"Trashy" letters to the editor!

Daniel with his new bride, Jessi, after their beautiful wedding at Jacksonville Beach.

I know "trashing the dress" isn't for everyone. If you are up for it, that's great! If not, I also offer Bridal Glamour sessions that still let you be a diva in hot photos without ruining the dress.

Heck, when my day comes, I'll probably get a cheap dress off eBay for my own trash session, and then donate my real dress to Brides Against Breast Cancer.

Unfortunately, for something that has become so special and meaningful to brides, it's so sad when others get defensive judging brides because they are unable to appreciate the art and creative photography behind trashing a wedding dress. In response to the article the Florida Times Union showcased about me, there has been a "Letters to the Editor" war of words about the whole concept the past few weeks. One lady wrote how a bride trashing her wedding dress was "wasteful and disgusting" and couldn't believe grooms would "approve" of this "disrespectful" honor of their marriage.

This really upset my bride in the article, Corinna, and her husband Bobby, who took it as a personal attack the way the lady so harshly judged Corinna's decision on what to do with her dress. But after cooling off, Corinna then rallied together with a few of my past "trash" brides to start a letter campaign to the Florida Times Union to defend their case and provide a balanced coverage.

Then today, the newspaper actually published one of my groom's letter! Woo hoo! It was written by Daniel, who also participated with his wife, Jessi, in her trash the dress session back in April.

Here's Daniel's awesome letter!

WEDDING DRESSES
Trashing is not an insult

In April, my wife trashed her wedding dress right after our reception.

And guess what? Not only did I support her decision, but I also participated. Scarlett Lillian is very talented and even got Photographer of the Week for our photos on TrashTheDress.com.

My wife and I had a great time capturing these moments.

As my wife would point out, we felt this was a symbolic expression of our love and eternal commitment we made to one another, not an insult to us or to the sanctity of our marriage.

You can trash your dress and still preserve the integrity of the gown.

My wife took her dress to the dry cleaners and made arrangements to donate it to the Brides Against Breast Cancer fundraiser.

Preserving your wedding dress in a box is not going to make a difference as to what kind of marriage you will have, nor does it reflect a low regard for the sacredness of marriage.

Grooms rent our tuxes. There are some brides who didn't have a wedding dress and are still married decades later.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions. However, instead of making insinuations, let brides be the better judge of what to do with their dresses.

DANIEL STEVENS, utility line locator/surveyor, Jacksonville

Let's trash your dress!!

Yes, I said t-r-a-s-h your dress. I know, you can't imagine spending all that money on it, only to destroy the dress you waited your whole life to wear. That's exactly why you should trash it. You'll wear it once and then it will go sit in a closet, when instead, we could get some rockin' photos of you to preserve the dress in a way everyone will see for years to come.

This weekend, I took a road trip to the gorgeous Savannah, Ga. with some of my photographer friends to do nothing but trash dresses. I have been hearing more and more about this new concept in wedding photography, and I had been dying to experiment with this kind of photo shoot before I offered it to my brides. We had three amazing models, Dacy, Ali, and Jenny, who weren't shy to get down and dirty! Thanks girls for being such troopers and braving the mud and cold! You rocked the photos!

And now I'm excited to present the results. Below you'll find 37 hot reasons why we MUST trash YOUR dress next!

p.s. Of course, I mean, after the wedding. :-)
p.p.s. Keep scrolling. The more you scroll down, the trashier it gets.
p.p.s. If you still need more convincing, check out trashthedress.com











































































And a fun one of me getting dirty in the sand. Thanks Crystal for the shot!



... And getting muddy in the swamp with Jill Higgins.


... And it wouldn't be complete without all of us chimping!

A "trashy" rainy day.

In May, I shot a fabulous destination wedding for Corinna and Bobby in Las Vegas. Corinna originally wanted to trash her dress on the strip in Vegas, but due to time constraints we weren't able to pull that off. So now, back home in Jacksonville, we trashed it instead amongst the lily pads and swampy rivers of Northeast Florida. What we didn't expect were thunderstorms and rain on the day we scheduled her photoshoot, but thank goodness we were already trashing the dress because the rain made for even cooler pictures with the water droplets all around her in the water.

Check out the video below for behind-the-scenes look at the making of the trash session, and a cool slideshow of all her hot pics! Also in the video is a special announcement of what publication joined us at the session to do an upcoming article about our trash session!




And I couldn't resist giving you a sneak peak before the article is published. Here are a few of my favorites!


(First, we shot a few inside while we let the thunderstorms pass...)

Again, my bed comes in handy for a few shots. My bed was also used in Corinna and Bobby's engagement session last year.




I have to give credit that I got the idea for this shot from one of my favorite photographers and friend, the fabulous Jasmine Star. Thanks Jazz for helping me see something from a different angle!






Time for outside! I literally had a camera in one hand and an umbrella in the other, as you can see in the video!









My FAVORITE shot of the day!
















MANY MORE IN THE VIDEO! Scroll up to see the rest in the video slideshow above!