There is nothing I love more than styling and shooting a custom request like this "trash the dress" sunrise session on Kure Beach, NC.
Because photography is all about the lighting, we made our way to the beach while it was still dark, waiting for that first hint of light to appear over the Atlantic. There’s something special about being on the beach at that hour. Everything is quiet. The shoreline is nearly empty. The air feels different. And for a few minutes, it feels like you have the entire ocean to yourself.
Then the sky began to change.
As the sun started coming up, we began shooting beneath a stunning tangerine streaked sunrise.
Despite the name, you don’t have to literally destroy your wedding dress. A trash the dress session is an opportunity to take your dress somewhere unexpected and create photographs that are completely different from traditional wedding portraits. Think ocean waves, sand, movement, adventure, and a willingness to get a little messy. The dress becomes part of the experience rather than something that has to be carefully protected.
Your dress has already been part of an incredibly important day. A trash the dress session gives it another story.
You can run through the water. Sit in the sand. Dance in the waves. Get your feet, and your dress, completely soaked. You can laugh, play, move, and create photographs that feel less like posed portraits and more like an adventure you actually lived.
This Kure Beach sunrise session was absolutely worth the 5 a.m. wake-up call.
Because a photo session like this one isn’t about stiff posing, it’s about the adventure and the captured memories you can look back on for years to come.