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!

Rachel and Jeff have forged their love for one another in the mountains. The two met at a friend’s barbecue in Charleston, West Virginia, last summer and have been roaming the woods together ever since. Neither Jeff nor Rachel are West Virginia natives. The two both found themselves settling there when their families relocated from the south — Jeff’s from Louisiana, Rachel’s from Texas. But their spirits are entwined in the state’s mountains and rivers. It seemed like fate when Cassie, a longtime friend of Rachel, woke up one morning to text her about a dream photoshoot at a magical, plateau campground. The two decided to make Cassie’s dream come true the following weekend with a spontaneous photo session in West Virginia’s New River Gorge — home to some of the most beautiful vistas on the East Coast. It has been easy for Rachel and Jeff to begin their journey together in the place they’ve come to call home. We are obsessed with the earnest, not-overly-styled quality of these photos, and how clear their love for each other and their environment is.

Images courtesy of Cassie Lopez Photography

CASSIE LOPEZ

Cassie Lopez is a wedding photographer based out of Nashville, Tennessee. She earned her BFA from Shepherd University and MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, both specializing in Photography. She is inspired by creative people, nostalgia and adventure.