After the big wedding day, the bride usually brings her dress to the cleaner, pays a hundred or two, and gets it boxed up and sealed (preserved) to last for a lifetime.  Is she ever going to wear it again?  Most likely not – she’ll just pick up the box from time to time, and look at it through the mini-window on the box.  Is that true ladies?

A trash the dress session is treated like an engagement session.  Like the name of it, you CAN trash your dress, ie run on the beach, go swimming, roll in the garden, climb the trees, but you don’t necessarily have to.  Having a Trash the Dress session gives you that chance to wear your dress again and not worried about getting it dirty, since you’ll be cleaning it after.

A trash the dress session is also more relaxing and gives you more time for portraits.  When the wedding day schedule is jam packed with a list of activities, you might not have enough time to take portraits.  Weddings also sometimes run late, so most of the time, it’s the photographer’s time that gets sacrificed.  When that happens, sometimes, the photographer is only given 5 minutes to snap one good shot of the bride and groom before they head off to continue to enjoy their day.  I have to admit it can be daunting, but you have to make it happen!  Having another day set aside to take portraits helps relieve the stress of running out of time during the wedding day.  You get to choose the locations you want, run around with your new hubby, take more imagery, and also have strangers congratulating you (again) on your big day!!!  Yay!

So I planned this session several months in advance with newlyweds, Kathryn and Gustavo, Visia Productions, and JT Artistry.

You may remember Kathryn + Gus from their wedding back in August, 2011.  These two high school sweethearts had a fantastic honeymoon, celebrated their birthdays, went on the Price is Right , won some goodies, are now planning their next trip, and are enjoying their wonderful married lives together.  As a friend of both of them, it’s exciting and heartwarming to watch their love evolve over the years – it’s even more exciting to have the honor of capturing their biggest day.  Not only that, these two are the perfect couple for this session.

We were in Silicon Valley and it was cold that day.  The day before, the weather was great… but hey, it was January and usually it’s raining.  While Jen beautified Kathryn, Gustavo, Brent and Ian (Visia), and my boyfriend Curtis all enjoyed the sports game that was on TV.  After, we headed to our locations.  I felt so bad for Kathryn – she had goosebumps and was shivering, but she pulled it together really well and you can barely tell she was on the brink of being numb.  She gave me assurance that she was ok, and that we can do “whatever we want”.  🙂

One of the greatest joys is seeing that your couple is having fun.  Since my latest trip to the Bahamas, one of my friends Lyndsey and I went on a planking epidemic. I want to spread that joy to my couples – so… check out a little surprise at the end!

Assistant:  Curtis Ko

MUA:  JT Artistry

Videographer:  Visia Productions

Here are a few behind the scenes shots!!!