These two lovebirds spent their Sunday afternoon exploring downtown La Mesa with me!   I’m looking forward to their Prado wedding this June!

Their daughters came along to get in a few of the photos!

I love these two!  Sara, Pod and I all went to college together.  Sara is also runs several successful wedding businesses in Central Illinois!  They hadn’t taken a trip since their Honeymoon so for their anniversary this year they came to sunny San Diego!  They fell in love with it and I was so happy to capture the love for the city and each other on Coronado for my first shoot of 2011!  We were blessed with an amazing pink sunset too!  Enjoy and leave these lovebirds some words on how nice and warm San Diego is while they are freezing in the Midwest! Maybe they will move West! 😉

The tragedy in Japan is just devastating to watch and read about. My heart goes out to all the people living and visiting there! The earthquake caused quite a stir around the world, including West Maui where we spent our last day of vacation!

Our hotel evacuated around 1am and we fled in our rented Jeep to higher elevation. We listened to the radio, tried to nap and talked about the tsunami that was going to hit Hawaii and eventually the West Coast. We snuck back to our hotel around 6am when we felt it was safe enough. Whew what a way to end an amazing vacation!

Still haven’t heard how the rest of Maui fared but I hear we got hit worse than the other islands. We had just taken a snorkel trip out of Maalaea Harbor not even 24 hours ago and it was one of the areas with a lot of damage. See two of my photos from yesterday’s snorkel trip below.

We appreciate the concern and support by our friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, Email and text messages! Love you all! Our next adventure…find out if our planes are really flying out today or not!!!

This was a super special wedding to me.  Christy and I met at Freshman orientation in College in Peoria.  We were inseparable for an entire year. This was before the trend of combining celebrity couple’s names but if we could, we would have legally changed our name to Chrislissa.  Or Melisty.  You can decide.

Over the years we lost touch but found each other again on Facebook!  Christy had met Jason a few years prior and fell in love. I was so happy for my old friend and even happier when she asked me to be part of her big day as the photographer!  If you know Christy (or have been in the same room as her) you can tell she truly cares about you.  Her smile is so incredibly bright you can’t help but be captivated by her positive energy.  She has dealt with more heartache than the average person but has always come through more positive and uplifting as ever.

It was an absolutely amazing experience being there to watch her marry her soulmate.

Photo below by Bryan

Writing her vows:

I love location scouting in Peoria.  So many different sites and textures than San Diego.

Flower photo by Bryan

Photographer: Melissa McClure Photography
Assistant Photographer: Bryan N Miller
Ceremony Location: First Church of the Nazarene, Peoria, IL
Reception Location: Scottish Rite Cathedral, Peoria, IL
Hair: The gals of Petite Maison salon
Cake: Father of the bride

Photos by Mandi Contreras

I have to admit, I was a little shocked that I didn’t get booked for any 10-10-10 weddings!  Lucky for Remi and Brett though, they got to have both Mandi and myself at their wedding!  It was an amazing gorgeous(and incredibly warm) day at Paradise Point.  And to top it all off, the bride wore Vera Wang, one of my favs.

Ceremony and Reception Location: Paradise Point Resort

Photographer: Mandi Contreras

Photo Assistant: Melissa McClure

Florist: Blush Botanicals

Coordinator: Wynn from Le Chic Weddings & Events

Makeup: Diana Martinez

Hair Stylist: Ada

Music: Aqua Dulce

Videographer: Jason Kimbrell

Cake: French Gourmet

Officiants: David and Steve

Mandi Contreras is an associate photographer for Melissa McClure Photography.  To contact her directly, email mandi@melissamcclure.com