Business

Stack ’em High, Sell ’em Cheap

Kat

February 7, 2012

If you're anything like me, walking into your favourite store with the notion of treating oneself is a regular occurrence. The feeling of excitement is even more heightened when it's a store I can't really afford, but I know I can get one tiny little thing which will make me feel extravagant (my favourite is Vivienne Westwood on Conduit St by the way, what's yours?) Invariably its not the designer frocks and overpriced couture selection I'm, drawn to, its the more disposable and affordable items - I'm talking perfume (£40), costume jewellery (£100) and if you're a Vivienne Westwood fiend like me the Melissa shoes (£120). Doesn't it feel great to be handed over that fancy designer carrier bag knowing that the item inside (no matter now small) is yours!?

How to Avoid Burn-Out: A Guest Post by Chanelle Segerius-Bruce

Kat

February 3, 2012

I arrived at the party, having had my hair blow dried and a coral pink ruffled dress picked out especially for the occasion. The doorman walked up to my black cab, opened the door and welcomed me to The Dorchester. I made my way up to the very top floor in the opulently decorated elevator and, after having my coat taken care of, was offered a glass of bubbly. I was to brush shoulders with the 'Best of British' that evening. This was a party hosted by none other than Mark Niemeirko, the UK's top wedding planner, in honor of Darcy Miller the editor of Martha Stewart Weddings. A selection of the best UK bloggers where there too, including the lovely Kat of course, as well as florists, hair & make-up artists and best of all the big name bridal designers. This is networking at it's finest ladies and gentlemen!

The Inspirations: Nubby Twiglet

Kat

February 1, 2012

I discovered Nubby Twiglet around the same time as stumbled across Gala's blog. I fell in love with her enviable personal style, and like any good internet stalker I loved her daily blog updates - from her clothes she wore to the pretty fonts she designed. Then, in 2010, when I decided to rebrand Rock n Roll Bride, I knew there was only one graphic designer I wanted to work with. Luckily for me she was able to squeeze me into her crazy-busy schedule and the rest, as they say, is history! Since my logo and website overhaul we've also worked together on my media pack as well as Rock n Roll Bride Magazine...and yes, we are working on issue two right now (sneak peek at the end of this interview). AND in just 3 weeks time she, Gala and I just happen to be in Las Vegas at the same time so we're going to hang out in (OMG) actual real life...AND do a photo shoot together (squeeee!) Jesus, I must get my fan-girlness in check before that happens...

Pushing Boundaries with Website Design, Going Against the Grain & Making your Visitors Work a Little Harder…

Kat

January 31, 2012

Confession: I've been trying to write this article for a while, in fact ever since we launched The Green Room at the beginning of the month. However I keep putting it off because it's a difficult subject for me to actually to get my head around, and an even more taxing matter to try and explain my jumbled up thought process to you...In fact I'm 99% sure I will come across as a bit of a douche - hence the article-writing-hesitation. I basically want to talk a little bit about web design, and specifically about making your website design different, but more than that - a challenge to the people visiting it and why I think this is a positive thing. This is probably a subject that, on first inspection, the majority of you will decide that I'm clearly mental, and be of the opinion that it's best to make our websites as clear and easy for visitors (and potential clients) to navigate as possible. Well maybe yes, however let me explain why I'm teetering on the other side of the fence right now...

Bridezilla Bootcamp: A Wedding Cinematography Workshop & A Shout Out for a Real Life Couple to Model

Kat

January 30, 2012

Today's post had a duel purpose. Firstly to announce that my good friend (and filmmaker extraordinaire!) Richard of FX Films and WedFilm Academy is teaming up with the guys at Reel Vision and Jeff Wood Visuals to put on a day long workshop for aspiring wedding filmmakers. On 27th March, they'll be decending on a beautiful Haythrop Park in Oxfordshire to put budding videographers through their paces at Bridezilla Bootcamp! Watch the video below for the full drill and what you can expect from the day...

The Benefits of Personal Projects: A Guest Post By Anna Hardy

Kat

January 27, 2012

I really enjoyed my professional work in 2011 but committing to a personal project was undoubtedly the best thing I did for my photography and myself last year. It constantly surprised and helped me in so many ways, and the very first (and being truthful, the only!) successful resolution I made as 2012 arrived was to start a brand new one. Towards the end of 2010, after a crazy year of throwing myself headlong into setting up the business and taking on as much photography work as I could, I’d become increasingly worried that my photography was becoming stale and uninspired, in a weary creative rut, and I’d almost completely stopped shooting for pleasure since doing photography professionally full time, which really bothered me. If I’m being completely honest it had started to feel like photography, my long-time love, was becoming too much hard work and too few rewards. At the start of 2011 I noticed that a number of other photographers were starting 365 projects (a photo a day for a whole year) and so following their good example, I unashamedly jumped on the bandwagon and began my own personal 365 project, hoping I could rediscover the old passion and have a bit of fun along the way. It did both and a whole lot more, and was one of the best decisions I have made for a long time.

The Inspirations: Mark Niemierko

Kat

January 25, 2012

How can I possibly even begin to describe Mark Niemierko? Well, he's a high-end wedding planner based in London and a force to be reckoned with! But more than that he's one hell of a character, and one I'm honoured to call a friend. We met a few years ago when he invited me for drinks at The Charlotte Hotel (read: a fancy hotel that I couldn't afford to even step foot in) and I was super nervous. I wondered why the hell he wanted to meet me. After all, from the outside we appeared to be very different people and to have very different tastes and ideas about what made a great wedding. However let me tell you, I was wrong...it's not only nonconformists like me that get judged by the way they look! Mark and I got on like a house of fire from the moment we met and I can, in all honestly, say he's rated high in my internal list of favourite people. Despite his recognition and reputation, Mark is actually quite a private person. You won't find him spilling his guts on Twitter or wanting to tell people every idiosyncrasy of his life or his business. In actual fact, I haven't seen that many interviews or articles about him online that really peel back those designer suit layers and get right inside his head. Which is why, dear Green-Roomers, I'm utterly thrilled to be the one to share his secrets right here! If you dont learn a thing or two about running your own sucessful business from Mr Niemierko then I dont know where you will. It doesnt matter what kind of weddings or which market you want to attract; Mark is a genius marketeer, and the perfect representation of his brand.

Dealing with Rejection & Why it’s the Best Thing That Will Ever Happen to You

Kat

January 24, 2012

So you come up with a brilliant and inventive idea for your business. You're excited and can't wait to get started. You also start telling people about your plans too, because well, you're excited... But then someone screws up their face and tells you they don't like your idea and that it's probably not going to work. What do you do? A) Decide they're probably right, have a little secret cry and drop the idea all together. B) Convince yourself that this person is clearly and idiot an carry on regardless. C) Listen to what they say, ask them questions as to why they think the idea is rubbish and make changes based on what they've said. D) Change your idea completely and come up with something new. While none of the options are necessarily wrong, today I want us to think about and discuss how we deal with rejection, or people saying 'no' to us, and in turn what we can learn from it in order to grow our businesses. There are a couple of things to think about when someone says no to you or tries to dissuade you from an idea. Do you value their opinion?

Being a Professional Wedding Photographer is Easy

Kat

January 23, 2012

My buddy Tattybojangles tweeted this last week and I just had to add an extra Green Room post today to share it to. Who says being a professional wedding photographer is hard? They obviously haven't seen these!*

Why Big Companies Suck at Social Media & How You Can Avoid Doing the Same

Kat

January 17, 2012

Last week I had an email from my Dad asking how many followers on Twitter and 'likes' on Facebook I had. I told him (cos you know, he could have just taken 3 seconds to look himself!) but then asked why he wanted to know. Apparantly the company he works for - don't ask me what they do...it's something to do with software I think - want to increase their social media presence and therefore wanted a benchmark as to what some 'good follower numbers' would be. While flattered, I was confused at what relevance my social networking had to do with a massive multi-national corporation like this - one with hundreds of staff and turning over millions of £/$/€ a year. But then I realised that I shouldn't be so self deprecating and that in all reality, it's the small business that rock at using social media and the big boys that (I'm sorry but generally) suck at it.

How To Create Your Brand: A Wedding Photographer’s Story & A Step by Step Guide

Kat

January 13, 2012

When it comes to running your own business, branding should be one of the things number one on your list to get perfect. Perfect branding will make you stand out from the crowd and will show potential clients exactly what you're all about - even before they've seen your photographs/stationery/flowers etc - and before they've read one word about you. This week, I thought it might be helpful to speak to someone who has gone through the re-branding process recently, with step by step examples of what they did and how they did it. If you're thinking about your own branding but are struggling with how to go about it, then this article by Kerrie Mitchell is for you! Be sure to check out her new website after for the final result! ...And as ever, we'd love to hear your own stories in the comments please!

Why Attention to Detail is oh so Important

Kat

January 10, 2012

Details, details, details. We've probably all read about the 'wedding details' debate which dominated the blogosphere in the latter part of last year, but luckily I'm not here today to add to this debacle. Oh no, I'm talking about the seriously important matter of being detail-perfect in your business. How many times have you written a blog post only to go back to it and see a million typos? (guilty!) How many times have you gone to edit a photo and noticed a teeny tiny but now oh-so-bloody-obvious imperfection in the frame? How many times have to received an email starting 'dear sir or madam' and wanted to scream!?

Finding Your Business Mojo

Lisa Devlin

January 6, 2012

These days it seems that everyone and anyone is setting up in business and despite a recession, the wedding industry is experiencing a boom. Historically, glamorous escapist activities like going to see Hollywood movies or musical theatre peak in tough times. Perhaps weddings are our new glamour fix and chance for everyone involved to dress up and forget any money woes. For the enterprising and creative amongst us, this is exciting times. With the Digital Revolution and onslaught of Social Media, it has never been easier to promote your new or existing business. The entire planet is at your fingertips via your computer/phone/tablet, there is a potential global marketplace for your product or service. Most likely precipitated by having minimal or non-existent marketing budgets, suddenly the small businesses are leading the way in viral marketing. Big companies have noticed and are now employing the same techniques, backing up their traditional ad campaigns with social media. In 2007 Cadbury released their TV ad for Dairy Milk featuring a gorilla playing the drums. It was very quickly uploaded to YouTube and the link shared by hundreds of thousands of Facebook users who also set up fan pages for the ad. Cadbury then joined Facebook and now has pages for several of its products.

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 Sunday Kind of Love – Photo Night Live

Kat

March 27, 2011

This week I was asked to take part in Photo Night Live, a weekly web show all about photography (duh..) and making your business work for you. This week's topic was 'Blogging 101 – Showcasing your life online' and I was interviewed by Ross Dean, alongside emerging photographer Ali Lovegrove, about our experiences. I really hope some of the things I say can help you. Looking back, I do wonder if what I'm saying actually makes any sense (!) but I really do love sharing my knowledge of the medium that I adore so much. You can check out Photo Night Live every Friday from 7pm (GMT). If you would like to be considered for a future show, please drop an email to info@rossdeanphotography.com If you have any further blogging questions then you can always send them my way too, I'm still trying (time depending!) to do regular video blogs myself to answer some of your tricky questions.

Things are Looking a bit Sparkly New Around Here…

Kat

July 14, 2010

Oh hurrrrrh. I have mucho mucho excitement right now. I have been planning a website overhaul for a few months now but it was only when I went full time that I've really had the time to properly sort this out. I loved my old blog design but I just felt like after a year of it that Rock n Roll Bride deserved a little face lift.

A Sunday Kind of Love – Jasmine Star & Being Free to Succeed

Kat

June 13, 2010

I've never been one to be really into seminars or motivational speakers or anything. I'm easily bored and find it way to easy to go "Well yeah yeah but that doesn't apply to me or what I'm doing." It basically takes a lot to really make me sit up and take notice. However I came across this teaser video to a photography seminar held by Jasmine Star who is widely regarded as one of the 'rock star photographers' in America. The seminar was called 'Free to Succeed' as Jasmine's presentation was about branding at it's importance to your business. The talk was aimed at photographers but I decided to give it a watch after seeing people rave about it on flickr, and OMG am I glad I did. I don't say this lightly but I really feel that my life, my outlook on my blog and it's branding has changed. Forever. This may sound over dramatic but I have never felt more motivated, empowered and excited about what I have to do. I can't even begin to do justice to what Jasmine says by paraphrasing her presentation but just watch it watch it watch it! If you're a photographer, a blogger or anyone trying to start your own business WATCH IT. She talks about being yourself and being true to yourself (something I of course am a strong advocate of!) and about how to work out what makes you special and how you should bring this into your business, and that how being yourself is what will bring you success.

Thursday Treats – 08th Oct 2009

Kat

October 8, 2009

Whoa I have been a busy blogger this week! From keeping on top of posting all the bloggy gorgeousness and writing my next few articles for my Photo Pro coloumn (hehe that still sounds so ridiculous) I haven't had much time to stop! Fret not though I have still managed to squeeze in a rather sizable amount of internet browsing/work skiving and have got all these beauties to share.

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