When Rock n Roll Bride was created in 2007, I wrote a manifesto, which has remained the same to this day. It states,
Rock n Roll Bride is all about the charm and unique nature of ordinary people’s extraordinary weddings. Our passion is inspiring couples to plan the wedding that they really want in a world dictated by tradition.
Being ‘Rock n Roll’ is not about being cool, a rebel or even thinking of the most unique idea you can. It’s about planning a day that reflects you and your partner and declaring your love in your own special way. You don’t have to be wacky; you don’t have to be offbeat and you don’t have to be intentionally quirky – you just have to be you.
Kate, who is originally from Perth, met Ethan while she was living in London. Ethan is in a band and they were reunited at Fringe World Festival in 2017. Kate had returned to Perth and was working there, and Ethan and his band flew over to perform!
Two years later they married, and of course they had to do in a way fitting for their love story, so they chose to do it at Adelaide Fringe Festival, specifically in the Corona Theatre in The Garden of Unearthly Delights area.
Regardless of how well or not well you think you did at adapting to change in the last year, the fact that you’re here reading this shows me that you made it. Congratulations!
We’re still not quite be out of the woods yet, and making plans (especially big wedding ones, particularly if you’ve had them dashed hard before) can feel really scary. What if you book something, get really excited about it and then find that everything has to be cancelled or postponed again?
I hear you honey, those thoughts are real and valid. It’s a tough time to try and get a big mixed generation group together (“Auntie Doris is 98, we can’t have her in the same room as little Jimmy’s 5-year-old-potential-germ-carrying-sticky-fingers!”) But here’s the thing, change is happening to us all the time.
We may wish the hands of time to stop turning but unless you happen to have Bernard’s watch*, we all have to deal with those calendar pages whipping away. (*For those of you who were not a small child in Britain in the 90s, this is an obscure reference to a BBC programme where a boy could stop time with his watch so as to get up to adventures and mischief and still be home in time for tea.)
Life is change. We must deal with changes in our relationships, mental health, communities, finances, physical health, job… there’s not a single place in our lives that isn’t subject to change. The problem is we need a balance of familiar and new, otherwise things feel incredibly stressful (it’s called Future Shock). 2020 was too much change, too quickly and that’s when many of us struggle to cope.
This is where resilience comes in. Researchers used to think that resilience was genetic. We all know someone who manages to cope with anything, right? We all used to believe that some people were just more able to cope with change than others. However, what the research has discovered is that resilience can be taught. If you haven’t heard, it turns out that our brains are malleable and we’re able to develop new neural pathways all the time. Look up neuroplasticity, it’s very cool. This scientific breakthrough means the saying is wrong, you can teach an old dog new tricks. Hurrah!
The question is, what does best practice in coping with change look like? (No, there’s no wine involved!) If you’re wobbly about change, here are a few healthy practices for increasing your level of resilience.
High-school sweethearts Erika and Garrett couldn’t let 2020 (and their 10-year anniversary) pass without at least one good thing happening, so when it got to December they decided to plan their elopement in just one week.
With a budget of $1,000, they just wanted to present their authentic selves on the day. They were originally due to get married at Seymour Marine Discovery Center in Santa Cruz, so as they loved their venue so much, decided to hold their elopement ceremony as close to it as they could.
Kirsty and Luke didn’t want lots of fuss for their January wedding, but an elopement wasn’t quite right either. They wanted their parents to be able to see them get married so they decided to have a tiny wedding with just their families. The day was literally just them, both sets of parents, three of their siblings and their 18-month old son.
Your wedding stationery should get you excited. As creators of a print magazine, we think there’s something so extra special about seeing something beautifully designed and printed rather than just in a digital format, and your wedding stationery is no different. Sure, you could just sent a group WhatsApp, or invite people to a Facebook group, but where’s the magic in that?!
If you’re looking for something to truly knock your guests’ socks off (after all it will be the first thing they see to give them an indication of what your wedding day will be like) then look no further than these companies, who are all offering something really unique with their super cool creations.
Paper made from wildflower seeds with The Seed Card Company
Imagine wedding and social stationery and that do not harm trees and actually help the environment! The Seed Card Company offer an inspirational range of six beautifully designed eco-friendly wedding collections, which have multiple design options in each, that include Save the Date cards, Invitations, Information cards, RSVP’s, Menus, Table numbers/Name cards, Orders of Service, Place Settings, and Thank You cards.
They are recyclable, biodegradable, and embedded with a mixture of six wildflower seed types including Bird’s Eye, Clarkia, Black Eyed Susan, Catchfly, Snapdragon and Sweet Alyssum.
All made from post-consumer waste or recycled pre and post-consumer eco-friendly board and printed with vegan–friendly inks. Partnering with global reforestation effort, Ecologi, means each time a card or stationery suite is purchased, The Seed Card Company and Ecologi will plant a tree.
What better way to have your wedding remembered and live on?
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