Rock n Roll Bride - The ultimate guide for alternative brides

Wedding

A Halloween 80s Carnival Extravaganza: Tressa & John

Kat

March 7, 2012

For Tressa & John, the most important thing for their wedding was that their guests were entertained and had a great time...and their Halloween 80s carnival theme complete with an costume party dress code made sure of that! "John and I knew we didn’t want anything traditional in terms of wedding other than a declaration of love for each other," the bride told me. "We have a fantastic, eclectic, diverse group of friends who have high expectations of us when it comes to throwing a good party so we knew we couldn’t disappoint! We both spent our most formative years in the 80s and wanted to recreate the tubular vibe while also celebrating our most favorite holiday - Halloween!"
Read more...

A Cancelled Wedding But a Perfect Marriage: Kiley & Nathan

Kat

March 6, 2012

Kiley & Nathan's Seattle wedding is sooo my cup of tea its unreal! Not only are these two clearly bad ass in their personal styling but the simple wedding focuses on what's really important - them, their wedding and their marriage. After an intimate ceremony on a beach, they planned their reception (pictured) for 6 months later. This wedding isn't full of 'details' or the pretty things us wedding bloggers usually go gaga over...no, instead it's full of the most important thing...the love! Ahhhh! "We got married July 20th in a small ceremony at sunset on Ocean Beach in San Francisco, where my husband is from," Kiley wrote. "It was amazing and perfect, very casual (I wore cut off shorts and vans!) and very us (Taco truck catered, bonfire and S'mores). But we also wanted to celebrate with all our friends and family and get a chance to dress up so we planned our reception for January 20th 2012, our 6 month anniversary, in Seattle where I am from."
Read more...

An Indie Rock, Winter Wedding: Vicky & Martin

Kat

February 29, 2012

On December 10th, Vicky & Martin were married in a gallery space, which they made their own, in Hull. They didn't have the easiest wedding planning journey, with not one but two venue's cancelling their bookings, but at the end of the day the wedding was perfect. "We were not the luckiest of couples when it came to our wedding planning as we had two different venues cancel our booking!" Vicky told me. "We booked a local hotel's wedding package a year in advance and believed that everything from the food to the centerpieces was taken care of. With six months to go they called and cancelled our booking, leaving us panicked and miserable. After considerable research we booked our local youth hostel for a weekend festival in their beautiful medieval building - they cancelled our booking with less than four months to go!
Read more...

An Eco & Animal Friendly Wedding: Danny & Sandy

Kat

February 28, 2012

Being animal lovers, and with the bride's Mother running an animal rescue sanctuary (where the couple actually met!) an eco and aminal friendly wedding was perfect for Danny & Sandy. The bride explained, "We wanted everything to be eco-friendly and cozy! We stuck to bamboo plates and wooden utensils, and decorated with hay bales with burlap on top for seats, a bonfire, and mason jars with teelight candles hung in trees and lights draped throughout my backyard."
Read more...

‘Love on the Rocks’ – A Rock Music Themed Winter Wedding: Beatrice & Johann

Kat

February 23, 2012

Beatrice & Johann are true rockers, so what better theme for their winter wedding that the ultimate rock music party!? "Laughter, Party, Music...and a lot of Love" was how the newlyweds described their wedding theme. With music being such a huge part of their lives and love story, it was an obvious choice. They chose a hotel on the Bavarian Alps as the venue for their wedding and so their 'Love on the Rocks' wedding slogan we created.
Read more...

A DIY Country Wedding: Jacob & Sarah

Kat

February 22, 2012

Jacob & Sarah had a DIY country wedding at Harmony Museum, PA. "Together with our community of friends, we pretty much made everything on our own because we wanted our wedding day to represent who we are," Sarah told me. "Having the wedding ceremony and reception take place in a non traditional atmosphere also helped to sort of describe where we were coming from, a subculture scene of punk music and tattoos. One of the most important things that we wanted to come from our wedding day was to have a celebration with the people who we love the most. We have a very close group of friends that we respect and hold close and we wanted them to feel like it wasn't just 'Jake and Sarah's Day' but rather a party for all of us. Immediately after the ceremony, which was fairly short, there was just a big party."
Read more...

A Burning Man Inspired Wedding: Christine & David

Kat

February 21, 2012

TThere's so much about Christine & David's wedding that I utterly adore - Christine's Wai-Ching wedding dress, the metal-welding ceremony, the Burning Man inspired after-party... seriously, if you don't love this wedding you're bonkers. "Well, we started off by not trying to be anything other than ourselves," Christine told me. "The only thing I knew I wanted was my Wai-Ching dress and a gluten-free cake, and David just wanted a raucous party. Neither of us had expectations of what our wedding should be, so we just took the parts of the traditional wedding that we liked, ditched the parts we didn't care about, and made some things up along the way."
Read more...

A Breathtaking Australian Wedding & A Bride Who Wore Black: Amber & Gary

Kat

February 20, 2012

You know when an image just stops you dead in your tracks? An image that you can't help but pause for a few seconds and go 'wow'. Well that pretty much happened to me with every single photograph of Amber & Gary's wedding. Wedding photographer Samm Blake is quite simply phenomenal. See? I bet you whispered 'wow' too didn't you? "I wouldn't say we were purposely going for a Rock n Roll wedding, but as I play at many weddings every year as a professional musician, the cookie cutter white strapless dress look really didn't excite me," Amber told me. "I tried on over 50 traditional dresses in dress shops and didn't love any of them!. My decision to wear black was probably the biggest diversion from 'traditional' and came from my love of being slightly dramatic and different, while also wanting to be glamorous."
Read more...

A Family-Central, DIY Backyard Wedding: Adam & Kim

Kat

February 17, 2012

Adam & Kim were married at home in their back garden in front of a retro caravan that they'd bought especially for the occasion! The entire day was DIY as they wanted their wedding to be about all the things, and the people, that they love. "Our love and what we love is what inspired our wedding day. We wanted to create something that was very personal and a signature of our relationship," the bride explained. "Each part of the day was special and unique to us; even the format was flipped to the traditional idea of many. I found the traditional wedding magazine’s a bore and wondered if there was something wrong to not admire these staged, stuffy epic weddings. It wasn’t until I delved more on the internet that I found that I wasn’t the only one who felt this way and that others were creating some fabulous and unique days of their own. Rock n Roll Bride was a site that made me feel at home."
Read more...

A Christmas Meets Halloween Wedding: Holly & Gareth

Kat

February 15, 2012

Holly & Gareth were married in late November and so had a kind of Christmas meets Halloween themed wedding. "Originally I quite liked the idea of a festival-y vibe wedding but Gareth's not very outdoorsy and I'm not keen on hot weather so a winter wedding it was!" Holly explained. "We were also on a budget so an out of season wedding also worked in our favour! My sister described our theme as, 'What do you get if you cross Christmas and Halloween?!'"
Read more...

Mexican Art Wedding: Kirsta & Alec

Kat

February 13, 2012

Kirsta & Alec's Arizona wedding had a Mexican art theme. Being married in an arts centre and with a mutual love of travel and other cultures (they met while working in an orphanage in Kenya) the idea of having this vibe for their wedding just felt right. "We met working at an orphanage in rural Kenya," Kirsta told me. "Luck would have it that both our loves of travel and adventure lead us to being in the same remote place at the same time. We just happened to be placed as roommates and the rest is history! We fell in love over working with kids, farming projects, and other development work. After moving back to the States to live in Seattle for a year, we got the itch to live abroad again and moved to South Korea so that I could teach. We had a series of serious discussions (neither of us really 'proposed') and decided that we wanted to make it official. In April, we had an awesome little Embassy wedding in Seoul totally by ourselves. We knew we'd be going back to the US for the holidays, so it felt like a natural time to have a bigger ceremony with our families and friends. The whole idea behind having a second wedding was simply to have a big party to celebrate with those people that we love and miss so much while we are off adventuring."
Read more...

A Colourful DIY Wedding: Rhian & Toan

Kat

February 8, 2012

My favourite wedding photographs are those with happy smiling faces in them. The ones that when I look at them, I hazard a guess that people's faces were aching at the end of the day from grinning so much. Now obviously most weddings are full of joy and smiles, but I think Rhian & Toan might win the 'most smiley' prize. Big cheesy grins all round! "We absolutely love our wedding photos, and genuinely couldn’t be happier with them," begin Rhian. "We had a very tight budget for everything, but photography was the one thing I wouldn't skimp on the quality. I love it so much in my day to day life I knew the value of getting good ones done for the big day. When I saw Shell de Mar’s portfolio I could see straight away that she has a beautiful eye for detail and lots of talent. We like to think that we found an excellent photographer who happened to do weddings, rather than a ‘wedding photographer’."
Read more...

A Help Yourself, Village Fete Wedding in Cornwall: Rosalie & Fergus

Kat

February 8, 2012

Rosalie & Fergus had a sweet homespun wedding in Cornwall. "The whole ethos was to get all our creative friends and family together for a two week holiday in Cornwall," the bride explained. "The deal was, that they spent the first week, sewing, making, cooking, baking and generally doing anything and everything - then we had a massive great wedding/party which continued for the rest of the week. I don't think they feel used, it was a great vibe and a really chilled way to organise a wedding."
Read more...

A ‘Make Do & Mend’ Wedding: Rosie & James

Kat

February 7, 2012

I actually saw Rosie & James' wedding in the archives of Adam, of Viva Wedding Photography's, own blog. I dropped him a line to say I was sure another wedding blogger must have featured it when he first published the photos, but just on the off-chance...and to my utter surprise he said they hadn't! I have to say, I was thrilled. This wedding has a serious amount of cuteness. The wedding may have taken place in 2009, but it's still hella inspirational!
Read more...

A Colourful Barn Wedding: Paul & Hayley

Kat

February 6, 2012

Paul & Hayley planned their wedding in just four months! They were engaged in July and wanted a winter wedding but the didn't want to have to wait a whole year...so a speedy engagement it was! They were married in November at Vauxhall Farm in Suffolk. "We decided that we wanted to decorate the reception ourselves and bring in caterers so Vauxhall Farm was perfect, " Hayley told me. "It was essentially a big empty barn in the middle of some fields! Our thoughts for the venue styling was lots of colour and lots and lots of fairy lights!! We found lots of vases and lanterns and filled them with fairy lights and strung more lights across the ceiling as well. Our table names were pubs that we love. So we painted the inside of photo frames with chalkboard paint and wrote the names on there, we then gave our guests chalk so that they could wipe off the table name and have some fun!! Someone said that our tables looked like children's party!"
Read more...

A Casual & Intimate Outdoor Wedding: Michael & Mariko

Kat

February 3, 2012

Michael asked Mariko to marry him at a festival, "in a trashed tent with some beers, talking with some friends about relationships and life," he told me. "You know… those most profound things you talk about at festivals. It was just the right moment." So then they had their wedding theme - a festival style, party wedding! "We wanted our wedding to be intimate, nothing big, loud or expensive," Micheal continued. "The most important thing was that we were getting married and be together forever, to share our love with the people we love, all our friends and family."
Read more...