Many brides have dreamed of their wedding dress since childhood, so it’s no surprise that after the big day has come and gone, most of us choose to preserve those fantasy gowns for future generations. But a number of brides are going in a whole new direction with “Trash the Dress,” an artistic concept where those precious designer gowns are burned, ripped, dirtied, and all-out destroyed in a post-wedding avant-garde photo shoot.

Candice Benson of the wedding and event-planning firm The Finishing Touch in West Orange (973-525-5884 thefinishingtouchevents.com) has found that many of her brides are definitely up for more creative photo options. “It’s about finding a fun way to express themselves—it’s not necessarily about damaging or destroying the dress,” she explains.

With that in mind, Benson created a more palatable version of the Trash the Dress trend, with her Mess the Dress photo shoots. Here, her brides’ gowns will simply get dirty or wet in the ocean and sand, in trees, on a horse, etc. (some photographers can even take underwater shots of couples). It’s the best of both worlds: Couples get the imaginative photos they’re looking for, but the damage to the bride’s dress is minimal.

One of Benson’s couples, Jamie and Jason Weber of Oakland, were married in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and participated in a Mess the Dress shoot the day after their February 17 nuptials. The couple’s photographer, Norman Gilbert of Norman Gilbert Photography in Memphis (901-766-9996; photonorm.com) came up with the original concept, which called for the couple to get waist-deep in the ocean, climb on top of rocks, and roll around in the sand. And although some planning needed to go into the session, once everyone got down to the beach it was all about being spontaneous. “This concept centers around having fun, and doing something you’ve been told never to do: get your dress dirty!” explains Gilbert.

After about 30 minutes on the beach, Jamie and Jason headed to the hotel pool area, where they were snapped diving into the water and sipping champagne in the poolside bar. One of Gilbert’s favorite photos is of Jamie sitting on a lounge chair in her gown—surrounded by hotel guests in their swimsuits. “It’s very tongue in cheek, like ‘what here doesn’t belong?’” he says.

And the couple couldn’t be happier with the end result. “We absolutely love those photos!” raves Jamie. “They’re better than the formal ones we took on the wedding day because they show off our true personalities.” And the best part? At the end of the shoot, Jamie’s wet and sandy Alexia Couture gown was shipped back to New Jersey to be cleaned and preserved.

John Tannock of Tannock Photography in Cherry Hill (856-751-7227; tannockphotography.com) also found that many of his brides balked at the idea of destroying their gowns, so he and his partner came up with “It’s Just a Dress…but He’s Forever.” Some of their shoots include couples jumping into a fountain, a bride holding a melting ice cream cone in front of a dessert shop, and newlyweds walking down a busy Main Street. “For most of our brides, leading up to the wedding it is all about the dress,” says Tannock. “Trashing it was just too negative, but when we explained this concept to our brides, their eyes would light up!”

Mara and John Katsikis of Maple Shade hired Tannock to photograph their July 28, 2007, wedding. When he mentioned the “It’s Just a Dress” idea to them, they jumped at the chance and chose to do their shoot three months later at the abandoned Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. “I had visited it on a school trip when I was younger and always remembered it as an eerie place,” says Mara. The couple spent the day being photographed throughout the prison—the bride even took a “mugshot” with a prisoner ID number (their wedding date: 72807). And Mara’s $1,300 designer dress simply got a bit dirty. Still, she’s not sure if it’s headed for preservation just yet: “I might just hang mine on a mannequin so I can stare at it everyday until it disintegrates!”