Trash The Dress

My anniversary is coming up in about 2 weeks. It's our 4th wedding anniversary. 4th.

We still have no professional wedding pictures.

I'll let that sink in.

Nowadays there are wedding blogs galore, theknot{dot}com, Facebook's "weddingbook", and so much more. Now maybe these were around 4 years ago, but if they were, I did not utilize them to their full potential.

Or at all.

I hated the wedding planning process. HATED. IT. Every single millisecond was like shooting darts under my fingernails. While I won't get into all of the drama that was the Imperfect's wedding, I can say that wedding planning and all that it entails qualifies in my "Top Ten of Crap Things I Never Want To Relive".

I pretty much sat back and let my mom ahem
"handle" things. One thing I did insist on was good photography. Oh, you silly, silly girl.

I wanted my photographer picked quickly. I only had a five month engagement and I wanted the photos ironed out; engagement photos, bridal shoot, rehearsal dinner photos, and of course, wedding photos. Mom and I picked a photographer pretty quickly. Then he disappeared.

We'd already paid a pretty large deposit and I could not get the guy to nail down a time for engagement photos. At this time, I'm in class, working, the Mr. still lives in SC, and had a fulltime job. We were a scheduling nightmare. Every time that the Mr. and I settled on with him, he'd flake. About a day ahead of time. Long story short, we canceled our contract with him after court battles and all, got our money back, and then picked a new photographer.

With 2 months left.

With the new photographer, we got our engagement shots done pretty quickly. While I don't lurve them (or own any- seeing a pattern?), they got the job done. We got our picture in the newspaper, etc. I got my bridal shot done and they came to the rehearsal and wedding.

They stayed at the wedding for an hour. That included our 30 min. ceremony.

We had to do a fake "exit" for them to photograph. I am still bitter.

This was all after we had gone over a "wedding checklist" of shots they MUST get and then some we'd LIKE for them to get, and after they reassured us we were the ONLY wedding of the day.

When we went back a month or so later to look at proofs, I quickly noticed a major oops.

They had not taken one single photo of me and the Mr. together. Not. One. Single. One.

Photographer's suggestion? "Well we can just crop you two out of one of the group shots!"

To this day I have no idea how that happened. I suppose it should have hit me, but HELLO! It was my freakin' wedding day!! It was such a blur I'm not quite sure I could have told you my full name that day. Plus.... I should not be doing your job and making sure you get your shots!!! I'll give you a hint.. this was on their "MUST" list on their checklist.

Not only that but these photographer's ended up moving or something right after our wedding. They sent us cd's with all the pics on it and proof books and we can't get in touch with them. I spent 2 months after the wedding putting together the album that came with my package deal. They sent it back and said they'd accidentally given me the wrong layouts and to redo it with new ones.

Are. You. Kidding. Me.

That album was the bane of my existence for 2 months. I was not redoing it.

Needless to say, all of this caused a lot of tension in my family for a while. I was furious at my parents (long story), my mom was frustrated with me for not redoing things, Mr. just looked like he couldn't believe what he'd just married into..

In our defense, we researched these photographers. They'd been doing business in our area for years with all positive feedback. I even recommended them to a friend (who never said anything to me about her pics- but I saw them, she got bride/groom pictures!). I have no idea how all this happened, but you still can't bring it up to my Mom without reopening the wounds (and it's SO not pretty!).

So, long story short, we have no pictures.

We do have some candids that I love that a family friend took and they are the one's I have on display and in an album. But the point to this whole tirade is...

I'm thinking about doing a Trash the Dress shoot..

©Photography by Jennifer Brum

I'm sure more of you know a bit more about this than me. Did anyone do this? Or are you thinking about doing this?

I don't want to ruin my dress. I paid a lot of money for it and while I'm not sentimental enough to be holding on to it for my daughter (a la my mom), I haven't decided what to do with it yet. I honestly don't even know where it is. But I really want to do this. I want a picture of me and the Mr. together. Oh yea. I'm totally making him do something with this too. Kind of like engagement photos but so not...? Does that make sense? Has anyone done anything like that?

I just want more photos! I feel robbed of pretty photos in my dress =(. Plus, I was the heaviest I've ever been at my wedding (I cannot stress how stressful planning was on me- and when I'm stressed, I eat). I just want to suit up in that dress and actually feel pretty....

I guess I haven't decided completely so I want some opinions. I was thinking about doing this for our 5 year anniversary, but (insert crossed fingers) I hope to be pregnant at that time so.. the sooner the better.

I really want something artsy and just plain awesome... Anyone got any suggestions?

Wait. I lied. Here is the only professional picture of me and the Mr. from our wedding day. This was our "fake exit". See why I want some new ones?!?!