Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

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A Woodland Creatures Fancy Dress Wedding: Toby & Isa

Kat

October 13, 2011

"The theme for our wedding began as a circus/carnival inspiration and grew to encompass woodland creatures, feathers and various fancy dressed individuals from badgers to unicorns, not forgetting the now infamous family of bears!" newlyweds Toby & Isa told me. "We did things differently, just simply because that's how we are and to have had any other style of wedding or traditional ceremony would have not been true to us as we are not religious. However we did have a beautiful blessing with Sally our Interfaith minister and we wrote our own wedding vows."
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A British Wartime Wedding: Lisa & Ric

Kat

October 5, 2011

After a church ceremony at St Peter's & St Paul's Church in Hampshire, Lisa & Ric had a very British wartime themed wedding at Broad Half Penny Down Cricket Club, Hampshire - the world's oldest cricket club. "Life never goes the way you plan it," the bride wrote. "I always dreamt of finishing uni, finding love, getting married and starting a family. The conventional family - we are not! I am 12 years younger than Ric, and also about 12 inches taller! Ric is frequently away with work and moved me to the south of the country, away from all my friends and family. Oh and how could I forget our 2 year old son - Bear. This was definitely not what I had planned. When Ric finally proposed, I was on cloud 9 and I knew that our wedding day wasn't going to be a 'normal' one. For example - I couldn't decide what engagement ring I liked, so I have three! We also had a best woman instead of a best man, we 'high fived' at the altar instead of the kiss, and our son screamed through most of the ceremony then was racing his toy cars down the aisle with chocolate down his nice white shirt."
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A DIY Village Fete Wedding: Charlie & Jo

Kat

October 3, 2011

"Our inspiration came from our wish to have a wedding that was different to any we had been to and our main focus for the day was to try and make it as fun as possible for all the guests," newlywed Jo wrote. "We wanted to have an informal day that just felt like a party. We both like antique decorations and I have always wanted a vintage dress because I wanted something different and not something that you might see someone else wearing at another wedding. I also loved the idea of my dress having a history and making someone else day special before mine. In the same way as I love the fact that the diamond in my engagement ring belonged to Charlie’s Great-Grandmother."
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48 Couples Marry at Bestival in the Big Love Inflatable Church

Kat

September 28, 2011

Taking place on the Isle of Wight for the past 7 years, Bestival music festival has fast become sinimomous with crazy antics, fancy dress...oh and a big dollop of awesome music thrown in for good measure! Each year it also plays host to the Big Love Inflatable Church, where couples can go to tie the knot. This year wedding photographer Chris Cowley was there to catch all the action! He explains, "A grand total of 48 weddings took place over the 3 day festival, Reverend’s ‘Nickerless’ and ‘Randy Johnson’ preformed ceremonies with the help of dishevelled bridesmaids, a mother in-law and a maid of dishonour."
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A Wedding in the Woods & A Bride Wearing Antlers: Ian & Jo

Kat

September 21, 2011

OK so it isn't much surprise that I pretty much died when I first saw Ian & Jo's wedding. The woods! The campfire! The bride wearing freakin' antlers! Oh my lord I'm so thrilled to be blogging this baby. "Our wedding was had a subtle vintage 1920's summer fete theme," Jo wrote, "We love art, creativity and community. The things that make us human. The wedding was never about me & Ian exclusively, marriage to us means the joining of many, a coming together. It was our opportunity to share our love for each other, and extend it to our loved ones. That day was for all of us. I think that vibe came across."
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A Humanist, DIY Wedding in London: Emi & Adam

Kat

September 21, 2011

I'm officially dying over this wedding. Overly dramatic maybe but oh Lordy how beautiful is everything? Emi sure has that ethereal look down. Her Baby Ceylon gown (found on eBay) and vintage veil combo is just perfect...and don't even get me started on her short evening dress by Jones + Jones and Jeffrey Campbell American Flag boots. Seriously... The DIY wedding was held at Blo Norton Hall in London (its hard to believe this place is in the city!) The humanist ceremony took place 5 years to they day that the couple met. After the touching ceremony, the speeches were held outside in the beautiful grounds. The informal wedding breakfast was also held outside.
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A Backyard Handfasting & Rock Festival Wedding: Becca & Gary

Kat

September 19, 2011

Bex & Gary’s wedding looks like it was a lot of fun, dispite the rain! The first part of the day was a handfasting ceremony and morning reception in the bride’s Gran’s back garden. Afterwards the couple went to the registry office for the ‘legal bit’ and the day was rounded off by them going to Nozstock Festival and staying in their very own honeymoon suite – a tipi! "We knew straight away that we didn't want a traditional wedding and we both loved the idea of running away together to get married in secret but at the same time we wanted all our friends there too," the bride told me."We'd both been to weddings that felt impersonal and where we'd both felt nervous and out of place so our mission was to try and make the day as chilled out and as comfortable for everyone as possible. Gary came up with idea of going to a festival instead of a wedding reception and it all sort of fell into place."
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A Wedding Inspired by the Ocean

Kat

September 8, 2011

The inspiration behind this beautiful Californian wedding, sent over to me by Jerry Yoon Photography, was the ocean. The couple, who met through a mutual friend in Philadelphia and them moved to California, had visited The Monterey Bay Aquarium during their first year living together. "I loved it," the bride told me " the intense blues and greens when you looked down in the water, to the contrasting sand and beaten rocks. I love the ocean and anything relating to it. During that visit, I took a bunch of Polaroid photos at the museum and our walks around Monterey and Pacific Grove. Years later, when we were looking for a location for our wedding, I came across those original Polaroids of Lovers Point Park, and I instantly knew this is where we were getting married."
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A Picturesque Scottish Wedding: Fiona & Darren

Kat

September 5, 2011

By the time you read this I will be back from the US of A and probably jet-lagged to the hills! I'll be blogging all about my American Adventures really soon, but in the meantime I've got this beautiful Scottish wedding from CandySnaps Photography to share with you. Fiona & Darren were married at Boturich Castle, Alexandria. They were married outside (which in legal in Scotland) and in front of the impressive castle. The bride wore a beautiful gown and veil handmade for her by a friend and vintage jewellery which had belonged to her Grandparents. The groom wore traditional Scottish kilt, the tartan of which was an Irish pattern (Murphy) which was his Grandmother's family name.
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A Relaxed, Boho Wedding: Laura & Graeme

Kat

August 26, 2011

Laura & Graeme were married at Marle Place, Brenchley which perfectly suited their laid-back boho wedding. "It is a peaceful, privately owned Wealden garden, ten acres of formal planting and many more acres of woodland and orchard," Laura explained. "None of our guests had ever heard of or been to Marle Place, before and neither had we. I didn't find it on my original wedding venue searches, eventually I found it by searching for something like 'secret garden'. It has been described as a hidden gem and I totally agree."
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Bohemian England Meets Mexican Fiesta: Francesca & Iain

Kat

August 15, 2011

This time last week I blogged a wedding at the beautiful Fforest Farm Campsite in Wales. I loved the location so much that when Francesca & Iain sent me their wedding at the same venue I didn't hesitate to want to share it too! I think it really interesting to see two different weddings at the same place actually and to see how different a venue can look with a different couple's aesthetic and vision stamped on it. Francesca described her wedding theme to me as "Bohemian England meets Mexican Fiesta." I just love how they brought this out with ideas such as the decorations from Lisa Piercy, the paper goods by Thunderwing Press and the amazing screenprinted napkins personalised by Leonie Flower. I'm also swit-swooing over the flower garland head wreaths worn by Francesca and her bridesmaids. This is a wedding trend that I hope doesn't go away any time soon. I love it!
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A Handmade Campsite Wedding: Maria & Chris

Kat

August 8, 2011

A campsite in Wales played host to Maria & Chris' fabulous wedding. With the help of their friends & family the couple pulled a lot of the wedding together themselves. The flowers played a huge part in the styling of their day as Maria explained, "For the flowers I wanted it to look as though we had picked them all from the fields that morning and used whatever we had lying around to put them in. We had been collecting vintage china for some time and used the various jugs, bowls and cups & saucers for the flowers on the tables. The campsite also had some rustic enamel jugs that we used too. Some of these Flowers I had ordered from the florist (Peonies, Cornflower, Lavender, Margharites etc) but the rest my Mum, her neighbour and my Auntie's had brought with them from their gardens! The Tipi was decorated with ribbon and Ivy from my Parent's garden too."
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A Weekend-Long Family Festival Wedding: Emily & Stef

Kat

August 4, 2011

If you're a blog addict like me you may have seen some of the following images from Emily & Stef's incredible festival wedding around the interwebs already. Emily is a wedding photographer herself and so a lot of the suppliers they used for their wedding weekend were friends as well as being exceptionally talented wedding industry peeps! After proposing to Stef, Emily set to work planning a unique and quirky wedding to suit them and their family. Being a wedding photographer herself Emily had seen a lot of things she didn't want for her own big day. It was important to them to have a wedding that reflected them, was chilled out and laid-back and fun for all their guests. "We had a bright, colourful, happy wedding that was all tied together with buttons," Emily began. "We have shot weddings together for the past 5 years and wanted to have something that didn't feel like we were at work. We also wanted an environment that was going to work well for our three children and lots of other little ones who would be at the wedding (about 27!). We both love music and festivals, so we wanted a lovely big party where everyone could relax and have fun. Someone described it as a mini summer holiday. That was the vibe."
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