Trash Your Dress?

By now most brides have heard of "Trash the Dress" photography shoots. If you hadn't, the concept is simple ... either at the wedding or (more commonly) a few days later, re-wear your precious wedding dress and "trash" the hell out of it in front of a photographer by any of the following methods:

(a) swimming in it

(b) rolling around wet sand/mud/grass

(c) doing anything else non-wedding-day-ish that dirties the dress (and get your mind out of the gutters, ladies!)

(d) all of the above

It seems like trashing the dress started back with beach weddings, and have since spread to all sorts of places. I briefly thought of doing it for my own desination wedding, but am such a sap for memorabilia that there is no way I could have gone through with it. My question is, would you?

I can appreciate the artistic quality of TTD shoots. They tend to be taking from either an ethereal perspective or a "to hell with this wedding crap, I'm a modern bride" perspective, and both show up nicely in print. While I couldn't personally live with myself for ruining my wedding dress, I give kudos to those brides who can -- it takes balls, ladies, and I don't got 'em!

There are two things (only two!) that I take issue with:

(1) Those people who post about their TTD shoot, and then its only a bride, like, walking through a meadow or something. I mean, come on! If you're going to trash it, TRASH it! Don't chicken out and then call it something its not! I guess some brides/photographers assume that if the train gets a smidgen dirty, then it automatically becomes a de rigeur TTD shoot. And its so not. Its SO not. I mean, crap ... I walked down a beach at my Mexican wedding, and wandered all over a soggy farmer's field at the at-home reception, but I don't call that "trashing the dress". Sure, I got a couple hundred gnats in the tulle, but whatever. It added a spash of green ....

(2) TTD shoots that seemingly portray violence against women. I've only ever seen this a few times, but am surprised to see it called "art". See pic, below as an example. I know these are supposed to be taken very tongue-in-cheek, but I don't know .... maybe the fact that I've worked with abused women & girls in the past has just made me sensitive to the issue.

Whether you decide to do a TTD shoot or not, a great website to check out is the aptly-named TrashTheDress (with European and Australian affiliates). Here's a few more images to tickle your fancy:

*images courtesy of the following websites, in order from the top: Sol Tomargo Photography; Chelsea Nicole Photography; AltF; Henry Aarvold Phorography; AltF; Olaf Siebert*