MESS OF THE DRESS: Trash the dress craze taking hold in Destin brides (PHOTOS)

If a picture is a worth a thousand words then a trash the dress picture is worth a thousand and one.

"Trash the dress captures both of you in your atmosphere, and it’s just about the two of you. Nothing and no one else matters in that moment," said California bride Tonya Haines, who was married in Destin during a destination wedding in June this year.

Try to explain the concept of trash the dress to any little girl who's thought about her wedding day forever, and she'll feel like you’ve just thrown every four-letter word she's never heard straight into her face. The idea of "ruining," their wedding dress — the most important article of clothing they’ll likely ever wear is intimidating to a lot of brides — but more are choosing the unconventional route every day.

"Destin is an ideal place for a trash the dress photo shoot because of our beautiful beaches," said longtime Destin photographer Lynn McPherson of White Sands Photos. "The beach is our claim to fame."

Trash the dress is usually done after the wedding — whether it’s the day after, after the honeymoon or even later, sometimes on an anniversary. Trash the dress is an alternative to spending a lot of money to heirloom the dress in the hopes that it one day may be reused by a loved one.

To see a video of a couple trashing the dress in Destin, CLICK HERE.

The most popular way to trash the dress is at the beach and in the water, which explains why Destin is becoming a hotspot for the new marital trend.

Other ways brides choose to trash their dress is by climbing trees, getting them dirty and in extreme cases setting them on fire or literally tearing them apart.

Weddings are an extremely profitable, multi-billion dollar-a-year businesses with parameters that are limited only by the proverbial knot that you tie yourselves together with.

"Regardless of the oil spill, the economy, or whatever else is going on, every year has been better than the last," said Destin photographer Nicole Callaway of Sandprints Photography.

She has been snapping shots of everything from engagement and wedding pictures to belly and baby pictures for nine years up and down the Emerald Coast.

It wasn't until 2009 when Callaway met a bride from Georgia that she shot her first trash the dress wedding.

"Her personality really turned me on to it; she convinced me," said Callaway.

Since that first trash the dress session in 2009, Callaway has shot around 10 a year.

Callaway said she became a quick fan of the unique images.

"You can't recreate that moment between the couple, it's like they get lost in each other and forget me, the camera, everything else in the world,” she said. “Love does exist and I get to see it through the lens of my camera."

The idea of destroying a wedding dress has been used in Hollywood since at least the late ’90s when Meg Cummings of the short-lived soap opera “Sunset Beach” ran into the ocean in her wedding dress after her wedding was interrupted. But no one knows quite when or where trash the dress went from a silver screen trend to bridal reality.

Laura Hiserodt from Arkansas, a client of Callaway's, who chose to take part in the trash the dress craze in Destin, told The Log, "I knew that I would rather have amazing pictures of a lifetime than my dress sitting in my closet for a lifetime."

She continued, saying it was "magical, the best day of my life — and trashing the dress with my husband was the best part."

For anyone curious about trash the dress contact Nicole Callaway of Sandprints Photography at 225-5514 and sandprintsphotography.com or Lynn McPherson and Kelly Marquez of White Sands Photos at 642-0936 and whitesandsphotos.com.