‘Sad as hell’: Online storm over photo of groom working during his wedding

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 wedding to get some work done. Photo / Torrey Leonard / LinkedIn
A photo of a groom working during his wedding has gone mad online, with some 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 startup 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 [San Francisco] to NYC,” 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 post was accompanied by a photo showing Mackrell in a suit sitting at a table with his laptop while wedding guests danced in front of him.
The post spread quickly, gaining hundreds of comments on LinkedIn before being shared to other social media platforms and meme pages.
Many have described the image as “tone deaf” and “sad”, with some going as far as labelling it grounds for divorce.
Now, in an interview with news.com.au, Leonard has defended the post and 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, no questions asked,” he said.
“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.”
He accused some commenters of overlooking the reality that, groom or not, Mackrell was the co-founder of a rapidly growing company that started just over a year ago.
“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,” Leonard said.
“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.”
He said Mackrell’s bride, Grace, wasn’t bothered about the brief interruption to their happy day.
The couple have been 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,” Leonard 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.”
However, his assurances were not enough to appease other 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 found the situation so ridiculous that they questioned the authenticity of the post, suggesting it may have been made purely to create engagement.
One claimed the photo had to be staged as they couldn’t believe 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 it was “really sad” that Mackrell wasn’t committed enough to call off the wedding to focus on his work.
“Someone who actually knows how to grind would have called it off the second the contract was signed.”
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.”
Leonard and 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,” 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 taken on clients from across the United States and globally.
“As founders, we have a different work mentality,” Leonard said. “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 judgment. It’s just what we do.”
He conceded it had 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.”