Strad
April 15, 2018
Laura and Chris wanted to create a warm wedding that they knew all their guests would love, and their autumnal Scottish celebration was just that. They wanted lots of red, orange and yellow, and they had floral pumpkins, fairy lights and leaves everywhere. They served a hog roast for the meal and had lots of candles in their architecturally stunning venue. It ended up a bit Hogwarts-like, in a wonderful way!Read more...
Carly Turner
November 23, 2015
A second-hand dress, a home made felt flower bouquet and henna on her hands, Kate looked every bit the Rock n Roll princess when she married Nathan in September. "We both love vintage and historical things, so that influenced a lot of our decisions", she said. "I'm also really passionate about reusing and upcycling things and we both love animals, especially our little dog, Mustard."Read more...
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."Read more...
February 20, 2012
As the rest of you Rock n Roll Brides will be aware, there are certain age-old wedding traditions that we love and want to uphold, whereas others leave us looking a bit glassy-eyed. The beauty of the contemporary wedding is that we’re free to do away with the stuff that doesn’t make sense to us pretty much without question – for us, I naturally just assumed that we’d be forsaking the wedding favour. Now, I’ve only been to three weddings in my time and I received a wedding favour at just one of them – so you’ll forgive me for thinking that there was no real “meaning” or general substance to the idea. In fact, the tradition apparently dates back to as early as the 16th century, when wedding guests were given what is known as a bonbonniere – a small trinket box that held sugar cubes/confectionary. Sugar was then somewhat of a luxury, and to give it as a gift was indicatory of the bride and groom’s wealthy standing. As time went on and sugar became more of an affordable commodity, the tradition became popular with lower classes of bridal parties – and the rest, as they say, is history.Read more...
January 16, 2012
Now, even after seeing what treasures can be found if you look hard enough in the right places, you would be forgiven for presuming the following formula: Charity shops = tat … Because, quite frankly, quite a lot of the time it’s proven to be true. Whether you’re a tried & true charity shop scavenger or a recent disciple following this series, you’re sure to have had a “dud” run, and that can be disheartening. When you’re perusing for the fun of it it’s not so bad, but if you’re committed to the cause for the sake of your wedding it’s easy to get blindsided by the dud run and head home feeling dejected. This month I’d like to focus on spotting the potential in otherwise “useless” items: the tattered, the broken, and the not so shiny.Read more...
December 12, 2011
The last time we spoke, I was floating on the high of a relatively warm autumn down here in Brighton (I’m not kidding; I went swimming in the sea at the end of October). I’m sad to report that the temperature tables have now rightfully turned, and as a result I’ve been honing my beady eye in on stocking up my winter wardrobe to accommodate for these chillier months. Now, apart from being a little bit skint a lot of the time, it’s also worth considering that I have a Mother who is a dab hand with a needle and thread. This has meant that I've grown up understanding the value of clothes – I won’t breach onto designer territory just now, because that’s a whole different kettle of fish – but I will say that nine times out of ten I’ll step into a popular high street store and be blown away by the lack of quality for the relatively extortionate price tag. On more than one occasion I have been the victim of inexplicably frayed edges, missing buttons, and ripped seams, and altogether I find it quite disheartening. That said, I do like to buy my key pieces – jeans, plain t-shirts, jumpers, etc – from high street stores, because we can all wear these things differently. If I am ever conscious of looking like a clone, I would much rather go for second-hand.Read more...
December 5, 2011
James & Renee's eclectic thrift store explosion of a wedding was a real DIY effort from the couple and their friends & family. The bride, who couldn't stand the thought of a "boring, traditional wedding" explained her vision to me, "I could not stand the idea of a boring traditional wedding and reception with only two colors & every table was the same so I did everything my way. No one understood my vision until we set up the morning of the wedding & it all came together."Read more...
November 12, 2011
Roo is pretty awesome you know. So she called me last week with an idea for a blog post which I loved so much I asked if she'd like to make it a monthly addition to the blog. Which I'm pleased to report she did. As a bit of a charity shop/thrifting fiend, Roo's idea was so share some of her favourite charity shop finds as well as showing you how she is using said finds in her wedding. These posts are going to be the perfect antidote to a wedding industry that tries to convince you that you have to spend a bomb to have a beautiful wedding. All you really need is a little imagination and not a lot of cash. Hurrah!Read more...
January 6, 2011
When photographer Emma Case emails me with "eeek's!" and "wooohoo's!" when talking about her latest wedding I stand by and prepare myself for greatness. I am SO EXCITED to share Debs & Richie's wedding as not only did I blog their fabulous engagement session just before Christmas, but they used Rock n Roll Bride as inspiration for their awesome vintage wedding. "When Richie & I got engaged we did not have a clue what we wanted our wedding to be like, all we knew was that we wanted it quite small, with only close family and friends, good food, good music, and wanted it to reflect on us as a couple as much as possible. Our budget was small and we began to panic! How are we going to manage to create a wedding on such a small budget, that's when I turned to the Internet and found a number of wedding blogs (Rock n Roll Bride was one of the first) that gave me loads of inspiration on how different weddings can be, and how much of your own personality you can add to your special day! I became obsessed with the blogging world, I had bookmarked hundreds of images made folders upon folders and my inspiration began to expand."Read more...
November 3, 2010
Lola's bridal shoot revolved around the amazing skirt she wore. It was originally an 80's wedding dress that was found on sale at GoodWill for just $10! "Kayrene Kelley, artist and Leather Worker for Leather Girl Kelley, chopped off the top of the dress, dyed it gray, added some pickups and sent it to Arizona for us to work with," stylist Alexandra told me. "It was truly perfect because a full wedding dress would have been just too pretty for the gritty, Rock n Roll vision I was going for. Kayrene Kelley also sent us some wonderful leather goodies such as cuffs, a corset and a belt. From there, I styled Lola with all of her own clothes and accessories. A lace black bra, white tank top, gray tank top, gloves, earrings, layered necklaces, another corset and Lola's very own motorcycle vest were swapped in and out to take this bride through all of her different moods - some more feminine and some more casual. We kept the shoes simple and classic by using mostly black shoes owned by Lola."Read more...
June 5, 2010
Shannon & Os are both part-time photographers so their wedding photography was really important to them, they found Australian Annevi who came to LA to shoot their informal wedding. They decided to hold their ceremony and reception in Barbara’s at the Brewery, Los Angeles. The Old Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewery is known as the world's largest live-work art colony and offers amazing industrial landscapes and interesting backdrops. So, of course that's where they decided to shoot all their portraits. They decided to skip a lot of the traditional stuff they didn't have a lot of meaning to them so they didn't have any catering in favour of a more casual Sunday picnic, where the guests brought food, cake and dessert dishes to share. They also abandoned the idea to have flowers as they felt they didn't really suit them or their industrial setting. The bride wore a non traditional dress, a yellow number from Arthur S. Levine teamed with white converse. She used her jewellery as a way to represent the people that couldn't travel to be at their wedding - her bracelet was designed by her mother, her earrings and necklace were from her mother-in-law and an antique handkerchief from her great grandmother (price tag still on it: Famous and Barr 25 cents.) The groom dresses in a similarly non traditionalfashio - his jacket was from a charity shop, his shirt and jeans were items he already had in his wardrobe and his braces/suspenders where from his father in law. He also wore red PF Flyers "guaranteed to make a kid run faster and jump higher."Read more...
April 23, 2010
The majority of the weddings and photo shoots I feature are sent to be by photographers or recently married couples, however occasionally I'll come across a session so damn cool that I have to email the photographer right away and demand to feature it! This was one of those sessions. I'd followed William Massey's work through a group on flickr for a while now yet it was only now that I really stood up and took notice. Philip & Anela were one of those couples that I instantly knew would suit Rock n Roll Bride to a tee - punky, retro, vintage, quirky, cool...they suited all these words that I overuse everyday on my blog.Read more...
April 13, 2010
British photographer Dolly Photography may be new to the scene but she sure knows her own passions and one of her dreams is to raise awareness and support her local community. "I come from Barnsley, a very small Northern mining town that is still recovering from the depression of the pit closures" She told me "I have loads of work I'd love to submit, but this one is close to my heart. I did a Rock The Dress shoot last week for Barnsley Hospice, a charity that looks after terminal cancer patients. They have 8 charity shops and wanted to promote the fact that they sold second hand wedding dresses - some for as little as £40 a dress!" So, she asked her sister to model for her in a gorgeous £40 dress from Barnsley Hospice and carrying a vintage umbrella that she found on ebay for £10. Her hair piece was also a bargain at £10 in the sale from Diva Bridal, Barnsley.Read more...
August 4, 2009
I was in love with this wedding as soon as I laid eyes on it, I fell even more head over heels when I found the Bride's adorable vintage fashion blog, but I was completely besotted when I discovered she paid 75...yes 75 Cents for her dress! Tell me more!I hear you cry. Well the gorgeous Solanah explains her little treasure hunt: Tagging along to garage sales with Josh, Amy, and Oliver usually results in Legos and Star Wars picture books. But over a year ago, one stop at a church rummage sale proved an unbelievable find. I got armfuls of vintage goodies like hankies and a Stetson hat for Sam, but while I was waiting for everyone else to finish looking, I thought I'd take a shot at the glum looking clothing rack, full of dresses too new to be vintage, and too old to be interesting. I had passed it about a dozen times, but it looked so pathetic that the effort to stop and browse seemed like a waste of time. In the middle of the rack I came across an awful looking gray garment bag with a torn piece of masking tape stuck to the side that had “Old wedding dress” scribbled in sharpie. So I unzip it a few inches expecting an 80s monstrosity and instead get a preview of beautiful vintage cream lace. Although I had only seen a few inches of it, I grabbed the garment bag, threw it over my shoulder and waddled over to the payment table with everything in my arms, and Stetson on head. It seemed like it would be an old dress, all torn up from age and poor storage, but at least I could salvage the pretty lace for a project, right? The two old men at the payment booth were obviously put up to being at the sale by their wives, and looked as clueless as could be. I dumped everything on the table which they added up, but then came to “Old wedding dress.” “Oh there was no price on that” I said. They looked at it, then squinted at a piece of paper tapped to the table that had price categories listed. “Well…here it says: Dresses, 75 cents.” “75 cents?” “Yeah is that ok? “Um, yeah…” We paid and loaded up the car, with Legos and old stuff, and kept on treasure hunting at other garage sales. A few hours later when I got home I was eager to see more than five inches of this dress. Taking it out of the bag did not reveal the tattered mess I expected but something stunning and flawless. Layers of tulle and lace, rows of covered buttons, and even a matching veil and armlets. But would it fit? I slipped it on, and realized that it must have been somehow made for me 60 years ago, because it fit like a glove. Upon inspection I could not find a single snag in the tulle, or hole in lace. It was perfect. And that is how I got my wedding dress for 75 cents. I am so in love with this couple and I am so excited to be able to share there beeeeautiful wedding with you all! Thank you sooo much to photographers Ben & Alicia for allowing me to share the ♥ (love) Credit: Vorpal Images - Hair & Make Up: Alicia ElfvingRead more...