Full Day at Hakone Japanese Garden, 28 Guests | OLW
Real Weddings · Saratoga, CA
A Full Day in a Japanese Garden at Hakone
Stephanie & ReteshJune 2024Hakone Estate and Gardens · Peninsula
Stephanie and Retesh spent a full day in a Japanese garden at Hakone, 28 guests, ceremony and reception both, in June 2024 in Saratoga. They kept the whole day inside the gardens, from the vows to the last dance, so nobody had to leave the koi ponds and the pines to keep celebrating.
Hakone gave them the arc of a single place: a quiet morning of getting ready, a ceremony under the trees, portraits along the stone paths, and a dinner that stayed in the same green setting as the light went soft over the water.
Hair and makeup finished inside Hakone's grounds while the garden paths were still quiet, the dress laid out, the small details confirmed. Bloom Gallery's arrangements were on hand, greenery and pale blooms that carried the Japanese garden into every frame.
Stephanie got into her gown with her people close by, and Retesh had his boutonniere pinned on before the two of them walked out together to meet the 28 guests who'd come to Saratoga for the day. The koi pond sat still beyond the trees, and the ceremony space was already set in the shade.
Afternoon
Married Under the Trees, a Japanese Garden Wedding at Hakone
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Rev. Samuel Fullerton officiated the ceremony in the gardens, the pines and the koi pond behind them and 28 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 in the chairs among the pines. The whole wedding party stayed in one place for all of it, no move, no shuttle, just the Japanese garden from start to finish.
“Twenty-eight people in a Japanese garden, the vows said in the shade of the pines with the koi pond behind them.”
After the ceremony
Portraits Along the Stone Paths
Afterward came family photos and portraits along Hakone's stone paths, the koi pond, the tiered waterfalls, the stone lanterns and wooden bridges. Hakone was built in 1915 and its Hill and Pond Garden completed in 1918, making it the oldest Japanese-style residential garden in the Western Hemisphere; the name comes from the Fuji-Hakone region the founders traveled to in Japan.
Viera Photographics worked the couple through the family groupings and then took the two of them out along the water for portraits before the light changed. Everywhere they went, the garden gave them a different frame.
Evening
The Hakone Reception. Dinner in the Garden at Dusk
The Hakone reception stayed inside the gardens, so the celebration never left the pines and the pond. Caterman Catering handled the dinner, served in the same setting where they'd married an hour earlier, a full evening in the Japanese garden without anyone having to pack up and move. This was the appeal of the Hakone reception wedding from the start: one beautiful place, all day.
Toasts went around, and Stephanie and Retesh had their first dance in the garden as the light dropped. They cut a cake from the bakeshop, and the small crowd stayed on to dance in the green as the lanterns and the evening took over.
