It's that time of year when people are more likely to make the decision to get engaged and start planning their wedding. Engagement gifts are becoming more and more common as a way to celebrate a couple's decision to dedicate themselves to each other, but the last thing anyone needs is an engagement gift that tries to assert outside opinions into their relationship and engagement. Throughout the month of December we will be sharing engagement gifts that will help couples celebrate, but will leave all that patriarchal traditional bullshit behind. First off, the idea engagement gifts that our woo-woo loving Creative Director, Jen, would pick out for herself if she could do it all again. 

Some couples opt to have a wedding celebration in each of their native countries (my husband and I had one in Munich, Germany where he’s from and a second one several months later in California). If it isn’t feasible to have two weddings, another option is to have one ceremony and include as much of both cultures in it as possible.

However, hosting a wedding for guests who don’t speak the same language runs the risk of many people feeling out of the loop. Here are some ways to keep everyone engaged and make all guests feel included.

I’ve been at 400 weddings in 15 years. I’m sure I’ve seen every kind of white dress you can possibly imagine, and frankly, I’m over it. 

It’s 2016, people! You can stand out as a bright flower in a summer full of white-dress-black-suit friendweddings! 

You can be memorable and amazing! You can be excited about being yourself!

You can express your gender identity! LGBTQIA+ couples don't have to try and fit into what their straight friends are doing, unless they want to.

You can put that weirdly large wedding dress budget to use in hiring a better photographer, getting engagement photos, having cocktails or better quality food, or going on your honeymoon!

It’s easy to become overwhelmed with choices while planning your wedding. Price is always important, but sometimes our vision seems more important and we often make fast and clouded decisions with the expectation of re-selling things later. But sometimes it’s just not that easy! Re-selling wedding decor isn’t a simple task — whether it’s style, season, or even shipping costs, many things can deter potential buyers. 

Have no fear: there’s another way to go about your wedding purchases, and that’s smart buying! We chose items we knew we could hang onto and could easily translate into our home decor. After a few effortless projects, it became a fun challenge to see what else we would be able to incorporate! (It also helps if you have a contractor in the family!) 

Most weddings include hundreds of hours of planning — from choosing the invitations to the last hours of celebrating and dancing. On the day of the wedding you need to remember the most important thing: You are marrying the love of your life. Shifting from doing, planning, working to being, experiencing, enjoying can alter the day for you and your guests dramatically. 

I get your fear. You’re dreaming of a chic, quiet refined celebration. Kids are loud. They can cry during ceremonies, they dominate the dance floor, they run around like monkeys on espresso. Buuuuut girl, I hate to break it to you, I’ve seen adults act that way, too. 

Every couple wants an engagement ring that perfectly reflects the union of their two personalities. But when my now-husband, Bill, decided to propose, he had something more to consider: my sensitive skin doesn’t let me wear metal.

What’s a groom to do? He found a solution both beautiful and possible in a ring made entirely of wood by David Finch. Finch produces handmade rings at Touch Wood, the company he and his wife, Nicola, run from their off-the-grid farm in western Canada. 

This past weekend, I was given the task of making 10 pies, in 10 unique flavors, with 10 unique designs for a college friend’s wedding. If you are thinking to yourself Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun! DING! you’re totally right. On the other hand, if you’re thinking Wow, that sounds crazy hard!, DING! you are also totally right. Everyone’s a winner today! Including me. I was pushed and stretched in an area that is usually very comfortable for me. The process included some stress, some sweat, but mostly it introduced some exciting new pies to my life.

With the ever-increasing popularity of craft cocktails, it might seem nearly impossible to serve your favorite cocktail and still stay within your budget. Luckily, there’s a DIY solution that won’t break the bank: pre-batched cocktails. By making large quantities of the drink before your wedding, you can ensure that the drinks will be quick, tasty, balanced and consistent. To help guide your quest for the perfect signature cocktail, we’ve put together a how-to guide for one method of pre-batching cocktails.

We are so excited to be adding Arley Arrington of Arley Cakes to our list of recurring contributors! She is a baker who hails from Charlottesville, VA, and who is winning over hearts and stomachs with her amazing recipes. 

She'll be sharing new recipes with Catalyst on a recurring basis that are delicious, attainable, and most importantly, appropriate for celebrations! For the DIY couple that doesn't want to break the bank, her treats just might be the perfect alternative to the large traditional wedding cake. 

I woke up the morning of my wedding exhausted, stressed, and haggard. My mom was frantic about the forecasted rain that day, and I hadn’t slept a wink. A few hours later I hunched in the salon chair letting the stylist do most of the work to keep my head propped up and debating whether a cup of coffee would jumpstart the best day of my life or unleash the full-blown, barely-concealed crazy. Then I had a near meltdown when I couldn’t find my lipstick, and I coped by throwing back mimosas on an empty stomach as my friends worriedly stood by. While I felt calm, collected, and present during the ceremony, the full day of preparations was just not that great. But that time is precious, and as everyone will tell you, it flies by. Part of mindfulness is simply noticing; being present makes a moment that you would otherwise skip past expand like a balloon.

As a wedding calligrapher, I think a lot about names. As a feminist, I also think a lot about names and the meaning that they convey. Particularly, I find the "traditional" way of addressing envelopes a bit, shall we say, dated. I've been gratified that many of my clients feel the same way and have instead been moving toward a new, 21st-century model of addressing wedding guests.

YOU'RE ENGAGED! And after you planned that coordinated flash mob, you want your engagement announcement to be just as special. Changing your Facebook relationship status isn't exactly magical, but consider these ideas for declaring your love from the (digital) rooftop!

Congratulations! You, my darling reader, are getting married, and that is a truly wonderful thing. You have cultivated a relationship based upon mutual respect, and you trust your fiancé with your heart and your future. You love your fiancé and can’t wait to build a life together. You know life will bring you both joy and hardship, but you are choosing to share all the best and the worst of it with your other. And finally, you are eager to memorialize this commitment before family and friends on your wedding day.

Back in 2010 when I planned my wedding, most of the things I wanted (bridesmaids in any black dress, no assigned seating at the reception, groomsmen in chucks, and a short wedding dress with *gasp* no veil) seemed pretty nontraditional. Wedding blogs were just getting started and Pinterest wasn’t even a glimmer in the internet’s eye. So I clung to my Microsoft Word collage of images and ideas every time I had to brave the storm of trying to explain to my mostly traditional parents why I wanted these things in our wedding. 

Whether a couple chooses to have a courthouse wedding as a budget-friendly alternative to a large wedding or is celebrating their new legal right to be wed, courthouse weddings are not second rate; rather they are intimate, beautiful celebrations of love.