Erin's Trash The Dress on Sunday was simply amazing!  What an incredibly beautiful bride trashing a stunning gown.  Erin was married about 5 years ago and a few months back her hubby asked what she was going to do with her gown.  Like many brides, it had just been sitting in the closet or basement since the wedding day.  It's so sad that you can never wear the dress again, but I maintain ladies everywhere should be able to throw on their wedding gowns anytime they like and wear them out!  Maybe your feeling blue and the gown and memories of wedding day will be an instant pick me up, or perhaps the laundry fell behind; throw it on!  Lol, I would love to see you ladies start a new trend of wearing your gown out and about whenever you feel like it!  Seriously though, that likely will never happen so if you are not going to hold on to it in hopes of a daughter or niece wearing one day (good luck with that, it's a wonderful thought and all the power to you ladies) but there are not that many women on their wedding day that want a 2nd hand out of date wedding gown.  I wish there were more so these beautiful gowns did not collect dust forever but it is another sad truth that not many really end up being worn again, and for the ladies that have worn a hand me down gown from in the family; you rock for giving that beautiful gown one last show.
For the rest of the gowns, some may get sold for a blushing bride on a budget; again no harm in that AT ALL; would do it myself if I loved the gown.  But I am a bit superstitious so I can honestly say I would only buy a used wedding gown if I knew all the details of the marriage the gown came from!  Divorced, nope...bad mojo; lol.  I won't even get started today on my superstitions or for that matter all the "signs" that were there leading up to my wedding day, lol.  No offence to me ex-husband at all.  I am where I am today as a result of the 10 years we were together.  You see I am also one of those firm believers of "everything happens for a reason" even if at the time you have no idea why it is happening it's all part of the plan that you know nothing about, lol...but it's for your best.  See had my marriage not ended, I would not have ended up in a sales job almost 11 years ago.  That job changed my career completely which in turn 5 years later put me in to a better sales job with another company which had me travelling out of town to Medicine Hat & Brooks once a month.  I looked at a map one night before a trip to the hat and saw from where I lived there was a "back way" I could take to shave a half hour off.  On the way home the next day I saw a little sign on the highway pointing to a town called Carseland.  I was in the market to buy a house or leave the province completely; whichever happened first I did not care.  I had no major ties keeping me in AB except for my dad who on a trip to BC just a few weeks before mentioned how much he liked it so if I transferred my job to BC and said goodbye to AB, dad would have come with me.  When I got home, I pulled up the MLS to see what this little town Carseland had that I never knew existed only 20 mins from Calgary.  Well, did it have something to offer....houses for less than a condo in Calgary; done!  I called the listing real estate agent that night I believe and had a viewing of 3 houses in town that week and put an offer in right away.  The house was vacant so I got the quick 2 week possession I wanted the end of September 2009.  Halloween rolled around a few weeks later, I was on my computer chatting with a friend in Calgary that was suppose to come but had to cancel.  I already hand my costume on from handing out candy so figured I would drag dad down to the local pub to play pool and have a few wobbly pops and chicken wings so I did not eat all the remaining candy; and I wanted to get out and see some of the locals in the town I had lived in for just over a month.  And from that point on the rest is history!  I met a boy that night, lol (Mark) and ironically enough I could not have been looking less if I tried.  The absolute furthest thing from my mind was dating or starting a relationship; no thanks!  But this particular one seemed sweet so when he approached me and started talking to me (after he caught me looking at him a few times) I actually chatted with him as opposed to my regular response my close old friends can attest to....Krissy, Pam and a few others told me years ago that when I guy even started to get an incline to approach me I could end it from 50 feet away with one look....they so adoringly called it my f off look; and it apparently was enough to stop the most eager sure of himself man in his tracks at 50 paces, lol.  So it almost became a game for my friends when we were out, lol.  Anyhow, this time for some reason I did not.  We chatted a few mins here and there on Halloween and he found out I was actually working at the pub the next day as I almost always use to work a full and part time job when I was single.  Kept me busy, out of trouble some of the time and woohoo extra shoe money!  So dad was tired, it was getting late so home dad and I came.  The next day lets just I was a few shades of green from the wobbly pops the night before!  But I drug my throwing up hung over butt in to the pub to start my new pt job.  Carol the owner offered to start training another day as soon as she took one look at me, lol but I stuck it out for the whole shift for 7 hours like I agreed to.  About an hour or 2 in to my shift so mid afternoon in walks Mark and his friend I also met the night before.  They sat at the bar and ordered a beer and just chatted amongst themselves and also to me a little.  I was behind the bar cleaning, trying not to throw up and muttered to myself I would kill for an ice cap...the jolt of ice cold coffee in my mind would surely make me feel better.  I guess at that point Mark said to P, road trip?  But I had no idea....the only thing I was focused on was not throwing up on my new employers floor ;0.  So they just up and left pretty much, thought it was odd no "see ya around" or something but maybe the whisky courage wore off so no big deal; again not looking did not care, lol.  A little while later in they walked, and Mark was carrying an ice cap...I did not know when he walked in it was for me so I'm sure to some extent I was salivating, lol.  He came over to the bar and handed it to me and pointed out he heard my comment about killing for an ice cap.  So he and P drove to the next town with a Timmy's about 20 mins away, got themselves some lunch and Mark brought me back an ice cap.  That was it, literally.  From that day on we started "dating" I guess you would call it, moved in together 5 months later in April of 2010 and had a baby in July 2011.  So even though this is a long winded read, you get the point.  Everything happens for a reason and dont' fight it; something better is always coming no matter how dark something may seem at the time.  All of the above events brought me to where I am right now, signing off this blog to go give breakfast to my AMAZING son Knox who I could not imagine a single moment without!  And the best part, I swore my whole life I never wanted children at all.  Even when Mark and I started dated he got the "you don't want kids right?" talk as there was not way I was even having kids; period.  Then I woke up one day and decided I wanted one; literally just like that and we chatted about it for a few months and then decided in September 2010 to have a baby and I was pregnant just over 2 weeks later the middle of October ;)
So don't fight change, everything happens for a reason!!!!  And for more of my work and more of Erin's TTD please visit my website at www.christinabethlehemphotography.com and my FB Page at www.facebook.com/christinabethlehemphotography