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WEDDING TRASHERS

Bride Says Popular Wedding Tradition Nearly Killed Her

Guests who witnessed the life-threatening moment thought it was part of the festivities.

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

PublishedJun 1, 2026, 5:17 PM EDT

UpdatedJun 1, 2026, 5:17 PM EDT

Updated Jun 1, 2026, 5:17 PM EDTPublished Jun 1, 2026, 5:17 PM EDT

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A bride warns other brides-to-be to skip a rising wedding practice after the stunt almost turned deadly for her.

Following their wedding celebrations, Shelby Crawford and her new husband, Corey Crawford, jumped into a pool in their wedding attire.

“The adrenaline of the day just got to us. We were excited and not thinking clearly,” the 30-year-old bride from Chattanooga, Tennessee, admitted to People. The seemingly fun moment, however, soon turned dangerous for Shelby.

Jumping into a lake, pool, or the ocean after a wedding ceremony is part of the increasingly popular “trash the dress” trend, in which brides find elaborate ways to ruin their dresses.

The modern tradition began over two decades ago but gained significant momentum with the rise of social media, as newlyweds sought unique—and viral—ways to celebrate their nuptials.

In a TikTok video that she posted, the couple can be seen jumping into the pool, while their guests film the event.

But 10 seconds after Corey surfaces, Shelby is still underwater.

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“The saxophones getting louder as everyone films me drowning in my wedding dress,” Shelby wrote on the video.

In the caption, she added, “In their defense, they said I was so quiet they didn’t think anything was wrong… to which I replied, ‘Yeah, drowning is typically silent.’”

In the video, Shelby can be seen kicking her feet underwater while her dress floats on the surface.

Eventually, her husband manages to lift the heavy dress off Shelby’s head.

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“The dress had a ton of heavy layers, and I kept trying to push it off of my face, but it would just go right back because it was so heavy,” the bride told People.

In the comments section of her video, she described feeling like she was “under there for hours.”

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The guests, however, were oblivious to the danger.

“People close by may not even realize you’re struggling. I see now how fast it all happens and how quick and silent drowning could be,” she said.

The video racked up more than 2.9 million views on TikTok. One comment, which received over 10,000 upvotes, reads, “Yeah, I thought everybody knew not to do this.”

Perhaps the best-known “trash the dress” incident involved the death of a Montreal-area bride.

In 2012, 30-year-old Maria Pantazopoulos drowned after taking pictures in her wedding dress in a river, according to the BBC.

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Although the stream was not turbulent, the water made Pantazopoulos’s dress so heavy that it carried her downstream.

She was later found sunk to the bottom of a stagnant pool.

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One commenter asked Shelby, “Now why would we even do that?”

She replied, “I thought I was gonna hold my hands by my side and have it under control,” adding, “I had no control.”

Many people commented on the video, saying they had learned about the dangers of such behavior after watching Ronnie and Roxy Mitchell’s final episode on the long-running British soap opera EastEnders.

The two sisters were dramatically killed off the show in a 2017 episode where Roxy jumped into a swimming pool at Ronnie’s wedding.

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While Roxy drowned from the shock of the cold water combined with drugs in her system, Ronnie, who jumped in to help her, drowned due to her heavy gown.

Now, Shelby is sharing a message with other brides considering such stunts.

“Do an outfit change before,” she said. “We are very blessed to be OK, but no viral moment is worth losing someone you love, especially on such a special day.”

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

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