Real Weddings, Advice, & Inspiration

Catalyst Wedding Company highlights weddings by and for game-changers. We seek to amplify and empower voices and viewpoints that are usually missing from the Wedding Industrial Complex. We're a community of badass wedding professionals who love all things funky, fresh, diverse, unique, and personality-driven; we convene twice yearly for (un)convention, a collaborative workshop, styled shoot, and dinner party. We're also the publishers of Catalyst Wedding Mag, a resource for couples looking for inspiration and affirmation that doing things differently in wedding-world is not only ok, it's wonderful!

We wanted our wedding to be as dreamy and romantic as our courtship was. Well it happened! Our wedding location was at Dover Hall, a private estate located in the rolling hills of Manikin-Sabot, Virginia conveniently situated between Richmond and Charlottesville, Virginia. Dover Hall was the perfect setting for the romantic, regal, and elegant wedding that we envisioned.

I am a co-owner of The ARTisan Cafe, an artisan cooperative in Richmond, Virginia so with my involvement in the arts and culture scene I really wanted to find a fresh and new muse for our special day. The wedding was inspired by classic charm, rustic elegance, and Black Renaissance. The wedding took place in an outdoor courtyard, and the reception was inside of the estate's dreamy ballroom. Most of our close friends and family live outside of Richmond, so our wedding was very much a coming together of those who have loved us the most. It was intimate, very fun and enjoyable, and you would have thought that everyone had known each other for years. It was such a warm and inviting atmosphere that day, and we believe that it was captured in our photos.

Photos by Kimie James of IYQ Photography