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!

LoRee and Hannah didn’t want to do the couple’s part of the photography on the day of their wedding. They already had a lot planned that they were doing, so we came up with doing an after-wedding session, and it worked out great. To continue the nostalgic/vintage theme of their wedding day, they dressed as Charlie Chaplin and a 1920s ingenue.

They chose Ohmega Salvage in Berkeley as their backdrop. With it’s crazy rich history of Bay Area characters, it was a perfect complement. You can feel its history, with every corner filled with visual candy from different eras. We had a blast exploring the vintage gems and shooting. I just adore sessions like this. It combined documenting a celebration of love with creative editorial style: personal and authentic.

LoRee says, "Hannah and I met in June of 2011. My boss had decided to have our orientation and training for the next year at her house in Livermore instead of the studio. We were so exhausted from the recital weekend that it turned into a pseudo-pool party. I was in a bikini when I opened the door to see Hannah standing there, having just driven from SF. I knew immediately, the way one does, that we would fall in love.

The first day we ever spent together we ended up spontaneously walking from Fort Mason to Sausalito. The day we got engaged, Hannah followed the same route, but stopped on the bridge. A notable detail: the ring she used to propose was an Irish symbol called a Claddagh ring. Engraved on the inside are the words 'Love, loyalty and friendship.' Leading up to the proposal, during brunch that same day, I made the same statement, specifically, 'All people really want in life is love, loyalty and friendship.’ Hannah thought that I had seen the ring and knew her plan. I hadn’t; it was just a strange, romantic coincidence.

Hannah and I live in Temescal, a neighborhood near the Macarthur BART station in Oakland. We love our home and care very much about our community. Hannah is a ballet/modern dancer, instructor and Gyrotonic practitioner. LoRee is a performer and choreographer and teaches jazz and tap dance technique to children and teens."

Words by Becca Henry and LoRee, one of the brides. Photos by Becca Henry Photography.

Ohmega Salvation in San Francisco Photo shoot

vintage style engagement photos at Ohmega Salvation

lesbian engagement photos, detail of them holding hands

black and white photo of queer couple kissing

post wedding photo session with ring detail

black and white post-wedding engagement photos

portrait during an engagement session in San Fransciso of a bride in a mustashe

1920's Charlie Chaplain style on a bride

Kissing photos at an engagement session in San Francisco

BECCA HENRY PHOTOGRAPHY

Becca Henry is a portrait, fashion, life style, visual branding, and wedding photographer based in Oakland, California. From documenting the San Francisco circus scene, photographing fashion campaigns, to shooting Maker Faire and Burning Man she continually strives to capture the human experience in every project she shoots.
Her other loves include building community full of passionate souls, family, big belly laughs, exploring old warehouses, yoga, silliness, cartwheeling in large patches of grass, traveling, music that makes her dance, making art in all forms, and meeting new folks on her photography adventures.