Trash the Dress

I am in the midst of writing a wedding planning guide and glossary so I enlisted Danielle, our wedding planner to help me. We were writing down terms associated with the wedding planning industry and also trying to put together headings for the different stages of weddings. I myself am really into photography and when we got to that heading, I was particular interested when Danielle mentioned, "Trash the Dress." My first instinct was to be appalled... who would ruin their wedding dress? Why would that be appealing and what crazy person would even consider it? Trash the dress is a session in a wedding photography package just like the engagement session or the actual wedding day. After the wedding, the bride puts her dress back on and can decide whether to roll in mud, cover it in paint or go swimming in it... or even burn it. The idea is to reject the anxiety surrounding weddings and combat the imagery of the "bridezilla." Even though I am truly a feminist at heart, I still couldn't get on board with the idea of ruining my beautiful dress for some pictures... that is until I saw some examples.
Danielle found a picture of this woman with wet hair, in her wedding dress sitting in mud.Upon seeing the image - I was hooked on the idea. It was completely feminine, but had an edge of intensity that I found alluring. How quirky would it be to have gorgeous "plastic Barbie" pictures sitting next to some fun pictures of you, the bride, covered in mud in your dress? A beautiful dichotomy exists between being dirty and messy in the dress of your dreams. It shows that you don't take life so seriously and could also display your belief in the reality of marriage and willingness to endure the struggles. A marriage isn't perfectly "clean and pressed" all the time, when the honeymoon is over the real work starts, its time to roll up your sleeves and get dirty! "Trash the Dress" pictures present, I believe, a different side of oneself or maybe just reveal the truth. On the day of one's wedding, I'm sure nothing is the way it normally is. Everyone is super excited and on their best behavior because a wedding, after all, does cost thousands of dollars! I bet some brides don't even remember the day to the full extent, so why all the hoopla? Give the day the best you can and then have some real fun trashing your DRESS!! How incredibly rebellious and mysterious... after all it is just a dress.

crystal p smith
event solutions
crystal@eventsolutions.com
Southern California Event Planning