A 16-Guest Private Estate Micro Wedding in Malibu

A Private Estate Ceremony Under the Copper Arch

The ceremony was in the garden by the pool, two short rows of chairs facing a copper-pipe arch draped in white fabric. One big asymmetric spray hung off it — hot-pink and coral and cream roses with hydrangea, eucalyptus, and trailing amaranth spilling down one side. A little ring girl came first. Then Aracely walked in on her father's arm to the slow strings of Bach's "Air on the G String."

Aracely and Rudy held hands through it as the ridge fell away to the ocean behind the arch, the officiant at the front and every face in the two short rows family. When it was done, they walked back up the aisle to the wedding march and out into the rest of the afternoon.

“Two short rows of chairs, a copper arch dressed in peach and coral, and every face in them family.”

Family Portraits at the Malibu Private Estate

Family photos came right after — parents and siblings, the kids gathered in, everyone pulled together in the garden before the evening settled. The house sits above Point Dume, the dome-shaped headland at the northwest end of Santa Monica Bay, and from the deck the coast runs out for miles, all the way toward Catalina on a clear day. That open water was the landscape the whole day was set against.

Then Aracely and Rudy slipped off for a few portraits alone, out on the ridge in the low light, before they joined the family by the pool.

Dinner and String Lights by the Pool

Dinner was set at the water's edge — one long wood farm table with cane-backed chairs, white napkins, and a lush low run of coral, orange, and hot-pink roses down the center. String lights hung overhead, and the infinity pool spilled in a small waterfall beside it as the Pacific went hazy far below. A private chef cooked and served out of the house kitchen — ceviche and bruschetta to start, then chicken and wild salmon, and tiramisu and chocolate lava cake to finish. One of Rudy's brothers announced the couple in, and they gave the welcome toast themselves.

There was no first dance — just dinner, family, and a snack bar the family set out on the farmhouse table off the balcony, with candle favors and a runner the couple had brought. They cut a small white lemon-lace cake, with carrot-walnut and strawberry-cream cupcakes alongside, dressed with a few of the day's flowers. As the light went, the string lights over the garden took over, and a 16-guest Malibu villa wedding ended the way it started — the whole family under one roof, already home for the night.