Would You Trash The Dress?

Trash the dress is a post-wedding photo shoot. After a wonderful honeymoon, you get back into your dress for a no-holds-barred portrait session, usually outdoors.

Popular ways to trash the wedding dress include:

• wading into the sea or a river
• rolling around in fields
• climbing trees
• horse riding
• sitting in muddy puddles

At this point you're either thinking "wow I love that idea!" or "there's no way on earth I'd do that!"

The big question is...

Why Do It?

There are two ways of seeing trash the dress photography:

1. It's a sign of commitment to your new husband. You're never going to wear it again because you'll never need to. You're married for life.

2. It's disrespectful to the sanctity of marriage.

If you're into all things alternative, you'll probably love the idea. After all, most weddings conform to a very traditional structure, despite how creative you've made it. And that's ok, because they'll obviously be a lot of guests that might feel uncomfortable at a non-traditional wedding.

But away from old Aunts, you can go wild at a TTD session.

Another point to make is that most weddings are whirlwind events. Having a post-wedding photo shoot lets you have photos taken in a less rushed and stressed environment.

How Did It Start?

An American photographer called John Michael Cooper is largely accredited with creating the phenonemon, back in 2001. At the time wedding photography was still very traditional, and he wanted to do something different.

If you look at his photos, you'll see they're pretty fantastic. Brides walking through flames, floating in water, etc.

When I see pictures of UK brides trying to trash the wedding dress, they feel very tame in comparison. I.e. standing in a puddle, or leaning against a wall. Maybe that's all us Brits can handle!

A good alternative for us might be a Cherish the Dress shoot.

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