The blog has been a little quiet lately…mostly because I’ve been traveling all over the country! Three time zones in one week and my body officially is confused.  Jason and I headed to Chicago last Thursday to celebrate my best friend Nichole and her new husband Mitch at their wedding!  It was an awesome (mostly) camera-free weekend!  When the photographers showed up to the wedding I put the camera away and tried to become a non-meddling bridesmaid.  It was hard, I will admit! 🙂 I’m excited to see what they created though!

   The following Sunday we were off to Maui to shoot two beautiful tropical destination weddings and two trash the dress shoots.  Thursday we were back on the plane to San Diego.  Friday was my good friends 10 year vow renewal and then my last 2011 wedding on Saturday!  It was a long tiring week but I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything!

Just because blogs are so much better with photos…

Me and the bride to be at her rehearsal dinner!

At the salon the morning of!

The bride relaxing during one of the rare calm moments

Her gorgeous bouquet!

Natalie was a bridesmaid at my 10-22-11 wedding in San Diego!  We got to talking about her 2013 wedding and the fact that she lives in New York City!  I happened to be heading out to the East Coast the very next week so we scheduled her and David’s engagement photos while I was going to be there!   They were so nice, showing us around the park and braving the cold and snow to pose for photos!  It was fun to have local tour guides on this part of our trip!  I love the light we had and the natural reflection of the snow is just beautiful.  Makes me want to shoot a session in Julian this Winter!

Thank you David and Natalie for sharing your current home town with us!  We had so much fun hanging out with you two!

My boyfriend Jason took me on my first trip to NYC (ever!) last week. The day we flew in a freak snowstorm hit the state and we had a little trouble finding our way to the hotel. The days following were much better and we got to enjoy what was left of the fall colors and even experience some snow on the ground! We had an amazing whirlwind of a trip, I can’t wait to go back since we didn’t have time to do and see everything I wanted to!

Proof that I have the best boyfriend ever?  He took me on the Sex and the City Tour!  For you Sex & the City uber-fans, this is the restaurant that Carrie and Big had their rehearsal dinner and this is where everyone sat!

The Empire State Building at night!

We loved walking around Central Park!  It was warm enough this day to actually shed our coats for a few minutes!

Being a huge Beatles fan, I had to visit Strawberry Fields and the John Lennon Memorial!

I was able to sneak in an engagement session for a super fun couple, Natalie and David!  They showed us around Central Park on Sunday afternoon and were troopers in the chilly weather when I made them take their coats off!  I met Natalie when she was a bridesmaid in the wedding I shot on my birthday (Full blog post on this shoot to come soon)!

Thanks for taking a peek at our journey to NYC!  Hope you enjoyed – stay warm!

xo, Melissa

In my opinion, there is nothing sexier than confidence! Miss D sure has confidence, as she should!  She is smokin’ hot, has the most killer legs I’ve seen, a witty sense of humor and the brains to match!  I was so happy to be able to capture the sexy side for her to share with her hubby!  And trust me, the album she gave him worked like a charm – he still can’t stop talking about it! 😉  Enjoy some of the covered up faceless photos I took, the naughtier ones are for his eyes only!  xo, M

PS aren’t her Louboutins to die for?!

Arzo and Sam had a quiet, private wedding ceremony at the Courthouse, just the two of them.  Exactly how they wanted it to be.  I met up with them a few days later for some official wedding portraits since besides the marriage, the photos were important to them.  Arzo had a simple rose bouquet made by Wholesale Flowers and we ended the evening at sunset in La Jolla Cove.