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!
No matter what your background is, this guide will help you and your partner prioritize the religious and cultural traditions that matter to you and prep you for those tricky family convos. These tips also set you up to understand, honor, and incorporate traditional Jewish customs into your wedding in a relevant and inclusive way.
Read MoreDear Ciera,
My partner and I are recently engaged and can’t wait to get started planning our big day! We are hoping to buy our first home soon, so we’d like to keep our wedding budget under $15k. Any tips on how to manage this budget?
Sincerely,
Newly Engaged & Economical
Read MoreSearching for wedding rings can be exhausting. There are seemingly millions of options — and you don’t want to choose something flippantly because it is something you plan to wear for the rest of your life. It should be special. It should mean something. You should love your ring, right? After all, the wedding ring symbolizes your never-ending, unbroken devotion to your chosen life partner. It’s a big deal.
Read MoreBlack BeauTEA talk is a monthly column, and I look forward to bringing you ladies all sorts of TEA. No, seriously I'll definitely be sharing with you all what tea (as in the drink) I'm sipping as I write each post, as well as what tea (as in the latest news) I'm sipping as far aa beauty tips, tricks, and products for us.
Read MoreI love Valentine's Day, because I love LOVE. For best friends, neighbors, siblings, roommates, co-workers, kiddos, fellow human beings, and (yes, occasionally) romantic partners. I'm excited about a day that gives us an excuse to tell all the wonderful people in our lives “I love you, and I'm glad you're here.”
Read MoreYou just got engaged! Congrats! Don't freak out. Here are 12 questions to ground you and lay the foundation for your wedding priorities. And if you're already partnered, these questions are a good way to check-in with your loved one.
Read MoreThe internet is crawling with playlists to match your wedding morning joy. If you rise like a flower, float to your bridal party, and arrive at the venue on a magic carpet — those playlists are for you. For all the betrothed who are hoping to speed through their makeup routine so they have more time to dance in the hotel room with their best friends, turn this up.
Read MoreMost couples have anxiety about their ceremony, after all it is the highlight of the day and movies have taught us that we’re meant to freak out. Consider instead a quieter ceremony with just your immediate family. Your friends can join you at cocktail hour, and I promise they will be fine with it! When you say private ceremony, guests understand. If they don’t, tough for them. Remember, you can always get married in total privacy with just the two of you and still have a wedding reception with everyone! It’s a thing, and it’s awesome.
Read MoreOnce upon a time, women were considered no more than chattel. We had no property rights, and it was widely believed that our brains were shaped like high-heel glass slippers. If divorce or death ended a marriage, women were usually forced to make do with a shack deep in the forest, twelve cats, and several coffee-table books on witchcraft. Prenuptial agreements were introduced specifically to avoid this outcome.
Read MoreGood afternoon! And welcome to a cookie chronicle that will go down in history as the best thing to happen in 2017, due to lack of competition. Just kidding. I'm hoping we see lots of beauty, love, resilience, and badassery in the days ahead — things much more important than cookies. But for the days we don't/can't see those things, I'm here for you. Who am I, you ask? (You didn't, but since I'm the one writing this, it really doesn't matter what you are and are not saying.) I'm a little baker based in Virginia who loves butter, Beyoncé, Michelle Obama’s arms, Michelle Obama’s everything, Drake’s feelings, superheroes, anti heroes, graphic novels, black excellence, spirituality, cheese, dranks, ice cream, “me time,” and these pants I got from Costco that look like real pants but are actually basically yoga pants. And I come with cookies.
Read MoreWe've seen articles about which wedding dress you should pick based on your astrological sign, but what if you are not interested in wearing a dress on your wedding day. What if, instead, a pant suit or jumpsuit is more up your alley? Look no further, we have the guide for you!
Read MoreIn the endless sea of wedding planning there’s one thing that has the power to elicit both boundless excitement and nervous dread: the dress, or to be precise, shopping for the dress. While many couples are beginning to realize there are alternatives to traditional dress shopping, like DIY dresses and amazing vintage thrift store finds, brides continue to flock to high-fashion boutiques that speak to eurocentric ideologies of beauty and style. While the traditionalist boutique is certainly an attractive option for some, there are just as many brides looking for another option. There’s a brave new world of bridal gowns out there, one that is entrenched in our reemerging appreciation of the highly skilled craftsperson, and it’s online.
Read MoreI remember our wedding ceremony so completely — the light breezy air coming through the wide open windows of the Quaker meeting house, the bright sky showing through a skylight over our heads, and the smiles of loved ones all around us. I remember the absolute joy and the palpable energy that my husband and I shared as we sat together in what will surely be counted as one of the best moments of our lives.
Read MoreWhat if you and your spouse-to-be decided together how to measure the success of your marriage, even if it didn’t last “until death”? What if you decided to individualize your marriage so it was as unique as your wedding, as unique as the two of you are? After all, you don’t want to just create a life with him or her; you want to create a specific kind of life. Your kind of life.
Read MoreIn celebration of this great moment, and to help you craft a ceremony that embodies your own highest aspirations, here are nine new game-changing vows for modern couples.
Read MoreIt's that time of year when people are more likely to make the decision to get engaged and start planning their wedding. Engagement gifts are becoming more and more common as a way to celebrate a couple's decision to dedicate themselves to each other, but the last thing anyone needs is an engagement gift that tries to assert outside opinions into their relationship and engagement. Throughout the month of December we will be sharing engagement gifts that will help couples celebrate, but will leave all that patriarchal traditional bullshit behind. First off, the idea engagement gifts that our woo-woo loving Creative Director, Jen, would pick out for herself if she could do it all again.
Read MoreSome couples opt to have a wedding celebration in each of their native countries (my husband and I had one in Munich, Germany where he’s from and a second one several months later in California). If it isn’t feasible to have two weddings, another option is to have one ceremony and include as much of both cultures in it as possible.
However, hosting a wedding for guests who don’t speak the same language runs the risk of many people feeling out of the loop. Here are some ways to keep everyone engaged and make all guests feel included.
Read MoreI’ve been at 400 weddings in 15 years. I’m sure I’ve seen every kind of white dress you can possibly imagine, and frankly, I’m over it.
It’s 2016, people! You can stand out as a bright flower in a summer full of white-dress-black-suit friendweddings!
You can be memorable and amazing! You can be excited about being yourself!
You can express your gender identity! LGBTQIA+ couples don't have to try and fit into what their straight friends are doing, unless they want to.
You can put that weirdly large wedding dress budget to use in hiring a better photographer, getting engagement photos, having cocktails or better quality food, or going on your honeymoon!
Read MoreIt’s easy to become overwhelmed with choices while planning your wedding. Price is always important, but sometimes our vision seems more important and we often make fast and clouded decisions with the expectation of re-selling things later. But sometimes it’s just not that easy! Re-selling wedding decor isn’t a simple task — whether it’s style, season, or even shipping costs, many things can deter potential buyers.
Have no fear: there’s another way to go about your wedding purchases, and that’s smart buying! We chose items we knew we could hang onto and could easily translate into our home decor. After a few effortless projects, it became a fun challenge to see what else we would be able to incorporate! (It also helps if you have a contractor in the family!)
Read MoreMost weddings include hundreds of hours of planning — from choosing the invitations to the last hours of celebrating and dancing. On the day of the wedding you need to remember the most important thing: You are marrying the love of your life. Shifting from doing, planning, working to being, experiencing, enjoying can alter the day for you and your guests dramatically.
Read More
Catalyst Wedding Co. may receive compensation or products from these companies. This helps support our site.
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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