Alternative Bridal Fashion by Rag n Bone

Kat

January 5, 2012

Husband and wife team Jaimi & Adrian hail from South Africa and are really pushing the alternative wedding market forward in their country. After styling and shooting a number of rockin' photo shoots and weddings (which I've been lucky enough to feature here and here) the couple decided to take their vision one step further and put together an alternative bridal fashion show as part of a larger wedding fair at Tala Private Game Reserve.

A Vintage Rock n Roll Italian Wedding: Alice & Matteo

Kat

January 4, 2012

Oh baby I'm literally dying over Alice & Matteo's Italian wedding. Everything is so beautiful and the photographs by Martino Vincenzi leave me weak at the knees. "Since my husband proposed me last year, I knew that my wedding would have been not a classical italian wedding," Alice wrote to me. "So, when I found your wedding blog, it was like a mirage in the desert! You have been my bible, THANK YOU!!" "During the planning I gently forced all my best friends to help me to make everything! It has been so tough, but worthwhile. We made all the cupcakes two days before the wedding, and the morning of the celebration we were still preparing and fixing stuff!"

A Party-Hard Utah Mountain Wedding with the Bride in a Romper Suit!: Elizabeth & Brendan

Kat

January 4, 2012

When newlywed Elizabeth emailed me to share her wedding and told me she wore the Princess Lasertron VuVu romper for the evening reception, well I just knew I had to feature them. A bride in a romper suit? hell yes! "Our theme was supposed to be 'Farm Fancy'," Elizabeth explained. "People wore their interpretation of farm fancy attire, and some people really went all out - boots, denim, sparkly fire engine red onsie with white fringe! The theme quickly became 'Wind-Blown Princess Lasertronerific Farm Fancy Booze Fueled Costume Pop Dance Extravaganza'. Awesome."

The Inspirations: Emma Jones of Enterprise Nation

Kat

January 4, 2012

Welcome to The Inspirations. In this series I'll be interviewing people that have influenced me and my business in a variety of ways. I find every single one of the people I'll be profilling incredibly inspiring and I hope you will too. This week I chatted to Emma Jones of Enterprise Nation. I first discovered Emma after seeing her interviewed on the now defunct 'Working Lunch' BBC TV show. She was talking about supporting 5-9ers - i.e. people that work full time but run a small business in their own time. At the time, this was exactly the position I was in. I was working full time at the shopping channel, and running Rock n Roll Bride on my time off. I was so incredibly inspired by her story that I decided to drop her an email to tell her so. Within days Emma has got back to me, said she loved my website and would I be willing to be profiled in a book she was writing on the subject, 'Working 5 to 9 – how to start a successful business in your spare time’. Of course I said yes (my photo was even on the cover!) and since then I've been incredibly motivated by everything Emma does, in particular her work with Start Up Britain, a company that supports people wanting to start their own businesses. Not only is Emma amazing at what she does but the fact that her business is helping your business, makes her the perfect candidate for this first interview. I hope you find her as incredible as I do!

A Swedish Vintage Circus Wedding: Frida & Richard

Kat

January 4, 2012

Frida & Richard were married at Hagaparken, a nature reserve just north of Stockholm, Sweden. The beautiful ceremony took place under a carefully selected tree and the reception was in The Copper Tent, also in Hagaparken, which was originally built by one of the Swedish Kings to house his horses, but which looks a little like a circus tent. The couple based their celebration around this tent, creating a vintage circus theme. The bride designed her own dress and the couple DIY'ed as much of the day as possible including the flowers, the stationery and all the reception decor and props.

Alternative & Colourful Wedding Dresses from Chrissy Wai-Ching

Kat

January 3, 2012

Hand-making all her gorgeous dresses in Seattle, Chrissy Wai-Ching has long been a favourite wedding dress designer of mine. Started in 2004, her custom and one of a kind designs are like nothing else on the market right now. Her original concept and eye for detail and colour makes her beautiful gowns highly sought after by the alternative bride-to-be. Chrissy brings Asian flair together with contemporary textile design to create unique art with her pieces.

Why You Should Be Outsourcing

Kat

January 3, 2012

'm going to start off The Green Room with some advice that I've only recently allowed myself to take, but something I think we all should be doing more of - giving ourselves a break and outsourcing. I am a firm believer in the mantra that I'd rather work harder doing something I'm good at (blogging, writing, networking) to hopefully earn more money to pay someone else to do the things I'm not so good at (cooking, accounting, graphic and web design). For a long time the cooking thing in particular made me feel like a 'bad wife'. I used to love food shopping and making Gareth tasty dinners, but these days I'm so busy I just don't have the inclination to put the effort in. Our Indian takeaway even gave us a Christmas present this year, that's a surefire sign that we use them too much huh!?

Welcome to Rock n Roll Bride 2.0: The Green Room

Kat

January 3, 2012

In 2007 I started a wedding blog, called it Rock n Roll Bride and began sharing alternative weddings and inspiration - wedding inspiration for girls like me. Girls that were planning their weddings but felt disillusioned and disheartened by the frou frou, fluffy, cookie cutter industry and limited choices they were offered for ‘their’ big day. Skip forward a few years, to January 2012, and this little wedding blog of mine has grown to be amongst the most popular in the world (OK it feels utterly ludicrous typing that but I guess it is true...) Needless to say, the girl with the neon hair and big dreams did good. This wedding blog is now not only my full time job, but my husband Gareth's. We have an incredibly chaotic and happy home and we couldn't be more grateful for where Rock n Roll Bride, and the people who've supported it, has brought us.

A Louisiana Swamp Trash the Dress: Nikki & Marc

Kat

January 3, 2012

Nikki & Marc wanted to do an unusual 'trash the dress' photo shoot to celebrate their marriage. Something totally unique was on the cards when they braved the nearby Honey Island Swamp with photographer Chelsea Patricia, who explained the idea to me, "Nikki & Marc are a pretty adventurous and unique couple (Marc is a tattoo artist and lord-of-the-bike—he even bike jousts on his tall bike. Nikki allows him to tattoo her ankle poke and stick style), but I still was nervous as to how they would respond to 'Hey, let’s venture into the gator, snake, and mosquito infested waters of the Louisiana bayou! It’ll be fun!' Thankfully for me, they were all on board. Nikki already had plans to hem her dress short and figured, 'What the hell, it’s only swamp water!'"

Something Borrowed, Something Roo: How to Pick a Wedding Theme

Kat

January 2, 2012

Optional (and recommended) prep work before reading this month’s post: go around your house and make a little mental (or physical, I’m easy) note of what you can see in the following hiding places: your wardrobe; your shoe collection; your fridge/pantry, and your cosmetics cupboard/dressing table. No matter how bare or brimming these areas of your nest are, I hope that you’ll begin to notice certain themes lurking in each. For example, although I’m a bird who doesn’t subscribe to wearing a lot of makeup, I do have a penchant for fabulous nail varnishes. My collection isn’t vast, but there’s an obvious trend; namely understated nudes, pastel pinks, and darker, cold hues with a hint of shimmer. There is no hint of neon to be found. Moving to my overly extensive wardrobe (which I am always ungratefully bored of) I see lots of natural tones – tans, browns, greys (the odd plum sweater, maybe) – splashes of velvet, cheeky peeks of Breton stripe, trimmings of lace and a few impractical “statement” pieces. Similarly with my shoes, I find cherry red (faux) snakeskin ankle boots nuzzling up next to my Vans Old Skools, who in turn drape a shoelace around my Melissa Lovefoxx sandals. When asked to describe my style, I say it’s “Whatever”. It’s whatever I feel like, whatever the weather, whatever I want. In turn, I try to live my life by the mantra of my wardrobe, which becomes glaringly apparent when you look in our kitchen cupboards: scotch pancake ingredients, stuffing mix, cloudy lemonade, cinema sweet popcorn, potatoes, and tomato soup (we haven’t done our weekly shop yet, can you tell?).

Hearts, Clouds and a Massive Party: Brandon & Tiffany

Kat

January 2, 2012

"A friend of mine described our wedding by saying it was 'kind of like the Hangover, only without the tiger'." newlywed Tiiffany explained. "Brandon and I planned the wedding purposely during our favorite holiday - Halloween. Our wedding venue was in the middle of downtown Orlando, which has a HUGE Halloween street party the weekend of Halloween. It’s loads of fun, and I knew that everyone would want to party on the streets after the wedding. Well, my maid of honor partied a little too hard, and we ended up in the emergency room the night of our wedding. Haha. I love her!" Brandon & Tiffany were married the day before Halloween at Sak Comedy Lab. As you can see, they wanted a real party atmosphere for their wedding and so threw the rule book out the window when it came to deciding what they wanted.

A Sunday Kind of Love – Happy New Year!

Kat

January 1, 2012

2011, The Year That Was {Part Two: July – December}

Kat

December 30, 2011

2011, The Year That Was {Part One: January – June}

Kat

December 29, 2011

An Urban & Eclectic Community Wedding: Stevie & Nick

Kat

December 28, 2011

Stevie & Nick's eclectic city wedding took place in Mile End, East London. The bride described the day to me as "eclectic retro community chic," with so many of their friends and family pitching in to help. "So many people said ‘that’s how weddings used to be’ and ‘this is how it should be, family and friends mucking in’. It meant a lot to us that this was how we did it – it wouldn’t have happened without all of the support we received." The wedding day started with the ceremony at Bromley Public Hall and concluded with a rockin' party reception at The Victoria Pub, "Old man pub heaven" as the bride described it! "They’d never hosted a wedding before, but we were there for a jumble sale and afternoon pint and fell in love with the place," she explained. "We started chatting to Jo and Martin, the amazing couple who own the pub with their son Alfie and couldn’t believe how genuinely excited they were by it. It made me realise that experience of weddings only gets you so far – real passion and enthusiasm was a lot more important in the end. When we wanted to bring in our own flowers, cakes and decorations – including nailing things to the wall – they were all for it!"

A Fashion Forward London Wedding: Courtney & Charles

Kat

December 27, 2011

Courtney & Charles were married at Marylebone Town Hall followed by a reception at The Union Club in Soho, London. The fashion forward bride wore a short wedding dress by David Fielden and incredible gold shoes by Charlotte Olympia. Not only do I love that she had a bridesman as well as bridesmaids, but I'm going gaga over his shirt and bow tie combo, made in the same Laura Ashley fabric as the girls. Doesn't it look fabulously chic?

Happy Christmas!

Kat

December 24, 2011

Lots of love and Christmas sparkle, Kat, Gareth, Henry & Rachel

Christmas Cheer from Love Me Do Photography

Kat

December 23, 2011

Who's excited for Christmas?! ME!!! Isn't this shoot and video by Love Me Do Photography and Tree of Life Films just the perfect thing to get you in the mood for this weekend's festivities? I have an overwhelming urge to dress up as a present right now... Hope you have a great one guys, I'll see you on the other side.

Thursday Treats – 22nd December 2011: I’m Accepting Guest Writers + Wedding Dress Winners Announced

Kat

December 22, 2011

Welcome, weary traveler, to the last Thursday Treats of the year! We'll be in Crimbo Limbo next week (you know, that weird week between Christmas and New Year where time seems to slow down. Where most people are off work and there's plenty of terrible festive telly on?) Anyway, because of this I too will be (trying) to take a week off and so will be no Treats or Post It Notes posts. However there will still be (abet a slightly abbreviated) programme of blog content going up. I have at least one blog post per day scheduled to go up next week. So, if you find time between stuffing your face with turkey/chocolate/Christmas pudding and arguing with your relatives, then be sure to pop by.

Discounts & Savings From Some of My Favourite Wedding Suppliers…Happy Christmas!

Kat

December 22, 2011

What could be a better way to celebrate that Christmas is just around the corner than by sharing with you some amazing discounts? Check out these fabulous offers from some of my favourite wedding suppliers. Happy shopping (for yourself I hope!)