Trash the Dress, post-wedding photography. Getting best use out of your wedding dress.

Post-Wedding Photography
TRASH THE DRESS!

WHAT???   Does that mean "trashing" my wedding dress??  Unless you have heard of this concept before, the chances are that your eyes have opened wide, your jaw dropped, and a resounding "WHAT??" has just screamed through your mind as you have conjured up images of your beautiful and expensive wedding dress being wrecked beyond belief.

"Trash The Dress" is a recent concept that has been growing in the USA. It's a wedding craze that's taken hold with many brides in America, where they want to get best use out of their wedding dress and create a range of conceptual photographs that would be inconceivable on their wedding day.  Many brides are now getting extreme wedding photos by 'trashing their dress' after the wedding. 

Trash The Dress photo sessions are not for the faint-hearted. It's a photo session done AFTER the wedding and honeymoon are over, where the bride and groom come back for more "interesting" and stylised photographs. Some brides see this as a way to symbolically show their husband that they will NEVER need the wedding dress again. The purpose of the photo shoot is to get some very creative and different photos of you in your dress. The perfect place for this type of photo shoot is at the beach, in a forest or an industrial area. Yes… it sometimes involves rolling around in the sand, surf, mud and grit and grime, and the dress may be 'trashed' - but only temporarily in most cases as, most often, it can be hung to dry and then cleaned before being preserved.

Wear The Dress - Have Fun!

This new concept in wedding photography is best described by US Wedding Photographer, Lori Adalsteinsson of Mystique Photography, Cheney, WA:

"The concept of Trash The Dress is that these girls get more than one use out of a very expensive gown….. The reality of a wedding dress is that you wear it for two and a half hours, or so, depending on your reception. Then you take it off and you hang it up in a closet that night, and it's sad, and it's lonely, and it has echoes of cake and laughter and drinks on it's mind. It lays there weeks, forgotten, sad….. Have fun! Wear it! Make your dress happy! It's all about the dress, have a good time, have fun - wear the dam dress! "

Lori's Trash The Dress video is at the end of this page, illustrating the concept of using your wedding dress for post-wedding photography.

 

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A Great Way To Get Great Wedding Pictures

Many photographers in the UK are now offering 'Trash The Dress' sessions to newly married brides or couples following their wedding. Some have re-named the concept as 'Love The Dress', because the whole concept is about getting best use and great pictures from your beautiful wedding dress - not necessarily about trashing it. It's about utilising your dress to have great photographs with some stunning images of the wedding dress, in an environment that you wouldn't be able to use on your wedding day, posed in a way that wouldn't be practical on your wedding day. 

It's fashion-style photography, using your wedding gown with you as the model. Capturing you as the blushing bride and preserving your effervescence and great natural looks for the future.  This really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, don't let it pass you by, you can't ever regain your youthful looks and vitality!  The locations and the stress that the dress undergoes doesn't have to be extreme and doesn't have to create deliberate harm to your wedding dress, unless that is what you choose to have! 

Of course, there is a greater risk that your dress may become marked or collect some dirt, it may become wet if you are using water as a part of your photo session and there is always the risk of accidental damage. But you will be able to take your wedding dress into areas and locations that would be simply impractical during your wedding day and you will be able to gain impressive pictures showing your dress in a youthful and vibrant way that hasn't been available to brides before. 

 

A New Era In Wedding Photography

First came the traditional wedding pictures, posed shots mounted into an album as a record of the wedding day. This concept has remained the same since cameras were invented and is still used as the foundation for most wedding photography today. There's nothing wrong with it, it provides a good record of the occasion and the guests.

Then came the more creative concept of capturing the occasion of a wedding by photo-journalism (reportage style). Most often mixed with the traditional pictures, this is a good record of the wedding day presented in a story-book of photographs.

Trash The Dress (which we believe will undergo a name change as the concept is accepted on this side of the Atlantic) is the next leap forward in wedding photography. It allows for all of the wedding photography, formal and informal pictures and the traditional album presentation afterwards. But instead of the wedding dress being redundant after the wedding, it can now be utilised a second time to show off the beauty of the creation and the true vibrancy of the bride and groom. These additional pictures are taken after the wedding day (normally after the honeymoon), and so the pressures of the day are gone, the strict time-table doesn't have to be considered, the guests aren't there and the risks of the odd mark or dirt getting onto the dress are not as critical. However much, or little, you decide to risk damage to your wedding dress, these additional vibrant photographs will be worth the time and effort, as well as adding further use of your beautiful wedding dress.

 

Love The Dress

A derivative of the Trash The Dress concept is the "Love The Dress" session (more likely to be adopted by UK photographers). Where the post-wedding photography session is based on having more freedom with your wedding dress:

  • Freedom to go to any location that you might never think of going on your wedding day 

  • Freedom to share your excitement with your new husband or even close friends 

  • Freedom from any worries - don't have to worry about any schedule or other family members 

  • Freedom to "Love" the dress one more time and get great photographs

So the "Love the Dress" session is almost the same concept as "Trash The Dress" session with one difference. Getting wet or dirty to get awesome photographs is cool, but completely damaging the dress is not cool.

To see what a "trash the dress" session is all about, play the video below.

 
 
 

  

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With grateful acknowledgement to US Wedding Photographer, Lori Adalsteinsson of Mystique Photography, Cheney, WA