Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

British Brides

An Organic Farm Wedding: Elisha & Russell

Kat

August 11, 2011

When I saw Elisha & Russell's wedding I knew they'd made the perfect choice in their photographer Joanna Brown. If you follow Joanna on twitter you'll know that she loves her garden and grows her own veg, so the fact that this wedding was held on Magdalen Farm on the Dorset/Somerset border...well she must have been in her element! "The staff of The Magdalen Project at Magdalen Farm are amazing and even joined us on the dance floor and around the campfire at the end of the evening," the newlyweds told me. "We loved that our wedding was helping to support the Wessex Foundation who encourage active learning in and about the outdoors."
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A Laid-Back Beach Wedding at Camber Sands: Fiona & Rob

Kat

August 11, 2011

Fiona & Rob were hitched right by the beach at The Gallivant in Camber Sands. The style of the beautiful hotel suited their beach theme perfectly. "I was quite keen for it not to look too wedding'y - or formal or too orchestrated" newlywed Fiona told me. "We didn't consciously go with a theme but it kind of happened! We live on a beach and both my husband and I are kitesurfers so it had to feature strongly and in the end it made it easier to have a focus shaping our creative decisions! I think always try and make stuff, not only to save money but to make it more personal and make your loved ones feel involved."
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An Informal Picnic Wedding with a Touch of Vintage: Michelle & Jodie

Kat

August 9, 2011

Being a wedding planner herself, newlywed Michelle knew exactly what she wanted for her British Summertime wedding to Jodie. In the 18 months of their engagement she spent hours crafting and painstakingly putting together their vintage and craft themed day. "I wouldn't change a thing!" she explained. "We had so much fun planning the day, we did everything from choosing the playlists to writing our vows and designing the picnic menus."
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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 Quirky, 1950’s & DIY London Wedding: Rebecca & Morgan

Kat

August 5, 2011

I fell in love with Rebecca & Morgan's quirky wedding as soon as it landed in my inbox and I'm honoured and super excited to share it with you today...especially because they used some of my favourite suppliers (including Lisa Jane Photography and Vivien of Holloway) and well as some of the DIY project that I've posted on my blog. Yey! Rebecca told me all about their fabulous wedding. "Morgan and I grew up only 8 miles apart and even went to the same secondary school; in fact he was in my sister’s year in school. However we didn’t meet each other until April 2009, believe it or not he sent me a facebook friendship request, we went for a date and a crazy year later I asked him to be my fiancé. I even commissioned a ring from the quirky designer Amber France as a surprise, he said yes (sigh of relief on my side). Our daughter Efa was born and things went on the back burner and then 7 months later on my birthday he gave me a beautiful blue opal ring, it was like a green light!"
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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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A Simple Country Vintage Wedding for a Tattooed Bride: Dave & Clare

Kat

August 1, 2011

Dave & Clare were married at East Riddlesden Hall in West Yorkshire. The bride wore a Tara Keely dress and Irregular Choice shoes. "The theme I was going for was simple country vintage," Clare told me. "Throughout the whole wedding process from getting engaged to the honeymoon (which was only 5 months!) we just stayed true to ourselves, we invited who we wanted (no relatives we haven't seen for 10 years) no kids, only the people who mattered."
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A British Beach-Inspired, DIY Wedding: Emma & Matt

Kat

August 1, 2011

I teased a photo of Emma in her amazing short short wedding dress on twitter as soon as photographer David McNeil sent over this wedding to me. Whoaaa, I literally had to share it with someone (well 12,000 someone's) right away! I. Die. "We got married in Bardsea (on the bay of Morecambe)" Emma told me. "It's my parent's village which is just such a gorgeous place near the moors and the beach. Even though we live in Camden and love it - we're both down to earth and love being outdoors and away from the city, so it was a natural choice. We got married at Eden Lodge, on the outskirts of the village, which has recently been converted from a Edwardian home to a small, minimalist hotel in some AMAZING grounds. We got married in the hotel itself and then the reception was in a marquee in the grounds. It was the hotel's first wedding and they were AMAZING. We can't sing their praises enough. The staff were EXCEPTIONAL and really went above and beyond to make our day perfect."
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Alice In Weddingland – A Brighton Seaside-Themed Wedding: Alice & Graham

Kat

July 29, 2011

Now that I’m writing my final ever ‘Alice in Weddingland’ post I really don’t know where to start. I am now happily married and honeymooned, and it is the best feeling in the world. So I shall simply relive that amazing day with you, through this article, and hope that I can convey at least some of the magic that the day held for me. I hope you enjoy this final instalment: Alice in Weddingland got married!
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An Informal Bohemian British Summertime Wedding: Laurence & Gi

Kat

July 28, 2011

Laurence & Gi's low-key and informal wedding had me smitten as soon as I laid eyes on those flower head garlands! To me, they totally sum up what I adore about this wedding - leaving your stresses behind you, having fun and creating something personal and beautiful. They had a very small wedding with only a few guests and the really put their all into creating something wonderful. "I didn't have a focused inspiration in mind to be honest, but I did have a clear vision on how I envisaged the vibe of the wedding, so I wrote down in my notebook 'Young, Easy, Relaxed with a little bit of Attitude!'" explained Gi. "I wasn't quite sure on what I wanted, I was very open-minded with my imaginations. I didn't want a cliche wedding with too many guests and too many formalities, there wouldn't be enough for intimacy."
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An Eclectic Nightclub Wedding: Ant & Lou

Kat

July 27, 2011

Ant & Lou were married in Chianti, Italy but had a massive reception party at The Kazimier nightclub in Liverpool on their return. "We wanted to get married abroad and bring with us all of the people we love dearly," Lou told me. " It was important to both of us to have our friends and family there, but to also have a very personal wedding, something that was exactly us. We found a beautiful castle in Chianti, Italy and started our wedding process from there. Everyone came on different flights at different times on different days and even though there was an ash cloud, an unexploded WW2 bomb found in Pisa airport and severe winds causing planes to be diverted, everyone got there eventually. One group of friends were travelling for 26 hours just to get from Liverpool to Tuscany! but they made it and their positivity was beautiful."
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A Crafty & Fish-Themed Wedding on the Banks of Loch Fyne: Claire & Doug

Kat

July 21, 2011

Unlike in England, in Scotland you can legally be married in an outside ceremony. The photos of this part of Claire & Doug's day in particular made me fall in love with this wedding. The celebrations were held at Inver Cottage Restaurant on the banks of Loch Fyne. Claire explains, "We went on our first family holiday to Strachur last year and when we stumbled upon Inver Cottage Restaurant on the banks of Loch Fyne we fell in love with it. We love all things seafood. It was during this holiday with our 9 month old daughter, Maggie, that Doug proposed. Directly across from Inver Cottage at the ruins of the old castle Lauchlan. The only place for our wedding ceremony was at Inver Cottage. We both hated the idea of a formal wedding but wanted to share the day with close family and friends and do it in a personal and well thought out way."
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A Mad Men Inspired Vintage Wedding: Rowan & Neil

Kat

July 18, 2011

Rowan & Neil were married at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, Renfrew followed by a Mad Men inspired reception at 29 Private Members Club in Glasgow. "The wedding ceremony was particularly special to us," Rowan explained. "My Dad is an Episcopal minister and it was a great honour to have him conduct the service in his own church. My Mum walked me up the aisle - it was lovely to have them both involved in the duties of 'giving the bride away'."
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Film Wedding Photography – Sophie & Robert’s Quirky Vintage Countryside Wedding

Kat

July 13, 2011

There's something about film photography. Something magical. Our wedding was shot on film in fact, and while at the time this wasn't even a conscious decision (digital wedding photography wasn't as popular then - wow I sound like we got married in the dark ages!) it's a choice I'm pretty happy we made. There's just a certain quality with this format, that no matter how hard it tries, digital images simply can't compete with. So when photographer Ashton Jean-Pierre sent me Sophie & Robert's wedding last week, shot 100% with film, I jumped at the chance to share it with you.
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Jo & Oli’s East End Knees Up!

Kat

July 11, 2011

When I asked Jo & Oli to descrive their wedding, they simply called it an "East End knees up!" I love that and think the description cetainly matches the party vibe of their wedding photographs from Rosie Parsons. "We knew that we didn't want a hotel reception (we couldn't have afforded one anyway!) because we wanted to put our stamp on our day: we wanted it to be really about what we like: tea and cake; Rock n Roll; dancing and cocktails!" Jo explained. "I dragged my Mum around every hall in the East End of London before deciding on St Peters in Bethnal Green. It had so much character whilst being a blank canvas at the same time. It was really important to me to get married in the East End as I grew up in Stepney and we now live in Bow. The hall was within walking distance of the hall and traffic was quite bad along Valance Road that day so Oli and I got to ride to the hall in our Morris Minor and chat to our guests as they walked along!"
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Steve & Shelley’s Post-War Britain, DIY Wedding

Kat

July 11, 2011

Steve & Shelley's Isle of Wight wedding had a post-war vintage and DIY theme. The couple were keen not to spend a fortune on their day and the theme really evolved quite naturally and organically from this idea. "We were conscious we did not want to spend a fortune on our wedding and the theme of 'Post-War Britain' fitted in nicely with our DIY wedding," the bride told me. "Everything was done on a budget, a lot sourced from eBay, friends and family helped to make bunting and paper chain hearts for decorating the reception venue. Our favours were Thorntons chocolates wrapped in brown wrapping paper with blue butchers twine (eBay again) and a parcel tag attached with the guests name as a place card. I handmade the invitations which were a shimmery Union Jack postcard style with the invitation wording as a telegram, on the invitation we requested that guests attend in their interpretation of post-war Britain dress, and gladly the majority of guests did so!"
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