Ayu & Tom

Ayu and Tom got married with no guests at all.

It was a decision they made early and never questioned: no reception, no seating plan, no hundred people watching. Just the two of them, in front of a waterfall in the Ubud jungle, saying it out loud to each other.

The walk down

You do not drive to a place like this. They left the car at the top of the valley and went down on foot — stone steps, then packed earth, then rock, the sound getting louder the whole way. Ayu carried her shoes. The dress went over one arm.

Our team had been on the rock since sunrise. Everything you see in these photographs was carried down by hand.

A circle of roses in front of the falls

The arch was a full circle of white and blush roses threaded through gypsophila, set at the edge of the plunge pool so the water fell directly through the middle of it.

The floor stayed as it was — wet volcanic rock, moss in the cracks — and we covered it in white petals. Nothing else was added. In a gorge that green, anything more would have been noise.

Ayu wore lace with an open back and a veil long enough to run out across the stone behind her. Tom wore cream linen and a single white rose. Two gold bands, exchanged with nobody watching.

Eleven minutes of rain

Halfway through, it rained for exactly eleven minutes.

The rock went dark, mist lifted off the pool, and the light turned soft and shadowless in a way you cannot plan for. They waited under the ferns, laughing about it, and then walked back into the best light of the whole afternoon.

Afterwards there was nowhere to be. No reception to get to, no speeches, no receiving line. They sat on the rocks with their feet in the water until the light went.

"The jungle made everything feel calm. We would not change a single thing." — Ayu

Every love story on this page started with a first hello. Tell us about your day, and we will show you what is possible.