I love weddings like Claire & Lee’s. Not just because the rockabilly theme is awesome, but because they put their heart and soul(s) into creating a wedding that reflects how they are in everyday life.

“We’re both very much in to the whole rockabilly and psychobilly scenes and have been for quite some time, so it only seemed natural to extend this to our wedding day,” Claire told me. “One thing we set out to do from the very beginning was to make our wedding day for us. It seems all too often that people try and tailor their wedding day around their family and other guests, where as for ourselves we tailored it around us and guests had to fit in; which they did wonderfully.”

“We sourced everything ourselves to fit our style perfectly; the clothes, cars, venues, music and decorations had to be just right; and although at times it was a nightmare of a challenge to get every thing perfect (antique teapots are notoriously hard to find) we managed it and wouldn’t have changed anything for the world.”

The wedding ceremony was held at Manor by the Lake, Cheltenham. After a moving service the couple were greeted by Morris Dancers as they departed. “As Lee is a Morris dancer he had his side (The Gloucester Morris Men) waiting outside of the venue ready for when we walked out as husband and wife, their sticks raised in an arch for us to walk through. They then preformed a few dances for us, including Ladies Pleasure, a one man jig, for Claire. Lee also joined the side for one dance.” The couple were then whisked off to their DIY styled reception at The Lower Lode Inn, Tewkesbury in a 1959 Black Cadillac.

“All of the decorations for the reception I made myself, including 80 meters of bunting and the green and purple polka dot table cloth centres,” Claire continued. “The bunting ran diagonally across the room and was coupled up with strings of fairy lights, which came together to form a heart on the wall directly behind Lee and I. The table decorations were antique tea sets, with flower arrangements in the teapots and the tea cup and saucers had floating tea lights in them. There were also cut glass candle stick holders and candles which we collected ourselves.

Both the bride and groom wore two outfits, one for the ceremony and one for the reception. Claire changed from her Fairy Goth Mother corset and a skirt (made by a local seamstress to which Claire added – by hand – 500 pearls!) to her Forever Unique reception dress. Lee switched from a black 1950’s sharkskin suit (made in Las Vegas and bought on eBay) to a silver sharkskin suit which he found at Moss Bros of all places!

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Ali & Dan, who won free wedding photography with Laura Babb through a feature on this little wedding blog of mine, were married in November. With Dan being Scottish, they originally thought about having their wedding in the far North of the country (the area where he’s from) but it turned out the logistics were impossible. However they luckily found their perfect venue in Folly Farm, Bristol.

“We trawled around plenty of places with the help of the internet, and even booked another venue at one point – but when we found Folly Farm we knew it was the right spot,” Ali told me. “We completely lucked out with the weather on the day, it was hard to believe it was November – but as we fell for Folly Farm’s vantage point and woodland walks on a dreich February morning, we knew it would be beautiful no matter what. We will shortly be leaving the UK to spend a few years working in Philadelphia, so the wedding also gave us a chance to say goodbye to our closest friends and family.”

Although the couple didn’t really want a theme per-say, the day ended up just being a perfect reflection of them as a couple. “We wanted to include the things that we love: great music, the handmade, plenty of colour, nature, the outdoors and each other,” Ali continued. “We were enthusiastic planners though and our non-theme gradually evolved into something we decided to call ‘Psych-Folk-Horror’. We’ve been into folk music and particularly psychedelic folk for a while, so that was always going to be part of the musical element of our day.”

“The tipping point into full-blown theme though was when Dan gifted me “The Owl Service” by Alan Garner, a Folk Horror classic from 1967. After I read it, it became the inspiration for the invitations, RSVP cards and orders of service I designed. Folk Horror as a genre is inspired by nature and we made sure there was plenty of nature and wild things in the decorations. The woods at Folly Farm provided an amazing backdrop, with owls calling in the nighttime, deer and badgers. We let things get a little weirder later in the evening by projecting an animation we made in our living room of our RSVP cards coming to life, followed by the 1960’s TV series of The Owl Service.”

“Our inspiration primarily came from wanting the wedding to feel homely – part of us and the way we live together. That doesn’t sound very Rock n Roll in itself, but we tried really hard to cut out the rubbish and keep our own identities – hopefully whilst maintaining our usual sense of humour. It was very important to us that everything had some meaning for us. We collected lichen covered twigs and driftwood from a beach near Dan’s home in Scotland, teasels from Dan’s mum, and leaves from London’s parks (we’ve both developed a discerning eye for a good leaf!). We’re scientists by day and we wanted to include this too, hence the assortment of lab glassware. There were also things that we live with every day, such as blankets, cushions, bike bits and strange mix of ornaments.”

They even made their own ‘leaf bunting’ which, although looks simple, did take a lot of collecting, drying out and stringing of leaves to make happen! “We love the handmade and hand crafted, especially when those things are made by people we know.”

“We had a number of friends and family stay at the farm on Friday night before the wedding, who pulled out all the stops to help us with the decorations; tying leaf bunting, arranging teasels in conical flasks and piling up leaves and twigs late into the night. Dan’s Grandma is a weaver in the highlands; although she sadly could not make the journey south for the ceremony she made our cake and we used a number of her woven rugs for the ceremony.”

“I’ve always had a habit of ‘making’ and in recent years that’s predominantly been knitted things. The first bit of the wedding I made was my gloves, before I had any clear idea of what my dress would be like. The wool was an inspired gift from Dan, which I’d been saving for something special. I then moved onto shawls for my bridesmaids and a jumper for my page boy who is very fortunately fond of owls. I ended up designing Dan’s socks because I couldn’t find a pattern I liked, and I was really pleased with how they turned out. All these things were knitted in Alice Starmore’s yarn, whose colours are inspired by the Scottish landscape – specifically places where Dan grew up and we’ve both shared some of our happiest times together. We couldn’t get all our guests up to the remote Highlands, but we did manage to carry them with us during the day.”

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Daniel & Caroline were married in Chateau Puits es Pratx in Ginestas, in the south-west of France. The gorgeous surroundings provided the perfect backdrop to their rustic wedding.

“The Chateau is only a few miles from Dan’s dad’s house in a nearby town, so it is an area of France we have visited often and know well,” the bride told me. “We knew from the off that we wanted our friends to help us celebrate our wedding in this beautiful place and the Chateau fitted our requirements perfectly – cottages on site, and a self-contained venue for a long weekend of fun! We wanted the weekend to feel like a party in a stunning venue, with good company, great food and endless wine. Simple!”

“I worked closely with the team at the Chateau to organise the day. We met her twice, but most of the planning was done my email – the food, the flowers, the decor, everything. My theme was French rustic-glam and I sent her mood boards of my inspiration, details of what I was making and collecting, and she used her talents to pull it all together. As it was a celebration for our friends and family as much as ourselves, we wanted them to be part of weekend as much as possible. Our friend Hilary is a broadcast journalist and acted as the celebrant, which was very special. Other friends did readings and we made everyone sing a rendition of Stand By Me.”

“Our only near-disaster was the wedding tree, which formed the central part of the ceremony. I’d had it printed in England before we left, but didn’t realise it had been damaged until about three hours before the ceremony. Luckily our coordinator has a degree in Fine Art, immediately picked up her pencils and drew the most beautiful tree as a replacement. I was very, very touched. The tree was framed and placed on an easel for the ceremony, pencils attached with lace. We put our thumbprints on the tree during the ceremony, as did our parents, with the guests adding theirs during the course of the day.”

It was important to the couple that their friends and family were as involved as possible with their day. “My mum stitched a swag of fabric for the arch we married under, which was fastened with bunches of flowers and a chandelier I bought on eBay,” Caroline continued. “Vintage paper parasols – again, sourced on eBay and flea markets – were provided for the guests. I drew the chandelier for the Order of Service cards which were designed and printed by my twin sister, Kelly.”

“When I walked into the courtyard for the wedding meal I was blown away by how beautiful it looked. The team at the Chateau had made it look incredible. Jugs and glass bottles filled with flowers sat on each table, and the lighting was stunning. There were candelabras hanging from the trees, fairy lights woven through the branches and Chinese lanterns strung high above the tables. I drew a lot of my inspiration for the table decor from the local area, and I was keen to use mini-blackboards, like in the markets. I found some pretty fabric-trimmed ones from Gisela Graham which were placed on mini-easels for the table numbers. Ironically, the French soap favours were bought at my favourite shop, RE in Corbridge, and not at the local market in France as planned! They too perfect to resist.”

Food and wine was a big part of the weekend so the couple decided to provide two meals on the wedding day. “The first was a pre-wedding picnic which was held in the garden at the Chateau. We brought charity-shop sourced blankets from the UK and bought picnic baskets from the local market in Olonzac which were filled with home-made quiche, cheese muffins and salads, served with wine spritzers and jugs of beer. The parasols were put to good use by lounging guests as it was very hot in the midday sun. Other guests played boules and splashed in the pool. It was everything we had imagined – good friends having a good time together.”

“The wedding meal was a buffet spread of suckling pig followed by a ‘buffet of desserts’ presented on vintage cake stands and mini blackboards I bought from a little shop in Seahouses, Northumberland.”

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Ceri & Terry didn’t really plan to have a theme for their November wedding, however once they started with the origami they found it hard to stop! Ceri told me all about their beautiful wedding, “When we first started planning the wedding, we were determined to do our best to be relaxed about the whole thing. We decided that, if we could find the right venue then even if everything else went wrong, we’d be ok – we could turn up in jeans and order pizza, if necessary, as long as we could get all our loved ones in the right place. After a couple of months of looking, we found it: Great Wilbraham Hall Barn. It was perfect – big enough for our guests, fairly isolated, licensed for weddings (we wanted everything in the same place), ideal for the winter months with lots of warmth and character, and within 30 minutes drive of Terry’s grandparents.”

“A few weeks after we had booked, we got the call – the barn had burnt down. Ah. So, onto plan B. We saw the marquee which was put up in place of the barn, and liked it – it was light and airy, and still had all the things about the location that we had loved initially. The only problem was that, whereas the barn was full of its own character, the marquee would definitely need decorating. We spent a lot of time going for walks and kicking ideas about, until I remembered the Senbazuru – an ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish. It is a traditional wedding gift, or something done together by the prospective husband and wife to prepare them for married life together – it does take a lot of time and patience. I love origami, but Terry had to learn – which he did, and the next few months were spent folding cranes together in the evenings. We also went on to fold tiny cranes for all the place cards, and decided to carry the theme through, picking origami animals to be our table names and I even folded my own origami bouquet.”

The couple spent months collecting different types of paper for all the origami – from comic book patterns (Terry is a big fan) to headed paper from their work! “It was really exciting getting the paper for the cranes,” Ceri continued. “Every time we got a new batch in we’d sit and fold one of every colour just to see what they looked like!”

“The thing which we found most difficult about planning a wedding was the assumption from other people that things would always be done a certain way,” the bride concluded. “We wanted to start from scratch and do things because they felt right, rather than just because they were traditional. Our two best friends are guys, so no bridesmaids, but two best men. Because the marquee wasn’t licensed for weddings, we were legally married in a very small, very quick ceremony in the billiard room, and then had a public ceremony in front of all our guests, so we personally adapted both ceremonies to make them right. Neither of us were particularly interested in wedding flowers – so we didn’t have them, using flower-pots filled with Love Hearts to stand our origami animals up in in the centre of each table.”

“Also, music is really important to both of us, so we chose the songs that make us think of each other for background music throughout the reception, and picked a complete set-list for the DJ so we were sure that every song was one that we would want to dance to! Looking back on the day, it feels like every bit of it was very much ‘us’ – we didn’t have a wedding, we had our wedding. That’s what made us Rock n Roll.”

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Glasgow based photographer Neil Douglas prides himself on his composition and use of light. In fact he cites his main inspiration as Martin Parr, a social photographer, who is well known for his exaggerated style. “I love the way he uses colour and composition to really bring out the personality of his subjects,” Neil writes, “Henri Cartier Bresson is also massive influence for me – his candid photography really paved the way for us who favour a reportage style.”

“I picked up my first camera in my teens, and from then on it’s never really left my side,” Neil continues. “I combined my love of music and photography by running around gigs in skinny jeans shooting bands which was lots and lots of fun. It soon became apparent that it wasn’t really about the music, I was more interested in capturing ‘people’ and the human element so when I was asked to be a second shooter for a wedding tog friend I jumped at the chance.  And I never looked back.  I truly believe that great photography equals great art. It’s emotive, immediate and perhaps most importantly, accessible.”

“I’d describe my photography as fun, creative and a little bit unusual. I love strong composition, framing and really interacting the couple with their surroundings. I’d say its timeless, which means in 20 years it will remain just as striking, without being dated.”

“I think it’s fair to say that any couple in love make my job fantastic, but it’s always good to meet clients that are willing to try something a little bit different and move away from ‘traditional’ style posed photography. I love couples who come with their own idea’s too – it really does make the finished collection of pictures a true partnership between those in front of the camera and behind. I guess having a similar sense of humour helps, especially for those times when I’m asking the bride and groom to climb trees and lay on disused railway tracks!”

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“Cozy, relaxed and colourful” were the very words Akvile & Andrius used to describe their beautiful wedding to me. “We had a very clear vision,” they added. “We wanted the wedding to be very simple, informal, and relaxed. We wanted to focus on the most important thing – us and our love rather than expensive and shiny wedding details.”

“There was absolutely no stress when planning the wedding, we took it very easy, we put a lot of our hearts into every detail – invites, guest gifts, guest accessories, decorations, etc. We chose a pretty small town, small church and not too popular (yet) venue for the wedding, asked guests to wear something that they feel very comfortable (rather than fancy!) in. All these small details helped us achieve our big goal.”

The ceremony was held at St. Apostles Peter and Paul Church in Moletai, Lithuania and the reception was at the intimate Giluzis Homestead.

The couple chose not to have any bridesmaids or ushers, favouring to let all their friends simply enjoy the day, “There were so many good friends and relatives at the wedding that we did not want to exclude any of them by asking to be their bridesmaids or groomsmen. All girls received handmade accessories – colorful flower wrist bands made by Akvile. All boys received blue handmade bow ties from the Andrius.”

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This incredible fashion editorial was shot on the Creole Queen Paddlewheel for the winter issue of NOLA Wedding Guide. The shoot was inspired by Jules Verne, the 19th century and steampunk.

“Jules Verne’s novels were rich with extravagant voyages and adventures set in the romantic Victorian Era,” the team explained. “This was the era of the newly invented steam engine and through-railways and steamships, which opened up the opportunity for leisure travel and adventure for the first time.”

“What could be a better metaphor for wedding planning and a marriage than an extraordinary voyage? Isn’t that what you, the bride, is embarking upon? Your upcoming marriage is the beginning of a journey filled with delightful adventures, and of course romance!”

Check out the behind the scenes video too…

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Natasha & Charlie are the kind of couple that wedding photographers dream of – creative, unique in their inspiration and totally in love. The bride told me all about their vintage festival wedding. It may have rained for their outdoor ceremony, but it certainly didn’t damper their spirits!

“Even though I had prayed for months for sun on our wedding day, it still rained! I thought that this would ruin the day as everything we had planned involved being outside – including the ceremony. Just before we were due to go down, the wedding organiser at Maunsel House said that it was raining and tried to convince me to move everything inside. But I couldn’t bare the thought of not getting married under the beautiful bandstand as this had been my dream from the start – so I made everyone stand outside with umbrellas! It actually turned out really well and everybody loved it – the pictures of everyone with umbrellas looked great as well!”

“Even though we are from London we both knew that we wanted to celebrate our big day somewhere further afield,” the bride continued. “We are also huge music festival fans so the idea of a festival-style, open air wedding was really appealing for us. We saw about 5 places before we finally settled on Maunsel House. With a licensed bandstand set in the grounds for wedding ceremonies and a roofed Pergola for outside dining, it totally fitted the bill for our outdoorsy festival theme.”

“We really wanted the wedding styling to reflect our personalities and our love of vintage things, so we began trawling car boot sales for trinkets and props to start creating the look.” Natasha continued. “As an alternative to the standard marquee uplighting, we bought loads of cheap old lampshades in different colours and shapes to hang from the centre of our marquee. We lit some with bulbs and others with fairy lights creating a vintage living room effect.”

“I also found a beautiful 1950’s record player on eBay which we set up in the main hall playing ‘The Sound of Music’ soundtrack to guests as they arrived. Instead of a table and traditional guestbook, we hired an old 1920’s bureau from The Little Wedding Helper and put a typewriter on there with a typed welcome letter to our guests. Kirsten, our wedding helper styled it beautifully with our vintage books and telephone as well as some flowers and luggage tags for our guests to write messages to us.”

“We used old scrabble sets to create our table names which were all based on the different festivals we had been to over the years and the walkways were adorned with hundreds of metres of vintage style bunting made by myself, my mum and my mother-in-law. We also made satin bows from the left-over bunting material to decorate the wedding cake (a delicious cake of cheese!) and little jars of home-made chutney for our wedding favours. My mother-in-law sketched a lovely drawing of the garden bandstand (where we had the ceremony) for the cover of our Order of Service booklets and we included poems and readings, as well as the words to our our Elton John and Kiki Dee Sing-a-long.”

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James & Renee’s eclectic thrift store explosion of a wedding was a real DIY effort from the couple and their friends & family. The bride, who couldn’t stand the thought of a “boring, traditional wedding” explained her vision to me, “I could not stand the idea of a boring traditional wedding and reception with only two colors & every table was the same so I did everything my way. No one understood my vision until we set up the morning of the wedding & it all came together.”

“I spent all my time at thrift stores and swap meets picking out anything I liked whether it was a beautiful vintage fabric, a teacup with a winking face on it, or a floral painted ceramic cat. I love anything with a sense of humor & that’s interesting to look at. I’m so thankful we stuck to our vision & managed to pull off a vegetarian wedding with no DJ, dance floor, alcohol (subbed in vintage glass bottled sodas), wedding colors, or real flowers because to have everyone not only ‘get it’ but to say that they absolutely loved it & were so impressed I will always truly cherish. The look of surprise on everyone’s face & the high praise & compliments mean so much to us because this was such a labor of love and there was a piece of us in every little detail.”

The ceremony was held at the beautiful La Mesa Community Center Gardens, with the DIY reception following at Nan Couts Cottage. “Making everything is a lot of work but I’m so thankful we did it,” the bride continued. “It made it all so personal. Some of my fondest memories are the Sunday’s that myself & the females in the family would spend together making things for the wedding.”

“One Sunday we made a couple hundred feet of bunting & I had two aunts cutting out all the triangles, a cousin ironing them, & I sat at my sewing machine for a few hours sewing each one on & meanwhile my grandma was making pinwheels and another cousin was making the props for the photobooth. It was not only crazy efficient but a fun way to spend a Sunday and get creative minds working together.”

“The dessert trays were thrifted plates & tea cups stacked together & held together with epoxy glue. So quick & easy to make! I painted our cake toppers that were little wooden dolls purchased on Etsy. Each flower was made by hand by wrapping crepe paper around green floral wire, held together with tape & glue. The flower balls were made by making the flowers shorter stemmed and sticking them into a styrofoam ball. We made the chalk boards for the photobooth by spray painting chalk paint on the glass of an old picture frame. I also made about a hundred flower pins by sewing together different fabrics cut into flower shapes with a button in the center glued onto a bobby pin for favors for the ladies & used plyers to flatten out the edges of vintage bottle caps & glued pins on the back for the guys.”

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Anyone fancy a South African beach wedding on a chilly Monday morning? All I know is Rupert & Liana’s wedding certainly warmed my cockles when it landed in my inbox recently.

Their October wedding was inspired by the things they love. Liana loves red and Rupert blue so they wanted this combination to be their wedding theme. They’re also both love the beach so of course they had to have their ceremony on the San Lameer Beach, SA.

“It was a hot spring day down the South Coast of Durban, SA, with beautiful blue skies,” photographer Eileen of Bright Girl Photography told me. “The wedding ceremony took place on the beach in front of close friends and family. All the guests had to leave their shoes on the rack and collect white parasols and a necklace of red flowers. Liana was driven to the beach on a golf cart decorated with red & blue balloons. Everything was so well co-ordinated in terms of colour, the flower girl had a little red pair of sunglasses and the groomsmen’s red & white checked shirts. The red & blue colour scheme really popped against the light brown sand.”

The bride wore a dress by F&H Bridal Creations to which she added the red sash and sexy red Iron Fist shoes. Instead of a headpiece, she wore a daisy flower garland made for her by her florist, Twisted Willow.

The red & blue beach theme carried on into their reception with details such as the pin wheels in bottles held in place by sand, watering cans filled with flowers, blue tablecloths and homemade heart shaped red napkins. Even the cupcakes were in blue cases with red strawberries on top. “This was a real DIY wedding,” Eileen continued, “with friends and family chipping in where help was needed. Liana made the table decor, cut out the heart-shaped serviettes, strung the seating arrangement photographs and much more.”

“Everything about their wedding was unique and representative of Liana & Rupert. Her red Iron Fist high heels, his wrist band and chain, her black diamond ring, the polka dot heart shaped serviettes which she made herself, their endearing nicknames spelt out in the scrabble tiles and their first dance which started out slowly until the music changed mid-way to ‘Love gun’ by KISS and they started head banging.”

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This Week’s Love List…

♥ Exposed ♥ (very) late night giggles and dancing ♥ husbands who do DIY ♥ chai lattes ♥ the winter chill ♥ hats with ears ♥ secret santa ♥ new friends ♥ realising inspirations ♥ ideas that hit you in traffic jams ♥ too many photo booth props ♥ getting excited for 2012 ♥ Friday nights in with terrible movies ♥ making a list, checking it twice…♥

The Best of the Rest…

This week saw the launch of Lara Jade and Joey L‘s much anticipated photography tutorial DVD. Fashion and commercial photographers respectively, these two have worked tirelessly over the past 2 years to create this ‘workshop-on-a-disc.’ This four hour epic aims to offer guidance and knowledge to every level of photographer from these two inspirational artists.

“We invite you to step inside of our vision and observe as we compete head to head in photo shoot challenges around the world,”Lara explains. “So, whether you’re a photographer just starting out or you are a professional working within your chosen industry this tutorial DVD is the tool you need to inspire you to find your own journey and vision!”

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There are no two words that make me feel more relaxed than ‘spa day’. Whether it be for a hen do, a birthday treat or ‘just because’ I am always the first to jump aboard that proverbial bandwagon when the idea is posed. I may be a workaholic, but allowing myself to forget about work for a wee while and sinking into the deep relaxation of massages, facials and clay wraps is pretty much my idea of heaven. Recharges the batteries and all that…

One of the best weekends off I ever had was one with Lisa at a delightful spa/hotel near Bicester Village. We had massages, drank cocktails and shopped. Well with the spa being so near to my favourite outlet centre, it would have been rude not to shop a little (ahem a lot) too right?

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Photography Credit: Source Images (full set here)

I was asked by Rachel at the School of Rock (n Roll Bride) on Friday why, if blogs and online media are gaining popularity, I had decided to do a print magazine. “Well,” I responded, “print certainly isn’t dead, it’s just changing… evolving… and that’s something I want to be a part of. I don’t see Rock n Roll Bride magazine as a rival to any of the national wedding magazines, but as an evolution and extension of my brand. Something for my readers to collect and keep.”

Both my blogging workshops and the magazine are actually quite tidy examples of ways I’ve tried to push myself, evolve my business and stay ahead of the competition over the past few months. No one ever won a race by standing still after all.

Life is constantly in a state of evolution, and it’s only if we dare to think that we’ve ‘made it’ that we will begin to fall behind and fail…and I don’t want to do either of those things!

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For this week’s wedding note I thought I’d blog some money saving ideas relating to the wedding dress. Although, yes, your wedding dress may well be the most expensive dress you’ll ever own, I’m well aware that the average price of somewhere between £1000 – £2000, is going to be out of a lot of bride’s budgets.

Vintage

Photography Credit: Annamarie Stepney Photography (full wedding here)

Vintage wedding dresses are hugely popular right now but this does mean that a lot of vintage shops have hiked up their prices. But if you do your research, you can still get vintage gowns for a song. Try non-wedding specific shops like Beyond Retro where prices are likely to be lower. Vintage wedding-specific dress shops like For Coat No Knickers in London will even alter your own dress if you find a bargain elsewhere.

Vintage Reproduction

Photography Credit: Martyn & Clare Wheatley (Sinister Pictures) (full wedding here)

Vintage reproduction dresses are also a great way to get the vintage ‘look’ without the price tag. A frustrating thing about searching for genuine vintage dresses is that often the sizes are very small. Places like Vivien of Holloway, Honeypie Boutique, Dolly Couture and Peppermint Pretty, make gorgeous vintage-inspired gowns that are both affordable and can be made in any size.

Charity Shops

Photography Credit: Emma Case Photography (full wedding here)

Why not check out your local charity shop? Barnardos and Oxfam even have specialty wedding dress branches where you may well pick up an utter bargain!

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Photography Credit: Fashion Toast

Wooooooooooooooooooooooo! Happy December y’all! Am I allowed to get excited for Christmas now please?

This week has been a fan-tabi-locious one in this little wedding blogging world of mine, not least because one of my utter favourite (non wedding) bloggers La Carmina, who runs the most incredible Japanese fashion and lifestyle blog, ran a massive feature on yours truly and some of the gothic weddings I’ve featured, both on her blog and on Lip Service, a lifestyle webzine that she writes for. I am honoured. Thank you La Carmina!

Also, this week was The Photography Farm Christmas party in Brighton. We were instructed to wear something sparkly (I wore these babies) and to bring a secret Santa gift and prop for the photo booth. Oh much fun and boozing was had by all. I’ll share some photos on the Rock n Roll Bride Facebook page and twitter over the next few days if you’re interested.

And here come the rest of this week’s loveliness courtesy of the internets…

♥ Princess Lasertron has launched a subscription club where you get a piece of Lasertron pretty in the mail every eight weeks! Cost? Just $15 a month! Yes PLEASE!
♥ A Beautiful outdoor wedding on A Beautiful Mess
♥ Sassy n Frank have just launched a brand new exciting project, London in Love, where they want to see how many weddings they can shoot in just one day… and for this they need you! If you’d like to be involved, and you’re getting married in London in March 2012, check it out!
♥ Super hot alternative model Ulorin Vex got married! Check out her facebook page for more

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Nicola & David were married on Halloween weekend in The Hospitium in York (England’s most haunted city apparently!) The venue is in the middle of the Museum Gardens and in the shadow of the ruins of St. Mary’s Abbey. The unusual setting was the perfect backdrop for their Rolling Stone Circus wedding.

Nicola explained, “We’re both massive Rolling Stones fans so we wanted to have the same type of feel as The Rolling Stones Rock n Roll Circus. Slightly carnival like with a serious nod to music. We drew the line at stilt walkers, jugglers and such, though I did very much want a peacock and an elephant. Surprisingly there are no ‘hire a peacock’ websites. Even less chance with the elephant.”

“We’re both also 60’s fans in that we love the music, films, fashion and whole esthetic of the 60’s. The 60’s had to feature pretty heavily without getting into the shark infested territories that are 60’s fancy dress and theme type ideas. Our clothes, house and furnishings, books, music and films are mostly 60’s so we’re not the weekend warriors that could get away with hiring the local scooter club to park up outside the venue for the day. We ensured that all the music would have something like an obscure garage or psych track for us and then a Motown or 60’s pop track for the family. We even threw in a bit of 90’s Britpop for the old school mates. We also put together a two hour DVD of 60’s film, adverts, music, dance, fashion and telly clips. If the guests didn’t like the sounds, there was definitely something for them to see there.”

“I have always loved Eastern esthetic from Indian to Moroccan to Oriental,” the bride continued. “We knew that it somehow had to play a part in the day, especially since it got a serious introduction to the Western World in the late 60’s. There were bits of it everywhere from the beading pattern on my dress to the table runners, to the stationery, to some of the music and visuals and definitely the belly dancers! Also, since the wedding was going to be in late October and we both love the Autumn we wanted to somehow incorporate our love of rich vibrant bold colour into the wedding.”

Both the bride & groom 100% looked the part for their impeccably themed wedding. Nicola wore a wedding dress which she had made by House of Mooshki (“I looked at hundreds of vintage dresses and some were stunning but asking to find a later 60’s ode to Hammer Horror/Celtic/Grecian/Medieval/Indian hybrid in ivory and gold that fit me was literally impossible”) and a headpiece by Lindsay Fleming Couture (“it was a slightly medieval looking circlet type thingie from with flowers threaded through. Sorry, just can’t use the word tiara. It conjures up all sorts of Katie Price images. Then I need a valium.”) The groom wore a suit made by George Lilley of Kristoffers in Leeds, inspired by a suit worn by Brian Jones in a Rolling Stones picture book.

The reception was styled and decorated by the couple themselves. They wanted it to totally be their vision. “We did everything. We sourced every idea we had, researched where to get stuff and the best options and gathered the lot ourselves. Our garage now looks like a car boot sale on acid.”

“In the ceremony room which was red, purple and gold we simply found four different types of tea light holders on eBay and we put them everywhere there was space. We found purple and gold cushion covers also on eBay which went perfectly with the red cushion covers already in the venue on the window ledges. In the reception room we had Indian silk table runners with psychedelic patterns on them in the ten different colours. Also from an Indian seller on eBay. We had black wire lantern/candle holders with a coloured candle in the centre and we had the same type of smaller hanging lantern/tea light holders on stands as our favours. We wanted people to be able to take something home, put it in their house and maybe think of us when they lit the candle in it. We also had psychedelic and retro patterned chocolate initials in the guests’ first initial rather than ours.”

The most important thing to the couple was that they had their wedding for them and that they ignored the things that they were informed they should do because it was a wedding. “We met with an amount of resistance from people when we told them some of our ideas,” the bride concluded. “Firstly, this was David’s day as much as it was mine. It was OUR wedding, not just my day. We decided that David would walk down the aisle to a song he chose. His groomsman, then his best man, then his parents and then David all walked down the aisle to ‘Change Is Now’ by The Byrds. It was then my turn. As the Stones ‘She’s a Rainbow’ came on, I walked down with my TWO Dad’s (who high fived each other!) after my bridesmaid, my best friend and my Mum (who was my maid of honour). I don’t know who makes the so called rules about how things are done, but I wasn’t very interested in abiding by them.”

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Cecilia & Robert’s pretty London wedding took place at Union Chapel and Union Hall, Islington.

“At first we had to decide where to have our wedding as I’m from Italy and Robert London,” Cecilia wrote to me. “We soon realised that London was the perfect place, as it’s where we’ve chosen to live and where we definitely wanted to start our life as a family. We started looking at a few venues, but they all looked a bit impersonal and soulless to us, we definitely wanted somewhere that would have a meaning for us and our relationship. And so that’s how we “stumbled” upon the Union Chapel. Rob had been there several times to see gigs, and we had been together to see a very special acoustic performance by Editors. Many people think it’s not an actual church, but it actually is – and it made perfect sense to us to get married there!”

“We were also delighted to find out that – apart from the main auditorium – they have several spaces for hire that can be used for all sorts of events. The Upper Hall fitted the bill perfectly, as it’s a completely blank canvas that we would be able to personalize according to our own taste.”

Cecilia wore a vintage dress from Fur Coat No Knickers. “Being only 5 ft 1’ and quite curvy, I was dreading the idea of going wedding dress shopping as I knew what is available in ‘traditional’ wedding dress shops simply wouldn’t look good on me and would undoubtedly knock my confidence. Then one day in a shop just off Brick Lane I saw a beautiful prom-style short dress and that’s when I knew that would be the style I would go for. But it wasn’t until I went to the National Wedding Show at Earl’s Court and discovered Fur Coat No Knickers that the whole ‘vintage’ thing started to incredibly appeal to me, so I went to see the fabulous Laura & Emma about 9 months before the wedding. Laura insisted we had ‘a little play’ and she picked a dress for me to try on first. As soon as I saw myself in the mirror I went ‘oh my god!!!’– I simply couldn’t believe how amazing it made me look!. I also picked a stunning necklace from FCNK, which complemented the pearl earrings my mum gave me for my 31st birthday.”

“We had quite a few DIY projects that we completed thanks to the invaluable help of our friends and family”, the bride continued when I asked about their reception details. “We did our wedding invites ourselves, Rob designed the London skyline that became a sort of ‘fil rouge’ throughout our wedding, and created the actual invites around it. We also handmade our jam jar wedding favours and the little sugar almonds bows. Rob’s brilliant sister Anne (who also made my hair on the day!) and her husband Kevin made most of the plum and peach jam, whereas the jars were provided by my mum, who works for a glassware manufacturer. Anne and Kevin also made the spiced apple and onion chutney that was served together with our cheese cake!”

“We were on a tight budget so we knew we could not afford a traditional seated meal for all our 80 guests. This, combined with the vintage feel we wanted to give to our wedding after I chose my dress (and, I admit it, my love of cakes), convinced us we should go for a traditional English afternoon tea party. After all the cakes and sweet treats, we thought that having a traditional wedding cake would not make any sense. That together with Rob’s absolute love for cheese convinced us that we had to go for a cheese cake! We purchased the cheeses (Cornish Yarg, Stichelton, Italian Caciotta, Coeur Neufchatel and Crottin de Chavignol) from the fantastic La Fromagerie in Highbury – a real treasure trove for all cheese lovers!! The cake was decorated with cherry tomatoes on the vine and black grapes, and was served with our homemade chutney and artisan bread sticks.”

“I have to say,” concluded the bride, “that although we put all our efforts into organizing this wedding while being on a budget, trawling all the wedding blogs out there and trying to do as many things as possible ourselves, we couldn’t have done anything without all the amazing suppliers we met along the way, who really surpassed themselves on the actual day.”

“Although the months of planning were quite stressful, we were very absolutely over the moon with the result, because we managed to stay true to ourselves and incorporate all the things that really mattered for us in our day. We wanted our guests to experience something personal and different, and we wanted those who had travelled across Europe to be there to really feel it was worth it – and their happy faces were the best reward for us! So my advice to those planning their wedding now is just this – be true to yourself and do things with your heart!”

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Kim & Phil were the lucky couple who won an engagement and video shoot with Assassynation, Sassy n Frank and  Elbie Van Eeden. Their idea for a crazy shoot was a food fight as Kim explained in her entry,

“We got engaged on 1st April 2011, yes you heard right, April Fool’s Day, and with this in mind we would like to continue our personalities and character traits in an engagement shoot. The theme I see is a food fight, with bright and colourful food such as cupcakes, hotdogs, condiments (almost American food style) between myself and my fiancé.”

“We could be dressed in black so the bright colours would show up. I’d like some bright colour extensions in my hair (it’s brown at the moment) and bright make up to create a bold look.”

I’m thrilled to share the results with you today. Aren’t these two totally brave!? This is one messy shoot and I love it!

The video by Sassy n Frank which the couple will use as their Save The Date for their Vegas wedding is just genius…

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Tara & Oleg were married at Wentworth Falls School of Arts, NSW, Australia. The bride wore a beautiful 1950’s debutante gown made of white taffeta with black flocked trim which she found on eBay!

“They met at Acting College in Sydney and have been together for the last 6 years,” their wedding photographer Jemima Richards told me. “The easiest way to describe these two as madly in love. Their wedding was a really beautiful reflection of that. The entire wedding had a distinct DIY theme, but with all of their personality in every single element. Oleg is from Croatia, so his family members made the special journey over, with his two sisters travelling from opposite ends of the planet just to be there. As a wedding gift, Tara also flew in Oleg’s very best friend from London as a surprise!”

“The ceremony was simple and in the small and intimate events hall at the School of Arts,” she continued. “Tara had handmade 150 large paper pom-poms to decorate both the reception and ceremony with as opposed to flowers. She even disclosed that she spent a back breaking 5 hours the night before the wedding ‘poofing’ and hanging every single one.”

“Each guest was presented with a personalised program for the wedding which included a personal and individual message from the bride and groom in the back. The couple read their own vows (or in the case of Oleg, spoke straight from the heart) and their celebrant even recited the Dr Seuss poem ‘Oh! the places you’ll go’ (which was super relevant and very sweet). The ceremony was brief, but very sincere and heartfelt.”

“The couple opted not to have any formal portraits taken of themselves with their best man and maid of honour, and instead went straight into the reception which was held in the adjoining theatre of the School of Arts. The lack of formal photos was made up for by the addition of a photobooth, which the couple described as ‘a way to give a gift to each guest’.Tara and Oleg wanted their reception to be all about their guests, while still having the same amount of personality as the ceremony.”

“Guests were treated to a self serve lolly bar with suggestions written on playing cards by the wedding party, lots of dancing, and their gorgeous Cowboys and Indians themed wedding cupcakes. The entire night was a party to celebrate their getting hitched and there was not a single moment where there was a lack of love in the air or someone being bored.”

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Just a quick reminder to let you all know that I’ll be on BBC 2 today at 1.00pm* in their See Hear special programme about deaf people in the arts. Gareth & I took part in this shoot with deaf wedding photographer Ashton Jean-Pierre who they are profiling for the show.

I hope we make the cut!

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