Author Archives: Kat

90s Grunge Meets Disney Wedding Ideas

in Styled Photo Shoots, Video. Written by Photos by

Well, those are two things I never thought I’d be putting together but, as I’m sure you know, when it comes to alternative weddings nothing is off limits! You know what though, 90s grunge and Disney are both totally my jam!

The mood board for this shoot was based around tartan shirts, Dr Martens,  Kurt and Courtney’s wedding on Waikiki Beach and Marc Jacobs’ Perry Ellis Grunge collection from 1992. “I’ve been lucky enough to have been part of many beautiful, ethereal styled shoots over the past couple of years, but none of them have allowed me to really scratch a more playful, eccentric itch”, explained florist Lisa of Floral Menagerie. “I was just desperate to make floral Mickey ears and put a flower crown on a groom!”

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90s Grunge Meets Disney Wedding Ideas

📸

Well, those are two things I never thought I'd be putting together but, as I'm sure you know, when it comes to alternative weddings nothing is off limits! You know what though, 90s grunge and Disney are both totally my jam!

Continue reading...

May 30, 2017

How to Find a Plus Size Wedding Dress for Under £150

in Fashion Advice, Wedding Planning Advice. Written by

‘Flora’ by Chi Chi London, £74.99

For many brides, the dress shopping experience is one of the most exciting times of planning a wedding. Getting together with a gaggle of girlfriends, swooning over all the pretties hanging on the rails, experiencing that magical moment when you find ‘the one’ and (hopefully) making everyone cry! Brides have been buying their wedding dresses this way for a very long time, hell I even did it, and I loved every moment.

However the 2017 bride has way more choice and shopping for a wedding dress doesn’t have to be the same experience that it’s always been. In fact recent reports suggest that brides are choosing to spend less money on their wedding dress in a bid to focus their financial efforts elsewhere – on say, buying a house, or starting a family.

The media loves to blast the wedding industry for over-inflated prices and outrageously expensive wedding dresses. Don’t worry, this article is not another one of those! While I have always championed not going into debt for your wedding, and the fact that if you don’t want to spend a lot to get married you don’t have to, I am also of the belief that quality costs money for a reason (higher quality of fabrics, hand made techniques that take a lot of time etc). However if you can’t, or don’t want to, spend a mortgage payment on your wedding dress, there have never been more budget-friendly alternatives available to you than right now!

Another thing I’m hearing more and more from my readers is the struggle that plus size brides are having marrying (boom boom!) a more cost effective wedding dress option with something that fits (and suits!) them. I mean, the Topshop bridal collection was lovely and all, but was pretty much exclusively aimed at women under a size 12 IMHO.

So today, I wanted to share with you some of my favourite plus size inclusive bridal brands that not only make dresses that will look amazing on you whatever your shape or size, but they’ll keep your wallet happy too!

‘Carmen’ by Chi Chi London, £64.99

Voodoo Vixen‘s curve line ranges from 1XL-4XL (UK sizes 16-26) and includes a number of adorable bridal dresses. Unfortunately not all of their occasion dresses are available in their curve sizes, but their prices are incredibly reasonable, starting from just £60!

Chi Chi London have been a Rock n Roll Bride favourite for a while now, and with good reason. Their dresses are cute, great quality and insanely affordable. PLUS, after noticing that more and more brides on a budget were rocking their dresses for their weddings, they have just released an actual wedding collection meaning there is now more choice than ever! While not every style is available in every size, their curve collection does goes up to a UK size 26. 

Vivien of Holloway, one of the original purveyor of reproduction retro style dresses, have been offering a bridal range for many years. Their stunning satin gowns start from £99 and are done by measurements, rather than standard sizing. The largest size they offer is a 46 in bust and a 38 in waist.

Monsoon‘s wedding dress collection might not be priced at under £150 (they’re more like £250-£500, so still a great price!) but did you know they also go up to a size 22 in a lot of their gowns? Perfect for the babe who wants something a bit more bohemian in style.

‘Flora’ by Chi Chi London, £74.99

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How to Find a Plus Size Wedding Dress for Under £150

💡

For many brides, the dress shopping experience is one of the most exciting times of planning a wedding. Getting together with a gaggle of girlfriends, swooning over all the pretties hanging on the rails, experiencing that magical moment when you find 'the one' and (hopefully) making everyone cry! Brides have been buying their wedding dresses this way for a very long time, hell I even did it, and I loved every moment.

Continue reading...

May 29, 2017

Super Mario & Video Game Wedding on a Budget

in British Brides, Wedding. Written by Photos by

When a couple meets while playing World of Warcraft, you can all but guarantee that when they tie the knot they’re going to have a video game themed wedding! Hanneke and Duncan were married in Bristol in September.

“We love organising parties and having friends over, and we wanted to do just that, but on a larger scale, for our wedding”, said the bride. “It was very important for us that our guests had fun and felt relaxed. The morning was more formal and dressed up, because we did want to have a sense of gravitas for our actual ceremony, but we had most fun and put most creativity into organising the evening party.”

The day was split into two parts with the ceremony in the morning, and the party later that evening. “In the morning we had coffee, tea and pastries at Hotel du Vin with our ceremony guests, walked to the Registry Office for the ceremony, and then went back to Hotel du Vin for a three course lunch. For our party in the evening, we hired Dundry Village Hall as we live two doors down from it and we got a villagers’ discount! It also meant we could have the after party at our house after the village hall closed at 11.30.”

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Super Mario & Video Game Wedding on a Budget

👰

When a couple meets while playing World of Warcraft, you can all but guarantee that when they tie the knot they're going to have a video game themed wedding! Hanneke and Duncan were married in Bristol in September.

Continue reading...

May 28, 2017

Spooky Cemetery Themed Wedding on Halloween

in British Brides, Wedding. Written by Photos by

As soon as they got engaged, Morgan and Sam decided that a Halloween wedding would be their absolute dream. They wanted to include the dark horror side and also the warm coloured, Autumnal side of Halloween. The wedding was held at Reynoldston Village Hall on October 31st.

The day began with an intimate, humanist ceremony. “Neither of us are religious and it was really important that we had a simple yet meaningful ceremony, with a dash of humour thrown in”, began the bride. “We wanted to trim out all of the fluff, so no songs or readings – just the two of us declaring our love for one another.”

“My mum walked me down the aisle to a song that Sam and I call ours, Tears for Fears, Head Over Heels. We wanted our vows to be unique to us and reflect the way we love each other, so we wrote them. We both cried the whole way through. We exchanged rings but incorporated the Pagan tradition of handfasting. It was really nice to include an old ritual and I spent quite a while studying the meaning behind each colour of ribbon and assigning it to who I thought that best represented.”

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Spooky Cemetery Themed Wedding on Halloween

👰

As soon as they got engaged, Morgan and Sam decided that a Halloween wedding would be their absolute dream. They wanted to include the dark horror side and also the warm coloured, Autumnal side of Halloween. The wedding was held at Reynoldston Village Hall on October 31st.

Continue reading...

May 27, 2017

Kitsch, Vegas-Inspired Wedding in Birmingham

in British Brides, Wedding. Written by Photos by

They flew over to Las Vegas to elope, but Sally and Stuart still wanted a party back home in Birmingham to celebrate with their loved ones. “Our wedding was themed around kitsch, Vegas and movies with cheesecake”, said the bride. “We had a Las Vegas elopement on Valentine’s day because we visited the travel agent on a whim during Christmas and found ourselves with six weeks to organise our outfits! We got married at The Little White Wedding Chapel by Elvis. Our friends and family watched over the internet and when we got back, we promised our family and friends a party so we wanted to bring a bit of Vegas to them.”

The party was held at The Bond Company in Digbeth. “It was easy for everyone to get to and we had been to some fun events and food markets at the venue. Digbeth is also very vibrant with constantly changing street art and we wanted our photographs to reflect that. We chose our photographer Lisa Carpenter, based on wedding photos she had done in the area for another wedding and on the day, she had scouted out areas with awesome street art for us to be photographed in front of.”

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Kitsch, Vegas-Inspired Wedding in Birmingham

👰

They flew over to Las Vegas to elope, but Sally and Stuart still wanted a party back home in Birmingham to celebrate with their loved ones. "Our wedding was themed around kitsch, Vegas and movies with cheesecake", said the bride. "We had a Las Vegas elopement on Valentine's day because we visited the travel agent on a whim during Christmas and found ourselves with six weeks to organise our outfits! We got married at The Little White Wedding Chapel by Elvis. Our friends and family watched over the internet and when we got back, we promised our family and friends a party so we wanted to bring a bit of Vegas to them."

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May 26, 2017

DIY Wedding with Peacock Colours

in British Brides, Wedding. Written by Photos by

Chris and Ixchelt’s March wedding was inspired by the bride and groom’s favourite colours – purple and green. They had a budget-friendly DIY wedding at The Mytton and Mermaid hotel in Shrewsbury.

“Our inspiration was peacock colours!”, said the bride. “Purple is one of my favourite colours and green is Chris’ so we just added a bit of teal into the mix after getting ideas online. After that it made sense to give it a bit of countryside rustic feel too due to the venue being in the wonderful Shropshire countryside. We wanted the wedding to be colourful, warm, intimate and relaxed.”

“We pretty much DIYed everything. We bought paper pom poms to hang all over the venue for a pop of colour, printed Polaroid style photos of our engagement shoot which we hung around the tree by the river, and we used rolls of organza in three colours as runners for the wedding breakfast. We painstakingly collected jars for months for the centrepieces and my mum (a retired florist) did all the flowers.”

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DIY Wedding with Peacock Colours

👰

Chris and Ixchelt's March wedding was inspired by the bride and groom's favourite colours - purple and green. They had a budget-friendly DIY wedding at The Mytton and Mermaid hotel in Shrewsbury.

Continue reading...

May 25, 2017