The average cost of a wedding dress in the United States ranges from $900 to $1,300 (depending on the source). After spending that much (or in a lot of cases, more) money on your gown, what do you do with it after wedding is over? You’ve only worn the dress for a few hours, so it’s practically brand new!
Most brides get it dry cleaned, packaged in a box and keep it in their closet for some possible future purpose. If you thought beyond your wedding day when you were shopping for your gown, you might have bought a dress that you could potentially wear again. The more savvy (and less sentimental) bride will resell hers and recoup some of the cost of her dress. And, if you got your dress for a bargain, you could probably even make some money off your dress!
A growing number of brides though, have chosen to trash their dress. Rather than letting it collect dust, these brides slip back into their wedding gowns (days, weeks, months or even years after their wedding), travel to very unbridal-like locations and channel their inner fashion model.
Some women are content to just stand in unique places and keep their dresses rather pristine. These shots (and the next set as well) look like something right out of the pages of our magazine.
While others are willing to take more risks and possibly sacrifice their dresses for beautiful pictures.
A lot of brides commune with nature in one way or another.
Getting wet (either in a fountain, the ocean, a lake, a swamp, etc.) figures prominently in quite a few of these sessions.
And some take “trash the dress” (as the trend is called) literally. They get down and dirty and render their dress almost unrecognizable.
Wherever they are and whatever they’re doing, it’s all about getting great pictures of brides having fun in their wedding dresses. The results can be truly stunning.
What about you? Would you “trash your dress” or would you rather box it up and save it for posterity?
Happily Ever After,
4 Comments
May 12, 2009 at 5:46 pm
trash the dress session are my fave….
May 12, 2009 at 6:32 pm
I wouldn’t be afraid to get my dress a bit rough around the edges for some nice ‘real’ shots after the wedding, but completely trashing it? I think I am too sentimental. Or maybe I am just a hoarder.
May 12, 2009 at 6:36 pm
I agree. Right now my dress is safely stored in a box in my parents’ attic. I’m not sure what I’m saving it for though. If this trend had existed back in 2005, I might have done something like this.
May 13, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I most def. want to trash my dress. I just havent decided just how i want to do it yet.