37 FramesWhat Ikigai Means
Ikigai (生きがい) is one of Japan’s most profound words. Loosely, it means a reason for being. That thing that gets you out of bed in the morning. The intersection of what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.
It sounds lofty, but in practice, it can be simple. For some, ikigai is family. For others, it’s art, or work, or community. For us? It’s stories. Love stories. Life stories. The endless pursuit of connection, captured in light and planning and film.
Weddings and Ikigai
Weddings are full of ikigai moments.
The reason grandparents travel halfway across the world. The reason couples spend months crafting timelines and details. The reason we, as wedding planners and photographers, put ourselves through 18-hour days with jetlag, sore feet, and a hard drive collection that could rival NASA’s data storage.
Because there’s meaning in it. A wedding isn’t just one day. It’s history. It’s joy that ripples outward for generations.
That’s ikigai.
What Japan Has Taught Us About Ikigai
Living in Japan has shown us that ikigai isn’t always about chasing more. Sometimes it’s about noticing enough.
It’s the local baker who opens his shutters at 6am every morning without fail. The grandmother who tends her garden year after year, season after season. The bartender who knows your order before you speak.
Ikigai is rarely glamorous. It’s consistent. It’s present. It’s steady.
And it’s the foundation of why we’ve stayed in this industry for so long. Not because every wedding is easy (they’re not). But because each one matters. Each one carries meaning worth showing up for.
For Our Couples
Your ikigai is woven into your wedding. Maybe it’s the vows you’ve written. Maybe it’s the heirloom tucked into your bouquet. Maybe it’s the travel that brought your families together across continents.
Our job is to make sure that reason for being … that core of who you are … doesn’t get lost in logistics.
Because ikigai isn’t just about what you do. It’s about who you are. And on your wedding day, it should shine through everything.
The Business Side of Ikigai
If you’re a fellow wedding professional reading this, you know ikigai is both the blessing and the curse of this work.
It’s what keeps you editing at 3am. It’s what makes you obsess over the timeline, the menu font size (even though no one but you will notice). It’s what has you schlepping up ladders to drape fabric in forests, and wheeling luggage through airports and convincing customs that, yes, this really is all camera gear.
It’s also what makes burnout a very real risk. Because when your reason for being and your work are so intertwined, the line between love and exhaustion blurs quickly.
Ikigai is not just about finding your reason. It’s about protecting it.
Final Reflection
For us, ikigai is this: the people, the love, the fleeting moments that become forever. It’s what keeps us building, planning, documenting, dreaming. It’s why, two decades in, we still feel the same rush every time we step into a new wedding morning.
Ikigai is not a destination. It’s a practice. And for us, it’s one worth choosing again and again.
Because in the end, the reason we do this work is simple: it’s our ikigai.
If words can hold worlds, Japan’s hold universes. Continue the journey through our Japanese Word Series … a love letter to the language that’s shaped how we see:
- tsundoku – the act of acquiring books and letting them pile up, unread. a quiet love of knowledge and potential, a celebration of curiosity and the beauty of possibility waiting to be explored.
- wabi-sabi – a philosophy celebrating beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and the simple, natural flow of life. a reminder that flaws, cracks and changes make everything more meaningful.
- nagomi – the ancient Japanese philosophy that helps you find balance and peace in everything you do. feeling of balance, comfort, and calm in the heart and mind, the way to live a balanced and harmonious life the Japanese way.
- omotenashi – the spirit of selfless hospitality. a deep-rooted cultural concept that goes beyond simple politeness, embodying a genuine desire to anticipate the needs of others and provide an unforgettable experience.
- kintsugi – the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, embracing cracks and flaws as part of an object’s history. a philosophy that teaches that broken things can be made beautiful again, more precious for having been broken.
- wa – the Japanese concept of harmony, balance, and peaceful unity. a sense of gentle togetherness that values respect, cooperation, and living gracefully in tune with others and the world around you.
- yugen – a profound, mysterious sense of beauty that lies beyond words or logic. the subtle grace of things unseen, the quiet depth that stirs the soul. the feeling evoked by a falling leaf, distant mountains, or the silence between notes.
…and so many more to come. Whispers of meaning, guiding your heart and vision.
37 Frames
