Just Your Best

*The events below are in the opinions and unfortunate experiences of dozens of women throughout the Mid-Atlantic (NY, NJ, PA, DE, VA, MD) area who were all scammed by JOAT Photo. The name of this business was previously Jane of All Trades Photography, among other attempted rebrands to avoid legal repercussions. 

Weddings are already stressful enough, and the industry has become saturated with overpriced services and steep competition. And brides are tasked with sifting through these thousands of vendors to find the very best in their area within budget for their wedding. It can become overwhelming and daunting, so it’s easy to let someone’s review and a sweet personality over the phone sway you.

For others whose stories we recount here, they simply wanted a photographer for family photo shoots or to capture precious memories and events, moments a person will never get back, like their infant baby’s beach day who will grow up much quicker than this particular scammer would ever deliver photos as contracted. 

Unfortunately we see it all the time online and hear the horror stories of scammers, and now it is happening at the hands of a naive young adult across multiple states who continues to live under the delusion that she won’t serve repercussions. This woman, Rachel Braden (formerly Rachel Alexandra Strada), 28 years old, has scammed countless brides and families by claiming to be a photographer. The real kicker is, unlike other scammers you might see taking money online and ghosting before the event ever happens, she actually has the nerve to show up to these events, eat their food, pretend to take photos, collect a tip, and leave. Then she ghosts you and blocks you everywhere online, and she continues to do so today.

For my wedding in June 2024, this woman even brought her husband, Jesse Braden, as her proclaimed “second shooter.” They treated it like their own personal date night. Everyone at my wedding was convinced they were great, so personable and funny with my guests. Sure, they were a little late, but you can blame Jersey traffic, right? Wrong. 

JOAT Photo, also known as Jane of All Trades Photography, has sadly taken the memory of my wedding day from me and so many others. “Mrs. Braden” claimed to have eloped herself earlier this year in Virginia Beach, saying it was the greatest day of her life and how special mine would be, then she took thousands of dollars from me and my photos to run back home to Maryland and hide online from me. She’s blocked me online and dodges my calls. She’s deleted her social media accounts and changed her public Facebook name to hide. She thinks she has found a genius way to make money scamming innocent families all over, when in fact she has only left a long trail of illegal activities that are now beginning to catch up with her.

Thanks to the booming bridal industry, there are countless public groups on social media where brides can connect to share advice but also horror stories. It was in these groups that I was recommended her, but looking back it was Rachel herself who recommended “herself”Jane of All Trades Photography” to me. I had thought “Rachel” was recommending me a woman named Jane, not that Rachel named her business Jane of All Trades. These posts have since been deleted because she has been blocked from many of these groups by now as more women have begun speaking up.

On the day of my wedding, she was already late and said there was traffic. Looking back, she probably was just having doubts about making the drive from Maryland to Jersey when she already had my money; final payments were due a month prior, but still, she then decided to come anyway for the tip and free food. Her husband enjoyed several beers during the wedding, photographed here, which was not permitted by my venue, so I’m sure he was glad they made it to their “date night” after all, AKA my wedding day.

Following the wedding, Rachel was immediately overdue on the sneak peek photos, breaching our contract within 48 hours of the wedding right there. When asked for them, she had a lot of excuses. First she said she sent them to the wrong email. She said her husband lost his job. Then she said kids camp was cancelled, that her mental health was suffering, and she had a heart condition that was causing her to close her business. It’s funny because these are the same excuses she’s been repeating to all her ex-clients for years. I genuinely felt bad for this poor woman when this all started and was truly concerned for the well being of this mother-of-5, but there were so many red flags looking back, especially considering how delayed all her responses were to me and how she blocked me from her social media.

Her lies were endless. Within 2 weeks, she had admitted to me over text that she had 2 more weddings that month before she would shut down the business, but another day she said she hadn’t booked anything in over a year, the business was “already closed”. The lies kept rolling in. As of September 2024 as I write this, I’ve met another woman who Rachel contracted with and ghosted in July, so she is caught yet again in another lie. 

It wasn’t until soon after she poured all these excuses out to me that I came across a group of women online who had also been scammed by her as well. 

“I created this group once I realized there were at least 2 other families that were dealing with the same thing regarding Rachel, and I wanted a place where everyone could talk in one place about the next steps,” the group founder, Tabitha, told me. “This group has unfortunately grown in the last few months because Rachel continues to book clients and give unsatisfactory work or none at all.”

The group started earlier this year. Tabitha had booked Rachel for family portraits at the beach in Maryland to be used for her Christmas cards. The shoot took place in September 2023.

“In December, my husband messaged her that we would like a refund or a partial refund with unedited pictures since we no longer had time to order our cards and send them out,” she said. She and her husband spent months trying to contact her. “Rachel didn’t respond. I also messaged her at the end of December asking for a refund and got no response. She never responded to emails once a refund was requested and she has since blocked me on all social media.”

This group was meant to only serve as a haven for those Rachel had wronged to work together towards justice, but it sadly grew larger than anyone expected overtime, as Rachel continues her efforts in scamming couples and blocking them on social media.

Jessica, another bride who hired Rachel, found the group months after her wedding memories were stolen from her, too. She was married in June 2023 in New York and shared the same experience as mine and many others.

“She would sporadically answer my texts and/or emails,” Jessica shared. “However she claimed that she accidentally took photos over my photos but was able to recover them. She ended up sending me approximately 200 unedited photos of my reception mainly all of guests. I have zero pictures of my ceremony, no pictures of my husband and I, no pictures of my family, no cake cutting photos, none of first dance or dances with our parents etc. She ruined my wedding memories. These are irreplaceable photos, she is selfish and it is quite frankly sick that she can do this to people.”

All of her mistakes and illegal activities are catching up to her, she’s already been skipping court dates for previous offenses, and those charges aren’t even regarding her fraudulent photography business! The hope and prayer among the victims is that she ends up behind bars for at least one of her crimes to spare future brides the chance of bumping into her in a bridal Facebook group recommending photographers. If you or someone you know is looking for a photographer in the Mid-Atlantic area, share this story to try and get ahead of her next victim signing their memories away to the devil.

I will never be able to enjoy the memories of my wedding day, and that is the tragic truth for many brides, among other individuals who had family moments taken from them too. We only wish no one else has to suffer the pain of regretting going into business with Jane of All Trades Photography.