Trash The Dress: Rebecca

We helped our model Rebecca trash her dress on the North Beach at Ft. DeSoto where there happened to be some lovely new pilings installed- almost as if they were put there just for us. We had so much fun with her and you can see just how fiercely she worked this dress in the pictures.










What an absolutely stunning girl. We knew we would be using this shoot for our new marketing banner and postcards so Evan and I had a little competition throughout the day of whose concept would be the final one to go on the banner.

Composition #1 (Caroline)

Composition #2 (Evan)


As you can see from our blog header, composition #2 was the winner as the images ended up being much more cohesive when I photo-shopped them together. We both ended up agreeing it was the best choice. Rebecca actually attended our bridal show to see herself in a 6 foot banner form- and promptly pointed out that Evan had won, which I think made his day. Well done honey :)

Trash The Dress: Downtown St. Pete

Yesterday we did a trash the dress session with Tracey in downtown St. Petersburg. She brought the most awesome array of props and accesories with her so we were able to do so many different locations. Our first stop was outside of Ceviche in the crosswalk where we gave a map and told her to pretend she was late for her own wedding and they came out great! We also did a runaway bride set out side of the First United Methodist Church downtown (where Charlie Crist got married). After stopping at some garden areas along the way we ended in a fountain on the waterfront that Tracey didn't even hesitate jumping into and I am so in love with the way the pictures of her floating came out. Here are my favorites:
















If you are considering a Trash-The-Dress session, know that yours doesn't have to be as extreme as this, do don;t even have to get dirty at all. It can just be a nice opportunity to get some more portraits in a more creative setting. Every Bride after seeing these says, "I don't think I could do that". But surprisingly, Tracey's dress was fine and completely dry before we even got back to the studio!

Second Shoot with Suzy

Did we mention before that this girl is amazing? We LOVE her :) She layed down in a puddle in the rain in an alley for us and didn't even hesitate. We got so many great and diverse shots with her.

High Fashion/ Red Dress Shoot

We got the opportunity to collaborate with an amazing fashion designer, Sandra Hagen, who created this amazing red dress for this shoot. The inspiration was a Royal poinciana tree in Bartlett Park. I wanted to showcase the tree like an old highwaymen painting while having something very fluid and flowing on the model. The dress was designed custom for our model, Suzy, who really made the dress and these shots as great as they are.

On our first day of shooting, it ended up raining all day, so we got stuck in the studio but got some great beauty shots while we had the makeup artist collaborating with us.


Dress by Sandra Hagen
Makeup by Olympia Morris
Hair by Sandra Hagen

Eventually, we did get the poinciana shot as well as some gorgeous images of Suzy wearing the dress on a dock in south St. Pete.



Dress by Sandra Hagen
Hair & Makeup by Caroline Smith