Catalyst Wedding Co. Blog
Everything You Need to Know about Wedding Insurance
You probably don’t want to think through all of the worst case scenarios when it comes to your wedding day, but it’s important for all couples planning their wedding to know how wedding insurance can help avoid financial upsets.
Your Parents Are Paying for Your Wedding. Do You Have to Invite Their Friends?
You’re creating your wedding budget and you’re lucky enough to have your parents helping out with the bill, but does that mean they have control over decisions like who gets to attend the wedding? It can be hard to balance your wedding day wants with your parents’ when they are helping to pick up the check, so we called on the members of our vendor directory to share their advice for how to manage those expectations.
Is a Potluck Wedding Right for You?
Potluck weddings can be lots of fun, and can give all of your guests a way to feel involved, but they can also be a lot of work. Not sure whether a potluck wedding is really the right fit for you and your partner? We asked the members of our vendor directory to share their thoughts.
Yes, You Need to Feed Your Wedding Vendors
Providing meals for your vendors is a commonly overlooked piece of the wedding day puzzle. You might be so deep in the weeds of making sure all your guests’ dietary restrictions are taken care of that you’ve forgotten that even your photographer, wedding planner, DJ, and other day-of vendors are going to need to eat, too!
Why You Shouldn't Require Your Wedding Party to Have Professional Hair & Makeup
Sometimes, we assume that the only want to make “beautiful” happen is with the help of hair and makeup services, but it’s important to note that not all members of your wedding party may feel comfortable getting their hair and makeup professionally done for your big day.
Fuck Yeah Weddings Uses Photography to Rethink Gender and Weddings
Kendall has always loved photography and from a young age knew they wanted to be a photographer when they grew up. Recognizing and validating each person's identity is critical to their core beliefs of feminism and equality. And the super gendered, binary nature of weddings? It really pisses Kendall off.
Handcrafted Wedding Rings by Lolide Are Anything But Ordinary
Artisan jeweler Lori Linkous Devine makes wedding jewelry with a modern aesthetic that is perfectly suited for texture-lovers with an avant-garde streak. Here are six ways her designs set her apart from other wedding rings on the market.
How to Get the Most Joyful Wedding Photos
Everyone who has found their person deserves to celebrate that love in a way that's personal and meaningful. And the biggest moments of joy come when we are comfortable being our true selves.
How to Find a Wedding Photographer You Trust — And Why That Matters
Jessica Hunt is based in Columbia, South Carolina and loves to travel to nearby cities like Asheville, Charlotte, Atlanta, and beyond for passionate couples who share her ideals and want to invest in their wedding photography.
The Wedding Planning Subscription All Engaged Couples Need
We are so in love with the new Choose Your Own Wedding planning subscription from queer wedding planner Cindy Savage of Aisle Less Traveled. Her new subscription allows engaged couples to take full advantage of Cindy’s expertise at a fraction of the cost of hiring a traditional wedding planner.
Handfasting at Weddings: Why It’s Not Just For Pagans and Witches
Handfasting is a marriage unity ritual that has been used during weddings for centuries. Like many other unity rituals, such as unity candles or sand rituals, it represents the combination of two people coming together to create a new singular entity.
Rebecca Mir Grady’s Wedding Rings Will Tell Your Personal Stories
Rebecca Mir Grady is a storyteller. Except that, instead of words, she speaks in molten metals, precious gems, shapes, lines, and textures. The result are unique and stunning wedding and engagement rings.
6 Reasons to Choose a Textured Wedding Ring from Aide-Mémoire Jewelry
Have you been looking for a unique wedding band where you can really feel the hand-crafted work that went into it? Then you're going to want to check out Aide-mémoire Jewelry's incredible collection of textured wedding rings.
12 Inclusive Wedding Stylists Whose Instagrams are Full of Inspiration
Having trouble pinning down your dream style for your wedding day? Here are 12 inclusive wedding planners and stylists whose work will have you daydreaming.
5 Reasons to Capture the Magic of Your Wedding Day with Abstract Art
I once read that you don't remember what your wedding looks like, you remember how it feels. But what do we do to preserve how our weddings feel? Angie Barker of Angie the Rose has an idea: capture those fleeting moments with abstract art.
How to Capture Your Wedding Genuinely with Corey Torpie Photography
Corey Torpie Wants Your Wedding Photos to Age Well. She'll tell you that you don't realize right now how precious your photos are; that they'll become increasingly valuable as you grow older; that there are certain images you won't even see the importance of until some time has passed.
And she should know! After six years of marriage, two years of parenthood, and a decade photographing weddings, Corey's experienced it all personally — and with her couples.
These days, she's asking herself the question: what is important, holistically, to document for her clients? And how can you create a wedding environment that fosters being present in the moment?
We Are All Made of Stardust, and Your (Ethically-Sourced) Wedding Ring Can Be Too // Forge & Fountain
You see those little flecks of (gold/silver) on the band? Most metalworkers collect these tiny filings and metal scraps that are made during the finishing stages of jewelry-making and send them out for refining. There, the scraps are melted back into bigger pieces and shipped back out to jewelers — a great first step in the metal reuse process. But at Forge & Fountain, they skip the extra fuel consumption involved in refining. Instead, Josh and Holly sprinkle gold or silver grains across the surface of a ring to make their signature moondust texture. It's one of their favorite styles to create.
How to Plan A Wedding When Civilization is Doomed
7 ways to mitigate the frivolity of planning a big-ass party when neo-Nazis are marching, the planet is melting, and POTUS is leading the Confederate States of America with “alternative facts.”
Bridecentrism, Bridezillas, and "The Best Day of Your Life"
The wedding industry didn’t grow to be worth $54 billion because Americans just love marriage so much. No way — marriage is cheap! We’re talking marriage license fees and gas money; you can get married for less than $100. The wedding industry grew to be so enormous because it is built on one big lie: a wedding is the best day of a woman’s life. Maybe it’s not a lie as much as it is a fantasy that we are socialized to embrace from day one. They slap that pink cap on your head, and next thing you know you’re living a Disney-themed childhood in which your career goals amount to being a glitter princess and a mommy to a brood of doll babies. But who will pay for your pink ball gowns and tea parties for your woodland friends? Oh, you know who: Prince Charming.
Woke Wednesday // Meet Cindy Savage of Aisle Less Traveled
Liz: Would you tell us a bit about what the coming out process was like for you?
Cindy: Yeah. It was horrible from one side and totally great from the other. So: good stuff first. During that first relationship, my best friend had come to visit and totally called me out on what was going on. So she was the first person who knew. And honestly, she knew before that, I'm sure, as I know we'd had some theoretical conversations about it, in which I'd said I could easily imagine being with a woman. I wasn't really worried about acceptance among her, or really any of my friends; it was more that I'd been keeping this secret at the behest of my ex, and now a year and a half in, it felt shitty to have waited so long to tell anyone. I told her, and two or three other people in our tiny theatre department also knew, since I'd needed an occasional confidant. But I started making a concerted effort (mostly via AIM, laughs) to tell my other friends, and every single one of them was instantly supportive. Which was awesome.
Find Inclusive Wedding Vendors - Photo by Leise Jones Photography