Couple embracing beneath red and orange maple leaves in Kyoto.

WEDDINGS & ELOPEMENTS IN KYOTO

Kyoto, with a wedding that is entirely yours.

Kyoto

You can be drawn to Kyoto’s old architecture and gardens, and still have a thoroughly contemporary wedding in mind. A favorite place, a color you love, something you’ve saved from a fashion editorial. Those interests can sit very comfortably together.

We begin with what you love about Kyoto and how you want to celebrate here. The garden may be the reason you first look at a venue. The room, the dinner and the welcome will help you decide whether it’s right for your people.

37 Frames plans weddings and elopements in Kyoto with the ceremony, hospitality and photography developed together. The city brings its history. You bring everything that makes this your wedding.

The couple stand at the end of a garden path lined with bamboo and autumn maples in Kyoto. — Kyoto

The garden you pictured. The day around it.

A garden can be what makes you stop at a photograph. We want to know how you’ll spend time in it. Where could you say your vows? What will you see from the room where you get ready? Where can everyone gather for a drink afterwards?

A private garden and a mountain setting among maples suggest different kinds of Kyoto wedding. During planning, we explore the season, guest numbers and privacy alongside the ceremony and the evening, then confirm access and arrangements with the property. The place should make sense for the whole day you want to have.

The couple kiss framed by the pillars of a vermilion torii, orange maples glowing in the forest behind, a Kyoto pre wedding shoot. — Kyoto

The ceremony that feels right for you

For some couples, Kyoto means a traditional shrine ceremony. For others, it’s where they want to exchange their own vows in a place they’ve chosen together. We’ll ask what draws you to the ceremony, as well as the setting.

For a religious ceremony, we discuss the form, language, attire, participation and photography with the institution. We also help you consider where family traditions or personal words can have their own place in the wider celebration. You should understand what you’re taking part in and feel comfortable asking questions.

Traditional ceremonies

A couple walk a stone path through a Kyoto moss garden under autumn maples. — Kyoto

A guest gives a speech in silhouette against a window framing a lit pagoda in Kyoto. — Kyoto

The couple exchange vows in a glass chapel that opens onto green trees in Kyoto. — Kyoto

The couple walk laughing beneath golden autumn trees in a Kyoto park. — Kyoto

Beneath a radiating timber dome, the couple embrace as the bride's veil lifts across the courtyard in Kyoto. — Kyoto

The couple walk down a stone lane below a five-story pagoda in Kyoto. — Kyoto

In black and white, the bride walks down the aisle with her father as guests hold up their phones. — Kyoto

A couple stand together beneath a vermilion torii gate in a Kyoto cedar forest. — Kyoto

The couple laugh together, seen through willow leaves in Kyoto. — Kyoto

The couple stand in a stone courtyard edged with bamboo, their Shiba Inu on a lead beside them, in Kyoto. — Kyoto

The bride stands in a tatami corridor lined with shoji and round windows in Kyoto. — Kyoto

In a narrow dark stairwell, the bride waits at the top in the light as the groom stands below. — Kyoto

The couple stand beneath a stone torii hung with vermilion lanterns in Kyoto. — Kyoto

The couple in hakama and a red uchikake walk beside a vermilion shrine wall in Kyoto. — Kyoto

In black and white, the couple stand among pampas grass, the bride holding white lilies, in Kyoto. — Kyoto

The couple hug their daughters in white dresses beneath the maples in Kyoto. — Kyoto

Guests' silhouettes play across lit shoji screens as they drink and dance in Kyoto. — Kyoto

The couple embrace beside a stone lantern in a Kyoto maple forest, leaves covering the ground. — Kyoto

In black and white, the couple walk into their reception laughing as guests cheer, film on their phones and reach out to them. — Kyoto

Dinner deserves its own anticipation

Tell us about the meal you would love to share. Is the table the center of the evening, with time to settle into conversation? Or is dinner the beginning of a reception that gathers energy through music and dancing?

We plan the food, service, rooms and timing together. A welcome dinner and a wedding reception can offer very different pleasures, even with the same people around the table. The venue search should make space for the version you are excited about.

The groom holds the bride from behind in a Kyoto garden at peak autumn, red and orange maples and a carved stone marker around them. — Kyoto

For the two of you

For the two of you, there’s time to get to know a place properly. You might stay nearby, make your promises in a garden and spend the hours afterwards enjoying the parts of Kyoto you came to share. Dinner can have an evening of its own.

Our planning and Creative Team develop the ceremony, timing and photographs together. We want the images to hold the character of Kyoto and your own sense of style, with plenty of life inside them.

You can begin from overseas, with a place you remember or an idea still taking shape. We’ll develop the plans in English and work directly with the venues and collaborators here.

Tell us what brings you to Kyoto