One Girl’s Trash…is Her Wedding Dress?

One girl’s trash…is her wedding dress?

Now that the wedding’s over, what to do with the dress? Forget stashing it in a box—here’s to new trends in post-nuptial dress disposal.

One bride, Kayla, 18, recently went for a swim in a pond, clad in her wedding dress. She says her future daughter will never wear an outdated gown—and she now has beautiful photographs to commemorate that unconventional dunk. She’s just one of many brides that appear on Trashthedress.com, an online photo gallery of new brides wearing their dresses on fire escapes, in the ocean, and even setting them on fire. (Don’t try it at home!)

Although some say this trend is wasteful, site creator and photographer Mark Eric insists that the brides set out to create, not destroy, something beautiful. “Some do it to relieve stress, and some do it for pure artistic fun,” he says. Still, the critics may have a point. Brides Against Breast Cancer, an organization that sells dresses to raise funds for breast cancer sufferers, encourages brides to consider donating their gowns instead of trashing them.

But why not have your cake and trash the dress, too? Eric encourages photographers to donate part of their fees to charitable causes or to photograph families with a terminally ill patient for free. Meanwhile, Fran Hansen, co-founder of Brides Against Breast Cancer, says that 90 percent of dresses (even trashed ones) are reusable. After her romp in the pond, for example, Kayla washed her dress in her bathtub to prepare it for its next life.

But the crazy ideas don’t stop there: From bearded bridesmaids to first dances involving “Thriller” (yes, the Michael Jackson song), don’t miss our exclusive report on the hottest wedding trends in ’07.

-Michelle Carlton
Photograph by Denise Neufeld

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