Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

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DIY Tutorial: T-Shirt Bunting

Kat

May 26, 2012

Bunting is still an incredibly popular decor idea for weddings this year, so I thought a super simple and quick DIY tutorial would probably help a lot of you out! Thank you to blog reader Erin for putting this together for us. You can see more of her DIY ideas over on her own blog Little Red Riding Hood. If you are doing DIY projects for your own wedding and fancy submitting a tutorial idea, just drop me an email with a brief outline and some photos and we can chat! OK, over to Erin...(nice feather boa hat by the way!) I grew up in country Victoria, but moved to inner bayside Melbourne to be with my partner after returning from some amazing adventures living overseas. In everyday life, I work as a five-star hotel sales executive and event manager. This sounds glamorous, but mostly consists of lists and finding the right length trestle table (usually at 5:30pm on a Friday…) When I'm not riding my vintage bike or sipping third-wave coffee with the hipsters in South Melbourne, I like to garden and read. I also like to bake and craft, but sometimes these things don't work so well for me - I recently worked out that I can excuse these "experiments" by blogging them!
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A Homemade Tipi Wedding in Wales: Nathan & Laura

Kat

May 25, 2012

When I get wedding submissions like Nathan & Laura's I'm literally bursting at the seams to get them published. So sometimes I sneakily share a picture or two on my facebook page. The shot I shared of Nathan's reaction when seeing his bride walking down the aisle totally encompassed this awesome wedding. And it would appear you guys loved it too - over 200 likes and I didn't even show you the stunning bride! Well the wait is over my friends, I'm sure you'll agree it was worth it and that his face was 100% justified. Just look at her!
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A Quirky Brazilian Wedding Planned in Just Two Months: Juliana & Tomas

Kat

May 24, 2012

Organised in just two months, Juliana & Tomas' wedding was held in Brazil on the very date that they first met. The bride explains, "Tomas & I met two years ago through a mutual friend. At that time, Tomas lived in New York and I lived in Sao Paulo. In December 2009, Tomas went to Brazil to work and our friend invited him to spend New Year's Eve in a house I'd rented at the beach. We spent 6 days together and, two months later, we met again, but this time in New York. We started a long-distance relationship, which lasted just 4 months, because I decided to come to New York. My plan was to spend a season in New York, study and invest in our relationship. Back then, we were very uncertain about our relationship's future, but now we have no doubt we made the best decision."
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An Upcycled Ceremony in the Park: Julian & Carolyn

Kat

May 18, 2012

Some of you may recognise Julian & Carolyn as I featured their 'registration of marriage ceremony', a Malaysian tradition, way back in December 2010! Well since then, the couple have been planning the rest of their wedding celebration - an outdoor party held at Kiara Jungle Park in Kuala Lumpur. "For the ceremony itself, we wanted a really cute/funny entrance," Carolyn began. "Our first ideas was to have a few of our friends ride in with their Harley's and then my Dad & I would zip right in with a Vespa and cute 'beep, beep'! Unfortunately (well, fortunately on hindsight) the Vespa we borrowed was giving us some problems, so we didn't go on with the plan... but my friends still came with 4 white Harley's and so I hopped onto to the back and that was my grand entrance!"
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A Vintage Tea Party Wedding: Chloe & Emma

Kat

May 18, 2012

After a New Year's Eve proposal ("not at midnight, we're not that cheesy!") Chloe & Emma set to planning their tea party wedding for the end of March. Being two girls, they knew their wedding would stand out and they wanted that as well as to put their own stamp on their day. As Chloe explained "Obviously as two girls getting married our wedding was always going to be a bit different. People kept on asking which one of us was going to wear the suit but we were both determined to be complete princesses on the day. We knew we wanted a vintage tea party wedding and we looked at lots of different ways to achieve it as we had a tight budget. In the end my mum who found Jam and Tea, who provided the tea & cake catering, online (she is an expert Googler) and the rest of the wedding fell into place from there."
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DIY Tutorial: Scratchcard Wedding Invitations

Kat

May 12, 2012

Hi Rock n Roll Bride readers! My name is Michelle and I am marrying Dan this summer in a garden in Scotland (where he proposed in fact!) and we are doing almost everything ourselves. Partly this is because we are trying to save money (more to spend on food and drinks!) and also because getting married is a great excuse to do all sorts of crafty things you wouldn't normally have budget to do! We made a stop-motion video for the save the date (so. much. fun.) but then wanted to send a physical postcard for the actual invite so people have something to keep. I came up with an idea for a scratch-off card - like a lottery ticket - with the prize being the details of our wedding! Dan got totally behind the idea and did most of the fiddly tasks (including cutting out almost a hundred little plastic hearts). We sent them out last week and our guests love them. I've put together a little tutorial for how to make the cards - they were lots of fun to make and came out looking quite professional-looking!
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DIY Tutorial: Paper Cut Eyelashes

Kat

May 5, 2012

If like me you've been swooning over those paper eyelashes but couldn't quite bring yourself to spend £20 on what is essentially a teeny weeny piece of well...paper...behold, I have these DIY tutorial for you! Blogger and crafting expert Cat Morley of crafty community Cut Out + Keep created this easy and awesome step by step guide and I'm thrilled to share it today. I look forward to seeing some of your fluttering away with these soon!
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A Handmade Florida Wedding : Mike & Melissa

Kat

May 1, 2012

Working in the music industry it was important to Mike & Melissa that their wedding suited their lifestyle and sensibilities and 1903 Hontoon, a vacation property in Deland Florida, turned out to be the perfect place. "Mike is a local musician and recently I have decided to leave my job and become his manager!" began the bride. "We have been together for almost 4 years now and over the next two we will be setting up our lives to hit the road indefinitely until we find the best place to live! We are too hot here in Florida and always long to be in the mountains. We changed our wedding date 3 times just so that we could have it at this venue, because as far as Florida goes it was pretty hard to find a place that really spoke of who we are. We chose 1903 Hontoon, a vacation property that used to be an old boat & motor repair shot. It has an awesome feel to it. Our wedding is hardcore DIY & hand made - from 1,000 paper cranes to the tablecloths to the bridesmaid dresses and jewelry. I'm extremely crafty so I have been a non-stop force of productivity in creating everything I possibly can for this day. With that being said it is REALLY important to us to have our wedding captured because every detail is so dear to our hearts! The two of us never imagined that we would get married but, love eventually finds you and before we left for our travels it was important to us to share this bond and experience with our families."
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DIY Tutorial: Cinemagraphs Using Photoshop

Kat

April 28, 2012

I've been obsessing over cinemagraphs for ages - in essence they are still images with a small isolated section that moves. When you first see them they're quite confusing but totally entrancing! I've always wondered how they were made and how you can get essentially a still image to have bits of moving video within it but today (eeek) my questions have been answered. When I was sent this Photoshop tutorial by photographer Violet Short I literally gasped. Check out this cute one she made of her dog Marshmallow!
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A Picnic Wedding: Alex & Denise

Kat

April 23, 2012

The inspiration for Alex & Denise's Brighton wedding was for it to be "just like a big picnic". They used local suppliers (including the caterers who used local produce and supplied locally produced champagne) where possible and DIY'ed the rest! "Our inspiration was for it to be like a big picnic - although without having to sit on the floor!" Denise told me. "I found mini picnic baskets that were used as the centrepiece on each table. These were filled with chutney, pickles and breadsticks. We wanted the wedding to be really relaxed – I've always disliked formal situations. I also wanted there to be lots of colour. For the meal we had a blanket set up on the floor for any children that got bored of the adults. We also did a play area with a wigwam, dress up box and colouring books. Although on the day they mainly opted for running around the field like lunatics."
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DIY Tutorial: Twine Wrapped Letters

Kat

April 14, 2012

Hi there fellow RocknRollers! Some of you may already know me from www.cabinetsofcuriosity.co.uk but for those that don't, I thought I'd share some pearls of wisdom with you. My name is Holly and my business Cabinets of Curiosity which specialises in eclectic, event styling including handmade stationery & decorations. Kat featured my own wedding which took place last October and there were a lot of people asking about the twine wrapped letters on my guest book table. So, I thought I'd make a little tutorial for those of you out there who would like to have a go! If you would like some initials or lettering for your big day but don't have the creative fingers, please email my site with your requirements! Big thanks to Kat and thanks for looking!
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A DIY Church Hall Wedding: Zoe & Richard

Kat

April 11, 2012

Sometimes I see a wedding and I literally can't wait to learn more about it and (hopefully if the photographer and couple agree) write it up to share it with you lot too. Luckily for me, in this instance both parties were more than thrilled to share this wedding with us today, particularly because newlyweds Zoe & Richard found wedding photographer Joanna Millington on this very wedding blog. Hurrah! Their DIY, family-central wedding was held at Christ Church in St Albans. "When we were first engaged I asked Richard if he knew where he wanted to get married," Zoe explained. "He said he didn’t want to get married anywhere but Christ Church St Albans. It was my childhood church on the estate where I grew up and where Richard and I went to school. We knew it wasn’t exactly the idyllic wedding venue – a flat-roofed, slightly tired and drab looking carpeted church with very green curtains – but it was home. We had our reception in the same place. Luckily they had just built a shiny new hall attached to the old church building, which was very handy. No one (apart from us) had to venture out into the rain!"
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A Low Key, Family-Centric Wedding with a Bowling After Party: Daniel & Zara

Kat

April 5, 2012

Daniel & Zara wanted a really low key wedding that focussed on family, friends, celebration and laughter. The ceremony was held at Camden Town Hall (where the bride's parents were married 35 years earlier). The reception kicked off with drinks at The Gilbert Scott or Cider Tap (the guests went to either or both!) and finally Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes. "Over several bottles of wine on holiday last summer we drew up lists of things we did and didn't want as part of the day," Zara told me "Over-formality was a big no-no and fun was a big yes! We fell in love with the Kingpin Suite at Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes as soon as we saw it so that became our after party venue. It was as close as we could get to running off to Vegas without sacrificing having our friends and families there. Dan and I are both terrible at bowling, but he did propose outside a bowling alley (with a ring in a packet of hula hoops) just before we went in for a game - so it all seemed to fit into place. We managed to keep the reception venue a secret from guests until they turned up. No-one had a clue and it was brilliant for Dan and I to greet people with massive surprised smiles on their faces."
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A ‘US Meets UK’ Rock n Roll Wedding: Aaron & Melanie

Kat

April 3, 2012

This is unadulterated Rock n Roll Bride gold and I'm thrilled to share it with you today. The couple, who met in San Francisco while Melanie was there on holiday, were married at the end of January at Old Marylebone Town Hall, London. "We met whilst out dancing at a rockabilly club called the Jay n Bee, and whilst there was instant attraction, I was only on a two week holiday so nothing really happened," Melanie told me. "However, I returned to the USA a few months later for Las Vegas and a three month stay in San Francisco, and that's when we started dating. We continued travelling between San Francisco and London, and got engaged on our 8 month anniversary (which was also Christmas Eve) whilst out dancing at the Southbank Centre in London. We had originally planned to get married in SF, but one sunny day last October, we were laying in the garden here in London, and I said to Aaron 'We should get married in London...in January!' and so we planned our wedding in just over three and a half months!"
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