Weddingbee Blog

When I first started researching destination weddings, there was one thing in particular about them that made me gasp and say, YES, I want to do THAT: the beachfront Trash The Dress photo sessions (a.k.a. TTD).

What can I say? There’s something so beautiful, so fun and so… well, hot… about all those pictures of brides rolling around on the sand in their wedding finery that heck, I couldn’t resist.

So two days after our wedding day, Mr Breezy and I set our alarms for sunrise and, after hitting snooze a couple times and finally yelling “Oh fudge we’re late!!“, we threw on our clothes and sprinted down to the beach to meet our photographer Photophil.

Some brides get a second dress specifically for their TTD session so they can go crazy and not worry about ruining it but I always knew I’d wear the same one I got married in. It doesn’t have any delicate beading or lacework so I thought it would probably be OK, but mostly, I just loved it and couldn’t imagine wearing another dress. I figured that if I ruined it beyond repair, at least I’d have a lot of photos of it and the knowledge that I really did get every single ounce of fun out of it that I could.

Warning: We got so many incredible shots from our photog that honestly, I had a heck of a time picking just a few to share with you so please forgive me if this is a super photo-heavy post…

As the sun started to peek over the horizon, our trash the dress–er, make that ‘trash the DWess’–session started off innocently enough with some fooling around with one of the parasols I had brought with us to Punta Cana.

Then Mr Breezy got in on the action and, well, the smooching began.

In the beginning, we felt sort of awkward, as might be evident from our posture in the photo above. There’s one surefire way to remedy that though…

Time for kooky Breezy time! How can you not laugh your head off when you’re being spun around on the beach? At SUNRISE?? It’s just so ridiculous, it’s awesome.

We soon fell into a bit of a pattern: nuzzle, nuzzle, romancey-schmancy…

… and then explode in laughter at a) something funny Mr Breezy said, or, b) something extremely dorky that I did.

At first, the feel of water lapping at the hem of my dress and the bottoms of Mr Breezy’s pants was sort of a shock but we got used to it.

Soon we were venturing tentatively into the water.

Photophil yelled at us, “Nice try guys, you have to go ALL the way in! Get your hair wet!”

So we did!

Man, it felt so weird to be in the ocean in my wedding dress, I could not stop cracking up.

Of course, in true Breezy fashion, the mister tried to dunk me in (or at least, threatened to).

But in the end, he agreed to help me wet my hair without getting the rest of me cold.

Well, for a while, anyway…

Back on the beach, it was time to… uh… warm up.

It’s these shots of us with wet hair and sand stuck to our skin that I love the best because they’re so natural and carefree but still wedding-y.

Maybe he thought we needed to cool off or something just then (ahem) because Photophil suggested I unbutton Mr Breezy’s shirt.

But of course, that turned out to be hilarious rather than racy.

After much rolling around on the sand, the sun had risen into the sky and we decided to try some different locations.

Picking up my skirts, we eventually picked our way through the jungle-like vegetation to this tree. All I can say is, thank goodness we had thought to bring flip-flops.

We didn’t get a lot of shots in the ‘jungle’ though. You probably can’t tell, but we––Mr Breezy especially––are sort of miserable sitting at the base of this palm. There were all sorts of ants crawling all over the ground and oh, the mosquitoes! I swear they were the size of helicopters. We had to high-tail it outta there.

But by that time though, we were tired and happy and ready to call it a day.

Just before leaving the beach, we stopped at the outdoor showers to pick the burrs out of the crinoline of my dress and shake some sand out of the layers. Mr Breezy… uh… helped.

But back in our suite, I realized that I had much more sand stuck in my dress than I thought so there was only one thing to do.

Behold what Mr Breezy says are his favorite photos from our entire trash the dress session:

And the dress – was it trashed?

Well, it went into the sea looking like this…

… but it came out absolutely crystal clean!

Our early morning TTD session is something that Mr Breezy agreed to because he knew it would make me happy (aw, isn’t he great?) but today we agree it was one of the best experiences ever. Even though our “formal” wedding photos weren’t really all that formal, these beach shots captured the true spirit of us – both the silly and playful parts and the crazy-in-love ones.

Next (yes finally, we’re nearing the end!!): Our non-traditional honeymoon.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to our brilliant, funny and ever-so-creative photographer Photophil, (a.k.a. Phil Steingard) for these beautiful photos (minus the last three).

DW in the DR: Pack It Up, Pack It In
DW in the DR: Airport Confessions
DW in the DR: Bienvenidos a Punta Cana
DW in the DR: The Guest List Is In the Bag
DW in the DR: The OOTs in Action
DW in the DR: Planning the Reception
DW in the DR: Planning the Flowers & Cake
DW in the DR: Planning the Ceremony
DW in the DR: Planning the Photography
DW in the DR: Stag and Showerette
DW in the DR: The Meltdown
DW in the DR: Final Touches
DW in the DR: The Guys Get Groomed
DW in the DR: The Girls Get Gorgeous
DW in the DR: We MacGyver the Flowers
DW in the DR: I Finally Get to Wear the DWess
DW in the DR: Girls Gone Wild
DW in the DR: The Reveal and Portraits
DW in the DR: We Are Family
DW in the DR: Here Comes the Bride
DW in the DR: Love Ceremony, West-Coast Style
DW in the DR: Love Ceremony, The Vows
DW in the DR: Mazel Tov!
DW in the DR: Sunset and Sand
DW in the DR: Sto Lat!
DW in the DR: Dinner Game Hijinks
DW in the DR: Cake Wreck
DW in the DR: Let’s Get This Party (Re)Started
DW in the DR: A Song and a Dance
DW in the DR: The Party Must Go On
DW in the DR: Poprawiny