Campovida Wedding Ceremony Under a 600-Year-Old Oak Tree

Melissa Baran

Sun, June 2, 2019 at 1:00 PM UTC

I've seen many a beautiful backdrop in my years writing for SMP, but friends—nothing is quite as naturally magical as today's ceremony set against the canvas of a 600-year-old oak tree at Campovida! Doesn't it make your heart glow just thinking about how many I dos have been said in this spot? And how much love this tree has seen in its six centuries? With the help of Posh and Folk, Devin and Brock celebrated their love here, too, wrapped in branches—all captured by Larissa Cleveland.

From the Bride... Brock and I met in the car camping line at Coachella in 2013. I had come to the festival with my sister and her group of friends but as soon as we got there, she immediately ran off to hang out with someone more interesting, leaving me alone in a long line with nothing to do. I approached the man in front of me and the rest is history. We spent the next day at the festival going to shows with our friends. When he decided to peel off from the group to go to the Two Door Cinema Club show, I followed along and it was there we had our first kiss. The song was Something Good Can Work and 5 years later, I walked down the aisle to it. It’s hard to pinpoint these things but I think I knew he was the one when we said good-bye. The Monday after a great weekend is always difficult but it was especially hard to leave Brock. I remember him texting me mere minutes after I drove away and that’s when I knew he was different. He wasn’t trying to play it cool and neither was I. We were all in then and have been ever since.We ended up spontaneously returning to the desert for weekend two of the festival, Brock booking a last minute flight and me picking him up from the airport. A few weeks later I moved from LA to SF, where he lived. And five years later, we took a trip to the Amalfi Coast where he asked me to marry him. Looking back on it, I think I knew it was coming…it seemed like the perfect opportunity, a daytrip to Positano with lunch at Le Sirenuese, arguably one of the most beautiful places in the world. He asked me on the beach, neither of us remember exactly what he said but we both knew I said yes! All I remember after was the feeling of floating and the insanely blue water off the beach.

We were engaged in September and married the following October. I tried to wait until January to start planning, people told us to just enjoy the engagement… but I couldn’t help myself. I had the venue booked by November and everything fell into place from there. Campovida is one of the dreamiest places I’ve ever seen. It’s modeled after an Italian garden, which we thought was fitting given our engagement. Living in northern California, we were excited to take advantage of the beauty in our backyard and marry outside. Campovida was everything we hoped for but it was a bit of a surprise for our Midwestern Catholic families who expected us to hold the ceremony in a church. I think that once they saw the property they understood the draw. It was really important to us to spend the weekend surrounded by our family and friends and to create a space to celebrate in that felt natural for both our midwestern families and California friends. It meant the world to us that people traveled across the country to be with us and we wanted to make sure they enjoyed themselves.The tree we were married under was one of the most special things about our wedding…the symbolism of the 600+ year old root structure growing beneath us as we said our vows in front of our family and friends was too perfect. The sun setting behind it made for the most stunning photos and we couldn’t have gotten more lucky with the weather. One of our closest friends married us. We decided we didn’t want to know what he was going to say ahead of time which could have been stressful but ended up being so sweet. His words were so poignant and perfect, it was such a lovely moment for both of us.

My mother had sown pieces from her wedding dress and my grandmother’s into a pillow to hold our rings, brought up by Brock’s nieces. During the ceremony, we asked our families to hold the rings and instill them with positive intentions for our life together as we said our vows. Our rings are a great symbol of how we envisioned our wedding, mine is a vintage piece from the 1800s that reminded me of Queen Victoria’s serpent engagement ring (purchased from Doyle & Doyle) while Brock opted for a more modern piece - the Cartier love ring. Our wedding was an attempt to combine those two sides of ourselves - the modern with the classic, opting for a more unexpected version of tradition.I wore two dresses, honestly because I couldn’t decide. The first was a Reem Acra strapless gown that made me feel like a dream floating down the aisle. The second was a bit of a bold choice but once I tried it on, I couldn’t get the idea of dancing in it out of my head. I paired the first with Loeffler Randall heels and the second with pink platform Nikes…because what could be better to dance all night in! My family lives to dance at weddings and I knew they would spend the whole night on the dance floor so I gifted my parents and my maid of honor (my sister) their own dancing shoes. Brock made his own bold wardrobe decisions with both his and his groomsmen’s attire, pairing blue and gray suits with a printed shirt and bowtie from Bonobos. My bridesmaids all have stellar taste so I trusted them with their own gowns, I loved the way the colors and textures looked together. I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried.For the dinner, we really loved the idea of a family style meal served on long farm tables bridging different collections of our family and friends together. My mom made the seat markers, writing everyone’s names on agate slices we found online while Brock and I obsessed over creating the perfect seating chart. I have a dairy allergy so the food and desserts were all allergy friendly. I was most excited for the vegan ice cream truck but alas, I never made it over there. Once the dancing started, I was a little distracted... For our first dance, Brock and I danced to Coming Home by Leon Bridges, followed by my dance with my dad, Brock’s dance with his mom and finally my mom and I added in our own dance to her favorite wedding song – Uptown Funk. We spent the rest of the night dancing under the stars and drinking wine with some of our favorite people…truly a night to remember.

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Campovida Wedding Ceremony Under a 600-Year-Old Oak Tree

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