Wedding dresses can cost thousands, but Irish women are being encouraged to trash them after their big day -- all in the name of charity.

The Trash the Dress concept is from popular bridal site theweddingplanner.ie and it just had its first adventurous photo shoot, in which three prim and proper ladies got on horseback, jumped under a waterfall and held a shotgun -- all in their designer duds.

The idea was the brainchild of the Wedding Planner herself, Rosemarie Meleady, who decided to bring the scheme to Ireland in order to raise funds for Sightsavers International.

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Jill Godsil, a representative of the popular site, said: "Most brides spend a fortune on their wedding day -- they buy the dress, get their make-up done, their hair done, they diet -- and they look absolutely gorgeous.

"But it's usually a very busy day, with lots of shots of the bride and groom and their wedding party. The dress tends to sit in the wardrobe from then on and you end up never wearing it again. This is an opportunity to actually have some fun in the dress while helping out a charity."

As a prerequisite, each participant had to raise €300 for Sightsavers.

"You spend more money on your wedding dress than you do on any other item of clothing you've worn, and you only wear it once.

"The fact that it's for charity makes it more important. They were each asked to raise €300 and they couldn't buy a normal session with a photographer for that," explained Ms Godsil.

One of the participants, Sandra De Bru from Carlow, has been married to her husband Henry for two years and initially signed on to support the charity as the generous couple donate every year.

Although she enjoyed her foray into the modelling world, it wasn't particularly glamorous as the photo (right) suggests.

"That waterfall was so freezing. I was climbing in and out of it because the water was deafening and I couldn't hear Rosemarie telling me not to smile!

"There's so much pressure on your wedding day, and this is a totally different take on it," she said.

The day isn't just for women who have walked up the aisle -- Catherine O'Hara from Kildare confessed that it was actually her first time wearing a wedding dress.

She said: "I'm not actually a bride, I'm quite single. It was a really nice, fun day and it was definitely a worthy cause."

She also admitted that when she took her shot perched on a river bank, she sneakily sat on a towel to avoid dirtying the gown too much.

Since the shoot, the Wedding Planner has received a number of inquiries and is preparing for its second one.

cmcbride@herald.ie

- Caitlin McBride