Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

Tattoo

Latex, Tattoos, Piercings & Fancy Dress Make a FABULOUS UK Wedding!

Kat

February 2, 2010

I've got a funny feeling you're going to go just as crazy about these as I did. Words can not even describe really can they? Danny & Louise's amazing alternative, British (oh yes this couple is English woooo) wedding was all about the style. Louise's stunning latex dress was made by Jane Doe Latex. This part certainly didn't care about what was 'expected' of their wedding, not only are the pair clearly ones to play by the rules (Louise is a piercer and micro-dermal specialist and Danny is a tattooist. They are both heavily modded, both having split tongues, facial tattoos and multiple piercings) but the wedding meal after the ceremony was a trip to MacDonald's eaten at their house! Their evening reception and buffet was held at at our local rock bar, Sanctuary and was fancy dress, hence the grooms rather fetching nurses outfit! Seriously guys, put your eyes back in their sockets right now and enjoy! Thanks to Donna for sharing this AMAZING wedding with us
Read more...

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
Read more...

So Punk Rock it HURTS! {Part 1}

Kat

January 25, 2010

Oh Lord I must contain my excitement. This is just the type of wedding that Rock n Roll Bride was created for and just the type of wedding that sends me weak at the knees. You'll see why, believe me! I was actually lucky enough to be able to share a little sneaky peak of Matt & Danielle's wedding by way of their photo booth pictures back in november and we all knew from then that this was gonna be a goodie. A photo booth fit to bursting with that many tattooed bodies can never be a bad thing! You can see their full 'n fabulous slideshow right here! But if even that isn't enough for ya, check out Our Labor of Love's blog for part one,The Flashdance blog (who provided their music/entertainment) for part deux and Matt's own blog (he's a kick ass photographer too) for yet even more. Now don't ever say I never give you anything. Squeeeeal! Thanks to Matt & Danielle, Jessie & Whitney for sharing this ridiculous awesomeness with Rock n Roll Bride. I am forever in your blogging debt. Credit: Our Labor of Love
Read more...

Carrie’s Jean Harlow Inspired Bridals

Kat

January 23, 2010

Carrie's wedding day portraits make me so excited I could scream. Isn't she just the most gorgeous Rock n Roll chick ever? "My entire ensemble was inspired by old Hollywood glamor and 1930's black & white films, very Gene Harlow" Carrie told me "My hair and make-up was done by me and I kept it very straight, classic and the make-up reminiscent of the silent era. I grew up watching nothing but silent films, old horror movies and classic film noir. I wanted to appear timeless and not dated, I think I achieved my vision and surpassed even my own expectations." Carrie's gorgeous ruffled dress came from "The Dresser" in downtown Fullerton and was by Pattis, the style was called "Diore". "Originally it was $1850, but I got it on sale for a trunk show promo for 15% off. The dress was made from scratch in Italy. At the time I was shopping for the dress, I had a shaved head. The sales lady then she pulled the dress for me said "The girl with the blonde shaved head and tattoos would look perfect in this dress" the second I tried it on...I knew it was the one." She chose a veil from www.birdcageveils.com which cost her just $59 and her shoes came from "The Dresser" too. The bracelet she wore was an heirloom of her husband's great grandmother and was actually originally a necklace. The gorgeous brooches on the bouquets (supplied by Kari Strand at Lake Elsinore Florist) were from Macy's and old cost about $8 each (reduced from $30!) The bridesmaids also wore dresses from Macy's.
Read more...

On a Quirky & Personal Afternoon

Kat

January 17, 2010

Brett & Louise had an quirky and personal afternoon ceremony which was held at the Mt Coo-tha Botanical Gardens in Brisbane, Australia. Their untraditional ceremony featured two rituals, both a ring warming and a hand-fasting ceremony. Photographer Rebecca told me all about this fun and family-oriented day: During the ring warming ceremony the rings were past around the guests who were asked to give their blessings and to make a wish for Louise & Brett’s future together. During the exchange of rings Louise went from tears to laughter which help to create fantastic emotive images of her. After the exchanging of the rings the hand fasting was performed. This ceremony involved Brett and Louise’s mothers winding and tying a piece of ribbon around their hands binding them together in life.
Read more...

Rock that Dress

Kat

January 15, 2010

An old elevator and a creepy, deserted boiler room made for the setting du jour for Patrica's Trash the Dress shoot. The venue was actually the basement of the hair salon she works in (Celebrity Hair in Edmonton) Photographer Elizabeth explains: The elevator in the building is just awesome with old scuffed hardwood floors, wood grate and brick walls surrounding. Patricia worked a pretty traditional looking dress, but the photos are far from traditional! We had some fun with a big chunk of tulle that looks awesome in the photos! We ended he session in the very scary pitch black boiler room. The only light in there was the flashlight that I was using to light the session. It was so quiet and creepy down there and then every so often the boiler would roar to life! Was scary, but totally worth it because look at how awesome the photos are! Just a reminder that you don’t need a pretty building and trees and flowers to take awesome wedding photos! Thanks to Elizabeth and Patrica for sending these over to us today
Read more...

Paint the Dress

Kat

January 3, 2010

The photographer certainly knows best with this one, so over to Wes for all the details behind this tattooed, painted, vintage fashioned shoot: Melissa & Grant's Trash the Dress session was totally rocking from the bride's amazing tattoos to their desire to have lots of fun with paint and silly string! The bride wore a vintage gown (not sure of the designer) and it up with a pink crinoline underskirt and a pair of sweet hot pink heels. To be fair, this was not the dress she wore for her wedding...she had purchased two and decided to wear one on her wedding day and one for the TTD. All in all they were a simply awesome couple who were down for anything. BTW, we used nontoxic paint so as not to damage the natural surroundings and picked up every last piece of silly string. Thanks to Wes for sharing this fun shoot. Painting a dress is certainly cool.
Read more...

2009 – The Year That Was {Part One}

Kat

December 30, 2009

As is customary at this time of year, I wanted to take some time to look back over the last 12 months and share with you some of my most favourite weddings, photo shoots and features. I think you'll be hard pushed to not find something that makes you go 'ooooh' amongstthis lot. Enjoy a-reminiscing! I'll be back tomorrow with part 2 (there's too much to narrow it down to just one post!) I'm also taking this slow blog-time (I like to refer to it as 'Crimbo Limbo' (!) to ponder my ideas and plans for Rock n Roll Bride in 2010. I'll try and share my musings for the year ahead with you soon and would love for you to let me know what you think. It's all about you dear reader after all...
Read more...

Goth Gal in the Snow

Kat

December 27, 2009

I trust you had a good Christmas? I trust you had a good Christmas and Santa was nice to you? Down my chimney fell a swanky new 18.5" wide screen monitor (droooool) a Fuji Instax, a PINK Vivienne Westwood bracelet and an 'eco cup'. These are my favouritest presents. Santa obviously knows me very well - that I am a total blogging and photography geek, that Vivienne Westwood makes me happy and that I drink way too much coffee! I am muchly looking forward to playing with all my new toys and will certainly be scanning in some of my Instax shots soon. Was Santa just as good to you?Anyway, it's nice to have you back, it's been lonely without you dear reader. Although I am going to keep blogging between now and new year, the posts maybe a bit sparcer than usual. I'll still be here, plugging along though, so please don't hesitate to still get in touch if you need too.. Well the winter submissions have poured in over the festive period so I'm going to get right back into it with this snowy graveyard shoot from Jeffery Chan Tin. Bridal shoots in graveyards always seem to provoke some kind of controversy (who knows!?) but how can anybody argue that these images aren't ridiculously stunning? I really do love the snow... If you want to see more of this gorgeous Goth gal then check out this disgustingly fabulous zombie shoot and seriously sexy fashion shoot - both also shot by the uber talented Jeffery Chan Tin. Thanks to Jeffery for sharing the fun and frolics with us
Read more...

The Original Tattooed Brides

Kat

December 24, 2009

The original tattooed bride photographers, Allebachsent me these this morning and I had to get them up right away. What could be better to gaze at right before Christmas that tattooed beauties looking shaaweeet!? The images came from a 'shoot out' in Philadelphia, where a bunch of photographers gets together and shoot the same situation together to learn from each other and generally get some kick ass imagery themselves... So the Philly Photog Shootouthappened. In case you haven't heard a Photog shootout is an event where photographers meet, photograph models and learn from each other. Anyway Rob "Ninja" Nicholson contacted me because he wanted to get a punk rock bridal theme going and needed a few more models. So I reached out to the most amazing couples in the world (my clients) and got a few responses. Jess an amazing bride (and rollergirl) married earlier this year was one of the first to respond. Patty DeCasere (my old punk rock band's drummer's former band's singer's wife - got it?) did an amazing job giving Jess a mohawk. Another friend Alicia from the 20s flapper shoot we did at the historic Stotesbury Mansion handled the costume design (available for wardrobe at belle_morte66@yahoo.com) Robyn & John an engaged couple took a day and drove up from Annapolis and found the inner model in them. Really they just acted like themselves and everyone got great photos. Erin Proud (wedding planner of Lori & Kevin's Eastern State Penitentiary wedding) channeled her inner anger and teenage angst for the shoot, along with an amazing wedding photographer turned model, Leslie Gilbert. Despite shooting photos in what felt like subzero conditions in Center City Philadelphia, everyone seemed to be having a great time, networking and learning. Thanks to Mike for sending me this little Xmas gift! Credit: Allebach Photography
Read more...

Tattooed Lovelies Trailer Park Love Fest

Kat

December 20, 2009

I've got yet another wedding I've been waiting with baited breath to share with you as a matter of urgency. Lori & Jason's funky, punky, trailer part love affair wedding makes me squeal with excitement (especially when I saw the images of the couple getting inked together - hello, so awesome!)A vintage trailer park called the Shady Dell, a custom pink crinoline peeking out of the wedding gown, and tattoos on the spot are only a few of the awesome details of this wedding in Bisbee, Arizona. Shooting Lori and Jason at the Shady Dell was a blast. Lori looked fabulous in her Stephanie James Couture; it complemented her stunning body art. And the venue only added to mystique of the day; vintage Airstreams were the perfect backdrop for this hip couple who love all things vintage! And don’t forget the BBQ and potato salad on pick plastic plates! Thanks to Erin for sharing this fabulousa wedding with us today
Read more...

Anarchy in the UK

Kat

December 12, 2009

Our little country continues to astound me this week with Kate & Seb's Sussex wedding rocking it's way into by inbox today. Photographer Sarah described this wedding as "by far the funkiest I have ever shot" and therefore it's perfecto for Rock n Roll Bride! Sarah went on to tell me all the details of wonderfulness: Kate and Seb were beyond cool and this shone through in their wedding. Seb is a tattoo artist in Brighton and Kate is a tattoo adorned beauty. They didn't want the conventional posed photo's more arty fashion style photo's. This gave me a great opportunity to be a little more creative than normal. Kate's attention to detail shone through in everything, from her Vivienne Westwood jewellery (YUM!) to her Candy Anthony dress....not to mention the Morris Minor. Thanks to Sarah for sharing this awesome wedding with us today. As always I am honoured to showcase it with the woooorld and am still loving the UK right now!
Read more...