A Private Cliffside Residence Wedding on the Malibu Coast

An Ocean-View Ceremony at the Cliffside Residence in Malibu

The ceremony was on the lawn, the wooden arch set at the edge of the property and dressed with blush and pink roses and eucalyptus at one corner, the open coast filling everything behind it. The marine layer had rolled in low and softened the whole view to pale grey and quiet water, and along the bluff the October brush had gone rust and gold. The wedding party came in first, in pairs. Kirk waited at the front. Demi came last.

Maricela officiated in a black robe while eighteen guests sat close in the grey afternoon light. When Demi and Kirk kissed under the arch, the officiant stepped back with her head bowed, the flowers overhead and the coast dropping away behind them. Then the two of them walked back down the grassy slope together, Demi gathering the lace skirts in one hand, the ocean haze behind them the whole way.

“A wooden arch at the edge of a Malibu cliff, the Pacific behind it, eighteen people in the chairs.”

Portraits Along the Malibu Coast

While the guests moved to the pool for cocktails, Demi and Kirk slipped out with the photographer for family and couple portraits. This stretch of the Malibu coast sits at the northern edge of Santa Monica Bay, and the bluff gave them the water on one side and the fall-colored scrub on the other. They stopped on a set of stone steps cut into the hillside for a kiss, the rust brush and grey sky framing them, then found a quieter corner where they laughed together through a pane of textured glass, the tree and the low house behind.

They worked through the groupings while the coast dropped away below, then came back up to the house as the light went and the pool lit up for the evening.

Dinner, Dances, and the Cake by the Pool

Nicu announced Demi and Kirk into the reception, and they went straight into their first dance to Defeater's "I Don't Mind." Kirk danced with his mom, and Demi took a spin with a bridesmaid in dusty rose out under the string lights, both of them laughing while a guest filmed on a phone behind. Then the toasts began — best man Sean, maid of honor Hope, and both sisters, Steph and Brittany.

The long table ran down the pool patio, set with a dusty-rose gauze runner, gold flatware, white pillar candles and low votives, and white napkins tied with pink ribbon at each place. Monrose Catering served dinner there, the water dark past the edge of the deck. They cut a two-tiered lemon cake with strawberry buttercream from Sweet Arleen's, and the party stayed on the property late, their own speaker carrying the music out over the coast.