Trash the Dress

All about Trash the Dress in the UK

Are you con­sid­er­ing Trash­ing your wed­ding dress? Or per­haps you’re just intrigued by the whole con­cept of rock­ing your frock, drown­ing your gown (hon­estly!) or “fear­less bridal” pho­tog­ra­phy. You’ve come to the right place to find out more.

His­tory of Trash the Dress photography

Who invented Trash the Dress?

Trash the Dress was invented in the US, and the name is attrib­uted to a famous Las Vegas pho­tog­ra­pher called John Michael Cooper. He’s been quoted as say­ing, “I just wanted to cre­ate some cool images. The aim was to apply ideas from fash­ion and cin­ema to wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy by putting brides in unusual loca­tions. I had no idea it would be so popular.”

Trash the Dress isn’t only for wed­ding dresses: I’ve seen pho­to­shoots of prom dresses and ball­go­wns being ‘trashed’ too. Many pho­tog­ra­phers all over the world offer Trash the Dress — or a vari­a­tion of it — as part of their portfolio.

Sym­bol­ism of Trash the Dress

It may be true that the orig­i­nal idea behind Trash the Dress was for brides to prove to their new hus­bands that they were done with the dress, they’d mar­ried for life and wouldn’t need it again — so they could safely trash it as a sym­bol of their ever­last­ing love.

More believ­able is the story that many brides wanted to get cre­ative, artis­tic pho­tog­ra­phy and wear their wed­ding dress just one more time for fun!

Tak­ing the plunge: book­ing your Trash the Dress photography

If you’ve decided you want to have some fun in your wed­ding dress, and play at being a model for the day, then Trash the Dress is for you. Just go pre­pared — know what you want and have a great time!

The golden rules of Trash the Dress:

1. Have fun! Make the most of being the cen­tre of atten­tion, leave your inhi­bi­tions at home and play!

2. Acces­sorise. Take your favourite pair of glit­tery red heels / pink con­verse / frog wellies (delete as appro­pri­ate). Love surf­ing? Take your board. Got a horse? Ride it. Add a hat, your sun­glasses… you get the picture.

3. Choose your Trash the Dress pho­tog­ra­pher wisely. They should be expe­ri­enced, know the area, set clear bound­aries and lis­ten to your ideas. They should also share their own ideas and show you pre­vi­ous Trash the Dress ses­sions they’ve done.

Will it ruin my wed­ding dress?

I’ve seen pho­tographs of wed­ding dresses being prop­erly trashed, as brides run into the sea, dive in mud, even one (admit­tedly pho­to­shopped) fan­tas­tic pic­ture of a bride in her wed­ding dress which was on fire. The pic­tures are strik­ing and a wed­ding photographer’s dream — but in real­ity brides aren’t that keen on actu­ally trash­ing their wed­ding dresses.

The major­ity of Trash the Dress pho­tog­ra­phy shoots are quite kind to the wed­ding dress, and take place in inter­est­ing and unusual envi­ron­ments like urban land­scapes and in beau­ti­ful coun­try­side but with­out caus­ing per­ma­nent dam­age to the dress.

Your wed­ding dress is more than likely to get a tiny bit dirty at the hem — but in most cases it will be ok to be cleaned. If you’re wor­ried, dis­cuss this with your pho­tog­ra­pher. They’ll be able to reas­sure you or share their pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ences so you can decide whether trash­ing the dress is right for you.

Trash the Dress pho­tog­ra­phy in the UK

We may have a rep­u­ta­tion for being a lit­tle eccen­tric, but over­all I think Eng­lish brides are open-minded, cre­ative and sen­si­ble. The idea of hav­ing a fan­tas­tic pho­tog­ra­phy ses­sion appeals, but the wed­ding dress has to stay in one piece. That seems fair!

Top 5 tips for your Trash the Dress photography

1. Choose a loca­tion with var­i­ous aspects (e.g. a city cen­tre with mod­ern archi­tec­ture, graf­fiti art and a park)

2. Take some­one with you: your groom can join in if he still has his wed­ding suit

3. Tell your mum! Feed­back from pho­tog­ra­phers shows the mother of the bride is most likely to object to ‘trash­ing’ a dress!

4. Don’t be afraid to ask all kinds of ques­tions before you book.

5. Make sure you choose an expe­ri­enced Trash the Dress pho­tog­ra­pher, who under­stands the con­cept and will respect your dress!

Loca­tion ideas for Trash the Dress

Sea­side — sandy beaches you can draw your name on, rock pools (take wellies!), drift­wood, sand dunes and end­less hori­zones make great pictures

Coun­try­side — for­est and wood­land, wheat fields in sum­mer (ask per­mis­sion), rivers and streams, lakes and hillsides

Theme park — they might not let you on the roller­coast­ers, but the back­drop is fun and you’ll have a great day out

City cen­tre — if your pho­tog­ra­pher knows the area well you’ll find a range of excit­ing urban land­scapes to play in!

Favourite places — it’s nice to revisit favourite roman­tic pic­nic spots (why not take a vin­tage style pic­nic!) or the beach where you got engaged, your favourite UK hol­i­day spot or some­where that means a lot to you.

Find­ing a UK Trash the Dress photographer

You may have noticed Tier­ney Pho­tog­ra­phy are excep­tion­ally good at this stuff. They’re based in Sheffield, South York­shire. Mark Tier­ney is an expe­ri­enced wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher and I love his per­spec­tive on Trash the Dress. To find out more visit the Tier­ney Pho­tog­ra­phy web­site or get to know Mark by read­ing his pho­tog­ra­phy blog.

If you’re a mil­lion miles away from Sheffield or if Mark Tier­ney is fully booked, (sorry… he’s fab I have to get a plug in!) then there are hun­dreds of Trash the Dress pho­tog­ra­phers around the UK who will be delighted to oblige. Get a cou­ple of quotes and meet the pho­tog­ra­phers first if you can. Do ask ques­tions, and be com­fort­able with the pho­tog­ra­pher you choose. It’s impor­tant you have a bril­liant time on the day, so you need to be able to have a gig­gle with the guy or gal behind the cam­era. Ask to see a port­fo­lio and get a ref­er­ence if you wish.

Credit: Red wed­ding dress from Francesca in Sheffield

More from Tier­ney Pho­tog­ra­phy: mag­i­cal wood­land Trash the Dress shoot

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