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    The couple stand on a stone among pruned pines, the mountains of Nara behind them, on the day of their helicopter elopement in Japan.

    No. 209 Real Weddings & Elopements 6 min read

    Above the Rice Terraces: A Helicopter Elopement in Japan

    In the autumn of 2020, the wedding they’d planned in Italy was gone. Japan’s borders were closed to the world, and most of the weddings we had on the calendar had been moved to some other year.

    They lived in Tokyo. So they did what very few couples could do that year. They eloped in Japan.

    Months later, the villa’s owner wrote that Covid had brought almost every business to a standstill, but not the love of two young people moving on toward their lives.

    This is the story of a helicopter elopement in Japan, from Kyoto to the mountains of Nara, in a year when almost nothing else went ahead.

    A thatched villa above its moss and stone garden, the couple small on the veranda, at the private villa in Nara where they eloped.

    Why a Villa in Nara

    They wanted something private, something nobody they knew had done, and a day that brought both of their cultures together. Half Japanese, half American, and living in Tokyo, they didn’t need a destination. They needed a place.

    Our friends at Okuni introduced us to Sasayuri-Ann, a villa in the mountains of Uda, in Nara, where terraced rice fields step down the valley. Dee went down to see it before we said a word to the couple. She walked the garden, ate lunch at the villa, met the family who own it, and came home certain.

    It’s the part of planning we never skip. A place has to be felt before it’s recommended, and a villa for an elopement in Japan has to be right for two people, not for two hundred.

    The thatched villa and its raked gravel garden under a clear blue sky on the morning of the wedding, a private villa in Nara taken by one couple.

    A Private Villa, and the Family Behind It

    Sasayuri-Ann is a private villa. A couple takes the whole villa for their stay. It belongs to a local family who live elsewhere in the village and look after their guests themselves. The owner plays the bamboo flute and the conch. His wife is a master of ikebana.

    When Dee first wrote to him, he answered with the reason the place exists: “We are not employed persons but owner family so that couple will be able to return to our place as if it is their home town.”

    That set the tone for everything we planned with him. Nothing staged, nothing for show, and every decision made with the villa in mind.

    Nine details of the day in Nara: the villa, maple leaves, calla lilies, the mountains, rings, a camellia gate, champagne, a round window and koi.

    A Helicopter Elopement, From Kyoto

    They arrived the afternoon before the wedding, by helicopter from Kyoto, about twenty minutes over the hills to a clearing near the villa. Their luggage had gone ahead by courier, because a helicopter takes very little besides the two of you.

    The helicopter flies low past cedars and autumn trees, its red light on, a helicopter elopement in Japan between Kyoto and Nara.

    We were waiting for them when they landed, and stayed as the garden lights came on at dusk. Dinner was at the villa, and the night was theirs.

    The bride in a red gown and the groom in black sit on the lantern lit veranda of the private villa in Nara, glowing against the dark.
    A full moon over the garden as the groom wraps the bride in his arms by a stone lantern, the night before their autumn elopement in Japan.

    A Sunrise Blessing at Akame 48 Falls

    The wedding day began in the dark.

    Just across the border in Mie, the Akame 48 Falls run down a gorge of moss and stone that has drawn mountain ascetics for centuries. Before sunrise they walked up the gorge and received a blessing at the water, the way people have begun important things in these mountains for a very long time.

    A waterfall drops into a still green pool between mossy rocks at Akame 48 Falls, the gorge where the couple's wedding day began.
    A man in a red jacket sounds a conch shell beside the trail as the couple watch, the Akame waterfall blessing on the morning of their elopement.

    By the time they were back at the villa to get ready, the day already had its weight.

    • Nine details from the villa in Nara: a lantern, a round window, nandina berries, a maple leaf, the welcome sign, a waterfall and a full moon.
    • The thatched roof and stone garden of the private villa in Uda, the couple sitting on a rock as the afternoon light fades in autumn.
    • The groom kisses the bride's forehead under a pine in the villa garden, both in dark winter coats, on the evening they arrived in Nara.
    • Framed by a wooden gate, the couple embrace on the stepping stones of the garden at a private villa in Nara, the night before their elopement.
    • The couple sit among pines and granite boulders in the villa garden, red maple behind them, on the first evening of their autumn elopement.
    • The couple sit on the veranda of the villa beside a glowing paper lantern and red maple, warm light inside, at dusk in the mountains of Nara.
    • At blue hour the bride in a red gown stands with the groom above the lit stone garden, the mountains of Uda fading behind them.
    • The couple in silhouette beside the thatched villa at twilight, her red dress catching the garden lights, the eve of a helicopter elopement in Japan.
    • Two silhouettes against a deep blue sky beside the villa roofline, lamps glowing in the garden below, on a quiet night in rural Nara.
    • The couple in silhouette inside a glowing round window at the villa, the garden in darkness around them, the night before their elopement.
    • The bride in red and the groom stand beneath a small roofed gate in the lit garden, the thatched villa above them on a night in Uda, Nara.
    • The couple stand close beside a white cascade at Akame 48 Falls, in winter coats on the morning of their autumn elopement in Japan.
    • The bride looks up laughing at the groom in front of a waterfall at Akame 48 Falls, a moment from the start of their elopement day.
    • The groom cups the bride's face as she smiles up at him, a waterfall soft behind them in the moss and stone gorge at Akame 48 Falls.
    • Three frames from the Akame 48 Falls trail: the couple small beside a cascade, close together in coats, and walking the rocks by the pool.
    • Water spills over dark boulders into a pool at Akame 48 Falls, the couple tiny on a walkway high above, before the wedding at the villa.
    • Two views of a cascade at Akame 48 Falls, the couple walking a wooden walkway above the rocks on the morning of their elopement.
    • The couple stand smiling on a mossy ledge above the dark gorge at Akame 48 Falls, in the cold light of an autumn morning.
    • A tall ribbon of waterfall falls into a deep pool at Akame 48 Falls, the couple small at the water's edge in the moss and stone gorge.
    • The couple embrace beside the dark pool below a tall waterfall at Akame 48 Falls, on the morning of their elopement in Japan.
    • Seen from above, the couple cross a narrow footbridge over the gorge at Akame 48 Falls, cedar and rock all around them.
    • The groom kisses the bride's head on a fallen log beside a cascade at Akame 48 Falls, a quiet moment on their elopement morning.
    • Two frames of the couple holding each other among the trees and rocks at Akame 48 Falls, faces close, before getting ready at the villa.
    • The couple pick their way across broad boulders in the forest gorge at Akame 48 Falls, small figures among moss and cedar.
    • The couple bow their heads with a man in a red jacket at a railing above the gorge, a blessing at Akame 48 Falls before their elopement.
    • A bronze giant salamander scattered with coins beside a small stone basin on the moss covered trail at Akame 48 Falls.

    No Arch, and Two Kinds of Music

    Their first idea for the ceremony was a circle of flowers, an arch to stand inside, as a symbol of two cultures becoming one. Dee loved the meaning: “Coming together as one and never-ending.”

    The bride's white gown with a black ribbon hangs in the villa doorway, the mountains of Uda in the windows on either side.

    The owner gently disagreed. A western arch, he felt, would fight the house. So the couple let it go, kept the decoration simple and in harmony with the place, and carried calla lilies tied with a thin black ribbon.

    The bride in her white gown stands at sunlit shoji doors in a tatami room with a sunken hearth and lanterns, at the villa in Uda.
    The bride holds white calla lilies tied with a thin black ribbon against her white gown by the shoji, ready for her elopement in Japan.

    The music went the other way. They’d asked for a single bamboo flute. The owner, a flute player himself, made the case for adding koto: “Bamboo flute is absolutely for WABI SABI & spiritual world.” With the koto, he promised, the music would “sound FLOWERING”. We agreed, on one condition of our own: it had to be atmosphere, never a performance, and nothing that felt touristy.

    The groom summed up what they were after when he chose the music for their film: “In general we avoided any ‘Epic’ build ups and wanted a more magical feel.”

    • In black and white, the groom fastens his collar by a bright window at the villa, getting ready for their elopement in Nara.
    • Two black and white frames of the groom straightening his bow tie and standing in a round window, getting ready at the private villa in Nara.
    • The groom in his tuxedo sits with his head bowed in soft window light against shoji screens, a quiet moment before the ceremony in Nara.
    • The groom sits in his tuxedo before a round window onto cedar trees and tiled roofs, getting ready at the villa in Uda, Nara.
    • Two frames of the groom laughing in his tuxedo by a round window, the garden blurred behind him, before his autumn elopement in Japan.
    • The groom in a white shirt and bow tie opens a coral paper envelope by the window, on the morning of the elopement at the villa in Nara.
    • Two frames of the groom in a white shirt unwrapping tissue paper and fixing his bow tie by the round window, getting ready at the villa.
    • The groom dresses in a tatami room with a round window and wide glass doors onto the mountains, at the private villa in Nara.
    • Two frames of the bride getting ready, seen from behind at a round window onto the autumn garden, then seated by a hanging scroll.
    • In black and white, the bride has her hair styled in front of a round window onto the forest, getting ready for her elopement in Nara.
    • The bride lifts her hair, eyes closed, in a buttoned white gown beside shoji screens at the villa, the last minutes before the ceremony.
    • Two frames of the bride putting in an earring by the shoji and buttoning her white sleeve, getting ready at the private villa in Nara.
    • Two frames of the bride tying the black ribbon at her waist and smiling over her shoulder in warm window light, before her elopement in Nara.
    • A black and white profile of the bride by a latticed window, her dark hair falling over the white gown, at the private villa in Nara.
    • The bride looks down beside a glowing round paper window, her white gown and dark curls in soft light, on her autumn elopement day.
    • Two portraits of the bride in her plunging white gown with a black ribbon belt, standing in the doorway light at the villa in Nara.
    • Three frames of the bride with her calla lily bouquet in a tatami room with a round window, ready for her private villa elopement.

    A Private Villa Elopement in Japan

    Koto and shakuhachi played as they saw each other for the first time, and kept playing as she came down the stone path past the garden.

    A koto player in a pink kimono and a shakuhachi player in black montsuki and hakama perform in a tatami room at the villa in Nara.
    The bride smiles over the groom's shoulder with her calla lilies and red maple behind her, the first look in the garden of the villa in Nara.

    It was an elopement in the truest sense: the two of them, with their families watching live from home on a screen. They spoke their own vows. The owner gave them a short blessing. And then, in a valley in Nara, in a year when almost nobody got married the way they’d planned, they were married.

    The bride and groom face each other at the round window of the thatched pavilion, a private villa elopement in Japan framed by maple.
    The bride reads her vows from a card to the groom, the mountains of Nara pale behind her, at their autumn elopement in Japan.
    • The groom waits in the garden in his tuxedo with a calla lily boutonniere, pines blurred in front of him, just before the first look.
    • A shakuhachi player in black montsuki plays by a tall window onto pines and mountains, music for an elopement at a private villa in Nara.
    • Two frames: the shakuhachi player on the veranda, and the groom waiting with his back turned among red maples before the first look.
    • The groom stands alone on the stepping stones of the villa garden, pines and a tiled wall around him, waiting for the bride in Nara.
    • The shakuhachi player in black montsuki and grey hakama plays on the veranda beside red maple as the first look begins at the villa.
    • The bride walks toward the groom with her calla lilies, his back turned and out of focus, in the walled garden of the villa in Nara.
    • The bride in white walks the stone path along the veranda and raked gravel garden toward the groom, a private villa elopement in Japan.
    • In black and white, the groom stands with his hands clasped as the bride comes up behind him, the first look at their elopement in Nara.
    • Three frames of the first look among the red maples, the groom turning to see the bride in her white gown and grinning at her.
    • The couple stand in the garden, reflected in the glass of the open veranda, pines and the mountains of Uda beyond them.
    • The groom and bride face each other smiling in warm sunlight, her calla lilies tied with black ribbon, after the first look in Nara.
    • Two frames of the groom laughing beside a sculpted pine and waiting by the villa as the ceremony nears, an autumn elopement in Japan.
    • The groom waits beside a round window under the thatched roof of the garden pavilion, calla lilies by the step, as the bride arrives.
    • Koto and shakuhachi play in a tatami room with a sunken hearth, a hanging scroll and a round window, music for the elopement ceremony in Nara.
    • Seen through autumn maple and white camellias, the couple stand before the round window of the thatched pavilion for their vows.
    • Two frames: the bride's hand with calla lilies and long black ribbons held in the groom's hand, then the couple at the thatched pavilion.
    • The bride smiles as the groom reads his vows from a card at the round window, white calla lilies in the foreground, at the villa in Nara.
    • The bride wipes away a tear during the vows at the round window, the groom in his tuxedo blurred in the foreground, in Uda, Nara.
    • The bride listens with her card in hand as the groom speaks, earrings catching the light, during their vows at the villa in Nara.
    • The bride slips a ring onto the groom's finger, her white sleeve and the black ribbon of her gown close in frame, at their elopement in Nara.
    • The couple kiss at the round window of the thatched pavilion, autumn maple and camellias in front, married at a private villa in Nara.

    A Toast in the Teahouse

    The toast was champagne, poured into Japanese tea cups in the garden teahouse. A small gesture, and one we love: two cultures in one cup, with nobody needing to explain it. It was what they had wanted from a circle of flowers, found somewhere quieter. Later they danced among the pines, with no audience but the garden.

    The groom laughs over a Japanese tea cup of champagne beside the bride at the garden teahouse, framed by camellia leaves, in Nara.
    In black and white, the couple dance in the garden, her hand in his and her hair falling, the hills of Nara soft behind them.

    Japanese gardens have a word for the way a view beyond the walls becomes part of the garden itself: shakkei, borrowed scenery. At Sasayuri-Ann the borrowed scenery is the whole valley, the terraces and the mountains behind them, and for one afternoon it belonged to two people.

    The couple sit on a cushion at the open veranda looking out over the garden, pines and the mountains of Uda, the borrowed scenery of the villa.
    • Two frames: the small garden teahouse wrapped in pink camellias, and a calligraphy welcome sign on its wall, at the villa in Nara.
    • The bride stands among pink camellias with her calla lilies as the groom watches, the valley behind them, just after their elopement vows.
    • Sunlight flares through pink camellias as the bride smiles beside the groom, her white gown and black ribbon bright in the garden in Nara.
    • Three frames at the garden teahouse: the couple resting together on a bench, a bottle of champagne among red berries, and the teahouse door.
    • The couple sit close on the bench of the small garden teahouse among camellias, a quiet toast after their private villa elopement.
    • Pink camellias in the foreground, the couple soft and blurred behind them at the teahouse, late autumn in a garden in Nara.
    • The bride rests her head against the groom's shoulder at the teahouse, framed by camellia leaves, after their elopement in Nara.
    • Seen from directly above, the couple stand on the stepping stones beside the thatched roof and raked gravel garden of the villa in Uda.
    • White orchids, calla lilies and a calligraphy welcome sign arranged on the veranda at the private villa in Nara, simple and in keeping with the house.
    • Two frames of the lunch platter on a wooden table, with crackers, cheese, fruit, sweets and a ribboned box, at the villa after the vows.
    • Two frames of the couple dancing on the lawn in front of the thatched villa, the bride twirling in her white gown in autumn sun.
    • From high above, the couple dance alone on a dark lawn, their long shadows stretched beside them, at the villa in rural Nara.
    • In black and white, the bride wraps her arms around the groom's neck as they dance, the thatched roof blurred behind them in Nara.
    • The groom kisses the bride by a garden hedge with autumn trees and sunlight behind them, a stone lantern at their feet in Nara.
    • Two frames of the couple embracing by a hedge in golden backlight, a stone lantern beside them, during their autumn elopement in Japan.
    • Two black and white portraits of the couple beneath a sculpted pine on the hilltop, the bride holding her calla lilies, in Uda, Nara.
    • The bride and groom stand among sculpted pines with the mountains of Uda behind them, on the afternoon of their autumn elopement in Japan.
    • The couple kiss under sculpted pines on a stone in the garden, a long ridge of mountains and wide sky behind them, in Uda, Nara.
    • Two frames: the couple on a rock by a pine, and the whole hilltop garden under a huge sky, the setting of their villa elopement in Nara.
    • Two frames of the couple walking hand in hand beneath a pine, the groom glancing at the bride and her calla lilies, in afternoon light.
    • The couple walk through long autumn grass in front of sculpted pines and distant mountains, at the private villa in Nara.
    • Two frames of the couple standing together beneath a pine in soft light, the bride holding her lilies and leaning into the groom.
    • The couple walk across the dry grass of the hilltop garden, pines in a line behind them under a cloudy sky, on their elopement day in Japan.
    • Two frames of the couple under the small roofed gate of the garden, the thatched villa behind them and autumn colour at its edges.
    • The bride and groom smile beside a granite boulder and the roof of a garden shelter, the bride holding calla lilies, at the villa in Nara.
    • Seen from behind, the bride follows the groom down a stepping stone path toward the veranda of the villa, pines above them.
    • Two frames of the couple laughing among pine branches, the groom's head bent to the bride's, in the garden of the private villa in Nara.
    • Orange Japanese maple leaves glow in the low sun, the couple blurred far behind them, autumn colour at the villa in Uda.
    • Through a blur of orange maple leaves, the couple stand close in the garden beside a pine, late autumn at the private villa in Nara.

    Home at Last Light

    The bride stands alone in her white gown with calla lilies against a bank of glowing susuki grass, late autumn light in Nara.
    The couple face each other on the veranda between open glass doors, the garden and mountains borrowed into the frame, at the villa in Nara.

    They left the way they came. At the end of the afternoon the helicopter lifted out of the valley and turned for Kyoto, over the last of the autumn colour, with the light going gold behind them.

    The couple kiss at the open door of the black helicopter, her calla lilies between them, before flying back to Kyoto from Nara.
    The black helicopter lifts off in front of a cedar forest touched with autumn colour, carrying the couple home from their elopement.
    • An aerial view of the villa garden in Uda: winding stone paths, a red maple, a small teahouse and the couple in white among the moss.
    • Two portraits of the bride among pink camellias, smiling with her calla lilies and standing by a bamboo gate at the teahouse.
    • The bride looks out from among pink camellias, her dark hair over a white gown, a portrait from her autumn elopement in Japan.
    • The bride looks down at her white calla lilies in soft late light, a wooden post and the garden blurred behind her, in Nara.
    • Red and orange Japanese maple leaves fill the frame in the garden of the villa, the colour of late autumn in Uda, Nara.
    • Two frames of the couple by the garden wall in warm low light, then holding each other as sunbeams fall over the cedar hills of Nara.
    • The couple stand by a tiled garden wall under a gnarled pine, the hills of Nara layered behind them, on their autumn elopement day.
    • The couple stand on a mossy mound in the raked gravel garden of the villa, the mountains of Uda stretching away behind them.
    • In black and white, the couple stand before a bank of silver pampas grass, the bride holding her calla lilies, in rural Nara.
    • The couple stand close in backlit silver grass, the bride's lilies against his tuxedo, in the last warm light of their elopement day.
    • The couple smile at each other inside a glow of backlit susuki grass, golden light all around them, at the villa in Nara.
    • The couple stand on the gravel before a hedge and a ridge of mountains under a dramatic sky, the bride holding her lilies, in Uda.
    • Three frames of the couple on the gravel terrace with the mountains of Nara behind them, and a close portrait in soft light.
    • In black and white, the couple stand on the veranda framed by open glass doors, the stone garden and mountains beyond them.
    • In black and white, the couple kiss on the veranda framed by glass doors, the garden and the ridgelines of Uda beyond them.
    • The couple touch foreheads with pines, rooftops and the mountains of Nara behind them, at the end of their elopement day.
    • The couple walk hand in hand away from a black helicopter on a grass clearing ringed by cedars, a helicopter elopement in Japan.
    • The groom leads the bride by the hand across the grass toward the waiting helicopter, cedar forest behind, as their elopement day ends.
    • The bride raises her calla lilies in the air as the couple run toward the helicopter, a joyful departure from their elopement in Nara.
    • Wearing headsets in the helicopter cabin, the couple make finger hearts and grin, ready to lift off at the end of their elopement.
    • Three frames of the couple at the helicopter window in headsets, laughing with their calla lilies, before the flight back to Kyoto.
    • The couple look out of the helicopter window in headsets, his calla lily boutonniere and her smile lit by the late afternoon light.
    • Two frames of the helicopter banking overhead against a pale sky, on the flight between Kyoto and the mountains of Nara.
    • From the air, a hillside of cedar and orange, gold and red autumn trees, the view on the helicopter flight home from Nara.

    Kyoto, a Few Days Later

    A few days later we met them again in Kyoto, for an afternoon of portraits in the old lanes of Higashiyama.

    The couple walk hand in hand down a stone lane of old wooden shops in Higashiyama, Kyoto, a few days after their elopement.
    Two frames of the couple in a stone lane below the five storey Yasaka pagoda, autumn leaves on the hill behind, in Kyoto.
    • The groom kisses the bride's cheek on a quiet stone slope of old wooden houses in Higashiyama, Kyoto, an autumn portrait.
    • Three frames from Higashiyama: a paper lantern with calligraphy, and the couple walking down a stone lane lined with white parasols.
    • The couple kiss beside a bamboo fence and white parasols, old Kyoto rooftops climbing behind them, in Higashiyama.
    • A rickshaw puller rests his cart in a Higashiyama lane as the couple stand hand in hand outside an old Kyoto shopfront.
    • The bride rests her hand on the groom's chest as they lean together in an old Kyoto street, portraits after their elopement in Japan.
    • Three frames of the Yasaka pagoda above an old Kyoto lane and the couple close together in its shadow, in Higashiyama.
    • At pavement level, passers by stride across the stones as the couple sit together on a step in an old Kyoto lane.
    • Two close frames of the bride wrapping her arms around the groom and smiling, an autumn portrait in Higashiyama, Kyoto.
    • Two portraits of the couple in an old Kyoto street, one with the bride in focus and one with the groom, after their elopement in Nara.
    • Two frames of the couple walking and laughing down a busy Higashiyama street in Kyoto, a few days after their elopement in Nara.

    A Wedding Film at a Tourism Festival

    When the villa’s owner watched the film, he wrote to us: “Film is so gorgeous and emotional feeling to fit my heart as an audience.”

    Then he did something we would never have done ourselves. He entered it into the Japan World’s Tourism Film Festival. Out of more than 1,300 films from Japan and around the world, it was chosen for the official selection on both the Japan and the international lists, and went through to the international finals. The festival was held online that year, from Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto.

    It’s a real elopement: no retakes, no screenplay, no models, nothing staged for the camera. A festival made to show the world why Japan is worth the journey put it among its finalists. We think that says something true about Japan. Sometimes the most convincing picture of a place is two people who chose it. The full film, with their vows, belongs to them and stays private. The film you can watch here is the short version they chose to share.

    Planning a Helicopter Elopement in Japan

    Can you elope at a private villa in Japan? Yes. Some of the most beautiful places to elope in Japan are private villas, taken by one couple at a time and looked after by the local families who own them. They’re rarely found online, and the right one depends on knowing the family.

    How do you get to a villa in the mountains of Nara? By road it’s a long drive from Kyoto or Osaka. For this elopement, a helicopter from Kyoto made it about twenty minutes, and turned the journey into part of the day.

    What does an elopement in Japan mean to us? The two of you, and nobody else there in person. Family can join on a screen, and often do.

    As your destination wedding planner in Japan, we find the place, meet the people who run it, and shape the day with them, so the two of you only have to arrive. And our photography and film team stays with you from the landing to the last light.

    A Home Town in the Mountains

    The owner wanted couples to be able to return to Sasayuri-Ann “as if it is their home town”.

    Somewhere in a valley in Nara, above the rice terraces, two people from Tokyo have one.

    From above, the couple embrace in the stone garden beside the thatched villa, the private villa in Nara where they eloped.
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    37 Frames

    37 Frames is a wedding planning, photography and film studio in Tokyo, founded by Tracey Taylor and Dee Green. The studio plans weddings and elopements across Japan and around the world. Its weddings have appeared in Vogue and The New York Times.

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