by Chinwe Okafor

Five days before her wedding, Shelby Swink’s fiancé told her he wasn’t in love with her anymore. “I was in complete shock and had no idea what to think or do. I was numb,” Swift would later write in an email to her photographer Elizabeth Howard. “The next couple days were a blur of calling guests, canceling services, and figuring out our living arrangements.”

But when her bridesmaids suggested she trash her wedding dress, she decided that wasn’t such a bad idea. “I was not going to let my ex-fiancé’s mistake of letting me go take away my happiness,” Swink explained.

She continued: “My bridesmaids and parents supported me 100 percent and even joined me to trash their own dresses. I can’t even describe how liberating and cathartic the trash the dress experience was for me. The moment the paint hit my dress I was free. I let go of all the hurt and disappointment and became myself again.”

The photos are insane and empowering and awesome. See them below:

 

Source- Cosmopolitan.