Notes on the light
Walnut Grove is the wedding venue on Tierra Rejada Ranch, a family-owned working ranch in Moorpark, and its ceremony is set in a three-acre field of walnut trees planted about fifty years ago, with eucalyptus along the edges and a creek alongside. That canopy keeps the light soft and filtered through the afternoon.
The one thing to plan around is the season. The walnuts drop their leaves by late November and only come back from May, reaching full leaf around mid-July. A March or April wedding can find the canopy thin or bare, which changes the whole look of the film. From midsummer on, the grove is at its fullest.
The spaces, and how they film
The ceremony site. A paved area of forty feet by forty inside the grove. In Alex and Lindsay’s film the walk in was through a long arch of green, and it reads best with the bride walking toward the camera.
The reception. Long tables set out under the trees, a stone-edged stage and dance floor, and string lights through the branches. The layout is one connected space, so the evening moves without anyone changing rooms.
The film, so far
Our film here is Alex & Lindsay. The walk through the green arch is in it, and so is a first dance in front of the marquee letters.
Filming here
Every event here ends at ten, under city and county rules, and live bands are not allowed at the reception, though acoustic musicians are fine for the ceremony and cocktail hour. That makes for a compact evening, and it is why we make portraits in the grove before dinner.
