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.

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

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:

My cousin, Tyler, and his fiance, Andrea were married in the courtyard of a beautiful traditional Japanese restaurant, Yamashiro, in the Hollywood Hills that overlooks Los Angeles.  From the outside to the inside, every detail was beautiful.  There was a koi pond in the middle of the courtyard where Tyler and Andrea were married.  Andrea coordinated and made most of the wedding decorations, including origami candle bases! 

It was really special to be part of their wedding day and capture such an important moment in their lives.  Thank you, Andrea and Tyler, for entrusting me with such an important responsibility and honor.  It was great to meet your family and friends, Andrea, and it was great to see my family members, too!  

Yamashiro Restaurant

I knew exactly what I was going to do when I saw this chair in the Bride’s Room.

Andrea’s mom applies the makeup.

What a cute shot of Andrea.  She asked me which perfume she should wear.  That made me feel kind of special.  I thought she should wear the classic, Chanel…

…and she did.

What a cool moment.  Andrea is waiting with her dad and sister, her maid of honor, before the ceremony.

The officiant prepares for the ceremony.

Another one of my favorite moments-the maid of honor, Ashley, peeks around the corner as she’s waiting for the ceremony to begin.

…and the Best Man (my other cousin, Scott) does the same.

There was this thing with hands during the ceremony.  It was a perfect moment with Andrea’s hands behind and Tyler’s in front, like a symbol of their unity.

That’s me, Mrs. Melissa Kelsey!  I had to get a shot of my own place card.

Andrea folded this origami candle base.

Koi pond!

This is my Shirley Temple.  It just came over me all of the sudden that it’s what I should have.  No drinking on the job for me!  Then, the bartender put it on this green, lighted counter and I had to take a photo of it, immediately because it looked so cool.

Andrea had the most decadent red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting instead of a traditional cake.  We picked them up at a little cafe after she got me from the airport in the morning.  I think these cupcakes are famous around L.A.  I can see why, they were amazing.

This is my actual cupcake, half eaten.  These were huge, the size of a large grapefruit!

First dance.

Thanks, Jeni, for holding that video light for me!

That’s only the beginning of the saga. 

My husband, Todd and I decided to drive to Vancouver.  I think it’s a 15 or 16 hour trip.  Luckily, my cousin, Scott lives in Seattle, so we stopped there for a couple of days and he and his wife Jeni showed us around.   Then, we were off to Vancouver.  I’ll have to do another post about our mini Vancouver vacation in depth later.

The saga part comes when we arrive at our hotel in Vancouver.  We turned on the TV to hear news about a huge rockslide that covered the only highway to Whistler where Brigette and Stu’s wedding was going to be.  So, the positive thinker that I am, I thought, “okay, the weddings not for 3 days, they’ll clear it up and it’ll be fine”.  As the day went on and into to the next day, the news about Brigette and Stu’s beautiful resort wedding overlooking Puget Sound was not looking so good.  They were not going to be able to clear the road in time.  We could take a 12 hour detour up winding dirt roads with all the guests and wedding party, but that was just not feasible.  So, Brigette and Stu threw together a stupendous wedding in just 2 days!  Brigette has been a florist in the past and Stu’s mom had been a caterer.  The made a fabulous cake adn delicious food.  Everything was beautiful-the flowers, the decorations, the backyard with the 12 foot tall hedges.  All of their family and friends came together to make a beautiful, intimate wedding happen in two short days and I got to be part of it.

I was really excited to have this gorgeous window in Brigette’s apartment to photograph the dress in.  Her apartment overlooks the ocean!

Brigette did all of the gorgeous, natural arrangements for the wedding. 

Bonus that they’re my favorite color, apple green!

The groom’s family looks on during the ceremony.

Stu was awesome.  He arranged for us to go down to the beach for bridal party photos.  I’m SO glad he did.  I love these photos. 

I loved it when Stu put Brigette on his back to get to the big rock we were shooting on.

Hot girls!

One of my favorites.

I’ve always wanted to do one of those gorgeous limo shots you see.  Now I have!

Brigette didn’t wear heels, she wore these.  Brigette’s cute Vans said, “He loves me, he loves me not”.  She finally held still long enough in the limo for me to photograph them.

Their favors rocked.  Brigette and Stu sent their photos into Jones Soda who printed their photos on the bottles!  That’s them on the label!

This fabulous cake is a family recipe.  Stu made his own wedding cake!  It was gorgeous with a beautiful cream colored frosting and fern piping with real ferns and orchids as well.

Celine was such a cool flower girl.  She was such a free spirit.

So, apparently, Canadians don’t have the tradition of decorating the bride and groom’s car.  I asked them if they were doing it so I could get a picture and they didn’t know what I was talking about!  I told them about the American tradition of doing this and they went crazy with it!

Poor Kermit!

They even got this nice lady in on the action.

I love how I caught the string in mid-air, if I do say so myself.

Bye!

I went to Elko, Nevada to photograph Rachel and Brandon’s wedding.  They live in Las Vegas, but Rachel grew up in Elko.  In Rachel’s words, she’s a “city girl with a country heart”.  They had a beautiful ceremony at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church near Rachel’s childhood home and had an awesome reception in a huge tent outside.  It was lit with lots of candles and adorned with red everything-a candy bar, cake, candles, menus, lots of flowers, and more.  Elko holds the national Basque festival every year and it was going on during Rachel and Brandon’s wedding weekend, so they had amazing Basque food.  After dinner, the reception turned into a big party-lots of dancing.  I even caught Rachel doing a keg stand!  The rest of the bridal party followed course as they should!  Rachel was so cute toward the end of the night, passing out her mini ice cream cones.  Before I knew it, it was 2:30 a.m.!  It was so fun, I didn’t realize it was so late.  Rachel and Brandon win the official award for latest wedding reception ever.

Jeff and Janica are such an awesome couple-kind, caring, and not too bad lookin’ either!  It was a treat to photograph their wedding in such a beautiful outdoor location.  As we were driving around San Francisco the next day, I was having a heyday, seeing the endless opportunities for photo shoot locations!  I could go crazy there and never run out of new places to shoot. 

The Wedding