marriage celebrant

I am trying to arrange a non legal marriage ceremony for my daughter in Kyoto for April this year and cannot find any sites to help me. It is a small intimate ceremony in a park/garden/shrine or temple. We need help to organise this urgently.

- First of all, Kyoto in April will be extremely busy with all the cherry blossom viewing travellers - have you booked hotels, trains, flights, etc., already?

- I don't think you can just walk into the premises of a shrine or a temple to have your own ceremony - you will need to arrange with the shrine/temple to hold ceremonies in their respective style, which would include appropriate garments (to be rented) and ceremonial steps you need to learn. So a bit of preparation would be needed.

- If you want a small garden/restaurant party style wedding, you will need to book with a restaurant or a "wedding hall."

Your best bet would be try to locate an English-speaking wedding planner in Kyoto to arrange things for you.

Hello again, yes we have booked all of our travel and accommodation but we cannot find any information on the web on how to book a celebrant or a venue. The places that we did find only wanted to help for a large wedding. Do you have any links to sites or phone numbers that would help?
Thank you.

From the way you are using the word "celebrant," I take it that you are thinking of, let's say, just the couple and a few friends/family members present, where there is a priest or someone to lead the couple in the vow, pronounce them now wedded, etc., and that's it?

In Japan this is not really customary - it's more to hold a bigger ceremony (in a large chapel with a priest, in a shrine garden with a shinto priet, at hotel wedding hall with a "vow and signing of papers in front of everyone present," etc.) followed by a banquet... that may be the reason why you are having difficulty.

http://www.overseas-wedding.com/weddingabroad/kyoto/index.ht...

This is a *big* wedding planning company - see what they might be able to accommodate for you. WHen you inquire, please be specific, with the number of people to attend, etc., so that they can come up with specific proposals.

If I were you I would have a plan B for your daughter's wedding as what you are hoping to do may not be possible- as AK said it is not customary here to have a small wedding with just the celebrant and a few others present, so there is likely not much in the way of options for it, and April is not far away.