Black Meringue

Trash The Dress

Say goodbye to your bridal gown in style...

You found the dress, persuaded yourself to blow a fortune on it and now have all your wedding day memories on camera; time to box up your beautiful gown and save it for your daughter’s big day, right? Wrong. She’s not going to wear it, it won’t age well and it’s of absolutely no use to you now whatsoever. The best you can hope for is a quick eBay sale. Unless, of course, you want to send it off in style.

This is Trash The Dress (TTD) – the fun photographic farewell to your wedding gown. The concept began in America and is now taking the UK by storm. There are two ideas behind TTD: one is to create unusual photos, the other is to deliberately violate the dress. Either way the outcome is the same – great pics of you and your other half looking happy, relaxed and carefree.

The TTD trend was started by New Orleans-based photographer Mark Eric, who insists it's about “creation, not destruction”. Eric has launched www.trashthedress.com to showcase his best TTD moments. Photos on the website include one bride butchering her dress with scissors and several up to their waists in sea-water. Less extreme examples can be seen on www.trash-the-dress.co.uk, where brides have been photographed in unusual settings like woods or farmland.

The central theme is not just arty rebelliousness, though – TTD is about you and your partner. Photos can be wild, inspired and imaginative, reflecting the bride’s personality in a way that contrived wedding photography cannot. As well as all this, TTD is meant to be a romantic gesture, disregarding your dress in favour of some reckless fun with your other half.

Opinion is divided over the merits of these kinds of photos, and at www.mywedding.com it's getting heated. Some hate the idea: “Wrong, wrong, wrong. How dare you dishonour your dress... Grow up, keep your dress for a child, donate it to someone who can't afford one or make a table cloth if you must.” Others love it: “I am so excited about trashing my dress. It’s not like anyone will ever wear it again. By the time I have kids they will have new styles out. I say go for it!”

For those who are a little too cautious to completely write off a dress, TTD doesn’t have to mean you can never wear your gown again. Why not get snapped in the supermarket, on the tube or at an adventure playground? The point is to bring out the bride’s character rather than making the gown the star of the show, and who’s to say you can’t walk the dog in a wedding dress? BM

Readers' TTD

Steph and Adam Stock
Boconnoc, Lostwithiel, Cornwall

“I cannot express how much fun it is just doing this,” says photographer Andrew Hawker. “At first you think ‘the dress is just so lovely, I can’t damage it!’ but then you really get into it and the results are just brilliant. I had also planned a TTD shoot with a couple who wanted to jump off Devonshire cliffs into the sea, but we had to postpone that because the lifeguard wouldn’t support us.”

“I thought a TTD shoot would be a fun thing to do. It's not often you get that kind of opportunity,” explains bride Steph. “I would definitely recommend it to other newlyweds. I really like the finished photos. It's cool to see myself in dramatic make-up that I wouldn't usually wear.”

Andrew Hawker:
T: 01637 877228/07795 213473
W: www.andrewhawker.co.uk

Boconnoc House:
W: www.boconnocenterprises.co.uk

Hair/make-up:
W: www.victoriapenrose.co.uk

Dress:
Unique at www.vusbridal.co.uk

Christie and Colby Nagel
Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire

Aussie couple Christie and Colby, both 21, were in the UK on their honeymoon for their TTD shoot in Sherwood Forest.

Christie says: “I made the dress myself. We are not very traditional so I didn't pick white or have a veil; instead I chose some champagne-coloured silk and black lace. 
"We decided to have some fun with our photo shoot instead of the kind of stuffy pics the traditional photographers make you stand and pose for. It's only one day so we wanted to get the most out of it, instead of just putting the dress back into a box, never to be worn again.

"We had heaps of fun with Yvonne finding places to take photos and interesting shots. Our friends and family don't actually know about the shoot yet, as we are still on our honeymoon and haven't sent any pictures home – it's a surprise! The photos are amazing and we have something so different to show everyone back home.”

Photographer: Yvonne Lishman
T: 0115 914 7103
W: www.yvonnelishmanphotography.co.uk

Contacts

Many thanks to Birmingham’s National Paintball Fields for helping us trash our dress. NPF caters for stag, hen and hag dos.
T: 0121 327 3961/0800 358 3961
E: npf@wdp.tv
W: www.nationalpaintballfields.com

BM