A groom throws his head back laughing as he and his bride hold hands at the ceremony.

REAL WEDDINGS & ELOPEMENTS IN JAPAN

Come and see what their ideas became.

A wedding becomes more interesting when you know something of the people behind it. You start to understand why they chose a particular setting, what they wanted to share and how the different parts found their place.

Spend some time with these celebrations. The photographs and films will show you the visual world; the stories bring you closer to the decisions and experiences within it. We’re always interested in which ones stay with you.

The bride turns, laughing, as the groom smiles at her during their ceremony in falling snow, guests in dark coats around them. — Hakuba

Taylah & Will, in the snow

An intimate winter forest ceremony in the Japanese Alps.

Their Hakuba film brings the landscape and the gathering into the same story, with planning, photography and film by 37 Frames.

Taylah & Will’s wedding film

The couple cross a Shinjuku street with their friends, a bridesmaid in a pink floral dress waving, neon signs behind them. — Shinjuku

A garden, then Shinjuku

A Tokyo micro wedding moved from a Japanese house and garden, with two violinists, to rooftop cocktails and dinner at JAM 17. A celebration with room for more than one version of the city.

The Tokyo garden wedding

The couple walk along a pond edge beneath golden autumn larches at the art forest in Nara. — Nara

Art, and something to bring home

A private villa in Nara, an art forest and a pottery studio in Mie gave an art-loving couple different ways to experience their elopement. The two halves of the moon vase they made would be finished by the potter and sent home to California.

The Nara and Mie elopement

The couple, wearing flower garlands, walk back up the tree-lined aisle as guests shower them with petals. — Jinya, Tsurumaki Onsen

Michelle & Abhi, among the trees

A tree-lined entrance at a ryokan in Kanagawa became the ceremony setting, with gold chairs and sculptural flowers bringing the gathering into the garden. The story shows how seeing a familiar place differently can open up a wedding.

The forest walkway ceremony

The groom kisses the bride beneath the trees of a Hakone forest, her bouquet of orange and pink flowers in hand. — Hakone

Calligraphy, and something to take home

At Hakone Retreat, an outdoor ceremony was followed by Youna Matsushita’s live calligraphy performance and individual artworks for the guests. Something experienced together became something to take home.

The Hakone Retreat wedding

The bride's mother and the bride, in a patterned robe, admire the wedding dress hanging in the doorway of a tatami room, shoji screens on either side. — Jinya

Nicola & Greg, and their people

The first look became a family moment on the ryokan terrace.

Explore their Jinya wedding, with planning, photography and film by 37 Frames.

Nicola & Greg’s Jinya wedding

A couple stand at the edge of Lake Kawaguchiko at sunset, Mt Fuji across the water and pampas grass around them. — Lake Kawaguchiko, Mt Fuji

By a lake, near Mount Fuji

An intimate wedding on Lake Kawaguchiko, for a couple drawn to the Fuji landscape. Spend a little time with the celebration they made there.

The lakeside wedding

The couple hold each other close, small among towering green bamboo. — Tochigi

A ceremony in bamboo

A bamboo-forest elopement in Tochigi, including a sake-sharing ceremony. Follow the couple into a day made for the two of them.

The bamboo-forest elopement

What caught your attention?

It may be an entire celebration or one choice within it. Tell us what you connected with and why. Your own wedding will grow from a different pair of lives, with its own possibilities to discover.

Tell us what you’re imagining

From the Journal

More real weddings

The bride and groom kiss beneath a canopy of white cherry blossoms at their cherry blossom wedding ceremony in Aomori, her veil on the grass. — Aomori

Guests line a white aisle under green trees on the forest walkway at Jinya for a destination wedding ceremony in Japan. — Jinya, Tsurumaki Onsen

The bride by a window at Jinya, the groom reflected in the glass beside her, a portrait on their wedding day.

The bride's mother hugs her from behind as they both laugh, veil on, while the bride gets ready in a wood-framed ryokan room at Jinya.

The bride crosses a wooden bridge over the koi pond in the green garden at Jinya, a ryokan wedding at Tsurumaki Onsen in May.

A black and white first dance kiss, the bride's hands holding the groom's face, lit from behind at their intimate wedding at Jinya in Japan.

The bride and groom stand beneath pink cherry blossom beside raked gravel in the garden at Motoyu Jinya, her train sweeping the stones.

The bride, in a long veil edged with lace, holds white calla lilies in a ryokan garden framed by leaves, at a Greek and Japanese wedding in Japan.

In black and white, the groom looks ahead as he holds the bride's hand in the green garden of Jinya Ryokan on their wedding day.

The bride and groom walk back up the aisle as newlyweds under a chandelier, guests raising their arms, in black and white. — Shibuya and Jinya

The bride and groom stand in a slice of hard sun against the dark stone of a 1923 bank building in Kabutocho on the day of their Tokyo Bay wedding. — Tokyo Bay

In black and white, the bride and groom walk arm in arm through the city, smiling, her bouquet of white roses in hand. — Tokyo

Family and friends cheer as the just married couple raise their joined hands at a Tokyo garden wedding, a traditional Japanese house behind them.

The couple walk past a giant billboard face in Shibuya, its eyes wider than they are tall, in Shibuya pre-wedding photos taken two nights before their wedding. — Shibuya

The bride and groom walk arm in arm up a pale path between walls of tall bamboo in a private bamboo forest in Tochigi. — Tochigi

The couple embrace among glowing bamboo sphere lanterns at night during their private bamboo forest elopement in Japan.

The couple walk a long sandbar through turquoise sea under storm cloud, her veil trailing, the day before their Rosewood Miyakojima wedding. — Rosewood Miyakojima

The bride and groom walk hand in hand between autumn vine rows at their Akiu Winery wedding near Sendai, a tall bare tree behind them. — Akiu Winery, Miyagi

The couple kiss on a round stepping stone in the koi pond of the Japanese garden at ABBA Resort Izu, their Japan elopement venue. — The Izu Peninsula

The bride and groom walk hand in hand through pampas grass below the sunlit forested ridges of Kosuge, Yamanashi, at their Nipponia Kosuge wedding. — NIPPONIA Kosuge, Yamanashi

Friends watch from white chairs as the couple kiss beneath a red wagasa in the garden at Tantoku, a Japanese garden wedding in Kawagoe. — Tantoku, Kawagoe

Seen from above, the couple stand under a red umbrella on a red bridge over a rocky stream by Taiseki-ji, cherry trees in full bloom on both banks. — Taiseki-ji, beneath Mt Fuji

The couple walk hand in hand in front of cherry trees in bloom with snow capped Mt Fuji behind, on their spring pre-wedding shoot. — Mt Fuji

The groom twirls the bride on a lit path beside the silver vaults of Fujisan Winery, a unique wedding venue in Japan, as Mt Fuji clears the cloud. — Lake Shoji and Fujisan Winery

The bride looks up at the groom as he holds her, with Mt Fuji behind them in a pink sunset haze, at the end of an autumn elopement in Japan. — Tokyo and Mt Fuji

The groom holds the veiled bride's hands as the officiant speaks at a forest wedding in Japan, guests on white chairs and the wedding party beside. — Hakone

In black and white, the couple small in an open field under a stormy sky, her cape caught by the wind. — Setsu Niseko