Emily McCall

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a pretty amazing blog.  It was a collection of photographs of brides “trashing” their wedding dresses: in lakes, on beaches, in fountains, on railroad tracks . . .  As a recent bride myself, I was initially a bit shocked, but it didn’t take long for me to see the genius behind it all.  These brides were saying symbolically that they had found their one-and-only true loves and had made a serious commitment–they were never going to need that wedding dress again.  So instead of storing their dresses away in plastic for the next thirty years, these women got some extraordinary photographs taken and had a great time doing it.

I couldn’t get this idea out of my head.  I had to do a “trash the dress” shoot.  I called my sister-in-law, who was married almost two years ago, and she immediately signed on to the project.  Instead of using her original wedding dress, we went out and bought a gorgeous wedding dress on clearance for $99 and then headed out to the country for one of the most incredible photo shoots I’ve ever done.

There are a ton more amazing photos from this shoot.  If you’d like to see them all, you can go to my website, click on the proofing tab, and enter the password “trashthedress.”

Now, if you or someone you know recently got married or is about to walk down the aisle, you might consider passing this on.  I know it sounds scary to “trash” your wedding dress, but I can assure you that your dress will not be ruined if you don’t want it to be.  During my sister-in-law’s shoot, we had her in a very dirty pond, but the dress came clean in the washing machine!  You can opt to stay out of the water, you can get your dress dry-cleaned, you can even buy a cheap imitation wedding dress if you’d rather not risk the one you spent your life’s savings on!  (David’s Bridal sells their clearance gowns for $99, and Target is now selling wedding dresses too!)  We can do whatever the bride is comfortable with and still get phenomenal portraits that she will treasure forever.  These shoots are a ridiculous amount of fun, so think about it!  I promise, the bride will not be sorry!