Okay so I’ve written before about the poor state of the dress by the end of a typical Montreal wedding, and how it may be wise to squeeze a little more out of the dress by doing a trash the dress photo session. Now this doesn’t mean that the dress that you’ve spent a pretty dime on should be tossed in the trash bin by the end of this session. In fact, I’m all for giving the dress a nice dry-cleaning and keeping it even if only for sentimental reasons. Now weather this means you should do a photo session while you roll around in a muddy pit wearing it, or pose gracefully in a more sophisticated metropolitan setting is entirely up to the bride. One thing is for sure, she well get a lot more out of it by doing this session wherever that may be. Just take a look at some of those photos from the last few weeks, and I’m sure you will agree with me that those brides are happy they did:

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The trash the dress session is becoming one of the hottest most sought after sessions I offer. I try to keep these sessions fresh, romantic and as some brides have described them, epic. Still some bride’s have yet to here about them and I often get a negative reaction when I first describe that session to them. Some brides will immediately tell me that there’s no way they will trash the dress and, of course, I totally understand that first reaction. However, I always ask them what they are planning to do with their dress after the wedding? Ninety nine point nine percent of those brides don’t really have a good answer. They say that they haven’t really though about it, or that they will probably put it in a closet and forget about it. What most bride’s don’t really know is that in order to properly store your wedding dress, you will need to have it professionally dry-cleaned and prepared for long term storage.

Most brides don’t know that proteins excreted when we sweat along with other substances such as champagne, wine, beer, Vodka shots and even chocolate from the chocolate fountain at the dessert table, will accelerate the disintegration of the dress while it hangs in your closet. The dress will also discolor over time and wind up unusable in the long term if not properly cleaned.

Another thing most brides don’t know is that from the point they walk out of their parents’ house till they toss the bouquet, the dress has gone through a great deal of wear and tear. It is almost halfway trashed anyway. You should see what those dresses look like at the end of the night.

So I always say, if you’re going to hold on to the dress, and you will have them professionally cleaned anyway, why not get a little more mileage out of them by wearing them one more time for the trash the dress session. After all, you’ve probably spent a lot of money on them to wear them only once. Besides, despite of what the name of the photo session implies, the dress does not have to be trashed or even thrashed. Just dirtied a little more during the two hour shoot.

I should also mention that the weather does not always cooperate and you may not get to go to your favorite outdoors spot on your wedding day. So why not take advantage of a beautiful day that you get to choose soon after your wedding when the weather is perfect.

The resulting photos from those sessions are always breathtaking, and some brides will go as far as choose only the photos from this session to use in their wedding albums. Here are some photos from the last trash the dress session I did with Carla and Davide at a local beach in Montreal. I hope you enjoy it and I will love it if you shared your thoughts on the session in the comments below. Thanks and enjoy:

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Well, here’s a bride who was not only excited to trash her dress, she wanted to do it in style. And that’s exactly what she did. Check out these shots from this unforgettable session:

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Here are a lot more teaser shots from this wedding:

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Here are some of my favorite shots from this wedding:

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Here are some of the shots taken at this beautiful Italian wedding, complete with traditional Italian ceremonies and a load of modern day fun!

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These are some of my favorite shots from Genevieve and Amos’ wedding.

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This was the first wedding for me this year at Chateau Saint-Antoine and it was also the first time, well, ever that the groom had prepared a song which he sang to his yet to be wife during the ceremony. It was a really moving moment for everyone in the audience and I must admit for me too. When this happened, I immediately switch the settings on my camera and recorded it in HD because I felt it was a moment that needed to be captured in video. I am sorry if the video is really shaky and so on, but this is why I have a video team who happened not be there that day and I just had to do what I had to do.

Scroll all the way down to watch the video.

Here is this lovely couple’s wedding day story in pictures:

Here’s the video where Vincent sings to Magie:

Vincent sings to Magie from Beautifoto on Vimeo.

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So it is Tuesday today and the Marions Nous bridal fair is finally over and I am on my way to recovery after a brutal 2 days of standing on my feet. I gotta say though I will miss all those beautiful brides-to-be telling me how much they love my work. I especially love it when some of them are moved to tears or tell me how they have goose bumps when they are looking at my portfolio.

I know a show is successful when the day passes by and I haven’t even taken a break to eat or go to the men’s room because I was busy all day talking to people.

Now I move to the post show marathon of meeting with all the couples wanting to book me as their wedding photographer which is the part I enjoy the most.

You may remember that I shot a wedding the day before the show, and as promised here are some more teaser shots from that day which took place here in Bois Franc at the Challenger Golf Club in Ville Saint-Laurent:

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As some of you know I will be at the Marions Nous (Let’s get Married) Bridal show at the Bonaventure tomorrow here in Montreal. So as you can imagine, I am working late to be ready for it, but I just couldn’t help but post at least one image from yesterday’s wedding which was incredible to say the least. The weather was extremely windy, and rain was on and off. Despite all that the couple were nonetheless just as eager as I was to go out to the park and get some cool shots taken.

Here’s a teaser shot of the bride from the park shoot and I promise to post more and update this blog post as soon as possible after tomorrow’s show. Enjoy this for now!

P.S. Come visit me at the show if you have a chance!

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