Bride Trashes Wedding Gown After Being Stood Up At The Altar

It has to be one of the worst, most unimaginable things in the world when a bride is stood up at the proverbial altar by her husband-to-be, an event that would send most women into a depressed spiral of tears and tissues for many long months.

But when that very unimaginable thing happened recently to 23-year-old Shelby Swink from Tennessee, instead of crying and getting depressed, the stood-up bride decided to take positive action and employed her wedding photographer, Elizabeth Hoard, to do a “trash the dress” photo shoot, and the outcome was stunning.

USA Today reported that, while Swink spent the best part of a week in shock, rushing to call guests and cancel things, moping around the house was the last thing on her mind.

As Swink told reporters, “I knew that a pity party was the farthest thing from what I wanted or needed. My friend Carol threw her paint on me, not hesitating for one second, and it splashed all over my dress. That’s when I suddenly realized that the dress didn’t matter. It was merely a material item.”

For Swink, the whole photo shoot was a kind of process for getting over the fact that she’d been stood up at the altar.

“I let go of everything I was feeling before. I felt free of sadness, free of disappointment, free of anger. I let all of that go and let happiness take over. (the wedding day) was supposed to be a day full of happiness surrounded by loved ones, and that’s exactly what it was!” she said.

Even though, at first, Swink was worried that her parents may not be up for the idea of totally trashing an expensive wedding gown, they proved her wrong.

“My mom had spent so much money on the dress. But they were 100 percent supportive. They told me that the money didn’t matter in the end. The only thing that mattered to them was my happiness.”

The Daily Mail reported that the dress is currently on display in a local bridal shop in Memphis until early January.