Alternative and Unique Wedding Supplies from Ruby & Diva

May 1, 2012 in Under The Spotlight by Kat | 4 comments

Are you bored of traditional wedding offerings? Do generic meringue dresses and three-tiered fruit cakes bring you out in cold sweat? Are you looking for wedding supplies that actually have some personality? Well my dears have I got good news for you! The days of having to trawl the internet for eclectic wedding ideas are over, and alongside Rock n Roll Bride (of course!) ruby+diva are a brand new online marketplace bringing together hundreds of cherry-picked, unique and inspirational ideas for your wedding, from all over the world.

Make Up By Ms Moo

“ruby+diva focus on finding specialist, independent global suppliers who offer brides and grooms something out of the ordinary,” they say, “The ruby+diva team has created an online marketplace where customers can discover cutting-edge designers and compare stylish products from the ‘ruby+diva-approved’ independent global suppliers list. Organising a wedding can be super stressful, especially if you want your day to express your true individuality. ruby+diva’s amazing collection of wedding service providers covers everything that you could imagine, from the dress and make up to companies who specialise in venue lighting and vintage decoration.”

Stationery by Royal Steamline

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags:

A Handmade Florida Wedding : Mike & Melissa

May 1, 2012 in Wedding by Kat | 15 comments

Working in the music industry it was important to Mike & Melissa that their wedding suited their lifestyle and sensibilities and 1903 Hontoon, a vacation property in Deland Florida, turned out to be the perfect place. “Mike is a local musician and recently I have decided to leave my job and become his manager!” began the bride. “We have been together for almost 4 years now and over the next two we will be setting up our lives to hit the road indefinitely until we find the best place to live! We are too hot here in Florida and always long to be in the mountains. We changed our wedding date 3 times just so that we could have it at this venue, because as far as Florida goes it was pretty hard to find a place that really spoke of who we are. We chose 1903 Hontoon, a vacation property that used to be an old boat & motor repair shot. It has an awesome feel to it. Our wedding is hardcore DIY & handmade – from 1,000 paper cranes to the tablecloths to the bridesmaid dresses and jewelry.”

“I’m extremely crafty so I have been a non-stop force of productivity in creating everything I possibly can for this day. With that being said it is REALLY important to us to have our wedding captured because every detail is so dear to our hearts! The two of us never imagined that we would get married but, love eventually finds you and before we left for our travels it was important to us to share this bond and experience with our families.”

The bride wore a yellow wedding dress which she made. Her bridesmaid’s dresses and everyone’s accessories were also handmade by the lady herself. The boys all wore outfits that they sourced from charity shops and thrift stores. The cake, flowers and all the reception decor were also completely DIY!

“When Melissa contacted me and told me about their wedding I was so freaking excited!” wedding photographer Amalie Orrange continued. “This wedding was my dream wedding, a crafty, colorful delight of handmade goodness. Melissa handmade everything from the boutonnieres, the vintage labeled cans that were recycled from old soup cans and filled with succulents. She collected vintage sheets and fabric and sewn together to make 16 tablecloths. Melissa was a one person crafting sweat shop, she said she even had Mike on the sewing machine a few times! Melissa puts Martha Stewart to shame.”

“On the day of the wedding I arrived 2 hours before and was in awe when I saw everything set up. We had been talking for months and going back in forth emailing pictures of cool ideas and everything she had been doing, I really felt like I was part of this great wedding. About 2 minutes before the ceremony it started pouring down rain, I felt awful because the whole feel of the wedding was a centered around being outside. The wedding was moved in the garage hanger and the skies soon cleared, and everyone had an amazing time. I am so excited to share this beautiful & unique wedding.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , ,

A Theme Park Wedding: Shirley & Elijah

April 30, 2012 in Wedding by Kat | 9 comments

Shirley & Elijah love going to theme parks and Disneyland so when it came to choosing a theme for for their wedding it was the obvious choice. “Our wedding was full of vibrant colors,” the bride wrote. “We went for the overall theme of a theme park called ‘Shirlijahland’. Every aspect of the wedding played off this. Our food was an upscale version of carnival food and our flowers were inspired by wands, pin-wheels, and lollipops. My dress and the dresses of my bridesmaids were fun and whimsical. We wanted people to be blown away and to share in a part of our quirky personalities.”

The ceremony was held in Mater Dolorosa Catholic Parish, with the reception that followed at Terra Gallery, an event space in San Francisco. The couple were able to completely decorate the venue as they liked which suited them perfectly! Origami and Chinese lanterns were hung from the ceiling, the tables all had individually styled centrepieces, and as night fell pink up-lighting was switched on to really add to the party atmosphere!

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , ,

Batman, Fish & Beards – A Party-Hard Nightclub Wedding: Dustin & Morgan

April 30, 2012 in Wedding by Kat | 14 comments

You’d be shocked at the number of emails I recieve from brides-to-be who tell me they love my site and the weddings I feature but that they’re worried that their wedding will somehow not ‘measure up’ or be ‘as cool’ as the weddings they see online. My response to these girls is always the same: your wedding is not a ‘coolness’ competition or a chance to show off. Your wedding is for you and your partner and it will be awesome because you are awesome. The love is the most important thing, not the amazing centrepieces, the quirky stationery or the beautiful dress. These things are meant to enhance your day for you, to be fun and exciting, they do not and will not define anything other than that.

So why did I want to mention that again today? Well Dustin & Morgan’s wedding is pretty much the epitome of Rock n Roll awesome. It wasn’t detail-heavy or wedding blog pretty – it was just a seriously awesome party! It celebrated their love in their way and they were 100% unapologetic about that fact… And you know what? It’s one of my favourite weddings that’s I’ve featured in a long time! So, forget about the bunting, the mason jars or the designer frock and focus on what’s important – the LOVE (and in this case, the dancing)…

The wedding was held at The Hideout, Chicago and the aim of the game was for the couple to throw a party that reflected them and their love. It wasn’t about the froof or the perfectly matching napkins, it was about celebrating! “I don’t really know what our inspiration was, ” Morgan told me. “We just did what we always do. We came up with the stupidest thing we could think of and make it exist…just like our marriage haha!”

“If we had to have a theme it would have been BATMAN FISH-BEARD! All the wall decorations were cassette tapes. Dustin had a big box of voice demo tapes from the 90s that he had somehow acquired. We decorated and hung them on the walls of The Hideout. When you pull out a tape’s guts it looks like streamers. Also we put felt beards on all the taxidermy fish at that were on the walls… As you do.”

“Our cake toppers were Batman and Clayface Mini-Mates. I glued some flowers to Clayface and gave him a bouquet, and Zoe (who also did my hair and make up) painted a tux on Batman. My friend Jamie Knight painted a portrait of the two that hung behind the desserts. Why Batman? Why Clayface? Batman was a given, as Dustin Drase is the worlds greatest detective, But I had trouble choosing the character that was most ‘me’. Unable to make a decision I just went with the big, fat, mud-monster as ‘big, fat, mud-monster’ is my spirit animal.”

“For our invites we had my sister combine my narwhale tattoo with Dustin’s beard and glasses to create a design we used on both the invites and the shot glasses. The shot glasses were used in our Malort Toast. Malort is magic. Malort can not be described. You should find some and drink some and take a picture of your face and send it to me. We also had smile-face cookies!”

Yep, it’s offical. I love these guys. Morgan’s closing statement made me want to hug her and squeeze her and tell he she made me whole, “I can teach you how to make hair flowers, the tape decorations, or how to fit a taxidermy fish with a felt beard,” she concluded. “However I cannot teach you how to love… I’m sorry.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , ,

A Glitter Bridal/Trash the Dress Shoot

April 30, 2012 in Bridal Shoot/Trash The Dress by Kat | 6 comments

For her bridal shoot Emma wanted to do something different, and after buying a simple dress she decided to alter it herself as part of the shoot. Scissors, glitter and metallic spray paint all played a role, and I have to say I think I actually prefer the dress afterwards! How about you?

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , ,

The Inspirations: Naomi Davis of The Rockstar Diaries

May 23, 2012 in Green Room by Kat | 12 comments

Photography Credit: Carissa Gallo

I discovered Naomi’s blog, The Rockstar Diaries, in early 2009, when she published her wedding photographs. I immediately fell in love with her and her husband Josh’s effortless style and achingly cool attitude. I loved the way they shared cute little stories about their life as newlyweds – getting married, setting up home, moving from New York to DC, getting their dog Kingsley, having their first child, Eleanor… It was all very unpretentious and honest and I felt connected with them instantly.

So I thought Naomi would be the perfect person to interview today. If you have a blog and you worry about what to share about yourself, then Naomi and her family are the perfect role models to inspire you.

Hi Naomi, I’ve followed your blog for years and I’m so excited to have you in the Green Room today. For those readers that might not know who you are, could you briefly introduce yourself?

I’m Naomi (also known as Taza in the blogging world) and I live in Washington DC with my husband, Josh, and 16 month old baby girl, Eleanor. In 2 or 3 weeks, we’ll be adding a new member to the family as I’m due with our second child, a boy, in early June! We also have an English bulldog named Kingsley who is sort of our world.  We love him dearly.

My husband and I met while attending school in New York City (him, Columbia, me, Juilliard). We were married in NYC and lived there for a few years before making our way to DC about 3 years ago.  I started our little blog shortly after we were married as a way to share our wedding photos with family and friends. After I posted our wedding photos, I continued to update here and there about our newly wed lives in NYC and it sort of just took on a life of its own from there.  I never started my blog with the intention or desire to gain a large following or make money from it. We never advertised our blog or pushed it out there… I remember when we first started receiving comments from people we didn’t know… It made me terribly nervous and I almost made it private. But it’s been a wonderful experience (for the most part, ha!) and I’m thankful for it.  I’ve met some of my best friends through blogging, find constant inspiration and support from fellow bloggers and feel fortunate for the opportunities and experiences that have come our way because of it.

Is your blog your full time job and what role does your husband Josh play in the business?

I got my BFA in dance at Juilliard and was teaching up until Eleanor’s birth.  At the moment, I find motherhood to be my full time job. Although I’ll admit that our blog could definitely be considered a full time gig if we allowed it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , ,

Doing Things for Yourself & The Benefit of Unpublished Work

May 22, 2012 in Green Room by Kat | 10 comments

I was struggling this week with what to talk about. I sat starting at a blank page for what felt like hours begging for the inspiration to come. I started to look through my draft articles hoping that a past explored idea might jump out at me and evoke a new article of genius…and then it hit me. I’ve written a lot of articles that I’ve never published. For various reasons really, but when I looked at them all as a collective group I realised something striking – that in every single instance the unpublished works are ones that have been written more for myself than the benefit of others. There isn’t really an overall message or lesson within them, but I find writing writing very cathartic, and the time I’ve spent writing these articles has actually been time spent working through certain ideas or problems in my mind.

Some of the articles have gone on to build the foundations of other ideas (workshop topics, things for the print magazine, the beginnings of other posts) while the rest have just sat there, for no one else to see. It’s also probably no coincidence that the majority of these unpublished works tend to be my way of dealing with negative experiences or feelings. I guess it’s been a little like writing a diary. No one else needs to read it for it to serve it’s purpose.

So I started wondering if any of you ever do the same with whatever line of work you’re in. Photographers, do you ever do shoots and never share them? Designers, do you ever draw up concepts that never make your final collections? I would imagine some of you do, but for the rest of you, if not I’d encourage you to do it. Sometimes when I decide it’s best not to publish something I feel deflated, like I’ve wasted hours on something that no one else is going to see. This is entirely flawed thinking as to explore and experiment without the constant need to share is actually completely freeing. It enables you to be honest with yourself and explore ideas you otherwise wouldn’t for fear of of judgement. Maybe it’s something dark, or scary, or just simply irrelevant to your line of work. That doesn’t mean that spending some time exploring it is time wasted.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ,

If You Love Her, Let Her Grow: A Guest Post by Gareth Williams

May 18, 2012 in Green Room, Guest Posts by Gareth | 71 comments

Almost exclusively the Green Room centres on the successful businesses, the people who run them and the strategies they employ to get, and stay, where they are. These are all super-important and you should be learning something from every article but we have absolutely neglected something equally critical from these pages. Something it took me too long and too much effort to realise on my own.

You might have already read about how this blog came to be, Kat has written about it on a couple of occasions but it’s necessary to go over it one more time to get this rarely discussed point across. This time the story will be from my perspective. And as everybody knows there are always two sides to a story.

A few years ago Kat was working nightshifts, five days a week, including covering the weekends. I was running a small IT company with a friend who I knew from college. In spite of my innovative ideas the business was merely treading water and the work was extremely stressful. I vividly recall several times when one wrong move would have lost millions of pounds worth of data, forever. As much as I love computers (and working with enterprise servers and infrastructure is awesomely exciting) I love my wife even more, she was my only motivation. Providing for my wife was the only reason I stayed at it. I wasn’t making much money but I had the potential, if things really took off, to give us a comfortable life.

The problem was our work schedules conflicted horribly; we had two short evenings in the week when we could spend any time together. Out of this we spawned ‘date night’, which I later found out is nowhere near a unique idea. We would go out to a restaurant, see a movie, and just spend ‘quality time’ together, which I later found out is also a euphemism. This worked really well for a while, until the blog started to take more of Kat’s time. While not working her day (night) job, Kat was busy working on the blog. Seeking out new photographers, posting content, and getting involved in forums and groups. It didn’t take long until I spent more of our date night staring at the back of a mobile phone than into my wife’s eyes. This was a serious issue, more so since at this stage the blog was making no money (we did not accept advertising requests until much later) so it seemed like a sacrifice without purpose. I felt like the only thing that was, is, important to me was becoming harder and harder to reach.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , ,

Ask me Anything…

May 16, 2012 in Green Room by Kat | 12 comments

Photography Credit: Made U Look Photography (being shot in New York – more on the blog soon!)

I’m not calling today’s interview an Inspirations interview because just the thought of me doing that make me die a little inside (!) However on returning from The States on Monday I realised I didn’t have an interview lined up this week (whoops!) and on such a short lead time the only person I could turn to to get the answers back to me on time was…well…me. Thank you to everyone on twitter & facebook who helped this be a less cringe-worthy experience by submitting questions. If you have a burning question that I haven’t covered then leave it in the comments and if I get enough I’ll do another round of them soon!

How did you get started? When did you realise it was a full-time-oh-my-God-this-is-a-massive-success jobby?? (Giddy Weddings via twitter)

My story isn’t that remarkable or different to that of many people who get into the wedding industry. I started my blog when I was planning my own wedding to Gareth in 2007. At the time I didn’t even consider this could become a career, I simply wanted a place to collate all my wedding ideas and inspiration. Throughout my planning I discovered American wedding blogs. I loved the instant nature of blogging – how you could comment and feel part of a community and I wanted to join in!

After our wedding was over I didn’t want to give up weddings or blogging so I decided to morph my blog into a place for alternative wedding inspiration – i.e sharing other people’s weddings and not just my own. Although I loved the wedding blogs I’d found throughout my plans, none of them catered to the specific kind of bride or style of wedding that I had really wanted to find – the alternative, the offbeat and the Rock n Roll. I also noticed that none of these blogs I was reading were from the UK and so that probably meant that most UK brides were only having wedding magazines as their point of inspiration. I loved reading magazines throughout my planning (although in all honestly probably just because I felt like I was finally ‘allowed’ too!) but although gorgeous and beautiful, they were not showing the kinds of weddings I found inspiring at all. I think if a blog like mine had been around in 2007/2008 our wedding would have turned out very differently indeed!

It still blows my mind to think about where my blog has got me today. Every day (literally!) I’m shocked, surprised and honoured by the things I’m able to do because of it. I guess the very first event that made me think “oh crap maybe this could actually be a thing” would have been back in the summer of 2008 when I was still working as a producer of a shopping channel. I’d been running the blog as a secret hobby since late 2007 and one of my managers at work somehow found it and called me into his office. I thought I was in trouble for sure! However he told me that he loved the concept and the idea and that he was sure I could make something more of it. He took me to a few meetings and the like, and although nothing really came of them, his confidence in me and the brand really gave me a kick in the right direction. More solidly, it felt pretty good when I was finally earning enough to quit my job to blog full time!

I always recognize you by your hair! I was wondering if you feel that it’s a part of your brand and if you’d ever change it up? (Catherine Guidry via facebook)

Hum…yes…no…maybe. This is actually a really hard question and something I have thought about a lot recently! I love having pink hair, it feels very natural to me like it was the colour I was supposed to always have. As a teenager I flirted with every colour under the sun but I always came back to pink. These days I do like how it makes me stand out in a crowd (attention whore, me?!) and that when people see me at events or whatever they always know it’s me… but sometimes I do think that maybe it defines me too much you know? It’s kinda scary to think that without the pink hair people might not know who I was.

It actually makes me feel quite vulnerable thinking I might one day be without it. I definitely think my hair is very strongly associated with my brand and so I do wonder, would I fade into the background without it?! Who knows…I don’t think I’d ever go back to having ‘normal’ hair but maybe I will change up the shade one day. Let’s put it this way, I’m looking forward to being a granny with a purple rinse!

Photography Credit: Joanna Brown Photography (‘Desperate Housewife’ editorial

How do you decide what weddings or shoots to feature? (Lucy Carter via facebook)

It’s basically all down to my own personal taste. I started the blog with no other agenda than to share the kinds of weddings I loved but didn’t see represented in the wedding media. Even though the blog has grown exponentially that hasn’t changed at all. The most important things I look out for are:

♥ A unique idea or theme. I want to share weddings to inspire my readers and make them think “wow, I would have never thought of that.” I do not want to share weddings that you’d see on every other wedding blog. I admire what many of the other blogs do and feature but it’s just not for me. I want to show new, different and exciting ideas.

♥ Details. First and foremost a wedding is all about a couple in love and dedicating their lives to each other. However a wedding blog is primarily there to inspire other brides and grooms for their own weddings and so generally I want them to be full of lots of cool ‘stuff’ and ideas. Clear and clean photographs of things like stationery, clothing, accessories, flowers, cakes, props etc are really important.

However I have featured many weddings that could be described as detail-light. Sometimes the most simple wedding can be really inspiring, just in a different way. Maybe the vibe or the couple and their love really stands out, or maybe the photographs are truly epic. My readers tend to have very similar tastes to me so if I love something often my readers will too!

♥ Great Photography. It makes me really sad when I’m submitted an awesome looking wedding but the photography is naff or just darn right awful and doesn’t show the wedding in the best way. Sure, I understand not everyone has the budget for a wedding photographer, but if getting your wedding featured on my blog is something you’d like to be able to do then professional photography is nearly always a requirement. I have featured weddings where there was no pro photographer but these are few and far between.

A professional photographer will shoot things in a way to show them clearly to people that weren’t at the wedding and that’s the kind of stuff I need to be sharing.

Photography Credit: Devlin Photos (‘Rock n Rainbow‘ editorial)

What made you decide to make the change from working and writing a blog to writing a blog full-time and what lessons did you learn about that transition? (SixteenEighteen via twitter)

I didn’t start my blog in order for it to become a business. However when I was earning enough money to supplement a portion of my income from my full-time job I decided to go part-time. I set myself (monetary) targets to reach before I did this and I certainly didn’t recklessly decide to just quit and see what happened (I probably would have done but Gareth was very strict!) Then, when I was earning as much from the blog as I was from my job we decided that it was time for me to quit completely. I was very lucky because my previous employer offered me the option of working for them on a freelance basis if I ever wanted or needed to, so I always had that added bit of security. Luckily I’ve never had to go back!

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ,

Knowing When to Quit

May 15, 2012 in Green Room by Kat | 22 comments

Photography Credit: Made U Look Photography (more on the blog soon!)

I started smoking for the stupidest and most predictable of reasons, the reason I would assume most teenage girls do in fact…in order to look cool. All the anti-smoking adverts and scary warnings about blackened lungs and throat cancer didn’t deter me from lighting up alongside my school friends as we walked through the park to school. My addiction raged for 13 years but 20 days ago I decided enough was enough and I quit. Just like that. No patches, no nicotine replacements. Screw the softly softly approach I thought…I went cold turkey and just stopped.

In all honestly I actually wasn’t enjoying puffing away any more. Sure, I enjoyed the initial rush of those first few inhales, but after that it was just getting to be a pain in the arse. It was anti social (the majorty of my friends have now quit), it was expensive and it made me feel like crap. I’d wake up in the morning after a big night out and feel like my lungs were burning. Gareth hated it more than anything and I knew how much it would mean to him if I was no longer sneaking out to the back garden after a few glasses of wine.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ,

About The Green Room

The Green Room is the backstage area of Rock n Roll Bride, a quiet place to read about and discuss all things related to running your own wedding-related business.

I strongly believe that the most important thing in any business is being your own person, standing out, having a different outlook or opinion and giving your clients a reason to invest in you. This is what I want to achieve with The Green Room - to give you a place to figure out your personal path in a non-judgmental and friendly space.

Each week we'll discuss topics related to running your own business as well as read interviews with some of the most inspirational people I know.

So sit down, grab a cup of coffee and lets muddle our way through together!

Find out more...