Cenote Trash the Dress – Cori and Dax

A destination wedding is a whirlwind. Not only are you hosting a wedding, you’re hosting a week-long party for your nearest and dearest. This comes with the feeling of responsibility; of being a hostess, of ensuring your family and friends are met with activities and options, that they feel welcomed and entertained. It was phenomenal and I wouldn’t change a thing, but traveling with a group left very little alone time for Dax and I as a newly married couple.

See Cori and Dax’s EPIC cenote wedding

Enter our trash the dress photo shoot…

We didn’t have anyone waiting for us to do anything. The day was ours in its entirety and we squeezed all we could out of those moments. The trash the dress gave us the opportunity to connect as a couple, to enjoy this one-on-one time away from the wedding festivities, to relax within one another and relish in this super special experience that we could have only shared together.

It was thrilled to revisit the grounds of the cenote where we were married – Chikin Ha – to complete the second part of our wedding photoshoot – the trash the dress.

It felt almost wrong to climb into the water in what was undoubtedly the most expensive dress I’ll ever own, but it was so freeing and I delighted in the squeals of passing snorkelers, “Oh my God, there’s a bride in the water!” It was such fun, traversing through the jungle, slipping down the copal-smoked paths, sliding into the lily pads! It was letting go of everything from the wedding day, I let my train drag through the mud, Dax untucked his shirt, we tossed my bouquet to the wind – sweet freedom!

What I didn’t expect was how the day turned into a team building exercise for myself and my new husband. We truly had to work together to hold difficult poses and support each other physically. There were moments during the shoot which were some of the most intimate I’ve experienced with my husband – we employed all our facilities through communication, touch and collaboration. It was a feeling, we had become one.

Trashing the dress gave us an end to our wedding story, an unraveling of all the formalities and a true escape into the essence of a wild jungle marriage!

I wasn’t sure just how much Dax and I would bare during our trash the dress shoot. I’d seen the steamier pictures and I appreciated that this was a once and a lifetime kinda thing for those of us not working as professional nude models ;) When else would I have the chance to slide out of a wedding gown into nothing more than my husband’s waiting arms!?!

It happened organically. We snuck into a more deserted cavern in the system of cenotes and the privacy, coupled with the complete and total level of comfort we felt with Polly (and a shot or two of xtabentún) helped us shed our inhibitions… and our skivvies. Polly made me feel beautiful and that, with the buoyancy of the crystalline water, the subtle draping of tulle or deep red satin over my curves, and the willingness of my husband to go for it made baring it all a no-brainer.

It was so freeing. To rid myself of that wet and weighted gown and play in the water. From channeling Shakespeare’s Ophelia to playing water nymph to Dax’s merman, we just had fun with it – it was a performance! And I’m so glad we allowed ourselves to let go and just ‘be’ in the moment.

As we rode home, belly’s full of homemade rolls and cold beers, sun-soaked and satiated, we both knew this is something we wouldn’t do again for a very long time. And we were so grateful that we made the very most of it.

To Polly, her assistant Arube and our driver Alex: thank you! You are unbelievably talented and it was a true joy working with you. The day was so special, really memorable. It was an experience I will treasure for the rest of my life. Your spirit is contagious and we are better people for having met you.

Photographer: Polly