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!

Our shoot, entitled “Love Wins,” is an awesomely eclectic, reimagined concept derived after the 2017 presidential inauguration. Our original shoot concept and date was derailed by the protests and marches that overshadowed the inaugural festivities. But instead of sulking and complaining, we used the current political climate to inspire our finished story.

The original concept of the shoot was an art walk elopement, so the photos at the diner alluded to our fun and quirky 80s/90s punk rocker art session. However, we took advantage of this opportune time to make a statement with portraits taken at the U.S. Capitol and the U.S. Supreme Court several days after the Women’s March on Washington. Our entire team thought now would be an amazing opportunity to take a political stance by sending a reminder that love really does win when we focus on the qualities that unify us all! Details of the shoot are below:

Fabulously photographed by Candace Nicole Photography with beauty services provided by Anitra Natalia Beauty and planning and fashion styling by Eclectic Fete, we wanted the couple to convey color and spunk! Christine’s attire was a Kelly Kapowski/Prince mash up featuring a one-piece black jumpsuit, fuchsia bolero jacket, and a bracelet-turned-single earring provided by Rosey West. Nadirah’s attire was more traditional with a side of punk rocker, featuring a gown from JLM Couture, a black leather jacket, colored neck choker, and a removable paper flower corsage (made with the bowtie from Becoming Neckwear).

One of the featured patterned papers from Suite Smith gave us all a Saved by the Bell vibe, so we secured the inclusive, vegan/vegetarian Fare Well Diner as the backdrop for our shoot. After playfully sharing a milkshake with custom California Lustre acrylic name tag paper straws, the couple proceeded to cut their custom designed wedding cake from Rebekah Naomi Cake Design—a six layer vanilla rainbow cake with vanilla buttercream. The couple had a little helper to cut their cake, as a fabulous transgendered Lego man adorned the top to wish them well!

After hitting the diner, the couple scampered off to take portraits near this really amazing graffiti art wall before going to make the ultimate statement at the U.S. Capitol Building and Supreme Court!! With all that is transpiring within the climate of American politics, we wanted to take a moment and stand in solidarity with the LGBT community and declare our happiness about how far we’ve come…while recognizing how much farther we have to go!! We ended the colorful evening with a celebratory confetti toss with confetti provided by The Confetti Bar.