Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

Colourful Wedding Dress

Under the Spotlight – Toast of Leeds

Kat

March 29, 2010

I really really love doing my Under the Spotlight interviews as it's great to talk about the genius behind the lens for once. Today, I'm excited to share with you Shelly of Toast of Leeds - a fabulous photographer from - you guessed it - Leeds, who blew me away with her recent Punk Bride shoot. Enjoy! Who are you and what do you do? I’m Shelly Mantovani from Toast of Leeds. I shoot people. Where are you based and what cities/countries are you available to for work in? I’m based in Yorkshire but don’t let that put you off! I love to get on a plane or a train, it forces me to read books I keep buying and never get round to finishing.
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Gothic, Fancy Dress, Halloween Wedding

Kat

March 22, 2010

I have been dreaming about blogging this wedding since October when photographer Caroline of the wonderful Tinywateremailed me to let me know she was off to shoot a Halloween, fancy-dress gothic themed wedding...and even before shooting the wedding, she knew I was going to love it. Well judging by the number of photographs I'm including in this post you could say she was pretty much bang on! I was lucky enough to have Rachel, the bride get in contact with me to share all the glorious details!
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Modern Marie Antoinette

Kat

February 9, 2010

Simone & Matt were married at the Historic Mission in San Diego. Simone wore a Monique Lhuillier dress from and Christian Louboutin shoes. After the ceremony all the guests headed over to the Prado restaurant at Balboa Park for an outdoor cocktail hour with hors d'ourves and live jazz. Before entering the ballroom the couple entertained the guests with giant Bride and Groom pinatas which were attacked by kids and grownups alike. There was no formal sit down dinner. Instead guests were welcome to use the sushi bar and the mini kobe burger and fries bar. Big band jazz and vocals entertained. Later in the evening the band packed up and a DJ took over while a separate room was opened up with a taco bar and a 'Tostitoes' bar. The inspiration for the our wedding came after I found my dress. Simone told me It is a Monique Lhuillier gown, but i found it at the Neiman Marcus outlet! My mom works for Neiman Marcus, so I got an even better discount too. It was the first and only dress i tried on. It fit me perfectly. The dress inspired my "Marie Antoinette but modern" theme that I wanted for the wedding. I wanted it to just be like a candle lit party with gold accents and ostrich feathers, something I imagined Marie Antoinette would have done. I also wanted my guests to have fun, so I made the food interactive, I had the photobooth, and the little bride and groom pinatas for everyone to have fun with. The food was all matt and my favorites, especially the tosti locos which are a mexican snack. Thanks to John, Simone & Matt for sharing
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Brighton Belle

Kat

February 5, 2010

I just wanted to share a few images from Jed & Sarah's funky yet classic Brighton wedding. Brighton is a really eclectic town on the South coast of England. Brighton is full of eccentric characters and this wedding was so fun and quirky, even the registrar had kooky shoes and piercings. The bride and groom were very cool - her mother in law made the dress and I think she looks fab, they got wed in the pavillion, then onto a double decker to the Grand Hotel for some food and drinks....It was all about their colourful personalities and the offbeat alternative nature of Brighton which I made sure to feature in as many of the shots as possible. Thanks to Joanna for sharing these
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All Shook Up

Kat

January 29, 2010

Jessica & Ronnie's kitsch Elvis themed wedding was just too damn Rock n Roll to ignore. Stand by for all the juice... First and foremost I would like to just say Kat your blog was definitely a huge source of inspiration through all of my wedding planning! Your excitement for all things wedding is so fantastic to read that even after our big day, I still take a looksey to check out all of the great wedding photography you find! Thanks for doing what you do! It was pretty wild when Tom asked us if he could send you some of our photos, I said "of course I know Rock n Roll Bride, that sounds great!" I totally thought wanting to get married in red was going to have to make me spend a bazillion dollars that we didn't have on getting one made, but I randomly found it at David's Bridal. It was a bridesmaids dress for only $160!! I just had them take off the spaghetti straps that it came with because I thought it gave a more vintage feel to it. My husby's outfit cost more than mine with his special Wingtip Shoes costing almost as much as my dress but it was so worth it because man did he look hot in them! Our wedding consisted of a weekend gathering in San Luis Obispo at The Madonna Inn, which is filled with everything gold and gaudy, its such an amazing place with every room holding a different theme, I really recommend it to all for at least a one night stay! We started the weekend off Friday night bowling with friends and family at Pismo Bowl just right down the road. We wanted our wedding to be for us to spend as much time as we could with everyone and just party, so we had an early afternoon wedding in "The Gay 90's Room" upon the stage, while making our separate entrances, my fiancee's song was "I'm Your Man" by Leonard Cohen, and mine to "You Can Never Hold Back Spring" by Tom Waits, then we had our officiant "50's Young Elvis" (no disrespect intended to older Vegas Elvis, but we just love classic Elvis) who made his entrance by singing "I Got Stung" up the aisle as all of our guests just laughed and clapped along. It was truly a great moment seeing everyone have so much fun with him! Elvis officiated the wedding with fun and singing but also such sincerity about love and how to make it last. Our I do's went something like, "Do you promise to never step on his Blue Suede Shoes?" and "Do you promise to never leave her All Shook Up at the Heartbreak Hotel and Love her Tender?" After the ceremony Elvis handed us the infamous Vegas Elvis Glasses and sang us out to "Burning Love". We of course had to have Elvis' "Fame & Fortune" as our First Dance, hopefully by now your seeing that we're not creepy just HUGE Elvis fans. At the reception each table centerpiece was a different record sleeve from our collection of singers that we love like Johnny Cash, Wanda Jackson, Roy Orbison, B.B King, David Bowie, Elton John and many others, then for the placement cards we had "Mr & Mrs So & So are partying at Elton John's table" and so on. It was such a cheap money saving way to do centerpieces! I totally recommend it! To continue with the theme we had little record napkins that had "Rock & Roll" on them from Party City for next to nothing. For party favors we had our immediate family members and bridal party dedicate songs to us that reminded them of us, and the two of us dedicated songs to each other too, which we made into a CD for all to take home. Everyone came up with such great songs that it made a great compilation that we listen to all the time! We finished off the reception and despite the sprinkles of rain outside, we all headed up to the pool & spa and partied in our bathing suits till the pool closed! Such an awesome day to finally start a new chapter with my best friend in such a fun way and to share it with all of our loved ones that came near and far for a little mini vacation! I definitely recommend all couples to just try and have as much fun with the planning as possible, and don't worry about having to stick to the norm of late afternoon weddings with dinner & dancing, do whatever your heart desires and have an all day long of festivities to enjoy it even longer, because it goes by so fast! Thanks to Tom and of course Jessica & Ronnie for sharing their top tappin' wedding with us
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And so we Danced

Kat

December 22, 2009

How exactly am I supposed to find the world to accurately describe these images and do them justice? I'm not sure I'm up to the challenge. The gothic glamour, the sense of feeling you get from these is just..well...amazing. The images certainly do all the talking here. They tell their own story. Photographer Annie told me: The idea for this shoot wasa real mix of rock n' roll and art. We incorporated Tom Petty's song, "Last Dance with Mary Jane" into a photo shoot with 2 agency models (Mirela Paraganglija, and Nima Nezhad) and a fantastic bridal gown designer. We shot it as though it was Mary Jane's wedding day/last dance...as though it was her final send off. Models: Nima Nezhad & Mirela Paraganlija Wardrobe Stylist: Lim Utariat. Makeup: Julianne Chai Bridal Gown designer:Kate Cheung Thanks to Annie & Benjamin for not only shooting such awesomeness but for sharing it with us today. I am so excited to see more from you in future. Epic.
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Green – The New Red?

Kat

October 5, 2009

I think this year green may be the new colour de jour for rock n roll brides. I have been sent a couple of gorgeous green girlies recently...do I see a new trend emerging? You will probably remember Amy from her stunning bridals that I shared recently. Well photographer Brandi was nice enough to send me the full wedding to report. I am crazy about the florals (I'll probably never tire of peacock feather bouquets!), the bridesmaid's and groomsmen's awesome purple combos which looks fab against Amy... and still of course, her shoes! Enjoy my lovelies...and special thanks to Brandi for sending these to me. I will be sharing some more green dress brides soon! Credit: Brandi Thompson Photography
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Bowled Away

Kat

September 22, 2009

Jessica & Nik had a completely KICK ASS (and that had to be in capitals because I am literally shouting that as I write!) wedding at Northbowl in Philadelphia. The couple, who love all things rockabilly, kitsch and retro - certainly put all of themselves into their freakin' awesome day. This is one of those weddings that is certainly going to do the rounds of Blog-Land so I am honoured that Amanda & Carina have elected Rock n Roll Bride to be the first blog to share them! As artists (Jessica a graphic designer and printmaker and Nik an illustrator) they were certainly the perfect pair to pull off such a stylish gathering. Jessica even made the adorable fawn cake topper to accompany the cupcakes (supplied by Brown Betty) herself! For the frames they scoured TJ Maxx (TKMaxx if you're in the UK like me!) and Michael'sand spray painted them themselves Jessica's dress was from Vivien of Holloway, she made her own red shrug (swoon!) and her hair piece was from House of Telsa on Etsy. Nik wore a suit from J Crew and a wicked tie from Cyberoptix TieLab. These two certainly are doing it for the girls. What a fantastic day! Thanks, as ever to the faaaaabulous Amanda & Carina for sending me the images and info. Love you guys! ps If the photos below aren't enough for you, then be sure to go check out Love Me Do's flickr - super yum! Credit: Love Me Do Photography
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Childhood Sweethearts

Kat

September 20, 2009

I have been looking forward to seeing Hannah & Alex's wedding ever since I saw their school yard engagements and the bridal shoot to be used for their stag/hen/bachelor/ette parties invites. I first spoke to Hannah about 6 months ago when she forwarded me some of the work of her sister and photographer, Kelty and I have been nuts about it every since. I have been lucky enough to become good online friends with Kelty so I was over the moon when she sent me a sneak peek of the wedding photographs after the day.Credit: Steep Street Photography
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Cherish.

Kat

August 16, 2009

Happy snoozy Sunday to you all! I have a distinct lack of a day filled with snooze myself as I plan to share some gorgeous and rockin' trash the dress sessions with you (and knowing me probably more!) I'm going to start with the hot shoot sent in by the very lovely Jeffery Chan of I Cherish You, a photographer from Toronto. The location of the shoot is pretty awesome huh? The shoot took place in the abandoned Kodak building which is now apparantly a very popular shoot zone for local photographers. Thanks to Jeffery for sharing these with me! Credit: I Cherish You
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Anything Goes

Kat

August 9, 2009

Kim & Christian's wedding certainly didn't fit any kind of traditional mould. The bride wore two stunning dresses, the red one for the ceremony and the gorgeous green 'princess dress' for the reception, where they danced and hula hooped on the beach into the wee hours of the morning. Kim's bridesmaids wore dresses that she'd made especially for them and stunning custom hairpieces from Etsy. The handmade invitations and wooden flower bouquet also really added to the uniqueness of this wedding. You're going to love these. Thank you so much to Kristen of LanierStar Photography for sending them my way! Credit: LanierStar Photography
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But Rain = Rainbows!

Kat

July 14, 2009

One thing you can always count on in England is the rain...it will always come when you don't want it too. In some circles rain on your wedding day is considered the worst thing that could ever happen but it others it is seen to be a sign on good luck and prosperity for the marriage to come. I am likely to think myself that neither her of these are true and as long as you still get some damn good photographs it's all good! Asian weddings are full of tradition, colour (the Bride traditionally wears red) and are always an absolutely massive party (I have a friend at work who got married a few months after us and she had about 350 people at her wedding!) They also go on for about a week, with all the celebrations climaxing with a ceremony that lasts for many hours. Thanks to Craig & Chanelle Segerius Bruce for sharing..and I am very excited because I am actually doing a photo shoot with the guys tomorrow!
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