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Hitchfest 2011 – Britt & Mike’s “Re-Do” Vegas Wedding

May 3, 2011 in Wedding | 16 comments

You remember The Bowie Bride and her ridiculously awesome ‘Hitchfest 2010′ wedding right? Well I have news…and news that shows that even the most meticulously planned/detail-heavy/totally killer weddings can…erm…sometimes go wrong. Britt emailed me this week to tell me all about the drama!

“Basically we were told that the wedding we spent over a year planning and pouring our collective heart and soul into, didn’t count. Not one bit. We were, at first, very shocked and devastated.  Our wedding day was oh-so-special and unique and was such a personal expression of our love that upon hearing this news, made it seem all for not. We knew we were married in our heart of hearts, but legally, our marriage wasn’t legal.”

“This is what happened… we think: Our officiant was supposed to mail our marriage paperwork back after everyone put down all the appropriate signatures. For whatever reason, this step did not occur. So when we went to go order a copy of the marriage certificate, the state told us that we are not legally married and that it was too late to send them the original paperwork from our July 31st nuptials. Cut to us letting out a collective sigh mixed with a resounding, ‘F*ck’ and a couple of ‘What do we do now’s?’ We knew we had to get ourselves married. Again. But how? We had considered heading down to the courthouse and doing it quick ‘n dirty style, but that didn’t seem fun enough or crazy enough for a couple like us. I mean, we started the dance party at our ‘first’ wedding with a group shot of tequila.  If a calm and quiet courthouse certainly wasn’t our vibe then, it sure as hell wasn’t going to be our vibe now.”

“So we decided to take this sour lemon news and turn it into some really awesome lemonade. The kind with booze in it and lots of crushed ice — the gnarly, jagged kind — and get our fly asses married in Vegas. For real this time. We planned the trip in the three short days leading up to our Vegas wedding – which was starkly different from our carefully planned ‘first’ wedding.  Everything just sort of fell into place this time around. We wore the same wedding attire from our July affair, and I had since changed my hair color and style pretty drastically from our first wedding so I had a blast playing with the new look. I got to wear my Zooey Deschanel uber bangs and an enormous flower on top of my head.  I felt funky gorgeous and fun.”

“And randomly, four of our friends were in town the same weekend for various reasons.  Two of those friends just happened to be The Broke-Ass Bride and The Fresh Hubby, Dana and Hunter!  In the days leading up the wedding, Dana had stealthily put out the APB on Twitter to help find a “photographer for a super secret blogger wedding” and since The Wedding & Portrait Photographers International Convention (WPPI) was taking place that same weekend, we got an amazing photographer (and 2nd shooter to boot!) to volunteer services.  We were over the moon when we found out that this photographer happened to be THE Nick Radford, mega-talented, Southern California-based wedding photog extraordinaire.”

“The wedding itself was a mix of love-sweet-love and pure ridiculousness.  For example, we said our own vows through adoring tears, but we also took swigs out of a champagne bottle at will. At the altar. Our officiant at The Heavenly Bliss Wedding Chapel said this to us (we have video proof): ‘Out of all the Vegas weddings I have officiated, this has to be the craziest one I have ever seen.’   I kind of find that hard to believe, considering it’s Vegas, but hey, we took that as a compliment of the highest honor.”

So there you have it! Britt & Mike’s ‘first’ wedding was bad ass, but there re-do was almost more so…they got the best of both worlds AND to do it twice! Congratulations (again!) to Britt & Mike. I’ve haven’t met you (not ye, but it will happen!) but I love you so much and couldn’t be happier for you.

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Christina & Sybrina LGBT-Friendly Wedding

April 13, 2011 in Wedding | 8 comments

Christina & Sybrina were married in their own back garden in Vegas. Christina wore a beautiful dress by Ouma Clothing and Sybrina wore a sharp suit. The couple are pretty active in their local LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community and so wanted to use their connections to do it ‘right’ and create a wedding that was perfect for them and their friends.

“We worked very hard in making it a comfortable environment to accommodate our diverse attendees,” the couple explained. “Most of the vendors we used were close friends. We wanted to integrate them throughout the wedding while supporting local small and new businesses. Our close friend, Jeff Hames, even did a mural on our backway that matched the wedding invitations.”

“We tried to stay as true to our queer feminist roots as possible.  We made our wedding our own by only using things we felt comfortable with.”

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Help Me Find The Perfect Rockabilly Dress For My Vegas Wedding!

January 15, 2011 in Fashion Advice, Guest Posts | 20 comments

Photography Credit: John Day Photography (you can see the full wedding on this blog)

Hey Kat!

My name’s Rachel & I just want to start by saying your wedding blog is awesome!

Also, I need your help! My fiance and I live in Australia and are planning to go to Vegas to get married in the little white chapel. I wanted your opinion and advice on wedding dresses. I wanted something stylish & Rockabilly but also not extravagant as it will be pretty low key.

Do you have any advice on what i should be taking into account when choosing a dress? Also could you recommend me any websites on where to find alternative wedding dresses?

Thanks so Much Kat!

Love Rach

xoxoxo

Dilemmas like Rachel’s land in my inbox every day but sometimes I’m not always the best person to help out. However, luckily for you guys, I have a strong and willing force of wonderful wedding experts on board as regular Rock n Roll Bride guest writers, eager to swoop in and save you! For Rachel’s question, I called upon the expert eye of newlywed Anna of Anna and the Ring fame, to see if she could offer some dress-hunt advice. And she did…in spades!

My guest writers rule!

♥ ♥ ♥

Dear Rachel,

Congratulations! Firstly, how exciting getting married in Vegas. It just sounds like so much fun! I am assuming you want to buy your dress in Australia and take it with you to the US? Yet just in case you fancy buying your dress abroad I have a few other ideas. Yes your dress may only be ever worn once (although personally I shall be ignoring this rule!) but that does not mean you cannot wear something spectacular for a great price. It is all in the details. It is all in time you spend looking. Think about your body shape and what suits you. If your wardrobe is filled with halterneck tea length dresses there is a reason. You they make you look good but more importantly they you feel good. That’s how you want to feel on your wedding day. Or if like mine yours is filled with sleeved v necked creations you know what will make you happy!

I remember when I first started to look for dresses. It felt like a uphill struggle. I knew I didn’t want a super traditional wedding dress. Some girls are just not destined to wear a strapless meringue! You mention Rockabilly and for me that conjures up visions of glamour, tea length dresses with oodles of pearls and the sweetest little gloves. For me this is the archetypal Rockabilly Rock n Roll Bride. Fabulous hair, fabulous accessories, fabulous style.

So I guess we should start by looking at white dresses?

via Vivien of Holloway

The first dress is from the same maker as the dress at pictured at the top of this post . What do you think? They are London based but excitingly now have a finger in the Australian pie in Melbourne.

via Ozone Clothing

Perhaps my favourite white dress, I love this dress by Tarantula. It is just so glamorous but understated. Fabulous embroidery detailing for that extra vintagey feel.

via Dolly Couture

Oooh Dolly Couture. Yummers. Based in LA but ship worldwide. Just look at the cuteness of the satin trim!

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Amy & Daylen’s Las Vegas Elvis Romance

January 10, 2011 in Wedding | 14 comments

It was Elvis’ birthday on Saturday so I thought I’d mark the occasion by sharing Amy & Daylen’s awesome Elvis-influenced Las Vegas wedding with you this morning!

They were married at Graceland Chapel, Vegas by Elvis (of course) followed by an informal and rockin’ party reception at the MGM Grand in the Skyloft Suite.

“We had a reception with about 25 of us at a Skyloft Suite, then all of us took a party bus to Graceland Chapel to get married by Elvis, we chose the Blue Hawaii package and Elvis sang 3 songs,” explained the bride. “It was the loudest and liveliest wedding ceremony ever, I’m pretty sure. We all sang and danced and cheered, so much fun and exactly how I want to enter into marriage, with a fun party.”

“Our party bus however, ended up being a disaster; they were an hour late as they forgot to pick us up. After many calls they sent a rickety party bus with no AC, flickering lights and no music that eventually broke down on the freeway 5 minutes into our trip to the chapel. We then got picked up by another company with their party bus that did in face get us there safely and then tried to leave us at the Chapel (an amazing Groomsmen helped us out there), all in all, that really actually made the trip as we had an amazing time on the side of the freeway and we laugh about it now!”

“We didn’t have the bridesmaids or groomsmen wear anything specific, we just gave everyone a theme and let them roll with it. I bought everyone fun sunglasses and glow necklaces to have fun with. I very much just wanted this wedding to be fun and relaxed. I didn’t want the stress to be there, I wanted to laugh during the ceremony not cry (and laugh we did a lot of), I wanted it to be more of a good time than making sure everything was perfect, because it far from wasn’t but that’s what made it fun and unique in my eyes. I loved how I looked, I was comfortable and enjoyed the moment. If you watch the video or look at the ceremony photos, there was a lot of me dancing and singing as well as my husband and guests. I wasn’t sure what to expect and the surprise of it all was the best.”

Amy wore a dress from Anthropologie and an antique necklace handed down from her Mother. Daylen kept his look casual and rockin’ with a shirt from J Crew and trousers from Banana Republic. His awesome bow tie was from etsy seller Me & Matilda.

(did you know that I always post all the vendor info and more photographs after the ‘jump’ be sure to check it out…)

Don’t you just love them?! You can also watch their ceremony video on You Tube here!

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Rachel & Dale’s Fabulously Theatrical Goth Wedding

November 4, 2010 in British Brides, Wedding | 23 comments

Rachel & Dale may have got married in Vegas first, but having a goth perfect UK wedding was also very important to them. The couple, who’s outrageous punk rock engagement session I featured back in July, told me all about their awesome wedding, both here and in Viva Las Vegas! Rock music, choreographed lights, smoke machines  and dry icewere what was required for this fabulously theatrical wedding!

“We knew we didn’t want a conventional wedding, not being exactly a conventional couple so we eloped to Las Vegas in August and had Elvis do the deed for us,” Rachel told me. ”We only told a few people we were going. We had a fantastic few days in Vegas then hired a convertible Mustang and drove through Death Valley and across Yosemite National Park – including having to sleep in the car one night, not easy for a 6 foot tall groom! Although my wedding dress made a surprisingly comfy pillow.”

“We drove through to San Francisco and stayed for a week. While we were there we popped into the PictureMachine (a very fine tattoo establishment) and Dale got an appointment set up for some new ink. The card in his top hat was the business card from his tattoo man (on the back it says $40 deposit paid – Dale and Wife!!) He got an awesome tat, complete with Highway 101 sign and a desert scene, surrounded by an old wild west border and a couple of wedding rings to finish it off. Love it!”

“The UK wedding was totally unofficial, not even a civil ceremony. It was for our friends and family to see us “married” in our ideal perfect way. So, we took a stroll around Kirkstall Abbey last year and joked about how cool it would be to get married there…and then it started! We got prices from the Abbey (ludicrously cheap to hire) and the whole thing grew arms and legs all by itself! The lights, fog, music, shrubbery…we had an insanely theatrical wedding with a rock music soundtrack to boot.”

“Dale swaggered down the aisle to the Ecstasy of Gold by Metallica, I came in to Yellowcard’s You and Me and One Spotlight. Both songs complete with dry ice and choreographed lighting. My friend Belinda was our officiant (the funniest girl I know, she dressed up as a geeky priest for the occasion and even sang Nana Mouskouri halfway through the ceremony!) Dale’s daughter was his Best Woman and my oldest friend Louise was my bridesmaid, dressed in black with fab red shoes and not a hint of a puffy sleeve in sight.”

“We had about 45 guests for the whole thing, everyone said it was the coolest wedding they’d ever been to and had never seen anything quite like it! We all hopped on an old red route-master double decker bus to take us to the reception where we got royally pissed and danced like idiots all night. No cheesy tunes were played and we rocked out to NOFX, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, The Jam, Queen, ACDC, Green Day (and a bit of Bon Jovi for the laydees! Much to Dale’s displeasure!) It was freaking awesome!!”

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