November 8, 2011
To say I'm head over heels in love with the work of Christy Pepper Dawson would be an understatement of vast magnitude. Christy is a super talented illustrator from California (originally from Nova Scotia) and she's just branched out into doing portraits for Rock n Roll couples.Read more...
March 25, 2011
Established in 2004 by graphic designers Jennifer Tatham and Alan Henderson, Night Owl Paper Goods is a company dedicated to creating handmade letterpress cards and eco-chic wooden goodies in a style they like to call 'modern yet folksy.' "We are very fortunate to have created a company and product line that combines everything we love," they told me. "Design + printing + writing + paper + wood + nature + the environment + friends + family. What a hoot!"Read more...
August 22, 2010
I'm loving them. I posted Angel & Lilly's super cute "I ♥ LA" Save the Date last week, and since then I can't get enough. Check out this awesome stop motion one I found this week. I seriously LOVE it. It's so creative!Read more...
June 21, 2010
An excitable email from a newly married reader always brightens my day and LeeAnn's may have been one of the most excitable I've received in a while! I just had to share the story behind her and husband David's gorgeous 1950's influenced wedding with you today. "After gorging my eyes on a ga-jillion bridal mags and internet images, I felt I was living a white-out groundhog day" LeeAnn began. "I quickly became downhearted about organising my own BIG DAY, the no-fun casting my eye over "traditional" gowns (this one? no, that one? no, repeat), the vanilla-ness of invites, pink-and-white themes to the power of 42,000! Where did the love go?"Read more...
June 15, 2010
I've got yet another bit of retro rockabilly lovin' for you today, in the form of Nick & Jamie's Santa Barbara wedding. The ceremony and reception took place at The Rockwood Womens Club which proved to be the perfect backdrop to their day. Jamie looked stunning in her Maya dress by Michelle Roth, but it had a bit of a story behind it! ""Ohhhhh the dress....it was almost a nightmare! It was a Michelle Roth "Maya" that I bought used on Oncewed. I took it to a local alterations lady who cut it too short and messed up the top! Luckily I have a dear friend in the fashion industry, Denice Dir who saved the day by not only adding the black tulle underneath, sewing in a petticoat and took 45 minutes to carefully seam rip the top and fix what the other lady had messed up. She even made my dog's collar piece out of my dress trimmings and surprised me on the day of my wedding with the special stitching she did inside!"Read more...
May 25, 2010
Fanni & Ben got married in April at Cripps Barn in Gloucestershire. Bored by the usual wedding stuff they found in magazines and at wedding shows, the pair turned to the internet for inspiration and luckily for them stumbled upon not only Rock n Roll Bride but a plethora of amazing ideas via some awesome American wedding blogs. "Back at the drawing board, I found myself scanning an array of American wedding blogs. All of which featured jaw-droppingly gorgeous weddings that looked amazing but had little or no information about weddings in the UK, and then I stumbled across your site!" Fanni told me "From that day on, Rock n Roll Bride truly was a breath of fresh air for me from everything else I had seen out there previously. Your site was reassuring that we didn't have to be confined to the norm or do things a certain way because it was tradition. Our wedding was our day, our way. We wanted our guests to have the best time and not be left thinking that they were just at....'another textbook wedding.' So, with much planning and evenings spent beavering away we managed to pull it all together."Read more...
April 27, 2010
I found a linky to the wedding of UBER UBER UBER cool recent bride and artist Zoetica Ebb & her writer husband Ales Kot on Gala Darling last week and literally couldn't wait to share it with you - especially after I visited Zoetica's inspiring website and laid eyes on her sparkly, blue, faux-halk! Serious hair envy batman! The pair actually got officially married in a microscopic civil ceremony June as Ales is a Czech citizen (you can see Zoetica's post on the event here including their adorable 'leaving the ceremony' video) so the couple decided that a second 'just for show' ceremony didn't make sense so their wedding was actually just a big old Rock n Roll celebration!Read more...
March 9, 2010
As you begin planning your wedding, one of the first things you'll be thinking about (after the dress of course!) is the invitations. They're the first thing your guests will see in relation to your wedding and the perfect invitations will set the tone, theme and vibe of your Rock n Roll wedding day. It's my pleasure to introduce to you today one of the UKs latest and greatest invitation designers on the block, Amma of Beyond Beyond. Enjoy!Read more...
February 16, 2010
few weeks ago I was offered a couple of tickets to attend The Designer Wedding show in Battersea, London. The event took place from last Friday - Sunday so my friend (and photographer extraordinaire) David McNeil and I thought we'd go check it out in the hope to be inspired, have fun and to actually real-life-meet some of the amazing UK wedding vendors that we've met online. Today I want to share a few of my highlights and photographs from the event so you can see what fun we had. I definitely did and I even got to meet a bunch of Rock n Roll Bride readers. It was the first event I've been to where I actually got recognised which was surreal but certainly nice! Here are some of my (and David's) faves. ♥ Magpie Vintage undoubtedly had one of the busiest stalls of the day. I've wanted to meet Lisa & Tania for ages now and The Designer Wedding show proved to be the perfect opportunity. I wondered up to their stand hoping they'd spot the pink hair and know it was me and as soon as I was within 20 feet I was greeted by Lisa with a massive hug and an "oh my god you look so young!" (haha way to suck up Lisa - you go girl!) and " oh you simply must wear this necklace!" She the proceeded to drape a beautiful powder pink and teal green reclaimed vintage gem around my neck which I was lucky enough to walk around with all day (and yes I did remember to return it after!) ♥ Abbey of Sugalily Stationary and I have been chatting online for months now so it was great to finally meet her in real life. I fell in love with not only her but with her beautiful creations in paper, ribbon and sparkly bits. From retro to classic, colourful to muted, Abbey's display was one of the most indearing there..and she had cupcakes! Now who could say no to that!? ♥ Myself and David had waaaay too much fun at the Booth Nation/Glitterbooth. As we walked past I was instantly drawn to the 8 foot, silver glitter-covered photo booth. We were greeted by Seamus who immediately told us to hop in and give it a go, and inside only a bloomin' built in wind machine (you can see we had fun with that!) I swear to god, if I was getting married again I would totally have one of these. Awesome!Read more...
February 11, 2010
February 4, 2010
It's my favourite time of the week again and I'm always ready for a little treat aren't you? To stay with, I had to share yet another image by Kirsty Mitchell at the top of this post (she's got the top spot for a second week running now) as this simply is my favourite image I've seen all week. She sent it over to me a few days ago and it's well...just too damn wonderful for words isn't it?! In fact all her photography is really - simply breathtaking...Thanks Kirsty! ♥ I heart this engagement ring made out of a block of wood. So damn sweet ♥ Inspired by: wedding gloves ♥ Red dress lovely - le swoon ♥ Anna Sui's apartment ♥ The Ruche spring catalogue is really really lovely ♥ Stylish and fun Cubu pre-nup session ♥ Life is too f***ing short! ♥ Message on a cookie ♥ More fabulous invitations courtesy of IlovelolliblogRead more...
January 27, 2010
Something a little different in Under the Spotlight today. I'd like to introduce you to Aerin & Jeremy of Royal Steamline. They specialise in wedding invites with a gothic/steampunk/retro/vintage vibe and I think you're going to totally dig what they do! I can't wait to get going... Who are you and what do you do? Royal Steamline is Aerin and Jeremy -- a husband-and-wife design team based in Portland, Oregon, USA. We create wedding invitations that have a dark, clockwork or otherwise retro/vintage flavor. Through a subtle and sometimes anachronistic combination of shadows, textures and vintage illustrations, we aim to convey a sense of eras strange and forgotten. Sea monsters mingle next to robotic ravens, and gentlemen scientists have tea with rockabilly rebels. Simply stated, we offer unconventional invitations for unconventional people. Who/what are your biggest influences? Who do you really admire? We primarily create designs that aim to capture a theme or mood. Our influences vary wildly -- from vintage fashion & science journals to odd finds at antique stores. Now, if you mean visual artists that we follow and appreciate, here are a few names off the top of our heads: EMEK, Alex Gross, George Tooker, Gregory Crewdson, Joe Coleman, Irving Norman, Guy Burwell, Wayne Douglas Barlowe, Michael Michael Motorcycle, Toni Frissell, Chris Ware, Guy Colwell, R. Kenton Nelson, and Jeremy could stare at Todd Schorr's "The Spectre of Monster Appeal" for hours. What is the ethos and idea behind your business? We want weddings to be cool. We want to change the way people think about weddings and offer alternatives that speak to their personal tastes. About seven years ago, a number of friends who were getting married began coming to us to design custom invitations since they couldn't find anything that epitomized their rockabilly, goth or other non-traditional wedding themes. So, we started to make invitations that were outside of the normal, plain, anemic styles that we were (and still are) seeing everywhere. More and more couples are insisting that their weddings reflect their personal styles instead of conforming to traditional wedding styles, structures, colors and attitudes. We want to contribute to their big party and help them have the weddings they want. How do you come up with invitation ideas? Often, our designs are sparked from a book or artifact on our shelves like a first edition of H.G. Wells' Star Begotten, an Edwardian glass eye, or Liz McGrath curios. Jeremy's been deep into Victorian pulps and I'm obsessed with mourning buttons and early 20th century advertising and science imagery. We're inspired by the stories of retro technology, old movies, textures of old paper...the look of outdated fonts...some crazy ornate border flourish. The combo of the different worlds usually leads to some interesting aesthetics. What is your most popular design? It seems to change every month, but 10/6 is always up there. I think that's because it's so versatile and has its own interpretation for each couple. Do you offer custom work? Of course! We offer unique "from scratch" custom designs, as well as custom design changes to our readymade invitations. Tell me a little about your favourite invitation you created and why. Hmm…I like Coney Island 1896 because I'm a big fan of old sideshow posters and I've got a soft spot for cephalopods. I think it just looks great printed -- and it really sets an undeniably quirky and fun tone. Jeremy likes Vintage Rock because, well, it's a symbol of vintage rock: Viva Gene Vincent and Wanda Jackson! Do you have any advice for people looking for invitation ideas? Really spend some time and look around for the right invitation for you. Your wedding invitation is a great way for your guests to get a peek at all the fun that's to come. And if you don't see what you're looking for, it never hurts to ask! What has been the highlight of your career so far? Really, just doing this full-time is a blast for us. But if we had to name a single client that we were flattered to work with, it might be Voltaire. We were so honored he chose us to create the invitations for what looked to be an awesome goth wedding. Name a couple of bands/songs that are on your stereo at the moment? Music plays a huge role withregard to who we are and what we do (or, maybe, just how we do it). We actually met when we were both living in San Francisco and our first date was basically one big argument about music (but it was great!). We genuinely enjoy a huge range of music: I grew up loving bands like Bauhaus, Ministry, Joy Division, Clan of Xymox, and The Smiths while J listened to stuff like the Misfits, Neurosis, Hawkwind and Einstürzende Neubauten. These days, we're still all over the place! Recently, shows we've seen include Earth, Stereolab, Marissa Nadler, The Raveonettes, Vagabond Opera, King Khan and BBQ, the Horrors, Thrones, Atlas Sound, the Ghastly Ones…We haven't even mentioned Jeremy's love of early Americana (Harry Smith is a big influence) and my collection of hard bop and sad bastard vinyl. What can we expect from you in 2010? We're always working on new designs and will soon be offering matching programs, table numbers and other wedding accoutrements on our website (currently only available by special request). Also, our New Year's Sale is still going on: we put 5 designs on sales the week of New Year's. To contact Aerin & Jeremy about your wedding invitations, go check out their fabulous and inspirational website and drop them an email to hello@royalsteamline.com If you are a photographer or wedding vendor and are interested in being featured in a future ‘Under the Spotlight’ post then drop me an email for all the info.Read more...
January 14, 2010
Those who follow me on Twitter and Facebook will know I've had a rough few days of late. I've been letting things (or should I say certain people!) get to me and it must stop! Arrgh... so I apologise for that right now. However, in a much more positive vein, I am very excited to get going with this week's Thursday Treats as it always cheers me to share such internet wonderfulness with you all, my dear readers and loyal fans :P ♥ First off - erm..hello? How fabulous are the photos at the top of this post? It was taken by the amazingly fun, cool, quirky and chatty Leah McCormick who I was lucky enough to meet on a cold day in London just before Christmas. I took her for a walk around Soho and down Carnaby Street where she went nuts over the Christmas decorations. Well they are pretty gorgeous aren't they? ♥ 10 of the weirdest wedding invitations - I think they're all pretty damn cool actually!Read more...
December 31, 2009
Well my dears, 2009 had been pretty damn awesome in Rock n Roll Bride Land and if you haven't yet then you totally have to check out my yearly review - part one and two - my favourite features of the past 12 months. "But what about the past 7 days!?" I hear you cry. "What have I missed whist I was opening my pressies, eating too much food and spending an untoward amount of time with my family?"' Well don't fret my loves, although blog-land has been a little on the slower side I've still been here, scouring the interwebs to bring you the best of the Christmas week's internet fun. ♥ The best of 2009 - How to make money from your blog ♥ 13 Tutorials to Help You Grow Your Blog Readership Next Year ♥ I Love You... by Max Chaoul Paris ♥ Snow globe torture...or diy snow globes (depends how you look at it really!) ♥ Julia Boggio's blog awards ♥ Meet Kingsley ♥ A veil of poofy wonderfulnessRead more...
December 7, 2009
Yeah so I've gone a little nuts with this post. Sixty Seven photographs may be a lot to share in one bumper go, but once you lay eyes on these I know you're going to allow it! Chad & Christine, what can I say? The super stylish pair had a fabulous eco wedding at the end of October at Lake Oak Meadows. The bride wore a Sue Wong dress which she bought from Saks and both she and her groom had wooden rings made by Gustav Reyes which of course complimented their rustic, eco, hippy-chic theme to a tee. The bridesmaids all chose their own dresses from David's Bridal and the boys wore suits from Men's Warehouse. The entire wedding party went barefoot for the majority of the day and the pair went DIY-tastic by designing and making their own invitations, logo and napkins. Quite frankly my dears, my words can not give justice to this awesome day. Enjoy lusting over these won't you?! Thanks to photographer's Brandon & Brian for sharing this ridiculously awesome wedding with me and my lovely readers today. Mwah! ps I was going to post these tomorrow but I actually couldn't wait!Read more...
July 16, 2009
I have a lot of love for these images. The mish-mash of Vera Wang, flower covered invitations, blood red florals, croque en bouche (cake!) and the music makes me a rather happy girlie Mucho gracias to photographer Lisa for sending a little bit of joy to my inbox today. Credit: Lisa Rigby PhotographyRead more...
July 14, 2009
I'd just like to start by saying those were the Bride's words not mine but I like it so I stole it. They started off with wanting a 1920's theme but once they fell in love with their bright Bridesmaid dressed they knew that was out the window. The theme then morphed to 'Bonnie & Clyde' but ended up as 'whatever the hell was want!' I like that theme..screw being constrained by any kinda rules! A few more awesome tips and ideas from the couple... We made all our paper stuffs - the invitations, programs, placecards, table numbers and photocards. We did everything on a modest budget and still got stuff we wanted. I love my dress - I found it on sale, in perfect condition. Joe picked out his tux on his own and we found a matching fedora for the reception. We also picked very random songs to play during the reception. Hardly anyone knew what they were, but we loved them. It kept us dancing the whole night! And possibly my favourite fact about this wedding... Did I mention that although we were engaged for over a year, everything changed about 6 weeks out, so we did pretty much everything in a very short period of time? No, well, we did! We were really go-with-the-flow, whatever happens, happens and we didn't really care about a lot of the details.We didn't do centerpieces, we had chocolate suckers as favors, and we really didn't care what anyone wore. It was a very low-key crazy-colorfest! Methinks we can all learn a lot from this crazy couple..I totally heart them. Thanks Susan & Joe for not only sharing, but proving that stressing about having the 'perfect' wedding just doesn't matter! Credit: Katie Halton PhotographyRead more...
June 22, 2009
May 29, 2009