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!
Kelli met Jared online and found him witty and charming. She couldn't wait to meet him in person. After a couple of awkward moments (like only first dates can deliver) they found out they are passionate about books, coffee, video games and everything geek. Jared was so excited at the end of the date that he couldn't wait. He called her the same day.
Read MoreJulie and Christina are an interfaith, interracial lesbian couple who enhance, rather than diminish, each facet of their individual lives in their wedding(s!). The pair, who met playing roller derby in Ohio, hosted their first wedding at a gorgeous synagogue in San Francisco followed by an all-out reception at Fire House 8. Their follow-up wedding was held in their home state of Ohio with only their closest friends and family. This is a couple who really knows where their values lie and were able to create the best of all worlds: the extravagant, fun and exciting San Francisco wedding contrasted with a humble, family-oriented celebration in the majestic fall forest of Hocking Hills, Ohio. Their story is beautiful; the pictures speak for themselves. Julie & Christina’s magnetic energy truly comes through in this intoxicating series of photos.
Read MorePeter and I met in teacher's college over a mutual love of Doctor Who and all things nerdy. Over the last seven years our relationship has taken us through all sorts of adventures including living and teaching in the far north of the James Bay area. We've come a long way through pregnancy loss, the birth of our son, and working in isolation 1500 km from family. Our wedding was the perfect way to celebrate our little family and what it means to be us. We couldn't think of a better way to do that than a Doctor Who-inspired wedding that showcased our personalities and artistic style as a couple. The day was an intimate gathering of close friends and family in a hidden historical gem in Toronto called the Arts and Letters Club. Here we celebrated our love of each other and the ridiculous nerdy obsessions that make us us and brought us together in the first place. We had a lot of fun sneaking references from the show into the event to create a wedding that was both elegant for those who didn’t catch the references, and entertaining for those who did.
Read MoreSo there we were in a pre-shift meeting, neither of us were suppose to be there, but both of us there staring at each other and smiling a lot. We flirted for the entire shift, and went on our first date that night. Jurassic World ;-) We now live together and we couldn't be happier!
Read MoreWhile many couples get lost in the minutiae of seating charts, the number of flowers in each centerpiece, and other such details for the so-called "perfect" wedding, Sharon and Michelle's intent was much different: to this couple, the perfect wedding was a day of mindfulness and love.
Read MoreThis wedding was a game changer due to the both the creative and brilliant multicultural couple Nodira and Alex and the amazing experience they put on for their guests (and me!). Nodira and Alex wanted their wedding to create a unique community-building experience out in nature with all of their friends and family for a weekend. Most of the guests camped out in tents on the property, Moon Mountain Lodge, which is a beautiful off-the-grid place in Northwest Washington State.
Read MoreLilly and James (yes, really!!) are self-confessed geeks with a love of all things Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Batman, Star Wars, and just about everything else in between. They wanted an engagement session that really reflected who they are, so they opted to do it in Southend-on-Sea, a little English seaside town where Lilly grew up and both she and James spent a lot of time together early on in their relationship. They chose to start at an amazing coffee shop they know called Utopia. It's full of quirky furniture, interesting decor, and the food and coffee is pretty damn good, too. After working their way through a slice of raspberry cake and relaxing a bit more in front of my camera, we strolled over to James' favourite place, the local comic book store, where he could wander around and choose a few of his favourite graphic novels to take home with him. Then, for Lilly, we headed to a bookstore just around the corner where we mooched around opening and sniffing all the new books (aaah!). Finally, we finished by wandering down to the seafront, buying ice creams, and getting a few final shots on the shore.
Read MoreWe met Nick and Brad at a marriage equality wedding show in Philadelphia. We have always believed love is love and can't be more thrilled that amazing couples like Nick and Brad can now be legally married with the same legal rights as anyone. They chose to have their wedding ceremony and reception in a less “typical” venue. The held it at JG Domestic in the Cira Center in Philadelphia. This is a fantastic restaurant run by the Garces Event Group for weddings. It offers a small, intimate and unique setting for couples looking for something different. The whole theme of the day was love and family. The couple wanted a fun and relaxing wedding so they could share it with the people they love and those who love them. We think they had the perfect day. They got ready together instead of in separate rooms. This is always a great moment because they are helping each other for their wedding! I think it is so cool to share that time and memory together. We had a blast capturing photos and video of them at the 30th street station and were then joined by their wedding party. Their ceremony was filled with so many cute moments and stories about how they first met.
Read More"We have a running joke that we are always kind of late to the game on things - showing up to shows after they have closed, missing events that we talked about going to for ages. This story is not dissimilar. In June we had planned a trip upstate as a getaway, but our cats (yes, both of them) caught some sort of stomach bug so we had to cancel. Little did we know, that both of us were planning to propose to one another that weekend. Fast-forward a couple weekends later to the third of July when we rebooked our trip. It was a Friday and we both had off work. A typical day off consists of coffee in bed while we read the news and stuff on our phones. Kat got up to serve the coffee, while Lauren was in bed (unsuspecting) checking Facebook when our cat Napoleon bounded on the bed with something special tied around his neck. Kat totally beat Lauren to the punch! Lauren was prepared with a ring to return as a bottle of bubbly was popped later that morning."
Read MoreIn 2014, Erik officiated the first legal same-sex ceremony in Wisconsin. The next day, he and his partner Ryan came back to the courthouse to get legally married themselves. It took almost a year for all of the legal and political dust to settle when the Supreme Court finally weighed in making same-sex weddings the law of the land. After this momentous ruling, Erik and Ryan decided they would like for their family and friends to to take part in their marriage as well. Their ceremony was a simple and classy affair focused on their family and friends.
Read MoreBrandy & Conley (lovingly referred to as Bronley) are one of the most amazing couples I've ever met. Their wedding day was gorgeous and memorable for so many reasons. These two are very dear friends of mine, so photographing their celebration was already an honor. Everything about their celebration magnified just how much these two love each other and their friends and family, as well as what an incredible and caring support system they have. The ceremony was held at a local park that overlooked the city. Brandy & Conley said this was really important for them, because they could come back and visit the spot where they said their vows anytime they wanted. The reception was hosted by a fabulous drag queen and one of their friends did a pole dance performance in the middle of the dance floor that left everyone with their jaws on the floor. Many people at the wedding didn't know that Conley had started transitioning (including his Father), and it was a beautiful moment to see Conley called by his chosen name for the first time in such a public yet intimate setting. Everything was uniquely Bronley. No bullshit, just awesomeness, tons of laughter, and lots and lots of love.
Read MorePaige and Ben are such a cool couple, and it was an honor to be a part of their special day. They are both super quirky and laid back and they went out of their way to have a party that was meaningful for them. The best part of the day was when a mob of superheroes decided to crash their first look — by far, my favorite image of the day!
Read MoreMikhail and Whitney had been together for precisely seven and a half years when they married on August 29, 2015. Having already done the moving in together seven years earlier and the getting a dog five years earlier, they wanted their wedding to be a celebration of the friends and family who loved them. With no enthusiasm for wedding planning between them, Mikhail and Whitney turned to a wedding planner to make their vision of a homey, camp-like retreat in the woods a reality.
Read MoreMiranda and Andrew spent more time deciding how to celebrate tying the knot than actually planning the occasion. From city hall, to small beach ceremony, to a grand celebration at Nixon Library, it took them some time to figure it out. They had their share of stubborn moments, overstepping family members, and budget challenges, but they knew when to stick up for each other, and when things weren’t worth the stress.
Read MoreEmily and Billy met when Emily got hired at the restaurant where he managed the kitchen. She asked him out a week before she moved out of state. They wanted their wedding to be about celebrating with the people they actually love and live life with, rather than an obligatory and stressful party. They spent the morning of their wedding showing parents and grandparents around the Grand Canyon, then held their intimate 30-person ceremony that evening at Chapel of the Holy Dove, a small shack outside of Flagstaff, AZ with no electricity or water. Their decorations were all borrowed, thrifted or homemade. The money they saved went to helping friends with plane tickets and their European honeymoon. The ceremony itself was hand-crafted by the couple together to exclude gender-specific language and many of the traditional, symbolically problematic elements of weddings, such as the giving away of the bride and the permission to kiss. Emily, being an incredible spoken word poet, recited her vows as a ten part poem that had everyone in tears, blown away by the beautiful honesty and sincerity of her words. When it seemed the ceremony didn't know to follow after such moving vows, Billy began snapping like a beat poet, which perfectly broke the tension and got everyone laughing again. They have no regrets about choosing not to have a big and elaborate wedding. Emily and Billy currently reside in Nashville, TN with their two cats Lewis and Lucy.
Read MoreNicky & I have been together since we met in Ann Arbor in 2009. We have always been adventurers and made a move to Brooklyn, NY in 2011. For most of our years together, we knew we'd found our lifetime partner but we weren't sure about getting married, what that would mean and what it might look like. We became domestic partners in NYC in 2013, and in 2015 decided we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to get all of our family and friends together by getting married.
Read MoreAs Joe's and my lips met for the first time in the middle of the most magical and dusty place called Burning Man, we knew we had found something very unique in each other. Our hearts recognized their equal, and our minds were intrigued by our compassion for our kids, family, community and Mother Earth. Our hearts filled with deep conversations about living simply and experiencing everything! The universe conspired for us and less than a year later, my son, Trent, and I moved up to Bend, Oregon to move in with Joe, his kids, Josiah, Faith, and Grace, his parents, and Nana. Joe, the creative artist and builder that he his, had recently found a 1959 International Harvester School Bus, gutted her and created a Gypsy palace for him and me to live in on his parents' property. We named her Primrose. Älska Art (Love Art in Swedish), is our business, filled with Joe’s unique one-of-a-kind jewelry, sculptures, and circus/fire props that allow us to work together and travel to events.
Read MoreAs a wedding planner, I (Sarah) get asked a lot of etiquette questions, but my mantra is — whatever makes you happy and reflects who you are. As a couple, Nicole and I have applied this to our own wedding planning. We've decided on a destination wedding in Italy (and honestly don't care that we can't legally marry there because our best friend is officiating and the good ole USA has granted us that right) because we like to eat and Nicole says the best meal of her life was in Positano. While I don't mind bigger weddings, for my own, I want to have time to hold each guests hand, look them in the eye and thank them for being a part of our lives. 40 guests makes this totally doable. We focus on our relationship and the love that surrounds us — that's what the heart of a wedding is about!
Read MoreAya & Britta both hail from the Pacific Northwest, so even though they now live in Los Angeles it made the most sense to get married here in Seattle. I find their love story to be all sorts of adorable… they were college roommates, and they loved living together, but it wasn’t until the very last few weeks of their first year living together that they realized they were honest-to-goodness in love with each other. They are such a fun couple (and it’s no surprise to me that they fell in love after living together for a year!), and their wedding was seriously fun!
Read MoreIn my time with these two, it was immediately clear they were operating so outside of the expectations of the wedding world. A lot of life still has to happen before they begin to plan the wedding (medical school, jobs, etc.), and during this shoot they were solely focused on enjoying the time they had together rather than stress about a self-imposed wedding deadline. They had a ton of fun showing me up and down the trails, and it was like hanging out with old friends while taking some photos.
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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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