You know what? At the end of the day, I don't care: trash your dress, paint your pregnant belly, eat your placenta. Choose your choices, however inexplicable, dubious and narcissistic. There's nothing wrong with this "trend", which one photographer describes as "a more creative way to express yourself...in a way you can't on your wedding day" by having yourself photographed covering your virginal, pricey Big Day glad-rags with paint or mud or axel grease. According to another photographer, it plays with the idea that the bride is a "pure" an untouchable creature - this, like the Real Housewives' revelatory "alter ego" portraits, presumably shows the woman in all her two-faceted complexity.

Says one defiant bride, while some people might consider it "destroying something sacred," she regards this as a means of making a work of art. Well, maybe some do consider it a desecration - but it's not the gesture's cutesy, expensive "boldness" that took me aback. It was just bad timing for harmless old "TTD" that I happened, on a long flight yesterday, to run across a piece in British Marie-Claire about a 25-year-old American woman who moved to war-torn Uganda to do relief work in a refugee camp, met and married a young Ugandan minister, and with him set up an organization that helped couples in Pader have a "group wedding" - a seemingly modest goal with big implications. First of all, almost all of the women had been raped by rebels - some held as "wives" - and had thought they'd never marry as a result. Then, having fallen in love, many of the grooms were unable to come up with the traditional dowry, let alone the trappings of a wedding. And planning marriages amidst the chaos and despair of the camp was a challenge that the newly-married Katie Karpik appreciated. They raised the money for a wonderful wedding, and six couples were able to get married - in dresses donated by British women to an organization called Jireh Women. More than 50 gowns and bridesmaids dresses were donated, and Karpik says they'll continue to use the gowns for future weddings.

It's a deeply unfair comparison, and a manipulative one. I admit it. The two have nothing to do with each other. It's also, as I said, pure chance that I should read about this story in a glossy magazine while on vacation, and it takes some cheek to draw such a heavy-handed judgment, especially when during the same flight I cried real tears during Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Because one thing's great doesn't make another bad, and I don't even think it's particularly fair here to bring up the Wedding Industry or Consumerism or, yes, the Economy. It might feel a little icky to see wanton destruction in the name of "art" and it might seem a slightly tone-deaf choice for the show, but hey, they've got hours to fill and "trends" to manufacture and people have the luxury of tuning out the Marmees for a few hours a week. And who wants to give all her presents to the Hummels? Just remember that there are options, and ones that can do much good. But tar and feather your gown in the name of self-expression, and I promise not to judge. Except, maybe, the couple who had their picture taken in the shallow grave. Which I feel confident panning on artistic grounds.

Jireh Women
Donating Wedding Dresses
My Big Fat Ugandan Wedding [Photoma]

[Scheveningen, Netherlands; September 9. Image via Getty]

Women wearing their wedding dresses are pictured on a North Sea beach in Scheveningen, Netherlands, on September 09 2009. The photographer Melanie Rijkers initiated the act after she found out about the American phenomenon 'Trash the dress' on the internet. The idea behind it is to have fun once more with your used wedding dress. AFP PHOTO /ANP / ROBERT VOS ***netherlands out - belgium out*** (Photo credit should read ROBERT VOS/AFP/Getty Images)

Since dredging up the dresses is an excuse for the Ball attendees to wax nostalgic about their wedding days, they make best use of the opportunity Even the men! "If I could ask God to provide me with the perfect day, then my wedding day would be it," says Richard Egan-Headley, who, writes Rumbold, is "damp-eyed at the memory of his marriage to Claire six weeks ago." Another groom is just happy to be wearing clean clothes: "I fix cars for a living, so I'm filthy most of the time. It's nice to dress up," he says. But when it comes to heart string-tugging tales, the brides win.

Sam Owens is welling up as she tells me about the dear friend Charlie, now dead, who gave her away at her wedding 20 years ago. She recalls how handsome he looked in the outfit she'd chosen for him - gold brocade waistcoat, matching cravat, a flower in his buttonhole. She rummages in her bag to find a photo. Charlie, it turns out, is a huge white boxer dog with the biggest testicles I have ever seen.

Here Come The Brides [Telegraph]

The thing is, the one website referenced by the Times article, TrashTheDress.com, seems to have a different take on the TTD trend. In fact, the website's manifesto implies that TTD is less about iconoclasm and more about brides stroking the egos of their brand-new husbands!

You've made a commitment to your husband. He's your one and only true love, right? Then you'll never need the dress again. And no, your daughter won't wear it in 20-30 years. So you have two choices: 1) Suffocate it in plastic and throw it in a closet, 2) Show your husband how committed you are by trashing the dress, and get some great fun pictures while you do it!