I was interviewed for an article that ran in the Vancouver Province yesterday on trash the dress sessions. Eri, one of our recent brides, was also able to contribute – as we’ll be doing her session tomorrow!
The full text of the article can be viewed on the Province site here.
Here’s an excerpt:
Tie the knot and trash the dress
It’s a new kind of liberating bridal tradition that’s starting to catch on
Cheryl Chan, The Province Published: Sunday, September 09, 2007
When Eri Wagner dons her beautifully beaded, silk-and-satin wedding gown next week and walks barefoot on Jericho Beach, photographer in tow, she won’t care about hiking up her skirt.
It’ll drag on the sand. It’ll catch on logs and tall grass. And when she reaches the edge of the ocean she loves so much, she won’t stop.
“I want me and [husband] Shawn jumping into the ocean together,” said the 27-year old bride-to-be. “It’s OK if my dress is completely ruined.”
This isn’t your ordinary wedding photograph shoot — the gardens, parks and sunsets.
This is a Trash the Dress session, a gleeful romp of post-wedding destruction, where brides climb trees, sprawl atop hay bales, frolic in fountains, crawl on moss, or ride horses and rollercoasters in their pristine white dresses.
Wagner’s photographer, Miranda Lievers, said the Trash the Dress concept has been around for years. Called “day-afters,” dress trashings are common at destination weddings, where brides don’t want the exotic landscape to go to waste.
She credits John Michael Cooper, a Las Vegas photographer, as being “instrumental” in increasing the profile and branding of this new kind of bridal photo. A popular website, Trashthedress.com by Louisiana photographer Mark Eric hosts photos of dress trashings.
The trend is only just catching on in Vancouver. Only eight Canadian photographers are listed on the site, including one in the city. But “it’s definitely picking up momentum,” said Lievers. Her Gastown company, Blue Olive, did five Trash the Dress sessions this year with four more scheduled between now and May.
The brides who do it say it’s liberating, a catharsis, a fun way to combat the prissiness of the regimented wedding day. Photographers say it’s art. Critics say it’s disturbing, a twisted action worthier of bitter divorcees than blushing brides.
But “Trash the Dress,” with its rebellious, anti-wedding undertone, is a bit of a misnomer. “Trashing the dress is never the purpose. It’s about not being inhibited by it,” said Lievers. In most cases, the dress can be salvaged. “Drycleaners do amazing work nowadays.” …
After sessions (trashing optional!) are a fun way to create images that further reflect the personalities of our clients, and that typically just aren’t possible on the day of. Sessions are fun for our current clients, and also a great way for those of you already married to get some Blue Olive art for the wall if you weren’t able to have us for your wedding.
Contact us for details! Sessions are available weekday evenings and select Sundays by appointment.
