Trash Your Dress?

By now most brides have heard of "Trash the Dress" photography shoots. If you hadn't, the concept is simple ... either at the wedding or (more commonly) a few days later, re-wear your precious wedding dress and "trash" the hell out of it in front of a photographer by any of the following methods:

(a) swimming in it

(b) rolling around wet sand/mud/grass

(c) doing anything else non-wedding-day-ish that dirties the dress (and get your mind out of the gutters, ladies!)

(d) all of the above

It seems like trashing the dress started back with beach weddings, and have since spread to all sorts of places. I briefly thought of doing it for my own desination wedding, but am such a sap for memorabilia that there is no way I could have gone through with it. My question is, would you?

I can appreciate the artistic quality of TTD shoots. They tend to be taking from either an ethereal perspective or a "to hell with this wedding crap, I'm a modern bride" perspective, and both show up nicely in print. While I couldn't personally live with myself for ruining my wedding dress, I give kudos to those brides who can -- it takes balls, ladies, and I don't got 'em!

There are two things (only two!) that I take issue with:

(1) Those people who post about their TTD shoot, and then its only a bride, like, walking through a meadow or something. I mean, come on! If you're going to trash it, TRASH it! Don't chicken out and then call it something its not! I guess some brides/photographers assume that if the train gets a smidgen dirty, then it automatically becomes a de rigeur TTD shoot. And its so not. Its SO not. I mean, crap ... I walked down a beach at my Mexican wedding, and wandered all over a soggy farmer's field at the at-home reception, but I don't call that "trashing the dress". Sure, I got a couple hundred gnats in the tulle, but whatever. It added a spash of green ....

(2) TTD shoots that seemingly portray violence against women. I've only ever seen this a few times, but am surprised to see it called "art". See pic, below as an example. I know these are supposed to be taken very tongue-in-cheek, but I don't know .... maybe the fact that I've worked with abused women & girls in the past has just made me sensitive to the issue.

Whether you decide to do a TTD shoot or not, a great website to check out is the aptly-named TrashTheDress (with European and Australian affiliates). Here's a few more images to tickle your fancy:

*images courtesy of the following websites, in order from the top: Sol Tomargo Photography; Chelsea Nicole Photography; AltF; Henry Aarvold Phorography; AltF; Olaf Siebert*

Tag, I'm It

I've been tagged by the lovely Jessica Lynn over at Tying the Knot, and (a) need to post 7 random or weird things about myself, (b) link to the person that tagged me and post the rules on my blog, (c) tag 7 random people at the end of my post and include links to their blogs, and (d) let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Wow. Lots of rules for an itty-bitty game! :) Seeing as I've already accomplished (b), here goes with (a), (c), and (d):

Seven Random or Weird Things About Myself

1. In the past 4 1/2 years, husband and I have built 3 houses. Its a sickness, really. But this last house (#3) that we move into in January is the LAST one. I swear. Well, maybe not LAST last, but close to the end ....

2. Though I would love to design invitations full-time, currently the big bill-payer is my position as a Special Education teacher. I love it as much as I love making invites. I work with Grade 1 & 2 severe behavioral and emotional children (all boys), and they are my heart.

3. Up 'til I was 5 years old I had a quasi-British/Australian acccent, even though I was born and raised in Canada. This was thanks to my various British/Australian nannies I had from ages 1 - 5. I had no idea I spoke differently then the other kids until a snotty little girl named Kristy made fun of poor little 5-year-old me for the way I said "Mirror". Bitch. I went home and vowed to learn to talk like a regular Canadian. Here I am, eh? :)

4. Husband and I have 3 foster children through various agencies (ie. World Vision) from Ethiopia, India, and Thailand respectively.

5. I am a reading freak. I have in excess of 400 books, and have read them all at least once.

6. I really, really, REALLY wanted to be a criminal profiler for the FBI growing up, so much so that I obtained a bachelors degree in psychology and went to numerous training courses regarding profiling violent crimes. I should have worked on my "investigative" skills a bit more though, because halfway through my 3rd year at university I discovered that you have to be an American citizen to work for the FBI. Crap. The Canadian equivalent, CSIS, is SO not as cool.

7. Husband and I actually won our destination wedding to Mexico through a month-long reality contest in our local paper. We beat out 300 couples AND weren't even "officially" engaged yet (I should give lessons on trapping a man). Due to time restrictions on the prize, we got engaged, planned our wedding and got married in the span of 3 months following winning. We had a huge at-home reception when we got back to accomodate all those people who weren't able to attend our wedding.

There! Thats it. I don't normally fill these things out (they're akin to a chain-letter in my mind), but what the hell. Might as well follow all the rules and pass it along to 7 of my "bloggie buddies". I choose .... Autumn Wedding, Bride of Rochester, A Dash of Diva, These Little Moments, Another Wedding Blog, Love Family Life, Smiles From Lloyd. Tag, you're all it.