Blazing fires, red wine fights and paintball splats: The brides destroying their wedding dresses - all in the name of art

By Kristie Lau

Published: | Updated:

For many women, a wedding gown is the most expensive item of clothing they will ever purchase.

But not even throwing away something costly can stop the growing trend of brides purposely ruining their all-important dresses in the name of art.

A bizarre ritual known as Trash The Dress is rapidly gaining fans around the world as women arrange for photographers to capture their wedding gowns being self-destroyed in order to create wall art.

A trend in US: Wedding photographer John Michael Cooper started the trend to destroy their wedding dresses in the name of art, a ritual known as Trashing The Dress.

A trend in US: Wedding photographer John Michael Cooper started the trend to destroy their wedding dresses in the name of art, a ritual known as Trashing The Dress.

The aim is to create a powerful image that contrasts the ethereal beauty of a wedding gown with ordinary, and sometimes nightmare, scenarios that would obviously leave the garment soiled.

The results, which are dramatic to say the least, often resemble the type of photographs seen in glossy fashion magazines.

Popular photo shoot locations have included everything from the beach to garbage dumps, abandoned buildings and city streets.

Brides can be portrayed in a series of photographs or just one image - at the moment, anything goes.

Rage: Another bride has included her husband in a Trash The Dress shoot, staging a food fight involving red wine

Rage: A bride has included her husband in a Trash The Dress shoot, staging a food fight involving red wine

Extreme: A Canadian photographer, Jeff Cooke, took the above image of a bride using black paint to ruin her gown

Extreme: A Canadian photographer, Jeff Cooke, took the above shot of a bride using paint to ruin her gown

Deep: A bride appears unconscious in her own shoot as her gown floats in a ghostly manner through the water

Deep: A bride appears unconscious in her own shoot as her gown floats in a ghostly manner through the water

It seems that brides are only concerned about the fact they wish to appear as stars on their home walls.

An article written about the trend by the Wedding Journalist Association's website suggests that grooms are fans of the trend also.

It states: 'Brides and grooms want awesome imagery from their wedding, period. They want the unscripted moments captured, but they also want a photographer that can get very creative during a portrait session.

'That's why couples everywhere are donning their wedding finery and not only descending into caves, but plunging into breakers, walking through abandoned amusement parks, wandering through cornfields, wading into forest streams and chasing other wild pursuits in an increasingly popular and edgy extension of wedding photojournalism.'

Games: Another bride staged a paintball contest between herself and her husband, in an abandoned building

Games: Another bride staged a paintball contest between herself and her husband, in an abandoned building

Humourous? One bride even acted as though she had been killed by her husband, who 'dumped' her in his trunk

Humour? One bride acted as though she had been killed by her husband, who 'dumped' her in his trunk

An image of a bride being splattered by red wine was captured by photographer Jeff Cooke who said the couple, named Bri and Greg, arranged for the shoot as a one year wedding anniversary celebration.

Another image by Mr Cooke, of a woman painting her gown black, was taken in South Carolina.

As the photograph shows, there was a lot of 'passion, energy and emotion' during the shoot which truly saw the bride trash her dress.

The trend is proving so popular that a mass Trash The Dress event was staged in September of 2009 where more than 150 women wore their dresses on a beach in the Netherlands.

A fine art photographer, Melanie Rijkers, snapped and initiated the event after allegedly reading about the trend online.

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