March 25, 2010
Check out Emma & James' funky Manchester engagement session How cool are this couple?! And hold onto your knickers and prepare to get very excited for their punky, vintage-y British wedding coming up later today!Read more...
March 21, 2010
One of the greatest things about my job as a blogging maestro is all the wonderful people I get to meet...and it's even better when we get to meet in real life! The delightful Emma Case is down in London for a few weeks and so emailed me and suggested we meet up go out for Sushi. Now, those that know me will be well aware that I'm not one to say no to Sushi! We met up last Tuesday and immediately hit it off, talking non-stop about wedding planning, photography, blogging, husbands, proposals, flowers, music...you know the drill! I was particularly excited to hear about some fabulous weddings she's shot over the past few weeks and lucky for you I got first dibs on sharing them all with you (score!)Read more...
March 20, 2010
This beautiful British bride had a gorgeous 'Cherish the Dress' session with her friend and photographer Caro Hutchings. "Jemma got married two years ago and wanted some images of her dress and detail shots to print out and put up in her new house." Caro told me in her email. "We had loads of fun with props and made a feature of the amazing hair pieces we found – especially the peacock feather piece which we fell in love with from ebay. Her dress was byLinea Raffaelli and we had Robina's of Marlow doing her hair and supplying the rest of the hair accessories. The location of the shoot was an amazing house in Bourne End, Bucks known as ‘The Oak House’ which has just been finished. The shoot was actually the day before Valentines day which was very fitting for our romantic heart theme and got us all in the valentines mood."Read more...
March 18, 2010
Follwing the popularlity of the 80's themed engagement shoot I featured on Tuesday, I wanted to share Emma & Micheal's cabin crew themed session sent over by the wonderful Julia Boggio (who also shot my Vintage Boudoir session.) When Emma told Julia her idea about doing her pre-wedding shoot in the Virgin Atlantic rig, she jumped at the chance! "After all, Daniel Craig had been filmed in the rig for one of the Bond films and where Daniel goes, well, I go." Julia told me. With Emma living in the UK and Micheal in the US, Virgin Atlantic played a huge role in their relationship so far - ferrying them both back and forth across the pond. "Emma contacted Virgin about her idea and they were more than happy to oblige. " Julia continued "They love a good love story! The Virgin Atlantic rig, or Miss Rigorous, as she is named, is used mostly for training purposes at VA. It's an entire interior of a Virgin plane. Because the rig is quite dark and the lighting is suitable for an airplane, not a photo shoot, I had to come to the party equipped with loads of Broncolor lighting, colour gels, and an assistant. Emma rented an old style hostess outfit and Michael played the role of lusty Business Class passenger. We had a great deal of fun and I'm really looking forward to their wedding later this summer."Read more...
March 17, 2010
"I’m so happy to finally be able to blog about Caroline & Ben’s beautiful London wedding. There are so many things I loved about this wedding, from Caroline’s stunning Jenny Packham gown and headpiece, to the gorgeous Market Suite at the Fox & Anchor where Caroline and the girls were getting ready, through to the beautiful ceremony at Islington Town Hall and reception at The Crypt. There was a real London feel about this wedding, and I loved the fact that when we went for a little portrait shoot with Caroline and Ben after the ceremony, we just hailed a black cab. When in London..."Read more...
March 6, 2010
What I love about Sonya & Toby's Cotswold's wedding was the moments photographer David Jenkins seemed to capture. Subtle, touching, intimate, hilarious...the images just jumped off the screen at me and I felt an instant affinity with the event. I could literally imagine being there.Read more...
March 5, 2010
Everything about this winter wedding was meant to be. As well as the venue being practically next door to where she lived, Anna also stumbled on her gorgeous dress quite by accident at a vintage clothing store. A few days before the wedding, she spotted a mint condition Morris Minor in town, and left a polite note on the windscreen asking if the owner would be kind enough to drive her down the road to the Victoria Hall on the wedding day itself. The owner called back and agreed!Read more...
March 4, 2010
The majority of submissions that land in Rock n Roll Bride's inbox are from photographers. which is great because I get to sample all the best, innovative and inspiring new photography and Rock n Roll weddings out there. However there is something very special about receiving an excitable email from a recently married couple, bursting to tell me all about their wedding. I got an email just like this only yesterday and Sally & Sam's charming vintage/Chinese fusion wedding was only made better by the fabulous running commentary from the bride.Read more...
March 3, 2010
This fun all day trash the dress shoot was sent over by UK photographer Natasha Hurley. I really love seeingg the evolution of time thoughout these images - from the early morning light in the garden shots, to the late afternoon sun in the graffiti shots and the evening time darkness with the contrast of the artifical lights in the final urban images. Quite appart from that, the bride Miranda looks like she's having a ball and I love love love her heart shaped pink sunglasses.Read more...
March 2, 2010
The couple chose The Hop Farm as their venue because, in their own words, "it had a certain britishness to it and being both born and bred in Kent we grew up with the iconic images of the oast houses and it just felt comforting and homely to have them as a back drop to the wedding." They didn't really have one theme per-say but they just came up with/borrowed ideas from many areas that inspired them. In fact the only stipulation they put throughout the whole of the process of planning their wedding was that they wanted to get as many people as they liked together to have a really good party, and the actual ceremony and marriage was just a small part of that.Read more...
February 25, 2010
This Art Deco bridal shoot took place at Eltham Palace in London. The fabulous dresses including Valerie' by Sarah Arnett, 'Kristine' by Claire Pettibone and two dresses by Olivia Couture were provided by Blackburn Bridal and were all chosen to reflect the Art Deco nature of the building and the shoot. The flowers were sent by Veevers Carter. Photographer Sarah wanted to tell me all about her vision. "There were a few motivations for the shoot. I wanted to show off the Art Deco design of the Eltham Palace and I felt that our model, Victoria's look really encapsulated the decadent spirit of the 1920's which was perfect. The dresses were also chosen according to the venue with the exception of the the Olivia Couture swirl dress which was shot in an Italian style room adjacent to the iconic circular entrance hall. The soft, vintage styled bouquet worked well with all the dresses and the final shots with the black bobbed wig were an unashamed homage to Louise Brooks, the Art Deco pin up herself!" Thanks to Sarah for sharing these todayRead more...
February 24, 2010
There's a little bit of a story behind the finding of this fabulous shoot and I thought in sharing it's gorgeousness I could also explain how it came to land in my inbox. As many of you know, my husband Gareth is an IT wizz and works from home. As sad as it may be, we love to watch Working Lunch together when I'm not at 'the day job'. One such afternoon there was a feature on Emma Jones of Enterprise Nation who works with 5-9 ers - ie people who are mad like me, work a full time job and run their own business from home too. So Gareth turns to me and says "You should drop her an email" and so I did. Making this connection has been fabulous for me as not only have I been featured on her site, am being used a case study in her upcoming book (hell to the yeah!) but she sends me regular updates on awesome other 5-9 ers that she thinks I need to know. LeKeux Events was one of these companies. As soon as I landed on their website I knew we'd be a perfect match and after speaking to Lyndsey over email it turned out that she already reads my blog! Aaaaanyway, to cut a very long story short (er) I saw this amazing Sugabily bridal shoot on their site and just had to feature it....you're going to go nuts for it! The dress and petticoat were ebay finds, but Lyndsey tells me she swooned over similar things on Vivienne of Holloway (who I ADORE by the way). Enjoy! Thanks to Emma for putting myself and LeKeux Events together and thanks to Lyndsey for sharing these wonderful shots with us todayRead more...
February 23, 2010
I'm going all out with the fantastic British weddings this week...and loving it I might add. Jules & Leighton's self confessed "oh-so-English-and-slightly-Rock-and-Roll wedding." Living in Kenilworth, Warwickshire they wanted to keep the day locally sourced and so enlisted the help and expertise of some of their favourite local vendors. Jules wore a Pronovias Huella dress and hand made accessories from super talented Etsy sellers Lili Swan and Lulu Splendor. The flowers were supplied by Cindy at Pure Botanics who created vintage perfection with her soft bouquets of ranunculus, roses and freesia that looked liked they could have been picked from an English garden, hand tied and finished off with gorgeous fat ribbons. For the centrepieces Jules scoured charity and thrift stores for mis-matched vintage glassware. The bunting was hired by Hired from Beautiful Bunting. The wonderfully mis-matched vintage china, cake stands and glass trifle bowls all hired from Vintage Teas & RSVPs. "We got married at Kenilworth Castle." Jules wrote, "No, it's not completely a ruin! Luckily the Gatehouse is still standing and it's stunning and as wedding venues go, it's possibly the best kept secret in Warwickshire. It might sound quite grand, getting married in a castle, but actually at Kenilworth it's a really cosy affair. We just had 40 guests and it meant we could keep things really relaxed and informal. We had the speeches there while everyone stood around with glasses of champers, rather than doing them the traditional way during the meal." They held their reception at Parochial Hall, 5 minutes walk away. "It's a really old church hall with a scrubbed wooden floor and a stage and a hatch into the kitchen." Jules told me "It's the sort of place that brings back memories of childhood for everyone who was ever in the Brownies or the Scouts. We loved it as soon as we saw it and it became our whole inspiration for what turned out to be our dream reception - an old fashioned family style get together. It was all very DIY - we had lots of help from friends and family who were fabulously keen to get involved and set about arranging tables and chairs and shinning up ladders. Our caterers Farmers Fayre really got into the spirit of things. Rather than have a formal style dinner we had joints of lamb brought to the tables and one person per table was then nominated carver - complete with chef's hat and apron. Even Leighton was up out of his seat handing round the vegetables - it felt like Sunday lunch with the family. As the evening guests started to arrive we had a cocktail hour complete with big band classics playing and Farmers Fayre bar staff serving up Cosmopolitans and Mojito's." Thanks to Jules & Leighton for sharing their "little-but-vintage-little-bit-Rock- n-Roll' darling British wedding todayRead more...
February 23, 2010
Even though I'm an out and out rock chick, I can sometimes be swayed to the classically beautiful side by my photographer friends. The wonderful UK based Nikole Ramsay sent me these amazing images just yesterday and I was blown away! Not only by her fabulousa photography, but by the beeeautiful dresses supplied by Sarah Treble. Thanks to Nikole for bringing out my princess side with these amazing images.Read more...
February 22, 2010
Forgive me, but I literally almost wet myself when I saw these shots from the hottest, newest photographer on the block, Emma Case - and can you believe it, this is only her first official 'Emma Case wedding'! (I've featured a wedding she shot for a friend before she decided to pursue it full time.) I got a very excitable email from the lady herself this morning and I couldn't wait to get home to share these right away. "Well, here it is, my very first, official, didn't know the couple before, professional, as 'Emma Case Photography' wedding!" She began. "Christie contacted me back in November and straight away I knew just how ace she was. Not only did she mention fake moustaches and knee-sliding as part of the wedding plan but she was funny and honest and completely on my wavelength. We emailed back and forth in a 'know each other already' type of way and by the time me and Pete were driving up to Devon on the 30th January I was a little nervous but so excited to finally meet her (we didn't get the chance beforehand) and her soon to be husband... the Berninator! The wedding was held at the most amazing Huntsham Court... oh man the bathroom in the bridal suite was AMAZING, oh and the library... and the... well you can see for yourselves, the whole house is stunning! The ceremony (that I wasn't allowed to photograph.. grumble, grumble) was beautiful with a really heartfelt speech from both Christie and Bernie's sisters (I'm gonna have to man up in this profession as I could feel myself going) and then food was served followed by a wonderfully proud speech from the Father of the Bride and a particularly funny song by the Best Man and his guitar! Instead of a wedding cake they had a 'pig'nata (pinata) and for the evening entertainment 'Gabby Young & Other Animals' played their socks off (you need to check this band out) and EVERYONE was dancing! Finish it all off with about 3 hours of The Photo Booth which had me literally in pain through laughing too much and you have all the ingredients for one hot wedding." Thanks to the lovely Emma for sharing these, and I KNOW we'll be seeing a lot more greatness from this girlie (and I can't wait to finally meet her soon!)Read more...
February 19, 2010
Emma & Mattias' urban & gritty engagement session in Hackney Wick (the East End of London) have inspired me no end. I not only love the rough 'n ready, graffiti style shots (which are fast becoming a bit of a McNeil signature) but the wonderful heart shots send my heart a-flutter. I asked David how this images came about and he told me that as they were wondering down the street, looking for locations, they came across a hall where a Valentines night was being set up. They asked nicely if they would use their heart covered wall as a backdrop and the lovely people said yes. Aren't the results fabulous? Another photographic win for my friend David I feel! Thanks to David for sending these over today Credit: David McNeilRead more...
February 17, 2010
I've got a second British post for your today - and this time it's Miriam & Bruce's art deco/speakeasy/1920s-30s inspired wedding. The event took place at The Brickhouse, Brick Lane, London which is in the heart of the city's uber cool East End and was complete with monochromatic colour scheme, gambling tables and cheeky burlesque entertainment. Miriam & Bruce had a humanist ceremony in front of their guests before kicking off a night of unashamed debauchery! Female guests were treated to a black or white feather fan on arrival, and the gents mini bottles of Jack Daniels and chocolate cigars. Miriam wore a dress and ostrich feather shrug from the fabulous Joanna Fleming Design and birdcage veil from Jane Taylor Millinery. Credit: Eye Imagine Wedding Planners: Grant-Riley WeddingsRead more...
February 17, 2010
This cute West London engagement shoot delighted me ever so much as I work very near here - in fact I drive past the modern building featured in some of the shots everyday and think how much nicer it looks than the studios where I work! Aren't Sarah-Jane & Mitul just adorable? Thanks to Laura for sharing theseRead more...
February 11, 2010
February 8, 2010
Do you remember Hannah & Ali's awesome 'at home' engagement shoot complete with their awesome kitty cat? Well I was over the moon to receive an email full to bursting with their quirky, vintagey wedding goodness from their photographer Steve Gerrard just the other day. I am loving Hannah's Jenny Packham dress and headband (le swoon indeed) and the bridesmaids look just too damn cool for school in their All Saints dresses. Their wedding took place just before Christmas at The Daffodil in Cheltenham, a fantastic converted 1920’s Art Deco picture house Steve tells us, The vintage theme continued throughout the wedding and I have to say I wish more couples would go down this route. I think it’s so cool and stylish. Hannah and Ali both looked amazing, but their guests also made a huge effort and win the award for best dressed guests ever! Yep this is defiantly one of the coolest UK weddings I've seen in a while (well...a few days maybe - I get sent a HELL lot of cool weddings!) Thanks to the wonderful Steve for sharing with us. Credit: Steve Gerrard PhotographyRead more...