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A woman has issued a warning to other brides after a seemingly harmless wedding stunt left her fighting for her life underwater, while her guests continued filming.
Shelby Crawford, and her new husband Corey had just got married when they decided to jump into a swimming pool together, still wearing their wedding clothes.
What was supposed to be a fun way to end their celebrations very nearly proved to be fatal.
“The adrenaline of the day just got to us. We were excited and not thinking clearly,” Shelby, from Chattanooga, Tennessee, told People.
The couple's stunt was part of the increasingly popular “trash the dress” trend, where newlyweds deliberately ruin their wedding outfits by taking photographs or videos in unusual locations.
Water is one of the more popular choices, with couples jumping into pools, lakes, and the sea while still dressed in their wedding clothes.
Footage from the wedding displays the couple jumping into the pool as their guests film the moment. While Corey resurfaces around 10 seconds after jumping in, Shelby doesn’t. As she struggled underwater, her wedding dress began working against her.
“The saxophones getting louder as everyone films me drowning in my wedding dress,” she wrote over the video she later shared on TikTok.
In the caption, Shelby explained why nobody immediately realized she was in trouble.
“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.’”
The footage shows Shelby kicking her legs beneath the water as her dress remains floating on the surface.
She was unable to get herself free before, eventually, Corey realized something was wrong and managed to lift the heavy dress away from her face.
“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,” Shelby explained.
She later described feeling as though she had been trapped underwater for an enormous amount of time.
In the comments beneath her video, she said she felt like she was “under there for hours.”
Shelby claimed that the incident had shown her just how difficult it can be for someone in danger to attract attention in the water.
“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,” the 30-year-old said.
The TikTok went on to attract more than 2.9 million views, with thousands of people reacting to what they had watched.
One commenter wrote: “Yeah, I thought everybody knew not to do this.”
Another asked Shelby a simple question: “Now why would we even do that?”
Shelby admitted she had underestimated how little control she would actually have once she was underwater.
“I thought I was gonna hold my hands by my side and have it under control,” Shelby revealed, before adding: “I had no control.”
Shelby's terrifying experience is not the first time the wedding trend has resulted in fatal consequences.
One of the most tragic examples occurred in 2012, when Montreal-area bride Maria Pantazopoulos drowned during a post-wedding photo shoot.
The 30-year-old had entered a river wearing her wedding dress when the garment became extremely heavy in the water and pulled her downstream.
After her own experience, Shelby doesn't want another bride to discover the danger in the same way. “Do an outfit change before,” she advised.
While she and Corey were fortunate to escape without tragedy, Shelby believes the risk simply isn't worth it.
“We are very blessed to be OK, but no viral moment is worth losing someone you love, especially on such a special day.”
