Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

Destination Wedding

Creative Destination Wedding in Verona: Caroline & Ben

Kat

Assassynation

April 23, 2013

Caroline & Ben, who live in Shanghai, had a destination wedding in Verona, Italy. The bride's father is from Northern Italy and so they wanted to have a wedding that reflected that heritage. "The idea of getting married close to my roots really appealed", began the bride, "especially for the fact we could make a holiday out of it for our guests (and for ourselves!). Living abroad, we don’t get to see our friends and families as much as we would like, and this way we got to spend a few days with everyone. We had our ‘stag’ and ‘hen’ parties the night before for all our guests, and after the wedding a group of about 20 of us went up to the Dolomites for some skiing over New Year."
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A Waterside Wedding in Rio de Janeiro: Adriana & Daniel

Kat

June 5, 2012

For their November wedding, Adriana & Daniel were keen to inject as much of both their cultures (Brazilian & British) into the day as possible. The event was held at Iate Clube de Búzios, a yacht club in Rio de Janeiro. The bride designed her own dress and used handmade lace from Renda Renascença with the help of dressmaker Inês Uemura. "Sometimes you shoot a wedding that is so amazing, that it is only when you look back on your images and film that you can actually even remember what happened," wedding photographer Maria of Studio 1208 told me. "The whole thing is so effortless, yet it moves like a beautiful old steam locomotive, thundering past you and carrying you away into some distant land."
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A Carnival Destination Wedding in Trinidad and Tobago: Erin & John

Kat

August 17, 2011

"The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is not your usual destination wedding location... Then again, we're not your typical bride and groom," wrote Erin & John. "First of all, we wanted to base our wedding and honeymoon around Carnival that happens every year in Trinidad. It's one of the world's largest Carnival celebrations - and we wanted to be dressed in sequins, feathers, and not much else for our honeymoon celebration. We invited our friends to come to Tobago the week before Carnival for our wedding. We rented out all the villas at The Palms Villa Resort - and partied for a solid week leading up to our big day. The following week, our friends followed us on our honeymoon...and danced with us in the streets of Trinidad! How nice of Trinidad to throw us such a lovely wedding reception!"
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Under the Spotlight – Plan the Destination Wedding of Your Dreams with Sandals & Martha Stewart Weddings

Kat

May 18, 2011

I've got a slightly different kind of post for you today, sponsored by Sandals and Martha Stewart Weddings. I have to say, I got pretty darn excited when I received the call from these industry giants wanting to work with little old me! Sandals have put together a series of three videos, following the story of a couple getting married in Jamaica using their service. The incredible Martha Stewart Weddings are working alongside them to style the weddings of their lucky clients too. The companies were keen for me to be the lucky blog to share these fabulously made videos and I have to say my mind has certainly been changed as to what a 'package destination wedding' can really be. Doesn't the whole wedding looks just totally divine? The couple were able to escape from it all and plan the intimate wedding they wanted - just for them - and that dear reader, is what being Rock n Roll is all about!
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Engracia & Andy’s Marrakech Wedding Photos

Kat

May 11, 2011

Engracia & Andy got married in Flagstaff, US but had their wedding portraits taken in Marrakech by Andreas Holm. "We both love to travel, but didn't want the hassle of figuring out the paperwork for getting married outside of the United States," they told me. "So instead we had a very small ceremony with our closest friends and family in our home town right before we took off to celebrate, just the two of us, in Marrakesh. Even though we didn't get married in Morocco we still wanted our wedding photos to be taken there... I was dead set on having wedding photos on a camel in the desert. It was the perfect location for our wedding/honeymoon...it's exotic, romantic and the vibrant colours and people made a perfectly contrasting backdrop for our wedding photos - even though it was raining."
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A Super Glam, Corpse Bride, Spanish Wedding

Kat

September 1, 2010

Anna & Andrew had a small wedding with only about 35 guests who came from all over the world. The Spanish bride and her South African groom, who actually both now live in London, had their wedding in Spain at the gorgeous venue Deluz. "They were very unconcerned with conventions and just wanted to do things their way" their photographer Kyle told me, "hence the Nightmare Before Christmas/Corpse Bride cake (made by the groom's Mother) the Batman garter, their crazy photographers from Chile, Andrew's brother walked Anna down the aisle, because he's the one who introduced them, their wedding planner was the one who conducted the ceremony, Anna wrote her vows five minutes before the ceremony started. It rained the day of so hard I thought the city would flood, but Anna's mother who grew up in Santander near the water said she could read the sea and that the rain would stop before the wedding. It did. Just in time for a beautiful sunset ceremony. All in all, it was beautiful."
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Rotterdam Rock n Roll

Kat

August 13, 2010

I love these guys! Normen & Priya are from Holland and had their engagement shoot in Rotterdam with Tapas Maiti. This is just pure Rock n Roll and the couple have got a GREAT story. "I met Priya at the Asian Wedding Exhibition last November" Tapas told me. "It was an hour to go before closing and I was about pack up when she came to my stall and we got chatting. Priya & Norman are from Holland, her mother was a Hindu who arrived in Holland via Surinam whilst her father is a Sikh from the Punjab. Many Indian Hindu's have settled in Holland by way of Surinam through the Dutch Indian Empire, its a fascinating story and shows the complexity of the Indian diaspora."
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The Italian Way – A Classic & Stylish Rock n Roll Tuscany Wedding

Kat

July 10, 2010

Mike & Laura's wedding excites me as not only did it take place in Tuscany, Italy but they found their photographer JMCL Photography through Rock n Roll Bride! Yesssss. The couple are originally from Australia and chose the beautiful old town of Lucca in Tuscany to get married. Being abroad, the wedding was a very small, personal and intimate one with only their closest family and friends in attendance. The wedding was also a very laid back one - the couple arrived in the town the night before and did a lot of arranging on the spot. That's the Italian way to do it!
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A Las Vegas Zombie Party!

Kat

July 9, 2010

I'd love to go to a wedding like Patrick & Carla's - a small, personal and seriously fun wedding in Las Vegas. They basically had a really fun holiday with all their best friends and got married at the same time! Carla told me all about their wedding story and I can't wait to share it all with you. Methinks you will likey... "We decided to go to Las Vegas for several reasons. (We are a Denver, CO area couple.) When we first started planning our shindig it was going to be a small affair, about 30 people or so. But even an event that small seems to be a lot of work, and take a lot of cash. We found ourselves talking about the wedding and always saying, "Everyone will love that." or "what do you think people will think?" And we discovered that we were starting to plan our wedding for everyone else. So we decided to rethink our wedding and make it completely and totally us and all about us. One problem we had was money. Neither of us makes a ton of it, so we had to think what we can do to have fun, that won't cost a fortune and still have a honeymoon. Patrick came up with Vegas. We decided to cut the guest list way down too. Patrick’s father is elderly, and wouldn't be able to make the trip, so to be fair I talked to my parents and asked if they minded not going. They actually didn't freak out."
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Laid Back Hawaii Beach Wedding

Kat

July 5, 2010

I think you're going to love Kim & Paul's wedding - its the perfect post for a gorgeous sunny Monday like today! The couple, from Colorado, got married at Ke Iki Beach Bungalows, on the North Shore of Oahu. They went diy crazy and did a lot of the wedding themselves - from the flowers (which they bought wholesale) to the homemade veil. "We really wanted our wedding to be a 'non-wedding wedding' that was as unique as we were and at the same time have a super fun beach party!" Kim told me." We also wanted to involve our family and friends... so thankful we have so many creative people in our lives to help (flowers, hair, make-up, firecrackers!). Even though I didn't buy one bridal magazine or try on any dresses, I definitely perused the wedding-porn online that was tailored for the independent thinking brides. We didn't want to give in to the 'wedding industrial complex' and doing things the way they are "suppose" to be. I think that I've always been a non-traditionalist which is why I chose to forgo the cliche white dress and khaki Hawaiian beach wedding for one that was more colorful, stylish, elegant but still casual enough for the beach. We had an amazing time with all of the special people in our lives in a place that is very special to us."
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“Up” Inspired Beach Wedding (With Holga!)

Kat

June 30, 2010

I'm so excited about featuring Janet & Jim's destination beach wedding. It took place at the beginning of June and was a truly personal, whimsical and joyous affair. "It started out as your basic sandcastle fairytale theme" Janet told me. "However, we have a 2-year-old son, Parker, who adores Pixar films, and one of our family favorites is" Up." I walked down the "aisle" to the theme music "Carl Goes Up." For anyone who's ever seen the first 20 minutes of that movie you know that the true fairy tale is in the adventure a couple has as they grow old together."
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One Night Only – Beautiful Bali Wedding

Kat

June 4, 2010

I challenge you to find anyone who's heard of Jonas Peterson and doesn't love him. His meteoric rise to 'rockstar photographer' status has been quite frankly ridiculous but with the credentials and talent he has behind him,I can't help but know that this success is nothing short of deserved. So popular is Jonas now that I usually don't even ask if I can blog his weddings anymore because more often than not they are snapped up by other bloggers quick smart but when I saw Sian & Barry's beautiful Bali wedding I knew I had to give it a go...and what do you know, he said yes!
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Something Blue

Kat

May 6, 2010

Jessica & Karl got married in the city of Stockholm, Sweden, in the Södermalm region to be precise, which is apparently one of the coolest urban areas of the country. The wedding had a distinctly blue theme which perfectly reflected the countries nature. "Blue is as Swedish as it gets with it being the dominant colour in the flag" photographers Cole & Jakob told me "and a lot of that has to do with the importance of the ocean to the countries culture. Even the archipelago that Stockholm is built amongst is surrounded by the blue of the sea, and that colour was an underlying theme through the planing of this wedding." Jessica wore a dress by Design by Marja Collection with a beautiful handmade hairpiece by Percy Handmade and a flawless hair net made by Tied and Feathered. Karl wore a Western North Carolina tie from Me & Matilda which again matched their 'something blue' theme.
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Jen & Bijan’s Multicultural, Diy, Totally Personal, Un-traditional Wedding

Kat

April 16, 2010

Can you imagine my excitment when Jen & Bijan amazing wedding landed in my inbox? Jen, the bride began her email "I am an American living in Berlin, and recently married. My husband,Bijan, is German-Irani, and I think our wedding was as multi-cultural and untraditional as we are." I was smitten...and their story just makes it even better. "My background in event planning for President Obama (!) and Vice President Biden came in very handy for a diy wedding" Jen told me. "Bijan and I haven't been to many weddings, nor have we been married before, so we kind of made a lot of stuff up as we went along. The actual ceremony was on Friday, March 26, and the reception was the following day. My best friend, Scout Tufankjian, is a photojournalist and doesn't actually usually do weddings but as her gift to us she agreed to be our wedding photographer. Bijan is born and raised here in Berlin, and we really wanted our photos to reflect our everyday life and the things we love about Berlin. The graffiti pictures are taken along an old section of the Berlin Wall called the "East Side Gallery," and was one of the places Bijan took me on my first day here. With his Persian background, he has always been a fan of shisha (flavored tobacco smoked out of a water pipe)- I also share his love for it, and on our way to the party, we decided to take a break for ourselves and get a smoke at our favorite shisha cafe. We were also starving, so we stopped at our favorite neighborhood schawarma place, Habibi's, for a bite to eat.
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Under the Spotlight – Rosie Parsons

Kat

January 11, 2010

I love sharing the work of photographers and wedding vendors that not only really really rock, but who I definitely think you need to use for your own wedding! Rosie Parsons not only fits into this category but is someone I consider one of the best friends I've made since starting Rock n Roll Bride! Not only is she kicking some serious ass in the UK wedding world at the moment (she was featured in the same issue of Cosmopolitan Bride as me this month - with two of her weddings being used and with her taking part in a feature about how to love the camera) but she was also the genius eye behind one of my favourite ever photo shoots (so much so I use one of the images as my profile picture everywhere!)
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