Happy New Year’s Eve! How are you celebrating tonight? Is it a night on the town, a house party with your besties or a night in with a bottle of Prosecco and turning your bathtub into a makeshift ball pit? If the latter sounds like a damn good time then you’re going to love this shoot (ha!)
If you’re a reader of Rock n Roll Bride magazine you will have already seen a few of these shots, as this editorial was featured inside issue 23, however I thought today, the national day of parties, would be the perfect time to share some of the previously unpublished shots with you.
My vision for this shoot was to do something fun and festive but not super obviously Christmasssy. There was to be no tinsel or mistletoe, instead to take the party vibes of the season and put it into a bridal editorial. My idea was that our model, the beautiful Monique, was going through the stages of a night out – from getting ready to having a pre-party tipple, dancing the night away and then collapsing back into bed at the end of it all (if only we all could look so glam after a big night out hey!?)
It was a lot of fun to shoot (yes we drank the Prosecco afterwards!) and I hope you’ll enjoy seeing the results!
Getting ready
Dress: Grace Loves Lace
Earrings: Liars and Lovers
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Although the majority of the content we publish on Rock n Roll Bride is real weddings (because, hello, perving over all the awesome weddings our readers have is literally the best!) some of our most viewed articles tend to be the more long-form advice/ inspo or just plain random stuff… Like my kitchen makeover reveal. That has shit-all to do with weddings but you guys LOVED seeing what we did with the room! Note to self: Do the DIY projects faster next year so I can show you more room makeovers!
So, for your viewing pleasure, and without further ado, here are our top ten most viewed non-real wedding articles of 2018. ENJOY!
1. Minimalist Pub Wedding Shoot Inspired By Neil Gaiman
2. A NSFW, Super Intimate Engagement Shoot
3. Transforming My Wedding Dress for Our 10 Year Anniversary
4. Revamp, Restyle, Reveal: Our Kitchen Reveal!
5. Rock n Roll Bride: THE BOOK!
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Public service announcement: If you’ve been trying (and failing) to convince your more conservative family members that a skulls, taxidermy and dead things wedding can totally be elegant and classy and not at all scary… then show them this wedding RIGHT NOW. As if by magic, your argument will be won. Sophie and Richard, we salute you!
They were married on the August bank holiday weekend at the beautiful Morden Hall which is set in the grounds of a National Trust park in South London. The theme of the day was influenced by the bride’s love of dead things and classic glamour.
Inspired by Carrie’s wedding outfit in the Sex and the City movie, Sophie wore a stunningly dramatic gown by Ian Stuart, perfectly accessorised with a taxidermy pheasant headpiece made by Flora & the Fox. “Although I’m not really a Sex and the City fan, I was inspired by Carrie’s bridal look from the film. I also really love Ian Stuart’s dresses, and after seeing Kat’s Antoinette dress in the Rock n Revolution photo shoot I just knew I had to have it!”
Her shoes were from from Office and she also wore a bespoke bird skull ring from Baroque Brighton, where her engagement ring and both their wedding rings were made. “Rich had the ring made and gave it to me via my maid of honour as a present on the day”, she said. “I was so surprised, it was beautiful.”
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Cover shot by Sara K Byrne
If there’s one thing I think would possibly make Rock n Roll Bride magazine better… its MORE Rock n Roll Bride magazine! Which is why I’m super excited to introduce you to issue 24, our first ever BUMPER ISSUE. That means this issue has more pages, more real weddings and more wedding planning inspo and advice that EVER BEFORE. We’ve upped the page count for the first time and all for the same £4.99 you’re used to. I know, we’re just too damn good to you.
The issue is now available for pre-order via our shop page (with free UK postage and worldwide shipping available). The issue will be available in UK stores from January 3rd, but if you want to ensure you nab a copy, and maybe have it land on your doorstep (in our signature shiny pink packaging) before the shops even get a sniff of it, then you can subscribe or pre-order this single issue right now.
Here’s a little sneaky peek of just some of the content you’ll find inside…And yes, that is a real bride gracing our cover. What a bloomin’ BABE, just you wait until you see the rest of the wedding. I mean damnnnn.
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2018 has been a year of tremendous ups and downs. On the one hand SO many incredible things have happened:
– I wrote a book!
– Each issue of the magazine outsold the one before it!
– I hired more people for our team!
– We got so many boring yet important behind-the-scenes business things sorted that I’m finally starting to feel like I have some semblance of my shit together (it only took a decade right!?)
But at the same time, 2018 has been a toughie. I’ve struggled with my mental health and body image bullshit a lot more than I have in quite a long time. However, as the year drew on, I’ve been making a real conscious effort to figure out what’s going on in my brain and working out what the specific situations or triggers are that make me feel worse (and then making changes to protect myself from them). In actual fact, although it’s been hard at times, overall, I know I’m making better decisions to protect myself and continuing to push myself in the right direction… Most of the time. I’m still very much a work in progress!
I have also learnt a hell of a lot in the past year. In particular about time management (having to fit writing a book into an already packed schedule will do that to you!) about delegation and how incredible it can be to find people you trust enough to off-load the tasks you can’t do yourself anymore (I’m one of those people that always wants to control everything!)
I’ve also thought a lot more about the financial side of the business. I’ve always stuck my head in the sand a little bit when it came to talking or thinking about money. It made me feel uncomfortable and icky and whenever I looked at our accounts, I would judge myself, and our business, based on how much money was in them. It was a sucky place to be. This year I have absolutely put my big girl pants on when it comes to that stuff and have started to educate myself more about how things work, I feel incredibly proud of myself!
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If you weren’t expecting to see a wedding today where the bride looks like a straight-up SUPERMODEL then, dear reader, you were very wrong. There is something so magically simple yet bad-freakin’-ass about this wedding. Chloe and CJ didn’t go overboard on the extras or the details, the little touches were minimal but the perfect amount of edgy and personalised. I mean they created custom enamel pins for their wedding favours for goodness sake. ALL the wedding goals coming at ya…
They were married in October at Growing Hope Market Place. a farmer’s market in Ypsilanti, Michigan, while a restaurant across the street was transformed into the perfect spot for the reception. “I have always been a fan of Rock n Roll Bride and good old fashioned staying true to ourselves”, began Chloe. “All the kick ass couples you feature inspired us! Seeing other couples pave the way gave us the push we needed to really make our wedding feel like it was for US and not the guests.”
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There was a timeless and classical element to the styling of Jade and Ben’s big day. They wanted their summer wedding to feel elegant with with an eclectic edge. The celebration absolutely still felt authentic to them and keeping the colour palette and theme quiet neutral meant they could focus on the things that they felt were most important (the ceremony and the food!)
They planned the day in just six months, which although was stressful at times, meant they made lots of decisions very quickly and just got stuff done! “I looked at advice for planning a wedding online, in terms of when everything should be completed by etc, and most of the deadlines had already passed by the time we started!” laughed the bride. “However whole wedding was achievable due the amount of friends and family who helped us out beforehand and on the day. During the ceremony we had our family members playing the flute and violin as people were waiting and as I entered. Sweet Love by Anita Baker was sung by close friends which was a favourite moment.”
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Elly and Chris have always been inspired by the works of Roald Dahl, and as they hadn’t seen the theme being used before, thought it could be one they could let their creativity loose with – even if they did have to be careful with which table they named The Twits!
As well as naming their tables after his books, they also had Roald Dahl influences in their decorations, their incredible four-tiered homemade wedding cakes and stationery. They had little plushie Roald Dahl characters dotted around the venue, and some favourite quotes from the author as decor.
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There was one overriding theme for George and Jordanna’s big day – you’ve got three guesses for what it could possibly be!
“We were inspired by reading the blogs of other couples on Rock n Roll Bride and how they did exactly what they wanted,” explained Jordanna. “We wanted our day to reflect our love for each other, and our other true loves; our cats Conker and Boots! However it was important to us for it not to be tacky; we wanted it to be in a sophisticated and at times, humorous way.”
They paired an elegant, wintery colour scheme of red, burgundy and black with loads of nods to their favourite felines; from Jordanna’s Markus Lupfer cat print sandals and her handmade cat ear headband, to her cat embroidered veil (!) and cat pins in the buttonholes and bouquets. George rocked socks personalised with photos of their cats, and even the bridesmaid dresses were from a website called Pretty Kitty Fashion!
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Festival weddings aren’t going anywhere and I for one couldn’t be happier about it! I mean what’s not to love about all this colour, creativity and fun!? And when a wedding is lovingly DIYed entirely by the couple themselves, well, you better believe we’re going to want to share it with our readers!
Lily and Jacob were hitched in August at Duncton Mill Fishery in West Sussex. It ended up being the biggest cost of their £14,000 budget (£2500 for the hire and £2500 for the marquee) but it was the perfect spot for what they wanted their wedding to be. “When I first created the dreaded wedding Pinterest page I named it ‘botanical rainbow'”, began the bride. “I wanted lots of fresh natural greenery but its of bright colours too!”
“Jacob and I love colour and quirkiness, we wanted it to be a celebration. We love the outdoors and are forever walking with our rescue dogs, so knew it had to be an outdoor wedding but that it had to be full of as much colour as physically possible. We didn’t want the traditional stuffy church wedding and white and purple colour scheme, we wanted it to be an explosion of colour!”
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Eleonora and Michele’s wedding day was boho chic to the max. They mixed fun vintage-inspired details with more traditional Italian elements for a knock-out day to remember!
“Our wedding was a total colour explosion,” Eleonora says, “so totally different from traditional weddings that are very white and classic. Everything was very natural and spontaneous, with real happiness as a family party.”
They had a traditional ceremony at Madonna di Valverde Sanctuary, which they decorated with candles and single-stemmed jarred flowers in bright colours. Eleonora’s statement flower crown was in a similarly bold colour palette over her beautiful blue-toned hair and added a playful element to her stunning vintage-inspired dress from Atelier Dorio.
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ARE. YOU. READY. For the best thing you’ve ever seen? Rock n Roll Bride was founded on celebrating alternative weddings that are totally different, and this is going to blow your mind. Laura and Florian’s Berlin wedding was a neon wonderland, including the coolest neon stationery and glow-in-the-dark eyeliner. Techno? More like Tech-YES.
Having seen neon more and more in the fashion world, Laura and Florian had the idea to use it as their wedding theme, mixing neon yellows and greens with white and grey for a classy take on the colour palette. There were neon green details on everything, including on the soles of Laura’s heels, the buttons on Florian’s shirt cuffs, their ring box and their stationery, all from Braune Biene. They had a neon green acrylic menu card and even sent their family a cute elopement card afterwards.
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Raych and Stu are both creatives, so their imagination ran away with them a little when they dreamed up their wedding day. The initial inspiration was Midsummer Night’s Dream – an ethereal, boho, garden vibe with touches of magic throughout. No matter where their dreams took them, they stuck to two non-negotiables for decision making for their big day – every element should be about them and their guests instead of following a tradition, and it had to be eco-conscious; everything would be be reused, recycled, environmentally friendly, or where things were bought, they would be from small businesses.
Their venue, The Secret Herb Garden, Edinburgh, was their biggest expense of their £15,000 budget, but was a total steal for their theme; the abundance of flowers and greenery meant they needed very little in the way of additional decor in order to capture the mood they wanted. Stu had proposed to Raych the previous year in a field of wild heather, so it was absolutely perfect for them to get married a year to the day in a greenhouse full of wild heather, lavender, thyme and rosemary.
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Hold onto your sequins ladies because you are going to LOVE Josie and John’s colourful extravaganza of a wedding! Married at Plush Tents Glamping in October, they had a day that perfectly reflected their passion for dressing up, festivals and throwing a damn good party!
“Autumn was chosen for the abundance of nature and the beautiful colours of the
changing season”, explained the bride. “The theme was inspired by a trip to the ‘Are You Experienced?’ exhibition at the V&A, a wonderful insight into the period of the late 60s and early 70s. The venue was chosen for its rustic style. Living simply and in connection with nature was a key theme of the hippy movement of that time and something dear to our hearts.”
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Wheeler and Tylah’s love story reads like a millennial fairytale – they met on Instagram (!) when Tylah was moving house and posted that she hadn’t unpacked her kettle yet, so Wheeler offered her round for a cup of tea.
Their initial inspiration for their wedding day was the wedding from Twilight, though Pinterest then took over. Tylah and her dad stopped by the bar on their walk down the aisle for a quick shot of Apple Sourz, and as their big day fell on the same day as the World Cup quarter finals, a few guests were sneakily watching the England v Sweden match on their mobile phones under the table at dinner!
If you’re thinking “Damn, this is the most photogenic couple I’ve ever seen”, it’s for good reason – both Wheeler and Tyler work in the modelling industry. So when it came to deciding their budget for their big day, they knew the value of spending as much as possible on your photographer/videographer. They made the rest of their £10,000 budget work hard by DIYing pretty much everything apart from their outfits.
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Ahead of their big wedding day in China featuring a traditional tea ceremony, Anna and Alex decided to have some engagement pictures taken in Brighton with Manon Pauffin. The suuuuuuper cute results are below!
“In China, it is popular to do a pre-wedding shoot to show your photos at the wedding because on the big day it’s often too busy to have photos of just the two of us,” Anna explains. “For us, this shoot was like a wedding present to ourselves to capture the sweet moment of our love story forever, and it gave us a chance to enjoy some time together and just be who we are.”
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Heather and Timmy’s outdoor Ohio wedding was horror-film inspired, even down to the date – 27th May was Vincent Price aka the King of Horror’s, birthday!
Although they met through a mutual friend when they were younger, it was only later on that Heather and Timmy found each other. Their connection wasn’t during the happiest time in either of their lives – Heather was dealing with her son being hospitalised by a poisonous spider bite and Timmy’s girlfriend had just passed away – but they were able to help and comfort each other through it. Heather explains,”Timmy was there to help me go through very tough times and I knew instantly that I wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. Timmy’s not only my best friend and the love of my life – at the same time he saved it.”
Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe, Vincent Price and the Bride of Frankenstein, their colour scheme was deep reds and blacks. Heather’s wedding dress featured a coloured lace-up corset back for a splash of colour, and was a bargain at $75 on eBay, as were Timmy’s suit and the bridesmaid dresses.
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Grace and Chris’s wedding really showcased the best of London weddings – they got ready at the beautiful St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, got married at Islington Town Hall, and then partied at Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes. Yep, that’s right – they had their wedding in a bowling alley, and it was all kinds of awesome!
“Our inspiration was really having things we both loved in life being part of our wedding,” Grace explains, “Our dog, pizza, power ballads and bowling!”
The day was relaxed and focused on fun, with no readings during the ceremony. “The ceremony was short and sweet – just the vows, the signing and the kiss! We made a playlist to play while guests were waiting (which was longer than we’d have liked, as there was a bomb scare in London that day and it took me longer to get to the venue because the roads were closed), and one of my favourite photos from the day is when one of Chris’s choices, Flo Rida’s Going Down for Real came on. He danced on his own at the front of the hall and it is such a perfect candid moment!”
“I came in to Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland, as I have two Wizard of Oz related tattoos and it’s been on repeat for most of my life. As huge Jurassic Park fans, we signed the register whilst playing the theme tune by John Williams, and as massive power ballad fans, we walked out to Tina Turner’s The Best!”
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As fantasy cosplayers in their spare time, there was no doubt in their minds that Joana and Maria’s wedding would be a fantastical fairytale! Drawing inspiration from all different areas – their participation in medieval festivals, their love of steampunk and all things rustic and fairytales; they didn’t want to be constrained by one particular genre so they just chose all the things they love.
They brought their vision to life by DIYing practically everything for their big day – from their stationery to their ceremony and reception decor, they even made their own outfits, painstakingly keeping them secret from one another and stealing moments to sew when the other one was out.
“It made it quite complicated and stressful at times, but sewing our own outfits was my favourite part of planning the wedding,” said Maria. “We really wanted to surprise each other and have the first moment we saw each other’s outfits at the ceremony.”
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