Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

Pom Poms

The MOST INCREDIBLE Alice in Wonderland Wedding Ever. FACT.

Kat

July 14, 2010

I've seen a lot of Alice in Wonderland shoots and weddings this year but none as fan-bloody-tastic as Jessica & Wade's. The couple said they came up with the Victorian Alice theme on a whim (even before the film came out this year) and decided to run with it. Unbelievably the couple designed and came up with everything for the wedding themselves. This is a wedding I wish I'd be at! I literally don't know where to start when it comes to talking about how awesome this wedding is so I'm just going to make a huge list of all the bits that I love about it.
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Ribbons, Pom Poms & Papel Picado – Roxana & John’s Amazing Fiesta Wedding

Kat

July 13, 2010

Roxana & John's incredible Mexican fiesta wedding was shot by the amazing Katherine O'Brien with a Holga, a Hasselblad and a Polaroid camera. The results are not only magical, but give a really unique and different perspective when looking back. In fact looking at these awesome images is almost like a crazy, exciting acid trip...in a good way of course! The bride, a costume designer, custom-modified her dress with dress with ribbons, rhinestones and a favorite brooch that was her Great Aunt's. Her groom wore a gold western belt buckle with the initial S for a bit of extra personality. The couple added lots of fantastic details to suit their papel-picado theme (a natural fit given their Texan roots) including tissue paper flowers lining the railings and tables, a custom card box in festive colours that looked like a wedding cake and grosgrain ribbons tied to the cedar arbor with fleur de lis topped markers. They also used Mexican loteria cards as escort cards which they clipped to a red ribbon hanging on an old wooden door. They then put matching cards on each table with a cowboy boot filled with wildflowers as the centrepieces. The wedding cake was topped with a Day of the Dead Bride and Groom.
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Rustic Retro with a Diy Charm

Kat

May 25, 2010

Fanni & Ben got married in April at Cripps Barn in Gloucestershire. Bored by the usual wedding stuff they found in magazines and at wedding shows, the pair turned to the internet for inspiration and luckily for them stumbled upon not only Rock n Roll Bride but a plethora of amazing ideas via some awesome American wedding blogs. "Back at the drawing board, I found myself scanning an array of American wedding blogs. All of which featured jaw-droppingly gorgeous weddings that looked amazing but had little or no information about weddings in the UK, and then I stumbled across your site!" Fanni told me "From that day on, Rock n Roll Bride truly was a breath of fresh air for me from everything else I had seen out there previously. Your site was reassuring that we didn't have to be confined to the norm or do things a certain way because it was tradition. Our wedding was our day, our way. We wanted our guests to have the best time and not be left thinking that they were just at....'another textbook wedding.' So, with much planning and evenings spent beavering away we managed to pull it all together."
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The Beatles, Dr Seuss, Pom Poms & Holga!

Kat

October 27, 2009

A DIY wedding with Holga images? Oh hell yeah baby! Shelly & Jeff had a wedding that perfectly epitomised them. From the turquoise and orange pom poms and the personalised 'All You Need is Love' M&Ms to their friend playing 'Blackbird' by The Beatles and Dr Seuss' 'Oh The Places We Will Go' as gifts. From the sparrow salt & pepper shakers as a cake topper and succulents as centrepieces to the their customised 'lunchboxes' by Pink Avocado..oh yes yes yes! Shelly's beautiful dress was by Linda Asaf and I love it all! Thanks to Katherine for sending these over to me. I am in lurrrve Credit: Katherine O'Brien Photography
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I Saw a Shooting Star on my Wedding Night

Kat

October 15, 2009

Do you remember Anna & Ryan's Old Fashioned Love Affair wedding? Well, Mysi & Craig, the photographers of that soiree sent me their very own wedding - they got hitched a few weeks after! Mysi & Craig got married at a lodge in the middle of nowhere, near her parent's house in Illinois. They made a lot of the details - throwing themselves wholeheartedly into the DIY! They created their own programs to look like newspapers and got their invites printed onto handkerchiefs, the design of which was by the amazing etsy artist Heather Jenny.
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A Blue-tiful Mess

Kat

October 10, 2009

As soon as I laid eyes on this beautiful bride in her STUNNING blue dress I knew I had to share and after speaking to Chloe herself and getting all the hot gossip and details from the day, well I couldn't resist but to post these immediately. Take it away Chloe... We got married at Junior Ranks Mess on the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and didn't actually have a theme - I am far too eclectic to pick a just one and definitely even less likely to find one my hubby would have agreed with! I basically chose everything I liked and knew it wouldn't match but it would make sense to everyone who knew Kevin & I, because we are both such open and free people. We chose blue as a color but did not limit it to any particular shade or tone, and the result was a beautiful mess of all colors of blue imaginable - it was a huge hit with the wedding party and guests and took so much stress out of planning (who wants to have to order swatches?) Decor was came to under $100 - I hand folded 200 tissue pompoms to hang, hand folded 300 paper cherry blossoms for bouquets, centrepieces and ceremony decor and Kevin hung 300 blue and white balloons. Even the candles and vases were dollar store and I don't have any leftover because people went crazy for them and brought them all home! We did everything possible it seems to drive my traditional in laws crazy - we asked for money instead of gifts, we served hor d'hoeuves instead of a dinner, I had a bridesman, I designed a dress to showcase my ink when my father in law suggested I get a turtleneck gown to hide them (seriously!) Oh, and Kevin insisted on rocking the ceremony and marched in there to Sweet Child O Mine by VitaminStringQuartet, and we rocked right out of there to Dance,Dance by VitaminStringQuartet. I tried on traditional gowns but looked like I was playing dress up, so in the end I ordered my dream dress - I saw it on Project Runway season 1 years back and said "that will be my dress" (the white dress). I found a great seamstress on etsy AtelierTami in Greece, who made it for $120! It was exactly what I wanted - plain. I have enough skin decoration and planned on accessorizing on top of that! I got my blue, reception dress from Sarah Seven also on etsy. I had a beautiful birdcage veil made by another etsy artisan, 5eizen and got my shoes from Betsey Johnson (Vixen) but I added the shoe ruffles myself which I made. and Kevin bought his outfit at a skateboarding shop for under $100. My bridesmaids/men chose their own outfits, I told them blue and white and something you will wear again. I wanted them to look like themselves, since I chose them because I love them as they are. I want to give a shout out to all these amazing etsy sellers that I used: White Gown by AtelierTami Blue, reception dress by Sarah Seven Birdcage Veil by 5eizen Gloves by Creonodo Shrug by LolaShowGirl Bouquet by YandeBridal Corsages, Boutonnieres and pompoms by CocoCupcakes Earrings by SweetLobe Thanks to the lovely Chloe & Kevin for sharing their blue-tiful (!) day with us! Credit: Flickr (photographed by a friend of the couple)
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Quirky, Colourful, Kitsch

Kat

August 25, 2009

I am crazy in love with Tanya & Mark's amazingly colourful DIY wedding! The event took place in Tanya's parent's backyard in Northampton, PA and totally reflected the couple's quirky, colourful, kitschy nature. They really put 100% of themselves into the day. Tanya made the invitations, the felt flowers, the centrepieces and most of the decorations herself and all of the tables were covered with unique vintage fabric sourced from various places throughout the wedding planning. One of my favourite details had got to be the pink flamingos everywhere though! Tanya says she has a slight obsession with John Waters so this detail was a must! Tanya found her and her Bridesmaid's dress from Ebay and her amazing red birdcage veil from Events and Occasions. Her shoes were from Modcloth and her red petticoat was found at Unique Vintage. Thanks to Tanya and Mark for sharing their day and all the gorgeous details with us! Credit: Matt Stanley
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Been Done? Who Cares?

Kat

July 8, 2009

You know this about me already but I'm a huge activist for being yourself on your wedding day, however crazy, out there or even mundane (oh yes) that may be. As all the veteran readers will know, I ran a contest for free wedding photography a while back, and have now gotten to know our winners pretty well. I was chatting to the Bride to be, Vana, on the phone the other day for no joke, literally an hour about all things wedding (jeez that gal can talk he he!) and I'm sure she won't mind me telling you this, she was running a few of her newest wedding ideas by me to ask my opinion as to whether I thought they had 'been done' (for some reason she thinks I must be some kind of expert on such things…) I said this to her, and on her recommendation I am now going to say this to all of you...do not worry about tack, or about being over the top or if something you really want seems to be springing up everywhere in blog-land, and has therefore ‘been done’. Just remember this teeny tiny pearl of wisdom…Your guests won't have been scoring the Internet looking for wedding ideas for the last year so will have no idea if something has 'been done' or not! To me, our wedding was not completely nuts. We kept it quite simple with a black and white theme and a few personal touches, but we had so many people saying to us it was the most stylish and cool wedding they had ever been too...they hadn't spent the last year looking at other people's weddings and comparing themselves after all! So don't doubt yourself... Are you lusting after that cute Stephanie James Couturedress but are worried that in 10 years time the cute short dress look will look as dated as the poofy sleeved meringues of the 80’s? Pah, if I got married in the 80’s I would have wanted to remember the 80’s…2008 was the greatest year of my life and I want to remember that year through my wedding pictures. Have you have been dying to have cupcakes as your wedding cake ever since you started planning your wedding, but are worried because now everybodyseems to be doing it? Well a lot of people that are getting married may be yes, but everybody in the entire world?...erm no. Are you worried that your wedding isn’t cool enough because you spend all day looking at weddings that seen so much crazier/chicer than yours? (You are not alone by the way, I felt the exact same thing) You are more likely to regret planning a wedding in a style that wasn’t really ‘you’ than one that perfectly matches you and your fiancé’s tastes. So quit stressing about what other people will think and just do it already...and then send me the photographs afterwards! Now for a couple of trends I love and therefore don't care if they've 'been done'. Let me know if I've missed any of your favourites!
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