Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

British Brides

A Simple Brighton Wedding: Holly & Patrick

Kat

October 4, 2011

Holly & Patrick were married in Brighton. They didn't really stick to a particular theme for their wedding, they simply included things they love. They wanted to keep the day simple and stress-free, as the bride explains, "We didn't have a theme, and we didn't say anything had to be a certain way. My dress was handmade on me, through chatting, drawings and ideas, by my friend Aimee who trained at London College of Fashion. Patrick chose his suit because he was definite that he wanted a 'mod' suit. It was all done very organically, and it was perfect. Somebody suggested I wear a long sleeve, high necked dress to cover my tattoo but I declined the suggestion and went for as low a back as possible."
Read more...

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."
Read more...

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."
Read more...

A Quintessentially English Country Garden Wedding: Liz & Blake

Kat

September 26, 2011

Liz moved to America from the UK where she met Blake while he was singing in a bar. After dating for a while he proposed while on holiday in Rome. Although well-traveled, Liz wanted to have her wedding in her hometown of Brize Norton, in her parent's back garden. She had to rely on her parents, sister and bridesmaids a lot for help during the planning, "I arrived in the UK 3 days before the wedding and immediately had to go and meet our vicar, after that we had to fight the jet lag to start decorating the marquee," Liz told me. "I didn’t realise how much stuff I had collected over the year and when I saw it all piled up in my parent's dining room I felt really overwhelmed by it all. Luckily my sister and bridesmaid were on hand to keep everything on track we knuckled down and started hanging and arranging."
Read more...

Lip Tattoos, Graffiti & Ice Cream: An Anti-Wedding Bridal Shoot

Kat

September 26, 2011

"The inspiration for this shoot really came from a morning cuppa with me and Hayley from Vintage Scoops, who owns a vintage ice cream van," photographer Shaneen Rosewarne Cox writes. "We became friends via Twitter and discovered that we live very close by. I couldn't resist a look at her fab ice cream van 'Betty' so we met up a few times. One morning over tea and lemon drizzle cake we decided to put together a shoot. 'Betty' is such a soft, pretty and summery ice cream van so we wanted to create a shoot that contradicted everything wedding-y."
Read more...

A Day of the Dead Art Gallery Wedding: Angie & Adam

Kat

September 23, 2011

Angie & Adam were married at Manchester Art Gallery, a fitting venue as the bride went to Manchester Metropolitan University to study art where she met her future husband. Angie wore a bespoke purple dress made for her by a friend who works in a theatre wardrobe department (currently with We Will Rock You!) They designed it together so Angie got just what she wanted. The couple chose not to have bridesmaids or groomsmen. They entered their ceremony together. "We wanted to start as we mean to go on - together," they explained. "We walked down the aisle holding hands and remained holding hands through the service. Also Angie's a bit of a feminist and didn't want to be given away."
Read more...

A Darkly Dramatic Gothic Wedding: Alix & Zach

Kat

September 22, 2011

Some of you may remember Alix & Zach from their gothic tea party engagement shoot. Well I'm thrilled to be able to share their wedding with you today - and guess what, the smoke came with them! After getting ready at The Rookery Hotel (somewhere which I've actually stayed - its a beautiful hotel!) the couple were married at Lauderdale House in Highgate. The reception was held at somewhere that's fast becoming one of my favourite London venues, The Metal Works in Islington.
Read more...

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."
Read more...

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.
Read more...

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."
Read more...

A Heavy Metal, Karaoke Party: Julia & Steve

Kat

September 16, 2011

Julia & Steve found their photographer Hannah Millard after seeing a feature on her on Rock n Roll Bride. It's always so extra special to me to share weddings that my blog has 'helped' in some way and I'm really excited that this gorgeous couple were able to get such great wedding photographs because of Rock n Roll Bride. Happy face! Hannah clearly agrees. "Woahhh," she writes. "This wedding was just... wow. I mean. Just... OK, I'm having trouble putting it into words, it was just pure Rock n Roll. Julia & Steve are an awesome couple and they definitely know how to party. There was vodka and tattoo artists and rock band karaoke and Julia's brother DOVE INTO A CAKE. It was amazing."
Read more...

A Reclaimed, Relaxed & Fun London Wedding: Caroline & Lewis

Kat

September 14, 2011

Caroline & Lewis wanted a relaxed and fun London wedding which would reflect their loves and inspirations - reclaimed items, Caroline's love of fashion and vintage and quirky DIY elements all played a massive part in their wedding. "The whole day felt so perfect, not in the sense that everything went to plan, but it felt good that all our hard work was finally coming to fruition," Caroline told me. "Amazingly we didn’t feel nervous at all, we just felt excited. It gave me a huge sense of achievement knowing that I made my own wedding dress, made the bouquets, the cake, the invitations and all the decorations. I’m not saying that I did a better job than the professionals, but it was fun to have a go and it keeps costs down. You don’t need a massive budget to have a London wedding. There are lots of pubs, bars and restaurants that would jump at the chance to host a wedding and don’t charge a hire fee."
Read more...

A 1950’s Rock n Roll Wedding: Laura & Neil

Kat

September 14, 2011

Laura & Neil 1950's Rock n Roll wedding was inspired by the thing that brought them together - music. They explain, "Music was the thing that brought us together - Neil's Dad played the Cavern in the early 60's - and we've both always had an interest in classic Rock n Roll. We definitely enjoyed searching - Laura liked sourcing her own dress on the internet and having the bespoke accessories made to personalise the look. We didn't want to look like anyone else and we didn't want the wedding to be traditional. We choose Sassy of Assassynation as our photographer because of her unusual and unique style."
Read more...

An Eclectic 1970’s Influenced North London Wedding: Sally & Alex

Kat

September 5, 2011

I fell head over heels in love with Alex & Sally as soon as I laid my peepers on Sally's Ossie Clark-inspired wedding dress. She had it made especially for her by local dressmaker Barbara F Pellumbi. And just like the dress, the entire wedding was a unique and eclectic representation of the couple. Sally explains, "We were going to go for a Miss Saigon feel meets a tattoo-esque style but in the end it was anything that looked pretty or hard! Birds became a bit of a motif, featuring on the invites, cake and place names. We even had a lovely little stuffed bird in a cage which is where the table places were hung. We were keen to make the club (The Islington Metalworks) looked relaxed, in one area we tried to create an old skool 70's living room complete with Hilda Ogden flying birds on the wall."
Read more...

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.
Read more...

Vivienne Westwood, DIY Décor & Pink Plastic Flamingos: Mads & Nick

Kat

September 2, 2011

Mads & Nick are one seriously cool couple and I'm so thrilled to share their wedding with you today. I just know you're going to love it! "Our wedding was a hot mess of all-things-wedding and us," Mads explained. "I don’t think we did anything revolutionary, all the traditional parts of the wedding were there; we just made sure we took the time to think everything through and make sure it was right – for us. From the pre-ceremony music being a collection of our favourite film scores (How to Tame your Dragon anybody? Ahh just me and Nick then), to the inadvertently weepiest of readings; eight dreamy looking bridesmaids and nine hot groomsmen and our tables being named after ‘Our favourite things’ (inc Midsomer Murders and Arnold ‘The best activities for your health are humping and pumping’ Schwarzenegger – we had no shame!). We had our friend on guitar after dinner, photos in front of an abandoned concrete barn instead of the lake, pink flamingos, a Lulu Guiness corsage bridal 'bouquet (instead of a traditional bouquet)', funk and films on in the evening – who doesn’t want to watch Predator in a deckchair under a blanket with a Pimms on the go? Then at the end of the night we stole a taxi, ate cake and I got to take my spanx off. Rock n Roll!"
Read more...

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."
Read more...