A recently married woman who wanted to be photographed one more time in her wedding dress was killed Friday, after she was swept away in a Quebec river.
Quebec provincial police initially told reporters that the woman had fallen off a cliff and into a waterfall in Rawdon, Que. They also said the woman was about to be married and had chosen the waterfall as the backdrop for her wedding photos.
Police later corrected themselves to say the woman had only dipped her feet in the Ouareau River during the photo shoot, but her wedding dress became soaked with water, dragging her down.
She then slipped and was carried away by the current, they said.
The photographer and another witness tried to save her, according to police, but the dress was too heavy and they couldn’t pull her out of the water.
“I tried to save her. I tried, I tried, I tried,” the distraught photographer, Louis Pagakis, told CTV News.
Provincial police said two officers eventually arrived on scene, removed their uniforms and jumped into the water to search for the woman.
Pagakis said it was the woman’s idea to shoot some photos in the water.
Her body was located a few hours later by a scuba diver who had heard about the incident and arrived on scene with his gear.
The 30-year-old woman was from the Montreal-area suburb of Laval, police said. She was married on June 9.
“Trash the dress” photo shoots are a bridal photography trend that combines elegant wedding dresses with contrasting backdrop, usually one that involves ruining the dress.
With files from The Canadian Press
