I just got back from a trash the dress photo shoot. My hubby and I tied the knot almost 6 months ago. I dreaded the options of storing my dress. I could pay a lot of money to have it cleaned and stored properly. But what's the point? My kids most likely won't want to wear mom's dress. Not to mention I'm 4'10.5 and 90 pounds while my husband is 6'3 and 300 pounds. I'm not expecting my children to be small enough to fit in my dress. So I had heard about trashing the dress and thought it sounded fun, but I wanted to tie it into my husband and my personalities. So what is our favorite hobby? Paintballing! So I played paintball in my wedding dress. It was fantastic. My mom is buying me a shadowbox like frame to display it.

How cool is that!? Can't wait to see a pic!

I'm supposed to get pics in about 2 weeks and I will totally post some. =]

Never heard of that! Sounds cool. I also can't wait to see pics.

Im sure that concept made you a target out on the field. I'd like to see some of the paintball welts...

Amanda - you are more than likely correct in that they will not want to wear your dress. When my son and daughter in law were planning their wedding, her mother, Ann, REALLY wanted Jess to wear her dress. Now, Jess's mom and dad were married in the early 70's - so you can imagine the dress! The most poor Ann could do was get Jess to try it on for a few pictures. Even tho the dress was supposedly packed by professionals for storage - it was yellow with age.

I dont have daughters, darn it. But Im sure they would have hated my dress, too.

Sounds like you had a great time! And Im so glad you were able to enjoy your dress another day.

I have heard a little about the trash the dress ceremony and it sounds like so much fun! I don't know if I would have the heart to do it though. I try to hold on to everything and I shouldn't. I still have almost every article of clothing my 4 yearold and 1 yearold have worn I really need to move on. I am sure you are right about the kids thing though I wouldn't have wanted to wear my moms dress.

Kazko: It was just my husband and I playing, and it was kind of a controlled play since we had professional photographers there. So.. basically it was pretend play. We just did what they told us to do and he shot me where she told him to shoot me. We started off with some poses by this tree, like I was peeking out from it as if I was looking for someone to shoot. Janet [the photographer] had my hubby Dozer shoot the tree so she could get pics of the paint spray hitting me. He hit where she told him to every time. So I'm feeling pretty trusting now right.Then Janet tells him to shoot my mask. He shot too high and got me right on my forehead! There was only like 1/2 an inch of forehead showing and he got it. I was like, this is gonna be a bruiser. Nope. Barely a knot to show for the one shot that actually made me cry. We play all the time and I will tear up occasionally the first few games until my adrenaline's going and the shots don't hurt so bad. But I'd never been shot in the head before in my two years of playing! And I've never actually shed those tears for any hits. We had to stop for a minute so my face didn't look all blotchy through the mask. It was still really funny though and we got some funny shots of me being mad at him.

And it took everything I had not to shoot him back. I would have done it too but it would have just turned into a full out paint war and ruined the shots. Haha.

I do still have my dress but also do not expect my daughter to wear it. I honestly have never known what to do with it. She's already 2 inches taller than me too! I'm like you..5'1" (standing really straight lol) and 95 lbs. She'll be much taller. How did you hear about it? Sounds like a great idea!

I don't remember how I heard about it actually. On a tv show or online I'm sure. I'd been looking at wedding stuff obsessively for about a year before our wedding. It's great fun. When most people "trash the dress" they're not actually ruining it, they're just wearing it in the ocean. Or climbing a tree or something that gets really cool shots but that leaves the dress intact. I only spent about $250 on my dress though.. not the thousands that others usually spend. So I didn't mind "ruining" it.

The pics are in! Here's a few:

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

We were shooting at a Disc Golf course in the middle of the woods [where we normally play paintball]. We were there first but these jerks threw a big fit saying we were in the way. So we took some pretend shots until they moved. Jerks.

I'm pretending to play.... he's not.

He shot me in the head. =[

I didn't trust him after that so I just took the dress off and shot it up. It was so much fun.

Those are so awesome!!! Remind me to do this after I get married, this is the coolest thing I think anyone could do with there dress....

Love it!!!

LOL

Great Idea and pictures. Love the "in the tree picture".

Thanks guys! I highly recommend doing this for anyone who's getting married.. or even for those who have already gotten married! By incorporating a passion of ours into the shoot, it was so much fun to do and got to make our wedding and our relationship even more unique.

I love these! This is what it's about, in my opinion. My husband and I have been professional musicians, and used to play all these ridiculously pretentious, super expensive weddings, especially back in the late 80s and 90s. You just know that these weddings truly did not express who these folks really were, and they and/or their families were probably racking up huge debts to host those pageants! You both look great, and look like two people who obviously are very in love (well, okay, maybe not so much in that forth picture, with that look of anger in your eyes, but I would have been peeved, too!), and have fun together! It's great!

Thanks for sharing these with us.