Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

Budget Friendly

Regula & Bruno’s Afternoon Tea Party Reception (Part Two)

Kat

August 10, 2011

Remember Regula & Bruno's spooky Rye wedding? Well they're back, not once but twice today! I'm kicking of this Wednesday morn' with the Belgian leg of their wedding and this afternoon I'll be sharing their creepy wedding portraits taken at an abandoned fairground! Originally from Belgium the couple were keen to have a tea party reception in their home city for all their friends & family that didn't come over to the UK for their ceremony. Writer Regula told me all about their tea party. "We knew what we wanted to do for our wedding reception immediately. Because we were getting married in England we wanted our friends from Belgium to feel like they were in the UK. We decided we were going to do a Wedding afternoon tea."
Read more...

A Quirky, 1950’s & DIY London Wedding: Rebecca & Morgan

Kat

August 5, 2011

I fell in love with Rebecca & Morgan's quirky wedding as soon as it landed in my inbox and I'm honoured and super excited to share it with you today...especially because they used some of my favourite suppliers (including Lisa Jane Photography and Vivien of Holloway) and well as some of the DIY project that I've posted on my blog. Yey! Rebecca told me all about their fabulous wedding. "Morgan and I grew up only 8 miles apart and even went to the same secondary school; in fact he was in my sister’s year in school. However we didn’t meet each other until April 2009, believe it or not he sent me a facebook friendship request, we went for a date and a crazy year later I asked him to be my fiancé. I even commissioned a ring from the quirky designer Amber France as a surprise, he said yes (sigh of relief on my side). Our daughter Efa was born and things went on the back burner and then 7 months later on my birthday he gave me a beautiful blue opal ring, it was like a green light!"
Read more...

A DIY, Lesbian Wedding: Natalie & Sarah

Kat

August 3, 2011

Natalie & Sarah were married at El Rio, a bar in San Francisco. "My friend described our wedding as 'A backyard picnic with 52 pieces of flair'. I wanted it to feel like a big huge queer love fest," newlywed Sarah told me. "Our wedding was Rock n Roll because it was a queer wedding first and foremost. We had so much wiggle room to shape our event to be exactly what we wanted it to be. We were able to incorporate some traditional aspects, like the ring exchange, and do away with others that had no meaning to us like a bouquet toss or smashing a piece of cake in one another’s face. Although Nat and I can’t legally get married in the state of California we’re looking forward to taking a trip to New York to do it soon! I have a full sleeve of tattoos and wanted to feel sexy at my wedding, so I opted for a short dress that showed off my sleeve & some cleavage."
Read more...

A Recycled Wedding Fashion Shoot at Paramount Ranch

Kat

August 3, 2011

"The concept of this photo shoot was 'eco friendly + recycled wedding fashion for modern brides'," photographer Yuna Leonard writes. " Both of the dresses and the boots in this set were found at American Vintage store on Melrose, Los Angeles. I love that store!! I was in love with the ideas of recycling and reusing wedding fashion from days gone by - maybe from brides who were in your Mother's or Grandmother's generations. The dresses I bought were also very inexpensive { from $70 - $ 100. The boots were $50.} We fused this style with an idea for outdoor / backyard styled reception fashion as well. The mixed style of vintage + bohemian + western totally got me this time! Hope you enjoy it!"
Read more...

An Eclectic Nightclub Wedding: Ant & Lou

Kat

July 27, 2011

Ant & Lou were married in Chianti, Italy but had a massive reception party at The Kazimier nightclub in Liverpool on their return. "We wanted to get married abroad and bring with us all of the people we love dearly," Lou told me. " It was important to both of us to have our friends and family there, but to also have a very personal wedding, something that was exactly us. We found a beautiful castle in Chianti, Italy and started our wedding process from there. Everyone came on different flights at different times on different days and even though there was an ash cloud, an unexploded WW2 bomb found in Pisa airport and severe winds causing planes to be diverted, everyone got there eventually. One group of friends were travelling for 26 hours just to get from Liverpool to Tuscany! but they made it and their positivity was beautiful."
Read more...

A Crafty Vintage Wedding: Heather & Wil

Kat

July 20, 2011

Heather & Wil's crafty wedding was held at a friend's house, which just happened to be an ex-church and was big enough to house all their guests as well as looking quite impressive. They kept things simple, didn't have a bridal party and kept everyone fed and happy with a good old fashioned BBQ! "We did everything just how we wanted it," explained the bride. "We walked down the aisle together, didn't have a bridal party, only invited 35 people and were very happy with the results. The most important thing that happened that day was that I married the man that I have loved for almost 10 years, it wasn't about impressing or out-doing, it was about love and I think finding true love is pretty damn Rock n Roll!"
Read more...

A Mad Men Inspired Vintage Wedding: Rowan & Neil

Kat

July 18, 2011

Rowan & Neil were married at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, Renfrew followed by a Mad Men inspired reception at 29 Private Members Club in Glasgow. "The wedding ceremony was particularly special to us," Rowan explained. "My Dad is an Episcopal minister and it was a great honour to have him conduct the service in his own church. My Mum walked me up the aisle - it was lovely to have them both involved in the duties of 'giving the bride away'."
Read more...

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!"
Read more...

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."
Read more...

Stephanie & Aaron’s Budget ‘Peacock Vintage’ Wedding

Kat

July 7, 2011

"The whole wedding was sort of 'peacock vintage' themed," newlywed Stephanie told me. "We really managed to keep the wedding cost pretty low and spent less than $12,000! We was able to do this by making our own centerpieces, boutineers, corsages, invitations, and headpieces. We also used an older, less popular florist because I knew exactly what kind of flowers I wanted, and I provided the ribbon and feathers to her, leaving no room for error."
Read more...

Lou & Chris’ Simple & Family-Central Vintage Wedding

Kat

July 6, 2011

What's this? Another awesome wedding from my photographer buddy Assassynation? Yep that's right people, Sassy (aka Assassynation) really does get some of the very best wedding around...and the most awesome thing is many of them are Rock n Roll Bride readers so I get to then share them with you all afterwards. Yeey. Lou & Chris had a simple wedding in London...and by simple I mean no fuss, no drama - just an awesome and super stylist day! They were married at Stoke Newington Town Hall, London which they followed up with a reception at The Londesborough pub, also in Stoke Newington.
Read more...

Jachen & Monica’s Travel Themed, Whimsical Woodland-Inspired Wedding

Kat

July 5, 2011

Oh where oh where do I begin with telling you about Jachen & Monica's woodland-inspired wedding? The images and video of their wedding are such a visual feast that I almost don't know where to start. The day had a sort of travel/woodland theme which reflected the fact that the couple met in Switzerland. Monica explains, "A year ago I was living in Switzerland as an Au pair when I met my now husband. I was only there for 3 months, but just long enough to have met him the last month I was there. We were both in the right place at the right time, the only time I would have been able to meet him. It is amazing how you can look back on all the events that led up to that moment and how evident it was that I was supposed to be in Switzerland to find him. After I met him we had one more month until I had to return to my home in Seattle. We continued skyping, emailing and a few times he came to me and I went back to beautiful Switzerland to be with him where we became engaged. Sometimes everything just falls into place and we were lucky enough to have that happen to us."
Read more...

Regula & Bruno’s Creative, Spooky & Wonderful Wedding (Part One)

Kat

July 4, 2011

"Regula & Bruno rock my world"...that's how photographer Assassynation introduced me to this bad ass couple when she sent me their wedding. The pair are from Belgium but wanted to be married in England. Their ceremony day was followed by a tea party reception and spooky photo shoot in an abandoned fairground (!) in their home country a few weeks later. Luckily for us all, this second part took place just last weekend and believe me, I'm going to be featuring it just as soon as the photos are ready! But for now, it's all about the ceremony...
Read more...

Melissa & Jon’s Alice in Wonderland, Camden Wedding

Kat

June 30, 2011

"The theme of our wedding ended up as a sort of mish-mash of Mad Hatters tea party, 1940's/50's and Camden weirdness (Camden is an area of London known for it's alternative culture - great for people watching!), which fitted our personalities perfectly" newlywed Melissa told me. She married Jonathan at Islington Town Hall and afterwards had their reception in a hotel in Camden, where they first met. "My inspiration firstly came from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland," Melissa continued. "Jon and I went to see the film when we were dating and I fell in love with it, I'd always been a fan of the book as a child but the film had me hooked. As soon as Jon proposed I knew I would want a touch of Alice involved somewhere within the wedding, the only difficulty was going to be fitting the theme around our tiny budget."
Read more...

Shane & Lisa’s Budget, DIY and One-Hell-Of-a-Rock-n-Roll-Party Wedding

Kat

June 29, 2011

With a budget of less that $6000, Shane & Lisa had to be very creative and clever when it came to planning their wedding. Luckily they had a lot of support from their friends & family and they really got into the DIY! "Everything about the day was beautiful but what really made it sparkle was all our friends and family", Lisa told me. "I am so very thankful for them. My family and friends had all mostly come from out of state and immediately started in on making the cake, helping with food prep and cooking, cleaning, decorating, grilling, and cleaning up (they kicked me out of kitchen during reception because apparently the bride is not allowed to load her dishwasher in her wedding dress.)"
Read more...