Sarah’s Trash the Dress Session

OMG!  I’m so excited to finally tell everyone about my amazing Trash the Dress Session with Sarah from last October!!!  It was an amazing story and we had such a fun time – I can’t wait to do this again.  You don’t have to really TRASH your dress – I’m just all about doing great shots that a bride normally wouldn’t do before the wedding for fear of getting dirty.  And Sarah’s dress only got wet, it didn’t even get trashed.

This was my first Trash the Dress session ever. I want to do this so much more!!!! Just go out and shoot incredible, sexy images with no fear of ruining the dress before the wedding.  That’s why I’m calling it a Vogue Bridal Session in my brochure.  It was so stimulating to my creativity and really invigorated me and gosh, I just love looking at them!

I actually shot Sarah’s wedding in November of 2002 – five years ago! She was a beautiful bride and I remeber that she and her husband Paul were fun and creative – a joy to work with.  Skip ahead to last summer, and she emails me outta the blue asking if I knew what a TTD session was and would I do one with her? I was so so happy! I’d been wanting to do one for awhile with no takers…

Here’s the catch – she told me that she had lost over 100 lbs!!!!!
So you have to look at these images and realize that the last time I saw her she was a different person. She had her dress extremely taken in – she is half the gal she used to be. She is a runner and doing marathons and is going to be starting triathalons soon. She wanted to do some shots featuring her medals she’s won over the years.  Look for those inspirational shots in the slideshow…

I talked her into going to Hilton Head, where I had shot a wedding once and wanted to return to do a TTD. She was game and stayed in the Marriott.  Our first session started the evening we arrived…I had intended on catching some warm sunset light but the whole weekend ended up being overcast and gloomy. It definitely lended a gothic, ethereal feeling to the beach images.  Almost moody and soft.

For the next morning, I really wanted to go back to Dolphin Head Beach to shoot on this rocky shoreline but we discovered that the property was private and did not have access unless we made arrangements ahead of time.  So, we ended up using the Marriott pool for the final shots where she really got in and swam around…I was amazed as I didn’t expect her to go all the way with it but she is such a trooper. She really wanted to do this and I was happy to shoot!   The sun came out during the last hour of our shoot at the pool which was PERFECT timing!  I love the infrareds where the water is black and the sun is just a spot on the water – very abstract and surreal at the same time.  And the blue, blue pool with her white dress…fabulous!

I am so inspired by Sarah and needing to get back on the fitness bandwagon myself.  I think I will watch her slideshow every morning when I don’t feel like working out (uh, like today?  get off yer duff, girl!)

I had such a hard time picking favorites to post here and there are 200 in the slideshow!  Note that Sarah is NOT a model but she worked it for me!  I love shooting brides and making them feel glamorous.  I think everyone is beautiful and can do this – just loosen up, have fun and play “Tyra” for a few hours!   When you’re in your dress, just play your favorite dance soundtrack in your mind and work it girl!

Here is the slideshow – enjoy!
Sarah