Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

Kat

An Exclusive Lisa Redman Collection at Luella’s Boudoir

Kat

August 25, 2010

When photographer Nick Tucker sent me just one shot from this amazing shoot, I demanded straight away to see the rest. I had a sneaking suspicion that they would be awesome...and when it comes to things like this it would appear that I'm always right! The shoot was set up by Nick and Luella's Boudoir (fabulous vintage wedding boutique in Wimbledon, London) to showcase the dresses of one of the shop's favourite and most unique designers,Lisa Redman. I actually fell in love with a Lisa Redman dress myself when I saw some of her creations on the catwalk at Luella's Boudoir bridal event earlier this year (remember this gorgeous sparkly dress?) so I literally jumped at the chance to share these with you.
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An Elephant, Vegan & Love Themed Celebration

Kat

August 24, 2010

This elephant themed, vegan love-fest wedding makes me so happy! Abigail & Zak actually got married last October so this wedding was really a celebration of their love and partnership involving all their friends & family. "We wanted it to have a theme of elephants, loyalty, and compassion" they told me. !That's why we had the paintings of our parents there and also why our "favors" were gifts bought from heifer international (bees and trees) in our guests' honor. The most important part of our vision was that we were already married last October, so we didn't want to pretend this was something it wasn't. We wanted it to be a celebration of our partnership, and our friend who introduced us was our celebrant at the party. We did our vows in the past tense, and most importantly, we wrote and read our marriage manifesto about what partnership and marriage means to us."
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Dinner Love and the Quest for Soup – A Video Game Proposal

Kat

August 24, 2010

I saw Steffany & Anders engagement photographs and amazing (like, seriously amazing) proposal video on their photographer Emily's blog and instantly knew I had to feature them. These two are the actual cutest! Steffany told me the whole story... "My story is something like, "OHMYGOD he proposed and it was SO CUTE!" And then I cried. I still can't believe he went to so much trouble. I always assumed that when/if he proposed it would be at a restaurant (which makes sense because we both LOVE to eat!) but instead he enlisted the help of five of his friends and made me the most amazing and thoughtful game ever. The game actually has a name - Dinner Love and the Quest for Soup! It's named for my food blog, dinnerlove.com, and also for my love of SOUP! You can't really tell in the video, but he put so many pieces of us in that game."
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2010 Readers Survey Results

Kat

August 23, 2010

I've said this before but I'll say it again, thank you SO MUCH to everyone that took the time to fill in the 2010 Rock n Roll Bride readers survey. As always, I was blown away by your responses and even though some of the things brought up were ideas I'd already thought of and changes I already wanted to make, a lot of new thoughts and criticisms where also expressed. Hard to read sometimes, but necessary! I certainly have a lot of work to be getting on with (well, my poor web-designing husband does!) but rest assured that I will be making some really positive changes to the site as soon as physically possible.
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A Vintage Shoot with Lucy Ledger Designs

Kat

August 23, 2010

If you're a regular reader of Rock n Roll Bride I'm sure you'll already be aware of the amazing Emma Case (she shot the image that I'm currently using as my blog header/my 'Punk Rock n Roll Bride' shoot) and Lucy Ledger Designs. Lucy makes gorgeously creative vintage-inspired stationary (I've also been lucky enough to feature her before as well as meet her in actual real life!) After Lucy saw Emma's work on Rock n Roll Bride she got in touch asking if they could get together to do a promotional shoot for her vintage stationary company. Hello!? Match made in vintage Rock n Roll heaven or what!?
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How to…Look & Feel Natural in Front of the Camera

Kat

August 21, 2010

I hope you've been enjoying our much more frequent visits to the 'How to...' series. After reading your survey responses (full report to come soon) it was one of the things that was most requested. This week I asked Carina Romano of the fabulous Love Me Do Photography (based in Philadelphia) to address the subject that a lot of brides feel nervous about - how they're going to look in their wedding pictures. Don't forget, I love hearing from you all so if you have any burning questions about anything wedding, business or blogging related be sure to shoot me an email and either myself or one of my carefully selected army of amazing guest posters will try and help out.
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Photography Friday – Henry & Rachel

Kat

August 20, 2010

Encouraged by a lot of your comments this week saying you wanted to see more of my photographs (I've just bought myself an SLR - Canon 500d to be exact - to play with) I've come up with a new feature. Actually, I'd like to credit this new feature to Henry & Rachel (my Maine Coons.) While I was taking some photographs of them, I wondered how I could share them with you all on the blog - which is clearly a wedding blog - without you all questioning my sanity.
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A Quirky, Vintage & Super Personal Wedding

Kat

August 20, 2010

You might remember Amy & Darren from their fabulous All the Fun of the Fair engagement session. I knew back then that their wedding would be a super stylish and quirky affair and they sure haven't disappointed. I am SO EXCITED to share these with you. The wedding took place at a private estate which belongs to Amy's Godfather called Ipley Manor in Marchwood, Hampshire. The couple actually got engaged at the same venue 18 months earlier when Darren popped the question at Amy's birthday party in front of all their friends & family. He snuck the proposal into a game they were playing! On the day Amy wore a beautiful one off Temperley dress while Darren wore a suit from Reiss with vintage bow tie and hankie. Amy arrived in a vintage Mustang driven by her father and they were married in Amy's godfather's new pool room where an oak floor was laid over the pool itself. Amy's aunt made the cake and their tables were named after their favourite haunts in London and they had written a potted history of why for each table to make everything really personal.
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Multi-Coloured Seaside Fun

Kat

August 20, 2010

Whitstable is such a little gem of a place for photo shoots. As most of you will know, my last Rock n Roll Bride photo shoot took place there but it would appear that Peri & Ryan knew some really awesome locations to visit that we never found. I mean just check out the multi-coloured beach hut. I love. The couple, who live in the area (hence knowing all the best places to go!) are having a winter wedding in December so wanted to make sure they cashed in on a gorgeous summer engagement shoot. "It also happened to be the Whitstable Regatta that Saturday so we decided to do the shoot in the evening to catch the fireworks" their photographer Shell told me. "It's the best time of the day really as we got some gorgeous light, beautiful sunset and some fish and chips whilst watching the fireworks! Their nicknames for each other are muffin and cupcake hence the chalk board shots - I wanted to have a fun, whimsical feel to the shoot as they are a cute young couple, and their wedding is going to be 50s polka dots which I think will have a similar feel."
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A Focus on Flowers – A Handmade Californian Wedding

Kat

August 19, 2010

You love the diy weddings don't you? Yeah me too so here's another gem for you. John & Rose did everything themselves. They also looked for ideas on how to save money on pretty much everything. Rose wore a gorgeous second hand Nicole Miller dress which she found online as well as hand making all the flower arrangements and her bouquet (the bridesmaids also made their own bouquets.) Rose's parents made the cake and her brother made the stand, they had friends who made the desserts. Rose kept her look unfussy with sandals and a bracelet that she already owned and a flower halo which she made herself from flowers from her parents' back garden.
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“I ♥ LA” – Angel & Lilly’s Save the Date Video

Kat

August 19, 2010

I don't post that many videos on their own as I'll be honest, it takes a pretty damn good video to keep my attention for more than a few seconds. Angel & Lilly's Save the Date however is in a whole other league of radness. I love them! The couple, who made their own video are already married in their eyes (although legally they are 'domestic partners' - stupid Californian same sex marriage laws) as last October the two of them headed down to city hall to do the paperwork followed by an In-N-Out burger!
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How to…Have a Perfectly Imperfect Life

Kat

August 18, 2010

I live and I breathe Rock n Roll Bride. It is my life. It is my biggest passion. It is my obsession. I know from reading the hundreds of submissions and emails I receive from you all that you live and breathe it too. You ‘get’ it. You believe in it and you love the idea of it. But you know what, I have a confession. I sometimes feel like a fraud. If you’re anything like me, you’ll read a lot of blogs religiously. You’ll pour over the beautiful people and their stunning weddings on Style Me Pretty, their effortlessly cool homes on Design Sponge and their awesomely unique design and style ideas on Etsy. We love to read these sites for ‘inspiration’ but secretly, don’t they make us feel a little bit like a failure? Do you ever read blogs and think “I’m not beautiful enough”? Do you ever wish you had more to spend on your wedding? Do you ever wish you lived in one of those achingly cool, funky and stylish apartments?
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“It’s Not Easy Being Green” – A Beautifully Sustainable British Countryside Wedding

Kat

August 18, 2010

James & Holly had a beautiful countryside wedding at the couple's home, Newhouse Farm in Cornwall which they share with James' family . The couple, who star in the TV series, It's Not Easy Being Green, wanted a homespun, eco style wedding that truly reflected them as a couple and a family. In keeping with their 'green' theme the couple arrived at the church on shire horses, which when they're not glammed up for weddings are actually used to plough fields. "Our aim was to have as 'green' a wedding as possible. We wanted to have our reception at the place that had brought us together, Newhouse Farm" they told me. "Certain steps towards a green wedding were fairly straight-forward: we wanted to use only local, seasonal produce as well as British grown, seasonal flowers. Our venue, Newhouse Farm, is powered completely by solar power, a couple of wind turbines and a waterwheel, as well as using only water from our own natural spring. We even had a compost loo and a compost urinal for our guests to use! Green transport was also easy to achieve, after all what could be more romantic than using a pair of beautiful Shire horses to transport us to the reception. (Actually this was a bit of an extravagance as the church was only 100 metres from the venue... our guests simply walked!!)"
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Megan & Kevin’s Budget Conscious, Family Friendly, DIY Heavy Day

Kat

August 17, 2010

You might remember Megan from her Historic Firehouse Bridals that I featured a few weeks ago. I loved them so when her photographer Erica of Turner Creative Photography sent me the photographs of her and Kevin's wedding, I couldn't wait to share them on these pages. Even more so in fact when I found out their day was an all-out budget diy fest - one of my favourite types of weddings! I also knew that Megan hadn't worn her actual wedding dress for her bridal shoot so I couldn't wait to see what she's chosen too.
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