I get very lucky in my job that people send me lots of pretty things to play with. One of my favourites recently has got to be the gorgeous Kelly Moore camera bag that winged it’s way to me last week.
I had been on the hunt for a camera bag but was disappointed to discover that pretty much everything I found was black, dull, boring and UGLY! Well not any more…
Kelly Moore bags are more like gorgeous designer handbags than camera bags (in fact I have been using mine as a handbag when I’ve left my camera at home) and I am definitely proud to have this bag on my arm. I have the ‘Hobo’ design in grey. It’s perfect for me as a beginner as it’s not too big but seasoned pros will utterly love the Classic bag (and the fuchsia version is to die for!)
Kelly Moore’s‘Give Me Moore’ photo shoots are nothing short of spectacular. I have featured some of her shoots before, but when I saw this new one I just had to post it too…I mean come on – the veil (by etsy seller Bella Donna), the black gloves, the rustic florals, the short white dress, the gorgeous brown dress, the stark white backdrop vs the spooky woodland location..too much visual beauty to ignore don’t you think?!
After postponing their wedding twice due to border closures in Western Australia, Stef and Ryan finally managed to tie the knot in October. They wanted a laid back, county meet rock ‘n’ roll inspired day and chose Moore and Moore Café in Fremantle as their venue. They wanted to incorporate the the feeling of having a big barn dance where everyone was welcome.
“We had the full rock ‘n’ roll vibes with cowboy boots, whiskey shots at the bar and neon lights but with a country barn vibe”, the bride told us. “One of the groomsmen sang me down the aisle with one of my favourite songs. Our daughter was overwhelmed by all the people so, in the middle of the ceremony, everyone joined us in singing Baby Shark!”
Kirsty and Luke didn’t want lots of fuss for their January wedding, but an elopement wasn’t quite right either. They wanted their parents to be able to see them get married so they decided to have a tiny wedding with just their families. The day was literally just them, both sets of parents, three of their siblings and their 18-month old son.
Kirsty had such a vision for the day and wanted to theme the day around her Grace Loves Lace dress which she actually bought before they were even engaged because she loved it so much! To compliment this she opted for natural tones and dried flowers. Luckily, this idea worked perfectly in their venue, Moore and Moore Café, in Fremantle.
Ty and Aaron spent just $1000 on their wedding because they eloped! They used Simply Eloped to help them plan the day, and chose Nelson Ghost Town, which is a 45 minute drive from Las Vegas, as the location. They found the whole process easy and stress-free because they left everything to their planner and they had no guests to deal with. All they had to do was choose their outfits and show up – what a dream!
The ceremony, officiated by Timeless Connection, was short and sweet and they read their vows to each other underneath a rugged and beautiful arch with cacti and mountains as their backdrop. Afterwards they wandered around the town with their photographer, Alycia, and found different locations to take their photos.
Lizzy and Jack’s festival wedding is a thing of beauty; inspired by and featuring things made by lots of their creative friends, they planned a day that was a riot of music, colour, and fun. It was all vegan, too!
As music is super important to the couple – they met in Bournemouth putting on a gig for their degree course, and both work in the industry – they wanted to make it a central part of the day. “For the bridal entrance, I entered the tipi with my bride squad, and with my band – Jack, my dad, and our previous bandmates Fi and Dom – waiting on stage, I joined them on stage to sing Burn The Witch by Radiohead,” Lizzy says. “Confetti cannons were let loose and we were off! It felt like such a natural way to kick it all off, avoiding a nerve-wracking walk down the aisle. One of my favourite parts of the wedding was looking out at a sea of cheering family and friends as we were smashing through a Radiohead song, knowing this was going to be an amazing day.”
Their wedding venue was a tipi erected in a family garden, allowing Lizzy and Jack to have loads of DIY elements to their wedding. “We tried to cut out all single-use plastics, so collected and painted 100 jam jars for people to keep and drink from. This took my sister and partner about a year – we all had to eat a lot of a specific vegan curry sauce as it comes in tall jars which were perfect!” Lizzy laughs.
They also decorated the tipi with beautiful fluffy clouds on the stage, which were a thrifty spot: “If you want props, ask retails shops for their old window displays. I got five big clouds to hang from our tipi from White Stuff for a £25 donation to their affiliated charity. Wagamamas kindly saved us 12 Lucky Buddha Beer bottles for our flowers – for free. If you spot things, ask for them. They can only say no! Most people were really happy to be involved, and I sent them photos of their items in use after the wedding and got some really lovely emails back.”
Bren and Cha’s spring wedding in Dublin was all about the fun. They moved between two venues in the city: The country pub, Anglers Rest, for the ceremony and then on to the reception at their favourite nightclub. The Grand Social. The bride paid €50 for her dress in a charity shop and got it customised to suit her style. Chucky and the Bride of Chucky made multiple appearances, and their friends played a huge part in the day from making the bouquet, decorating the reception venue, DJing, to making the wedding cake.
The pair met at college, studying film. “We are both big film nerds, so I’d say if there was any theme to our day, it was that. Each table was named after our favourite romantic films, from The Apartment to Bride of Chucky, with a corresponding framed still with an appropriate quote. We just wanted to ensure that we reflected ourselves and our tastes completely. We wanted to feel comfortable, relaxed, happy and joyful, and to give all of our beloved friends and family a cracking day out.”
Kristin, an artist, and Neil, a musician, wanted their wedding theme to really reflect them. After going through a number of ideas they settled on their shared love of comic books. specifically Alan Moore’s Saga of the Swamp Thing.
“We had gone through a few different concepts for wedding themes,” the bride began. “Alan Moore’s Saga of the Swamp Thing is a beautifully written and illustrated series that at its core, is a love story. I felt that it was especially fitting as I have a deep love for nature. The entire wedding was influenced in many subtle ways, but the most clear were our invitations, the book our officiant used to hold during the ceremony and our ceremony itself. Two of my favourite things are mushrooms and moss so they were present throughout the wedding. They just make everything feel otherworldly to me!”
One of the most unique aspects of the wedding was the bride’s dress. “My goal for the wedding was to look like a mythical beast, I like to think it worked out. I chose to wear an off-white lace dress that I picked up a couple years ago for $20. I bought the dress because I am absolutely obsessed with those magical sleeves. There was one big problem, the dress was quite short. My mother and I spent a lot of time brainstorming how to go about lengthening the dress so that I would be more comfortable. In the beginning we had planned on sewing a layered skirt. Ultimately, I wanted something more interesting and unique.”
I am passionate about proving that when it comes to your wedding, its not what you spend, its how you spend it! Shhh don’t tell anyone, but the nuptials I feature with minuscule amounts of money in the pot are always secretly my favourites too.
That’s not to say that bigger budget weddings are in any way inferior, it’s just that I’m always so impressed with what people are able to achieve with a a lower than average amount of cash to spend, but a higher than average knack for getting creative!
Whatever amount of money you’re splashing on your own big day, I just know you’re going to enjoy looking through this inspiring bunch.
Annabel and Steve met in a nightclub in Scotland. The Aussie bride and her English groom were married eight years later in Melbourne, where they now live. “Our wedding was rustic and vintage in styling with an urban setting and with a nod to our international roots”, Annabel said.
“We did a lot of things differently to the norm including the fact that my brother was one of my bridesmaids! I also wore a tea length dress and Steve and his groomsmen caught a tram to the ceremony. We had a kick ass taco stand instead of a traditional wedding breakfast too and we provided a babysitter so parents could enjoy themselves without worrying about their little ones.”
Mike and Ashley spent just $1200 on their amazing wedding. To do this, they forgot about anything traditional, instead opting to say ‘I do’ at their favourite place in their hometown of Portland – Voodoo Doughnut! Cat Daddy, the owner, even officiated the ceremony!
Of course they had doughnuts instead of a wedding cake. They had a large one with ‘forever’ on it, and even ones shaped like a bride and groom. “Our wedding was a celebration of us”, wrote Ashley. “We added as much personal detail as possible. I wore jewellery from both my grandmothers, our dog Lola was there and Mike wore a special slap bracelet I had bought him the year before that said WINNER. Our flowers were also so much more special because they were a handmade gift to us from a close family friend, and we were lucky to get married in a special place in our favorite city.”
“We chose Voodoo Doughnuts as our wedding location because when we first met and fell in love, we would go there every Sunday night at midnight and have a date”, she continued. “The location was another part of our wedding telling our story, and if it seems quirky or alternative, it’s probably because we are!”
“We had originally planned a larger, more traditional ceremony, but that ended up not working out”, she continued. “Once we decided to shift gears to a small ceremony, we ended up planning our wedding in about a month, and we kept it secret from most people (the morning we got married, less than 20 people knew it was happening). An hour before the ceremony, we sent a message to our close friends letting them know what we were doing, and a few hours after we put on Facebook that we’d eloped. The outpouring of love and support we received from people was the perfect cherry on top to an amazing day.”
Danielle & Richard wanted to go heritage vintage and a little bit girly for their wedding. The mid-summer celebration was held at the eclectically styled Moore and Moore Café with their ceremony at the Merv Cowan Reserve in Freemantle
“My favourite part of our wedding was seeing each other for the first time on the day at the ceremony”, began the bride. “I had started to feel like I really wanted to see Rich at the beginning of the day, while we were still getting ready, so by the time I came walking down the path to see him standing by the bridge waiting to greet me, I was genuinely ready to jump out of my skin to grab him! When I look at the photos of myself seeing him for the first time, I can’t believe my smile could be that big!”
“Rich pretty much just let me run wild with the theme”, she continued, “so it was quite girly. Our inspiration was fluffy colourful flowers, peonies, roses, lacy dresses, braided hair, snappy suits, luscious wedding cakes, champagne flowing and good tunes. I had so much fun creating the play lists for the various sections of the day. Most of all I wanted everyone to be relaxed and for it to be just like hanging out in your friend’s lounge room to celebrate an excellent day. We did finger food only so guests could move around the venue from outdoors, to indoors, to couches, to stools, to the dance floor. We wanted people to feel comfortable.”
After a blissful few days in Portland, it was time to hit the road and fly down to Los Angeles for the next stop on The Blogcademy world tour. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve visited LA once before and didn’t really fall in love with it, but I was looking forward to experiencing it with my girls and seeing if my mind could be changed. I mean obviously the weather made it much more bearable, it was a scorching 25 degrees a lot of the time which was rather blissful, especially when hearing that it was snowing heavily at home!
The thing that drives me crazy about LA is all the damn driving. The city is so spread out that if you’re car-less (as we were) and in the wrong neighbourhood you’re a bit screwed. Luckily we discovered an amazing ride sharing service call Lyft and we stayed in a loft just in the heart of Hollywood, right in the middle of the action. Although it was noisy at the weekends, it was the perfect location for us as it was just a short car ride to our workshop space, McCaddenSpace Studio.
Unlike a lot of LA, there were also plenty of things to do in our neighbourhood that were walking distance. Gala & I quickly became obsessed with the juice bar that turned me into a green juice addict and all three of us agreed that Tender Greens needs to move to our respective cities, like, now. There was a Frog frozen yoghurt stop (yes, the same chain as Snog here in the UK!) and an Urban Outfitters where we stocked up on all our rainbow film!
The workshop fell on my birthday weekend and I was excited to spend it with some many inspiring babes. They spoilt me with unicorns, flowers and yummy cakes!
After a solo long haul flight, an epic Q&A livestream and a whistle stop tour around Portland’s least reputable establishments, I barely had time to catch my breath and it was time for the next leg of The Blogcademy World Tour. Portland is a weird little town, but one I felt an instant affinity with. I loved all the independent stores selling all manner of crazy creations, and the candy-coloured houses and walls obviously made my little heart sing!
Over Easter weekend Gala, Shauna and I descended on The Ace Hotel, in the downtown area of the city. With our photography BFFs and Auntie Nubs (Shauna’s Aunt and our trusty assistant for the weekend) in tow, we were ready to meet a new crop of Blogcadettes and to teach up a storm.
I’m always nervous before a workshop, but as usual the babes that attended were nothing but sweet, inspiring and amazing. Within minutes of meeting them all my wobbles subsided and we were laughing, getting to know all about each other and quickly becoming instant best friends. We were blessed with students who had travelled far and wide to attend, but extra special props must go to our scholarship winner, Jessica, who came all the way from Arkensas on her own. She’d never even been on an areoplane before and she came all that way – what a babe!
I love this photo because it totally looks like I’m thinking “damn I hate these bitches!” but really, that’s just my “I’m literally the best dancer ever” face!
Of course The Blogcademy would never be possible without our amazing sponsors. Let’s give them some LOVE shall we?
Sometimes you have a little crazy idea but you just know you have to run with it. The butterflies in your tummy tell you that you’re onto something exciting and pretty darn life changing. That’s just how I felt when we came up with the The Blogcademy, and its exactly how I’m feeling today as I’m here to tell you that we’re announcing a world friggin’ tour and an online Q&A livestream!
The tour
The flights have been booked, the giant ‘B’ balloons ordered and over the next 12 months the turquoise tornado™ is ready to hit… (deep breath)
Cassidi & Rob were married at Moorestown Community House, New Jersey. They wanted the wedding to have a flea market vibe with touches of Rock n Roll. “Our colors were charcoal, dusty rose, powered pink, mixed shades of ivory and creams”, the bride explained. “We had a ton of blue mason jars, old bottles, and milk glass. A million doilies in all shades of whites, creams, and ivory. Each table has random little props, some tables had small vintage white dogs, or old skeleton keys, or buttons.”
“My best friend and one of my maids of honor Annie helped me a lot with the planning and styling”, she continued. “She lives in Seattle so there were many late night phone calls about colors and props. We found most of our decor at flea markets around the city. I also had the best ‘dog of honor’ ever… and creepy animal masks. We both like kind of weird stuff were it is creepy yet beautiful so we thought animal mask would be neat. We had little punk rock buttons with the Black Flag and Danzig logo on them but they had our names and wedding date. We also had custom mad-libs at all the tables.”
Kari & Bryce choose Southern Alberta Pioneer Memorial Building, a beautiful log cabin situated, unbelievably, in the inner city of Calgary as their wedding venue. It’s on a park ridge by Elbow River and provided a prime location that didn’t feel like it was slap bang in the middle of an urban area. “We had the ceremony and reception at there”, explained the bride. “Bryce and I lived in the same neighbourhood for 5 years and we walked around there a lot. Once we found out that anyone could rent it out for functions, we contacted them right away about having our wedding there. By that time we had already been engaged for over 3 years, so we were happy that we finally found something that was right for us. It is spectacular! You can walk through paths just behind it along the ridge and it feels like you aren’t in the city anymore. It is really quite perfect, and a fantastic price.”
The couple then planned their wedding theme around the venue. It was important to them to have a wedding that was authentically their taste, but that was also sympathetic to the spectacular surroundings. “Our theme was based around our venue”, Kari continued. “Classic, old fashioned and simple. It was as if we got married on a ranch and picked flowers from the garden and threw on our Sunday best. We handmade all the stationery and painted milk glass vases, blackboard signs, picture frames and blackboard menus. We also felt that flowers were a big waste of money, so found a flower market that sells all their weekly stock on a Saturday. We weren’t picky as to the types of flowers we had so we got all of the reception décor flowers for $25! We spent a little more on flowers for the bouquets because I had specific ideas on what I wanted to make. In total we spent just under $150 on flowers for the whole wedding. I also hand made all the boutonnieres myself.”
When the Summer rolls round what’s the first thing many of us get excited about? Festivals! So it’s hardly surprising that so many Rock n Roll Brides (and grooms!) are taking wedding inspiration from their favourite past time. Warm beer, dodgy food, mud & sleeping in a tent… What’s not to love!? Haha joking!
Becci & Tom favour the UK’s biggest rock festival, Glastonbury, and so started here with their ideas including their wedding cake that was inspired by the Ribbon Tower and the song lyric centerpieces. This wedding was pure music festival gold. Tom even proposed to Becci while at a gig in Oxford!
“We love music and the unique atmosphere and goings on of a festival”, began the bride. “We hated the idea of having a formal, soulless, plain wedding where people couldn’t let go and have a great time! And so, Glastombecci was born! We wanted to get the essence of Glastonbury; we had tickets, wristbands, signage, lots of great music, fancy dress, cider, a BBQ and a silent disco!”
The couple picked Flaxbourne Gardens for their ‘camp site’ which was perfect not least because of all the interesting extra features, “The gardens have a grotto, a castle, waterfalls and ponds, a windmill, Roman arches and some beautiful flowers”, Becci explained. “We loved the character of the Tipis and the open space they gave us, plus they were pretty much a blank canvas for us to decorate however we wanted.”
Although not strictly bridal, this ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ shoot makes my heart sing! What’s not to love about frothy petticoats, crystal embellished accessories and coloured smoke bombs?! Set in the quaint English countryside, the quirky and edgy nature of the styling really pops. And don’t these look like the kind of girls you’d love to hang out with… or have as your bridesmaids?! Er yes please!
Now someone please pass my those crystal embellished glasses my way…
