17 November, 2008

Trash the Dress

Ok, so it's been 17 days since I wore my dress, my "I feel like the most beautiful creature in the world, for the first time in my life" dress. I loved it so, so much, that I'm already starting to think of ways I can legitimately get back into it!

Before I started Wedding Planning, I'd never even heard the term "Trash the Dress". Heck, I'd never heard of Save The Dates or Escort Cards or Birdcage veils either. But suddenly they were everywhere. From the extreme...


To the wet...

To the dirty....


To the just plain fun:
Image source


I don't think any of these brides really want to RUIN their dress. With the exception of the first, (which I've heard rumours is a photoshopped fake anyway), there's nothing here that a little drycleaning wouldn't fix. I have to confess I've really become obsessed with the idea of getting into my dress again and doing an "extreme dirty bridal shoot". Mmmm, the fun. Plus I just want to play in my dress before it goes into my closet for the next fifty years and does nothing.

I still remember my first double take at a TTD session. It was back in the early, heady days of photographer hunting (and the depressing discovery that 95% of South African photographers are just awful, and that the good 5% don't come cheap). I found this on a wedding website where local photographers could show off their work and contact details. I remember thinking, "What bride is going to climb into the water in her dress? She must be insane!" This, of course, before I knew of anything like Day After shoots and Trash the Dress Sessions. But it was definitely this photo that got me thinking about how gooorgeous this could be:

Mmmmmmwaaarrr......want.............

Then I saw this underwater shot on Casey Cunningham's blog. Oh, be still my beating heart!

I don't even know where I got this, but hummina hummina:


And this magical underwater cave one from Del Sol:




Ok, so we've established I like water shots. There's just one teensy little problem - I live in Johannesburg, which is nowhere near the sea, has very little natural water, and what there is is so polluted you wouldn't go near it with your little toe, let alone your entire body and wedding dress.

But I want the Lady of Shallott shots....



Hmmm. My next option is grunge. Dirty but cool, old factory, rusty stairs, broken windows, messed up hair GRUNGE. Yeah, baby!

My friend Sarah did some cool ones after her wedding:
Whoohoo, smokin' hot boots, girl!

How much do you love that he's in T-shirt and jeans, and she's in her wedding dress?

Love these too:
Find me a burnt-out old jalopy, and I'm there!

Or a forgotten, overgrown building:

(Above photos via TrashTheDress.com)


Above three images from here

More Grungy McGrungerson!


And then there is the city image with a twist. Ooooh:


But I still can't help wanting the water shots....they are just so beautiful! What do you guys think?


(Above three pics from Annandale Photography)

6 comments:

  1. I love the water shots too. I know I eventually want to do a TTD shoot (much to my mother's horror, despite telling her that it doesn't actually ruin the dress), but I haven't figured out the "where" part either.

    As for the bride on fire, it is Photoshopped, but it's not entirely fake. There's a video somewhere of how they did it. I think I posted a link on my blog at some point. Basically, they took shots of the bride in the dress. Then they put the dress on a mannequin and lit it on fire and composited the shots together to looks like she was wearing it while it was on fire. I think she would have had some mad burns otherwise, lol.

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  2. You blogged my TTD Shots! How COOL is that?? hehe! Thanks!

    I love the old barn shots, those are way too fun. I wanted to do the water shots too, and I may still one day, but I just knew that the equipment needed was beyond my photography-student-friend's arsenal. So we skipped it. Maybe one day as a fun anniversary gift to me!

    LOVE the Lady of Shallot pose!!

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  3. Nala - I was suddenly all "I never asked Sarah if I could use these pics!" but I figured you'd be ok with it :-)

    Jessica - so what you're saying is the fire one is a fake :-)

    I'm actually loving the urban grungy ones today! That one where she's lying in the street is pure awesomeness.

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  4. Haha, I guess so. :) It's not fake in the sense that the dress was actually burned though. It was done by AltF.

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  5. of course I'm okay! hehe I maybe could have sent you the higher-resolution ones if you wanted. :)

    The grungy ones I find a lot harder to see in my head I guess because they are soft of "every day" life, not a special place or anything. The right photographer totally rocks it though! IS that NYC in that photo?

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  6. Jessica- Heehee. So they did burn the dress at least! Funny that it was AltF (I never saved that, it was back in the before blogging days) because I just used one of their pics today!

    Sarah - I guess the high res ones would have been better, but these are all good anhway. I don't know if it is NYC, but it's stunning! I was stuck in traffic earlier going past central Joburg (not a great area, but the motorway is fine because it goes around on a bridge) and thinking "This would be so stunning to shoot from at night if it was safe enough for some girls and pricey camera equipment!"

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