37 FramesThere are blog posts we plan. And then there are blog posts that demand to be written. This one is the latter.
Let’s just say it gently, but clearly: Japan doesn’t yet fully understand destination weddings. Not the depth of them. Not the emotion behind them. Not the why.
Because destination weddings aren’t just about a place… they’re about meaning.
They’re about gathering your people in a moment that matters, in a setting that amplifies everything you feel. They’re about creating memories together with your people… memories that live on for decades in hearts, in stories, in the quiet after.
It’s more than a celebration. It’s a turning point.
So, we said it. Gently. Firmly. With love.
We say it as people who have made Japan our home for nearly 25 years. As artists and planners who live and breathe this culture, and who have also worked in nearly every corner of the globe, from royal weddings in the Middle East to chateaus in France, from colourfully chaotic Indian celebrations to private island weddings in the Caribbean. We say it as people who adore this country, cherish its beauty, respect its rituals, and are forever in awe of its seasons and stillness.
But the wedding industry here? It’s…a world apart.
Set Packages Disguised as Flexibility
When Japanese venues say they’re “flexible,” they mean you can choose from a few nearly identical pre-designed wedding packages and tweak a few surface-level details. They might tell you they’re customizing something for you, but more often than not, it’s smoke and mirrors.
You’ll be required to use their in-house hair and makeup. Their in-house florists. Their in-house photographers and videographers. Their gowns and suits, which often don’t match Western sizing and may not align with modern, international aesthetics.
Want to bring your own dress? That’ll be a bring-in fee, often between ¥50,000 and ¥250,000 yen. Same goes for your own photographer. Or hair and makeup artist. Or literally anyone not under their commission umbrella.
Yes, commission. Let’s have the honest conversation: Japanese wedding venues operate on a kickback system.
Every in-house vendor pays to be there. And while this might be standard practice in some places, the problem lies in what it fosters: complacency. There’s no hustle. No creative drive. No push to stand out or evolve. Because vendors don’t have to earn your trust or your business. They’re simply assigned to you.
Why This Matters to You
If you’re an international couple dreaming of a wedding in Japan, of cherry blossoms or fabulous urban vibes, Mt Fuji vows or elegant ryokans by the sea, you deserve to know what you’re walking into.
Because what the Japanese market is calling a “destination wedding” is often just a local Japanese ‘western wedding’ template rebranded for foreign eyes.
There’s little room to bring in your dream team. There’s limited space for real collaboration. There’s almost no space to build the wedding that reflects you.
And while these venues may look stunning on the surface, under the hood they often have tight rules, hidden fees, and a rigid event structure that leaves very little room for magic or meaning.
The Missing Ingredient: Intentionality
At the heart of every destination wedding is something sacred:
- The dream to bring your people somewhere meaningful. The gift of place.
- The desire to share an experience that is more than just a day. Shared memories.
- The vision of a celebration that feels like you, raw, real, elevated.
But this dream is lost if you’re only offered packages and timelines that were never built with you in mind. This dream disappears when you can’t even pick your own vendors. Or have a planner that works hard for sales for the venue instead of working and advocating for you. When your first look happens in a fluorescent-lit hotel hallway because that’s where they always do it. When you’re served a cookie-cutter celebration wrapped in a bow of politeness and protocol.
And the worst part? You might not even realize it until it’s too late. Because everything is actually done with honest sincerity and a gentle smile.
Why We’re Different
We don’t share this to throw any shade. At all. We’ve worked in wedding here in Japan literally our whole lives. So, we share it because we’ve spent two decades navigating this very system. We know the hidden rules. The loopholes. The places where you can bend without breaking.
And perhaps most importantly, we’ve built the relationships to make magic happen anyway.
We’re not just planners. Not just photographers or filmmakers. We are connectors. We are translators, of culture, of emotion, of expectation.
We know how weddings work in Japan. We also know how weddings work around the world. We’ve done them all:
- Persian weddings with multiple-day rituals.
- Indian weddings bursting with color, meaning, and movement.
- American weddings under the stars.
- Chinese tea ceremonies.
- Jewish chuppahs, barefoot beach blessings, Buddhist chanting in hidden temples.
We’ve danced through them all, camera in hand, timelines in pocket.
And we know one truth above all else: A wedding should feel like the couple. Not the venue. Not the package. Not the industry.
Definition of ‘Japanese Weddings’
When we say Japanese weddings, we want to be very clear… we’re not talking about shrine ceremonies and kimonos under falling petals. Those are something else entirely. Ethereal. Grounded in centuries of beauty. Unfolding with quiet reverence.
No, what we’re referring to are the more typical, hotel-based or venue-based Japanese weddings… the ones modeled on a Western format, but filtered through decades of Japanese taste, custom, and cultural refinement. A Japanese interpretation of a Western wedding.
Efficient. Polished. Lovely in their own way.
But ultimately, completely different from how weddings are celebrated anywhere else in the world. And the thing is… Japan doesn’t quite realise that. Yet. But we’re slowly getting there.
Again, no shade at all. Just trying to bridge two worlds. Your expectations. And Japan’s carefully and efficiently crafted framework.
A Note on the Industry Shift
Recently, we’ve been approached by several of the major wedding companies in the Japanese wedding world. The big companies who run multiple venues, who churn out hundreds (sometimes thousands) of weddings a year.
They’ve come to us with interest in “expanding into destination weddings.”
But here’s the thing: they’re not actually talking about destination weddings. They’re talking about selling Japanese packages to international couples.
They’re not asking, “How do we make this meaningful for couples from abroad?” They’re asking, “How do we market better to foreign customers?”
There’s no curiosity about the emotional roots of destination weddings. No acknowledgment that couples choose Japan because it means something to them. Because it’s part of their love story. Because they want their wedding to be a soulful, intentional, unforgettable journey.
Instead, they want to figure out how to tweak their brochures for overseas clients. Maybe add a cherry blossom emoji.
But Here’s the Good News
We’re already doing it.
We’re building custom, breathtaking, deeply meaningful destination weddings in Japan with couples from all over the world. Despite the red tape. Despite the bring-in fees. Despite the pushback.
And after all these years, Japan is coming to us. Well, parts of it. To learn. To understand and to start understanding diversity in celebration.
We’ve created real pathways. Trusted teams. Private villas and mountaintop moments. We’ve fought for flexibility where it didn’t exist. We’ve brought together the very best freelancers, artists, florists, musicians, chefs, planners, translators, stylists, and creatives. We’ve crafted weddings in shrines, ryokans, forests, tea houses, beaches, and rooftops, ballrooms and luxury hotels.
We’ve made it happen. And we will do it again.
Because your story deserves more than a template. Because your guests are flying across the world to witness something unforgettable. Because you want to be fully seen, not just managed.
Why It All Matters
We know what it takes to make a wedding feel special. We know the labor. The emotion. The artistry. And we know the exhaustion that can come with it, too. The behind-the-scenes work no one sees.
We know what it means to give our whole hearts.
But we also know that this work, when done right, can change lives. Because a wedding isn’t just an event. It’s a threshold.
It’s a gathering of your people. It’s the pause before forever. It’s the laughter in the rain and the speeches that leave everyone teary. It’s the scent of incense at a Kyoto shrine. The moment your dad sees you for the first time. The kiss at twilight as Mt. Fuji fades into the mist.
And it’s a team, your team, holding space for all of that.
People who listen. People who care. People who stay up late editing, who run through timelines, who create Plan C when Plan A and B get washed out by a typhoon. People who get you. Who hold the camera. And your hand.
That’s what we do. That’s what we’ve built. That’s what Japan can be, if you choose your people with intention.
A Glimpse Into the Future
Over the past year, we’ve been approached by several well-known venues here in Japan to create styled commercial shoots to attract international couples. Shoots designed to look like a dream, editorial romance, natural authentic moments and refined elegance. The kind of aesthetic international couples connect with. And we get it. These visuals resonate.
But here’s the truth: the real wedding day often tells a different story.
Because the in-house vendors tied to these venues, the ones actually delivering the service, are often not trained in this aesthetic. They may not understand the stylistic nuances international couples expect. Or the emotional beats of a wedding day that doesn’t follow the Japanese format. So what couples receive on their actual wedding day might look very little like the visuals and story they fell in love with online.
This is not deception born of malice. It’s a system that hasn’t yet caught up with the changing tide of global love stories. And that’s exactly why Japan needs a new kind of support.
Japan wins in so many ways. Service? Impeccable. Efficiency? Unmatched. The hospitality here is legendary. But it’s also no secret that Japan is still wonderfully shielded from the rest of the world. It’s part of what makes it so magical. Its purity. Its pride. Its calm.
But this same pride can make it nearly impossible to translate the needs of a 20-30-something American bride, or the expectations of an Australian groom’s family, or the intricate touch points that international wedding planners so intuitively fold into every moment.
There’s a deeply embedded belief that all weddings should basically feel the same. With surface level changes to make it feel like it’s not the same. But Japanese weddings follow the same format. The same formula. The same timeline. There’s a feeling that fairness means sameness. There’s an attendant. A captain. A way to escort the bride. There’s a fake first look. No family formals. No understanding of the traditions of bridesmaids and groomsmen. And so much more.
And if one couple is offered a certain something different, then everyone should be offered it too, or no one at all. This creates a kind of uniformity that erodes personalisation. And yet… no international couple comes to Japan wanting a this formulaic type of event. They come to write their own story, with Japan’s energy, grace, and beauty as the setting, not the script.
But in Japan, weddings are sold as packages. They’re productized. Curated behind the scenes by committees, then lovingly presented by planners who are proud of what they’ve created. And they should be proud. But the modern global couple doesn’t want to buy a package. They want to create a moment. One that’s personal, emotional, and reflective of who they are.
A Shift in the Right Direction
But here’s what gives us hope.
There are venues now, more than ever before, opening their doors with flexibility, with heart, and with a new-found willingness to understand.
We’ve been knocking on doors for years. Gently. Consistently. Passionately. And now, slowly, those doors are creaking open.
We’re seeing a quiet but powerful shift. Some venues are now saying: “We don’t fully understand what your culture, your vision, or your celebration might entail. But we’re willing to try. We’re open to working with your team. We want to collaborate.”
These are the places we’ll always recommend. The venues who show up with humility and curiosity. Who say yes to creativity. Yes to diversity. Yes to building something new, together.
These are the venues we’ll stand beside. The only ones we’ll work with. Because they understand that love has no one format. That weddings, like the couples they celebrate, come in many beautiful forms.
We will never align with venues who remain rigid… rooted in inauthentic rituals, resistant to evolution, and unwilling to embrace the true spirit of what destination weddings are meant to be.
We’re here to create. To collaborate. To connect.
So What’s Next?
Japan doesn’t need more in-house vendors who simply speak English. It needs creative partners who understand both worlds. It needs planners and photographers and stylists who have worked in different countries, across cultures, with a deep reverence for tradition and a fearless embrace of innovation. It needs people who love weddings, not just as business, but as legacy. And who believe in giving couples the freedom to define their origin story.
Because despite the rigidity of the current system, Japan is one of the most creative and soulful places in the world. It is, without question, an artist’s paradise. The detail. The design. The reverence for seasons, space, and silence. It’s all here. Just waiting to be invited into the wedding world.
And slowly, change is happening. We see it. We feel it. We’re part of it.
When we eventually pass the torch, whenever that day comes, we hope it’s to a generation of wedding professionals who care enough to keep listening. Keep learning. Keep bridging. Keep elevating.
We hope to leave behind a Japan where weddings are no longer just sold, but felt. Crafted with love. Told with empathy. Celebrated with authenticity.
We hope you’ll be there for that chapter, too.
Don’t worry, we’re not retiring anytime soon. There are still too many stories to tell. Too many couples to meet. Too much magic to make.
But someday, when the time feels right, we’ll pour the champagne, take our shoes off on a beach somewhere, and know in our hearts we gave it everything.
A Final Thought
Japan is our adopted home. We live it and breathe it. We love Japan. We truly do.
But we also love truth. Transparency. And the kind of weddings that change everyone present.
If you’re dreaming of a wedding in Japan that reflects your values, your vibe, your once-in-a-lifetime love, we’re here. We’ll help you navigate the system. We’ll help you tell your story. We’ll help you create something breathtakingly real.
Because you’re not just planning a wedding. You’re making a memory that will live forever.
And you deserve a team who understands both worlds, and walks between them with you.
📍 Planning & Photography across Japan
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📋 Planning | 📸 Photography | 🎥 Film by @37frames
🧭 Photos edited with the 37 Frames @imagen.ai profile: The Modern Classic
See a favourite 37 Frames wedding here: A celebrity wedding in Hawaii
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