They say inspiration can hit you at any moment and Hannah and James were inspired to get married at Granite Prospects at Brooklyn Bridge Park by going on strangers’ wedding websites!
“We saw a couple getting married there and we thought it was a great place – plus it was cheap and easy!” explained Hannah. As a long-distance couple, getting married was particularly exciting for them as they often had to go long stretches of time living in separate countries. “It’s meant that now we can now live together in London with more sense of security and less fear of being separated again,” Hannah explained.
With a $10,000 budget, the couple didn’t necessarily have a wedding theme, but Hannah knew she wanted lots of white and greenery in her florals to give a fresh, natural, clean look. Above anything else, their aim was to have a day that was very representative of them – relaxed, no frills or fronts, just genuine and fun.
With the dress code for the day ‘try to outshine us!’ you just know you’ve got a fun, colourful wedding on your hands! Anna and Alex were inspired by ‘everything and anything’ for their October wedding held in Redfern, Australia. “We only paid attention to traditions that we cared about and agreed with, so we left out a lot of things that people are used to seeing at weddings,” Anna said.
“We had (too many) ideas based on our interests and what we thought would be fun for guests,” she continued, “but the real inspiration came once we found our venues. We looked at lots of more traditional venues, which came with impressive views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House etc, but after seeing a few one day we ended up visiting the cellar door of our favourite vineyard, and had such a great time.”
As Jen and Will met while working at a video game studio, they wanted to incorporate their love of video games with anime, plants and all things cute but in a subtle way. “We’re both big fans of the Korean ceramic toy art collective TOiNZ and how they display their pieces in outdoor settings”, they said. “We took inspiration from their style and placed small game and anime figurines we’d collected from our travels inside terrariums with succulents to create little scenes. We had pieces from TOiNZ (two little cats!) as our wedding toppers. Will’s shirt also had tiny Pokemon on it.”
With a budget of £15,000, they actually came in slightly under at £13,000 for their January wedding. Held at The Bonded Warehouse in Sunderland, they undertook quite a few DIY projects – as they’re both artists they really wanted to make a lot of things themselves so they could enjoy the experience, and also so they could have things exactly as they wanted.
Music is pretty darn important to most Rock n Roll Brides, and some of you will have had a dream first dance song picked since before you even got engaged. Be it a number from the nights out you used to go on together, what was playing on the radio during your first date or a song from one of your joint favourite bands. But if you have wildly different music tastes, or the thought of slow-dancing to yet another Ed Sheeran song makes your toes curl, it can be difficult to know where to strike a balance. We reached out to the amazing Rock n Roll Bride community to see what they’ve chosen and compiled them into this handy list – why not listen to the Spotify playlist with your love over a bottle of something cold one night and see if one resonates?
ROCK
Of course the starting point for any Rock n Roll Bride playlist would be rock songs, but your favourite Slayer number might not be suitable for slow-dancing to. While we whole-heartedly approve of a first-dance mosh pit, here are some more family-friendly options to keep Grandma happy while still being true to who you are:
Foo Fighters – Everlong (acoustic) The Cure – Just Like Heaven You Me At Six – Take On The World Biffy Clyro – Rearrange Foo Fighters – Best of You Killswitch Engage – Always The Hunna – Lover Sum 41 – With Me Led Zeppelin – Thank You A Perfect Circle – The Nurse Who Loved Me Metallica – Nothing Else Matters
ALT-POP
If you’re more disco that deathmetal, you’re still worthy of an alternative first dance – despite what a lot of wedding DJs will tell you, there are more options than Lonestar! Here are some off-beat pop options:
Yellowcard – Only One Picture This – Saviour Randy Newman – We Belong Together Queen – You’re My Best Friend Fleetwood Mac – Everywhere Elton John – Tiny Dancer P!nk – True Love
With Chris as a left-brained lover of maths, and Noelle a creative, their interests meet at the intersection of exploring and learning about our world. “We are both captivated by astronomy,” Noelle explained, “and I used Alphonse Mucha’s series The Moon and Stars as my inspiration for the wedding to represent that intersection that we come together at.”
“Our wedding was a love letter to everything important to us as a couple. We celebrated with an intimate reception at our favourite pizza place and we danced (including a shabash – a traditional Armenian money dance) and drank until we were exhausted! We also got matching tattoos on our ring fingers and Chris got our wedding date tattooed on his thumb. We wanted everything to be an expression of our lives and our personalities coming together in a bacchanalia of fashion, glam metal and whiskey.”
With an $8,000 budget, finding a plus-size dress that was affordable, fashion-forward and sexy was the hardest part of the couples planning. Noelle eventually settled on a Fame and Partner for David’s Bridal number at the last minute. “I’m obsessed with dreamy textiles and I knew I wanted a dress where the fabric was the star of the show. I actually had a completely different dress and then this collab dropped a month before the wedding and I changed everything. The charmeuse moves like water and made me feel so glam.”
As they both work in theatre, it’s no surprise that Sarah-Jane and Stevie’s wedding was going to be all kinds of dramatic! Married in October 2019 at the grand Battle Abbey in Hastings, Sussex, Sarah-Jane wore not one but two gowns (in fact, she’d actually planned to don a third but ran out of time!) and entertained guests with magicians and Hollywood acceptance-worthy speeches; the best-man and groom being trained actors helped here!
“The inspiration was probably part what I had envisioned since I was little,” explained Sarah-Jane, “being Buffy in her big, white gown and every Disney princess, mixed with all the beautiful costumes and sets from the shows I work on. Splashed with Stevie’s love of horses and making sure our guests were well fed and watered and that there was a warm and loved up atmosphere.”
👰 
