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!

Overall we were very thoughtful (and a bit strict) when it came to wedding planning to try to make sure we kept things authentic to who we are and focused on the things that were important to us, versus just going with tradition or what was common. I'm a feminist and there are a lot of parts of weddings that are dripping in patriarchy, so we worked together to avoid as many of those things as possible. Lots of people contributed time and things to make the everything more personal and meaningful.

I wore a yellow dress because that's my fav color and it makes me happy. My mom wanted me to wear a more traditional dress. But I'm not a traditional girl. We also didn't have a traditional bridal party; instead we asked our closest friends to be in our "entourage" and kinda had them make a commitment to help us throughout our marriage (not just the wedding) and be our support system, advisors and stewards through this journey (not just the day of).

We had the reception as brunch because it's such a intimate, informal meal. Plus it's something we do at home every weekend, so we wanted to share that with our friends and family. We chose that loft that felt like a house and decorated with things from our home because we wanted it to feel personal, private and very much us. We did a toast instead of a ring exchange after we said our vows because we love scotch and our first kiss came after drinks, so it was only appropriate that this one did too.

Instead of favors, we made a donation to a cystic fibrosis foundation because Troy's brother has CF and as a little token, we put out gift tags with handwritten quotes about love that we both like instead. We did about 20 quotes, and one of my friends has the one she picked on her purse to this day.

Photos by Corey Torpie

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COREY TORPIE

Meet Corey Torpie: I am a Queens based photographer living in Astoria, NY. I specialize in documentary photography. When photographing weddings I look for the full story. I’m just as interested in showcasing the small subtle moments and quirky personal details as I am with documenting the big showstoppers. I find beauty in the imperfection and chaos that is a real wedding day.