Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

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Beach & Colourful Marquee Cornish Wedding: Sarah & Doug {Part Two}

Kat

December 14, 2012

Here we go then - part two of Sarah & Doug's Cornish wedding and things are about to get colourful! On Saturday 16th June the couple hosted a humanist ceremony and reception at Rosewastis Manor in St Columb Major. They had a quirky tent marquee from Ashley Events which they decorated themselves. In fact the couple and some of their guests actually rented the manor for the whole week before to set up and just enjoy spending some time together before the wedding. For this second part of the wedding, Sarah wore a Lisa Redman wedding gown which she found at a charity bridal sale in London. Her shoes were from Irregular Choice, her headpiece was made by her and a friend from vintage pieces and her ring was her Grandmothers.
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A Festival Tipi Wedding on the Family Farm: Amy & Chris

Kat

October 20, 2012

Festival and tipi weddings have been big in 2012... like huge. Like they're the wedding trend that just won't quit. And that not necessarily a bad thing, because hell, who doesn't love a festival and camping and toasting marshmallows over an open fire? When Amy & Chris set to planning their July wedding, they decided that the groom's family home, Laskey Farm in Thelwall, was a more than perfect spot. After a humanist ceremony performed by Kate Gee came a various bands and performances with the evening being rounded off with a silent disco!
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A Festival & Picnic Wedding… in the Rain: Charlotte & Josh

Kat

October 8, 2012

Recently I dubbed 2012 the year of the festival wedding. I've been seeing them all over (particularly on my own blog's pages!) and loving it. I used to be a huge festival kid. I live in Reading and we have a pretty famous rock festival every year, so I've always been a bit of a fangirl. I have fond memories of dancing til dawn, getting soaking wet in the rain and not giving a damn and waking up in stranger's tents ...(I'd like to point out this was before Gareth by the way!)
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“Glastombecci” – A Music Festival Wedding: Becci & Tom

Kat

August 6, 2012

When the Summer rolls round what's the first thing many of us get excited about? Festivals! So it's hardly surprising that so many Rock n Roll Brides (and grooms!) are taking wedding inspiration from their favourite past time. Warm beer, dodgy food, mud & sleeping in a tent... What's not to love!? Haha joking! Becci & Tom favour the UK's biggest rock festival, Glastonbury, and so started here with their ideas including their wedding cake that was inspired by the Ribbon Tower and the song lyric centerpieces. This wedding was pure music festival gold. Tom even proposed to Becci while at a gig in Oxford!
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A Relaxed Wedding Under Canvas: Gwen & Ali

Kat

February 2, 2012

Without wanting to start off this blog post by sounding inappropriate...How smokin' hot does Gwen look her her Fairy Goth Mother corset and skirt combo? VERY is the answer to that. Have you seen her teeny tiny little waist!? Anyway, enough perving...let's get along with the formalities shall we? Gwen & Ali wanted a unique and personal wedding, and to achieve this they chose to hire tents from Beautiful World Tents which they erected on the grounds of Knepp Castle in West Grinstead. "After looking online at lots of venues and land hire this place looked perfect," Gwen told me. "This was actually the only venue we went to see and the decision was made! Woodland, a lake, less than an hour from Brighton where we live, full kitchen facilities and more importantly stunning! The other added benefit was free roaming animal, pigs, deer and much more besides. It was incredibly beautiful and also very reasonable on costs. We found the location through the tent company and added bonus this being their headquarters which meant no delivery costs to get the tents to the venue. On the land we had 2 giant hat tents joined together facing down to the lake. You hire the land and facilities for the whole weekend, really handy for set-up and take down."
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Sarah & Chris’ Handcrafted Tipi Wedding

Kat

October 28, 2010

Sarah & Chris got married at Croft Castle, Herefordshire followed by a Tipi reception in Sarah's Father's field. I have a serious wedding crush on this 'venue'! The whole wedding was a locally-sourced and handcrafted affair as this was very important to the couple. The tipi was decorated top to toe by Sarah and her Mother (her Mum is the lady wearing the fabulous handmade patchwork coat!) "We wanted our wedding to have a handcrafted feel and it was important that our friends and families were as involved as they could be" Sarah explained. "My inspiration for the feel of the day came from that, from getting those peoples input and spending time with them. My mother made the amazing patchwork coat that you can see her wearing, from thousands of small squares of lovely fabric, and she announced just after we got engaged that she was going to turn it into a quilt for our first baby after the wedding - this pretty much encapsulates the feel I wanted of the wedding. I wanted to make as much as I could myself and took immense pleasure in spending hours stitching and crafting, using old family photos or random things picked up over the years to make everything as unique as it could be - it was so important to me that it all came, well, from the heart. Is that too cheesy? I don't care, it was my wedding day and I loved every second of it."
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Joan & Tim’s Musical English Country Garden Wedding

Kat

October 14, 2010

Oh I have yet another fabulous British wedding for you to le swoon over today. Joan & Tim's English country garden theme was sure as hell given a Rock n Roll twist with the infusion of some seriously rad and personal touches. Not least of all, Joan's incredible dress (actually a corset, skirt, bustle & train) from designer Jane Bourvis. It was all Vintage Couture. Jane was actually the designer behind Carrie Bradshaw's famous 'green seafoam ballerina dress' that she wore in the final episode of Sex and the City (photo here) "Her shop is a wedding wonderland with vintage dresses and corsets dangling above you so you don't know where to look at first," Joan explained. "It was the first dress I tried on and within 5 minutes I knew that I wanted it."
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Louisa & Rob’s Music & Car Festival Wedding

Kat

October 7, 2010

"We knew our wedding was going to be slightly different but I guess thats what you get when you try to incorporate cars, music and food, emphasising the feasting and dancing with friends and family rather than the actual ceremony" began bride Louisa. "We both have an affinity with old cars, cars that have been around a while and have a tale to tell so we had no problem finding a wedding car - I had the perfect excuse to use my hotrod, a 1928 Model A Ford. Not wanting to leave his cars out of the fun, Rob decided we should include a mini car show where he and our friends could park up their old cars and in some cases, their beds for the night."
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Rachael & Rafe’s Pagan Handfasting Festival Wedding

Kat

September 14, 2010

Rachael & Rafe were uninterested in a traditional religious or civil ceremony so decided to get married on their own terms. They were wed by one of their closest friends, Tara, in a pagan hand-fasting service which took place outside, in a small copsed wood locally known as "The Spinney". They knew very early on in their planning that this was where they wanted to get married as the couple had spent some time living on a narrow-boat on the river, and for that period The Spinney was their garden, "It was where we hung out, relaxed, partied and where our children played. It is full of trees and love and so naturally the first place we both thought of for our ceremony" the couple told me.
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Archery, Tractors & Tents – A British Summertime Wedding with a Twist

Kat

August 16, 2010

Architects Sybil & Jon planned an outdoors, Robin Hood style wedding - complete with campfire, archery and tents - at the bride's parent's house, for July 30th this year. Jon explained that they wanted the ‘feel’ of the wedding to be similar to the scene in the woods from the original film of Robin Hood. They wanted everything to be relaxed and very informal and so had tractors as their transport, a folk band and a rustic, natural style of flowers. "Sibyl was very keen to use English flowers and wanted them to look like they had been picked from the garden." their wedding planner, Kate told me. " Anne Bell sourced the flowers from a walled garden in Hertfordshireand created beautiful colourful arrangements in jars on each of the tables along withbouquets for Sibyl and her bridesmaids. The church was decorated witha stunning candle stick display and pew end arrangements tied with raffia. As an added touch the couple also quickly decorated the tractor!"
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The Colour Purple

Kat

July 30, 2010

Jenni & George are another 'inspired by Rock n Roll Bride' couple who found their photographer Shan after she was featured on the blog. The couple, who got married on the Isle of Man, wanted to incorporate he things they love into their day - the colour purple and all things eclectic, antique and vintage. "I have a love of all things antique and vintage and my favourite colour is purple! So that's where it began. I bought a lot of the antique bottles from places like eBay, Jurby Junk (!!) and our friend Roger Leece, who found a whole stack of bottles and jars buried somewhere up North apparently!" the bride told me.
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Laura & Harry’s Locally Sourced, Eco-Friendly, Midsummer’s Nights Dream, Vintage & Totally Rock n Roll Wedding

Kat

July 26, 2010

Excuse me one second while I scream "EEEEEEEK!" at the top of my lungs, because that's exactly how I felt when I first saw Laura & Harry's eco-friendly, vintage-heavy, Rock n Roll inspired backyard wedding. Oh yes, I really do love to feature true Rock n Roll Bride weddings - ie weddings of those that I was able to help and inspire with my little blog. Laura & Harry actually found their fabulous photographer Rosie Parsons and Laura's gorgeous vintage Fur Coat No Knickers dress after seeing them on the site. Yey!
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Stevie Wonder played at our Reception!

Kat

July 8, 2010

I don't often post weddings that aren't shot by a professional wedding photographer as I am so passionate about everyone having amazing wedding photography, however there are definitely some instances when I'm happy to make an exception. I am proud to make the 'wedding' of Stacey & Dave one of these exceptions. The pair were at Glastonbury music festival last weekend (actually I think it was the week before, man I am behind with my blog posts!) and got engaged, hurrah! Their friends suggested they get married then and there as Glastonbury is famous for people rocking up and getting married in wellies, surrounded by mud and music! This year however it was 30 degrees and although the 'wedding' isn't a legally binding one (silly UK wedding laws) this is certainly going to be an awesome memory for the couple.
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Quirky English Summer Festival Wedding

Kat

June 19, 2010

This quirky, laid back British wedding with a cool festival vibe was sent over to be last week and you guessed it, I couldn't wait to feature it. Rachel & Dan really did it their own way and I love the idea of a chilled out party in a tent to celebrate a wedding. The couple were officially married at a registry office but has an 'unoffical' church blessing at St Peter's Church, Weston, Suffolk. They didn't make a big deal about the registry office part as they didn't want this to feel like their actual wedding - in fact Rachel was still at work half an hour before their appointment! The reception was held at Marsh Farm which was just a holiday property when they found it. However since the couple got married there and Rachel published an article in The Guardian newspaper about the wedding, the owner decided to change it to a wedding venue.
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With a Little Help From Our Friends…{Part 1}

Kat

March 17, 2010

The event started the day before, with everyone coming together to set up and organise for the next day's festivities. "On Thursday, after Seba and I spent two days on vacation exploring Castro, we met up with Anita, Alan, and about 30 of their closest friends." Kyle told me "We carpooled from Castro to Quicavi, another little seaside town, where we would take a boat to Voigue. But first, we had to load that bad boy up. When all was said and done, I was nearly certain that we would sink. I have never seen so much stuff packed into such a small space. I mean, pretty much the entire wedding, minus the tent, was being transported. As soon as we arrived on the island, everyone set up their tents, we ate lunch and then we got right to work — and by “we,” I mean everybody else worked really hard and Seba and I photographed them working really hard."
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Vintage. Quirky. Eco. Gorgeous.

Kat

November 17, 2009

Who couldn't love the quirky, vintage, rustic, eco wedding of Amanda & Matt? I am particularly gaga about the wheat bouquet and boutonnieres and Amanda's beautiful cameo bracelet. The pair wed at theirhome in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. They rented a tentand despite the torrential downpour most of the day, things worked out really well in there. Friend and caterer, Nikki Kleinberg, catered the wedding using mostly foods grown in the urban farm Amanda and Matt maintain adjacent to their backyard. These two are super into self sustaining, eco-friendly means to living in the city. Amanda made her own flowers and centerpieces and friends played the music for the wedding ceremony plus they even dj-ed their own reception. Thanks to Carina & Amanda of Love Me Do Photography for giving Rock n Roll Bride the exclusive first showing of this awesome wedding.
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