January 9, 2012
I'm utterly thrilled today to share with you a brand new competition. Rebecca Litchfield of Catwalk Wedding is very generously offering a free engagement shoot to TEN Rock n Roll Bride readers and then free wedding photography to her favourite of these ten couples. We all know weddings are expensive things, so how awesome would it be to get your wedding photos (and great wedding photos at that!) for absolutely nadda!?Read more...
January 9, 2012
"Love, laughter, friends & family" said Kelly when I asked her about her wedding theme. "Through all the help and support we had leading up to the day, we knew this would be our 'theme'. It was important to us to make sure everyone enjoyed themselves. For us, it wasn’t about having a particular style or colour running through the flowers – it was just about being true to us as a couple and a family." Kelly & James were married at Braziers Park School in Oxfordshire, "I guess the inspiration for the day was making it about us and the things that are important to us which is basically family, friends and good food," Kelly continued. "I am a big believer in things happening for a reason and so many things leading up to our wedding seemed like they were meant to be and felt so right!"Read more...
January 9, 2012
When Sarah saw the work of Sassy of Assassynation on Rock n Roll Bride, she knew she was the only wedding photographer for her. "All of the photos I loved the most on the Rock n Roll Bride wedding blog seemed to have been taken by Sassy so I took the plunge and sent an email," Sarah explained. "We had an engagement shoot in September and instantly knew we had made the right choice (you can see it on Sarah's own blog here). Sassy suggested bringing Frank along too to film our wedding and it couldn't have been more perfect. The two of them were a dream to work with and felt more like guests." Sarah married Gray in November at Crockwell Farm. The bride wore a custom made Stella Lilliana gown and customised Vivienne Westwood Lady Dragon Heart shoes (she wanted the red hearted version that are no longer available so bought a pair of fakes from eBay and replaced the orignally peach hearts on her genuine Viv's - genius!)Read more...
January 8, 2012
There ain't no hiding that I love love love Magpie Vintage. Working with genuine vintage pieces, Lisa & Tania are some of the loveliest ladies in the wedding industry and so bloody talented at what they do! So, I'm more than a little bit thrilled to let you know that their sample sale is now open through their website. With pieces from as little as £20 you're sure to find something perfectly sparkly for your big day.Read more...
January 7, 2012
This week's DIY tutorial comes from Betty of Betty Bee Vintage. This simple project looks like a lot of fun, and wouldn't these look amazing as part of your reception centrepieces? You could cover them with cupcakes, flowers, pearls...well, whatever takes you're fancy I guess. I kinda like the idea of using really dark coloured plates and putting skulls on them surrounded with ivy...but well, that's just me. I better leave this to the experts...Read more...
January 7, 2012
See Hear You're probably sick of hearing me bang on about the fact that Gareth & I were featured on the BBC's See Hear programme by now, but this is for those of you not in the UK, who won't have been able to see the show yet...Read more...
January 6, 2012
This week I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be a wife...or more specially a 'good' wife. I guess with the new year kicking in and all, I started a-pondering about where I am in my life and what I'm supposed to be doing next... Anyway, Gareth & I often joke that I'm a bad wife (at least I hope he's joking). The roles are anything but traditional in our house. As many of you will already know, Rock n Roll Bride is the sole source of income in our household and most of the work that goes into it is on my end - that's not to say that the things Gareth does aren't extremely valuable and important - just that he doesn't spend 12 hours a day glued to a computer screen is all!Read more...
January 6, 2012
A Most Curious Wedding Fair is going into it's second year with events being held at St Andrew's Hall in Norwich on the 11th February and in York Hall, London on the 31st March. To celebrate, organiser Becky got together with the amazing Joanna Millington Photography and some of the other suppliers exhibiting at the shows to put together this beautiful, vintage inspired wedding shoot.Read more...
January 5, 2012
Hurrah the first Thursdays Treats of 2012 is here! It felt weird not posting one last week, but it does now mean it that I've got an extra large, bumper edition for you today - double hurrah! Therefore I decree extra long tea breaks and internet browses all-round. I also just want to say a HUGE thank you for all your feedback on The Green Room that we launched this week. Gareth & I were totally blown away by all your comments. A few of you did say you were having trouble getting into the room (is it weird that I quite liked that - almost like it's one of those easter egg thingummies on DVDs that you have to work hard to find but when you do it's like you're in a special club?!) Anyway it's was probaly my fault as maybe I didn't explain the 'sliiiide' function very well in my blog post. Here's a more detailed explaination for those of you that were confused...Read more...
January 5, 2012
Genevieve & Andy were married at Smokey Glen Farm, Washington. A simply styled day, the couple put a lot of importance on their friends and family being involved and having a good time. "Early on, we decided which things were most important to us. We wanted it to be a fun party, to be simple, and to be uniquely us - everything else we tried not to sweat too much. As a result, we simplified our approach and only spent a lot of time and attention on a few key things. The venue supplied great BBQ, beautiful scenery, and a lot of fun games for our guests. And we rented a ping pong table. That was key."Read more...
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.Read more...
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!"Read more...
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."Read more...
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!Read more...
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.Read more...
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.Read more...
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!?Read more...
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.Read more...
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!'"Read more...
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?).Read more...