Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

Kat

Post It Notes – 15th July 2011: Sticking to your Guns & Defying Conventions

Kat

July 15, 2011

Wedding Note A few tips I gathered from my twitter followers this week... @PeteSmyth "My tip would be to stick to your guns. Do it your way, not your parents way." @INHousewifey "The best wedding planning tip I learned (too late!) was if you can't find something you like...make it yourself...don't settle!" @levansphoto "My tip is for all husbands-to-be ... as much as we appreciate "whatever you want is fine by me" 99% of the time occasionally we appreciate your input!"
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Thursday Treats – 14th July 2011 + Inspiration Overdrive + Changing the Face of Engagement Photography

Kat

July 14, 2011

This week was one of those that hit me with a steam train of inspiration! I was lucky enough to meet a couple of people this week that I've wanted to for a while including Lisa Gratton of Ophelia Photography who is over in London for vacation (love her as much as I do her photography now!) and Thaoski. 'Thaoski?' I hear you asking, 'who's that?'. One word - incredible.
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Colour, Confetti, Candy, Cakes & Kilts: Amanda & Colin

Kat

July 14, 2011

"Colin and I have been together for almost 7 years and thought it was about time that we tied the knot," read the email I received from newlywed Amanda last week. "Unlike most women, I don't think I ever really dreamed of what my wedding would be like so I didn't really know where to start when it came to the planning. I'm a complete control freak and knew that I wanted to make and take part in creating as much for the wedding that I could so I started looking for inspiration on various websites and in books." "We knew that we wanted a few things for certain: a great photographer (or 2) to capture every grin, tear and laugh; a sweetie buffet; lots of handmade touches; fairy lights (and lots of them!); cupcakes; photo booth; a black and white wedding with splashes of colour; a hand fastening ceremony; confetti and sparklers." From these simple ideas they created the stunning wedding you see on these pages! "Colin was really eager to have a hand fastening ceremony and we both wanted to involve our family in the ceremony as much as possible," continued the bride. "It was so important to us that we showed our love and appreciation for our family and this was the perfect way to not only add a splash of colour but it was also to show them exactly how much they mean to us."
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Film Wedding Photography – Sophie & Robert’s Quirky Vintage Countryside Wedding

Kat

July 13, 2011

There's something about film photography. Something magical. Our wedding was shot on film in fact, and while at the time this wasn't even a conscious decision (digital wedding photography wasn't as popular then - wow I sound like we got married in the dark ages!) it's a choice I'm pretty happy we made. There's just a certain quality with this format, that no matter how hard it tries, digital images simply can't compete with. So when photographer Ashton Jean-Pierre sent me Sophie & Robert's wedding last week, shot 100% with film, I jumped at the chance to share it with you.
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Tess & Ray’s Dream-Like Backyard Wedding

Kat

July 12, 2011

Tess & Ray's backyard wedding is pretty much what my dreams look like. Tess told me all about it and I swooned over every detail, "From the very beginning Ray and I knew that we wanted our wedding to be relaxed and FUN, but most importantly something we could be proud of. We wanted to stay true to ourselves and not worry about any kind of fuss or frill. We wanted to make our dream a reality without breaking our backs trying to pay for it."
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Jo & Oli’s East End Knees Up!

Kat

July 11, 2011

When I asked Jo & Oli to descrive their wedding, they simply called it an "East End knees up!" I love that and think the description cetainly matches the party vibe of their wedding photographs from Rosie Parsons. "We knew that we didn't want a hotel reception (we couldn't have afforded one anyway!) because we wanted to put our stamp on our day: we wanted it to be really about what we like: tea and cake; Rock n Roll; dancing and cocktails!" Jo explained. "I dragged my Mum around every hall in the East End of London before deciding on St Peters in Bethnal Green. It had so much character whilst being a blank canvas at the same time. It was really important to me to get married in the East End as I grew up in Stepney and we now live in Bow. The hall was within walking distance of the hall and traffic was quite bad along Valance Road that day so Oli and I got to ride to the hall in our Morris Minor and chat to our guests as they walked along!"
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Jill & Justin’s Nature-Inspired Music Lovers Wedding

Kat

July 11, 2011

Jill & Justin are both huge music lovers and so they wanted this to be a big part of their day. "We love anything from jazz to punk to french new wave, and we knew we wanted music to be the theme in our wedding," Jill explained. "This was reflected in our wedding invitations, our table numbers, our choice in the amazing jazz band we got, our favorite DJs and the favors for our guests, which featured lyrics by the Beach Boys."
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Steve & Shelley’s Post-War Britain, DIY Wedding

Kat

July 11, 2011

Steve & Shelley's Isle of Wight wedding had a post-war vintage and DIY theme. The couple were keen not to spend a fortune on their day and the theme really evolved quite naturally and organically from this idea. "We were conscious we did not want to spend a fortune on our wedding and the theme of 'Post-War Britain' fitted in nicely with our DIY wedding," the bride told me. "Everything was done on a budget, a lot sourced from eBay, friends and family helped to make bunting and paper chain hearts for decorating the reception venue. Our favours were Thorntons chocolates wrapped in brown wrapping paper with blue butchers twine (eBay again) and a parcel tag attached with the guests name as a place card. I handmade the invitations which were a shimmery Union Jack postcard style with the invitation wording as a telegram, on the invitation we requested that guests attend in their interpretation of post-war Britain dress, and gladly the majority of guests did so!"
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I’m Taking Applications for the New Rock n Roll Bride Intern!

Kat

July 10, 2011

As most of you will already know, the first Rock n Roll Bride intern, Alice, got married and has flown the nest! I initially took Alice on to help out with stuff here and there (photo shoots, parties, wedding shows etc) but over the past 12 months the role morphed into more of an editorial one. Once a month Alice took us into her 'Weddingland', sharing first hand her wedding plans - trials and tribulations included!
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How to…Dress as a Wedding Photographer

Kat

July 9, 2011

After such a great response to last weekend's post about How to Dress as a Wedding Guest, I got thinking about how I could expand this mini-series. I had a few photographers in the comments asking if I had any tips of how they should dress to shoot weddings. Now clearly I'm not a wedding photographer myself so I thought instead of trying to guess my way through answering this question, I'd ask some of my favourite photographers to share an outfit they might typically wear to shoot a wedding.
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April & Christian’s Colourful Dance-Party Rooftop Wedding

Kat

July 8, 2011

April & Christian's rooftop wedding was held at Aerial in Nashville and from the sounds of things it was a fun-packed wedding from start to finish. "The ceremony was on the rooftop in downtown Nashville right beside all the honkey tonks," photographer Alex Bee told me. "The bridal party DANCED down the aisle to live music played by the bride & groom's brothers. They really got into it! The bride's entrance had the most tension/energy/anticipation that I have ever experienced at a wedding. The bride entered the ceremony to rising beginning guitar solo of "She's the One" by Bruce Springsteen. Did I mention that they passed out tambourines & eggshakers & encouraged the guests to play along? It was really amazing! The reception was an epic rooftop dance party + karaoke."
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Post It Notes – 8th July 2011: Getting Carried Away & Happiness

Kat

July 8, 2011

It's very easy to get carried away when you first start planning your wedding. This is a fast track way to quickly spend lots of money on the 'pretty things' that you might not even end up using (I think I bought about 5 pairs of wedding shoes...) Wedding planner Josie of Savoir Weddings agrees, "Get the major planning elements underway before you start thinking about styling and decoration. You can get excited and look for inspiration as soon as you want but the key parts of a wedding - the venue for instance, can have a huge impact on the way you style it so take your time before you start deciding how you want it all to look."
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Thursday Treats – 7th July 2011 + Candid Reception Photos of Kate Moss’ Wedding + I’m in Marie Claire Magazine!

Kat

July 7, 2011

Fist up, to those of you that have ordered Rock n Roll Bride wedding planning notebooks or wall planners the first batch is being shipped out this week so you should have them really soon! I can't wait to hear what you all think of them. If you haven't got round to ordering yours yet, don't worry there's still time (we've extended ordering time indefinitely because we had such a great response to them.)
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Marcus & Simone’s Laid Back, Country Vintage Wedding

Kat

July 7, 2011

Marcus & Simone used some of my favourite wedding suppliers for their barn wedding in Gloucestershire, including Joanna Brown for photography, Fur Coat No Knickers for the dress and Severin of The Hepburn Collection for the bride's hair. I love this! "I got a little frustrated at how little choice there is when it comes to creating an individual wedding, especially as I didn't have that long to plan it (5 months)," the bride told me. "I found it easier to not refer to magazines and traditional wedding websites and preferred to take inspiration from Etsy.com, blogs such as Rock n Roll Bride and to go with my own ideas. I think it's easy to get sucked into the wedding machine and things can become too fussy. My ethos was to try and keep it classic, stylish and simple."
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