Melissa McClure Blog

For their one year anniversary, Elisa and Ryan hired me to take some fun portraits of them – with Elisa in her wedding dress!  Sometimes these sessions are known as Trash the Dress shoots, but we didn’t even come close to trashing her dress!  We were still respectful of her dress (her mom will be happy to hear!) but got some awesome photos for them to hang on their walls!

They spent their anniversary weekend at Jamul Haven, a little Bed and Breakfast in East County where they spent their Wedding night!

Elisa is a good friend of mine – and I love it when my friends laugh, it warms my heart.

Ryan is so gentle and sweet to her

One thing they love to do – picnic!

Since the one year is the Paper Anniversary, Ryan made this flower for Elisa!

And since they didn’t have a cake smash at their actual wedding…they reenacted the feeding with their year old wedding cake (I tried it – it wasn’t bad!)

Elisa and Ryan – Congrats on the first year of wedded bliss, here’s to many many more!

xoxo, M

Earlier this month, Sandy and Chris were married in a beautiful ceremony overlooking the Pacific.  La Valencia is such a beautiful place to photograph, so many nooks and crannies to shoot in!  But the day started off down in Hillcrest at DK Hair Salon.

Her gorgeous dress!

I love that her mom planned ahead and brought a knitting needle to button her dress!

Oh Stuart, you never do me wrong <3 these shoes!

Meanwhile, over at the La Jolla Shores Hotel…(photo by my new associate Mandi) Chris was getting ready with his family!

All of the lovely florals were done by the wonderful Christine of Fancy That Florals Designs.

The couple opted for a first look, which is always a good idea!  We had so much time for photos!

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Wind!

First order of business…Ketubah signing!

Can I mention now how much I love the Hora!

Carl from DJ by the C kept the dance floor packed all night!

Lots of dancing!

Thank you Sandy and Chris, Mandi and I had so much fun on your wedding day!

xoxo, M

Enjoy your Slideshow!

Happy 29th Birthday to ME!

My very dear friend (and lovely assistant) Mandi Whiting baked me this yumtastic cake for my birthday!  It was a recipe that my grandmother made for every family birthday, so it meant a lot to me that she was willing to attempt it for me!  And yes, it was as yummy as it looks; see her blog for the recipe!

I am also very happy to announce that Mandi Whiting will be joining the Melissa McClure Photography team as a 2010 Associate Photographer!

The website has already been updated to show you some of her latest work as well as give you a sneak peek in to who she is!  She will be taking on her own weddings in the next year in case I am already booked or my pricing is a bit out of budget!

I will continue to deal with all the business concerns, editing and shooting my own weddings, but Mandi is a welcome addition to take on extra work!

You can always reach me at melissa@melissamcclure.com but now Mandi is available at mandi@melissamcclure.com!

On October 8th, Vicky and Duncan were married at Bernardo Winery in San Diego County.  Far far away from their home in England!  They traveled to sunny Rancho Bernardo with a handful of their friends and family to celebrate their official commitment to each other.

They have been together almost a decade already and have two lovely children!

The beautiful bride!

And her maids!

This is their daughter Megan

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The handsome groom

And their adorable son!

Reverend Tuttle performed a very heartwarming ceremony

Out to the vines for some alone time!

You might recognize this adorable little blonde cherub, Mia!

Mia, along with her brother Holland have been on my blog before!  First when their parents got married in 2007 and again for family photos last year!  Thanks to Kim for referring Duncan and Vicky to me!!

And one last photo of the happy couple!

I hope you enjoyed your trip to So Cal you two!  And so glad the weather worked out perfectly!  Enjoy your life together!

xoxo, M

Last month I got together with the Price family for some portraits before Brian shipped off to serve our country!  Brian and Vanessa have two sweet little girls, Bree and Avery.  Vanessa is also the sister to one of my brides, Jen!

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Brian is surrounded by a lot of women, so he has Bear to wrestle with!

Bree and her cousin, Katie (Jen’s daughter)

Thank you Brian for all that you do for our country – and to Vanessa for standing beside you and taking on the responsibility of a single parent while you are gone!  You two are role models!

xoxo M

I love thoughtful people!

I received a small box today from my delivery guy. It felt like early Christmas or my birthday (next week!)   I definitely got a chuckle when I saw what was inside!  The gift giver saw these napkins and couldn’t help but think of me and my love of twitter.

This fabulous set of cocktail napkins was a gift from the super sweet Lori!

She runs two websites,

Bridalinsider.com (for all you San Diego brides to be – this is the forum you must bookmark!)

and

Giftaria.com (The ultimate website for gifts and party supplies!)

Check them out, Lori rocks!  Thank you!!

xoxo, M

On a side note: This photo was taken with my brand new point and shoot camera I got today!  I got the Canon SD960is

Okay, I am totally drowning in work and have been so busy lately!  But no complaints from me, I feel so blessed!  Because of the quietness on my blog lately, I am going to spoil you with a huge blog post with a TON of portraits!  Exciting, eh?

Sommer is a very good friend of mine from high school.  She was the Yearbook Editor, while I was the Photo Editor! She was always so fun and full of energy, it didn’t shock me at all that the man she ended up with is the same exact way!  I met Corey for the first time on their wedding day, and he answers the door looking like this! Fun right?

Meanwhile, Tasha Dubreil and Normandie Names (contact me for their info) were busy making the bride even more beautiful than she already was!

The girls rockin’ the attitude!

I absolutely adore working at Pala Mesa Resort!  Kendra is amazing!

Corey was all tears when Sommer walked down that aisle!

This was so sweet, during the opening prayer, Corey kept kissing her hand.  He could not take his eyes off his bride!

Remember i mentioned a lot of energy?  These two RAN back down the aisle – a first for me!

Fav <3

This cracks me up every time I look at it!

I am so jealous you two are spending 2 weeks in Maui!  Hope it is amazing!  Thank you for treating me like a guest instead of a vendor, you two rock!

Big thanks to my rad second shooter, Jamie!

xoxo, M

My very good friend and photographer Chrystal Cienfuegos gave birth to a precious baby girl on September 23rd!  I got to meet the little one on her 8th day out of the womb.  I already loved her when I met her <3

A Daddy’s girl already!

The happy family!

and my favorite shot

Thanks for letting me come shoot your little girl, C+D – Veda Claire is just perfect!

xoxo, M

A few weeks ago, Mandi and I met up with these two lovely families who were vacationing in San Diego from Arizona!

Check out the eyes on little Elly!  What a cutie!

And then Addison and his parents!  He is going to be a heartbreaker very soon!

Of course, we had to snap a few of them together!  They are such good friends and really close in age!

Hope your California vacation was wonderful!  Come back soon!

xoxo, M

To my wonderful clients:  My family sessions are booking up fast for October and November!  Contact me to get your date reserved now!

I’ve been looking forward to this wedding for a long time!  I love hanging out with Jenny and Daniel, so to be able to do this along with capturing their day = perfect mix!

Daniel is the creative genius behind my cherry logo (which I adore!)  Check out his awesome website here, he has done some great design work for large companies!  I would absolutely recommend him for any design or logo work you need!

Mandi and I started the day off with Jenny and the girls on Shelter Island!

Jenny got this garter to surprise Daniel!  He is a total nerd! (haha love ya Daniel!)

I love this moment, totally candid but I think she looks like model!

The guys were looking pretty dapper themselves over at Marina Village!

And the H-O-T bridal party!

We had some gorgeous color in the sky that night!

Yummm…they had my fav – Red Velvet!

hahahahaha

I hope Cabo was amazing you two!  We need to hang out very soon!

xoxo, M

Enjoy the Slideshow!