Trash the Dress is something that will interest brides, brides-to-be, and anyone interested in an art form that steps out of the norm. It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like and following the big day, the bride transforms herself into a villainous or perhaps mischievous character and heads out one last time wearing her beautiful (and expensive) gown – to none other than, destroy it! Today, I am taking you behind the scenes of “Trash your Dress” to a photoshoot that begins in an idyllic setting known as Philbrook Museum of Art, to the muddy, bare beaches of The Arkansas River.
As a makeup artist, one of my favorite opportunities is working with a photographer on a creative shoot…especially when I get to be involved in the creative direction! For this photoshoot, I teamed up with my friend and favorite photographer, Picturesque Photos by Amanda, to do a two-part bridal photoshoot.
Part 1: Classic Bride at the historic Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Part 2: Trash the Dress along the Arkansas River.
So you’re thinking, who in their right mind would trash the dress from the big day? Well, it’s a great opportunity to get some amazing photos…I mean are you really ever going to wear your wedding dress again anyway? I’m not usually a morning person, but because Amanda put together such a great creative team for the shoot, I had no problem being on-site during the early hours of the morning on my day off. We wanted to have plenty of time to shoot, so we got started prepping for the classic bride look as soon as we arrived! Our morning session wrapped around 10:30 am and after several hours of taking a breather, we set to work again to this time transform the classic bride to the dramatic bride – the “Trash Your Dress” part of the photoshoot!
The Team
Stylist: Amanda’s sister, Liz Carriger of LizzyCJewelry, is a jewelry designer and provided gorgeous, handmade, one-of-a-kind jewelry for the photoshoot. Since our morning shoot at the Philbrook was classic bridal, the jewelry we chose was toned down and classic with a bit of sparkly shine; but, for the evening shoot we decided to go with orange. Liz provided a beautiful layered necklace that set the tone for the trash the dress portion of the shoot.
Model: Our model for the day (yes that’s the same beautiful girl in both photo sets!), Lily Van Kirk had never actually modeled before…we couldn’t believe it either! She was such a natural and a beauty and such a great sport! She traipsed across the beautiful gardens of the Philbrook, then laid in the sand in her wedding gown, and even stood in the cold, muddy water. Ironically, Lily is is no stranger to the wedding business and actually owns her own custom cake business called Sweets by Lily! She also is pursuing a career in modeling – perfect!
Hair: Kate Burke – Senior Stylist at Ihloff Salon in Tulsa – our hairstylist for the shoot, she created two beautiful hairstyles for both bridal photoshoots. For The Classic Bride, she created sleek, classic, beautiful curls that were pulled to the side. As it came time to trash the dress, she transformed Lily’s hair into enormous textured with braided orange string weaved throughout her style.
Makeup: From Makeup By Mikala, as makeup, I had a wonderful time designing the two contrasting looks for this shoot. For the classic bridal shoot, I chose to keep Lily’s makeup simple, through using neutral tones, so to focus on accentuating her facial features. As orange was used for creating the dramatic hair style, I also chose to incorporate the color by creating a dramatic eye using orange eyeshadow. Our goal was to this time focus purely on Lily’s eyes, through dramatization and intensity of the shadows. Do you think that we achieved the dramatic eye?
Florist: The bouquet was created by Anne Marie Foy of The French Bouquet of Tulsa, a well-known floral designer for special events. Anne Marie used beautiful hydrangeas and roses.
Husband: We couldn’t have done any of this without Amanda’s amazing husband, Heath, who carried all the heavy equipment, took care of lighting, drove us around, helped us climb up and down “the mountain” to get to our location, picked up the bouquet, and waited for us through hours of hair and makeup!
It was a great day and our photos turned out beautifully! What do you think? Would you trash your dress? For even more dramatic “Trash The Dress” pics, like The Joan Of Arc photo above where a woman sets her wedding dress on fire, visit photographer Michael Cooper’s website – the man behind this unique bridal art.
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