I’ve got a little bit of vintage kitsch for you this morning, in the form of Matt & Bek’s Birmingham wedding. The couple were married in June and chose Elly Mac  to capture their special day. Inspired by all things pin up, the bride wore a pin up style wedding dress from Pin Up Girl Clothing while her gorgeous bridesmaids rocked it in a variity of different dresses from Collectif and Hell Bunny.

The official ceremony was at Birmingham Register Office but the couple also had a handfasting and ‘broom jumping’ ceremony at their reception venue, The Rose Villa Tavern. “Although neither of us is overtly religious we wanted to make our wedding special and symbolic, more than just a legality”, explained Bek. “One of our closest friends, Hannah, performed the handfasting for us with a cord made from braided ribbons – each coloured ribbon representing a member of our families. By binding our hands together we symbolically bound our two families together. We also included jumping the broom, a Celtic tradition where the couple jump over a besom broom to symbolise a sweeping away of the past and a leap into the future together as husband and wife.”

“Both of us had worked in the cabaret and burlesque scene for quite a while so when we announced we were getting married everyone seemed to think that we would be having a big over-the-top burlesque themed wedding”, Bek continued. “The groom’s mum even worriedly asked us if we were having strippers as entertainment! However we didn’t want out wedding to be just another show, it was a celebration of a special event and we wanted people to see who we really are – a little bit vintage, a little bit geeky and a whole lot of down to earth and chilled out.”

“After reading the millionth wedding magazine and seeing so many ‘vintage styled’ cookie cutter weddings for ridiculous budgets we were about to give up in despair when I discovered Rock n Roll Bride. The weddings were all quirky and unique and really opened out eyes to what was possible. After that the DIY and quirky wedding blogs became our go to material – so much so that Bek’s colleagues at work even memorised the Rock n Roll Bride website address by osmosis!”

As well as doing things their own way, the couple didn’t want to spent an utter fortune. “We had a really small budget and decided to do as much as possible ourselves”, Bek explained, “from the 1000 origami paper cranes, to the ‘Love’ playlist CD favours and the handmade chatterbox orders of service. At times it was pretty terrifying wondering if our hours of work and amateur craft skills were actually going to come together on the day but when it was all up and done it was just perfect – quirky, cheerful and very us!”

What cool cats. I love this wedding and these two – thank you to Matt & Bek and their photographer Elly Mac for sharing today.

Supporting Cast:

Photography Credit: Elly Mac Photography
Ceremony Venue: Birmingham Register Office
Reception Venue: The Rose Villa Tavern, Birmingham
Bride’s Dress: Pin Up Girl Clothing with a Vivien of Holloway corsage
Bride’s Shoes: Red or Dead
Bride’s Headpiece: Lily Bella
Bridesmaid’s Dresses: Various
Bridesmaid’s Headpieces: Janine Basil on etsy
Cake: There’s Always Time for Cake
Flowers: DIY
Magician: Al Rudge
DJ: DJ4D
Transport: Routemaster Buses Ltd