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Under The Spotlight – The BB Collective

August 17, 2011 in Under The Spotlight | 1 comment

The bb Collective are Bex & Bex, friends and musicians based in London. They set up The bb Collective in 2007 to provide a fresh and soulful twist to wedding entertainment. The Bex’s and their band have various backgrounds in music ranging from soul, jazz, funk and Rock n Roll (hence the ‘Collective’.) I’m very excited to welcome them to Rock n Roll Bride today. Over to you ladies…

Hi Ladies! So can you tell us a little bit about yourselves – namely who you are and what you do?
Blonde Bex: Well I’m Bex Reichwald
Brunette Bex: And I’m Bex Bowden
Blonde: We tend to go by Blonde and Brunette to avoid confusion with the boys.
Brunette: We set up and run The bb Collective a group of musicians providing bespoke live music entertainment for weddings all over the country.

Where are you based and what areas do you cover?
We are based in London and cover all over England, and beyond when we’re lucky - we have managed to get to Scotland, Wales, France and Istanbul so far!  

How did you start your business and why did you begin?
The 2 of us met in another band, fell in love over a mutual love of good music, Jack Bauer (Kat: hello?! I love you already), cupcakes, and 50′s style dresses and decided we would be a force to be reckoned with if we set up our own band. The function scene is very much dominated by men so we thought we could offer a new approach.

We spotted a gap in the market for classy, cool, non-cheesy but fun wedding bands that were still interested in working with couples to create a perfect mix of music for their big day. The bb Collective band was born, a 6 piece line up of musicians that we put together after many auditions and jam sessions.   Since then, we have extended the main band to an 8 piece outfit, enabling us to bring in a fantastic brass section. We can now offer our clients anything from the 6 piece band for those with smaller budgets, space restraints or sound limiters at their venues to a 7 piece, 8 piece or even 9 piece line up by adding in brass instruments.

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Alex & Adam’s Simple, Nerdy & Rocking Shindig

January 3, 2011 in Wedding | 12 comments

British born Alex met Adam years ago whilst working at Woolworth’s. She was studying journalism and he was a checkout boy by day, rock star by night! They went their separate ways for a few forgotten years before realising at a Jet gig that they were better off together. “We are the total yin and yang couple who jigsaw together in a strange and puzzling way which somehow works,” they explained. “Fiery Alex and passive Adam! Our wedding was a mashup of our two personalities which resulted in a simple, nerdy, unrefined yet rocking shindig.”

The ceremony took place at Flying Duck at Roma St Parkland and the reception was held at The Fox Hotel. Alex wore a one-of-a-kind dress which she made herself with the help of her best friend. “It was handmade with materials and pattern sourced from Spotlight Australia by my best buddy / best lady on the day. I’d probably say it’s most definitely a one off by ‘Sary Creations’ – she’d get quite a giggle from that,” laughed the bride. They also handmade her flower headband as well as all the bouquets with silk flowers sourced from FJ Flowers. The reception decor and details were all also mostly DIYed, from materials sourced from Spotlight Australia.

For special and personal touches, Alex’s Mother officiated the emotional ceremony and Adam’s brother acted as usher by dressing up as a Storm Trooper – random but seriously awesome I say! The Groom’s band, Fractions, played the reception as well as accompanying Alex and her Dad down the aisle. The couple’s first dance was a 4 minute ‘dance-off’ to The White Stripes, ‘Fell in Love with a Girl’ – no traditional wedding rubbish here! 

Isn’t this just the coolest wedding ever? I’m loving how 2011 is shaping up already.

♥  ♥  ♥

The fabulous, awesome and amazing (can you tell I love them quite a lot!) Seth & Tenielle of Feather & Stone Photography will be travelling around the USA from February to April and would love love love to shoot a Rock n Roll wedding whilst they’re out there. If you’d be interested in having photos as gorgeous as these for your wedding (with a rather large chance of also getting your wedding featured on the pages of Rock n Roll Bride I might add) then pleeeease get in touch with them by emailing info@featherandstone.com.au

They explain, “We’ll be flying into Cali early February 2011 and making our way to Seth’s old hang out in Florida (Seth is American born and bred) where we’ll be based for 6 – 8 weeks, but free to travel to other cities/states to shoot YOUR wedding.”

“If you’re having trouble finding a photographer that is available (that you actually like), here is your second chance! Yes, we’ve assumed everyone likes us. Why not? Ignorance is bliss!”

“So check out some of our work and drop us an email. It doesn’t matter if you’re a southern bell, DIY vintage bride, or an Elvis impersonator (PLEASE give us a call if you’re an Elvis impersonator) if photography is important to you then your people need to speak to our people.” 

♥  ♥  ♥

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Rom & Will’s DIY, Humanist, 1970′s Vintage Wedding

November 2, 2010 in British Brides, Wedding | 23 comments

You might recognise the gorgeous Rom & Will as I featured their engagement session back in August. I knew their wedding would be awesome as soon as I saw those shots so you can imagine my excitement when I got an email from photographer Steve Gerrard asking if I’d like to feature their wedding that took place a few weeks ago in Somerset.

The couple had two ceremonies – a legal ceremony at Hestercombe Gardens, followed the next day by a humanist ceremony and reception at Huntstile Organic Farm (a humanist ceremony isn’t legal in England at present.) Rom wore a different dress for each part of their day. For the civil service she wore an original 70s Ossie Clark dress which she had hunted high and low for. She finally found in a treasure trove of a shop called Hope & Harlequin in Brighton. “The owner Lou has original vintage dresses and she also makes bespoke vintage replicas,” Rom explained. “With this is also wore Gold cork platforms by Miu Miu and a vintage garland headband from The Vintage Wedding Dress Company.”

For the humanist ceremony and wedding reception, Rom wore her Mother’s wedding dress which was an original Janice Wainwright dress, also from the 70s. “I had it altered and updated for me by Rachel at Heirloom Couture who did me and my mum proud. Shoes this time were by Beatrix Ong and were reduced from £700 to £100 in the sale! Possibly the most beautiful shoes I’ve ever seen” Rom continued.

To keep in with their humanist and Rock n Roll theme, the couple omitted a lot of wedding traditions. They didn’t have a wedding cake, favouring afternoon tea and cupcakes made by the venue. They also didn’t have a traditional wedding band or DJ, opting for a punk rock n roll band from Exeter called The Computers.

Rom asked her bridesmaids to pick their own dresses. Her only requirements were they were long and they each picked a different colours. The groomsmen looked similarly relaxed and cool in skinny black suits, white shirts, black ties and Vans trainers.

“We DIY’d a lot of things ourselves, stole ideas from wedding blogs and roped in friends and family to help too”, the couple concluded. “It’s amazing how the effort that goes into the little details can make your whole day more personal. One thing that worked really well was a ‘lucky dip’ where instead of getting us gifts, we asked everyone to bring something under a tenner for a lucky dip. It meant everyone got a funny present from another guest and was a great way to get people mingling to find the person their gift was from.”

“We really just wanted the wedding to be the best party we could ever organise. We did away with any traditions that we didn’t like – first dance, cutting of the cake, wedding list, seating plan, wedding favours, matching bridesmaid dresses etc and focused on what we thought was important. The best advice we were given was to ensure guests are never hungry, thirsty or bored. It served us well.”

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Nathan & Marianna’s DIY-Fabulous New York Wedding

August 30, 2010 in Wedding | 7 comments

Oooh I am so excited about Nathan & Marianna’s diy-fabulous New York wedding (although this is doing nothing to quench my desire to sign 2 weeks off and jet off to NYC!)

The couple got married at St. Luke’s Church and then had their reception at Sea Cliff Yacht Club. ”Both are in the small one square mile town (22  miles from NYC) where I grew up in Long Island, NY” Marianna told me. The couple only splurged on the things that really mattered to them - one of them being the band that played their reception “This was probably the best splurge (and only) of the wedding.  I highly recommend getting a live band, we had a great fun dancing ALL night long” the bride explained. ”I thought we were just going to go the ipod shuffle route, but was convinced that the band makes the party and to have one.  It was great advice, and is probably (most definitely) true.”

Marianna also put huge effort info her outfit to make it perfect for her – second best was not an option. She found her perfect dress, knew it was the one and went for it! Everything she wore had meaning and thought behind it.

“I am not sure who made my dress, I never even looked at the tag.  I had to buy a dress off the rack since I had a minor dress problem in June.  Strut bridal is a plus sized bridal store, it was great and the owner is fabulous.  If you live in Arizona (Phoenix) I highly recommend it. I had to have the whole thing completely tailored to fit since it was way too big.  But I loved the dress upon first glance! I had all the train cut off, made it ankle length and added some serious sweet heart necklace.  It was pretty much like making a custom dress.  But really Strut bridal comes highly recommended from me, I felt comfortable Ann (the owner) was extremely helpful. Words of advice even if a wedding isn’t your cup of tea don’t settle on a dress early in the game, it will come back to haunt you-even if you are hard to fit and dreading the dress process.  Also go with who ever you feel comfortable with, even it is the groom!”  
 

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The Music Sounds Better With You

August 26, 2010 in British Brides, Wedding | 7 comments

I featured Ali & Dean’s London engagement sesh a while back, and even then I knew their wedding would be totally Rock n Roll. Both of them are in bands and so music was a huge part of their day. The bride walked down the aisle to ‘November Rain’ and their tables were all named after their favourite bands. The day even finished with the pair playing a ‘first set’ on stage to all their guests instead of having a first dance.

Personal and unique touches were added throughout to give the day a perfectly ‘them’ vibe including using their own VW camper van as transport, the profiterole topped cheesecake instead of a traditional cake and the Groom’s 1960′s vintage suit.

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