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Madie and Danny's Spanish villa micro wedding just outside Los Angeles was twenty-five people at a private estate in Agoura Hills in October 2023, a tile-roofed house with a pool, a vineyard, and a wide grass yard the family had all to themselves for the weekend. Madie had flown in from Ohio; Danny's family was local, so the couple built the day around the people who could gather, and rented the whole villa so everyone could stay under one roof.
The morning was quiet and split between the houses, Madie getting ready with her mom in the main house, Danny with the men out at the pool house. There was no first look; the two of them saved seeing each other for the aisle, out on the grass under the trees, with a cello and guitar playing and the groom's sister waiting to marry them.
Madie got ready with her mom in the main house, her makeup kept soft and natural, while Danny and the men had the pool house to themselves. There was no first look, they'd decided to wait for the aisle.
The two of them had made some of the day by hand. Madie and her mom sewed the headdresses and put together the little baskets for the three flower girls, Danny's young nieces, Juniper, Olive, and Willow, and Madie's mom brought a cake topper she'd made herself.
The ceremony was out on the grass under the trees, twenty-five fruitwood chairs set in two short rows with the parents in front. A cello-and-guitar duo played from the shade off to the side as the guests found their seats. Danny's sister, Katie, stood as their officiant, she'd gotten ordained to do it, and the family walked in ahead of the couple: the groom with his mom, then Madie's brother with her mom, then the three flower girls together in the headdresses Madie had made. Madie came in last on her father's arm.
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It was a small crowd on a warm California evening, close enough that everyone could hear the vows. When Katie pronounced them married, twenty-five people on the grass, three of them children under five, saw the whole thing.
“Twenty-five people on the grass, a cello and guitar in the shade, and the groom's sister reading the vows.”
Family photos happened right after at the house, worked around Danny's dad so he could stay seated and have everyone gather in close to him. Then Madie and Danny slipped away to a nearby outdoor spot for portraits, just the two of them for a while.
The estate gave them plenty to work with, the villa's white walls and red tile roof are the look Los Angeles has carried since its old Spanish mission days, red-tiled roofs and pale stucco turning up on houses all across the city. Here it came with a pool, a vineyard, and a grapevine-covered pergola, where a grazing board and the family's own wine were set out for a cocktail hour between the ceremony and dinner.
Dinner was one long table set in a T-shape with the couple in the middle, farm tables and white linens out in the yard, name cards stamped with little pictures so guests could find their meal and their seat. A private chef cooked out of the villa kitchen and sent out a plated dinner, branzino, chicken marsala, spaghetti for the kids, with wine and a champagne toast poured at the table.
The couple were announced in and went straight into their first dance. There was a mother-son dance and a father-daughter dance to Heartland's "I Loved Her First," and a thank-you toast from the two of them before the floor opened to anyone who wanted to say something. They cut a two-tier cake from Portos Bakery, chocolate on top, strawberry below, under the topper Madie's mom had made, and served it with ice cream, saving the top layer to keep for their first anniversary. The kids had a piñata, and the guest book was a sheet everyone pressed a handprint onto before the night wound down.