ELOPEMENTS IN JAPAN
A place to make your promises. A reason to return.
Nara
You’re choosing where a part of your shared history will happen. Somewhere you’ve wanted to experience together, or a place you already know and will come to know differently.
There is the anticipation of the journey, and the significance of what you’re traveling to do. Your elopement brings them together. The words you’ll say to each other become inseparable from where you said them.
37 Frames creates elopements in Japan around that connection, with planning, art direction and photography considered together. We’re interested in what draws you here and how you want to experience it, so the day reflects the people you are and the life you’re making together.
Why a destination elopement in Japan?
Traveling together changes what you pay attention to. You notice how a place welcomes you, find things you want to show each other, and spend time in conversations that everyday life tends to interrupt. Make your promises within that journey and the place takes on another significance altogether.
Japan gives us a great deal to work with. A garden can draw your attention toward the mountains beyond it. A remarkable stay can make the hours around the ceremony as compelling as the ceremony itself. Dinner can be something you have been looking forward to for months. We consider how those experiences belong together, and how much time you will want inside each one.
An elopement concentrates our attention on the two of you. There is room to follow a shared interest quite a long way, or to spend the day becoming familiar with one extraordinary place. We love discovering which kind of day makes you both lean forward.
An interest in art became a whole day
For one couple, the connection was art. Their elopement brought together a private villa in Nara, an art forest and a pottery studio in Mie. At the studio, they made two halves of a moon vase. The potter would glaze and fire it, then send it home to California.
The experience grew from something they already loved sharing. That gave us a direction for the places, the people and the time between them. And it gave the couple something wonderfully particular to look forward to after their vows.
Your own starting point might be architecture, food, the mountains, or a place that has become part of your conversations over the years. Tell us what holds your attention. We’ll enjoy finding out where it could take you.
The freedom comes from knowing the place
The private garden you love in a photograph may be part of an inn with its own daily life. A landscape may allow portraits but need different permissions for a ceremony. The distance between two beautiful settings can change how much of the day you actually spend in either.
This is where our years in Japan become useful to you. We work through season, privacy, access, light and travel together, with the people responsible for each place. We know many settings personally; when a promising property is unfamiliar, we visit before asking you to commit.
There is structure underneath everything we do. That structure is what gives the day freedom. The arrangements give you time to enjoy what you came for, including the parts you could never have scheduled.
The day and the photographs share the same understanding
Our photography is loose editorial, with a documentary core and a cinematic sense of light, movement and place. We compose carefully and give direction lightly. The frame can be beautifully considered while the people inside it are entirely themselves.
Dee’s planning team and Tracey’s Creative Team develop the experience together, with distinct responsibilities. We understand why you chose the place, what you want to do there and the visual references you respond to. The ceremony, the time to explore and the photographs can then belong to the same day.
A few things to know before you inquire
At 37 Frames, an elopement is for the couple alone. If family or friends are joining you, we plan an intimate or micro wedding, giving the guest experience its own attention.
Elopements start from ¥1M, including planning, 37 Frames photography and most location permits. Accommodation, transport, dining, flowers, hair and makeup, a celebrant and other chosen elements are additional. Film and wedding content creation are optional, with the scope and wider budget explained in Japanese yen.
Begin with an inquiry around a year before your intended date. For couples hoping to work with us, our reply includes our Collections and Wedding Planning guides so you can spend more time with our approach. After you have read them, and if availability and alignment are right, we’ll invite you to a complimentary one-hour Zoom. By then, we hope you’ll have plenty you want to talk about.
And afterwards, Japan holds something of your history. You may return to the same garden, stay in the same rooms or find yourselves remembering it somewhere far away. The place continues with its own life. It has become part of yours, too.
Tell us about your elopement