The Trashing Your Dress Trend Is Still Very Much On Fire
Remember when trashing your wedding dress was a really cool thing to do? Well, it still is. Only now, the heat on this trend is getting turned up hellaaaa high. Literally. And we can thank an incredibly brave pair of brides for flagging this 🔥🔥🔥 for us. Now, full transparency, we obvi don’t ever recommend lighting oneself on fire, but according to this story, the brides had things wellll under control, with LOTS of fire safety precautions in place.
So, let’s get into it what happened:
On October 13th, April Choi and Bethany Byrnes got married at a camp in Mount Vernon, Iowa, and the celebration was lit AF.
Well before the wedding, the couple decided that they wanted to do something hot - by setting both of their wedding gowns on fire as they neared the end of their ceremony.
After the officiant proclaimed “You may now light the brides,” a number of guests appeared and torched the couple’s trains as the brides held hands and embraced.
The whole thing was pretty epic to watch, it’s not everyday you see two brides on fire a la Katniss Everdeen.
As the fire continued to climb up their dresses, the brides then stepped out of their detachable skirts to reveal white leggings and ceremony tops underneath. ALL ABOUT IT.
What fueled the flames for this plan?
The brides definitely didn’t do this impulsively, they had been thinking about it for quite a while before the wedding happened. Their photographer friend, Michael Huang, assured them that if something so crazy were to go down at their nuptials, he’d of course be there to capture it for them, and he didn’t bail on his promise. Both April and Bethany are fire friendlies themselves (April is a level 'expert' fire eater and Beth has done fire performance recreationally and professionally), so fire is a pretty big deal in their relationship and made sense as a meaningful end to their commitment ceremony.
Yes, their parents were nervous, and yes, even the women worried watching each other’s gowns get swallowed up by flames. But they handled it, and it made for some 💣 photos and memories.
Again, we wouldn’t advise such badassness, but….
These brides had a lot of backup. While most of the trash the dress scenarios we’ve seen over the years have involved beaches, sand, mud, and paint, this one takes the cake. But the intentions behind it burn just as bright as ever…
Why you might want to trash your wedding dress:
To celebrate an end to wedding planning and an end to singlehood, by welcoming married life in the most impassioned way possible.
To give your photographer a magical muse to work off of. Photographers absolutely livvvvee for a good trash the dress shoot. And lots of times, they’ll come prepared with a ton of ideas for post-wedding destruction.
To give your dress another day to play. No matter how much money a bride spends on her dress, chances are she’ll only be wearing it once, so why not get more miles out of it? Most brides never want to take their dresses off, so getting the chance to keep on the dress or put it back on is amazing.
Like a boudoir session, a trash the dress session gives brides an opportunity to try out different photography styles. Trashing the dress is a totally free and fearless act, which makes for some edgy and unbridled captures. And if your wedding photography was more traditional and posey, something like this can be an amazing juxtaposition.
To give your ceremony some extra drama. This is definitely something that hasn’t really been done before - these fiery brides were kind of the first - but not unlike sports teams that pour Gatorade all over their coaches or teammates to celebrate a victory, doing something to trash the dress during the service can be deeply ceremonious and triumphal.
What do you think, chicks? Are we still on board with trashing?? We’re thinking this example is going to reignite the trend, in a big way.