So last week was officially Wedding Weekend Week on the Sugar Network, but we just couldn't wait until honeymoon week to tell you about this: the Trash the Dress Movement. It's a simple answer to that age-old quandary of what to do with your wedding dress once the Big Day has come and gone. It was so expensive that you don't want to shove it in the back of your closet for the rest of eternity, but at the same time, where else are you going to wear it, the grocery store?!
The Trash the Dress movement was started by Las Vegas wedding photographer John Michael Cooper, and involved him convincing women to wear their wedding dresses in water, on horseback, in snow, around a grungy city - all for the sake of a few irreverent wedding photos. In one case, a woman was even photographed standing in her burning wedding dress! Granted, the wedding dress is pretty much ruined after the fact, but I think this is a fantastic idea!
To see more Trash the Dress photos, go here or here.
Pedro Garcia
GHD
Ed Hardy
What a cool idea! I love all the pictures!
1What a really good idea!! I was looking through the site and some of the pictures are a bit generic but others are gorgeous
2I like the concept. Some were very artsy like the one girl swimming up under the water or the one laying down with her huge dress spread out on a rundown walls for a background. Also I liked the one photo that NY Times used for their story. It reminds me of the scene where Ophelia from Hamlet drowns herself, which is creepy but artsy at the same time.
But some were also very cliche and unoriginal.
3Ouch. Sayonara dress; thanks for the memories... I guess I would rather donate or resell my dress if possible before trashing it. Although I just showed this to me fiance and he said "now we're talking!" So maybe once my special day is over, I'd maybe consider it.
4This is awesome! And considering that I got my dress for an incredible bargain, I wouldn't feel so bad!
5really cool concept. some of those pictures were beautifully done.
6it must hurt to ruin a dress if you paid good money on it- but some of those pictures were awesome!its true- you're never going to need the dress and your daughter won't wear it! the only thing my mother has used her dress for in the last 30 years was to try it on to see if it still fit!
7that is lovely picture! just gorgeous.
8NO NO WAY!! I cannot imagine destroying something that costs thousands... maybe if it were a few hundred bucks. I would MUCH rather hand it down or donate it.
9I think I will secretly keep wearing it when I'm at home alone
10Wooaa, that's cool!
11But I won't do the same with my own weddingdress though, lol.
A very interesting idea...
12Thinking about the symbolism of burning your wedding dress, I just can't imagine feeling ok doing that!
13Hah, I want to get married just so I can do this.
My mom gave me her old wedding dress when I started school so I could chop it up and do whatever I wanted with it. I still have yet to cut into it, but maybe I can talk someone into wearing it so we can do a shoot like that!
14i think this is a wonderful idea, the pictures are gorgeous
15Ugh...this epidemic has been sweeping through my friends as well. It seems very selfish and spoiled to me. After what I went through to get my dress the way I wanted it, I'd much rather be able to go back to my closet and look at it anytime I wanted to (and hopefully pass it down to a daughter someday, and if not, at least keep it so she can see it). My mom kept her dress and I (still) love to pull it out and look at it.
16you know, this is kind of cool. although, i would like to save mine in case i had a daughter who wanted to play dress up. that might ruin the dress, too, huh?
17I wore my mother's dress...had it completely re-made. Hopefully this tradition will carry on for generations.
18This seems like such a self-indulgent and wasteful thing to do - think of how many women out there are dreaming of gorgeous dresses like these and can't afford them; the idea of trashing these dresses to let them rot in a landfill for the sake of a couple of artsy photos is absurd. Donation or resale is such a better idea.
19Some of those pictures are GORGEOUS!
20i think i'd still keep mine after i did the pictures. i wouldn't cut mine up or burn it- but do some nature pictures. then dry clean it to get as much of the dirt and stuff out and then put it away. that way i could still pull it out to look at, try on, and show my daughter... but i'd still have some awesome pictures! (i'm very into photography, so it seems like a great thing to me)
21These pictures are gorgeous but I don't know if I could do it. I've been dreaming about my wedding dress forever so when I finally get to wear it I don't know if I could go through with destroying it after. Plus I feel like my parents (who will be paying for my dress) would kill me!
22I agree, the pictures are beautiful and a great idea, but um, maybe if I had gotten my dress for a steal. Since I didnt', um I don't think so.
23I agree with the ladies who said some of the pictures are beautiful, but ultimately trashing a lovely, costly wedding dress is wasteful. I just typed "donate wedding dress" into google and several sites for worthy groups such as www.makingmemories.org immediately popped up.
24if i paid so much for a dress and the dress symbolized a moment in my life where i was happy, i would definately keep it. to pass it down or to tell a story my my kids, but if i got divorced (knock on wood) i would totally pose while the dress is being burned..
25I "trashed" my wedding dress. It's mine, I paid for the dress. My wedding dress on my wedding day should be all mine. I don't consider that selfish. It's the one day in a girl's life; one day that she dreams of all her life. I never considered giving my dress away, or selling it. I wanted to really USE it.
You are right, you spend so much money on a dress and you only get to wear it ONE day. That seemed like such a waste to me. I say, buy a more affordable dress, one you wouldn't mind trashing (as much). Then REALLY wear it. Roll around in it, run in it, go swimming in it. Whatever! Most brides spend their ONE day in a dress constantly worried about a tiny speck of dirt they may get on it. They never really get to enjoy it as "second skin" on their bodies. Why worry; why so you can just give it to someone else? It's mine!
And, the idea of passing it down? My mom still had her wedding dress from 1965! Yuck. No thank you. I wanted my own. One that reflected my stlye. My current style.
My dress was gorgeous, and I bought one that was discounted ($700) knowing full-well that I'd really want to wear it in. And, I was able to dry clean it and get most of the dirt and 'smell' out. And, it's still hanging in my closet. And, I still sneak in to secretly wear it when I'm home alone. And, that dirt stain on the train is there forever to remind me of how much fun I had "living" in that dress on my wedding day.
Consider a change of view; another perspective on what that wedding dress really means. Would you want someone else to wear your wedding ring?
26Mrscolon I agree 110%.
I would never want to give it away, sorry. I just couldn't do that, like she said-imagine someone else wearing your wedding ring.
If I paid $_____ for my dress I want to be able to do what I want with it, and having it sit in my closet is not what I want to do with it. I'd get more out of amazing artistic photos than the dress just packed away.
I can't wait to do it!
27I don't know if I could do this after spending all that money on a dress. I plan on using the dress to make a baby blanket and possibly to be the cover of my wedding album.
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