Extreme Wedding Photo Trend: Would you set your dress on fire?

ABCNews

One bride’s video is taking a lot of heat.

Natasha Samuel, a newlywed in Israel, purposely lit her wedding gown on fire for a post-nuptial photo shoot, and then ran into the ocean to extinguish the blaze.

It’s an extreme version of wedding photography called “trashing the dress,” where newlyweds take their bridal whites out after the big day for a photo shoot like no other.

“They’ll definitely get into mud puddles, or in the rain, they’ll drop in pools or get sandy at the beach,” Jackie Fernandez, a wedding planner, told ABC News.

But the photography community is up in flames about this video, saying it takes “trashing the dress” to dangerous heights.

Eric Simantov was the photographer who captured this moment, just after the bride’s friend doused her dress with flammable liquid and set it on fire.

“All brides are looking for something that hasn’t been done before,” said Simantov. “It was my idea to use real fire not photoshop.”

Photographer Michael Cooper of Alt F Photography did a similar shoot back in 2006 when he lit a bride’s dress on fire.

“I did it in a way the subject was not near the fire, not in any way close to any danger to make the final execution believable,” Cooper said.

Last summer, one 30-year-old bride from Montreal drowned during her “trash the dress” photo shoot near a waterfall, when her dress dragged her downstream.

“Trashing the dress absolutely is a growing trend, and I’m excited to see the new things people come up with, but I just hope it doesn’t spark a trend into doing things that are risky just to get the shot in your wedding dress,” Fernandez explained.