Trash the Dress!

Yesterday I had an absolute blast trashing my wedding dress.

Say what?!

Yep, I trashed my wedding dress. And it was fun.... F U N !!!

6 other lovely married ladies participated in yesterday's oh so girlie Trash the Dress event which consisted of...

getting our makeup and hair done professionally
putting on our wedding gowns
heading out to a grungy urban setting and later the beach for one very cool photography session!
receiving one 8x10 print of my choice
receiving a cd of all the usable photos edited by wonderful photographers Tanya Lynn and Carrie
all for only $150!

And the best part of all - every single penny of profit was donated to fund research into a cure for SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) in memory/honour of Georgia Lily Lucas.

And can I just say that we received many a curious stare from passers-by as our group of brides walked the downtown streets and the beach!

Of course, it was even more fun because I did it with my best friend Candace. We got some great shots of us together. They did one shot of the two of us underneath a sign that said "Vintage" something-or-other, since, you know, Candace and I each got married 12 and 13 years ago respectively and our dresses look it! :) For some reason all the elderly ladies that stopped to talk with our group liked our dresses best - not entirely sure how complimentary that is! LOL

I also admit to being a tad impressed that my dress still fits me 13 years and 4 children later! Course it's taken a lot of hard work to get there, and truthfully, I was only able to zip up my dress that last inch about 2 weeks ago. Whew, just in time! I actually weigh less than I did on my wedding day, but after having kids your body shape changes too - and those wedding dresses are fit exactly to your body shape (you know, back then!)so there's not a lot of room for give there.

If any of you every get the opportunity to do a Trash the Dress photo shoot, I highly recommend it - it was an absolute blast!!

For those who are a bit more on the sentimental side and would be concerned about ruining your wedding dress.... of course, I can't guarantee anything for your dress, but I rinsed my dress out a bit in the shower to get the loose sand off, and then I just dumped the whole thing into my washing machine

YOU DID WHAT?!

Yup, I washed it in the washing machine! (on delicate cycle - but not the handwash cycle cause I figured the dress was too dirty to get clean on a handwash cycle) I figured if I couldn't clean it, it was as good as wrecked anyway, so what was the harm in trying?! Good thing I did because my wedding dress came out looking good as new! And believe me - it was very dirty going in - dust turned to mud, wet sand & whatever else is all in the lake, leaves and bugs! You could never tell it had been trashed. I even washed my crinoline in the washing machine, and I hosed down my veil in the shower and hung it to dry. I had to shake out a few pieces of debris that clung to the crinoline type materials, but now everything looks picture perfect - easily in wearable condition, should the opportunity ever arise again.

And don't you worry, I'll be posting photos just as soon as I get them!