Carisa Chee Photography: Greensboro Wedding Photography

There’s a popular trend in wedding photography today called “trashing the dress.”  The idea is that a bride has spent hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on her dream dress and she looked gorgeous in it.  But now the wedding is over, and she may not ever get the chance to wear it again.  Even if she had a bridal session, chances were she was worried about getting the dress dirty the entire time and she therefore looks less than relaxed in the photos.  And now that the wedding day is past, she has a few options for her perfect dress.  She can have it cleaned and preserved in a cardboard box, where she’ll never really get to enjoy it again and it will eventually yellow, no matter what the dry-cleaner tells her.  She can donate it or sell it so that another bride can have a beautiful dress on her wedding day, too.  Some brides even have a christening gown made for their first child out of the material, which is a lovely idea in my opinion.

However, many women want to wear that beautiful gown at least one more time.  And they want to have amazing photos taken in that dress that look like they came straight out of a magazine.  Now personally, I think “trash the dress” is too strong of a term to use.  The dress isn’t destroyed.  It’s already dirty from the wedding day, and it’s in need of cleaning.  So to take it to a field, to a junkyard, or to the mountains will get it a little dirtier and possibly wet, but in most cases it won’t ruin the gown.  That’s why I love the name that Jessica Claire, a well-known photographer out of California, came up for these sessions:  dress irreverence.  The dress is no longer treated with kid gloves, and the bride can relax and have fun knowing that she doesn’t have to keep it pristine any longer.  It’s an enjoyable day, and the images captured will probably be among her very favorite in her gown.

When Radar told me she wanted to trash her Winnie Couture gown, I was in heaven.  I’ve had the honor of photographing her several times now, and she is the perfect model – gorgeous, fun, and easy to pose.  And the idea of taking that hand-made gown and creating a truly unique and fabulous session for her was more than I could ask for.  Her husband, Mark, came along to carry the gown and act as dog-handler to their weimaraner, Minnie; and I felt I was out for the day with a couple of old friends.  We spent four hours (yes – FOUR) hiking up and down stone stairs, changing into the dress, changing out of the dress, changing back into the dress, and creating what has become one of my favorite portrait sessions ever.  I was beyond impressed with Radar’s energy and ability to still look perfect and gorgeous after hiking all afternoon, and I had a fabulous time with all three of them.