Ruby Slippers: Trash the Dress

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....

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To the just plain fun:

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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: