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!

We met less than a year before we got married. Our connection was almost instantaneous and grew quickly. Although we are both originally from New York, we met in Baltimore, Maryland and were living in two different states at the time. We share a background of struggle and resilience, and a passion for our Black identities and social justice.

We knew we wanted to get married on a beach, and finding an LGBTQ+ friendly island in the Caribbean narrowed down our options substantially. Puerto Rico fit, however, and our desire to support the island after the hurricane of 2017 sealed the deal.

The entire family (us and our two children) wore ivory. While the color itself wasn’t symbolic, that we were all wearing it was. Our wedding was a not only a union of two people, but the whole family. Sheila had adopted her children as a single parent before we met, and having them there to be a part of the celebration was important to us both. The sand ceremony where all four of us poured sand from the beach we got married on into a framed container now sits on the mantle in our living room.

Sheila’s godfather, who has been a father figure to her, conducted our ceremony. The most special detail of the ceremony was a violinist that played our wedding song (“Disfruto” by Carla Morrison) and added so much romance to the scene.

While the ceremony was beautiful, the entire week was magical. We rented a house where friends and family joined us and got to know each other. Watching the people we love interact and connect was the best part of the experience. As parents of young children, it was also lovely to have so many aunties and grandparents help take care of the children so that we could truly enjoy our time together. The entire thing was a dream.

Words by Ruby, as told by Amber Marlow. Photos by Hastain Davis Studios.

tropical LGBTQ beach wedding in san juan puerto rico

Vendors

Photography | Hastain Davis Studios

Venue | Oceano PR

Floral | Fusion Floral Art

Violin | Jazael Falero

HASTAIN DAVIS STUDIOS

We find romance and inspiration in the complexity of life and love, including the funny, weird, and beautiful moments that come along with it. We strive to create photography which is not just beautiful, but evokes true emotion which is authentic to our creative spirits. Approaching each wedding as it's own unique art piece, we draw inspiration from the personalities and stories of our clients plus their family and friends while expressing our own creativity.