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!

Number of Wedding Guests: 35

Total Wedding Budget: $15,000

The Couple: Corina, 28, is originally from Flint, Michigan, and she now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. She currently works in accounting. She enjoys cooking, makeup, watching and creating content for YouTube, and spending time with family. She also loves her dog Jax.

Corynn, 27, is originally from Meriden, Connecticut and moved to Raleigh, North Carolina at the age of 13. She currently works in technology sales, is an avid fan of all sports, and likes watching Game of Thrones with Corina. She also likes video games and playing with their lab Jax!!

Story: "We met in high school and were friends, but we ran in different circles. We fell in love nine years later when we ended up working for the same company. It was only a week into dating that we both knew: this is it!

Our proposal was a complete shock to me. I just didn't think that Corynn could do all of that behind my back. She completely surprised me, proposing at sunset on our first trip to Cancun. She even called my mom before getting the ring and asked her for my hand in marriage! I'm so proud of my engagement ring. Corynn did excellent. I told her I wanted something unique with lots of bling, and boy did she listen.

We chose to get married in Cancun because we love to travel and really love the beach. It’s where we got engaged, so Cancun holds a special place in our hearts. Plus, where else can you get liter margaritas for $5?

I truly loved all of my wedding vendors. You hear horror stories of how hard it can be planning so far away, but every single one of them had excellent communication and went beyond my expectations the day of the wedding.

We both love music, so it was very important to have songs that said what we both felt that day. Our wedding day playlist included Chrisette Michele, John Legend, Anthony Hamilton, and Lauryn Hill. Our first dance was to what we consider “our song”: “Loved By You" by Kirby.

After that, Corynn's dad gave a speech that was really touching. It was a very special moment at the reception. The DJ was amazing, and I don't think we left the dance floor all night!

After the reception is the after party! Those of us that could hang went out to the hotel zone in Cancun to end the night. It was the best day of our lives!"

Words by Corina, one of the brides. Photos by Amber Robinson

bridal headpiece on bride, including makeup detail

Bridal gown with gold lamé bridesmaid gowns

Wedding ceremony kiss on a beach in cancun

Joyful same-sex wedding ceremony in Mexico

two brides at a beach ceremony in Mexico

same sex wedding portraits on a beach in mexico

Dance party in Mexico at two bride wedding

two black brides dancing at their wedding in mexico

VENDORS

AMBER ROBINSON

Amber is the creative heart behind Images by Amber Robinson Photography based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her approach to photographing couples in love is unconventional, as she actually has couples sign in their contract that they agree to be friends. She believes that strangers shouldn't be invited to your wedding, and that goes for vendors too. This approach creates relationships with her couples where their love for each other is free to be expressed because her couples not only like her style, but trust her as a friend to capture their authentic love on their special day.

She believes in celebrating love between all people from all backgrounds, cultures, religions, and races. The only requirement is that her couples are hopeless romantics like her.