A woman whose fiancee called off their wedding, just days before it was due to take place, destroyed her once-pristine dress by covering it in paint, glitter and feathers in celebration of her 'new beginning'.
Despite her heartache following the shock split from her fiancee, Shelby Swink, from Memphis, Tennessee, was determined that she wouldn't 'that girl who everyone had to tiptoe round'.
'[Six days before the ceremony], my ex-fiancé kind of sat me down and told me he was contemplating calling off the wedding.'
'The next day came and he sat me down and was like, "You know, I'm just not in love with you and I don't want to marry you, I don't want to spend the rest of my life with you."
'[But] I didn't want to be that girl that everybody was tiptoeing around.'
So when her wedding photographer suggested that they organize a 'trash the dress' shoot Shelby embraced the idea.
'First I thought it was crazy because it is an expensive dress and I didn't really want to ruin it,' Shelby said of the shoot - which was booked on what would have been her wedding day.
'[But] I didn't want to just spend my would-be wedding day sitting at home alone eating ice cream and watching Netflix.
'I would rather be doing something fun with friends and family which is what we did.'
'I can’t even describe how liberating and cathartic the experience was for me,' Shelby explained to Buzzfeed.
'The moment the first bit of paint hit my dress I was free.'
Source: dailymail, elizabethhoardphotography.com
