March 4, 2011
A Day of the Dead and a Hello Kitty themed wedding?! Could Serena & Brent’s wedding be more perfect for Rock n Roll Bride if it tried?!
The bad news is that I don’t have any further info on the wedding, but they photos were just too awesome to not share and I’m sure you can get some awesome DIY ideas just by looking at what they created. I am literally dying over the Hello Kitty in the bouquet and her Tarina Tarantino jewellery. Classic bridal style?! Screw that!
November 5, 2010
This gorgeous and rockin’ bridal shoot took place in LA and was shot entirely with film, with virtually no post-production. The bride wore a Betsey Johnson dress and shoes and jewellery from Tarina Tarantino. Her cute parasol was from Chinatown Los Angeles.
November 25, 2012
I don’t wish to alarm you, but Christmas is one month today!! Argh! And nope, I haven’t started my shopping yet either. So today, I thought I’d share with you some of the things on my Christmas list this year, as well as some other gift ideas that I’ve fallen in love with during my self-indulgent internet searches…
♥ Iron Fist have been a favourite of mine for a long time and my ‘want list’ just gets longer and longer every time I visit their site. The Starstruck blazer ($80) and Tigre & Bunny wedges ($60) are just a match made in tealy heaven. I also love this Kitty Kat coat ($160) probably more than I should. You can also get 20% off your entire order with the exclusive code ‘ROCK’ just for Rock n Roll Bride readers (valid until 31.12.2012). You’re welcome!
♥ The Neon Holidays collection from Tarina Tarantino is perfection. I’ve got my beady eyes on the neon pink choker ($80) & bracelet ($60) obviously.
♥ I’ve been having a sordid love affair with my Jimmy Choo ‘Tokyo’ gold glitter high tops ever since I treated myself earlier in the year, and now those crazy Choo kids have gone and brought out a whole new range! They’re not cheap, rocking up at £325 a pair, but if you’re anything like me you’ll totally over-wear them. Always think of the price per wear people!
♥ Christmas is the perfect time for experimenting with new make up looks – go big or go home I say! If the truth be told I’ve only recently discovered the wonders of Sugarpill and now I’m a fully fledged addict! Their pigments are super saturated and so amazingly easy to blend. They also start from a ridiculous reasonable $12 for the individual pots. I’m also so dying to get my grubby mitts on these rainbow false lashes ($6) when they get back in stock!
November 16, 2012
After four years of dating, Andi & Brian were engaged while on a trip to Australia. Brian proposed while they were visiting Luna Park in Sydney, which is affectionately referred to as the ‘Coney Island of Australia’. So when it came to planning their wedding this was their starting point.
“We really wanted to have a wedding that was very fun and non-traditional, so we kept with a vintage Coney Island/sideshow theme”, explained the bride. “It was perfect for us. Having the right décor was key in making the vintage-y, Coney Island feel that we were hoping to accomplish. We were so lucky to work with great vendors who were excited to help, especially Obnoxious Antiques who we rented the vintage carnival and sideshow pieces from. They also provided the sideshow banners that were hanged throughout the venue. A friend even painted a custom sideshow banner of Brian, me and our dogs!”
“It was also important to us to have a vegan wedding”, Andi continued. “We worked with Miss Rachel’s Pantry. She and her people created a killer vegan menu for us that kept within our fun, Coney Island/carnival theme. The best vegan bakery on the planet, Vegan Treats, created our blue velvet tiered cake and both the popcorn box cakes which were all were decorated with gold-leaf popcorn.”
April 18, 2011
So now I’ve got a party report to write…Wow. Erm wow. Where do I begin with this baby huh?! SO much happened…and it’s going to be hard to sum it all up in a few paragraphs but here goes…
Last Thursday I hosted a party and invited anyone who reads this blog to come along. Over 500 of you applied for tickets and 200 lucky brides & grooms-to-be and wedding industry professionals were asked to come along. The idea being that everybody I know works so hard, whether that be with their businesses or planning their weddings, so I wanted to give everyone an excuse to take a night off, dress up, eat cupcakes and sweeties, drink cocktails and generally get a little bit silly. And we did. Oh we did.
Lucy enjoying a large cocktails (for ahem 6-8 people) early on…
Looks like she wasn’t the only one…
The day started with Gareth & I hopping on the train to London to meet the awesome Elbie Van Eeden (she got married in March – you saw her fabulous wedding on my blog right?) who did our hair and my make up. When we arrived, Elbie said she’d been up all night thinking of ideas for my tresses and did I want the rainbow back? Erm yes pleeease! This time she did a kind of ‘dipped’ effect, where she just added the extra colours to the bottom half of sections of my hair. We kept the styling relatively simple with a few curls to really show off the colours. I adore it.
After a few hours of beautification there was a mad rush to dump our stuff in the hotel and I whizzed round to see my girls at Fur Coat No Knickers to get dressed. I am such a lucky girl that they bought in and customised this gorgeous vintage dress for me. It was originally below the knee and had a higher neckline but Emma & Laura suggested a puffball re-styling and adding pink edged petticoat. Hell yes! I wore it with my Vivienne Westwood pink pumps (flat shoes were a necessity!) my Tarina Tarantino ‘pink head’ necklace, my Butler and Wilson skull ring and some black and white diamond drop earrings lent to me by the incredibly generous Jon Keith Diamonds.
I arrived at the venue at 5.30 and was greeted by Charlotte of Restoration Cake, Hannah of Sweet Dream Events, Sara of Wedding Sparrow, Jayne of Sacco & Sacco Photography and Lisa of Lisa Jane Photography – my dream team for the night! I was blown away by a) how excited everyone was to be involved and b) how much effort and hard work they all put in. Charlotte’s cupcakes were divine as ever (how cute are the button cakes – made to match the invitations I sent!?) and Hannah’s sweetie display was nothing short of awe-inspiring. She even hand drew the skull labels and the take away bags. Genius.
Charlotte made the cute cupcakes to match the button design on the invitations I’d sent out!
Lucy Ledger then arrived with the menus that she’s designed for the custom cocktail (and yes they were delicious) and some caption boards for the photo booth. The “I want pink hair” board was particularly popular! (you’ll see more of this in the photo booth photos which I’ll be posting later today…)
Then it was show time! People started arriving at 6.30 and didn’t stop arriving until about 10pm. At one point I looked outside and there was actually a queue to get in! People squealed and hugged as they met for the first time (often after talking for months on twitter!) The vibe was joyful, electric and exciting…I couldn’t have hoped for anything more.
At about 8.30 I took to the mic and did a mini thank you speech. It was too dark to read my notes so I hope I didn’t forget to thank anyone. People whooped and cheered and I got a little teary saying an extra special big thank you to my wonderful and supportive husband Gareth.
The rest of the night pretty much consisted of me running around, trying to say hello to as many people as possible and hopping in and out of the photo booth to have pictures taken with everyone that wanted one. I was blown away by the turn out and I’m so so thrilled that everyone seemed to have such a fabulous time.
Check out these reports written up by some of the attendees…(if you’ve done one that’s not listed here, let me know add I’ll add yours!)
Segerius Bruce Photography
Ruby Weddings
Love Illustrated
Miss KTP
Fifties Wedding
Wedding Sparrow
Ali Lovegrove (with some exclusive quotes from me)
Emily Jayne
Tattybojangles
Mark Osborne Photography
A Postscript Bride
The Creative Factory
Mark Niemierko
Here’s to the next one huh!? But for now, I’ll leave you with a huge selection of photos by the awesome Jayne Sacco who worked her butt off all night. She was bloody brilliant.
The Rock n Roll Bride & Groom! More photo booth photos to come later today…
February 9, 2011
I’ve got another couple that you might recognise adoring these pages this afternoon. Do you remember this incredibly gorgeous vintage, floral and tattooed bridal shoot? Well the wedding to go along with the stunning shoot is just as visually gorgeous.
Charly & Kelly has a beautiful back garden wedding in June at the bride’s parent’s home. The couple were married at 7pm by Lisa Torti, a mutual friend who had introduced them. They filled the garden with twinkly lights, giant pink bows and candles. The bride started collecting candy, cupcake and valentine themed items early on in the planning to use as decorations. The awesome spider candle holders used as centrepieces were purchased during Halloween, to which she added pink and red bows. The invitations were made by the groom’s aunt and included a vintage valentine that was used as the reply card.
Guests were encouraged to dress or accessorize in red or pink to complement the wedding colours – the over all impact was a visually stunning one! As favours the guests were given sugar skulls wrapped in clear bags, and tied with a candy necklace. The skulls were hand-delivered from Mexico by the groom’s cousin.
Kelly wore the same Betsey Johnson dress and shoes that she looked so beautiful in on her bridal shoot with Tarina Tarantino jewellery. She carried a vintage handkerchief from Pasadena flea market.
“We both love music and know how important it is to set the mood of the wedding, so we selected our music carefully”, Kelly explained. “We made several wedding mixes that played during different phases. As guests entered, swing and big band tunes played, mixed with a little Dusty Springfield and Burt Bacharach.”
December 7, 2010
Laura & Andy’s rockabilly wedding is pure class. Shot by the wonderful Chloe Browne of Caught the Light, the day exudes 1950’s elegance and styling…with a big fat Rock n Roll twist!
“We did things differently by really letting our personalities and our interests shine through our wedding preparations,” began the bride. “Both ourselves and our friends are immersed in the music dancing and lifestyle of the 40s and 50s Swing and Rockabilly scene. It was inherent that I would wear a 50s style dress rather than a traditional wedding dress, that the details of our wedding would be centered around our love of vintage music, pin-up fashion, jive and jitterbug dancing, traditional tattoos, classic Chevy pickups!”
“Everything to do with the day reflected our day-to-day interests as well as some personal obsessions (particularly a certain Michael J Fox film from the 80’s!) Rather than having a ‘theme’ our wedding day reflected us -eclectic, unconventional and fun-loving and we wanted it to go with a swing!”
“We wanted an on-budget, hand-crafted rock’n’roll wedding where everyone we love best in the world could come and share the fun of seeing us get hitched followed by an awesome party. In the evening we truly ‘Rocked Around The Clock’ with my Great Aunt and Uncle showing us kids how they danced it the first time round which was awesome!”
“I knew from the get go that I would be wearing a 1950’s style wedding dress but still enjoyed the rites of passage of trying on some meringues beforehand. My Bridesmaid Hollie had nicknamed me ‘The Anti-Bride’ after every white dress I saw myself in left me in peals of laughter. I just felt like I was in fancy dress which I didn’t want. I just wanted to feel like me. I had my heart set on a coloured dress – and the inspiration for the peach colour came from the dress that Marty McFly’s ‘mother’ wears to the prom in ‘Back To The Future’. ‘BTTF’ is our favourite film and not only was my dress an homage to it, but also our first dance was ‘Earth Angel and then straight into Johnny B Goode’ as an in-joke between us.”
I just have to interrupt right about here and say that the Back to the Future references make me love this wedding even more! It’s also my favourite film of all time and Gareth & I walked back up the aisle to ‘The Power of Love’ from the film. Anyway, sorry about that brief interlude…back to the task at hand…
“My dress was custom made by Caroline Arthur and my petticoat was custom made to match the colour of my dress by a Annabella Designs on folksy. Hollie had also had a lady on etsy make me a custom garter in leopard print and silver skull detail that I unwrapped on the day. It was so very ‘me’ and I was really touched. I was originally planning to have the Heart Vivienne Westwood shoes but when I saw the cherry version I actually let out a small scream and hugged the sales assistant in Liberty! They cherry shoes then inspired the design of the bridesmaid’s hats which I made from millinery items bought from MacCulloch and Wallis.”
“I was insanely happy to find the ‘My Pretty’ Jewellery collection from Tarina Tarantino when I was planning my outfit as I have a life long obsession with The Wizard Of Oz. I was really torn between The Wicked Witch Of The West version but saw sense and went with Glinda The Good Fairy pearls and matching bracelet.”
“The Bridesmaids and I each wore over sized heart rings, custom for the wedding by Clutterfly Jewellery who make Rockabilly inspired jewellery. It was the perfect answer to my ‘Something Blue’ – but with added glitter. The bridesmaids had matching red glitter heart rings declaring their love of ‘TEA’! This matched our vintage teapots and teacups dotted around the mansion and reminded me of the brilliant vintage tea–hen-party they had thrown for me!”
The couple decided to buck tradition and had the groom arrive in style at the ceremony in a Chevy. “As myself and my bridesmaids had a beautiful large Bridal suite to get ready in at the Mansion, we decided to turn tradition on its head and have the groom turn up in a vintage car – a mint green 1950s Chevy pickup,” Laura explained. “I will always remember hearing the engine revving as it pulled up outside and feeling insanely excited that the ceremony was about to begin!”
Both the Laura & Andy are designers and met during their Design Degree at University. Therefore, in order to make everything super personal, the couple decided to hand make most of the wedding decor and details with help from their friends and our family. The group worked hard and created the tissue paper pomanders. the cake and crocheted cake toppers, the cd favours, the guest book and the family photo board. “Other goodies at the guest table included 40s style hand-held fans to help guests cool down after a jive on the dance floor and vintage pressed glass bowls filled with marshmallows, bon bons and other sugary treats.”
October 21, 2010
In the words of the lady herself, I am so titstastically excited to share Britt & Mike’s wedding with you today. I have literally been on the edge of my seat since July in eager anticipation of seeing their wedding photographs. Most of you will already know Britt, the kick ass, controversial and Rock n Roll heavy-weight behind the the Bowie Bride blog. Words really can’t express how awesome this chick is and how much I totally adore her and her killer blog.
As you can well imagine I nearly fell on the floor with excitement when Britt asked if I’d like to be the blog to share her wedding. Like she even had to ask!?
The couple were married at BOXeight Studios, a photography studio in downtown Los Angeles…and their got the subway there. Hell yes! No unnecessarily expensive wedding transport for these two! They were adamant that their wedding would be a reflection of them and would be filled with everything they love. Britt explained, “There was no way my husband and I were going to plan a one-day celebration for 365 days straight and spend 12.5K just to throw a wedding that didn’t exude “us.” We wanted an urban/gritty/downtown/loft vibe. Something our guests could take the subway to. Something that promoted hardcore loving and hardcore boozing.”
“We wanted to showcase food that was unique to LA, so we chose Korean/Mexican fusion tacos that were served off a truck. (LA is famous for their food trucks). Overall, we focused on traditions that made sense to us as a couple, and ignored the traditions that didn’t. So once we got over the whole, “Do we really need to include this expensive and/or dated tradition that we could honestly care less about” aspect of it all, planning a wedding that exuded “us” became pretty easy. We reused a ton of materials for the DIY decor — most of which we found buried in our closets, or in our recycling bins… Like CD cases, corks, sheet music, bottles, vases, buttons, etc. You name it, we probably tried to reuse it for our wedding decor.”
October 15, 2010
I’m afraid there’s no Photography Friday today and all the photography was done by other people this week! However not only do I know you’ll forgive me when you see this amazing wedding I’m putting in it it’s place, but you will also all be pleased to here that I’m going to be blogging the full Paris photo shoot on Monday!
Danielle & Ed’s wedding should certainly help you to get into that Marie Antoinette vibe. I knew I’d love their wedding as soon as I saw their engagement session (which I featured in July) With a penchant for crystals, skulls, fashion & shoes (!) this pair really couldn’t have anything but a ridiculously opulent and extravagant Rock n Roll wedding. Prepare you have your breath taken away…
Danielle wore four…yes FOUR different outfits (full list below!) – a different one for the ceremony, cocktails, dinner and dancing. A lot of the incredible decor and styling was also a DIY effort from Danielle who owns Curtsy Bella, a boutique that sells all things sparkly. She made the crystal bouquets, the men’s steam punk-esque boutonnieres, the pom pom princesses tiara & bucket and the table signs. She also put together all the photo booth props.
The opulent and glamorous Marie Antoinette theme was a true reflection of the things the couple love in their daily lives.
August 5, 2010
Christine & Ara met in August 2009. Ara proposed in October 2009 and they married in April of this year. The couple, both Armenian, may be proud of their heritage but neither of them wanted anything to do with the traditional ‘cookie cutter’ Armenian wedding and so went all out to make sure their wedding was different. “They all consist of the same cookie cutter agenda: hour long church ceremony/reception at a tacky banquet hall/an entourage of bridesmaids/groomsman/endless supply of cheap appetizers and shish kabab…..and a horrible wedding dj who plays generic music” the bride told me.
Instead the couple got married at Inn of the Seventh Ray restaurant by Ara’s Father who is a minister. They hired a jazz band to play their reception and they had their first dance to “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone. Christina wore a gorgeous polka dot lace dress from Aire Barcelona with Tarina Tarantino acessories and put her maid of honour in Betsey Johnson…and what did they have on their feet? Oh yes those fabulous Vivienne Westwood shoes!
July 27, 2010
As many of you will already know, I like to pride myself and my blog on individuality and posting some of the best, exclusive and new weddings out there. However rules are made to be broken right?! I actually saw and loved Alicia & Jack’s wedding a while back on another wedding blog (I even included it in a Thursday Treats post) but when their videographer Thomas of Vantage Point Films sent me the link to their gorgeous video (which hasn’t been seen elsewhere) I couldn’t help but as if I could share some of the photographs taken by Carla Ten Eyck Photography too. Sound good?
“For most wedding vendors, a couple like Alicia and Jack reminds us why we do what we do” Thomas began. “Just when you’re thinking ‘another day, another wedding’, they infuse their cool style into the day, and put the ‘art’ back in ‘artist’ for you. They were hip, they were classy, and two of the sweetest people you’d ever want to work with. Of course it helps when, as a videographer, you get to shadow photographer Carla Ten Eyck all day, as she navigates her hometown of Hartford, CT. It makes my job a lot easier when the photographer is on the top of their game.”
I then got to speak to the bride, Alicia who explained that unlike a lot of ‘girlie girls’ she had never been one to fantasise about her wedding day. She is sooo the perfect Rock n Roll Bride inspiration! “Unlike many of my girly-girl friends, I hadn’t fantasized about my wedding day for my entire life and I certainly had no idea of what I wanted the dress to look like. I tried to go through the motions of trying dresses at the bridal shops- you know, the whole bridal circus…. but as soon as I discovered this Betsey Johnson dress I knew I’d found it. I’d been admiring and wearing her fashion since I was thirteen. This dress just fit me perfectly, in more ways than one.”
March 3, 2010
I am so flippin’ excited to share this wedding today. It’s like looking in a wedding mirror – if I’d known about all the fabulous alternative weddingy goodness that’s out there when we were getting married I reckon our wedding would certainly have shared many design elements with Karri & Ian’s big day.
The pair were married in the Botanical Gardens at the St. Regis Resort in Laguna Beach, California. Karri envisioned a dark and whimsical “winter in summer” wedding, inspired by the movie Edward Scissorhands. Karri & Ian told me all about their inspirational day.
