Retro

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A Retro, Kitsch & Cherry-Themed Southend-on-Sea Wedding: Heidi & Jim

January 11, 2012 in British Brides, Wedding | 23 comments

You can’t help but fall in love with Heidi & Jim’s Southend-on-Sea wedding. The cherry theme is just so cute and perfect for a retro, quirky and kitsch seaside wedding. “Our inspiration was most definately ourselves, our loved ones and where we live, sunny Southend-on-Sea!” Heidi explained. “We wanted a wedding that was totally personal to us, that involved everyone close to us as much as we could and that was totally full of fun and unstuffy. We knew we wanted good food and a venue that was ours, where we could do what we wanted, decorate it how we wanted, drink the drinks we wanted and eat the food we wanted!”

“We wanted to incorporate the seaside and beloved beach huts and achieved this through our wedding photographer Sam Gibson‘s wonderful photos and the beautiful view from our favourite restaurant, Toulouse, where we had a four course meal before our after-party at Red Brick Barn, Rochford. We wanted as much as possible to be homemade, thoughtful and unique and to give those close to us the opportunity to do something they love doing towards our big day.”

 

The bride wore a Vivien of Holloway circle dress and cute cherry Vivienne Westwood/Melissa shoes. Her incredible headpiece was actually homemade by the bride and was inspired by a very expensive (and way out of budget) Piers Atkinson piece.

The couple decorated Red Brick Barn themselves with handmade bunting, vinyl cake stands and bowls bought on eBay and hundreds of coke bottles with flowers in them. “We would just love to say how much of an amazing time we had,” concluded the bride. “We would hugely recommend doing everything yourself. Yes, it’s hard work but the result is amazing! It’s so easy to get swept along into a carbon copy package wedding with no personality or originality, but break that mould and do what you want! If other people don’t like it that’s their problem not yours.”

“We couldn’t have asked for a better day. We had some wind and a spot of rain but it all added to the character of the day and without it we wouldn’t have had the beautiful rainbow! Now that’s something you can’t choose out of the bridal magazines!”

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A “Totally Neat, Totally Sweet” Music-Themed Wedding: April & Rich

August 8, 2011 in Wedding | 3 comments

“Some people described our wedding theme as Rockabilly, but the only rockabilly music was played at the ceremony,” newlywed April told me. “We are punk rockers at heart, but listen to a wide variety of music in the rock genre.  We thought it would be very difficult to do a punk rock wedding and still keep it somewhat formal.  (Rich’s family is Catholic and I am not religious in any way.  We didn’t want to horrify his grandmother!)”

“We chose Johnny Cash, Gene Vincent and Wanda Jackson for ceremony music.  I walked down the aisle to “Rose of my heart” by Johnny Cash.   I had “rose of my heart” engraved in Rich’s wedding ring.  It was a surprise and when Rich saw it after the ceremony, he got tears in his eyes.  It was one of my favorite moments of the day.  My grandfather died exactly 3 weeks before the wedding.  He was a Johnny Cash fan, so this made it even harder to keep my emotions in check while walking down the aisle.”

As you can see, music played a big part in April & Rich’s wedding. In fact a lot of the significant times in their relationship were down to music too! “Rich and I met on April 7, 1997 at a high school dance,” April continued. ” I was about to turn 16, and he was just a baby at age 14! I was a sophomore and he was in eighth grade.  I was seeing someone else at the time.  It was a very on and off relationship, and I was always miserable.  And full of angst! Rich was always trying to cheer me up.  We talked on the phone for hours every night.  I still remember the day that he told me that if I ditched Brian and started to date him and listen to Reel Big Fish, I would be much happier!  I took his advice, and the next two years were some of the best of my life”

“We both love music and started going to shows when we could.  The first punk rock show we ever went to together was the Casualties.  We went with Amy (maid of honor) and had the best time.  (Of course, we snuck out of the fire hall to make out in the dug out for a while.)  The first big concert we went to was the Cherry Poppin Daddies, Green Day and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones in 1998. We met and had our picture taken with Dicky Barrett from the Bosstones.  We displayed this picture at the wedding. Rich was really into ska in high school.  I went on a trip to NY and bought him a hat at Moon Ska Records.  He still has it.”

Obviously the wedding playlist was a vitally important part of the wedding to this couple and they spent a lot of time getting it perfect. “When coming up with the wedding playlist, we originally wanted to choose 1 song from each band we have seen live together.  But, we couldn’t find any appropriate Casualties songs!  We played 1 song by The Donna’s, my all time favorite band.  We went backstage with the Donna’s last year.  I was so excited and told my friend, ‘All I wanted to do in high school was meet the Donna’s and marry Rich Thompson! Dreams do come true.’  When we were in high school, Rich used to sing the song Totally by Screeching Weasel to me.  We used lyrics from this song on our save the date cards.  ’Totally neat, totally sweet, totally knocked me off my feet.’  Rich’s Mom had our cake knife engrave with ‘totally neat, totally sweet.’  Rich and I both love Rancid.  We played ‘Radio’ (‘I never fell in love, til I fell in love with you.  Never knew what a good time was, til I had a good time with you!’)  We also played ‘Who would’ve thought’.”

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Melissa & Jon’s Alice in Wonderland, Camden Wedding

June 30, 2011 in British Brides, Wedding | 8 comments

“The theme of our wedding ended up as a sort of mish-mash of Mad Hatters tea party, 1940′s/50′s and Camden weirdness (Camden is an area of London known for it’s alternative culture – great for people watching!), which fitted our personalities perfectly” newlywed Melissa told me. She married Jonathan at Islington Town Hall and afterwards had their reception in a hotel in Camden, where they first met.

“My inspiration firstly came from Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland,” Melissa continued. “Jon and I went to see the film when we were dating and I fell in love with it, I’d always been a fan of the book as a child but the film had me hooked. As soon as Jon proposed I knew I would want a touch of Alice involved somewhere within the wedding, the only difficulty was going to be fitting the theme around our tiny budget.”

“We’re not one for tradition and we tend to follow our own rules in life so we thought ‘well why should our wedding be any different’  Although the venues were booked around 6 months in advance everything else was left to the last minute, our decorations and centre pieces were DIY and we had an awful lot of help from our bridesmaids.”

“I totally recommend making centre pieces yourself and decorations. It saves so much money (which was crucial for us as we were on an amazingly tight budget) and gives the wedding a real personal feel. I really couldn’t have done any of it without the support and help of my family and bridesmaids.”

The bride and her bridesmaid’s all wore dresses from Rock n Roll Bride favourite, Vivien of Holloway and Melissa wore (another Rock n Roll bride favourite!) those Vivienne Westwood/Melissa heart shoes.

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Kristin & Brian’s Black & White & 1940′s Themed Wedding

June 28, 2011 in Wedding | 7 comments

“We got engaged in prison. Well…that’s what my Mom likes to say – we got engaged on Alcatraz!” newlywed Kristin told me. “We both have a fascination with prison documentaries and we ADORE San Francisco. So, Brian took me to Alcatraz and surprised me with a ring. If you walk to the back of the prison by the water, you get the MOST gorgeous view of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. This is where he asked me to marry him.”

Kristin & Brian’s unconventional but beautiful engagement was perfectly reflected in their glamorous wedding on Friday 13th May. “Our inspiration was a combination of vintage, old Hollywood glam, and a bit of Rock n Roll! I wanted to be in black and white,” continued the bride. An all-white dress was never an option for me.”

“I had a very specific idea of what I wanted my dress to look like from day one. I knew I would have to customize one. I found a plain dress that I loved the shape of, and then altered it completely to make it my dream dress. I was slightly nervous because I didn’t actually see the final product until 3 days before my wedding. I ordered the dress about 8 sizes too big so they could cut out the back. Originally, it laced up. We added a zipper and then 90 black swarovski crystal buttons all the way down the long train. Originally, the seamstress just wanted to put them halfway down. I said, nope, all the way down, give me some drama! Then we added the black sash and vintage brooch. The look was EXACTLY what I had imagined in my head.”

The wedding took place at The Citizen Hotel, Sacramento, a art deco inspired building that also added a lot to the theme of their day. “Our starting point for our theme was our venue. The lobby looks like somewhere the Rat Pack would be hanging out, smoking cigars and drinking martinis. We took this and ran with it. My whole look was 40′s inspired – from my platinum hair, red lips, and vintage jewelry. We kept up that theme for the reception decor, with crystal lamps and dark red roses. The result, although 40′s inspired, was also very timeless and classic.”

“Instead of a champagne toast, we did a whiskey shot. Whiskey is us, and we knew champagne just wouldn’t do for the most important toast of our lives. Our first dance was a HIM song, “When Love and Death Embrace.” It was beautiful, but also intense, a bit gothic, and PERFECT for us. The bridal party walked out to Led Zeppelin, and I walked down the aisle to an acoustic version of “Everlong” by the Foo Fighters.”

“We wanted our pictures to be city-inspired and a bit gritty. We went back behind alleys and took the most gorgeous pictures on streets lined with dumpsters and grafitti. We wanted edge, and our photographer gave us the most gorgeous, edgy pictures we could have imagined. We also wanted to incorporate rock music where we could, as we are HUGE fans. We cut the cake to Motley Crue and we played string quartet versions of songs by Metallica, Guns n Roses, etc before the ceremony. We wanted people to leave that night thinking that our wedding was “So Brian and Kristin.” I think we accomplished that!”

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That 70′s Show – A Retro Flower-Child Bridal Shoot

May 4, 2011 in British Brides, Styled Photo Shoots | 23 comments

The 1970′s are well and truly BACK. I don’t know about you but I’m seeing the styling of this decade everywhere at the moment - from the rails of the high street to the lookbooks of the high end. Even kitsch 70′s décor is back in vogue (apparently…not sure about the whole avocado bathroom thing making a comeback …)

So needless to say, I didn’t expect it to be long until someone brought this iconic styling into a bridal shoot. Photographer Catherine of Lily & Frank Photography and florist Steph from Fairy Nuff Flowers worked together to bring this concept together.

They set out their goals from the outset as they were keen to make this shoot stand out from the crowd. They wanted the flowers to take centre stage to the styling, to echo the ‘flower-child’ movement of the 70′s I’d suppose, so they make a conscious decision not to use any jewellery or hair accessories on the models. They were also very keen to make it a retro style, rather than the oh-s0-popular vintage styling of the moment – therefore bold pops of colour and strong statement pieces moved to the forefront. Finally, an obvious British feel was imperative as was a vibe of laid-back, fun and alternative-ness.

“We were both inspired by the 70s look and feel and wanted to incorporate the 2011 fashion trend of antique lace and crochet,” photographer Catherine told me. “We also wanted the styling to be very simple, no jewelery only flowers as the accessories. Having fresh flowers in the hair, daisy chains and also keeping the models bare foot for most of the garden shoot.”

“We later transferred the models to a beautiful yellow rapeseed oil field and had some odd props, a lampshade, birdcage filled with gypsophila, suitcase, mirror and just had some fun with the colours, location and the collection of props (pretty much all from mine and my sister’s homes.) We wanted to show that simple styling can be just as beautiful if not more so, also great for smaller budgets.”

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