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Real Weddings · Saratoga, CA
A Pre-Dawn Hakone Ceremony Before the Gardens Opened
Violette & MattAugust 2024Hakone Estate and Gardens · Peninsula
Violette and Matt's pre-dawn Hakone ceremony before the gardens opened was sixteen guests in August 2024, an out-of-state remote-planned wedding that started in the dark and finished over lunch in Palo Alto.
The day ran early on purpose. Hair and makeup at a rented house in the hills before the sun came up, then a short drive to the gardens while most of the Peninsula was still quiet. They were dressed and married among the koi ponds, portraits done, and back at the villa for champagne and cake, all before the public arrived at Hakone at ten.
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Morning
Getting Ready Before the Gardens Opened
The morning started at the rental house in the hills, well before the sun came up. Hair and makeup finished while the family gathered in the pre-dawn quiet, the flowers already picked up and ready to travel. When everyone was ready, they made the short drive to Saratoga.
At Hakone, Violette slipped into her dress in the estate parlor. Outside, the officiant arrived and the last of the sixteen guests found their places on the garden paths, the whole property still closed to the public, the ponds dark and the maples unmoving in the early morning air. Hakone sits in the hills above Saratoga, and the drive in on the access road before the gates open for visitors gives you the sense of arriving somewhere that is briefly yours alone, the parking lot empty, the ticket booth unattended, the garden absolutely still.
Morning
A Japanese Garden Sunrise Ceremony. Married Before the Gates Opened
The ceremony was in Hakone's Hill and Pond Garden before the public arrived. A small circle of family and friends gathered at the water's edge while the officiant led them through the vows, the clipped maples and the koi ponds behind them. It was quiet the way a place is quiet before it opens, no other voices, no foot traffic, only the garden and the sixteen people who had come to watch Violette and Matt marry.
They walked back out together to 'Easy' by Porter Robinson and Matt Zo, and then portraits began, the group moving through the garden with one eye on the time, knowing the public gates would open at ten.
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