A Full Day in a Japanese Garden at Hakone

Married Under the Trees, a Japanese Garden Wedding at Hakone

Rev. Samuel Fullerton officiated the ceremony in the gardens, the pines and the koi pond behind the couple and twenty-eight guests in the chairs. Stephanie walked in to meet Retesh at the front, and they said their vows in the shade of the trees, the garden closing softly around them on every side. They exchanged rings and were pronounced married right there in the green, their closest family and friends among the pines.

Hakone has been here since 1915, the oldest Japanese-style residential garden in the Western Hemisphere, and it gave them its full range for portraits — the wooden entry gate to the teahouse hung with white paper lanterns, the gravel paths, the stone lanterns, and a pavilion where both families gathered for a group photo. Viera Photographics worked them through the family groupings and then out along the water on their own, a different setting everywhere they went.

“Twenty-eight people in a Japanese garden, the vows said in the shade of the pines with the koi pond behind them.”

Cake on the Deck Above the Hakone Gardens

The cake cutting happened out on a deck above the gardens in the bright afternoon light, a wood railing behind them and the green hillside dropping away. Caterman Catering handled the food, and the cake was a two-tier from Sweet C's Bake Shoppe — textured white buttercream with a garland of burgundy and coral roses banked at the base, gold accents catching the sun. Stephanie and Retesh cut the first slice together, the garden wide open and green behind them.

The whole wedding party stayed in one place for the ceremony and the cake, no shuttle between them, the estate handing over its paths and pavilions for every part of the day. Twenty-eight people is the scale where every guest in the family photo is someone the couple actually wanted there.

The Party Moves On, from the Garden to the Lanes

Once the cake was cut and the last of the garden portraits were done, the celebration moved off the estate and kept going — the group ended the night at a bowling alley, the lanes lit up, an arcade glowing along the back wall, guests trading the burgundy-and-lace formality of the afternoon for a few turns on the approach. Retesh, still in his suit, sent one down the lane while the family watched from the seats.

It made for a day with two distinct halves: the quiet green of a Japanese garden for the vows, and a loud, happy room of their people for the night. The Hakone gardens gave them the ceremony they wanted, and the party they made themselves.