Trash the Dress

kford30 · May 2011

Is anyone or has anyone done this and what are your thoughts? My daughter is getting married June 4th in the OBX and we just started to discuss this option.

ms_teach · May 2011

We're planning to do one the week after our wedding, as long as we feel comfortable and confident with our photographers the day of our wedding. I've heard the dresses usually can come clean, and if not I wasn't planning to wear mine again anyway.

dwfangirl · May 2011

I "trashed" my dress the day after my wedding and I had an absolute blast with it. As PP said, I knew from the outset that I was never going to wear the dress again and I thought the pictures would long outlast the dress.

As for the actual session... my photographer and I talked about what we wanted to do in advance and agreed that we didn't want to get photos actually rolling around in the surf in my dress so we didn't take it to that extreme. For the most part, I didn't go into the ocean past mid-shin. Most of it was to get pictures just walking in the surf, and a few sitting and lying in the (dry) sand. However - at one point while taking a picture with one of my bridesmaids (who wanted to "trash" her dress too!), I tripped in the ocean and got soaked to the waist!

You can get some great pictures without totally "trashing" the dress. In fact, I rinsed my dress in the tub right afterward and at this moment it doesn't look much dirtier than a wedding dress does after any wedding.

Also, re: the groom - my husband didn't wear his wedding suit (as he actually will wear that again). He just wore khaki pants and a white shirt. He didn't get in the water past his feet, so he barely even got wet. (Which was ok with him - the ocean is still pretty chilly down there!)

kford30 · May 2011

that is what we were wondering if there was any hope of getting it cleaned - Just in case - like you said "you don't plan to use it again" altough there are many other tings to do with them, but realisicly - we're still on the fence...

kford30 · May 2011

dwfangirl - thanks for the input - that is exactly what my daughter was thinking - not to roll around just in the water some - her FI is wearing kakis and would like to do it also... she is wearing a long gown and figured it would get the hemline ditry just walking in the sand to and from the ceromony anyway, so why not go for it.
They are meeting with their photgrapher tonight - so I am anxious to hear how she makes out.

hibiscus118 · May 2011

I did it and it was awesome. We went fully in the ocean, sound, and pool because we knew we would never wear our clothes again. They dress is fine though, doesn't look any worse than it did before I went into the ocean. His clothes were fine also and he did wear his again on our honeymoon. It was such a fun experience I would recommend it to anyone. There are pics in my married bio if you want to see.

mparwulski · May 2011

Fun pictures, Laura. I loved the lights strung up around the pool area. What kind of lights did you use?

hibiscus118 · May 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_north-carolina-outer-banks_trash-dress?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:598Discussion:6b37f753-94cd-46e8-8a39-461e89def635Post:11c0681a-4fe1-4844-b636-7415191975b7">Re: Trash the Dress</a>:
[QUOTE]Fun pictures, Laura. I loved the lights strung up around the pool area. What kind of lights did you use?
Posted by mparwulski[/QUOTE]

We just used white Christmas lights that had white strands instead of green. Since you'll need them before Christmas I can check to see how many strands I have left if you're interested. They are at my MIL's house or I'd do it now.

mparwulski · May 2011

OOOooo, yes! Interested in buying those off of you. I've got a little bit of time.

tcigal · July 2011

I just decided to do the same- my photographer says it's about an hour and he only charges $200. Depending on your budget, and what you're thinking for the dress, you can always buy a cheap look-alike or any style and trash that one. Since we're having a local receptoin a week later, that I want to wear my dress to, I found this website: http://www.bridalgownsonsale.com/beach-wedding-dress-18?orderby=price&orderway=asc that has a ton of decent-looking dresses and the one I like is only $150. That's always an option if you're not set on using the same dress. We'll decide that week which day we'll do it, based on weather, so I figure at the very least, even if it's gross on our wedding day, we'll have sunny beach pictures from Trashing the Dress!

ms_teach · July 2011

Since this thread is live again... I wanted to add that we did do a TTD the week after our wedding and loved it. We got totally wet, had sand in all the little details of my dress, and got amazing pictures too. We hosed my dress off when we got home (outside, hanging from the deck railing, with a watering hose) and it looked good as new. We did have to work to get sand out of the little folds, but the blast from the hose did the trick nicely. My husband decided to wear khakis instead of his suit pants for a more relaxed look and they came clean as well.

No clothing was harmed in the making of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O_zJ7PzfPc

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