6/18/2007by Kevin Nelson
Angst over a bride's wedding dress could keep Freud busy for years.
Now there's a rapidly spreading trend for dealing with the wedding gown once the honeymoon glow is over. It's called "Trashing the Dress."
Let's face it. Who among us would want to wear something 20 or 30 years after our mother? Donating the dress to charity is one option, but trashing the dress is a way to have a little fun before settling down.
Las Vegas wedding photographer John Michael Cooper started the trend with his playful photos of post-honeymoon brides drifting trancelike in ponds, running while afire, climbing through boulder-strewn waterfalls and sitting in puddles - all while wearing their couture wedding costumes. The concept was recently featured in a New York Times article, and there's even a Web site devoted to it, www.trashthedress.com.
Locally, Shelby Martin, 20, owner of Edgewater-based Shelby Leigh Photography, collaborated with newlyweds Kate Cwiek Welsh, 26, and Scott Welsh, 33 on her own project.
Mrs. Welsh is a 1999 graduate of North County High, Mr. Welsh graduated from Old Mill High in 1991. The two both work for their alma mater, University of Maryland. Mr. Welsh is a gymnastics coach; his bride works in University Relations and is a former Ravens cheerleader.
They got engaged three months after they met. As 120 friends and family watched, their May 20 wedding was held in the Blue Heron Center of
Quiet Waters Park.
Saturday morning, the couple began their Trash the Dress adventure with Ms. Martin, 8 months pregnant with her second child, outside Phillip's Seafood Restaurant at City Dock.
"I proposed it to Kate before the New York Times article came out," Ms. Martin said. "I had three models do it, but I wanted to work with a real bride."
She touched the dress Mrs. Welsh wore. It was a ballet slipper satin, the color of misted pearls. The empire waist dress featured a halter top draped with sheer chiffon. The bias-cut skirt skimmed Mrs. Welsh's 103-pound body and dropped to a low, bunched French bustle in the rear. The Mary Bridal Boutique Design, custom-fitted, cost her $1,400.
She left her hand-beaded veil at home. The Welshes want to keep that.
"I'm doing this because I don't want to put it in a closet and store it for the rest of my life," Mrs. Welsh stated defiantly. "I'm giving it a last hurrah!"
"We've always been people who live in the now," added her husband. "We like having fun and why not?" He was wearing his sparkling white cotton diamond jacquard shirt, formal pants and expensive lace-up leather shoes. He was planning to get trashed, too.
Hand-in-hand, the couple strolled over to the grounds of Annapolis
Elementary on Green Street.
"They got married last night, maybe?" one passerby commented. Not often a bridal couple takes a stroll at that early hour.
At the school, the bride posed in several decrepit corners and mossy alcoves, then lolled on the wet grass for the photographer.
She plopped on a trash and dead-leaf-strewn stairwell without brushing away the dirt. Her husband dropped down beside her for a messy embrace that would have been a no-no at the wedding. It was beginning to look like a high-concept high-fashion photo shoot - the kind where beautiful models in beautiful clothes lounge about in gritty surroundings.
Up Main Street they went. They ducked into a grimy alley for some more shots. Francis Street was next. As her husband held traffic back, Mrs. Welsh plopped in the middle of the brick road and kicked off her delicate dancing shoes.
The dress was beginning to look smudged. Heading back down Main Street, she posed provocatively in front of a red dumpster.
"You made that dumpster look good," Mr. Welsh cooed.
At City Dock, the couple found a large, 6-inch deep, murky puddle in the parking lot, the remains of an above-average high tide. Its surface glistened with an iridescent oil-slick sheen. Mrs. Welsh gamely trudged through it barefoot, startling a toddler and several passersby. Abruptly, she sat down in the water and began kicking up her heels in glee.
"Why is she getting her dress all wet?" exclaimed Bill Watt of Annapolis.
"Ooohhh! I can't believe she's doing that to her beautiful dress!" gasped Kim Tarantino of Glen Burnie.
Passerby Donna Klusak of Annapolis nodded approval. "I'm engaged. I'd do that to my wedding dress."
Mr. Welsh jumped into the puddle with his wife. The wet, oily couple wasn't through. Next stop was a nearby pier. They jumped into the water and locked lips as brackish water foamed about them.
Despite the indignity of dirt, oil and salty creek water, the outfits -and the couple - held up. And they have some nifty photos to show for it.
By WENDI WINTERS, For The Capital