The Name Game: Should you Take your Husband’s Surname When you Marry?

Kat

Jamie Hopper

June 25, 2012

Kathryn Underwood was always last to be called in the school register. I'm not sure why it bothered me so much that I was stuck on the end every time, but it did. I felt like an outsider and I longed to be all snuggy in the middle with the Matthews' and the Smiths' and the Jones'. "It's OK though", I justified to myself, "when I get married I'll never have to be at the end of a register ever again..." And then I married a Williams.

Are Babies the Next Logical Step?

Kat

June 20, 2012

choose to be in a room with a load of them. In fact at my parent's Jubilee party which was frequented by rather a lot of screeching neighbourhood rugrats, I spent then entire time cowered in the corner staring at my lap/my glass of champagne/the dry sausage rolls and hoping none of them would try to talk to me. It's ironic really, I'm pretty outgoing with adults, but anyone under 12 and I don't know what to do. I guess I'm scared I'll make them cry... or I'll accidentally drop the f-bomb and scar them for life or something.

The Bridal Shop Experience & How to Come Out Alive…

Kat

June 18, 2012

I was blown away by the response to the article I published on Weight Loss and Weddings a few weeks ago. Thank you to every single one of you who was brave enough to leave a comment sharing your own experiences. Even though the post has been up for a little while the tweets, emails and blog comments are still pouring in for it. I never really know how topics like that will go down so it means a lot that you guys put yourselves out there like that. You are all so amazing. There was one resounding message that came from the comments, and one I didn't anticipate. It was your concerns or bad experiences with bridal shops and your worries with finding a wedding dress you loved (and that fitted/complimented your figure/make you look beautiful). The crazy thing was that these concerns were not even limited to those of you who identified yourselves as overweight. It seemed that nearly all of you, no matter what your shape or size, had concerns or stories to tell about the dreaded bridal shop experience.

Weight Loss and Weddings

Kat

June 4, 2012

"Fat, fat fat fat fat!" read Martha's Facebook status. I'd seen updates about her diet plan and weight goals over the past few months and it urked me. In fact anyone talking about weight loss and dieting makes me feel uncomfortable... it's just one of those things I don't like being thrust in my face. Diets can be dangerous things. I've had personal experience. But Martha's statuses upset me particularly because I knew for a fact that only reason she was dieting was to fit into that size 10 Ian Stuart number. Yes, Martha is trying to lose weight for her wedding.

Wedding Traditions & Deciding What’s Important

Kat

February 3, 2012

I put a shout out on my Facebook page to ask if any of you we're struggling with anything wedding planning-wise and if I could help. A couple of you mentioned wedding traditions, namely how to decide which to include and which to scrap altogether. I have a few ideas on the subject... Remember, it's your wedding There is a recurring theme throughout nearly all of the weddings I feature - that the couples wanted to have a wedding that was a true reflection of themselves...their likes and dislikes, their relationship, their personal style, their life influences. I believe that deciding which wedding traditions to include or ignore should also be totally dependent on you and what you value as being important to your wedding day.

Do You Have to Invite Plus Ones to Your Wedding?

Kat

January 27, 2012

I'm going start out by being 100% honest with you. I don't really know the answer to this question. However after a discussion with Roo last week, I feel it might be a topic some of you are struggling with. Therefore I thought I'd use today's wedding planning advice post as a forum for us to get in a discussion on the matter - I want to know your ideas and opinions on the subject please! Although I'm sure you could Google this question and come up with the 'proper etiquette' answer, I think it's much more relevant these days to figure out what's right for you and your wedding. However I do think you should consider a few things before you make your decision...

What Makes a Good Wife…and Am I a Bad One?

Kat

January 6, 2012

This week I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be a wife...or more specially a 'good' wife. I guess with the new year kicking in and all, I started a-pondering about where I am in my life and what I'm supposed to be doing next... Anyway, Gareth & I often joke that I'm a bad wife (at least I hope he's joking). The roles are anything but traditional in our house. As many of you will already know, Rock n Roll Bride is the sole source of income in our household and most of the work that goes into it is on my end - that's not to say that the things Gareth does aren't extremely valuable and important - just that he doesn't spend 12 hours a day glued to a computer screen is all!

Post It Notes – 16th December 2011: Staying Inspired, Coming Up with New Ideas & Blogging Regularly

Kat

December 16, 2011

One of the questions I'm most often asked when I meet people is how on earth I'm able to blog so often. Well firstly and most obviously, I'm in a very lucky position that the majoroty of my content (i.e. the weddings I feature) is submitted to me. Every morning my inbox greets me with a plethora of potential blog content. Brilliant! However, as much as I adore featuring the weddings that I do, if the only content I wrote was other people's work, I think I'd quickly get bored. After all I'm not really stretching myself as a writer by penning 'Sally & Stan were married at the manor house wedding venue in June...' Although coming up with new ways to write very similar content is a task in itself sometimes! Anyway, my point being that I love sharing the amazing weddings and looking at all the glorious wedding photos I get to, but writing the blog posts doesn't massively challenge me as a professional writer. I currently publish approximately 16 blog posts a week, 11 of those being real weddings or photo shoots. However I'm always challenging myself to come up with new new ideas for the other 5 posts. So, today I thought I'd share some of the techniques I use for saying motivated & inspired, for coming up with new content ideas and for making sure you blog regularly.

Post It Notes: 16th December 2011: Let’s Hear it for the Boys!

Kat

December 16, 2011

This week's wedding Post It Note was submitted by Carina of the fabulous Love Me Do Photography. I loved reading the ideas she presented in her article, some of which I'd never even thought of. We'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas for getting those boys involved in the comments section too so get those thinking caps on! ...and as a side note, if you'd like to submit an idea for a Post It Note article, feel free to drop me an email, I'm always looking for new ideas for this series. Let’s face it, weddings are very 'bride heavy'. We gush about the bride’s dress, hair, shoes, and everything else feminine that goes into a wedding. But really, the wedding (and marriage) is about two people coming together; most often being a bride and a groom ( I’ve haven’t noticed this problem in same sex weddings so kudos to you!)

Post It Notes: 9th December 2011: Positive Influence

Kat

December 9, 2011

In many working environments there is a undulating undercurrent of moans and groans from disgruntled employees. For example, when I worked at the shopping channel we bitched about the length of our shifts, the amount of product we were expected to flog sell, the quality of said product, the air conditioning (or lack thereof), the mess in the green room... you get the picture! In fact I got so used to the daily moans and groans that I'd think nothing of it. I'd never stop to think how it affected my overall mood or attitude to the job. It just felt normal.

Post It Notes: 9th December 2011: How to Save Money on Your Wedding Food

Kat

December 9, 2011

Today I thought I'd run few a few ideas on how you can save money on the catering/food at your wedding. It's often one of the biggest expenses but it doesn't have to be. As always I'd love to read any of your own tips in the comments so hit us up with them!

Post It Notes: 2nd December 2011: Evolving Your Business and Staying Ahead of the Competition

Kat

December 2, 2011

I was asked by Rachel at the School of Rock (n Roll Bride) on Friday why, if blogs and online media are gaining popularity, I had decided to do a print magazine. "Well," I responded, "print certainly isn't dead, it's just changing... evolving... and that's something I want to be a part of. I don't see Rock n Roll Bride magazine as a rival to any of the national wedding magazines, but as an evolution and extension of my brand. Something for my readers to collect and keep."

Post It Notes – 2nd December 2011: How to Save Money on Your Wedding Dress

Kat

December 2, 2011

For this week's wedding note I thought I'd blog some money saving ideas relating to the wedding dress. Although, yes, your wedding dress may well be the most expensive dress you'll ever own, I'm well aware that the average price of somewhere between £1000 - £2000, is going to be out of a lot of bride's budgets.

Post-It Notes – 25th November 2011: What to do When it all Goes Wrong…

Kat

November 25, 2011

Did you know that after blogging for just over a year I somehow managed to delete the whole blog? Seriously... To cut a long story short, I had been secretly blogging using Blogger since just before our wedding. I used the blog to post my own wedding ideas and after the wedding to share other people's alternative wedding ideas and weddings that I'd found and liked around the internet. The reason for the blog certainly wasn't to make it into a business, I'd simply fallen in love with wedding blogs during my wedding planning and started my own for fun.

Post It Notes – 25th November 2011: Money Saving Ideas for Wedding Flowers

Kat

November 25, 2011

After the success of last week's 'average spend' post it note, a number of you messaged me to say you'd love to here some ideas of how to save the pennies on certain areas. So, over the next few weeks I plan to do just that. Starting this week with wedding flowers.

Post-It Notes – 18th November 2011: Walk, Don’t Run

Kat

November 18, 2011

It's quite a simple business note this week because a) I've been poorly (oh woe is me, seriously Gareth is so annoyed with my 'milking it' - as he lovingly puts it!) and b) I've been working on my notes for my first blogging workshop* (which I've dubbed School of Rock (n Roll Bride) haha I know I'm just that cool) which is taking place in London NEXT WEEK so I'm a little bit exhausted of thinking about business type stuff if I'm honest!

Post-It Notes – 18th November 2011: Just How Much is This Wedding Going to Cost Us?

Kat

November 18, 2011

I've been wanting to put this post together for some time to give you an idea of what you might expect to pay for certain areas of your wedding. Now before I get you all hating on me, saying "But we can't afford to spend XYZ on my dress/our photos/the food" I want to make it clear that I'm certainly not writing this to show you what you should be spending. No no no, I want this post to give you a basic idea of what you might get initially quoted to save you from the mini-heart attack I had when I first realised how much wedding dresses were.

Post-It Notes – 11th November 2011: Getting Organised

Kat

November 11, 2011

Getting reader questions and suggestions for these Post It Notes posts is amazing so thank you everyone that's commented and emailed me. I'm going to try to get to as many of them as I can! After all these posts are to help you guys so I'm pretty chuffed that my rambles seem to be doing so. Last week, Nik commented asking...

Post-It Notes – 11th November 2011: Non-Tacky Hen Do Ideas

Kat

November 11, 2011

Oh the wonders of the great British hen do (bachelorette party for my American friends). A time to let yourself go...your last night of freedom...an excuse to get horreniously drunk and snog a stripper. Erm...Or maybe not.

Post-It Notes – 4th November 2011: Getting More Blog Comments

Kat

November 4, 2011

Welcome to part two of this week's Post It Notes - the businessy section... Last week I spoke a little about comment etiquette, so I thought I'd continue the theme today with a few ideas on how you can get more comments on your own blog. We all like feedback and nice comments about a wedding I've shared always make me smile!