Most of the photo shoots you see featured on this, and other, wedding blogs will have had weeks, sometimes even months, of preparation. Coming up with a concept, pulling together a crack team of suppliers, finding a location and models, figuring out the perfect time to shoot… But not so for photographers Luisa and Bárbara who live in Portugal.

“Yesterday, a thought came to my mind”, Luisa emailed me on Thursday. “What if we could pull up a Halloween picnic wedding styled shoot in a day, and send it to Rock n Roll Bride?”

Working with friends in the Portuguese wedding industry, she then instantly went shopping, and started contacting friends who she thought could help her out. “We decided we were mad but that we wanted to try! It was 10pm and we went furiously shopping for flowers that had Halloween colours, props and we tried to find the best couple who would serve our inspiration the best. Mick, a body piercer, and his long time girlfriend Wanda, a burlesque dancer, said they would love to be our models (even though we scheduled the shoot for 6am the next morning!) since his birthday actually is on Halloween.”

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Happy Halloween! Today’s shoot is strictly Halloween themed, but I thought the Victorian gothic vibe would be inspiring none-the-less. I mean, who doesn’t love a good horror movie?

“Our inspiration was the new Victorian gothic horror/fairytale movie Crimson Peak“, stylist Jessica told me. “The key colours used in the film are red, blue, and black so we wanted to incorporate those elements into a styled bridal shoot. We wanted the photos to be romantic and a bit mysterious. We wanted to do something moody and interesting, that could be achieved on a budget.”

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Sometimes it’s hard for me to believe that this is actually my life. While it isn’t rainbows, unicorns and kittens all of the time, and I’ve never worked longer or harder, I am undeniably grateful that I get to do something I love every single day.

Eight years ago today I posted my very first article on this blog. I was working at a shopping channel and although I enjoyed it most of the time, there was always a undercurrent of sadness in my life. The “Is this really it?” mentality. This was something that had been following me ever since I was 14 years old. I’m sure some of you already know that I had a tough time growing up. I had depression, I self harmed, I had an eating disorder, I even tried to kill myself on more than one occasion. I remember around that time my mother would always say to me, “God had a plan” and “You can’t give up, you are destined for the most wonderful things”. Now, I’m not sure about the whole God thing, but even in my darkest moments I did quietly hope that she was right, and that one day I’d wake up and have it all figured out.

Of course there never was just ‘one day’. There was no single moment when everything changed. These things never work like that and it was a very long process to getting from that place I was as a teenager, to a position where I actually felt I had something to offer by starting a blog. The changes I made in my life between then and 2007, when I registered my free blogspot.com domain, were MASSIVE, and most of them were down to the wonderful man that wanted to marry me. I can’t even tell you how much Gareth has done for me. He quite literally saved my life. He was also the inspiration to start this website. I mean, without him I wouldn’t have been getting married and so I wouldn’t have started a blog to share my wedding planning journey!

So we’re now at 30th October 2007 and I start this site with no agenda other than I want to talk about my wedding (without bothering my friends and family – ha!) It’s the ultimate cliché, but I had no idea what it could become and how it might evolve. We got married in April 2008 and after the wedding was over, I still kept the blog going by sharing cool weddings that I’d found elsewhere online. I used to trawl wedding photography groups on Flickr (oh remember Flickr!?), I would ask other brides in the forums I frequented if I could share their stories, I sometimes re-blogged weddings I saw on other wedding blogs.

However it wasn’t until January 2009 that everything changed. I guess I should backtrack the story slightly and admit that I am the least technical person I know. I touch a Mac and it explodes, I’m always the one dropping or otherwise breaking something on my phone, I know how to use the back-end of my website to upload images and text, but anything more technical than that and I’m a disaster. Thank God a married the ultimate computer geek!

Anyway, its January 2009 and I decide that I want to put Google Analytics onto my site to see how many visitors it was getting. It looked easy enough but me being me, I messed it up and SOMEHOW managed to delete the whole thing! To this day Gareth has no idea how I did it, “But surely there were pop ups saying ‘if you do this the blog will be deleted are you SURE you want to proceed? Really? Are you definitely sure?!'” I have no idea what happened, but all I do know is I did something wrong and the blog was gone forever, KAPUT, DONE, FINITO! Buried in the depths of the Google graveyard.

Yes, there were tears! But Gareth, my geek in shining armour, came to my rescue yet again and set me up with a brand new blog. We bought the .com, switched to WordPress (a much more superior blogging platform to the free one I was using) and I started the whole thing over.

At the time I was SO gutted that my blog was gone, but it was actually the best thing to ever happen. Not only did it mean most of my very early, very embarrassing posts about my own wedding were gone forever (you can see what the old blog looked like here, totally legit right?!) but it also forced me to start again and re-evaluate what I really wanted to do with this space.

It was at this point that I made a conscious effort to only share alternative wedding inspiration. I decided that I wanted to create a place for brides who wanted beautiful yet fun and unique weddings. I wanted to inspire couples to have weddings that reflected them, not one that the wedding industry told them was ‘on trend’. I wanted to share the kind of wedding inspiration I was desperate for as a bride but couldn’t find anywhere. I wanted to create the blog that I wish I’d found when I was planning our wedding.

Poster from ABM Happy Mail

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The best Halloween movie of all time is arguably Hocus Pocus (“I had to wait three hundred years for a virgin to light a candle!”) so what could be more perfect for a Halloween themed wedding than one that’s inspired by witches and magic!?

Erica and her team at Mr & Mrs Unique clearly agree because they put together this fabulous photo session to celebrate the season! “I love Halloween and I wanted to create a bridal shoot that celebrated this bewitching time of the year”, Erica said. “The mood for the bridal shoot was effortlessly luxe with the witch-bohemian vibe, contrasting rich decadence and earthy decaying textures.”

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Did you catch the news this week? Rock n Roll Bride magazine issue 5 is now available for pre-order AND you can now subscribe if you like too! All the info can be found in Monday’s post. Hundreds of you have already done so, so if you’d like to guarantee you’ll get your mitts on a copy, reserve yours today!

Issue 5 isn’t in stores until November 10th but of course I’ve already been working on issue 6 for the past few weeks. It’s a crazy, never-ending treadmill but I love it. I never started this blog to turn it into a magazine and there is nothing more insane to me that it’s ended up that way. Gareth actually said to me this week, “Sometimes it really hits me that we have a magazine and it’s in shops and that’s really weird. How did that ever happen?” And I couldn’t agree more… I really have no idea!

Let’s see what else has been going on online this week shall we?

Weddings & Weddingy Things

♥ Batgirl just made history with the comic book wedding of the title character’s BFF, a trans woman
♥ Utterly adorable Melbourne wedding
♥ This couple used their wedding day to promote random acts of kindness – adorable!
♥ Whimsical Lauren’s Hall wedding
♥ Alternative vintage forest wedding
♥ Iconic wedding at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs (WOW!)

Cuckoo’s Nest West

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What could be the more perfect idea for a Halloween inspired bridal shoot than Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven?

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door;
Only this, and nothing more.”

Conceived by photographer, Claire Pacelli, event designer Cathrina Dionisio, and florist Lee Forrest the shoot came about because of their shared loved of the macabre.

Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow, sorrow for the lost Lenore,.
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore,
Nameless here forevermore.

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Gary and Traci love Halloween. So much so that they decided the best place for them to get married would be at their Halloween party in their own home. The coolest part of this wedding was that it was a complete surprise for all their guests! After telling everyone they were getting married then and there, they then assigned each attendee a roll in the celebration.

“We were trying to figure out how to do a ceremony and reception for our families that live in New York and California when we live in Alaska”, explained the bride. “We wanted our ceremony to be meaningful and something we could share with family at a later date, but we also wanted to focus on the celebration part of marriage and do that with friends that we know will be there to support us in the future with our families not geographically close.”

“I am a BIG fan of Halloween and we knew we were going to throw a party at our house”, she said. “It was a dream come true when Gary came up with the idea of doing a surprise wedding ceremony during the party for our friends. In Alaska, any person can marry you, so we came up with a plan to choose ‘characters’ to fill the traditional and not-so traditional roles during the wedding. We had roles for an officiate, maid of honour, best man, slutty bridesmaid, drunk uncle, father of the bride, ring bearer, flower girl, and wedding singer. The best part was, not knowing which friend would get selected to play each role.”

Check out the incredible film, made by Lauren of Beauty Board Media, and all will be explained…

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I don’t think it’ll come as a massive surprise to any of you that the vast majority of newly-weds I interview say that they wanted their wedding to reflect them. They took their mutual passions and combined them to create a wedding that felt individual, authentic and unique. But it might shock you to hear that a lot of brides I chat to pre-wedding tell me that they’re really worried about whether their mish-mash of ideas will work together. I mean, when you have a set theme it’s pretty easy to know what’s going to go… but Halloween, Lego and sparkles? Do those things work side by side?

I say hell yes and so do India and Rab who had those exact things at their October 31st wedding in Edinburgh! “Our wedding was a Lego Hallowedding!” began the bride. “We mixed Halloween with old Hollywood glamour and all the things we love including Lego, horror films and sci-fi. We wanted our day to be as fun as possible and reflect our own personalities. Since getting together weave enjoyed some big Halloween parties, and had lots of fun planning costumes, decorations, and food so the wedding was a bit of an extension of that.”

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Do you yearn for a wedding magazine that features brides just like you? Realistic budgets, creative ideas, weddings that you wish you’d been invited to? Is practical, actionable wedding planning advice something you crave? Are you sick of trawling through page after page of advertisements from companies you aren’t interested in and products you can’t afford?

ME TOO, which is why I started Rock n Roll Bride in the first place!

Today I can finally reveal the cover of the brand new issue – Isn’t she a beaut!? Again, we have a gorgeous real bride on the cover, Julia, who’s Queensland wedding is featured inside. From ceremonies in rainstorms to puppy bridesmaids and drag queen officiants, issue 5 features some hella inspiring real weddings.

But we’re not all about the pretty, inside you’ll also find some awesome articles written by some fantastic contributors including my own mum (yes, really!) There’s some killer photography advice for those of you who are having winter weddings, affordable décor ideas and DIY projects a-plenty. I don’t want to give too much away, but believe me when I say this will be the best £4.99 you’ll spend all month!

Issue 5 will be in stores on November 10th, but the good news doesn’t end there. As well as WH Smiths and independents, the magazine will now be sold in Sainbury’s supermarkets up and down the UK!!

While we would love to be stocked in every single shop in the country (we’re getting there – sloooowly!) if you can’t find one near you, you can always order online, and today we’re opening up pre-orders in our redesigned shop page (thanks Gareth!). Pre-ordered copies will be shipped out first, meaning by reserving yours now you may even receive your copy before it hits the stores.

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Halloween 2014 was the date that Chynna and Reginald said “We do”. They were married at Morris Chapel in Stockton, California. “The inspiration for our wedding was anything and everything glamorous and creepy”, explained the bride. “Our colours were plum, gold and black. We incorporated a perfect mix of black lace with 90s slasher film awesomeness.”

“Our tables were named for horror movie characters. Also, since the groom is a serious comic book geek, we tried to incorporate superhero touches as well. The best part was cutting our cake with Wolverine claws instead of a knife! We saved a lot of money on our décor by buying it right after Halloween 2013, when it was all on sale!”

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You can’t have failed to notice that it’s Halloween next Saturday so to celebrate, this coming week will be completely Halloween themed! That’s right, every post from now until 31st will be spooky, scary or just down right devilish. Perfect to get you in the mood for your favourite holiday.

Let’s kick off the proceedings with this beautifully gothic and dark bridal session. Set around an abandoned farm house in Farmington, Utah, it was put together by wedding photographer Brit Nicole.

“We named this shoot ‘Black Allure'” Brit said. “The dictionary defines ‘allure’ as: the quality of being powerfully and mysteriously attractive or fascinating. I think the inspiration for this shoot was the mysteriously attractive part. We wanted to create something that was darker and more edgy than most bridals. We aimed for unique, a little creepy, but still beautiful. Something that would fit a Halloween theme, but also just fascinate others. You don’t have to fit into the norm to be beautiful.”

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Claire and Lou wanted a relaxed wedding that all their guests would enjoy. “The inspiration for our wedding came quite naturally”, Lou told me. “All we wanted was to feel comfortable in our outfits and for our guests to feel comfortable too. We wanted people to socialise as much as possible and for everyone to have an amazing time with us. We wanted a nice flow on the running order and our priority was to ensure that no-one was hanging around waiting for the next part of the day feeling hungry or bored!”

The wedding was held at Southend Barns in Chichester. “The minute we saw our venue we knew that it was perfect”, she continued “I walked around the grounds and imagined certain props in certain places and got an idea of what would work and what wouldn’t. I got a lot of my décor inspiration by simply standing in the middle of the venue and looking around and thinking about what I could do.”

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Amy and Christina met online in 2008 and bonded over a mutual love of Kingdom Hearts, an action role-playing game. Their long distance relationship, and love of adventure, inspired their travel themed wedding.

“We travel all the time”, wrote Amy. “We drive to anime and comic conventions everywhere from Los Angeles to Boston each year and we go abroad three to five weeks a year. We’ve travelled to fifteen countries together in seven years, and we are always planning our next trip. Travelling strengthened our relationship and taught us how to care for each other and stick together through anything, but we also LOVE our home and wanted our wedding to be a celebration of Chicago. We  had vintage touches in the wedding which came from the fact that I have a history degree, and our condo is vintage industrial and filled with antiques like Crystina’s numerous 1893 Columbian Exposition souvenir books and my WWII propaganda posters.”

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Lola and Andre didn’t really get married, in fact he’s gay and she’s a lesbian! These images are from a photo shoot put together by Brazilian wedding photographer Gabriel Galvani in São Paulo.

“My inspiration for this wedding shoot was create a grunge/ alternative fake wedding between my friends”, said Gabe. “I’ve wanted to shoot a bride with an undercut forever so this was my chance! I needed to give life to something that was in my head.”

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Hampus Öberg

Last week I spoke at and attended Way Up North, Europe’s first major summit for wedding photographers in Stockholm, Sweden. It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done, but also one of the most incredible.

Being in a line up of astounding photographers such as Jasmine Star, Jonas Peterson, Andria Lindqusit, Fer Juaristi, Ed Peers, Erin & Ben Chrisman, James Moes, Samm Blake and Nessa K isn’t something I would ever have dared to dream could happen to me. In fact, just thinking about it now makes my head spin.

I was going to write a lengthy article about everything I took from those two days but ironically (since I was speaking about the power of blogging!) the words just wouldn’t come. Not wanting to miss anything important out I felt paralysed and found it impossible to even begin my post.

So let’s just say that it was wonderful. I didn’t expect to learn so much from the other speakers (not being a wedding photographer and all) but I did. So much. I faced my fears… I laughed… I even cried a little bit. If you want to know just how amazing it was… well, you’ll have to come along next time.

To Cole and Jakob, who organised the whole thing, THANK YOU. Thank for you asking me to be involved, thank you for believing in me, thank you for your kind words before, during and after.

Way Up North 2015, you were a life-defining moment. I will always think back to those two days with astonishment that it happened, joy that I faced my fears, and exhilaration at the enormity of it all.

Hampus Öberg

Meanwhile, on the internet…

Weddings & Weddingy Things

♥ Planning viral wedding proposals is actually a job
♥ Summertime swimming love story shoot
♥ President Obama crashed a wedding
♥ Gorgeous DIY Nashville wedding
♥ Edgy, moto-inspired wedding

Big Bear Photo Co.

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They wanted a ceremony to signify their commitment to each other, but Ariane and Adam decided not to be legally married. Based in Queensland, Australia, they decided they didn’t want to be man and wife until same sex marriage was recognised by their country. 

“We really wanted to respect the ceremony of showing our love and commitment in front of our friends and family”, they said, “so we took seriously the ritual of the ceremony but then after that… It was party time. The ceremony was officiated by our dear friend Alan at The Gardens Club. We wrote our own vows and Alan wrote the script for the ceremony.”

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Attention shoe-addicts! I’ve got something today that you are not going to want to miss. If you’re struggling with finding the perfect wedding shoes, and you’re bored of seeing the same old options everywhere, how about having something completely one-of-a-kind created just for you!?

Gemma Kenward hand-paints beautiful shoes, making them perfect for alternative brides that want something truly unique on their feet as they saunter down the aisle. The only design limitation is your imagination! Gemma works with every style of shoe imaginable, so whether you’d like to rock a pair of elegant courts, funky boots, or go super comfy and casual with a pair of Converse or Toms, she’s got you covered!

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I’ve had October 21st 2015 noted in my diary for a while now… why? Because it’s Back to the Future day! Yep, today is the actual day that Marty goes forward to in Back to the Future Part 2. Where the hell my flying cars at?

The Back to the Future series are my favourite movies of ALL TIME. One of the first gifts Gareth ever bought me was a diecast Delorean, the recessional song at our wedding was The Power of Love and I’m pretty sure can quote all three movies word for word.

So of course I couldn’t let this momentous day go by without a nod to the greatest movies ever made. Here are 15 awesome BTTF inspired wedding ideas from me to you!

You’ve got to start with a creative way to announce your engagement

via E-online

Followed by a Delorean engagement shoot

When this baby hits 88MPH…

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When I published an article 18 months ago about how I rescued my bleach ravaged hair, I never knew it would be so popular! In fact it still gets traffic and comments every single day from people struggling to fix what constant bleaching has done to their tresses. While everything I wrote in that post still stands, I have discovered a few new wonder-products recently so I thought it was high time for an update.

The three most common gripes with dyed hair seems to be damage, colour fade and thinning, and I’m pleased as punch to tell you that I’ve found ways to combat all of these problems. I kid you not!

If your hair is damaged: Olaplex

I don’t think I can properly express how amazing this miracle product is. And yes I said MIRACLE. From the first treatment my hair felt AMAZING, like virgin hair. For serrrrrrrrrrious.

Olaplex is a salon product meaning you need to go to a hairdressers that carries it to have it done. While I have heard of people buying it online (but not from Olaplex directly) and doing it themselves at home, this is not something I would ever recommend. Ever since Kim Kardashian reportedly used it to go from dark brunette to bright blonde, the demand and publicity around this product has been astronomical, and with that comes a slew of knock offs. That’s not to say that every bottle of the stuff on Amazon is fake, but you just never know.

So how does it work? OK let’s get a bit sciency for a second. According to their website,

“Olaplex is an additive that eliminates the bad reaction oxygen has with broken sulphite bonds in chemically treated hair that leads to breakage. For hair that has been compromised chemically or thermally, this should be your first step. The Bond Multiplying System can be used as a reset button for your client’s hair and by doing so allows you to rebuild the strength, structure and integrity to the point where a colour or chemical service would then be feasible once again. This treatment may be done before and/or after a chemical service and may be applied in the salon once a week or more. Compatible with all hair types from virgin to extremely compromised chemically treated hair.”

In layman’s terms this means that when Olaplex is added to the bleach, it not only protects your locks from being further damaged by the process, but it also repairs the already broken disulfide bonds (which are what give our hair its elasticity and strength) in the hair. My hair now feels as healthy and silky as was before it ever saw any bleach (not that I can really remember back that far, mind!)

Olaplex is a three-step process. Your colourist adds No. 1 to the bleach before they put it on your hair and then washes through No. 2 after the bleach/ colour is rinsed. You then take No. 3 home with you and use it once a week for at least 10 minutes on unwashed, wet hair (so wet your hair, apply it, leave for at least 10 minutes, rinse and then wash hair as normal).

Olaplex isn’t cheap. The treatment on hair my length was £50 (its cheaper if your hair is shorter and more expensive if its longer or they have to use more product) on top of the usual cost of having my hair dyed, and a 100ml bottle of No. 3 to take away was £37. I know this sounds like an expensive fad but believe me IT IS NOT. The instant my hairdresser used Olaplex on my hair it felt softer, smoother and unbelievably silky – and it’s stayed like that ever since!

If you’re interested in trying it for yourself, I get my hair done by Elbie at Blue Mango Salon in London. Just check out this before and after if you still don’t believe just how amazing it is!

If your colour fades too quickly: oVertone

I discovered oVertone a few months ago and I have been OB-SESSED ever since. They offer a range of colour depositing conditioners in unnatural colours (red, blue, teal, pink, purple, orange, yellow, green, silver) that are made to fight the fade.

For the past eight or so years I have been washing my hair in cold water (to fight fading) and having to re-dye it every couple of weeks. Not fun. So when I found out I could just use this conditioner every day and my hair colour would never fade, I was totally sold!

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There were parts of Becky and Stewart’s wedding that were traditional – the grand manor house, the toastmaster, the order of the day, and others that couldn’t have been more Rock n Roll. The bride wore an incredible blush pink wedding dress and veil, their portraits featured smoke bombs, and there were nods to their mutual love of music throughout. This wedding goes to prove that you can intertwine the wedding traditions that you like with the alternative elements that you crave and it will still totally work!

The day was held at Wrenbury Hall, Cheshire. “The inspiration for our wedding was our favourite artists”, said the bride. “Our wedding was also truly about us! My sister Hannah is a DIY Queen and she made the table plan themed around records and our favourite artists including the Chemical Brothers, David Bowie and Kasabian. We used vinyl LPs from a charity shop instead of a guest book and on the Blondie one we’d swapped Debbie Harry’s head with mine and the other heads with Stew!”

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