Travel Archive

Jun 2

I am extremely excited to announce the opening of a studio location in Pt Loma, CA. The name of the Studio is Cerimone (sara-monet) and is made up of 3 amazing vendors. Myself, Swann Soirees and Love at First Invite.

I will still be working under the name Melissa McClure Photography and booking weddings with that, but sharing the space with these ladies! Before and after photos of the location coming soon!

We will be located at the NTC Promenade within Liberty Station. Hours of the studio will vary and are by appointment only.

Follow Cerimone on Twitter!

Check our website!

When Light, Ink and Ideas come together sensational things happen. Cerimone Studio will be the epicenter of the collaboration.
Cerimone Studio’s ingredients:

1 part Light ~ Melissa McClure Photography

1 part Ink ~ Love at First Invite

1 part Ideas ~ Swann Soirees

The marriage of this wedding Dream Team will bring amazing deals, ground-breaking events, and the uniting of creative minds! All together in the beautiful and up-and-coming Arts district in NTC Promenade at Liberty Station.

posted in Networking, Personal, Travel

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May 10

Andrew and Janice – Trash the Dress, Vegas Style!

First thing, I want to wish my wonderful mother a Happy Mother’s Day! She is my rock and my best friend and is always there for me! xoxo

The day after Janice and Andrew’s fabulous MGM wedding, the lovely bride got back in her dress and we took some fun photos!

We started out with the girls at the MGM pool
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Work it!

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Later that afternoon, we drove out of the city lights to the Dry Lake Bed for the bride and groom trash the dress session!

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HOT!

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So gorgeous!

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*Fav*

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You can’t come to the desert without getting a little dirty!!

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Big thanks to my awesome assistants, Anginet and Chelsea Nicole!

And of course, to my amazing clients Andrew and Janice who trust me 100%!

xoxo, M

posted in Trash the Dress, Travel

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May 8

Andrew and Janice – MGM Las Vegas Wedding

I love shooting in new locations. I love shooting in new locations that are located outside of So Cal even more! When Janice and Andrew decided to switch their venue and date to Las Vegas in May, they told me I was coming with and I couldn’t have been more ecstatic! These two started as clients but have grown in to friends. They are awesome and I wish them the best of luck in their marriage (even though they didn’t bring me to Jamaica on their honeymoon with them! just kidding!)

Here is a glimpse from their wedding this past Sunday!

The day started at the MGM Grand with some details

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When I came in, Maid of Honor Michelle was writing out her toast

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Janice was so calm the entire time…nothing like the Bridezilla she claimed to be!

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GORGEOUS!

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Cutest flower girls 😉

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MGM does not allow outside photographers to shoot wedding there, you have to use their staff. So I turned in to a “guest” at that point, and had a great angle!

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We didn’t take a ton of portraits on Sunday…we saved our energy for their awesome Trash the Dress session the following day (blog coming soon)!

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Handsome Andrew

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Here is the guest book that I made for them, everyone loved it!

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They are so sweet together, you can tell by their first dance

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Time to party!

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Love the city lights!

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Stay tuned for Part two of this blog, the day after!

Enjoy your slideshow!

posted in Travel, Weddings

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May 2

Australia – Part 4: Brenda’s Sydney Trash the Dress Session

This is the post that most people have been asking me about! I have many excited readers, not to mention Brenda, waiting for this!

My good friend and travel companion, Brenda Swann, lugged her wedding dress all the way Down Under for a trash the dress shoot! We decided to stay close to our hotel, and explore Hyde Park in downtown Sydney, Australia!

We had about 30 minutes of sunlight left when we began the shoot. Day 1 of Sydney brought us to these rows of trees and I just knew I would want to stick a bride right there!

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Hyde Park has some cool Aboriginal Art in it:

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And of course, I was in awe of the gorgeous St Mary’s Cathedral

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This is a neat fountain just outside Hyde Park, there is actually a swimming pool underneath this!

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After the sun went down completely, we decided to keep exploring and using available light where we could find it! I brought a flash with me on the trip, but it did not leave my bag once! Every single photo in this post was taken with light that was available in that particular area!

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Rad gate!

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Again, the row of trees like the first photo above, but this was after the lights were turned on!

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Modeling in the subway! I love how not one person thought we were strange shooting here! Nobody even paid attention to us!

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Probably my favorite shot of the night!

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I hope you have enjoyed my 4 installments of the epic Australia trip! I had such an amazing time, I can’t wait to go back. Next time I will get to the Great Barrier Reef!

xoxo, M

posted in Networking, Trash the Dress, Travel

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Apr 30

Australia – Part 3: Sydney and the Blue Mountains (and Koalas!)

This blog covers our sightseeing in Sydney! It was quite a bit larger than Melbourne, but I loved that you can walk almost anywhere you want to go! The first night we got there, we walked all over the areas around our hotel, including the Friday night Chinatown Market!

The next day, Brenda went to climb the Harbour bridge and I set out to explore Hyde Park. Below in the background is St Mary’s Cathedral which you will see more of in my final blog (Brenda’s trash the dress!)

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I really wanted to check out the Barrack’s museum which was the jail (among other things) back in the day!

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A view from inside the museum

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Love this view from Maquarie’s Point!

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And of course the city skyline! Our hotel was just below that skinny tower thing (Sydney Tower) on the left side!

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Sunday morning we walked around The Rocks but kept getting caught in downpours! We took refuge for awhile under the Harbour Bridge!

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Monday’s adventures took us to Manly Beach via a Ferry. It rained off and on all day, but when we got there, we only saw blue skies!

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Brenda captured this shot of me checking out the water – it was cold!

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We went on a small bush walk on the edge of Manly

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Our last day in Australia, my photographer friend Cathy Crawley drove us up to the Blue Mountains! The drive was amazing, since it’s Autumn there, the colors were in full bloom!

Below is the road through the mountain!

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We don’t see this kind of color in So Cal!

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I adore this shot Cathy got of me!

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After seeing the gorgeous leaves changing, we got to the famous Echo Point to see the 3 Sisters. It was so overcast and rainy that we almost couldn’t see anything! You can see how bad it really was in this shot I got of Cathy below!!

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Cathy’s son Ben came along with us. I adore these next two photos I shot of him, I had to post both of them! I couldn’t decide which I liked better 🙂

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The trip was coming to a close and I still had yet to see a kangaroo or koala! So we went to a Wildlife Park on the way home and made some new friends!

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