Wedding Photography: New Trends in Mess the Dress Photos
When the Mess the Dress photo trend first started, many people were shocked that any bride would subject her wedding dress to destruction. But we’ve come a long way from the days of brides sliding down muddy hills or smashing chocolate wedding cake against their skirts. The trend now is to arrange for artistic mess the dress photos, with the bride posing for magazine fashion spread-inspired stylistic images in the ocean surf or in other natural settings. The resulting mess to the dress is purely exposure to natural elements like sand or a grassy field; it’s the bride relaxing and not worrying about getting anything on her dress. The mess the dress photo sessions that our New Jersey wedding couples are booking with our preferred wedding vendors and other New Jersey wedding photographers work very much just like high-fashion photo shoots, complete with stylists, makeup artists, and pro photo teams with light reflectors and other professional photography equipment.
Wedding Photography
Before you worry about your wedding gown, keep in mind that many brides purchase second, often inexpensive, wedding gowns to be used in their mess the dress photos. Local brides purchase these gowns at NJ wedding gown shops’ sample sales and trunk sales, or through online auctions, choosing pretty styles that suit their vision for elegant and artsy mess the dress photos.
Here are some of the most popular styles and settings of mess the dress photos:
- On the beach, with the bride standing ankle-deep in the ocean surf, perhaps kicking some water, or holding her skirt up a bit and dancing in the surf. Since many of our New Jersey beaches have beautiful, fine sand as well as sparkling sandy beaches like Cape May’s, a popular beach photo is the bride simply walking barefoot along the water’s edge in the perfect sunlight to get those Cape May diamonds and sea glass pieces sparkling.
- Underwater shots, with the bride looking like a mermaid fully submerged, her hair flowing, the dress flowing.
- Field shots, with the bride walking, dancing or lying in a grassy field of flowers.
- Farm shots, which are especially popular with our New Jersey wedding couples who enjoy the natural atmosphere of our many New Jersey family farms. These photos may be posed in an apple orchard – perhaps with the bride perched in an apple tree, with an apple in her hand – in a pumpkin patch, sitting on top of an enormous hay bale or on a hay bale pyramid, even on horseback.
- In a tree, another favorite of our New Jersey wedding couples. They may invite their wedding photographer to their family home so that they may have photos taken of the bride and of themselves as a couple sitting in the same tree the bride may have climbed as a little girl.
- Snowy shots, with the bride playing in a fresh snowfall, or making snow angels, or a playful shot of the bride sledding down a hill in her full wedding regalia.
- Fall weather shots, with the bride playing among piles of colorful fall leaves, making the most of our beautiful New Jersey autumn foliage scenery and creating a colorful photo that may be displayed in the couple’s home.
- Painting the dress, a new trend in mess the dress photos, inspired by high-fashion’s recent showing of hand-painted dresses. New York City bridal gown designers have even opened their fashion shows with artists painting bridal gowns with watercolors, so brides are quite inspired to do the same with watercolor flowers and designs painted onto their dress’s skirt.
- Sitting on a vehicle. Some popular vehicles on which the bride may perch include classic cars and convertibles, perhaps the wedding-day limousine, and some brides ask permission to hop onto the back of a parked fire truck for a fun photo.
Mess the dress photos no longer raise eyebrows when they’re styled fashionably and when they reflect the bride’s love of the shore, or a farm setting, or when they capture the exuberance of her winter wedding. And many brides create flip photo books of their entire mess the dress photo sessions, finding these as pleasing and keepsake-worthy as their official wedding day photos.
Best,
Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château
