About this vendor
Weddings are the ultimate celebration of love, community, and personal style. You spend hours choosing the right shade of eucalyptus green, crafting the most entertaining series of events, and sifting through racks of dresses for that perfect lace pattern just so you can say, "I love this person," while your friends and family bear witness. Your wedding photos document every ounce of energy that you put into planning your big day and preserve them for years to come.
At weddings and photo sessions, I utilize a combination of photojournalism and artistic direction to capture both candid emotional moments and artistically composed "wall-worthy" editorial portraits. I strive to pose my couples in a way that reflects their true nature as a couple and equally as individuals. I provide gentle posing guidance that is both easy to follow and an enjoyable experience. You will never be left wondering what to do with your hands because I will guide you at every step. I craft my artistic direction and posing style around my clients so the images feel authentic to you. Your experience of taking your photos is just as important as the photos themselves!
Every wedding is unique; therefore, every client deserves a custom-tailored wedding day package. Each client receives a tailored package with wedding day photography coverage, timeline guidance, and wedding planning education. Optional add-ons include portrait sessions, additional event photography coverage, and a variety of professionally printed products that will provide you and your loved ones with a lasting legacy. Contact me for a custom package to fit your wedding day vision.
Details
Business Attributes
- Woman-owned Business
Destination Weddings
- Destination Wedding Packages
Photo Shoot Types
- Bridal Portraits
- Engagement
Photo & Video
- Digital Files
- Online Proofing
- Photo
- Printed Enlargements
- Printed Proofs
- Second Shooter Available
Photo & Video Styles
- Artistic
- Classic
- Documentary
Wedding Activities
- Getting Engaged
- Rehearsals & Parties
- After Party
- Wedding
- After Party
Awards and Affiliations
2024 'Best of Weddings'
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.
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help
you make those big decisions with ease.
5
out of 5.015 reviews
Melissa Palka Photography is the absolute best! We had the privilege of working with Melissa for our engagement shoot first and we had such a fun time shooting and the most beautif...
ul pictures that we hired Melissa and her team to cover the wedding and we are so glad we did! Melissa captured our vision perfectly and did so in way that made photos fun and exciting!
As two queer brides, I was nervous working with vendors, but Melissa made us feel comfortable and celebrated!
She and her assistant were professional, helpful, efficient and just wonderful people to work with! She worked behind the scenes with our wedding planner to anticipate our needs and to resolve problems before they even crossed our minds.
Her expertise in lighting, posing, and just overall capturing the most special and precious moments cannot go unsaid. She is an artist and an incredible communicator.
Thank you Melissa for capturing our day and making our day so special!
You can't go wrong booking her!
We could not have asked for a better photographer to capture our special day. From our initial interactions to post-wedding gallery delivery, she has been thoughtful, organized, pr...
ofessional, and supportive. We met in person with Melissa, per her suggestion, prior to booking her for our fall 2023 engagement photos and it really helped set her apart. It’s sometimes hard to feel comfortable being photographed by a stranger but Melissa put us at ease from that initial meeting. She took the time to get to know us, our story, and our shared interests so it could show through during our sessions. She strikes the perfect balance of candid style shots with prompting for certain poses when needed or providing guidance but still letting us feel like ourselves. We absolutely loved how our engagement photos turned out and couldn’t wait for her to capture our wedding. She reached out ahead of time with guidance, potential timelines, and recommended groupings for family photos. She took such care to make sure the day was exactly how we wanted it and that no detail was unaccounted for, including meeting with us prior to the wedding to discuss when certain shots (first look, portraits, family photos, etc) would fit best into our timeline for the day. On the day of our wedding, Melissa arrived early and we felt very confident in her ability to execute our vision for the day and keep things on track. All our friends and family that interacted with her or asked her to grab a photo throughout the day were so complimentary of her. We had a videographer that she even reached out to ahead of time to make sure that they were both able to capture what they needed to in the time that we had available before and after the ceremony. Following the wedding, her delivery of the “sneak peeks” was prompt and we LOVED them. Well, this week we received the rest of the gallery and we are OBSESSED! Melissa works so hard to tell the story of the day and makes an effort to capture a lot of of the guests at the wedding, not just the wedding party or immediate family. Melissa is personable, communicative, organized, thoughtful, and talented. So if you’re still looking for your wedding photographer, look no further!
Melissa was the absolute best decision we made for our wedding. We only have our sneak peeks so far but they are perfect!! From the very beginning my husband and I were completely ...
confident in Melissa. Her communication, kindness, organization, skillset and overall professionalism is 100/10. She made us feel so comfortable and taken care of. The day of the wedding 100% wouldn't have been as smooth without her. She literally had everything covered and remembered every little detail of the things we wanted. We want to keep using her for future events and family milestones. I promise, if you want beautiful photos that capture each special moment and a incredible person to take them, Melissa is the one you want.
I absolutely would recommend Melissa Palka Photography! The experience we had with Melissa on our wedding day, and throughout the whole process of planning, engagement photos, and ...
everything else was 10/10!!! Our photos came out even better than I had imagined. Melissa is so creative and really took the reigns and made us feel so comfortable getting our photos taken. The photos she took came out beautifully and really captured us as a couple without feeling too posed. Not only are her photos amazing but she is very gifted at directing and taking charge - she made sure everything was planned out, running on time, and going smoothly. We loved working with Melissa!
Melissa was such a joy to work with for our engagement photos and our courthouse wedding. I am not very comfortable with taking photos (I don't take pictures of myself often), but ...
Melissa made it so comfortable that I thought I was good at posing for photos! Haha. Melissa always comes prepared, knowing all the best spots to take the photos. And the pictures came out BEAUTIFUL! We took our engagement and courthouse wedding photos in Maryland, but we are having our wedding ceremony in New York City. We booked Melissa instead of going with a local NYC photographer because we love working with her so much. We will definitely reach out to Melissa for any other photo needs in the future!
I booked Melissa for a surprise proposal. She was incredible from start to finish! Melissa was both helpful and insightful about planning which was much appreciated. She made sever...
al suggestions that truly helped make this a success. The images themselves are beautiful -- they blew us and our families away. Melissa made the portraits following the engagement absolutely seamless and definitely fun! I am so glad to have been able to work with Melissa through this process and now, as a newly engaged couple, we are very excited to continue working with Melissa for more events milestones to come.
Melissa was absolutely AMAZING to work with for our engagement photos and our wedding - could not recommend her enough!! My husband and I aren't very comfortable taking photos or b...
eing the center of attention, but Melissa immediately put us at ease and we had so much fun working with her. She went above and beyond in terms of communicating with us, helping to plan our timeline, scoping out our venue for good photo places - she even showed up an hour earlier than scheduled to get set up and make sure everything would run smoothly. I'm obsessed with our photos, and looking at them never fails to make me smile - she captured one of the happiest days of our lives in such a beautiful timeless fashion. Our family and friends were so impressed with how efficient, kind, and talented she was throughout the day. At the end of our wedding night I could not stop gushing to her about how lucky we were to have found her - she is the wedding photographer of every couple's dreams! So excited for her to continue on in this business - I would absolutely recommend her to anyone getting married in the area and will 100% reach out to her for any special future photo needs.
Melissa captured our day so beautifully! She really made us feel comfortable having our photo taken (which is not natural for us.) She gave us the best suggestions and allowed us t...
o really the day. It was VERY cold on our wedding day and she took our outdoor photos so professionally and quick so we could warm up. She is so kind! I could not have asked for a better experience!
My husband and I are eternally grateful that we found Melissa. She photographed our engagement pictures and our wedding so beautifully. We are a clunky goofy couple and had no idea...
what we were doing. Melissa helped us feel free and comfortable while taking our engagement pictures and when it came to our wedding pictures, she captured every cherished moment. She helped me (a very scattered bride) stay organized with our timeline and helped my husband (a very anxious groom) feel at peace. Melissa went above in our eyes. She visited our venue with us before our wedding to scope out the best shots, and even stayed a little after her scheduled time during our wedding to make sure she got every shot we hoped for. We can’t wait for her to capture more special memories for us!
I worked with Melissa for my 2021 wedding in Washington DC, and I could not have been happier! She was working for a photography company at the time, but I am very excited to see t...
hat she has launched her own endeavor, as I am sure the same vision and superior quality of her photos will carry over. I am also excited because her own vision and creativity will have room to shine when she is her own boss. Melissa made the process fun, kept things professional, incorporated our suggestions and wishes, and produced stunning visuals, giving us memories to cherish for years to come. I appreciated her input and suggestions about structuring the shoot around one of my main goals – capturing the Golden Hour. She also integrated seamlessly into the environment of the setting, a private social club which featured stricter rules than other venues and required extra care for the historic mansion which provided the venue. She was great to work with in general, and very good at providing instructions/direction without being inflexible or overbearing. I highly recommended Melissa to anyone interested in elegant, expressive images, and I can vouch for the fact that she is well worth the investment! I wish her the very best in this new chapter, and won’t hesitate to use her again for family portraits or special occasions!
We felt so very lucky to work with Melissa. From the moment we spoke with her for our planning phone call, we knew it was a great fit. Melissa is not only extremely knowledgeable i...
n her field, but she is a truly kindhearted and supportive person. We went over all the details and felt completely at ease going into our wedding day thanks to her approach.
Melissa arrived early on our wedding day to take those details shots and ensure we had plenty of time for our first look and group shots before the ceremony. She made all of us feel super comfortable and contributed to a relaxing environment. Her genuine kindness was noticed by several of our wedding guests who came up to me during the reception to tell me how great our photographer was 😊
Melissa was very organized and ensured we got all the group photos we hoped for. With crazy family dynamics like most, Melissa handled all groups with ease and kept things moving. We are so appreciative of this.
Finally — the photos!! Wow. We are so in love with all the photos she captured. I’m always rather hard on myself and don’t like photos, so the fact that she was able to document us in our element on this once in a lifetime day, is so special. Her ability to get candids and posed photos that look natural is amazing. We are so happy and will use Melissa for future life events. She made our day extra special and we look at our photo book and think of how lucky we were to have gotten to work with her.
Lastly, there was supposed to be a support photographer with her but due to an accident she couldn’t make it. I was nervous we wouldn’t get all the photos we hoped for, but this was not the case. Melissa reassured us that she would take care of it and she certainly did. We are still in awe of how she captured a wedding of 150 guests by herself.
My husband and I are so thankful to have found Melissa. She photographed us for both our engagement and wedding photos. We could not have been more thrilled with how they turned ...
out. From the moment we first met her, she made us feel at ease and it was as if we had known her for a long time. She took her time and put so much thought into making sure she captured everything beautifully - which she did. Years from now when we look back on our photos we will think of Melissa and be so happy we chose her to document such an important time in our lives. I highly encourage you to book her for your event - you will be so glad you did!
My husband and I absolutely loved our experience with Melissa! Our wedding photos were so beautiful and we can’t stop looking at them, even almost a year later. Melissa was so grea...
t with communication and planning and brought our vision to life! She got all of the shots I wanted. She took some of my ideas for photos and added her own expertise. We are so happy to have worked with her and would love to work with her again!
Melissa was an absolute pleasure to work with!! Was easy to communicate with before so we could outline any shots we definitely wanted to take and was super flexible with me and tr...
aveled to a different location then the venue to get some sunset shots! The pictures in the church were amazing she literally captured the love in the room. Also the reception pictures just made it all a hundred times better, she got so many good shots of the party and me and my husband having the time of our lives! She was super sweet and easy to work with and I definitely recommend!
Melissa photographed our wedding this past September and she was amazing! She made sure we stuck to our timeline all while getting every shot we wanted! She made things go so smo...
othly and kept it fun! Melissa spent time reviewing our timeline and went through the list of shots we wanted while answering all our questions! She was just awesome!
Contact
VA, MD, & DC and Destination
Melissa Palka Photography