Zoya and JP’s wedding day was themed around themselves and the things they love, which meant the groom’s Scottish heritage, florals, pirates!

“The day celebrated all we hold as fun and great about each other”, began JP. “From my Scottish heritage, to my wife’s amazing love of all things floral, to our love of pirate events to Treasure Island and the sea, to great food and dancing the night away with close friends. We kept thinking what would make people smile and have fun, and what would make them think, ‘That’s so JP & Zoya!’ – and then we did it!”

The couple married in May at the very grand Lulworth Castle in Dorset, looking out over the sea. They had a legal ceremony first, then a Captain Jack Sparrow actor arrived to officiate a pirate-themed second ceremony! “We made the seating plan into Treasure Island, and the wedding breakfast into a love of all things pirate and sea-scape”, said the bride. “JP and his entire band of seven best men were in full Highland regalia, whilst I wore a floral wedding gown. We involved our Chow Chow throughout the entire day, and all the wedding guests stood as witnesses to our marriage – instead of the usual one or two. Apart from that, it was a standard, run-of-the-mill wedding… If you don’t include the bouncy castle and the rum bar. Oh, and the pirate dress-up!”

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Hannah and Ben’s wedding was inspired by fairy tales, Halloween and Bram Stokers Dracula! Their day was ethereal dark and romantic, with little touches of macabre beauty. “My veil had tiny gold bats embroidered onto it and there were gold spiders on the flower girls bags,” began Hannah. “Later in the day we went on a vintage tram ride with accordion players followed by a boat ride with a saxophonist. We didn’t tell our guests beforehand so it was a nice surprise for everyone.”

Their ceremony was held at baroque palace in Prague and was their favourite part of the day. “I walked down the aisle to rather dark romantic cellist music and we wrote our own vows which included Ben saying to me ‘I promise as your husband to make every day Halloween’ and I to him ‘I promise to keep your glass full of whiskey and your heart full of joy’. Our priest, Michal, was amazing. He’s a whiskey drinker and loves yoga, a true hippy at heart. And a lot of our guests cried so that made us happy.”

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Sarah and Jamie had a summer wedding that they described as “Retro with bright colours and lots of food!” The inspiration for the theme came from their love of music, art and food, most of which was provided by family members because they wanted to keep the budget low. Plus food made with love for your best day is always going to add a really special something to proceedings, right?

The couple married at Hull Guildhall, with the reception at music venue warehouse, Früit. The bride said, “From the start of our wedding planning, the venue was always going to be our main priority, and we have always known that we wanted it to be held at Früit. We picked a date they had available and planned the rest around that. We felt that the relaxed décor (and the incredibly lovely venue manager, Chris), was perfect for us to add bits to and make it our own. As we already loved the venue as it was, we kept things simple. The ceiling was decorated with paper lanterns and fairy lights. The table decorations consisted of hessian cloth and glass jars and bottles collected from family and friends, into which we placed wild flowers from Bloom & Wild. The bouquets came with crazy miniature pineapples!”

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Rebecca and Will wanted to suffuse their whole wedding day with rich colours to create a feast for the senses! The three main colours they chose were rich orange, ultramarine blue and a bright claret. They decided on a church wedding ceremony and their reception has held at Will’s childhood home.

“We know everyone says this, but we wanted our wedding style to reflect us,” began Rebecca. “I think we both knew it was always going to be quite theatrical and sumptuous as we both perform in concert and opera. Food, colour and music were our theme! So long as all three elements were vibrant and the best quality we could manage, we knew we’d be happy.”

As Rebecca wore a blue wedding dress, her ‘something blue’ was herself! “I was never a fan of white and as a singer, I wanted any wedding dress to be able to be used for recitals after the wedding. We found the silk, which is shot with two shades of blue, in India. I then found a local tailor to make it up in a 1950s pattern that I’d found on eBay. My dress actually ripped 10 minutes before I was due at church! Luckily we had a needle and thread and the tear was minor, but at the time it felt like the world was going to implode. I also felt so awful leaving Will hanging at the altar…Even though it was only for 15 minutes!”

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Lysiane and Thomas got married on 28th July 2012. Five years later they decided to renew their vows. As their original wedding was quite traditional, they wanted their vow renewal to really feel like ‘them’, and celebrate their geeky sides!

“We are both nerds, so we didn’t have to look far to find inspiration,” said Lysiane, “but our main theme was celebrating our love and family and the path we’ve walked since we got married. I think every couple knows what it takes to be happy, and we’ve overcome mountains and tsunamis (plus a kid!) Also we wanted to do the simplest thing ever, not bothering with social pressure and conventions as we did for our wedding. This time, we wanted it to look like us, be like us, and feel like family.”

They had just 30 guests (to make the day more intimate) and spent only €4000, helped massively by the fact they didn’t have to hire a venue,. “Our vow renewal was held in my departed grandmother’s house which is a former convent and that we are actually going to buy from my dad since he doesn’t want to keep it! It’s the place I spent holidays when I was a child and where I lived as a student since it was near Toulouse University where I studied. I wanted to get married there so bad in 2012 but everyone advised against it so we ended up in a vineyard (great place but no childhood memories there). So when we started planning our renewals, there was no way we could have gone anywhere else but in my grandma’s convent!”

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“There’s a magical place, we’re on our way there
With shoes in their millions all under one roof…”

Seriously, Irregular Choice should totally steal the Toys ‘R Us theme tune because never has anything more accurate been written about how I felt walking into their flagship store. Last week I was invited by their head office to go visit the Carnaby Street shop and pick out some pretties to take home with me! Well, they didn’t have to ask me twice.

Lusting after Irregular Choice creations has become a bit of a rite of passage for Rock n Roll brides. If there was one brand that completely epitomises what our readers (and their weddings) are all about it would be Irregular Choice. With their huge and ever-expanding range of wacky, outlandish and often slightly ridiculous footwear, it’s no surprise that I see pictures of our readers wearing their shoes on a daily basis!

Swooning over the shoes on their website is one thing, but if you have your heart set on wearing a pair of Irregular Choice’s for your wedding then you HAVE to go visit one of their stores. The Carnaby Street branch has a friggin’ unicorn carousel horse in the middle of it for goodness sake.

But that’s not where the #homedecorgoals ends. Hanging from the ceiling are rows of faux flowers and foliage and if you look closely you’ll spot candy coloured teddy bears hidden between the leaves. The stairs incorporate a light up projection and more foliage with two miniature carousel horses embedded. The floor is covered in a psychedelic pattern and one wall is covered in baby pink glitter (perfect for using as a backdrop to take shoe photos!) while the other is bedazzled with mirror tiles, resembling a disco ball.

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Are you ready for the Alice in Wonderland wedding to end all Alice in Wonderland weddings? Well buckle up baby because you’re in for one hell of a psychedelic ride!

Tumi and MJ wanted their wedding to be Alice in Wonderland themed, but not the Disney version. They were inspired by Lewis Carroll’s original books. Almost all the elements were custom or handmade. They had a bell that rung during their Mad Hatter’s Tea Party reception to make people change seats, had a bridal bouquet treasure hunt and ‘drink me’ shots for everyone before they walked through the door to the ceremony!

“I have never been the typical girly girl,” explained Tumi. “I’ve always been a little alternative. My husband and I are both artists, adventurous and fun-loving. We wanted a theme that would reflect that. Sometimes our lives are like a trip down the rabbit hole, and this was an opportunity to take everyone with us on that journey. We have never been good at following mainstream and have always preferred things that are unique and one-of-a-kind, so almost everything in our wedding was.”

Their ceremony was set in the middle of the forest, under a giant mushroom! “We kept the vows simple, and opted for an Apache blessing. A favourite added bonus was our good friend’s (the lead singer of MJ’s band theSHIFT) song selection as I walked through the forest to the clearing where the ceremony was held. He chose to sing White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane, it was PERFECT!”

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Custom glitter slogan veil: Was £45 now £36

Unless you’ve been living in a bubble you won’t have have failed to notice that this weekend is Black Friday/ Cyber Monday madness. Everywhere you click, your favourite brands and businesses are offering crazy discounts to help you kick start your Christmas shopping. It’s also the perfect opportunity for you to get some killer deals for your wedding too.

Three, two, one…. SHOP!

Rock n Roll Bride x Crown and Glory

Get the stunning Nebula veil (in the dip dyed colour of your choice) for just £140 (Was £175).

Heartfelt blusher: Was £35 now £28

Lovesick glitter birdcage: Was £30 now £24

Sweetheart circle veil: Was £49 now £39.20

Starburst glitter veil: Was £37 now £29.60

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There’s a bit of everything in this Sheffield city wedding: Elegant dresses, gritty graffiti couple shots, dapper gents and pretty, giant pastel-coloured pom poms thrown like confetti! It’s one of those perfect examples of when a couple has a wedding that represents the spirit of them.

Lou and Neil met just six months before they married, on Tinder! “Neil tells everyone we met through work… which is kind of half true”, laughed the bride. “We worked on the same road as each other for a couple of years, then eventually, we swiped right and that was that! We chatted for a while, had a first date on a Tuesday, second date on the Thursday and then didn’t have another night apart from each other until the night before our wedding just over 6 months later. It’s now just over a year since our first date, we’re married and we opened our first business together in May. It’s been a crazy whirlwind but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The wedding was in February at The Cutlers Hall in Sheffield. The bride said, “It was probably the fifth or sixth venue we had seen, and when we walked in I felt like I was walking straight into Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums. We immediately knew it was the one for us. I always wanted to be a Tenenbaum.”

Lou said of the styling that, “It was a very pop punk wedding. We came down the aisle as Mr and Mrs Tomlinson to Blink 182! All of our tables were our favourite bands’ names instead of numbers. Trying to explain to my 93-year-old grandad why he’s sitting at ‘Alkaline Trio’ was tricky.”

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The guest list/ invitation/ RSVP process is arguably one of the most stress-inducing parts of planning a wedding. Whether its the costs involved, the general logistics or the fact that people seem incapable of RSVPing on time… its enough to turn the coolest cucumber of a bride into a raging monster.

But there is another option: Paperless Wedding.

This small, family run business based in the UK offers beautifully designed digital invitations which will not only cut out all the stress and costs associated with going down the paper route, is more environmentally friendly AND enables you to track your RSVPs online. In fact the process is so easy I’m a little bit bummed it wasn’t around when I got married ten years ago!

All their design themes are fully customisable meaning your digital invitations can be as unique as your wedding will be. Even if you’re not the most technically savvy person, their system is quick and easy to use. Choose your theme, pick a font, change the colours and layout, upload a photo and you’re good to go! You can even have multiple events and invitations at the same time meaning you can send different invites to your day and evening guests if needed.

After you’ve designed your digital invitations, simply upload your guest list with their emails then hit send and it will automatically email everyone! Then just wait for those those RSVPs roll in. All it takes is one click from the receiver on their phone, tablet or computer and they’ve confirmed their attendance. There’s literally no excuses for people to not RSVP promptly with this system! If someone is really not that technical (maybe your Nan or an older relative) they do offer the option for them to send you a paper reply and then you can manually go in and update their response online for them. 

Once all your RSVPs are in (early I hope!) you can then simply download the guest numbers, dietary requirements etc to share with the relevant suppliers.

But that’s not all! Their software can act as your ‘wedsite’ too. You can link your gift list, guest book and all the wedding information all in one place. If you want to be super fancy you can even create your own page from scratch including pictures, galleries, maps and videos.

The cost of Paperless Weddings is £119 which even includes a free Save the Date invite for you to test the system out. Considering the average cost of paper invites and postage in the UK is around £500 (cost of the invites themselves + postage) this could save you a ton of money and aggravation! If you’ve already gone down the paper invite route but want to use their website only package, it is a great way to share information with your guests and costs £79.

WIN A WEDDING WEBSITE & UNLIMITED DIGITAL INVITES!

To celebrate the launch of Paperless Wedding, we are giving away a full digital package (worth £119) to one lucky couple! This prize includes a wedding website with unlimited digital invites which you can design yourself.

To enter, simply follow @paperlesswed on Instagram and leave a comment on any of their photos with the hashtag #RnRollinvite in it. EASY!

You have a week to enter and the winner will be randomly selected and contacted via Instagram DM by @paperlesswed after this date.

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Andrea and Gabbi met in a job interview (Gabbi interviewed Andrea for a position on the film Shrek!), while living in San Francisco. They fell in love and were married in Sayulita, Mexico in May 2004. In fact they loved it so much they have now lived there for over 11 years! They decided to renew their vows on their 13th wedding anniversary and wanted the celebration to have a dark, gothic, funeral theme. There were just four of them in attendance: The couple and their two children. They also had their friend Jan who performed the ceremony and People True Love Tellers who took the photos and created the video.

“We have always been freaks and I always loved the idea of a black and red wedding gown, and walking down the aisle to Guns ‘N’ Roses’ Rocket Queen,” began Andrea. “At our first wedding, in a beach town overlooking the ocean, wearing white felt more right, but this time we wanted to ignore tradition entirely. We had already done the traditional wedding and so had the freedom to be playful and truly represent ourselves and who we really are. We also loved the idea of this being a funeral for our first 13 years of marriage and the start of a new commitment to each other as a family.”

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Pale sands, black outfits, and at night the fire dancers come out – there’s drama and beauty throughout the entire day with this gorgeous destination wedding.

After being a very long distance couple (one from Las Vegas and the other the Gold Coast in Australia!), pin up model Sabina and Nixx married on Phi Phi Island Village Beach Resort, Thailand, at the height of summer this year. Their wedding colours were black, grey and white. Sabina said,”We both wore all black and wanted our wedding to be a beach wedding. To be classy and ‘our style’, but fun and laid back too, with just our closest friends and family.”

Sabina’s dress, which is one of the most perfect examples of a black wedding dress I’ve ever seen, was a black silk 1950s Charles James style vintage dress that was tailored by Venita Drennen to have a lower back and make it have more of a 1940s look. Worn with a stunning ballet-length black veil, Louboutin heels, and her grandma’s 1950s earrings, the bride was utterly arresting against the beachy backdrop.

The dress was not without its problems, however, as finding it was “The most difficult thing ever!” Sabina explained. “I had so much pressure on me to have such an incredible dress. I met with couture wedding dress designers all over Australia, and I could not see myself spending $20,000 or more on a dress I would never wear again. I tried on ‘normal’ wedding dresses and they all looked dumb on me and didn’t fit right, and I knew I did not want to have a dress that anyone could get. Then I was getting told by everyone that I could not do black on the beach, so I kept changing my mind if I was going to do it or not. I finally came to the conclusion of buying the vintage gown, and having Venita completely recreate it into my dream wedding dress.”

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Renovation pro tip: If you want to get your significant other to step up their DIY game then plan a photo shoot in your building site of a home as a matter of urgency!

A few months ago I booked a collaboration with a super cool wedding brand (more on this soon!) and had the idea to shoot some of their products in our house. At the time I figured that surely by November the rooms we wanted to shoot in would almost be finished… or could at least be passable for the purposes of some staged shots.

WELL my friends, any of you that have embarked on your own renovation project will know that this was potentially one of the most stupid and stress-inducing ideas I’ve ever had. A week before the shoot and we still had the old curtains (that came with the house and looked like they hadn’t been updated since 1987) up, no skirting boards, power sockets hanging off the walls and a whole heap of junk in the corner. Brilliant.

Luckily I am married to a man who works best under a very specific set of criteria – the foremost of these being A DEADLINE. I’m the kind of nerd who did her homework at least a week before it was due, Gareth’s the kind of infuriating bastard that would do his on the bus on the way to school and still get straight As. Give Gareth a hard and fast deadline and he shines…. Be it all at the last possible second.

So three days before the shoot, Gareth comes to me and says “Hey, wouldn’t the shoot look better if we had a fireplace in the room?“ “Er yes, yes it would”, I replied, not thinking he’d actually tackle such a massive task with just 72 hours to spare. But deadline-loving Gareth not only got on with it, he got the project done in record time… even if he was still painting the walls 30 minutes before the photo shoot crew were due to arrive.

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Jem and Dom were married in June at Mulberry Lodge in Little Mongeham, the site of a festival they’d been to and loved. Their budget was just £4500 but with DIY catering, a homemade wedding dress and lots of help from friends and family they were able to create the most beautiful day.

“The inspiration for our wedding was each other, the things we like, colours, textures, artwork and the venue itself”, began the bride. “We essentially wanted a ‘Jemdomfest’ with music, dancing and fun. I wasn’t interested in impressing anyone, nor was Dom. it was about having fun, and hopefully that our guests would also have fun.”

Of their limited budget, their single biggest expense was the photos. “Photography was by far our biggest expense but absolutely worth it. Not only is Alex a great photographer, he also loves his job and this really shines through. He was a sea of calm in the barn when me, my bridesmaids and my mum were scurrying around getting ready, he even helped us with last minute button hole making!”

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Sadie and Cameron wanted their wedding to be a low-key, funky, retro, boozy, dive bar-y 70s inspired Las Vegas elopement! They took inspiration from Elvis and Priscilla’s wedding, 70s Vegas and anything that fell under the category of maximum fun, minimum stress. They eloped in Vegas, then drove to Palm Springs a renting an Airbnb for the weekend.

“All of our friends stayed with us in the Real World Suite at The Palms for the three nights we stayed in Vegas which was SO fun and let us really enjoy each others company,” began Sadie. “It felt like a really exciting three night sleep over with all of our best friends.”

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If you’re one of the growing number of couples that opt not to have a wedding gift list, did you know you’ll actually be missing out on more than just the ‘stuff’? I suspect most people that don’t have them either think they already have everything they need or they don’t want to appear ‘rude’. Now I don’t like to be a Negative Nancy, or the voice of impending doom, but I do think that if you forgo a gift list you will regret it. Here’s why:

You’ll be answering the same questions over and over

Even if you don’t really want anything, you’ll find that most people do still want to get you something as they feel it’s the right thing to do. And unless they’re given instructions as to the protocol at your wedding, they’ll be left confused (we’re simple creatures aren’t we?)

You’ll likely be answering the same questions over and over as soon as people start receiving their invitations: “What’s the deal with gifts?”, Oh, we don’t need anything, just bring yourselves”, “What, not even a card…?”, “I mean that would be lovely, but you really don’t have to…” etc etc.

Honestly, its exhausting.

Make sure you add some kind of simple instructions to your invitations about gifts.

You’ll miss out on getting some really fun things!

Gift lists have changed A LOT in the past few years, with companies like Prezola leading the way. In fact they’re more like a super cool interiors company than a traditional gift list. This is your opportunity to have some brilliant things bought for you that you’ll treasure for years to come. Your gift list doesn’t all have all to be boring toasters and ironing boards, there are lots of amazing things you could add such as artwork, furniture, lighting, vinyl, even personalised bottles of gin!

You’ll end up with lots of duplicates or things you don’t need

I don’t know about you but I agonise what to get people for birthdays and Christmas. If people had gift lists for those occasions it would make my life much less stressful! Your guests will want to get you something that you actually like and a gift list is the perfect way to make sure everyone’s happy.

We all have that person in our lives who we love dearly but is terrible at buying gifts. With wedding gifts its even worse if they get it wrong because you can’t very well just secretly toss that thing you hate in the trash right away! A wedding gift will likely have been expensive, or a real labour of love for whoever gave it to you.

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Corinna and Ady met at a punk gig in 2013. The inspiration for their wedding was music, each other and their mutual love of tattoos.

Their reception was held at The Bridge Inn in Stalybridge. “We did everything to please ourselves”, said Corinna. “I think there is an immense amount of pressure on couples planning a wedding to make sure everyone else is happy, and this can be so stressful on what is supposed to be the happiest day of your life! So we promised each other to only do what we wanted, if people didn’t like it, well, it wasn’t their wedding! It turned out to be the best day of our lives.”

Their budget as £4500, including a week in Majorca for their honeymoon, and they kept costs down by doing lots of DIY and calling in favours. “My dad’s band provided the entertainment and my sister DJed. We had a buffet instead of a sit down meal and the function room was free! We made own invitations and did all the décor. I got a bit giddy over all the little things I bought! I got lots of fairy lights, union jack bunting, red glass candles for each table, heart shaped balloons, a light up ‘A & C’, just married bunting, and a few Mr & Mrs signs. We also made our own confetti by ripping up coloured and glittery tissue paper from Poundland. I was gobsmacked how expensive it was to buy ready-made!”

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Being literature lovers and self-confessed huge nerds, the second they decided to get married Veronica and Marco knew the wedding theme would be Lord of The Rings.

Doing most things themselves meant that the budget for their Italian wedding was kept to just €4000. “We only had six months to plan and actually make everything, and we did it all by ourselves!” explained Veronica. “The theme itself was particular, and quite difficult to accomplish without being kitsch or exaggerated, but we think we achieved it.”

The ceremony itself was a non-religious version of the pagan ritual of handfasting. The bride said, “We did some research, searched for a lot of different versions of the cermony, then pulled them together, choosing our favourite parts and writing new ones. The outcome was so heartfelt and personal it still brings tears to our eyes when we read it. We made the guests participate by toasting to us together and even answering a couple questions. Greta and Dario, two of our long time best friends, each had a speech for and about us.”

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Gaia and Calum didn’t just have one awesome wedding, they had two! The first was at their beloved Glastonbury in the gorgeous tipi field, and the second in Las Vegas at A Wedding Chapel: Two very Rock n Roll places!

Everything was a romantic whirlwind and the couple just went with the flow. The bride said, “We didn’t have a theme, we just wanted to have something special in our favourite place (Glastonbury), and an elopement adventure! We’d been engaged for a year and a half, together for six, and we just decided we didn’t want to wait any longer to be married. It was very last minute – we only started planning it in February and we got married in July!”

It must have felt like one long summer party as the ceremonies were only about ten days apart. Gaia planned the Glastonbury ceremony and Calum was on Las Vegas duty.

The bride said of the planning, “With Glastonbury, we were trying to do it as cheaply as possibly as we had spent most of our money on the Las Vegas wedding. The Glastonbury ceremony was quite last minute as we didn’t know if we would have re-sale tickets until the end of April! We had to wait until we knew for sure to make arrangements, so we really only had two months to organise it. We spent around £350 in total on this, not including the festival tickets. With Las Vegas, it cost £5000 including rings, flights, 5* hotel, hire car, ceremony, photographer, dress, suit, flowers, eight nights’ stay and a holiday!”

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Picking a wedding band that you know you’re going to love can be tricky. While all the experts recommend you do as much research as possible and try to go see your potential band play before you book them, we all know that’s not always practical for a busy bride and/ or groom-to-be!

Which is why I love websites like Bands For Hire, who not only list hundreds of bands and performers, but have their rates, the regions they cover and style very clearly listed as well as MP3s and videos of performances all in one place. So instead of having to find the time to go gigs of bands that might not even be what you’re looking for, you can find out all you need to know from the comfort of your sofa.

To get you started, here are some of my favourites!

If you like: The Jackson 5
Then you should book: The Oliver Soul Band

If you like: Elvis Presley
Then you should book: The Flip Top Floozies

If you like: The Police
Then you should book: Life in Stereo

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