Our 15 Favorite Weddings and Elopements of 2018
/It’s that time of the year! Here are our favorite real wedding moments from 2018!
Read MoreCatalyst 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!
It’s that time of the year! Here are our favorite real wedding moments from 2018!
Read MoreAlong my journey, I've shared each and every detail about what I've learned with my clients, other photographers, friends, and family. The result has been the forming of an honest community of creative people that have used my stories and experiences to grow and create their own.
Read MoreI (Shavonne) planned a cabin trip in Gatlinburg for Travis' 28th birthday party. We were surrounded by long-time friends and a beautiful mountain scenery. According to Travis, it was the one time I wouldn’t suspect a proposal!
Travis was praying for what I thought was dinner that night. The prayer quickly changed from the “gathering of family and friends” to words of endearment that shook my entire being, and then he proposed. It was beautiful, it was perfect, it was for us. I remember waking up that next morning feeling like I was in the best dream ever.
Originally we were thinking of a rustic style, but that changed when we picked a more modern venue. I had my gown made Mikaella from J Majors bridal. It wasn’t too fancy or heavy and I fell in love with it at first sight. Travis wore a midnight and navy tux. He was so handsome in it!
As for my favorite memories of the wedding day, I have so many! Turning the corner to see my husband standing at the altar, seeing the emotional bond between Travis and his sister as they danced, seeing our friends and family in fellowship, and my first look with my father.
Read MoreI once read that you don't remember what your wedding looks like, you remember how it feels. But what do we do to preserve how our weddings feel? Angie Barker of Angie the Rose has an idea: capture those fleeting moments with abstract art.
Read MoreI teamed up with a few other photographers and we came up with this awesome styled wedding. Using a real couple for models was very important. We wanted their love to be genuine. We wanted to capture the true essence of their love. Elliot and Tywanda Hansen were perfect! They had just celebrated their anniversary — 4 years of marriage!
Read MoreThis glamping styled shoot in Asheville was our way of shooting for us and our portfolios. It was a way for us to have a little fun behind the camera without the pressure of paying attention to clients’ expectations. I was so happy when I found Amber and Jaleesa via a model call I put out in The Queen Photographers on Facebook. They are such a lovely couple who are truly SO in love. It was a pleasure to photograph them for this shoot.
Read MoreDeon and I (Brittany) work at a North Carolina-based health insurance company, and are happily married with three kids.
We met at a high school football game (my school vs. his). I noticed him right away in his white Avirex jacket, black jeans and Diesel shoes. I thought he was staring at me all night (he disputes this!), so I sent my friend to get his number.
We talked on the phone for a few months, then we lost contact when I moved to Charlotte. I don’t quite remember how we got back in touch, but we did. We had a conversation about taking our relationship to the next level and have been inseparable ever since.
We told our photographer Nikia Williams that we wanted to do something different and have a background that we felt captured our personalities. A photo session at the carnival allowed us to re-live our high school days!
Read MoreIt’s summer trends, but giving people a little cold shoulder action at your wedding is definitely a "Hell Yes," if you ask me. I have seen so many off-the-shoulder gowns lately and loved all of them. Everything from a fitted dress to a more beachy vibe, loose fitting off-the-shoulder is extremely beautiful and effortlessly sexy to me. Not to mention, Rihanna just released a new body glow product for Fenty Beauty, Body Lava, so just imagine having that glowing neckline exposed, yes girl!
Read MoreI'll never forget the moment my whole life changed. As I came down the escalator to the baggage claim, the woman of my dreams was waiting. She had my favorite flowers, hydrangeas, and the most heartfelt card in hand. Her legs were shaking as I approached her, kissing her before exchanging words. I've never lived a more romantic moment than that one. We really haven't been apart much since.
Two girls means two proposals! I asked first, on Elon day, right in front of her college dorm where she had a brick made with her name on it. She graduated there, under the oaks, and so did my dad when he went to Elon in 1972 (another thing that drew me to her). Elon is a special part of our story because it's part of what brought us to NC and allowed our paths to cross. I had flowers, a note, and a necklace with Ashley's married initials monogrammed waiting for her to find at the brick with her name.
The same words in my note she had engraved on the ring box she used to propose to me two days later at the airport where we first met (she's definitely the more romantic one). "Without pause, without a doubt, in a heartbeat, I'll keep choosing you."
Being in our thirties, we both feel like we've waited a long time for the right one. We're thrilled to start our lives together, make our own traditions, get through school these next two years, and work on growing our family. We look forward to the depth of companionship that time will bring to our relationship, knowing that things won't always be perfect or easy, but that we are a team and we will love each other through any storm we may weather.
We chose to have our pictures done in a natural setting because we wanted the focus to be on us and our connection. We are often told that "we look so in love" and wanted that to come across in our pictures without distraction from a busy background.
Read MoreFor this styled shoot my goal was to take two models into an environment that was aesthetically less than ideal, and create a stylish, artistic vibe that captured a diverse couple. The two locations were a tennis court and an old archery range surrounded by burlap drapes.
I wanted Jasmine and Chris to give off a hip, casual, urban vibe while simulating a comfortable connection between the two models so I asked them to wear black to give off that feeling and energy. I envisioned this mixing well with the unique, unorthodox setting.
During the shoot I wanted Jasmine to represent the traditional "male" role which was a challenge but because of the height difference in both the models it ended up working out through experimenting with switching the "norms" of how a male/female couple should interact.
I chose to capture this shoot using two different formats: film and digital. I felt this would add to the different urban feel that I was going for.
Read MoreWhen Amber Robinson showed us the photos from a glam "just because love session" she did with her parents, I knew we had to show them to you. I asked Amber to interview her parents, too, and she mixed in her own questions with some of mine. Here is their interview, and these incredible photos.
Read MoreI think that people have romanticized the idea of self care; we don’t talk about what it really means to take care of self. What I want you to do when thinking about self care is to keep in mind those things that you need so badly. This includes the physical, mental, emotional, and financial. What is it going to take you to get to the place you need to be in these areas?
Read MoreAmy and I met at the hair salon! Let’s just say she gave me a haircut that changed my life. Literally. We had a mutual friend who went to Amy for really awesome haircuts, and she had told me to go see Amy. It took me almost a year to walk in that salon, but I was so glad that I did. She had me mesmerized: she was beautiful and absolutely stunning! Plus she gave me the most awesome haircut ever. The sparks were flying and I had not felt this way before.
Read MoreWe met back in 2011. He was definitely the last person in mind to fall in love with! We both were dating other people, but we developed a great friendship and respect for each other. As time passed and our other relationships ended, we looked at each other in a “this can actually be a thing” kind of way.
Read MoreOne of the things I love most about my films are the honest interactions I'm usually able to capture from my couples. My favorite moments are the unscripted ones, and I've found that if I keep my gear simple and unobtrusive I am able to fade into the background enough for them to feel comfortable to be themselves — so important for my filmmaking process!
Read MoreWe both work at Best Buy. I was fairly new to the store, and he had just transferred from Ohio. We instantly became friends and grew that friendship for almost two years before we decided to start dating. We got engaged when I surprised him with a birthday weekend with all his best friends from Ohio. He made a proposal video, and played it at his birthday party, and we celebrated the next two days with all of our closet friends.
Read MoreHey beauties, it seems like this has been a long-ass month, or am I tripping? Either way I have been waiting to come chat again; did ya miss me? I’m sipping some Teavana tea; it’s a winterberry blend, and it is amazing!! Seriously you all have to google it and order some and then let me know how you love it?! It is a loose tea and has like grapefruit and strawberry flavors; it tastes so good so if you’re into tea, then grab some! Onto the tea you’re all here for. This month I am doing another interview and actually trying something new! I want to add some “spotlight articles” where I will interview a business owned by a black woman that caters to black women. So this month I am putting the spotlight on my girl Felicia. She is the owner of Shopfe-line, a brand that if you follow me you are very familiar with, as I do makeup for her product shoots! So let’s see how the interview went with this bossbabe, shall we?!
Read MoreWe just wanted a session full of color, and with the city of Charlotte as our back drop.
Read MoreThe moment Carla and Lashanna met, they knew instantly they were meant to be together. As their love grew, they had no doubts in their minds that they were just "right." For this styled session, I wanted to bring out their personalities and showcase their love for each other. We had Carla's love for all things glam, while also having a more relaxed feel with Lashanna.
Read MoreHi beauties! How y'all feeling?!! I'm feeling AMAZING after having watched Black Girls Rock! last night on BET!!! I mean how glorious was that show?! If you watched please do tell me all of your favorite parts and which looks you were here for. I'm sitting here sipping this vanilla chai tea because it's too damn hot to be playing those hot tea games, okay?! Anyways I decided that I'm ready for fall because that is my favorite season, and I guess that means we should talk fall beauty trends, right?!!! After watching Black Girls Rock!, I saw a few of the trends I was gonna mention in September's write-up, so let's do this thang shall we?!!
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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!
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