Places to get married in Tokyo

Me and my fiance would like to travel to Japan and have a small shinto style wedding ceremony. Can anyone give me a list of places/hotels/whatever that offer shinto style wedding ceremonies in the Tokyo area? We have checked out New Otani Hotel and would like to see our options. If possible, we would like to do just a small ceremony, but are open to anything. Please give us some recommendations. ANYPLACE that does Shinto Style weddings.

Also, are there any small places that do just small ceremonies with just the two of us like there are in the US?

I understand that the ceremony does not mean we are married, we would like to hvae the ceremony just for the experience.

Thanks!

Josh

I haven't heard about shinto style wedding but I guess it's shinzen-shiki.

Is it the wedding with kimono?

Here is some places you can have shinzen-shiki.

Maybe you need to ask the staff if you can do the wedding for just you two.

I recommend you to do the wedding at shrine because it's like more Japanese traditional.

Asakusa shrine
03-3844-1575

Ikenobata bunka center
03-3822-0201

Wedding reception house Raphael
03-5790-7551

Aoume sweet plum
0428-23-2155

Ookuni tama shrine
042-362-0092

Oomiya hachiman-gu(shrine)
03-3312-7515

Kanda myojin (shrine)
03-3254-0753

Ginza blossom
03-3543-5677

Tokyo daijin-gu Matsuya salon
03-3234-6611

Nedsu shrine
03-3822-8753

Hie Akasaka(shrine)
03-3502-2205

Meiji kinen-kan
03-3403-1177

Meiji shrine
03-3379-5511


In a case the staff doesn't speak English, here is some examples of Japanese sentence that you can use.

Can I do shinzen-shiki?
Shinzen-shiki ga deki masu ka?

Can I do ceremony only for us?
Watashi tachi hutari no shiki wa deki masu ka?

If they say ''deki masu'', it means ''yes''.

How much does it cost?
Ryoukin wa ikura ni nari masu ka?

Please tell me the total price.
Goukei kingaku o oshiete kudasai.

When can we do the ceremony?
Shiki wa itsu deki masu ka?

Please speak slowly.
Yukkuri hanashi te kudasai.


I hope you have a good ceremony! Good luck!



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Thank you very much for posting this, can anyone also recommend some hotels that arrange weddings? Some experiences would be nice. :)

I think what people are saying and it is my understanding that a shinto style wedding is in shrine. Of course hotels set up weddings but they are usually the western style with western dress and big cake and all that...For the traditional in traditional clothing with shinto priest and sake etc...you go to shrine...Many people do both...

Many pepople have shinto weddings at hotels, with the hotel setting up a shrine inside the hotel.

and many hotels arrange a wedding at a nearby shrine. I've been speaking with New Otani hotel and Yaesu Fujiya hotel. Can anyone give their experiences with these hotels or recommend any others?

hi josh,

My fiance and i are dreaming of the same kind of wedding. Maybe you can share some of your experiences so far?

Katrien

We were married at Kanda Myoujin arranged through our hotel Yaesu Fujiya near Ginza in Tokyo. They arranged everything for us, just the two of us. They arranged an interpreter, missing articles of clothes we didn't have, dressers, everything! It was amazing! I highly recommend them if you are wanting to marry in Tokyo.

There aren't many other places that will do small ceremonies because they prefer you to buy the large package, so we didn't do to bad price wise. All we paid for was the ceremony, dressing charges, rentals of clothing, interpreter, and hotel stay.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

I'd like to do something similar, but not in or around Tokyo. If I'm going to have a "destination wedding" in Japan, I'd like it to be somewhere rather remote -- far away from tourist centers. I'd just like to stay off the beaten path. Does anyone know if somewhere like Aomori would work for this? Or maybe somewhere on Hokkaido? Like Josh, I'd like to keep the event small and low-key.

Thanks

I'm interested in doing a similar style ceremony for only two, how did you contact the hotel that you went to?

If you don't mind, how much was your package price?

I've heard weddings in Japan are outrageously priced!

To Zach: I found the hotel by searching around online for hotels with wedding packages in Tokyo. We stayed at New Otani in Tokyo in the Ginza District. They arranged the entire ceremony for us.

To George: The ceremony itself was 100000 yen, if I remember correctly. There were also charges for the hotel and the rest of our outfits. We had our honeymoon there and still managed to spend less than $10,000 total, including the travel on trains, planes, etc. Most people in the US spend more than that on their weddings alone. :)

To Exotic: It wasn't for us. see above.

Correction, it was Yaesu Fujiya that arranged it.

Brian, I am not a wedding expert but common sense suggest(based on the experience of relatives in Western Europe who,along with relatives and friends, had to go 100 km away from the small town where they lived in order to have a perfectly arranged wedding) that the smaller or remote the place and the less choices there would be. A business in a small place might not be able to deal with foreigners that may not speak fluent Japanese. I remember the late 1950s in Western Europe when the population of a whole village would cooperate for a wedding. Many women-not related to the bride--would cook food for 2 meals for at least a hundred guests, men would cut truckloads of shrubs leaves, flowers etc. Early in the morning the men and the kids would scatter these flowers and leaves on the road, like a carpet, between the bride house and the church (at least 1/2 mile in one I saw as a kid). Those were the days. Nowadays people in that same small village have the whole thing done and catered in a wedding business place in another town, along with several other wedding parties that day.

My fiance and I will get married in the spring and we'd like to do it surrounded by sakura trees. Does anyone know of a wedding venue that has sakura? Any suggestions much appreciated!

Question for Josh-

Did that price include a photographer? Did you get any photos of the event at all? I'm Brian's fiance. I considered the idea of going under Miyajima's torii and just saying our vows to each other. I would like to have photos for memories, though. That's the tricky part of a two person wedding.

It did include some professional photos.

I think Happoen has sakura trees. It's a pretty place. Do a Google search for the site.

Hi Josh, I have another question for you. I was wondering how you learned the proper proceeding for the Shinto ceremony.

Did you practice beforehand with a rehearsal, or did they just guide you through it as the ceremony took place? I've read up on the ceremony flow, but I don't know the exact things I would be doing at each moment (the proper way to offer the sacred branch, etc.)

Did the interpreter guide you through it? I'm looking into getting an interpreter now.