Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

Vintage

A Woodland Bridal Shoot

Kat

May 23, 2011

This morning's shoot was set up by photographers We Heart Pictures to showcase the types of brides they want to shoot. "Hector and I fly to Jersey often for client meetings as we shoot weddings in the Channel Islands," photographer Charlie told me. "I took the opportunity to make the most of our trip and the stunning location and heckled people into getting up at 8am on Easter Sunday to join us in St Catherine’s Woods. We wanted it to be fun so packed a picnic, chandelier, flags, bunting, balloons, bubbles, masks, several meters of fabric and threw in a couple of wedding dresses as you do!"
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Isobel & Dave’s Vintage-Inspired Budget Wedding

Kat

May 18, 2011

Isobel & Dave's incredible vintage-inspired budget wedding gives me butterflies! I am so excited about sharing all the beautiful personal touches that they put into their day. The whole wedding is a testament to the fact that you don't need to spend a fortune to have your perfect wedding. "The two things we had in our heads from the start were; that we didn't have a very big budget and that we wanted our wedding to reflect us," Isobel told me. "We started by approaching it as a really big party where we’d just happen to get married. The important things for us were that our favourite people were there, our favourite music was playing, and everyone would have fun! We aren’t particularly conventional and there was never any question of following rules or doing things because we ‘should’. I didn't buy a single bridal magazine or visit any bridal shops during the whole process! Rock n Roll Bride and DIY Bride were my only ‘go to’ blogs for inspiration and ideas! We just did things because we wanted to (if we could afford it)! With the little touches – the badges, the teapots as vases, teacups full of sweets, the birdcage for cards and messages, the photo booth (definitely a Rock n Roll Bride idea-steal!), and the bunting – I think we created a wedding that was fun, unique, and best of all, exactly what we’d imagined."
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Shelby & Bliss’ Sailor Jerry, Tattoo Parlour Shoot

Kat

May 16, 2011

Shelby & Bliss wanted their engagement shoot to take place in a tattoo parlour because Bliss is tattoo mad! "The inspiration for the shoot came mostly from Bliss's amazing tattoos," Shelby told me. "The tattoo parlor we shot in is where he gets his tattoo's done. When I was in there with him we thought how cool it would be to do our engagment session in the parlor. We love the "Sailor Jerry" feel of the shop and decided to capture that between the two of us. Our photographer Jeremiah did an amazing job capturing it all! We love him and we love the pictures!"
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Vintage Wedding Dresses at Dragonfly Dress Design

Kat

May 12, 2011

Dragonfly Dress Design is an independent Glasgow-based dress studio, specialising in vintage wedding dresses and bespoke bridalwear. This shoot was set up to promote some of their latest vintage wedding dresses. "We take a different approach to weddings," shop owner Lisa told me. "You won’t find any champagne flutes, harassed shop assistants or queues for the changing room here. Instead, we’ll help you get the dress you really want, either by customising one of our unique vintage pieces, or creating it for you from scratch. We believe that every woman should have the wedding dress of her dreams, no matter how large or small her budget.Our vintage wedding dresses range in price from £195 - £575."
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Candy Coloured Spring Inspiration

Kat

May 9, 2011

Following on from yesterday's beautiful shoot from Lara Jade, I wanted to share some more mouth-watering Spring inspiration, this time from photographer Yuna Leonard. This shoot was set up by Yuma to show some of the aspects of Spring that inspire her and her photography, "I am so fascinated with cherry blossom, candy, all the pretty flowers, the Spring smell… a vintage dress + western boots + candy looking balloons is my favorite spring combination!" she wrote.
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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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Sarah & Justin’s Modern Vintage, New York Wedding

Kat

May 4, 2011

I put a little teaser shot from Sarah & Justin's beautiful wedding on my facebook fan page a few weeks ago, and within about 3 minutes it had received about 40 'likes' which pretty much convinced me (like I didn't know already) that you guys are going to totally heart this one. The elegant New York wedding took place at Bridgewaters Restaurant, New York. The theme for the wedding was an evolving one, and one that really reflected what the bride & groom loved in their daily lives, as well as being complementary to the scenery around them.
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A Super Cool Britanna Shoot

Kat

April 28, 2011

So the big day is tomorrow. As I've said previously, I'm not doing a huge homage to the royal wedding on the blog (there's enough royal wedding fever elsewhere thank you very much!) however this shoot, inspired by the event, really caught my eye this week. I love it for it's slight sex pistols/1970's punk edge.Cool Britannia indeed! The shoot took place in Regent's Park, London last week. Bride Noelle hand made her vintage-inspired floaty dress. "We decided to do this cherish the dress shoot with a Great British theme, just in time to celebrate the royal wedding," photographer Rebecca told me. "We also tied in a fairytale them as the royal wedding is set to be a true British fairytale. Noelle also brought along her pet Pug percy for the shoot, who was just adorable and loved rolling around on the British flag."
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Stav & Danielle’s Engagement Session on Wheels

Kat

April 25, 2011

Stav & Danielle met she brought her car into her local garage to be fixed, where Sav happened to work. Needless to say the couple have their mutual love of cars to thank for their relationship! Being a mechanic, Stav has a passion for old cars and restoring them. Danielle adores all things retro and loves the aesthetic nature of vintage cars, so using them in their engagement shoot was a no-brainer really. For the shoot, the couple were lent a collection of vintage cars from some of Stav's clients including a classic Mercedes, a clasic Woody, a classic Corvette and a classic Ford truck.
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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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Vanessa & Brian’s Bicycle Themed Wedding

Kat

April 7, 2011

Vanessa & Brian's DIY wedding has a vintage bicycle theme because cycling was what brought them together. The day was held at Simpson House, Kansas City and started with an intimate ceremony on the gardens. Vanessa walked down the aisle to "I Will" by the Beatles, performed acoustically by a local couple. After the kiss, everyone rang bells that were placed on their chairs. They also decorated their venue in a way personal to them. Wheat was an important decorative element as Vanessa's Dad was a wheat farmer and passed away when she was young. She even has a tattoo of wheat on her arm in memory of him.
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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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