Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

Beach

Chi Chi Revolver’s Tattooed Bridal Shoot

Kat

March 31, 2011

"I was really inspired reading the winning entry to your Knot Couture dress competition recently," photographer Bethan of Haywood Jones Photography told me. "It was hard to picture how it would feel to be made so uncomfortable in a shop who were clearly disapproving of you, thinking we live in a properly modern society (!) until it happened to me last weekend (not because I have beautiful body art sadly, but much more because I was dressed a bit scruffily and went into a very posh art shop. They actually got another member of security to stand in the shop while me and my friend walked around!!) It suddenly became clear that you really can't judge a book by its cover and that even though the *mainstream* wedding industry is becoming more accepting of the *alternative* side of peoples wedding creativity and gorgeousness, there are still many blinkered people out there who wont look past stereotypes and make you feel less than worthy of their attention."
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Ashley & Jen’s February Beach Wedding

Kat

March 1, 2011

Ashley & Jen were married in the beach at Boesmanland in Langebaan South Africa just last week (gotta love that SA weather huh!?) "Ashley is a surfer so it was inevitable we have the wedding on the beach!" newlywed Jen told me. "We wanted the day to reflect our fun and outgoing personalities. My walking down the aisle song was “White Wedding” by the legendary Billy Idol! Ash and I are the best of friends, we enjoy every minute we spend together and really wanted this to be reflected on the day. We didn’t do any of the traditional things like cut the cake, throw a garter or bouquet (this uses up very important dancing time!) and our guest book was a custom made surf board made by the awesome Ian from Blank Boards. Most of the details were made by ourselves which we really enjoyed as it added our personal touch to the day! I didn’t want flowers, how sad that they are beautiful and fresh the 1 day and dead the next? My bouquet was inspired to my beautiful fur-kid, Holly, who passed away, rest in peace Mommy’s baby! I religiously read wedding blogs for a year to get loads of ideas but add our own twist, thank goodness for the world wide web, especially the rocking Kat at Rock n Roll Bride!"
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Lisa & Theis’ Intimate Malibu Pier Wedding

Kat

February 15, 2011

I am a huge Feather Love Photography fan…HUGE. So when photographer Noa emailed me last week asking if I’d like to feature her newest wedding – I didn’t even have to look at the images to know that I would. Then, when she informed me that this intimate waterside wedding included a bride wearing an incredible vintage hat…complete with birds AND a vintage green veil – well as you can imagine, I practically squealed with excitement.
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Rosa & Doug’s 1960′s Hawaiian Holiday Wedding

Kat

February 7, 2011

Although vintage inspired weddings are exceptionally popular, the 1960's is an era I don't see replicated as often as I'd like. However this all changed when Rosa & Doug's incredibe wedding landed on my desk. I swooned, I let out a little squeal and I emailed them back right away saying "yeah baby!" The wedding took place at Don the Beachcomber, a bar on Huntington Beach, CA. Rosa wore a custom dress by Dolly Couture, made especially for her and inspired by a genuine vintage dress pattern she'd seen in a 1963 copy of Modern Bride. The bride's accessories and jewellery were all vintage and mostly found on eBay.
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Olga & Jo’s Two Day Russian/British Fusion Wedding

Kat

February 2, 2011

Olga & Jo's Rye wedding makes me super happy! I chatted to the bride all about it - their style ideas and how they integrated both their cultures, Russian and English, into their super cute wedding. She explained, "As soon as Jo and I had moved to Brighton, we knew we wanted to mark our wedding day by celebrating it by the beach. It is a Russian tradition to celebrate a wedding over two days so that with family and friends, and their children, there can be one formal and one informal day. With my family being from Russia we wanted to keep to this tradition and felt an English seaside was perfect for catering for both days and the number of people who would be travelling far for the occasion." "Having searched unsuccessfully in Brighton for our perfect location, we stumbled across The Place At The Beach Hotel in Camber Sands which looked just right. Having visited the venue and seen the beach across the road, the accommodation for our families and friends and a spacious garden with a BBQ, we knew it had everything we wanted for our two days."
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Olga & Jo’s Epic Brighton Engagement Shoot

Kat

February 2, 2011

I've got an epic double bubble of a feature today - Olga & Jo's engagement session in Brighton, followed by their gorgeous Rye wedding later today. The Russian couple wanted their pre-wedding shoot to take place in Brighton as it held special significance to their relationship. The pair moved to the beach resort town in April last year and a week later Jo proposed right on the beach! "My engagement ring was hand made by the family friend jeweller and it is made of platinum with rhodium plating to make it look dark and diamonds," Olga told me. "We had my grandparents came to stay with us so we had a photo session together after having a breakfast at our favorite Bill's cafe and store in Brighton. I was wearing the Eley Kishimoto skirt and top and Jo was wearing Folk cardigan."
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Casey & Richard’s Sunny, Seaside, Sailor Wedding

Kat

December 3, 2010

My original plan today was to head out into my garden and take some snowy snaps for Photography Friday...however as I stared blankly through my kitchen window I had second thoughts and realised that it's flippin' COLD out there and you know what!? I'd rather stay here, wrapped in my slanket (blanket with sleeves - oh yes that is Rock n Roll!) For some further justification, I've got an amazingly SUNNY wedding from South Africa to share instead. This should warm your cockles...
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Lauren & Tim’s DIY, Budget-Friendly Seaside Wedding

Kat

November 12, 2010

"We both decided that although we wanted our wedding to be amazing, we weren't going to spend a stupid amount of money on it," explained bride Lauren when I asked her about her big day. "We weren't prepared to pay more just because it was labelled as a "wedding product". Plus, most of the wedding-related stuff that's available isn't really "us". I bypassed the usual wedding dress shops and went straight to the high street, and found everything exactly as I wanted at a price I was willing to pay. Tim wore a suit he already had from Next because none of the hire places had slim fitting suits. We wanted invitations with skulls and studs and splattery writing but didn't want to pay a professional to design and make them for us, so I did it."
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Jessica & Forbes’ Retro Rockabilly Brighton Wedding

Kat

November 3, 2010

Brighton was the location for Jessica & Forbes' rockabilly wedding this summer. They chose May 1st as their date as it was Jessica's late Grandmother's birthday and having it on this day was their way of inviting her to the wedding. All the guests were invited to dress up in their finest retro get-up," Absolutely everyone joined in," the bride told me, "We were so convincing a hotel guest asked if we were a convention!"
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Emma & Morgan’s Wonderfully Sustainable & Crafty Welsh Wedding

Kat

October 5, 2010

Emma & Morgan's Welsh wedding has really put a smile on my face today. Everything about the day was personal, was sustainable and was perfect for them. The couple got married at The Hive and Ice Cream parlour in Aberaeron. They actually had two ceremonies through the course for the day. Firstly a smaller and more personal ceremony at The Hive, joined by just close family and friends. Then, once they got to the reception, they had a second ceremony amongst all 120 of friends. Their DIY heavy reception was held in a marquee in "Charlie's Field" that looked out across New Quay Harbour, Wales - the exact spot that Morgan had proposed!
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Lisa & Tyrone’s Windy Wedding

Kat

September 28, 2010

Lisa & Tyrone got married on the South Coast of Kwa Zulu Natal in South Africa. Their bridesmaid and photographer, Jacki Bruniquel, told me the whole story. "Their wedding was a day of such love and celebration. Lis not just my sister she is one of my best friends and Ty is not just my brother in law he has been in the best friend category for long time now. Tyrone happens to be a really good photographer as well! I love them both to absolute bits and pieces and really wish i could just do their whole day all over again."
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Best of Blogs – Issue 12 ~ Mad Hatter Rock n Roll Bride & The Power of Blog Networking

Kat

September 6, 2010

When I realised this month's issue of Photo Pro Magazine would be the twelfth featuring little old me I got all contemplative. Wow, I've been writing for this awesome photography magazine for over a year - not only where has the time gone, but seriously how much has changed in that time!? Lots I tell you! I wanted to make this article sort of a 'round up' style feature - i.e. what have I learnt over this past 12 months and how have I put it into practice. One of the things I've totally loved (and I think most of you have enjoyed seeing) are my photo shoots. I also wanted to give an almighty shout out to the girls involved in this epic shoot with the article too.
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Wind, Hair & Rock n Roll

Kat

August 31, 2010

"Just another hot and windy Sunday afternoon in Tracy, CA" began photographer Nirav. "Showing Matt & Lynnae's love for each other meant that they had to feel extremely comfortable in their location and with me so I decided to start the session at a place that they had spent a lot of time together and had lots of character which was Matt's mother's home/farm. The home included stables, a farm house, and several critters of all sorts. We took several shots there and once things felt right we moved out to the hills of Tracy with the intention of shooting with the giant windmills in the background. When we got, the security patrol was there to make sure those shots were not going to happen. The amount of wind up on hill was tremendous and I loved the movement of hair so we took the remainder of the shots there with a very simple backdrop. My favorite shots are ones that play on light and shadows. I wanted at least one dramatic silhouette shot which is when I spotted the power lines. After that, we all headed back to house and passed out from heat exhaustion."
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Nathan & Marianna’s DIY-Fabulous New York Wedding

Kat

August 30, 2010

Oooh I am so excited about Nathan & Marianna's diy-fabulous New York wedding (although this is doing nothing to quench my desire to sign 2 weeks off and jet off to NYC!) The couple got married at St. Luke's Church and then had their reception at Sea Cliff Yacht Club. "Both are in the small one square mile town (22 miles from NYC) where I grew up in Long Island, NY" Marianna told me. The couple only splurged on the things that really mattered to them - one of them being the band that played their reception "This was probably the best splurge (and only) of the wedding. I highly recommend getting a live band, we had a great fun dancing ALL night long" the bride explained. "I thought we were just going to go the ipod shuffle route, but was convinced that the band makes the party and to have one. It was great advice, and is probably (most definitely) true."
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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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A Cotton Candy Sweet, Truly Scrumptious Brighton Wedding

Kat

August 5, 2010

Oh. My. Gaaaawd! You are going to go utterly c-c-craaaazy for Ant & Clare's way-beyond-anything-I-have-ever-seen-awesome wedding. The pair went down to Brighton to have a personal ceremony with just the two of them. They didn't have a reception, instead opting for a fabulous photo shoot around the town with their photographer Jacqui McSweeney. This is yet another wedding to back my theory that 'blog-worthy' details are not 'all that'. Just grab yourself an wicked dress, customise yourself some shoes and get hitched in perfect Rock n Roll style! Prepare to be inspired...
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