TTD Dress Photography Advice....

[jean-marcus]

K ladies. For those of you buying an inexpensive or expensive dress OR using your wedding dress, I have some advice to help with the photography process. I have come to realize that, even though I love the look of taffeta dresses, they get to be kind of a pain when wet. (if you're doing water photos that is)

 

They tend to fill up with air and turn into a floating balloon and some are almost impossible to get them to "deflate".

 

So if you're buying a second dress get one that has nice flowing fabric that will take to getting wet. Not so long you get wrapped up in wet fabric and cant move though. and they dont have to be expensive fancy dresses to get nice pictures either.

 

NOW .. don't go thinking cause you already have a taffeta dress that pictures wont turn out or whatever, because almost all of the dresses i've shot for TTD shoots have been taffeta, but just giving a little heads up if you are going to get a second dress.

 

with that said... happy TTDs'ing

[rodent]

Good thread. I have been meaning to share my advice. I don't know what material my dress was. it has a flowy top layer that looked nice in the water. two friends wore their wedding gowns for our 3 bride TTD. One was a fitted, mermaid style dress. it was really hard for her to swim or do much of anything. the other was lace & it worked great.

 

long, flowy pieces look great for a TTD.

 

if you are going to swim, hike the dress up first. I thought i was going to drown the first time I jumped in. i had the dress tangled around my legs & couldn't kick. mike had to help me out of the water.

 

after an hour of trashing, i was swimming laps in the thing. well, one lap across the cenote. The key was to pull it up to keep my legs free.

 

another tip- don't wear white swimsuit bottoms with gold stripes. you can see the stripes. plan out what will go under the dress too.

[jean-marcus]

ya. another good advice. thanks morgan... dont wear stripped underwear or bathing suit.

 

INSTEAD wear all black.. jk hehehehe

[ErikDaGenErik]

omg thank you sooo much for posting this thread!!! i will bookmark it for more advice to come. i am sooo with you on the taffeta dress! i was going to get one for my TTD, but i figured my dress will look like a floating parachute on water.

 

i did buy a gown with a very full tulle skirt to make it look very dramatic while running on the beach. would you consider tulle and easy fabric to work with when wet? please be honest even if negative---i won't get hurt! =) here's a pic of my TTD dress: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t32275

 

i got really cheap so i dont care if it does get all trashy.

 

now i am considering a 2nd dress for my TTD in cenote? do u think tulle will work in calm water? or should i get another cheap dress that would look better?

 

please advise! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!!

[jean-marcus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ErikDaGenErik i did buy a gown with a very full tulle skirt to make it look very dramatic while running on the beach. would you consider tulle and easy fabric to work with when wet? please be honest even if negative---i won't get hurt! =) here's a pic of my TTD dress: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t32275 i got really cheap so i dont care if it does get all trashy. now i am considering a 2nd dress for my TTD in cenote? do u think tulle will work in calm water? or should i get another cheap dress that would look better? please advise! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!!

the tulle should be fine.. just be aware that its gonna catch any debris like a fish net so if you are in any waters that has de-brisss (i just like to say it the english way haha). its fine if you really wanna TTD but if you are just looking for "wet dress photos" then perhaps get a dress that wont double as a survival aid for catching seafood. hehehe

if budget allows it get a second dress and find out with your photographer what you have in mind and they can let you know which dress would work best. OR shoot in both

[jean-marcus]

oh one more thing... Alin (of alin and mako) made a suggestion of donating the TTD dress while there in mexico and not having to bring it back. her dress just got wet and would have been perfectly fine with a good wash and pressing. i thought that would be nice instead of just tossing it.

 

[rodent]

i think the puffy gown style will look amazing.

 

i just went to see what my dress was. i thought it was tulle but it was silk. it had a sheer layer over a regular layer. it would have been easier to move around in if all the laters were the thin, sheer type. I think the perfect TTD would be many layers of sheer silk or tulle. also, i wore a slip under and it got tangled around my legs.

[beachbride08]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morgan Good thread. I have been meaning to share my advice. I don't know what material my dress was. it has a flowy top layer that looked nice in the water. two friends wore their wedding gowns for our 3 bride TTD. One was a fitted, mermaid style dress. it was really hard for her to swim or do much of anything. the other was lace & it worked great. long, flowy pieces look great for a TTD. if you are going to swim, hike the dress up first. I thought i was going to drown the first time I jumped in. i had the dress tangled around my legs & couldn't kick. mike had to help me out of the water. after an hour of trashing, i was swimming laps in the thing. well, one lap across the cenote. The key was to pull it up to keep my legs free. another tip- don't wear white swimsuit bottoms with gold stripes. you can see the stripes. plan out what will go under the dress too.

I wore polka dot panties, but my dress was poufy so you couldn't tell once it got wet. Also, I just wanted to comment that my photographer was so happy that I wore my wedding day dress since it was poufy. She said she's done a lot of TTD sessions and the girls always wear another non-poufy dress for the TTD.

Jean Marcus you are so right about the netting. I had some underneath my dress and when we took some pictures in these branches I didn't realize there were sticker bushes and my dress ended up getting full of them. My photog was picking them off my dress so I wouldn't get poked. Those suckers hurt!

[ErikDaGenErik]

thank you jean-marcus!!! this is great advice! the fish net description gave such good visualization! lol.

 

thanks ladies who also commented on the poufy dress for TTD. i'm obsessed with looking at TTD pics of other ladies to see what dress they ended up wearing.

[tvt]

I have one thing to add to this. If you have a silk dress it WILL be see through when wet! So plan your undies accordingly

 

 

And in regards to tule... the night of the wedding I had ants stuck in my tule! Kinda funny! I literally had ants in my dress!