For those not in the know about today's topic, a 'trash the dress' session is basically a portrait session where the bride wears her wedding dress in conditions that may get it wet or dirty. That's the gist. It can be done on the wedding day or, more often, after the wedding day when you don't mind so much if the dress is no longer pristine.

Why would anyone do this? :) Good question. And I'm going to try to answer that in a minute. Firstly, I want to say that I've seen my fair share of TTD photos. Actually, I've seen more than my fair share. And a lot of them suck. No, really, they do. They have girls wallowing in mud or spilling food on their dress or whatever. Or the brides are just kind of sitting in water and looking awkward. See, that's the thing: when you look at those shots you think, "Why the heck are they doing that?" If you're thinking that then it's a bad TTD session.

For me, TTD sessions are all about creativity and romance. Creativity, because they allow you to really go all out and get wild shots that you'd never dream of doing on your wedding day otherwise. And as for romantic, do you remember those really old movie scenes where the couple would kiss at the beach and lie on the sand as the waves rolled over them, or movie scenes where the couple runs into each other's arms in the rain and kisses? You know the ones I'm talking about, right? The scenes where all the couple cares about is each other and whether they're getting wet, sandy, or whatever it doesn't matter to them. That's what a TTD session should be like! It should be about romance and creativity, not about getting dirty for the sake of getting dirty!

That's my version of it, anyways. :)