How to Ditch the White Wedding Dress & Just Be You!

How to Ditch the White Wedding Dress & Just Be You!

I’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!

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Wedding Inspiration // Joshua Tree Modern Geometric Lesbian Elopement

Wedding Inspiration // Joshua Tree Modern Geometric Lesbian Elopement

The idea for this shoot was to capture the natural beauty of the desert in Joshua Tree alongside the natural beauty of these two gorgeous brides for elopement inspiration. To accentuate the minimal, modern appeal of eloping, we chose dramatic, modern copper geometric accents for the decor contrasted with loose organic florals and plants, and minimally adorned but beautifully draped gowns in black and white. Our models are a real-life couple, Bridget and Kristi, who were planning their own elopement at the time of our shoot!

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Out of the Box Challenge // Featured Team: Tabula Rasa

Out of the Box Challenge // Featured Team: Tabula Rasa

Out of the Box is a choose-your-own-adventure styled shoot challenge that we conducted last spring, and there is one last photo shoot that we have yet to uncover. Justine Bursoni and Team Tabula Rasa, or "Blank Slate," created a gorgeous shoot with a little magic and a whole lot of beauty, and it reminds us that a wedding a way of wiping the slate clean as two people start their life together. 

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Out of the Box Challenge // Featured Team: Fembots Have Feelings Too

Out of the Box Challenge // Featured Team: Fembots Have Feelings Too

Our aim was to create a styled shoot that focused more on emotion and the narrative experience of planning a marriage than simply the glitz and staged still life that is the norm for styled shoots. We partnered with a real life couple to tell the story of what happens when a couple becomes engaged, endures the stress of early planning, and then decides to be true to themselves and elope. We wanted to create inspirational images unlike those we'd seen before, such as a woman proposing to her male partner, and the honesty of the "fuck it, let's elope" scene. In sum, we hope that our imagery pleases in not only an aesthetic way that shows off awesome details such as the Ash & Light sequined dress, but that it also hits an emotional chord and rings true about the underlying experience and significance of the wedding planning process.

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Out of the Box Challenge // Featured Team: Not All the Things

Out of the Box Challenge // Featured Team: Not All the Things

Our story follows a RVA couple that have been together for several years, have a great house, have a sweet pup and have finally decided to get married.  She bought a wedding dress, they started the planning, picked out stationary and did all the things that a normal engaged couple would do.  Until one Sunday morning they woke up and thought, “Fuck it.  Let’s just go and get married.”  They ate breakfast, got dressed, took their dog on a walk, got married and went back home to eat cake and Netflix & chill.  Maybe not the most glamorous of wedding days with dreamy sunsets and gold rimmed place settings but the two most important parties showed up for one another and isn’t that all we really hope for on a wedding day.

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Out of the Box Challenge // Featured Team: Endor

Out of the Box Challenge // Featured Team: Endor

My experience with OOTB actually turned into a personal affirmation of what moves me to make photographs of couples. Real love. It's so simple sometimes that I do occasionally question myself! But seriously — two people in love are an overlooked marvel. There is so much pressure in this industry to present weddings as this elaborate tableau vivant — immaculate people having immaculate parties. Gorgeous? Yes. My cup of tea? Nope. Give me flower confetti and a side ache from laughing too hard any day.

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Out of the Box Challenge // Featured Team: League of Extraordinary Gals

Out of the Box Challenge // Featured Team: League of Extraordinary Gals

The contents of the box were perfect for our Peacock Inspired Vow Renewal. The concept of “Moving Forward” fit perfectly with our couple for the shoot. Since our couples have been married for a year we wanted to incorporate the idea of a vow renewal ceremony for them. People often say the first year of marriage can be touch so why not celebrate a year of love and growth with a vow renewal, but also looking forward to what ahead.

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Out of the Box Challenge // Featured Team: Love From The Windy City

Out of the Box Challenge // Featured Team: Love From The Windy City

Last month, we hosted our first-ever Out of the Box Challenge, a styled shoot challenge similar to the cooking show Chopped. We had nine teams from across the country compete, and we sent them boxes of mystery items including dresses from Ash and LightCelia Grace, and Urban Set Bride along with accessories from Kerry Ann Stokes and Wood Thumb. Our first and second place winners will be featured in Volume Three of Catalyst Wedding Magazine and all the other teams will be featured here over the next three weeks! We are extremely proud of all the teams and their hard work (and beautiful photos)!

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