A Coastal Private-Residence Micro Wedding Above the Laguna Beach Cove

A Live-Painter Ceremony in the Hillside Garden

The ceremony was set on the garden lawn with rows of woven bamboo folding chairs facing the bright coral blooms, a stone Buddha and a wall of palms and elephant ear behind. Ariel Corpuz was already at his canvas to live paint the ceremony as guests took their seats.

John walked in first while the two mothers followed in matching green tropical-floral dresses. Then Brianna came down the aisle to him. It ran warm and easy — Brianna was beaming through her vows, John grinning back. Their hands wrapped together. The ceremony concluded with a kiss and a recessional back up the aisle, high-fives on both sides.

The whole time, Ariel Corpuz kept painting: the chairs, the greenery, the couple, the light off the cove, working the day onto a canvas as it was actually happening — the one thing a photograph of a private hillside residence wedding can't quite give you.

“Our Little Wedding made wedding planning for these two wedding-newbies easy and fun. Our wedding was the intimate and romantic micro-wedding of our dreams.”

Portraits Above the Cove and a Champagne Tower

Before dinner the whole wedding party came together, bridesmaids in dusty pink around Brianna and her cascading bouquet of white and peach blooms. Then both families under the palms. On the terrace, John started the champagne tower, tipping a bottle of cava into the top coupe while Brianna laughed beside him and the wine spilled down through the stacked glasses.

With the light going gold, the two of them took a golf cart ride down to the beach for sunset portraits, the headland rising behind them. A private estate like this hands a couple a whole range of backdrops without anyone driving anywhere — the house, the garden, the hillside, the water.

The Reception at the SoCal Private Estate

As the sky turned dark, the reception began. One long table with candles down the center. A neon green sign lit up as an extra touch. Brianna and John had their first dance as their closest family and friends watched. The toasts flowed one after another — with smiling faces and tearful eyes. After that they cut their cake and fed each other over the table. The night finished with them dancing with their party, hands up, moonlight shining down. The live painter stood by capturing every scene as it happened, to preserve their wedding in a picture they can hang on the wall.