Melissa McClure Blog

My good friend Cristina Thornburg contacted me last minute about her little brother getting married!

I was glad to step in and shoot the wedding since she was part of the bridal party.  Gigi and Mike were a lot of fun and so much in love!

Gigi going over her vows at the salon:

Gorgeous!

The handsome groom!

The stunning bride!

I could not get enough of Gigi’s nieces!   As you can tell by the next 4 photos, I took a ton of them!

The ceremony took place near San Elijo Hills

Here is the fantastic Cristina and her sweet husband Spencer.  They got married in this same park 13 years ago!

First dance!  Reception was held in San Marcos.  

Bling!

Gigi’s niece showed off her tapping skills at the reception!

And the last two are of Gigi’s cutie patootie sons!

Thank you for trusting me to capture your special day!  Enjoy your life together, I know it will be a long and happy one!

xoxo, M

My poor little iMac had a little shutting down issue this week so its been at the Apple store and I am patiently awaiting its return! Editing is MUCH slower on my PC laptop so I am trying to hold out as long a I can to get my Mac back! I apologize for the lack of blogging too! I have 5 weddings to blog!

On a personal note, my wedding is only 3.5 months away! (100 days to be exact!)

Last Sunday was my awesome bridal shower! I had a really good turn out of friends and family, my mom and dad even flew down from Portland! They are on their way to the Mexico house and stopped in So Cal first.

L-R; my dad Bryan, me, my mom Patricia, my sister Beza and her hubby Dennis:

The shower was held in Tim’s bro and sis-in-laws home in San Marcos. Below is Tim’s mom Molly and his sister Melissa. I think we all look related already! Don’t you love my cherry apron from my Future Sis in Law Kristina?

And a shower gift from my Matron of Honor, Jen Harris! Our champagne flutes. I apologize for the water spots that Things Remembered left behind!

I love the detail on these!

I promise, new blogs coming soon!!!!

xoxo, M

I was so excited when I found out Jodi and Adam were expecting their 2nd child this year! Jodi and I have known each other for almost 10 years now!

I met them at Lake Poway for some family and belly shots!

I hadn’t seen Riyen in a about a year…she has gotten so big!  She will be 3 this November!

She loves it when Daddy throws her way up in the air!

I had so much fun with you guys, it was great to catch up and chat!  Enjoy the photos!xoxo, M

I knew after we had a blast at their engagement session that Matt and Karen’s wedding would be nothing short of spectacular.   Plus the fact that Karen is the Catering Manager at Admiral Kidd Club AND has her own business!

The day started out downtown at the Courtyard Marriott in the Presidential Suite!  

Andreea Boyce from Salon O made Karen’s hair perfect while Carina Bruner finished up her makeup making her look flawless!

Karen has been to enough weddings to know that sensible (yet adorable) shoes are a must!

All hand in!

This lamp was so cool.  The next day my Crate and Barrel catalog arrive and it was in there!

This was my favorite spot in the hotel!

The skyline view from the Admiral Kidd Club is fantastic!

Karen and Matt saw each other before the ceremony because they really wanted to enjoy their cocktail hour!

Karen requested a jumping shot so we set this up!

She was so happy about her personalized vows!

Lotus Flowers by Thomas provided the gorgeous floral arrangements and bouquets!

Karen had an amazing candy bar set up – she had these cherries just for me!  Ok, I know they weren’t just for me, but I like to believe that.

Mother in Law and Daughter in Law during the Hora!  DJ Gary Davis did a fabulous job of keeping the dance floor packed all night!

He got her good!

This shot was taken while Karen’s maids of honor recited their speeches.  At this exact moment, one of Karen’s friends was describing how the happy coulple were exactly alike in every way.  I looked over and saw this!  Crazy, right?  Same hands, same facial expression!  It cracked me up!

Yummy rings!  I ate the candy, but I did not swallow the rings!

Huge thank you to my 2nd shooter, David Baxter!  You rock!

Matt and Karen, I had a blast spending the day with you, thank you for treating me more like a friend than a vendor!  Congrats on your new home!

xoxo, M

Please enjoy the slideshow at this link or below!

Kyle and Amanda were married this past Saturday at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Bonita!  It was an adorable little church they even had their reception on the grass behind the church!

The happy couple opted for a First Look before the ceremony.  This may be one of my new favorite shots this year!

We headed down the street to the local Library.

And I had to take advantage of this awesome wall!

I love parasols

Its this a great ceiling in the church?

Mr and Mrs!

I loved that they had a live band that played Classic Rock!

Each of the women at the party got to pull a charm from the cake.  Each charm was different and acted kind of like your horoscope, telling each who would be the next to have children, get married, etc.

Of course with a wine-themed wedding comes a wine themed ring shot!

Last bit of daylight!

Big thanks to Sharaye Hood of What A Wedding for coordinating a fantastic wedding!

And shout out to my wonderful assistant Jamie Lawler for letting me adopt her delicious 16-35mm for the day!

It was so great to be able to capture your day, Kyle and Amanda.  Thank you for trusting me and I hope you are enjoying your honeymoon!  You can see the slideshow below or click here to open a new window!

xoxo, M

Just a quick sneak peek from yesterday’s wonderful wedding in Bonita!  Man it was a hot one!

More to come this week – stay tuned!

Last year I was asked to photograph South High School’s (Torrance, CA) class of 1963 45-year Reunion!  This was extra special because my mother happens to be in the graduating class! 

Since my first high school reunion is coming up in a few months (10 years already? Eeek!) it was nice to see how involved these people were, even 45 years after graduation!

My mother is the Tech-Geek of the bunch.  She made a fabulous slideshow and these name tags below.  They may not seem like much, but she spent months scanning pages from the yearbook to get these images!  She even touched them up a bit, removing blemishes, hickeys (true story!), etc. 

The rest of the committe did a fabulous job decorating, including centerpeices that were a blast from the past:

A view of the whole room, top of the Doubletree in Torrance.

And these schoolmates could dance!!!!!  The DJ was rocking oldies the whole night!

And of course, me and my Mom!  She lives outside of California, so I treasure all the time I can spend with her that I get!

Big thanks to Jen and Tim who shot the reunion with me!

I appreciate you two!!

xoxo, M

Kristi Klemens asked me to cover this event for her and I jumped at the chance!  Any time I can learn about a new culture and I’m there!

On 08-08-08 I attended my first Garba.  You can see the full definition of this dance here. This takes place the night before the actual wedding and involves Mehndi, dancing and lots of food! 

I drove up to Camarillo to photograph this, here are the first two things I saw at the restaurant: 

The beautiful bride to be!

The groom’s sister applies makeup to the bride.  That is her groom next to her.

And the dancing begins!

Towards the end of the night a silly string fight broke out!  I did not get out of the way fast enough and ended up with some string on me!  

The bride wanted in on making a mess too!

One last shot before the party ended!

Last week I was one of the lucky few that got a seat in the Kiss Seminar held by Shaun Austin and Kevin Swan.  The seminar booked up in 120 seconds so big props to Google Reader and my fast typing abilities. ha ha

The first half of the day Kevin Swan talked to us about album sales and marketing our businesses.  He is incredibly smart when it comes to business and I learned a lot. 

Shaun gave us a tour of the Kiss Warehouse and we got to see the process of how those gorgeous leather storybook albums are made!

After a fabulous lunch provided by Shootsac, Mike Larson talked to us more about business, shooting style and his infamous camera toss!

Here is Mike showing the model how he wants her to sit and explaining it to the group as well.

Mike shooting our fabulous model Carlie Renee.  Also, please check out her other site here.  You won’t regret it.

A few of the attendees!  The lovely lady behind the camera is my friend Ryel J and the guy chimping in front is my buddy Ahmed.  

Mike showing Carlie where he wanted her to stand! We were in the parking lot of industrial buildings.  Nothing fabulous!

My quick shot of Carlie!

I really felt that I had a lot in common with Mike (photography-wise) so  came back the following day to have a 1 on 1 session with him.  That’s when he told me about his 2 day workshop in Vegas this October.  I am already signed up, I can’t wait!  My friend Charise will be going with me and I’m trying to talk Ryel in to going! *hint hint*  :)

It was an awesome time meeting new people (and seeing old friends) at the workshop!  Big thanks to Barbara Mastro for driving me up there!!

xoxo, M