Finally… a follow up on our trip to Atlantic City! We spent some time there recently for a week long seminar for professional photographers that we organized. I’m so happy to report that it was a huge success and we had pro photographers from around the world attend the workshop!
During the workshop, some photographers decided to organize a “Trash the Dress” session while we were there. For anyone who isn’t familiar with this term, there is a new trend that is quickly becoming incredibly popular with recently married couples. The idea is to have a little bit more fun with your wedding dress and suit/tux after the wedding is over. After spending all that time looking for the perfect dress, the perfect outfit, the actual amount of time that you get to wear it seems so short!
On top of that, with the rush of events happening all around you at the wedding, sometimes couples (and photographers!) don’t get to spend as much time as they’d like on their own personal portraits. So these sessions give couples (or sometimes just brides) the chance come back out, get some incredibly beautiful, romantic and fun portraits without feeling rushed and without worrying too much about whether or not their clothes are getting a little dirty.
Now don’t let the name of this session fool you. The entire point of these sessions is not to physically trash the dress. As a matter of fact, Rene and I have never gotten a dress so dirty during one of these sessions, that it wasn’t able to be easily cleaned afterwards. We have gone into alleys, on wet sandy beaches and right into the ocean and still every couple has reported that the dress was completely cleaned and back to normal after a trip to the cleaners. You can also see more examples of sessions from all over the country at Trash the Dress.
But now back to our session in Atlantic City! It was a great opportunity for many of the photographers in attendance who might not normally get to photograph these sessions to have some creative freedom a lot of fun. Even though Rene and I do offer these sessions already (we call them “Day One” sessions) and have had the privilege of photographing many couples after the wedding, we still couldn’t resist jumping into the action! There were eleven actual brides all from the Atlantic City area and 48 photographers! Rene and I offered up our suite at the Trump Taj Mahal where we all met and all eleven girls got ready in our room. I had a blast running around and poor Rene was relegated to one small corner with the other few guys that were just waiting for the girls to be ready. Quite a sight, let me tell you!
This is where we first met Sandy, too. Sandy was getting dressed and needed some help with her dress. She’s so little that her dress was a little loose in the back, so we finally just sewed her right into it! And just by coincidence, Sandy was our bride during the shoot as well and couldn’t have been more excited about it! We had so much fun with her and we kept shooting all evening long. Here’s just a little sneak peek at some of our favs!
I love the gorgeous stare that Rene got here from Sandy. And I LOVE that fog in the background, too - that fog made for a perfect backdrop!
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Rene and I turned a corner on the boardwalk in Atlantic City and we both saw this giant billboard at the same time. We were pretty much tripping over each other trying to get our shots. 
Thank you, Sandy, for working it like the supermodel you are!!
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And a perfect ending to the evening…*sigh* I love this image. Probably one of my all time favorites. I love it!
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It seems crazy to me that even though we met Sandy only a few hours before these images were taken, we just connected with her right away. She was the perfect model and she’s really just a normal, funny every day girl next door! After our session was done and Sandy got to take a warm hot shower, we all just hung out for the evening and had dinner and I know we’ll be staying in touch with her for a long time to come!
And if you’re interested in having your own session after their wedding, let us know! We’d love to have some fun with you. We have a lot of new ideas that we’re just dying to get out of heads - we’re just waiting on the perfect couple! So drop us an email if you’re up for lots of fun and some gorgeous and very unique portraits!