By Jennifer Litz
Editor
January 30, 2008

One trend West Texas brides may have encountered at last Sunday’s bridal showcase includes how to destroy their wedding dress artfully. Sound insane? Local boutique photography studio Great Expectations is bringing the wedding photography trend that debuted in Las Vegas last summer to San Angelo. It’s called “Trash the Dress.”

The trend started with Las Vegas photographer John Michael Cooper, who is fed up with conventional wedding photography. It plays on the traditional fashion photography tenant that puts very beautiful people in very ugly places.

“We just kinda stumbled across [Trash the Dress] when ABC did a story on it [last summer],” says studio owner Stephanie Herring. “We try to stay a little more modern, edgy. So we look at stuff like that all the time.”

Herring and gallery co-owner Shauna Huffman-Brown wanted to take some “Trash” shots before the bridal showcase. So they rounded up photographer Annette Levesque and a group of recently married friends to add to their portfolio.

“We threw together what we called a ‘trash bash,’” Herring says. “We took five girls out and went everywhere all during the day.” “Everywhere” included sticking the fivesome among various brush, on tree stumps, in the lake, and on rusted automobiles—in their wedding gowns. John Michael Cooper takes it even further, even setting women’s dresses on fire or sticking them in car trunks to achieve truly avant garde wedding photography.

But these pictures need not be wedding photos. They can be fodder for friend pictures, and a way to break out the ol’ dress.

“That’s what we’ll do a lot of, three to five brides,” Herring says. “You get your personal pictures also, but also with your best friend. You could do it whenever; two of the girls we shot just got married this year, and the others have been married for five.”

Ali Geron participated in the shoot. She says her dress got just about as dirty at her wedding four years ago as it did at the shoot. Luckily, her dress is machine washable.

“My wedding was outdoors, and it rained, and it was one of those hilarious ones that could have been on America’s Funniest Home Videos,” Geron says. “I put it in the washing machine and it came out just fine.

“I went on the rope swing [for the ‘Trash’ shoot], and that was so much fun. And also we did a band shot, because we’re in a band, and there’s also one of me walking barefoot with my boots over my shoulder, like ‘I’m worn out, I’m done.’

“I’ll blow up one of those pictures and put it in my house, for sure. Because your real personality comes out.”

But what about saving the dress for your daughter, in the event it’s not machine washable?

Geron laughs. “I know what my mom’s dress looked like.”

Visit www.greatexpectationstx.com to see more "Trash the Dress" photos.