Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

British Brides

Sarah & Jonathan’s Hipster London Wedding

Kat

November 6, 2010

Sarah & Jonathan found the perfect photographer to capture their modern London wedding though Rock n Roll Bride so I was over the moon when Annamarie Stepney asked if I'd like to feature their wedding! The couple chose to have their wedding in their local borough of Islington, North London as they both felt it was very important to support their local businesses and friends. "The fact the venue and all suppliers were local in Angel was very important to us and this is why we chose them. Jonathan's business and our lives in Islington are important and it was all about a sense of community. We also wanted a relaxed inclusive wedding, but not casual. We involved as many people as we could with 18 ushers and bridesmaids altogether, four readers and roles for everyone individually. We have been together for 9 years and have many great friends together who we wanted to be very involved."
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Jessica & Forbes’ Retro Rockabilly Brighton Wedding

Kat

November 3, 2010

Brighton was the location for Jessica & Forbes' rockabilly wedding this summer. They chose May 1st as their date as it was Jessica's late Grandmother's birthday and having it on this day was their way of inviting her to the wedding. All the guests were invited to dress up in their finest retro get-up," Absolutely everyone joined in," the bride told me, "We were so convincing a hotel guest asked if we were a convention!"
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Rom & Will’s DIY, Humanist, 1970’s Vintage Wedding

Kat

November 2, 2010

You might recognise the gorgeous Rom & Will as I featured their engagement session back in August. I knew their wedding would be awesome as soon as I saw those shots so you can imagine my excitement when I got an email from photographer Steve Gerrard asking if I'd like to feature their wedding that took place a few weeks ago in Somerset. The couple had two ceremonies - a legal ceremony at Hestercombe Gardens, followed the next day by a humanist ceremony and reception at Huntstile Organic Farm (a humanist ceremony isn't legal in England at present.) Rom wore a different dress for each part of their day. For the civil service she wore an original 70s Ossie Clark dress which she had hunted high and low for. She finally found in a treasure trove of a shop called Hope & Harlequin in Brighton. "The owner Lou has original vintage dresses and she also makes bespoke vintage replicas," Rom explained. "With this is also wore Gold cork platforms by Miu Miu and a vintage garland headband from The Vintage Wedding Dress Company."
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Mia & Matt’s Super Kitsch, Super Gorgeous 1960’s Wedding

Kat

November 1, 2010

I think I possibly have one of the cutest weddings ever to round of today's posts. When I first laid eyes on Mia & Matthew's 60's inspired wedding, I kid you not, I literally squealed with delight. How happy do these photos make you feel?! I KNOW! Adore... The wedding took place in Devon at St Gregory's RC Church in Kingskerswell. The reception then followed at Colehayes Park in Bovey Tracey, a Georgian House in beautiful grounds. As soon as the couple got engaged they knew their wedding would have a 60's theme. Mia is obsessed with everything from this era and even had her dress made by a friend to an authentic 1960's dress pattern. Mia explained, "I'm obsessed with vintage so it had to be that way! I also wore a floral headband of golden coloured alstroemeria which was made by our florist, gold t-bar sandals which I found in the Miss KG by Kurt Geiger. I wore yellow plastic daisy earrings from Spitalfields Market, a silver engraved locket which Matt gave me on the morning of our wedding and an amazing wedding cartoon bracelet which I bought from Da Da Dreams on Etsy. My sister also gave me a lovely bluebird bracelet and matching garter on the morning of the wedding, which she'd had handmade for me. They're amazing! In the evening I changed into a 1960s lace mini dress with cape which I found on Ebay and borrowed a vintage faux fur cape from my sister."
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Sophie & Barney’s Silly & Fun, Vintage & Rock n Roll North London Wedding

Kat

October 29, 2010

I sneak peeked Sophie & Barney's wedding on Twitter and Facebook as soon as their photographer Lisa Devlin emailed me to ask if I wanted to blog them - hello!? Look at these two...Like she even had to ask!! The best bit though? Sophie & Barney found Lisa via Rock n Roll Bride - I love love love featuring the weddings of bona fide Rock n Roll Bride readers! Oh I can hardly contain my excitement over this one... "We did everything we wanted do and didn't care if anyone else thought it was right," the couple explained. "We put together all of our loves and didn't worry about a colour scheme or any thing particularly weddingy, we love autumn and Halloween and London and glamour and silliness and fur and penguinbooks and skulls so we chucked them all in. Is that Rock n Roll??!" Simple answer - yes! Sophie looked every bit the Rock n Roll princess in a genuine vintage dress which she bought from My Sugarland in North London. "It was the first and only dress I tried on," said Sophie "and its beyond special having been a museum piece and nearly 100 years old! It was covered in mould and little rips, I owe Zoe at My Sugarland a massive thank you because she helped my Dad see beyond the grubbiness of it and talked him into buying it for me! She also passed me on to the wonderfully stern but kind Jacqueline Byrne who used to be a seamstress for the Queen no less (!) who tidied the dress up perfectly, even recovering all the buttons on the sleeves." With her perfect dress, Sophie wore a custom made headdress from Lilly Lewis which she customized with a brooch belonging to her Mother. She also also wore her Mother's silver fox fur jacket which was a gift from her Dad on the day she was born!
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Sarah & Chris’ Handcrafted Tipi Wedding

Kat

October 28, 2010

Sarah & Chris got married at Croft Castle, Herefordshire followed by a Tipi reception in Sarah's Father's field. I have a serious wedding crush on this 'venue'! The whole wedding was a locally-sourced and handcrafted affair as this was very important to the couple. The tipi was decorated top to toe by Sarah and her Mother (her Mum is the lady wearing the fabulous handmade patchwork coat!) "We wanted our wedding to have a handcrafted feel and it was important that our friends and families were as involved as they could be" Sarah explained. "My inspiration for the feel of the day came from that, from getting those peoples input and spending time with them. My mother made the amazing patchwork coat that you can see her wearing, from thousands of small squares of lovely fabric, and she announced just after we got engaged that she was going to turn it into a quilt for our first baby after the wedding - this pretty much encapsulates the feel I wanted of the wedding. I wanted to make as much as I could myself and took immense pleasure in spending hours stitching and crafting, using old family photos or random things picked up over the years to make everything as unique as it could be - it was so important to me that it all came, well, from the heart. Is that too cheesy? I don't care, it was my wedding day and I loved every second of it."
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Jim & Katy’s DIY-Fabulous Whimsical Beach Themed Wedding

Kat

October 25, 2010

I hosted a very special offer from Willow Tree Photography a while ago for free wedding photography to any lucky 2010 couples who maybe hadn't planned to, or couldn't afford a professional photographer. While I got a bit of stick on certain photography forums (apparently I was encouraging newbie photographers to undercut the market...well, anyone who read the post I published on Saturday will know this is certainly not the case!) I am over the moon that through running this very special offer I, and photographer Kathryn, were able to offer some awesome couples without the budget to spend on photography, the chance to have professional wedding photographs.
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Sarah & James’ Rockin’ Rockabilly Wedding

Kat

October 22, 2010

Sarah & James 1950's rockabilly wedding was inspired by Sarah's Grandparents who got married on September 12th 1953. "We wanted to get married as close to this date as we possibly could, hence the choice of 11th September 2010," Sarah told me. "My Grandparents celebrated their 57th Wedding anniversary the day after our wedding - the rose tattoo's on my feet (by Sam Ricketts) have their names 'Alice' and 'Mervyn' in recognition of how special they are to me."
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Joan & Tim’s Musical English Country Garden Wedding

Kat

October 14, 2010

Oh I have yet another fabulous British wedding for you to le swoon over today. Joan & Tim's English country garden theme was sure as hell given a Rock n Roll twist with the infusion of some seriously rad and personal touches. Not least of all, Joan's incredible dress (actually a corset, skirt, bustle & train) from designer Jane Bourvis. It was all Vintage Couture. Jane was actually the designer behind Carrie Bradshaw's famous 'green seafoam ballerina dress' that she wore in the final episode of Sex and the City (photo here) "Her shop is a wedding wonderland with vintage dresses and corsets dangling above you so you don't know where to look at first," Joan explained. "It was the first dress I tried on and within 5 minutes I knew that I wanted it."
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Rachel & Daniel’s Modern Vintage Wedding… With Special Guest – The Pope!

Kat

October 11, 2010

Rachel & Daniel got married at The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, a modern building that gave their vintage styled wedding an unusual twist. The bride wore a gorgeous dress from Rock n Roll Bride favourite Fur Coat No Knickers. To keep things personal, they made their own cake ("It looked fine as long as it wasn't in a strong light!" the bride laughed. "The ribbons were held in place by satay skewers - all we could find the night before we delivered it to the venue!")
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Louisa & Rob’s Music & Car Festival Wedding

Kat

October 7, 2010

"We knew our wedding was going to be slightly different but I guess thats what you get when you try to incorporate cars, music and food, emphasising the feasting and dancing with friends and family rather than the actual ceremony" began bride Louisa. "We both have an affinity with old cars, cars that have been around a while and have a tale to tell so we had no problem finding a wedding car - I had the perfect excuse to use my hotrod, a 1928 Model A Ford. Not wanting to leave his cars out of the fun, Rob decided we should include a mini car show where he and our friends could park up their old cars and in some cases, their beds for the night."
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Elise & Nick’s Laid Back, Homespun & Festival Style Wedding…With a Piano in the Woods!

Kat

October 6, 2010

"Is that a piano...in the woods?!" I asked photographer Emma Case, a stunned look on my face. When the affirmative came back I literally let out a little squeal of exhilaration that I was going to get to share Elise & Nick's wedding with you. Unbelievably, as the couple went with Emma to have their portraits done they came across this unusual yet fabulous prop just sat there. Now I know Miss Emma Case very well and I can just imagine the expletives of excitement that would have come out of her mouth when she laid eyes on that!
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Emma & Morgan’s Wonderfully Sustainable & Crafty Welsh Wedding

Kat

October 5, 2010

Emma & Morgan's Welsh wedding has really put a smile on my face today. Everything about the day was personal, was sustainable and was perfect for them. The couple got married at The Hive and Ice Cream parlour in Aberaeron. They actually had two ceremonies through the course for the day. Firstly a smaller and more personal ceremony at The Hive, joined by just close family and friends. Then, once they got to the reception, they had a second ceremony amongst all 120 of friends. Their DIY heavy reception was held in a marquee in "Charlie's Field" that looked out across New Quay Harbour, Wales - the exact spot that Morgan had proposed!
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Sophie & Jonny’s Burlesque Themed Rock n Roll Wedding

Kat

October 1, 2010

This is one of those posts that's going to have a lot of photographs (hello, burlesque Rock n Roll wedding - there's no way I could leave any out!) When photographer Marianne Taylor showed me a sneak peek of Sophie & Jonny's wedding a few weeks ago, I knew straight away that they were right up my street...you'll see why! The couple got engaged in Paris on Sophie's Birthday. "It was a dream come true," the bride told me "Jonny had booked us into a plush Moulin Rouge themed hotel. We sat on the steps of the Sacre Coeur and drank pink champagne and then he surprised me some more with tickets to the Moulin Rouge that night! I had no idea that he had not only secretly booked the trip but also tickets to The Moulin Rouge. My favourite film and as a burlesque fanatic, this was perfect. At the end of the show, on the red carpet, I was surprised with a box which I unwrapped to find a smaller box. Upon opening the small box and finding my Princess cut platinum ring (perfect!) he got down on one knee in front of everyone and asked me to marry him, to which I screamed and replied yes!" The Paris proposal and Sophie's love of all things 1940s and 50's (she is a burlesque dancer herself) inspired the entire wedding which was a real DIY effort. She sourced the white ostrich feathers for a burlesque theme and the ‘Eiffel tower’ vases herself and set everything up for the reception. She also designed and made all the stationary and paper goods as well as helping out to make the cake. Instead of a guest book they dressed a vintage looking birdcage (found in a boutique shop) with feathers and pearls and had little black and white cards for people to write messages on and post them in the birdcage.
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A Lewis Carroll Gothic Wonderland Wedding

Kat

September 29, 2010

Amanda & Steph's wedding is one of those that as soon as I saw a sneak peek on their photographer's blog I immediately emailed asking (well...demanding!) that I be allowed to blog it! If this isn't a perfect Rock n Roll wedding, well I don't know what is! The couple loosely based their wedding around Lewis Carroll's Wonderland - i.e. Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass. They loved the almost dark and sinister twist this theme gave their wedding.
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