that it was “really sad” that Mr Mackrell wasn’t committed enough to call off the wedding entirely to focus on work.

“Someone who actually knows how to grind would have called it off the second the contract was signed,” they said.

Mr Leonard isn’t bothered by the criticism of his post, except for the comments that have crossed the line.

“When people make really inflammatory and negative comments about their relationship, comments that are just profane in nature, obviously it bothers me, and I’ve been doing my best to remove anything that is just horrible.”

Mr Leonard and Mr Mackrell, along with fellow co-founder David Khaydatov, launched Thoughtly in July 2023 with a mission to “build the best-in-class AI voice agents on the market”.

“If you call any enterprise today and you get what sounds like a human but it’s actually an AI, you’re getting a Thoughtly agent,” Mr Leonard said.

“And it’s only possible with the sort of dedication and diligence Casey has displayed because we’re right at the beginning of this technology even becoming possible. And so it’s only hard work that makes that possible.”

Since it was founded, Thoughtly has attracted millions of dollars in seed funding and has rapidly onboarding clients from across the United States and globally.

“As founders, of course we have a different work mentality. We’re trying to create something big and that can’t be achieved in a 40-hour week.

“Again, it’s not for everyone and there’s no judgement. It’s just what we do.”

He conceded it has been “surreal” to be in the midst of a social media storm, less than a day after the post went live.

“It’s interesting to get texts from friends, family, people I haven’t spoken to in years saying, you know, no way. It’s surreal, but it’s also great. I’ve been reconnecting with a lot of people. I love that part of it.”

Originally published as ‘This is dark’: Wedding photo goes viral for ‘sad’ reason