About this vendor
Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, Melissa Diane Photography is a professional wedding photography studio dedicated to making every couple feel confident in front of the camera while capturing timeless portraits of their love story. Melissa believes that every couple deserves wedding photos that remind them of just how much they are loved by their partner and why they decided to go on the journey of life together. From creating a personalized wedding day timeline to directing her clients through how to move to flatter their body, Melissa is here to make sure every couple feels empowered and excited on their wedding day!
Melissa provides a variety of Wedding Photography Packages that are customizable. Every wedding collection includes two photographers, an online gallery, high resolution digital files, and a complimentary engagement session. Above all, Melissa is dedicated to making each couple's photography experience uplifting and positive while capturing their unique love story.
Details
Business Attributes
- Woman-owned Business
Destination Weddings
- Destination Wedding Packages
Photo Shoot Types
- Bridal Portraits
- Engagement
Photo & Video
- Digital Files
- Photo
- Printed Enlargements
- Second Shooter Available
- Social Media Sharing
- Wedding Albums
Photo & Video Styles
- Artistic
- Classic
- Documentary
- Dramatic
Wedding Activities
- Getting Engaged
- Rehearsals & Parties
- Wedding
Awards and Affiliations
3-Time 'Best of Weddings'
2025.2024.2023.
Best of Weddings
The Knot independently assesses vendors for this award—it’s never self-reported. We base it on firsthand experiences from real couples and guests, and they must have a 4.5-star average across 7+ reviews in the qualifying year.
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Reviews
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5
out of 5.032 reviews
Review photos
Showing slide number 1 out of 9
My husband and I loved working with Melissa. She made us both feel so comfortable during our shoots. We are absolutely obsessed with our engagement and wedding photos. Melissa is e...
asy to communicate with and has such an eye for detail. Love her creativity and her work! Highly recommend her for your engagement or wedding photos!
Melissa and her shooting partner, Chuck, did an amazing job on our wedding day! I found Melissa through Instagram and immediately fell in love with her photography. I requested a v...
ideo call with her to discuss the possibility of shooting our wedding. During the call she listened to our needs, offered professional advice, and answered all of my questions. Above all she was extremely kind and patient.
Before our wedding day, a few of our other vendors had asked who our photographer was. When I said Melissa Diane Photography was doing our photos, several of our vendors excitedly told us how much they enjoy working with Melissa and how great of a job she does. She is well respected amongst other vendors in the wedding industry. Additionally, several of my bridesmaids and family members came up to me after the wedding and told me how much they loved our photographer.
Melissa has a wonderful eye for lighting, framing, angles, and poses! During our complementary engagement photo session, Melissa made us feel comfortable despite it being our first time having professional photos made. There was a car accident on the highway that caused us to be late to the shooting location, Melissa was communicative the entire time and calmed our stress about being late. She taught us how to pose in a natural way and our pictures turned out stunning!
Melissa and Chuck went above and beyond to make sure all of our special moments were captured on our wedding day. Our wedding was relatively long, and Melissa and Chuck worked tirelessly to make sure every detail was captured. I am in love with our wedding and engagement photos! I will cherish these photographs forever. The photos literally made me tear up and cry when I first saw them. Melissa did a wonderful job of capturing our love and the fun that we had with our friends and family on our special day. The quality of the photographs are wonderful! I can't wait to have them printed and framed. It's impossible to pick a favorite photo because there are so many that I love.
If you're looking for an amazing wedding photographer that goes above and beyond, look no further! Melissa is your girl! I have nothing but great things to say about her!
We hired Melissa to be our wedding photographer and she was amazing! She provided us the right amount of simple instructions to get the best poses, even when we had no photo/posing...
experience. She provided a complimentary engagement photo shoot to get to know her and her style before the wedding and has a great list of picturesque spots around Charlottesville to do so. Those pictures were taken during sunset and turned out stunning, so we knew every special moment would be captured perfectly during the wedding. Her assistant Chuck also did a great job on wedding day. They had a structured plan to get posed photos completed efficiently, so that we could enjoy more of our special day. She has a great eye for angles and incorporating light naturally. Melissa had quick turnaround with the photo gallery after 3 weeks, editing over 1000 photos! The editing highlighted every small detail that we missed when we were busy being the center of attention and allows us to relive that day from a different point of view. We are forever grateful to have chosen Melissa and glad she will be a part of our memories forever.
Melissa was the absolute best! My husband and I are not very comfortable taking pictures, but she put us completely at ease and the photos turned out so beautiful! Her use of color...
and nature was exactly what I was looking for and her second photographer (Chuck) was awesome too! We also loved our engagement shoot and would highly recommend Melissa!
We had an incredible experience with Melissa and her assistant!!! She was so easy to communicate with from the beginning. She includes an engagement shoot in her package which help...
ed us get more comfortable in front of the camera with her. Melissa and her assistant did an INCREDIBLE job capturing our wedding day! They come very prepared and help make everything run smoothly and efficiently so we had plenty of time to spend with our guests as well!
Melissa is a wonderful wedding photographer. I could not have imagined a better person to capture my wedding day! Melissa is kind, thoughtful, and helpful with giving direction on ...
how to pose for photos! She has an amazing eye for spotting the best locations to take pictures - keeping in mind the background, foliage, lighting, and angles. I am in awe of all the pictures she took of our wedding and the complimentary engagement session! I can't stop looking at them. If you're looking for an amazing wedding photographer, Melissa is the one!!
Melissa is truly one of a kind. She is incredible at what she does, easy to work with, and extremely professional. We had our entire wedding gallery quickly, and we were blown away...
at what Melissa captured. We can't recommend her enough!
I could not say enough great things about working with Melissa for our engagement and wedding! Melissa is amazing at directing shots, has creative movements, and is so kind, patien...
t and thoughtful. Not to mention, she provides a great turnaround for photos, and is always in communication leading up to our event. We were so lucky and grateful to work with her!
Oh man do I LOVE Melissa. She's incredible. Melissa was 8 months pregnant during our engagement shoot, and not only was she walking all over the place with us, but she was getting ...
shots on the ground and in tough spots! Our wedding day was extremely windy and we got married under a bunch of pine trees, but Melissa knew how to make the wind work and how to make sure the sun/shadows were right under the pines. It was so amazing watching her work. She's quick, efficient, and gets AMAZING shots. AND she got our wedding album back to us extremely fast. This was SO appreciated. She's also incredibly sweet and kind. She's such a warm and calming presence on such a hectic day. And her partner, Chuck, was absolutely adored by the groom and all the groomsmen. He was funny and the men were joking around with him like they were long-time friends. You will 1000% be in great hands if you book Melissa for any and all occasions!!
Melissa did an incredible job capturing our engagement pictures and our wedding photos! My husband was nervous about taking pictures and she walked us through everything, we love a...
ll of our photos and have looked back at them frequently. Melissa helps set up your wedding timeline so you have time to enjoy your day while still getting all the family photos/husband and wife photos in! She responds quickly to your emails about your day so you feel very calm about the details of your wedding day. We cannot thank her enough for our gorgeous wedding photos and engagement pictures that we will continue to share/look back on for years to come. We have received so many compliments from family and friends about our wedding photos and we have Melissa to thank! Don't hesitate to book with her!!
Melissa is truly incredible. Going into the wedding one of my top priorities was to make sure we walked away with good pictures from our engagement shoot and wedding. Melissa's pi...
ctures were better than I ever could have imagined. I look at them all the time. I'm not one who is very photogenic, but she knew all the right poses to make sure we looked our best. She was so detail oriented - even reminding me to pulled my shoulders back when I got tired and started to slouch. She at times even doubled as a coordinator - helping me at my wedding trying to cut the cake, suggesting vendors,suggesting timelines and events. She was so wonderful to work with. She was super sweet, made me feel so confident during pictures, and was always patient and flexible with things. Shes also highly motivated. She hiked all over Richmond for the perfect sunset picture. During our wedding, she was about 8 months pregnant and she's walking into bushes and straightening my train just to get the perfect shot. Melissa is one of the best in the business!
Melissa was fabulous! She was such a joy to work with - our whole wedding party loved her - and the photos turned out spectacularly! I genuinely cannot stop looking at them! We cou...
ldn't be happier with the service we received. Melissa had a great eye for location, lighting, and composition of the photos and did a great job guiding us with our poses to make the photos better. She also spent time getting to know our style and what we hoped for from the experience, and then exceeded our expectations! 10/10!
I reached out to Melissa on a whim due to an awful situation I have been put in by another photographer for my wedding. I asked her if she would be available TEN days before my wed...
ding, however she is already booked. Within about FIVE minutes had reached out to other photographers and got me connected with someone who is available and does amazing work. Melissa is not being paid as my photographer and really owes me no assistance at all but went completely out of her way for a simple quote and had a solution for me within no time. Even though she is not my photographer I feel like this alone speaks volumes about her character and how much she cares for people who arent even her clients...I cant imagine how she would take care of someone who hires her as a photographer!!
Thank you so so much again, Melissa!!!
Melissa was wonderful to work with. She made us feel comfortable in front of the camera and was very fun and patient with us. We took pictures at two different locations and had tw...
o different outfits during our session in Shenandoah National Park. She understands lighting and frames you just right in the photos and helps with poses. The pictures turned out great and we are really happy we chose her for our engagement photos. We got the photos quickly after the photoshoot. We highly recommend choosing her to be your photographer for any event!
We cannot recommend Melissa highly enough! Immediately from our initial Zoom consultation, we felt so at ease and excited about working with her. We loved getting to do an engageme...
nt shoot, which made us feel even more comfortable in front of the camera and was a wonderful opportunity to build our relationship with her. Leading up to our wedding day, Melissa was very communicative and organized, and we appreciated knowing that she had a plan (taking into account our timeline, the sunset/lighting, and her knowledge and experience at the venue, etc.). On our wedding day, Melissa was very encouraging, kind, and fun to work with. We appreciated her flexibility with the unexpected weather and her gentle demeanor throughout everything. She captured each moment so beautifully and authentically, and we truly could not have asked for more perfect photos. We have loved reliving our day by looking through the galleries, and we know that we will cherish these photos forever and will always appreciate having such a talented photographer for the biggest day of our life!
Melissa is an A+ photographer. She is incredibly professional and does high-quality work, and also has a "light" side to keep everyone loose and comfortable during photos. The resu...
lt are amazing photos with genuine smiles and everyone at ease. Melissa has a ton of experience and this leads to her having some great ideas for photos - but she isn't married to her ideas and is open to the photo subject making other suggestions. But I would advise taking Melissa's suggestions, because she's usually going to be right! =)
As we were considering photographers for our wedding, one piece of advice we got was "pick someone you want to spend time with, because you are going to be spending a lot of time with them." Melissa is a great person to spend time with and we really enjoyed every interaction we had with her.
Overall, this is one of the easiest 5/5 reviews I have ever written. I would recommend Melissa to anyone seeking a wedding photographer.
Melissa was the definition of professional and a pleasure to work with from intro to the day of! She meticulously processed our photos so that they were perfect for us and our fami...
ly/friends. She somehow made EVERYONE look good and part of that is how she positioned us all and made sure we looked our best. As for portraits of my husband and I, Melissa made it so easy to look fabulous and not posey. I cannot recommend her enough for your photography needs! She goes above and beyond for her clients.
Melissa was so amazing to work with for our December wedding! She made sure every detail was perfect in the lighting, poses, and to timing of pictures. Chris and I couldn't be happ...
ier with our final gallery and wedding album! She was even able to customize parent albums for our families as well. Her photos we absolutely beautiful, we highly recommend Melissa Diane Photography!
Melissa is absolutely amazing! Not only is she an amazingly professional and talented photographer, but she is fun, kind, and encouraging! From the start, Melissa was extremely org...
anized and helpful. For our engagement shoot, she provided a guide that helped us choose our outfits and the perfect location. Our engagement shoot was so much fun and a great way to get comfortable in front of the camera - which isn't hard being around someone as fun and friendly as Melissa. The photos were absolutely beautiful and made us so excited for the big day. Ahead of our wedding, Melissa was very communicative and provided us with a detailed timeline that helped us create our coordinator and DJ timelines. She provided us with a questionnaire to capture important details and the desired shot list. Melissa and Chuck are seasoned experts and had all of the details and best shots down like clock work. They created an environment where our family and friends were excited and comfortable in front of the camera. My husband and I had so much fun taking our wedding photos and appreciated Melissa's guidance and keen eye on the best locations and shots. Melissa provided us with a sneak peak the morning after the wedding - an amazing and exciting surprise! We received our final gallery less than a month after the big day and are absolutely in love! Melissa captured our wedding so beautifully and we will cherish her work forever. We 100% recommend Melissa for your big day and any photography needs and can't wait to work with her again in the future!
From the get-go Melissa was an absolute joy to work with. During our first meeting via Zoom she was so personable and easy to talk to we ended up talking like old friends for over ...
an hour. We shot our engagement session at Maymont and she not only had so many great pose ideas for Scott and I but she strategically did so in a way that reflected our personalities and level of comfort as a couple. After watching us interact for only a few minutes she had a vision for what kinds of pictures would look best with our body types, height, and general "type of couple we were." We also had so much fun with it there was nothing that felt forced. As we got closer to the wedding she was so patient with me as I went back and forth on the group picture lists for after the ceremony and provided great recommendations and advice. We got lots of compliments after the wedding from family and friends on how sweet she was throughout the day and she was extremely patient with not only both of our big families but our huge wedding party as well. I was never worried about how the pictures would turn out, she showed great creativity in the angles and detailed shots on our wedding day and took the time to capture the best of every moment. I really appreciated that she made sure to ask me what/if there were any moments or pictures on my wedding day I absolutely wanted and when I received the full album I noticed she was able to capture every single one. That really meant a lot to me that despite the fact that it was a long and crazy whirlwind of a day she remembered the little things. The pictures were amazing, the video-reel was a touch I didn't realize would make me as emotional as it did but seeing even small, quick second snippets of that day from another's perspective was something I didn't know I needed but am now blessed to have. I genuinely couldn't reccomend Melissa enough to anyone looking for someone who is just a personable and easy to work with as she is professional. Thank you Melissa for capturing the best day of my life in such a beautiful way.
Melissa was the best decision we could have made for our photographer!
From the initial contact to the delivery of our wedding gallery, she was super sweet and professional. We ar...
e very much obsessed with our wedding photos and they really capture the day spectacularly. Melissa also did a great job in constructing our wedding day timeline in which she and Chuck are PROS at organizing and getting large families together to take pictures. 12/10 will be recommending her to every bride I know.
Melissa made our wedding day so special! With all the craziness of the day she managed to not only take amazing photos of my bridal details and all my “must have” shots but also re...
gularly checked in on my temperament which meant everything. I received my photos a little over a week after the wedding which was an amazing turn around and came just in time to perk me up as my husband had just left for basic training for the military and I was missing him dearly. 10/10 would recommend!
Melissa is the best! I chose her because her portfolio was stunning and she has such a timeless and beautiful aesthetic to all of her photos. She also turned out to be so amazing t...
o work with. She was incredibly responsive throughout the entire process, always showed up on time/early, and was so, so great at making my husband (who is usually not photogenic) and family feel comfortable and beautiful in the photo taking process. Could not recommend Melissa more.
Melissa was such an absolute joy to work with. My husband and I had a long engagement (over 2 years) and Melissa was one of the first vendors we booked. In our first call she was e...
xtremely thorough and even offered advice and thoughts given we were so early in (and new to) the wedding planning process. We finally met Melissa several months later for our engagement session and WOW she was so much fun to work with! She made us feel so natural and comfortable and DANG did she make us look good! As the wedding approached she was totally fine with us adding 2 hours… and then another 2… of coverage. She prepared a timeline alongside our coordinator. Finally our wedding day came and Melissa yet again was a rock star. She’s so genuine, sweet, and so fantastic at her job. She made us all feel so comfortable and any laughing pictures were genuine thanks to her! After the wedding she turned around our sneak peak in record time despite being so busy (fall VA wedding season!) and our full gallery maybe 4 weeks later. Jaw dropping.
If you’re still looking for your wedding photographer, look no further. Melissa is the absolute best. Thank you for everything, Melissa!!
Melissa did both our engagement photos and wedding photos. We let her know right away that we had never had professional photos done and felt uncomfortable in front of the camera. ...
She was SO friendly and easy to work with and guided us effortlessly so that our photos came out flawless. On our wedding day it poured rain but Melissa came prepared with several umbrellas and a great attitude, and made sure we got every must have shot that we requested. We love to reflect back on the photos that she provided us from two very important days and will definitely work with her again in the future!
I honestly cannot say enough good things about Melissa Diane Photography! Melissa did both our engagement shoot and our wedding. She made our engagement shoot so much fun and made ...
my husband and I feel so at ease and comfortable even though we were so nervous. Melissa and Chuck did such an amazing job not only capturing our special day so exquisitely, but also helping to make our day so much fun! I was running behind with the timeline for our wedding day, and they still got all the shots we wanted while still getting us back on track time wise. I’m so incredibly happy with how beautiful our pictures turned out, and I will definitely be using them again for future events. Recommend them 1,000%!!
Melissa was a true gem to find. Everyone always says your photographer is the most important aspect of your wedding day. So, when I was looking for a photographer I made sure I pic...
ked someone I knew would be detail oriented, listen to all my do and don’ts, and make my dreams come to life in photos. Melissa went above and beyond my expectations. She was super responsive to any questions I had, made sure she knew exactly what I was looking for and she is truly just the most kindest and sweetest person to work with. I’m so lucky I found Melissa and got to have her for my engagement photos and on my wedding day. I couldn’t have asked for anyone better to capture the most happiest day of my life. She has truly blown me away. I highly HIGHLY recommend her to everyone.
Wow! We had a truly amazing experience with Melissa! She was incredible from start to finish. On the day of our wedding she was SOOOO much fun and made the environment so positive....
It was so refreshing!
She had amazing preview pictures sent shortly after the wedding which was so exciting and she had our full album returned way earlier than expected! I cannot say enough positive things about her.
We loved Melissa! She and Chuck were very professional and fun to work with. On our wedding day we had a few items that pushed our schedule behind a bit (not related to photography...
) but Melissa never made me feel stressed. She had a very calming presence through all of it and knew how to work around changes in the schedule. She captured so many beautiful shots and my husband and his groomsmen had a great time with Chuck. Melissa also did our engagement photos in a new location. She was amazing at scouting out the place and finding spots for us to take photos that we both love. I would definitely recommend Melissa to anyone!
I can’t say enough good things about working with Melissa as our wedding photographer. Our engagement photos turned out gorgeous and she was so sweet while doing a great job making...
us feel comfortable in front of the camera. On our wedding day she kept everything running smoothly and got us through wedding party and family photos really efficiently, along with her assistant Chuck who was also awesome. To top it all off, I woke up the morning after the wedding to about 40 photos from her!!! She said she was excited after the wedding and started editing. I assume this isn’t the norm because that would be exhausting but just goes to show how much she genuinely loves and cares about her job. I can’t wait to see the full gallery because the preview of her photos was stunning! Melissa is the best!!
Melissa went above and beyond for the two of us. Every time we met she was very professional and always responded very quickly. We were both nervous at our engagement shoot and Mel...
issa had us laughing and having fun throughout the while session. Our wedding was in May and when things became stressful and our plans were changed due to COVID-19, Melissa remained a dream to work with. Our day wasn't what we originally planned it to be, but with Melissa there for us it turned out perfect. And our photos turned out better than I ever dreamed they would be! She is such a sweet and genuine person and I cannot recommend her enough. I wish I could give her more than 5 stars!!
I'm so glad we hired Melissa to photograph our wedding, it was absolutely perfect. My fiancé was really nervous before our engagement shoot, but Melissa made him feel comfortable t...
o the point that he was probably more into it than I was! She was so helpful and communicative during the planning process. On the day-of, she and her partner Chuck were punctual, professional, and tons of fun. We got a "sneak peek" of our photos a few days later and they turned out AMAZING - I generally don't like pictures of myself, but they are beautiful and we look like models. Melissa Diane Photography really made our wedding day perfect, I'm so glad we hired them!
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