About me
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I photograph love stories where the world feels bigger
and expectations feel smaller.
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I’m Melania Petho, a wedding and elopement photographer based in Budapest, working across Europe and most often, somewhere in the mountains.
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I believe the most meaningful moments don’t happen on schedules or shot lists. They happen when you slow down. When you choose presence over performance. When the place around you actually means something.
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That’s why you’ll most often find me photographing couples in places like the Dolomites, Lake Bled, or high in the Alps, where nature sets the pace, and the day unfolds naturally. These landscapes aren’t just backdrops to me. They’re part of the story.
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​My path here wasn’t accidental.
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I’ve been a full-time photographer since 2020, but long before that, I studied marketing at Corvinus University in Budapest. Even then, I knew I wasn’t meant to sit behind strategies, I was drawn to people, movement, emotion.
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Photography first entered my life through pole dance and aerial sports, where understanding bodies, flow, and timing is everything. That background still shapes how I photograph today, I notice subtle movements, quiet connections, the moments that feel almost instinctive.
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In 2022, weddings became my focus.
And honestly? It felt inevitable.
I’ve always been a romantic. The kind who believes photos are emotional time machines, moments you don’t just see again, but feel again.
I don’t just photograph elopements,
I believe in them.
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I met my husband at a wedding.
A year later, we chose to elope ourselves, just the two of us, far from expectations. And later, we also celebrated with a big wedding surrounded by everyone we love.
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That’s why I understand both worlds deeply.
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Elopements speak to me because they strip everything back to what matters most.
No audience. No performance. Just two people choosing each other, sometimes on a mountaintop, sometimes by an alpine lake at sunrise, sometimes after a quiet hike when the world finally goes quiet.
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Places like the Dolomites or Lake Bled aren’t just beautiful to me, they feel right. They allow space. They let emotions breathe.
How I photograph
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My style is light, honest, and quietly cinematic.
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I guide when it helps, step back when something real is happening, and never force moments that don’t belong to you.
You won’t be asked to perform or pretend. Instead, I create an environment where you can relax enough to forget about the camera and that’s when the most meaningful images happen.
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Whether I’m photographing a full wedding day or an intimate elopement in the mountains, my goal is the same:
to document how it felt to be there, not just how it looked.
A little more about me
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When I’m not photographing weddings, I’m usually planning the next trip with my husband, exploring new countries, or hiking somewhere high with our poodle, Zsebi.
Travel isn’t just inspiration for me — it’s part of how I see the world.
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And if there’s one thing couples tell me again and again, it’s this:
Working together feels easy. Natural. Like being themselves.
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That’s exactly how it should feel.
