Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

Kat

Ilka & Mars’ Early 20th Century-Inspired Wedding

Kat

April 21, 2011

"Circa 1991, and like most 9 year old girls at the time, my dream wedding typically consisted of getting married in a castle, having a horse-drawn carriage at midnight and saying 'I Do' to Jason Priestly. So fast-forward 20 years...our castle was in busy Tooting Broadway, wedged in between a Mecca Bingo Hall and a McDonalds, with a KFC conveniently across the road. Our horse-drawn carriage was a local taxi, well beyond midnight. And Jason Priestly? He got bumped for my love and best friend, Mars. It was completely perfect for us. Sad to say, Brandon had been banished to the Peach Pit forever." I love Ilka & Mars already. How about you? Mar's proposed at the airport, just before Ilka was about to fly home to Australia, with her Grandmother's engagement ring. She explained, "So after a couple of years of living together and rarely talking 'seriously' about getting married, I was waiting in the busy security line at Heathrow, about to spend 3 weeks back home in Australia for a Christmas apart, when Mars popped the question. After unknowingly foiling an attempted romantic proposal during a holiday in New York a few months earlier, it was a perfect chance to catch me unawares while I was unsuccessfully trying to stuff the contents of my entire handbag into a tiny clear zip-lock bag, and rush off to board the plane. It was simple and just perfect. After a quick, teary goodbye and my grandmother's beautiful engagement ring now firmly on my finger, I was herded through security and onto the plane. Needless to say, the next 24hours consisted of me taking full advantage of the onboard trolley service, trying to come to terms with what had just happened!"
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Sandra & Colin’s Budget, DIY, Bicycle Ride Wedding

Kat

April 20, 2011

Sandra & Colin's were married on 10.10.10 at The Franklin House, a private mansion in Tucson, Az. Their wedding was a super budget affair and 99% DIY. The couple did it their way and Sandra even had her dog walk her down the aisle (after some family disagreements.) "Our wedding was 99% D.I.Y. and very low budget," the bride told me. "We did get our wedding cake as a gift made by Busy B's Bakery. Colin designed all the programs and invitations and printed them at Vistaprint. We used all biodegradable bamboo utensils (that were wrapped with recycled fabric napkins I made) and sugar cane plates we found online pretty inexpensive Green Party Goods. At the time I was teaching a recycled art class in a middle school. For one of the classes I had the students decorate the plates with edible markers."
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Teaser: A Sense of Culture – A Photography Exhibition for the Museum of Reading

Kat

April 20, 2011

Not that many people realise this but I'm from Reading, a town about 40 miles out of London. I've never really done that much 'stuff' in my home town as to be honest, pretty much everything happens in London and that's where about 90% of my contacts are. However when local photographer Neil Horne of Eye Imagine Photography called me and asked if I'd like to be included in an exhibition he was putting together for the Museum of Reading entitled 'A Sense of Culture', where he'd be photographing a selection of artists in the town...well I jumped at the chance. Hell, I went to this museum on primary school trips!
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Linsey & Wes’ Totally Rock n Roll Wedding

Kat

April 19, 2011

Linsey & Wes found their photographer Jessica Monnich through a feature on Rock n Roll Bride (yeeey!) so it's only right that it's come full circle and I now get to share their awesome wedding too. The wedding took place in February at Mercury Hall in Austin, Texas beginning with a beautiful ceremony in the gardens. "I was not a traditional bride in any sense (even down to the short dress), so I just kept looking for things that felt like us," bride Linsey told me. "We were always going after more of a feeling than a look, which made it hard, but in the end the feeling was achieved and everything just fell into place thanks to awesome friends and family. It was challenging with everyone else's opinions and being told things have to be done a certain way, but we threw that out the window a long time ago. Working on a budget that we put together from the beginning, we were also able to get more creative and decide what were the most important things for us on that day - friends/ family felt loved for and had fun and that we were able to enjoy ourselves."
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Laura & Ian’s Hollywood Glamour Wedding

Kat

April 19, 2011

Three week's ago photographer Annamarie Stepney was in Reading (where I live) so she popped by to say hello...to my cats. Yeah people never come to see me any more, it's all about the internet sensations that are Henry & Rachel! Anyway, as we walked Henry round the back garden on his lead (I kid you not) she was telling me all about the wedding she was shooting the next day....at my wedding venue...well in actual fact, what should have been my wedding venue. You see, as soon as Gareth & I got engaged, I knew I wanted to have our wedding at The Forbury Hotel. It's an amazing venue and I wanted it. Bad. But sad face for us, it was already booked on our day. However I am really excited to see how Laura & Ian's Rock n Roll wedding turned out at the venue that should have been mine!
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Rock n Roll Bride Party Report – Photo Booth Carnage

Kat

April 18, 2011

Deciding to have a photo booth at the Rock n Roll Bride Party was probably the most genius thing ever. I asked everyone to bring a prop and people really did go all out! From a customised uke to an inflatable pink wig... from gold hot pants to a laser cut 'It's my party and I'll Rock n Roll if I want to'... from a blow up pink flamingo to a parrot (!) I was so excited that people made such an effort. Lisa of Lisa Jane Photography was in charge of the booth-action, and I'm pretty sure she didn't stop taking photos all night! So without further ado, check out the hilarity that was the Rock n Roll Bride photo booth.
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Rock n Roll Bride Party Report – 14th April 2011, London

Kat

April 18, 2011

So now I've got a party report to write...Wow. Erm wow. Where do I begin with this baby huh?! SO much happened...and it's going to be hard to sum it all up in a few paragraphs but here goes... Last Thursday I hosted a party and invited anyone who reads this blog to come along. Over 500 of you applied for tickets and 200 lucky brides & grooms-to-be and wedding industry professionals were asked to come along. The idea being that everybody I know works so hard, whether that be with their businesses or planning their weddings, so I wanted to give everyone an excuse to take a night off, dress up, eat cupcakes and sweeties, drink cocktails and generally get a little bit silly. And we did. Oh we did. The day started with Gareth & I hopping on the train to London to meet the awesome Elbie Van Eeden (she got married in March - you saw her fabulous wedding on my blog right?) who did our hair and my make up. When we arrived, Elbie said she'd been up all night thinking of ideas for my tresses and did I was the rainbow back? Erm yes pleeease! This time she did a kind of 'dipped' effect, where she just added the extra colours to the bottom half of sections of my hair. We kept the styling relatively simple with a few curls to really show off the colours. I adore it.
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Hannah & Carlos’ Full Moon, Movie-Themed Fancy Dress Wedding

Kat

April 15, 2011

Hannah & Carlos' full moon/supermoon/autumn equinox/fancy dress/movie themed wedding rocks my world. I'm kind of blown away by the whole thing! The couple put so much love and attention in creating their perfect wedding that I didn't want to miss one detail...so, over to the bride... "We had a fancy dress wedding, the theme being movies. A big part of Carlos and my time together has been spent watching movies...we love them! We've shared many hours snuggled up together, going on journeys through film."
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Susan’s Paint The Dress Shoot

Kat

April 15, 2011

Susan wanted to get back into her wedding dress for a memorable photo shoot for her anniversary. When she married Jesse 10 years ago they had some trouble with their photographer (who, ahem, ended up in jail) so although they received some 4 x 6 prints, they didn't manage to get an album or any photo enlargements made. They were also pretty unhappy with the portraits of Susan from the images they did get, and none of them showed off her beautiful dress in all it's glory.
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Thursday Treats – 14th April 2011 (Party Time…Excellent!)

Kat

April 14, 2011

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 6 months, you can't have failed to notice that tonight is The Rock n Roll Bride PARRRTAAAY. Oh sweet baby Jesus (thanks for my new favourite non-cuss Jasmine. Gareth said I've been swearing too much recently...whoops.) Aaaaanyway, I am so excited. Nervous but bloody bloody excited. As you can imagine today I'm a little on the busy side organising party 'stuff' so they'll only be one post today...but it's a gooden and it means you get Thursday Treats a little earlier in the day than usual...woo-to-the-hoo!
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Stop the Press – NEW Vivienne Westwood/Melissa Shoes!!!

Kat

April 13, 2011

I received a VERY exciting email in my inbox this morning and thought it was worth interrupting our regularly scheduled programming for - especially as I've had countless messages recently from many of of you that have been struggling to get your hands on the original white & red Vivienne Westwood/Melissa Lady Dragon heart shoes. And the all exciting news is that they are BACK and revamped with a brand new super shiny, metallic finish. Oh be still me beating heart!
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Rock n Roll Bride TV – Rock n Roll Bride meets Ali Lovegrove ~ Part 2 of 4: The First Few Months of Your Blog

Kat

April 13, 2011

First off, huge thanks for all the positive feedback on last week's 'blogging basics' video. I am so pleased that so many of you found it interesting and useful. In this second part of our four-part mini series, photographer Ali Lovegrove and I discuss what to do in the first few months that your blog is up and running. Big thanks to Richard of FX Films for filming this for us. If you have your own business and would like to create your own promotion videos, I can't recommend his services enough!
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Elbie & Derek’s Opulent & Eclectic DIY Wedding

Kat

April 12, 2011

I love Elbie... love love love! She is the hair & make up genius behind many of my photo shoots, including the Mad Hatter Beach Shoot, the Tattoo Revolution magazine shoot and my rainbow hair for the Big Fat Wedding Blogger's Photo Shoot! Elbie is one hell of a cool chick, so when I heard the she was getting married in South Africa this March I pretty much laid claim to blogging her wedding before she'd even had the chance to tell me anything about it!
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Mary & Sam’s Private Bay Wedding

Kat

April 12, 2011

Mary & Sam were married in a private bay in Picton, New Zealand. Their biggest challenge for their wedding was that they lovingly (and painstakingly) restored a 70 foot boat to transport their guests from the ceremony site to their reception at Herzog Winery! "Working to restore a non-functioning 70-foot launch so we could transport our guests was... well, it was Rock n Roll in fact that we had no sleep, too much to do, and had to call in our amazing family to bail us out! We tried to forget about the industry noise around weddings and instead focused on the fact it's just the thing that happens before you're married, so let's have a party focused on love instead."
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