Trashing the dress could be next big bridal trend

They've drowned the gown and dunked the dress.

Daubed them with paint and stamped down the street.

Muddied them. Sullied them. Deflowered them.

For better or for worse, right?

Absolutely.

It might be a trend. It might be a new tradition. But many a bride has taken her beautiful, astonishing, oh-my-God-this-is-amazing wedding gown and done the unthinkable, the unimaginable, the inconceivable.

She's trashed it.

Holy matrimony.

Case in point: Husband and wife Kris and Leanna Fortner, calling on Jackson Pollock for inspiration. Clothed in tux and gown, they splattered each other with paint, mad washes of pink, yellow, violet and blue.

"Well, I guess it's any excuse for him to throw paint at me," Leanna says, laughing.

Husband-and-wife team Nick and Rachel Kuchar photographed the shoot.

Their company, Blue Nalu, organizes such post-wedding sessions, giving the Charleston area at least two photography businesses that offer the service. Lea Dales Photography is the other.

It's called — aptly — "Trash the Dress."

"It's not something your mom did," Nick says.

Las Vegas photographer John Michael Cooper is credited with starting and popularizing the shoots. Mark Eric, a Louisiana-based photographer, also began a Web site (trashthedress.com) to show his Trash the Dress images.

The site displays work from other photographers, too, galleries of seaward couples and junkyard brides, brides cavorting through graveyards, smashing pickup trucks or toting pistols.

See, the act of trashing is a matter of preference.

It's whatever couples, or brides, deem it to be.

"It's not like we're ripping the dress to shreds or ruining it," Dales said. "It's just one more way for people to show who they are, and to enjoy their gown again in a different venue."

Dales shot Kelli Hall in Cypress Gardens, her gown in pointed contrast to the foliage and swampy blackwater. Suzanne Burkey jumped into Shem Creek. Another bride vamped down Rivers Avenue in her white gown and satin, elbow-length gloves.

"One couple," Rachel says, "they got married on New Year's Eve, and on New Year's Day, they went down to Coast and rolled around on the cobblestones."

A couple of popular options: splashing in the pineapple fountain at Waterfront Park and playing in the ocean.

Just Monday morning, Jason and Katie Ratliff had their pictures taken by Dales at Station 19 on Sullivan's Island.

Katie wore her wedding gown once more, drenching the strapless Maggie Sottero dress, her pickup skirt accentuated by small gathers throughout and held by groupings of crystals and pearls.

Sure, the gown was expensive, Katie admits. But what wedding dress isn't?

"Way more money than I would ever spend for clothes to dive into the ocean wearing," she says.

Still, she had few reservations. She spent too much time finding the perfect wedding dress. No way she wanted to wear it just once.

"I figured I would enjoy having the pictures much more than having a dress preserved in a box for the next however many years," Katie says.

And, no, maybe it's not something her mother might have done, but she embraced the idea.

"My parents were all for it, especially my mom since it was taking up space in her closet the last two months," Katie says.

"They love the pictures and thought it was a great idea, and an incredibly original way to preserve the dress — with pictures."

Same for Leanna and Kris, the newlyweds who made themselves into abstract prints.

Blue Nalu shot the couple in a warehouse at the old Naval Base, the floor tiled in black-and-white checkerboard.

Kris had on a pair of black Converse Chuck Taylors, the same shoes he wore during his June wedding at Tidewater Chapel in Mount Pleasant. Leanna wore a pair of pink Chucks (not her wedding-day shoes).

Everything fit: their personalities, setting and attire.

Only now, her gown isn't immaculate and white. It looks mottled, in fact, almost like a piece of tie-dye clothing.

"It's OK," Leanna says, laughing. "I'm not going to need it again."

For more information

Call Lea Dales at 452-3175 or visit www.leadales.com; or reach the Kuchars at 822-7172 and www.bluenaluphotography.com.

For information on having your wedding at home, see today's Home & Garden section.

Reach Rob Young at 937-5518 or ryoung@postandcourier.com.