I was lucky enough to be asked to take part in a styled bridal shoot on Sunday at the most stunning Bed & Breakfast Ana Mandara right here in Port Macquarie.

Ana Mandara is not only the most beautiful place to stay if your needing somewhere to get ready on your wedding day or just a quick night away together but they are also offering a more imitate ceremony and cocktail reception venue and who wouldn't want the amazing water views in the back ground of their ceremony and the gorgeous sunsets.

A huge thank-you goes out to all the local businesses and models that took part in this styled shoot and a huge thank-you to the lovely Kristy from Big Fat Kiss Events for putting it all together.

If you like anything you see please see these vendors:

Ana Mandara Bed&Breakfast Accommodation ( Located in Port Macquarie )
Big Fat Kiss Events ( for all your wedding day or special function styling )
Photography By Melissa Lee ( Provided the Photography )
Patrice Makeup ( Provided the ladies makeup )
Beverleys Bridal Boutique ( Provided wedding gowns & ladies formal dresses )
Stellar Weddings Hair and Makeup ( Provided the hair styles )
Park Lane Jewellery with Katrina Carney ( Provided the Jewellery )
Living green indoor plant hire ( Provided the plants )
Street Smart Clothing and Mens Foraml Hire ( Provided the men's suits )
Wauchope Colonial Florist ( Provided the bouquets )

Models: Ellen, Jana, Jaimie, Tom, Jonothan & Mitch

For links to their pages please head to www.facebook/photographybymelissalee as I have shared links to the businesses there.

Mel approached me a little while ago with an "out of the box" location idea and I loved it as I had always looked at this location as a "cool" place to shoot but didn't think anyone would ever be interested in it, so yesterday afternoon just before sunset we headed off too capture some family portraits for this awesome family. I must admit I had to chase little 1 year old Nixon around to try and get a shot of him but 4 yr old Lincoln was quite the little model and totally rocked his shots.

Thank-you Mel & Justin for allowing me to capture your family portraits.

Location- Wauchope Nsw

Karly helped me out with a quick mini maternity session and she is just so incredibly stunning :-)

It took a little while for Alex to warm up to the idea of cake and he did make a few runs for it during the session, but once he got a taste for that icing he loved it and had too use his fork to eat it.

Alex you are too adorable :-)

In March I was honored to photograph the wedding of Louise & Michael on a gorgeous private property at Tom's Creek NSW.

The day started out sunny with clouds, a beautiful warm day, just want you'd want for your outdoor wedding ceremony, as the ceremony & family portraits went on the skin started to get darker and darker, so we rushed off to get some bridal portraits before the rain was to set in.

As I followed the car in front of me winding around the dirt roads and the rain starting to sprinkle on my windshield, I thought "oh please just let me get a chance to get some photo's in". We soon turned into a property and up we went, up up up, I keep thinking WOW look at this view its is amazing :-)

We finally reached our point at the very top "The Ridge" they referred to it and all i could see 360 degrees was mountains, property and the most stunning landscape. That soon came to a stop when I realized its is about to bucket down lets get these shots done. I've never shot my bridal portraits in such quick time I think we were up there for about 15/20 minutes and just as we jumped back into the car it poured and by poured I mean bucketed down, as we were driving back to the main road, roads were starting to go under same with bridges, the gorgeous location they had just gotten married in was starting to go under and all I could think was "oh my gosh I am going to get stuck out here, and I hope not as they need to make it to their reception were their guests are waiting".

We got out and the closer I drove to Wauchope the rain eased off until I had hit just outside of Wauchope and the rain completely stopped, you wouldn't of even thought it had just been raining that much.

Thank-you Louise & Michael for allowing me too share in your special day, to their family and friends here is a small snippet of their special day.

Ceremony Tom's Creek

Photography By Melissa Lee VIP member


By joining as a VIP member, pay only $9.95 per week and you'll receive a full family portrait session either in studio or on location and your choice of all mini themed sessions per year with all images on USB!

How great is that! You have already saved yourself $$$ just by joining up.

As well as these great benefits as a VIP member you’ll also have access to a 10% discount on any product purchased through our studio and have the choice of discounted mini themed sessions throughout the year.

Themed mini sessions on offer this year are the following:

Easter, Graffiti, Mummy & Me, Daddy & Me, Christmas, Unicorn, Dinosaur

Does this sound like something you would love?

New Years Eve 2016 had me spending a few hours with this amazing couple Skye & Brock.

All though it has to be one of the hottest weddings i've ever photographed, they all did so well to get through the heat ( including me ) and come out the other end were they could all kick off their shoes, party and bring in the new year all while they celerbrated these two becoming husband & wife.

The stunning wedding was on a gorgoues property just the other side of beechwood followed by their beautiful stylish reception held at the Beechwood bar & cafe ( their first one yet ). The room looked amazing and I highly recommend anyone thinking of reception venues to pop out and check it out.

Thank-you for allowing me to share in your special day.

Mel xo

I am lucky enough too call this little miss my niece and while she was staying over one weekend I decided it was the perfect opportunity to get the camera out and capture little miss 4's stunning natural beauty and her red hair as i am certain that as she gets older she won't love it as much.

This little one has an attitude all of her own and growing up around two brothers and boy cousins she has been the only girl for a little while so when little miss Harper was born so was a big girl cousins to spoil her.

Milly hasn't always liked me taking her photo and I have them too prove just how much she hated it starting with her newborn photo's but we shall leave them in the vault for another day, but after Miss baby Harper had her photo-shoot done she was keen to have one just for herself, and although she most likely thinks Aunty Mel is crazy with the camera in hand all the time i am sure she won't think that when she is older.

Little Miss is now looking forward to a second girl cousin to spoil this year once she arrives in December :-)