RocknRollBride hosts the party of the year!

Long post warning! But hopefully worth it p.s. i’m serious, grab a cuppa!

What difference a week makes! This time last week I had just finished watching Jasmine Star on Creative Live and, like many in the wedding industry and beyond, felt hugely inspired and motivated to push myself and accomplish more.

I had the most AH-MAY-ZING response to last week’s blog post about the impact Jasmine had on my thought process and outlook and really connected with so many like minded people. I’ve had people say such lovely things and even call me an inspiration, me! It has been a huge confidence boost and reaffirmed my belief to follow the path of putting myself out there and it seems many people thought the same.

Every last thing that Jasmine said over the course of the weekend felt very real to me and in some way applied to my thoughts or actions. One of those many things that really resonated with me was how we view others in our chosen industry. Jasmine implored us all not to see those we are in ‘competition’ with as competition but instead as allies and this really came true on Thursday 14th April.

This very day was a big one for me as it was my first opportunity to meet photographers and wedding bloggers that I admire and am somewhat obsessed with on twitter, not to mention everyone else in this fabulous industry including the reason we all exist…brides and grooms! It had all the makings of a fabulous night; signature cocktail in a paint tin, sweetie table, awesome London venue, cupcakes, the industry elite and so much more. It certainly did not dissapoint!

Kat Williams is the absolute superstar behind the now infamous RocknRoll Bride wedding blog and is one of the key players in the rapidly expanding and absolutely awesome blogging industry. It wasn’t always like this for the Kat we all know, love and obsess over now. She began her journey much like the rest of us and shared with me how it all started,

‘I started organising ‘meets’ very early on in my blogging career. They started small…tiny in fact. The first was just over 3 years ago and just 7 of us met in a small underground bar in London. There were 5 brand new wedding photographers (all of whom I’m still close with now and attended Thursday’s party!) a new stationery designer and me. I would organise for us to meet every 6 months or so in ‘real life’ as we all felt it was really important to be real life friends as well as just internet ones! However as Rock n Roll Bride got more popular, so did our meet ups – from just 7, to 12, to 20…to 100…and then on Thursday to 200 attendees‘. If that isn’t inspiration to the rest of us I don’t know what is!

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of awesomeness for me! I was so lucky to do PhotoNightLive with Kat, all about blogging and the impact it has on how we progress our business. If that wasn’t exciting enough Kat and I then followed this up with Rich from FX Films and filmed a four part series on blogging from the basics, to getting started, sustaining the blog and then using blogs to build your business. All of which are featured every Wednesday at 9am on Kat’s blog. Who gets the opportunity to do such things so early on in their journey to their ultimate dream?

Fast forward a week and Kat announces on said amazing blog she still has two tickets to give away for the party of the year and I am beyond excited! I crossed my fingers and entered the draw alongside so many deserving people, all the while knowing that I had already been so lucky this last couple of weeks to spend so much time with Kat and maybe someone else should get to share her! Sure enough Hannah of Hannah Millard Photography was the lucky winner and felt such a connection with me following my Jasmine Star blog post that she asked me as her date! I mean how frigging cool is that?! We’d never met but just from her reading my blog post she shared her precious plus one with me. The community that photography, twitter, Jasmine, Kat et al. creates is truly a wonder to behold and be a part of

Kat let me in on how important this community is to her and how it has impacted the success of her business,

‘Meeting people you know online (and some new faces of course) in this business is so important for sanity and of course for FUN! When you run your own business, often from home, its so easy to feel that you’re all alone and getting together with a few like-minded people is good for the soul. I guess I just have quite a few of these like-minded friends now! This latest party was the first one where I wanted to invited all readers of my blog – brides & grooms-to-be as well as industry professionals. Again, it’s really important to me to have a strong sense of community around Rock n Roll Bride and the girls and guys that read my blog for their own wedding inspiration mean so much to me….so of course I wanted to party with them too!‘ And party we all certainly did! Some harder than others, props to the 5am crew, Rock and Roll indeed!

So, two days before the party I need to sort travel, hotel, outfit and prop (?!), all the while feeling very ill and sorry for myself but so excited to have got a ticket to the hottest party in London town! Cue Miss Lucy Ledger, stationery designer extraordinaire and the creator of all the brilliant photobooth cards, posters, and invites for the RocknRoll Bride party, retweeting a spare hotel bed and my first, of many I am sure, meetings with Nicola of Daffodil Waves Photography and, in the interests of cutting a long story short, my new bff

My first prop idea (Harry Potter glasses and an authentic Gryffindor scarf straight out of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Orlando) went very wrong the night before the party, so the more traditional sparkly wand and devil horns were packed and ready to go, and so was I!

So sorry for such a long write up, but I’m sure many people have just skipped to the photos anyway so that’s beside the point! My photography journey has led me to some truly wonderful, inspirational people, many of whom were at this very party, daunting much?! Although I met so many amazing people who I have admired for a long time, it was impossible to meet everyone I would have loved to and there is only so much staring at people you think you might know from twitter before looking like a stalker!

This fantabulous party brought together so many of my favourite things; travel, my wand, cake, London, photography, wonderful people, dressing up and a photo booth to name just a few! It was the recipe for a perfect night and it so was, in so many ways.

My trusty little digital camera joined me on this adventure. I didn’t want to be too preoccupied with my dslr, especially under the influence of copious amounts of alcohol, and knew there would be plenty of far more capable and amazing photographers taking care of those photos and to really enjoy the night, for me, candids were the way forward! Plus it got dropped and lost so many times I lost count so I definitely made the right decision. Although I have added my logo to these photos in a vain attempt to look slightly professional

I was a very lucky lady to get a very last minute room in the heart of London with two very special people; Nicola of Daffodil Waves and Karolina of The Creativ. Below is us at our hotel with Nicola and I doing our best ‘Kat pose’ (!) with the whole night ahead of us…

The perfect start to the night, a paint tin of RocknRoll Bride punch to share between 4-6 people, for 2

For those that haven’t tasted the lethal mix, the lethal part was that it didn’t even taste alcoholic! Very sweet, and moreish – dangerous stuff!

The first of many photobooth photos! Think Kat was stuck in the photobooth for much of the first hour or so, and that was just with Nicola and I

There were some seriously great props to try – the pink hair was Nicola’s awesome contribution and certainly got some serious use! The longer the night went on, more brilliant props kept appearing and created some really memorable photos!

My official date and I declaring our love for Kat!

The gorgeous Kelly of Boho Weddings and Events and I enjoying a cupcake! This woman is fabulous – such infectious energy and ethusiasm! I <3 her big time!

Posing whilst stuffing our faces trying not to display a gobful of cake…niiiiiice!

How many people can you fit in one shot? 4 and a pair of eyes it would seem! We are joined by the stunning Amma of wedding blog, Beyond Beyond, such a lovely lady!

Photo booth fun! I think everyone was harbouring pink hair envy for sure. Kelly and Kat on the left and Kat and the frigging awesome Lisa Devlin of Lisa Devlin Photography on the right…my first, embarassing words to Lisa were (in the ladies toilets) are you THE Lisa Devlin?! Kill me now

I must also say that wasn’t even the most embarrassing of my ‘openers’ if you can call them that! Another being my first time meeting Annabel of the amazing Love My Dress wedding blog, who is an exceptionally glamorous woman. She had a beautiful dress designed just for the occasion, complete with the sparkliest necklace i’ve ever seen! My classic this time was ‘You are so gorgeous, don’t you ever just wear pyjamas?!’ errrrrr :s Luckily her response was one of a woman after my own heart ‘Are you kidding?! My husband wants to do a blog post on me called Love My Mess!’ Sadly I never got a photo of the beauty that is Annabel but there will be plenty i’m sure on Kat’s blog on Monday!

A romantic pre-snog Kat and David McNeil of David McNeil Photography, and the official photo booth photographer for the night Lisa of Lisa Jane Photography – she did a fantastic job on the night and no pressure but the whole of twitter land cannot wait for the photos!

The immense cupcake stand – these were beyond amazing! Another type of cupcake and I, Anna Clarke of Anna Clarke Photography the most beautiful girl in the room

Some seriously massive smiles in this photo, it makes me so happy Kelly and Anna are so infectious and i’ve been waiting to meet them both for a very long time and they were both worth the wait; gorgeous, funny and so sweet.

Myself and Mr Steve Gerrard of Steve Gerrard Photography, another photography hero of mine! Such a fun guy, inspirational and funny, so excited to meet him after stalking him for a looong time

Some gorgeous sour lips, this photo just had to be done and a perfect example of the ESP between Nicola and I! Didn’t even need to ask her to pose for this!

OMG indeed! How much do I love this gorgeous woman?! and that frame for that matter, photobooth rocks!

The Birmingham Crew on the left – Anna and Simon Clarke, Steve Gerrard, Emma Case and Pete Smyth (did I need to even write their names?!) and the wonderful Nicola – such awesome people in one great city! On the right I was a complete fangirl over David McNeil as he was playing about with my prop! The David McNeil with my prop! Upon reflection my introduction was hugely embarrassing but in the spirit of having an awesome night, who cares?!

The sweet as hell Shell De Mar rocking the blow up pink wig – cuteness!

Nicola and Kat – twins?! Kelly rocking my horns with someone who I’m sure I should know if Kelly is in the photobooth with him, rocking out my Radley handbag as a prop! For some reason I left it with the props :s and when I went to retrieve it declaring it wasn’t a prop, it soon became exactly that, who am I to argue?!

How do I even describe how much I treaure these next few photos without sounding totally lame? Ok I just sounded lame so what more do I have to lose?! Emma Case is massive people, like huge, but you knew that Not only is she an awesome photographer, doing her own thing and seriously kicking ass at it, she is one of the lovliest people I have ever met. It all started when I introduced myself to her and she only went and floored me by actually knowing who I was! Add to the mix her next line; ‘you smell amazing’ well, I was officially a lifetime member of the Emma Case fanclub. Emma’s husband and the other half of Emma Case Photography, Pete is such a great guy, so laid back, lovely, cool and a wicked dancer, they are the perfect couple.

Uncoolness alert: These photos remind me of when I went to Disney World (only last November, ahem) and waited in line to have photos with my favourite princesses, nervously hoping they are just like when I see them in the films (or blogs in this case), and they have never once let me down. Ok, with the exception of Belle, why wouldn’t you wear the yellow dress woman?! I digress. Now there was, thankfully, no waiting in line but these photos remind me that everyone is human, and they are mostly just like the rest of us, just with a bit of extra sparkle.

Kat, you are an inspiration to us all, you’ve brought so many people together in such a fabulous way and have followed your heart with amazing success. Thank you for involving me in a part of your journey, it has been massive for me and i’ve got to meet some seriously awesome people I would never have met otherwise and made some great friends along the way.

You are setting an amazing precedent in the blogging world, and laying out the path for us all to follow; keep at it and amazing things happen. Work hard, play hard and if playing hard can be a big part of working hard then all the better! This party is going to be talked about for a very long time to come, maybe until the next one which i’m sure will be even bigger and even more fabulous.

A huge thank you from the bottom of my happy heart for holding such an amazing party and bringing us all together, building the time into your insanely busy schedule for me to interview you, being a huge support and inspriation to me and just generally being a huge force to be reckoned with, now and in the future!

Kat will be posting all the photos from the party tomorrow on her blog, but for a sneak peek and awesome video by Rich of FX Films, shot purely on his iPhone, (seriously this guys rocks)! then read Kat’s tasty teaser!

Raising my pink and sparkly liquid filled paint tin to many more sensational parties to come!

Ali x