Some will meet their end with far more flourish.

Across the United States, women of all ages are taking their dresses and wearing them in lakes, fountains and forests for so-called “trash-the-dress” photo shoots.

Not to be left behind, photographers in Clark County have been urging brides and promgoers to dip their toes in the water.

“I’ve been trying to get the word out,” said Vancouver photographer Darcie Radtke with Truth in Light Photography. “A lot of people are interested in trash-the-dress shoots but when it comes to their own dress, they have a fear of actually doing it. But most women have these dresses and put them in their closet and never look at them again. This is a way to have beautiful, lasting images of your dress.” 

The trash-the-dress movement originally started in 2001 when Las Vegas wedding photographer John Michael Cooper began photographing brides in unusual environments, but only recently has the craze spread to the eastern U.S., the United Kingdom and Australia.

Here in Clark County, brides seem reluctant to wreck their dresses, but trashing prom dresses and other once-worn high school dresses is increasingly popular. 

Fritz Liedtke, a Vancouver-born photographer who has photographed several trash-the-dress sessions in the Portland-Vancouver area, said that while the trend may seem unappealing to some, it’s a way to have fun with the dress after your special event is over.

“To get wet and dirty and play in the sand or water — these are things you don’t normally do with a formal dress,” he said.

Because trash-the-dress photo shoots can appeal to a wide variety of people — kids, high school seniors, brides, even the older crowd — the trend will only become more popular in Clark County and surrounding areas in the coming years, Liedtke said.

Radtke began doing dress-trashing photo shoots with prom dresses last fall, after seeing the Web site trashthedress.com, a showcase of post-wedding sessions around the country. 

“I thought it was amazing and thought about doing prom dresses like that. I love working with young girls; they have so much life and excitement to them,” she said.   

Radtke said she will  continue to market trash-the-dress sessions to brides and students with hopes that once they know more about the trend,  they will find the idea more appealing, cold water and all. 

Like many other photographers in the area, Radtke said she would love to photograph brides as well as high school students, because the elegant and unusual pictures produced from a trash-the-dress session are one way to remember that special day.

But she said interest just hasn’t caught on in the area yet, possibly because of cold water temperatures and a long rainy season in the Northwest.

That hasn’t stopped her from trying to market trash-the-dress sessions to brides.  She lists them as a photo package on her Web site, and thinks that once brides have more images to look at, they will find the idea more appealing, cold water and all.