Micaela & Luis — An Intimate Elopement at Puri Wulandari, Ubud, With a Purple Floral Arch, a Valley Full of Jungle, and Nowhere Else in the World They Needed to Be
They flew from Portugal to Bali to get married. Just the two of them, a small group of people who mattered, and two hours on one of the most quietly extraordinary properties in Ubud.
We didn’t share a language. We didn’t need one.
Before the ceremony, Luis sat alone at a small desk in his villa room and wrote. We don’t know what was on the page. We photographed him from the doorway and left him to it.
Puri Wulandari sits above the Ayung River valley. The property’s stone staircases, ancient temple gates, and open terraces give you the feeling of standing inside something that has been here for a very long time. The ceremony space looks out over a canopy of jungle that stretches to the horizon. There is no road noise. No crowd. Just the sound of Ubud doing what it does, and two people standing in front of a purple and white floral arch that took up the entire frame.
The arch was full — hydrangeas, lavender roses, white blooms — built in a full circle against a backdrop of uninterrupted green. A Balinese officiant in white. Petals on the aisle. A small cake on a table nearby. Nothing more than what was needed.
Micaela walked in. Luis watched her come.
After the ceremony they moved through the property — the ancient gate with its giant banyan tree, the long stone staircase running down the hillside, the terrace where the valley drops away below. At the end of the afternoon they stood at the infinity pool as the sun went down behind the mountains. The water reflected everything above it.
We shot for two hours. It was enough.
Photography: Luxima Wedding Venue: Puri Wulandari, Ubud, Bali
