Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

UK

Free Wedding Photography For all with Hannah Millard Photography!

Kat

May 6, 2011

Hannah Millard is a budding wedding photographer from Derbyshire, UK, and in order to shoot the kinds of weddings she wants to (ie yours!) she would like to offer the readers of Rock n Roll Bride the chance for free wedding photography! Just to make this clear, this is not a competition. Hannah is super keen to shoot more alternative and Rock n Roll weddings, and so if you think you're wedding fits the bill and she's free on your wedding date (and it's before 1st July 2012) she will come shoot your wedding for free! Too good to be true? I think so! Quick...before she changes her mind!
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Hannah & Tom’s Shabby Chic, English Charm Wedding

Kat

May 5, 2011

Hannah & Tom's shabby chic, English country garden wedding had so many adorable details that I simply couldn't turn down the opportunity to feature it. I love how the term 'Rock n Roll' can be applied to so many different styles of weddings don't you? 'Rock n Roll' is an all encompassing love of expressing yourself and your individual quirks though your wedding (well, and real life too!) Anyway, mini-morning lecture over, let's get on with sharing all these beautiful touches shall we?
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That 70’s Show – A Retro Flower-Child Bridal Shoot

Kat

May 4, 2011

The 1970's are well and truly BACK. I don't know about you but I'm seeing the styling of this decade everywhere at the moment - from the rails of the high street to the lookbooks of the high end. Even kitsch 70's décor is back in vogue (apparently...not sure about the whole avocado bathroom thing making a comeback ...) So needless to say, I didn't expect it to be long until someone brought this iconic styling into a bridal shoot. Photographer Catherine of Lily & Frank Photography and florist Steph from Fairy Nuff Flowers worked together to bring this concept together. They set out their goals from the outset as they were keen to make this shoot stand out from the crowd. They wanted the flowers to take centre stage to the styling, to echo the 'flower-child' movement of the 70's I'd suppose, so they make a conscious decision not to use any jewellery or hair accessories on the models. They were also very keen to make it a retro style, rather than the oh-s0-popular vintage styling of the moment - therefore bold pops of colour and strong statement pieces moved to the forefront. Finally, an obvious British feel was imperative as was a vibe of laid-back, fun and alternative-ness.
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Charlotte & Chris’ Bush Hall, Gig Wedding

Kat

May 2, 2011

Charlotte is the genius and super lovely lady behind Restoration Cake - my favourite cake maker - FACT. She is also someone I consider to be a friend so when she told me she was marrying Chris in March I was so excited. Unfortunately I was unable to attend as it fell on the same day as Emma Case's wedding, but luckily for me (and you!) Charlotte was still really excited to let me share her day with on my blog...and before you ask, yes she did make her own cake! The couple threw themselves wholeheartedly into planning their big day and groom Chris was particularly enthusiastic. Charlotte made me laugh when she would tell me that throughout their planning Chris would constantly email her links to things he liked on Rock n Roll Bride! Charlotte & Chris were never going to have a traditional wedding. Both really into music, a gig wedding at the iconic Bush Hall in London was the perfect idea for them! "We had known for ages that we wanted to get married but could never quite figure out how to do it in a way that was right for us," Charlotte told me."We knew that we did not want the whole traditional nine yards but could not reconcile the idea of a Vegas elopement leaving behind all of our family and friends. In the Summer of 2010, we went to a gig at Bush Hall and fell in love with the venue. We decided that our Wedding would be a gig, with our friends’ bands playing, and a massive party. We booked the venue before we told anyone that we had decided to get married!"
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A Black & White Checked Couture Gown

Kat

April 29, 2011

There were two things that I loved as soon as I saw this shoot - the model's gorgeous red hair and that dress! Very Vivienne Westwood inspired on both counts...and we all know how much I adore a bit of Vivienne. The shoot was set up to promote dress designer Nicki Hill's new range of bridal gowns. Based in Southampton UK, Nicki is famed her stunning couture gowns. Dresses like this one are made to order and created in her own studio.
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A Day in the Life…At The Wedding Magazine Cover Shoot

Kat

April 27, 2011

So last week I was invited by Catherine Westwood, editor at Wedding Magazine, if I'd like to go hang out at a cover shoot with them. Ermmm... let me think about this for like two seconds...YES PLEASE! Before you go getting all excited, no I wasn't asked to model! It will probably be a cold day in hell before any wedding mag can have a pink haired chick on the cover. These publications have to appeal to the mass market and I feel that a neon-headed, inked bride might alienate a rather large proportion of their readership! I was up early last Thursday and on the train to London, excited and honoured to have been invited...even though a little (no, a lot) tired. I arrived at the shoot at 9.30 to be greeted by a familiar face in hairdresser Sev of The Hepburn Collection who had been invited to do the hair, and Julia Ford, art editor of the magazine. I also got to hang out with the rest of the team, many of whom I'd met briefly before at various wedding shows and events. Alison from Pollen Nation (who I worked with on The Big Fat Wedding Bloggers Photo Shoot) was even there to supply some of the gorgeous flowers.
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Attention UK Wedding Photographers – Jasmine Star is Coming!

Kat

April 26, 2011

As anyone that follows me on twitter or facebook will know, I am a big Jasmine Star fan...huge in fact. I love this woman. I find her incredibly inspirational and I just adore her. Adoration in like a girl-crush/I want us to be best friends and plait each others hair kinda way... So... why am I writing this today? Well, again if you follow me on my various social media platforms, you will also know that I've been banging on about how excited I am about making some 'big announcement' for the last week or so. Well I hope you'll forgive my diversion this morning because I really do have some ridiculously exciting news. In fact 'ridiculous' isn't a strong enough word for just how exciting this news is... stupendous, incredible, mind-blowing, life-changing...now maybe we're on the right track. Jasmine Star is coming to the UK to do her first ever photography workshop in London...oh and I'm helping her organise it.
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A Quintessentially British (slightly) Royal Tea Party

Kat

April 26, 2011

The royal wedding is kind of a big deal...people worldwide are gearing up for the 'show' and even London has gone all patriotic for once. Union Jack flats hang above Regent St and pretty much every shop window is littered with red, white and blue tat. I however, am not so excited about the whole thing. I'm not adverse to two people falling in love and getting married...far from it in fact. I'm more than a little bit thrilled that William and Kate are getting married. I love marriage and I couldn't be happier for them! However it's the media charade that surrounds the whole thing that kills me...and the fact that, as someone that works in the wedding industry, this is supposed to be some 'once in a lifetime experience' for me...and seriously, if you'd been sent as many irrelevant royal wedding-related press released as I have, you'd be pretty over it too. Yaaaawn. Most un-Rock n Roll wedding ever. Fact.
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Ilka & Mars’ Early 20th Century-Inspired Wedding

Kat

April 21, 2011

"Circa 1991, and like most 9 year old girls at the time, my dream wedding typically consisted of getting married in a castle, having a horse-drawn carriage at midnight and saying 'I Do' to Jason Priestly. So fast-forward 20 years...our castle was in busy Tooting Broadway, wedged in between a Mecca Bingo Hall and a McDonalds, with a KFC conveniently across the road. Our horse-drawn carriage was a local taxi, well beyond midnight. And Jason Priestly? He got bumped for my love and best friend, Mars. It was completely perfect for us. Sad to say, Brandon had been banished to the Peach Pit forever." I love Ilka & Mars already. How about you? Mar's proposed at the airport, just before Ilka was about to fly home to Australia, with her Grandmother's engagement ring. She explained, "So after a couple of years of living together and rarely talking 'seriously' about getting married, I was waiting in the busy security line at Heathrow, about to spend 3 weeks back home in Australia for a Christmas apart, when Mars popped the question. After unknowingly foiling an attempted romantic proposal during a holiday in New York a few months earlier, it was a perfect chance to catch me unawares while I was unsuccessfully trying to stuff the contents of my entire handbag into a tiny clear zip-lock bag, and rush off to board the plane. It was simple and just perfect. After a quick, teary goodbye and my grandmother's beautiful engagement ring now firmly on my finger, I was herded through security and onto the plane. Needless to say, the next 24hours consisted of me taking full advantage of the onboard trolley service, trying to come to terms with what had just happened!"
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Laura & Ian’s Hollywood Glamour Wedding

Kat

April 19, 2011

Three week's ago photographer Annamarie Stepney was in Reading (where I live) so she popped by to say hello...to my cats. Yeah people never come to see me any more, it's all about the internet sensations that are Henry & Rachel! Anyway, as we walked Henry round the back garden on his lead (I kid you not) she was telling me all about the wedding she was shooting the next day....at my wedding venue...well in actual fact, what should have been my wedding venue. You see, as soon as Gareth & I got engaged, I knew I wanted to have our wedding at The Forbury Hotel. It's an amazing venue and I wanted it. Bad. But sad face for us, it was already booked on our day. However I am really excited to see how Laura & Ian's Rock n Roll wedding turned out at the venue that should have been mine!
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A Sunday Kind of Love – The Niemierko Wedding Academy at The Dorchester

Kat

April 10, 2011

Wedding planner du jour, Mark Niemierko is a genius. In May, at The Dorchester no less, he will be sharing his trade secrets on how to plan a wedding in his own enviable style. Are you a budding wedding planner and want to learn from the best? Well my darlings, this is the event for you... "Following overwhelming demand, Mark Niemierko, the UK’s foremost luxury wedding planner,will share his trade and style secrets at the very first Niemierko Wedding Academy. Consisting of a high-end inspirational experience, the Niemierko Wedding Academy will help equip its students with the tools and contacts to become wedding planners of quality in the future."
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Lucy & Andy’s Budget-Friendly, “Let’s Do It Our Way” Wedding

Kat

April 1, 2011

This beautiful, vintage-inspired wedding came about after Lucy proposed to Andy on a trip to London. "I took Andy away to Tower Bridge London, to stay in a 5 star hotel on Valentines Day 2010," the bride told me. "He kept saying,'You're not going to propose are you?'. I said 'No of course not, don't be silly'. Then as we were walking back to the hotel under the bridge by the dolphin statue, I placed a ring box shaped like an orange in his hand. He looked at it and said 'What's this?' with a scared look on his face. And I said 'Open it', then 'Will you marry me?'. The colour drained from his face, I cried, he said 'Oh, I was planning to propose to you, and I started saving for a ring, and what is everyone going to say?' I just said, 'Look, I have saved you the bother of saving your money for months and months. Let do this our way'."
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Chi Chi Revolver’s Tattooed Bridal Shoot

Kat

March 31, 2011

"I was really inspired reading the winning entry to your Knot Couture dress competition recently," photographer Bethan of Haywood Jones Photography told me. "It was hard to picture how it would feel to be made so uncomfortable in a shop who were clearly disapproving of you, thinking we live in a properly modern society (!) until it happened to me last weekend (not because I have beautiful body art sadly, but much more because I was dressed a bit scruffily and went into a very posh art shop. They actually got another member of security to stand in the shop while me and my friend walked around!!) It suddenly became clear that you really can't judge a book by its cover and that even though the *mainstream* wedding industry is becoming more accepting of the *alternative* side of peoples wedding creativity and gorgeousness, there are still many blinkered people out there who wont look past stereotypes and make you feel less than worthy of their attention."
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Emma & Pete’s “Enchantment Under the Sea Dance” & A Big Fat Surprise Wedding

Kat

March 30, 2011

I honestly don't know where to begin describing Emma & Pete's wedding to you all. From the reaction to just the sneak peek post (epic) that I put up last week, I know pretty much the whole of blog-land has been eagerly awaiting to see this wedding too and so I'm pretty flipping honoured that not only was I invited (and let into the secret that it was a surprise wedding!) but that Emma & Pete have allowed me to share it with you all. I have the best job in the world.
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Under The Spotlight – Doodlelove

Kat

March 29, 2011

What is it with girls and stationery? I love it. I think its the fact of owning something simple, but beautiful and personal - something you can actually hold in your hand in all it's prettiness (as weird as that sounds!) So needless to say I love love love getting emails from wedding stationery designers. The guys that contact me are always such a creative bunch and it's really awesome to see first hand, and then share with you, what they can do.
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Leah & Peter’s Red + Black Rockabilly Wedding

Kat

March 29, 2011

Leah & Peter had a red & black themed rockabilly wedding. They kept the fact that they had got married earlier in the day a surprise from a lot of their guests but made sure all the most important people were in attendance...including their two (very well dressed!) pugs. "We were never officially engaged (Peter bought my my black pug Ziggy instead of an engagement ring!) we just always knew we would get married and with both of us turning 30 in June 2010 was as good a reason as any," Leah told me. !We never wanted to be the kind of people who let the real reason for getting married to be overshadowed by stressing about table placings etc so we focused on what would make us have a good time at the party and turned the tables so people were leaving with things that we had bought!"
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