A tragic death in Montreal this week has highlighted a growing trend called trash the dress. Brides are finding elaborate ways of trashing their wedding dresses after the big day is over.

30-year-old Maria Pantazopoulos died Friday after drowning in a Quebec river. Following her June wedding and honeymoon she wanted one last picture of her dress when she headed into the water. The dress became too heavy and the photographer was unable to save her.

But it doesn't always end in such tragic circumstances. In fact it was something one Regina woman had lots of fun staging.

Amber Bialowas couldn't imagine doing it with a dress that cost thousands of dollars, but she got her for the bargain price of $300.

The idea began on the journey to her destination wedding in Hawaii, and the hassle of traveling with a big dress.

She explains, "getting my dress there was a huge pain, I thought I was going to have to sit on it at one point. I really didn't want to carry it back."

And having heard about the growing trend Bialowis began to consider the idea. She thought, "this would be fun and I know what happens to wedding dresses when they just sit in the back of a closet and nothing happens and I thought why not."

So sticking to her word Bialowas with groom and family in tow headed back to the beach wearing the wedding dress.

"We kind of did a mock wedding where my Dad was on one arm in his trunks and my husband was on the other arm and dad pretended to give me away again and then Matt and I walked in and he picked me up and threw me in the ocean", she says.

Bialowis describes how heavy it was, "it was really difficult to walk in it against the waves."

But as a side note it isn't like everyone is aware of this new trend.

The bride got a lot of strange looks. "It was a busy beach. I got a lot of few weird looks."

And while she may have trashed the dress Amber says she hopes it ended somewhere other than the bottom of a trash can.

"We left a note for the maid and said if you know any one that can use this or know where to drop this off at a secondhand store or they want to make some money off it and that was the last I saw of it."

Bialowas laughs saying it was lots of fun and part of her wedding memories.

Edited by CJME's Adriana Christianson