A woman has celebrated the end of her marriage by burning her £800 wedding dress following a messy divorce from her ex-husband.
Emma Lou, 38, from Nottinghamshire, said that destroying the expensive dress has helped her to 'heal' after her 'toxic' relationship ended.
The couple parted ways back in 2015 after a four-and-a-half-year marriage and a decade-long relationship, which left Emma wondering what to do with her wedding dress when they finally divorced in 2018.
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"Our marriage really was quite toxic between us, we argued," she said.
'"I got diagnosed with fibromyalgia from being 23. It took a lot out of my life, my dream job and affected our relationship.
"I was very depressed and stressed back then, but we got married even though I wasn't well. In time our relationship got worse."
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Emma said that when her relationship with her ex-husband ended, she had a lot more to grieve than just his loss.
"In 2015 as I left him. It been a rollercoaster. I grieved the loss of our marriage but also grieved my hurts from it," she said.
"I came to my spiritual path with this journey, finding crystals, doing reiki and having counselling to help heal my past has some of my hurts didn't just come from my husband but past to and childhood trauma from being adopted at birth and bullied at school."
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The divorcee said that she was planning to give the wedding dress away to a dying woman who wanted to get married, but did not hear back from her.
That's when she decided to destroy the dress as a form of catharsis.
"In time a friend was talking about trashing hers and I said I'd love to do that. I had the idea in my mind of trashing it with powder paint to bring back colour to what was dark.
"I started modelling and a photographer got in touch with me about a shoot but I asked if we could do my idea.
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"We got together at Wallaton park in Nottingham and he asked, 'can we do some pictures before you trash it?' I said yes so, we walked round.
"It was an amazing feeling. I loved it so much that I felt like a celebrity. People thought I was getting married until I told them what I was doing. One woman said, 'you go girl'."
Emma said that she ultimately found the experience empowering and said she recommends it to anyone else who finds themselves in a similar situation.
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She recalled: "After the day ended, I got home, and I had this amazing energy around me, and I felt so empowered.
"I'd recommend any woman or man to trash their outfit it's like an ending of a cycle, bringing in new beginnings."
However, even after destroying the dress with paint, she felt like her journey with it wasn't quite over, and that's when she decided to destroy it forever by setting it on fire.
She said this was her doing it in a 'witchy way'.
"We let go by setting things on fire," Emma said. "I thought well it's definitely me. As it burned, the flames got higher and looked like dragons coming out of the flames. It was a great experience and I felt a shift of energy."
Topics: Sex and Relationships
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Emma Guinness