Salt Lake City & Park City, Utah Wedding Photographer-Melissa Kelsey » modern. elegant. real.

Chelsy and Greg were married at the Newport Beach LDS Temple in California, where Greg grew up. Chelsy’s from Texas (and a few other places). Chelsy and Greg met at BYU in Utah and the rest is history.

I had a fantastic time traveling to my home state to capture their day and got to spend time with their fun families while there. The Newport Beach Temple is beautiful, and it was refreshing to be able to photograph a new place. We just had to head to the Huntington Beach pier for photos afterward–you can’t travel to a beach town for your wedding and not do beach photos!

Chelsy and her mom were extra smart and hired an amazing wedding coordinator for the reception, who brought together a team of creative vendors who are hot on the wedding scene in Southern California. The decor, flowers, sweets, and cake were harmoniously layered, bringing depth and vibrance to the garden reception.  One of my photographs of the sweets table, which contained a huge variety of the most beautifully styled cookies, cakes, and gourmet candies, is set to be shown in The Knot’s latest wedding book, “The Knot Ultimate Wedding Lookbook: More Than 1,000 Cakes, Centerpieces, Bouquets, Dresses, Decorations, and Ideas for the Perfect Day”.

Here are some of my favorite spread from Greg and Chelsy’s striking wedding album, along with the fun black and fuschia leather and suede album cover that Chelsy chose to compliment her wedding colors.

Wedding Coordinator: Joyful Events

Floral Design: JL Designs

Cake and Sweets: Sweet and Saucy Shop

Ceremony: Newport Beach LDS Temple

Reception: Mile Square Golf Course

Photo Booth: Foto Cabina

Photography: Melissa Kelsey Photography, of course!

Ani and Stephen are two of my very good friends.  They met in art school in North Carolina.  Stephen moved to Utah and years later, they reunited, fell in love, bought a house, and decided to get married.  I had the honor of photographing their beautiful wedding  in Folly Beach, South Carolina, just outside Charleston.  I’d never been to the south before and I sure liked it. I tried okra, collard greens, barbecue, boiled shrimp and peanuts, blue crab, and shrimp and grits.  That last one was my favorite.

Ani likes to be careful with the earth and support local and independent artists.  Throughout the planning process, she was careful not to buy unnecessary items for the wedding, supported independent artists by purchasing her beautiful handmade guest book on Etsy, had her feather hair piece custom made, and used her mother’s recycled glass bottle collection for flowers and decoration.  She and Stephen had their wedding rings custom made at local Salt Lake City jeweler, Charley Hafen Jewelry.  Our friend Soozee designed the invitations and made the beautiful shell necklace that Ani wore with her wedding gown.  The alter for the wedding ceremony was a big piece of driftwood found on the beach.

Ani and Stephen took part in what I call a First Look.  The bride and groom meet before the wedding ceremony in a special, private meeting where they can really enjoy the moment.  This allows the couple to get all of the family and couple formal photographs done before the ceremony.  After the “I dos”, they can get their party on!  Every time I do a First Look with a couple, it’s very touching.  This time, it was especially moving because Stephen and Ani are dear friends.  Ani was crying, I was crying, and even Stephen was crying.

It was truly a friend and family affair.  I was the photographer, our friend, Soozee was the floral designer, and my husband, Todd was the officiate (you can become a reverend, rabbi, or priest on the internet).  We all stayed in a beautiful beach house, right on the ocean and it was fantastic.  Everyone should get married on a beach. Some of the friends:

This last one is me.  My intern, Jenny, insisted I put it on here.

Flowers:  Soozee Torreano

Cuttle Fish Guest Book: Grimm on Etsy

Feather Hair Piece: Patika Starr

Photography:  Melissa Kelsey Photography (of course)

Recycled Glass Bottles: Ani’s mom’s collection

Rings: Charley Hafen Jewelry

Bride’s Shell Necklace: Soozee Torreano

Dress: David’s Bridal

Leather Flip Flops: Rainbow Sandals

Mermaid Panties: Victoria’s Secret

Officiate: Todd Kelsey (my hubby).  Oh, and he’s retired.  He doesn’t do weddings anymore.

Chelsy and Greg were married in the Newport Beach, California LDS Temple.  It’s a gorgeous Temple and it was nice to have a new venue to photograph.  Afterward, we went to the Huntington Beach Pier for some super-fun photos.  Here’s a sneak peek of some of the photos of just the two of them on the wedding day.  Chelsy and Greg are having a post-wedding reception in Texas, where Chelsy is from.  I pulled out a selection of photos so that they could display some at the Texas reception and thought I’d share them here, too.

Besides Newport Beach weddings and Utah weddings, I do weddings wherever you want to fly me!

I leave Monday morning for a wedding in South Carolina!  It’ll be kind of a working vacation, but I’ll have some nice days to relax up until the wedding on Friday.   Ani and Stephen, the bride and groom whose engagements you may have seen HERE, are good friends of mine.  We’ll spend most of the week enjoying Charleston and Folley Beach, where Stephen and Ani are getting married.  I’ve never been to the South and I can’t wait! 

Emails and phone call responses may be delayed, but I’ll try to stay in touch while I’m away.  Thank you!

Where we’re going:

Where we’re staying: