Wedding help in Tokyo!!
 

Hi fellow FTers. I'm planning a wedding for myself and my Japanese fiancee for August/September of 2007. I need to find a location somewhere in Tokyo to have my wedding. I've had a few preliminary meetings at Park Hyatt, and exchanged emails with some planner at the Mandarin Oriental, but have not really gotten much info from anywhere. I assume the language problem may be part of it, as most of the PR collateral is in Japanese only.

Anyways, I want to have an event for 40-50 ppl, preferably at a more upscale location. My budget is around $600-750 per person- which I assume in Tokyo is not much. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

If language is a problem, can't your Japanese fiancee help out? Just curious.

Also, are you going to have a Japanese-style wedding, with all its strictly observed customs, or a Western-style wedding, which can be more free-form?

Western style wedding, and the reason my fiancee can't contribute much to the planning is because she's finishing up a Masters and has to finish her paper over the next 3 months. I wanted to scout out some preliminary places before we make a "binding" decision.

Woah... I'm so glad we never had to worry about this.

I just found these pictures of a wedding: http://square.umin.ac.jp/optical/opt...gallery11.html

And this is at the NEW Takanawa Prince Hotel (which is the lowliest of the 3 Takanawa Prince Hotels) :eek: If people getting married at a 3* hotel are going to this kind of expense, I dread to think what they'd expect from you at the PH or MO...

My only suggestions are outside of Tokyo.

Hakone: www.fujiyahotel.co.jp do weddings

And here: http://www.ukai.co.jp/toriyama/ near Mount Takao (STUNNING venue!) I know they do weddings because of this photo: http://www.ukai.co.jp/toriyama/wedding/index.htm
EDIT to add: forgot to mention that they release fireflies into the grounds in August.

The other thing to watch out for is finding an auspicious date to marry on (although you'll find better availablility and a better price if you can ignore this)
Here's a guide: http://www1.ourtokushima.net/kankyou...y01/rokki.html
'taian' days (especially those occuring around weekends) will be booked solid.

Congratulations, anyway! And best of luck. It looks like you're going to need it....


(Are you sure you don't want to fly everyone over to somewhere like Thailand instead? I'm sure it wouldn't cost much more. Just a thought.)

Afraid I can't be super-helpful, but I did attend a wedding at the Park Hyatt several years ago and remember it being very nice. Also attended one at the New Otani earlier the same weekend, but it's a bit more impersonal over there (very big place with lots of banquet rooms--trying to find the right wedding can be tricky). If the Park Hyatt can do something for that size group at the budget you've stated, I think you can't go wrong with them.

And LapLap is right, if your fiancee and her family are not too fixated about auspicious dates you should try to avoid them in order to keep your costs down, although I think August/September are still less desirable than, say, October (as they're still pretty ridiculously hot).

Been to the FS in Chinzan-so for a friends wedding. Nice place, gorgeous 2 hour wedding ;) , glad I didn't pay for it!
BTW, I think every "good" hotel does the wedding thing.....in fact hotels make most of their profit from weddings and enkais.........The last wedding I was at was in the Okura in Fukuoka.......a nice small affair with only 200 people!

If you are willing to take a chance that construction finishes as scheduled, the Peninsula Tokyo is opening around that time.

The PHT limits the number of weddings they do and usually sells out well in advance, so if that's one of the places you're interested in, you can't take forever to make up your mind. The other luxury hotels probably run out of slots well in advance too except maybe for the FS Chinzan-so which seems to be VERY focussed on this business every time I have been there because, I presume, of their generally lousy location for many other purposes.

I'm certainly no expert on weddings, but the Odaiba area gives a nice backdrop to a Central Tokyo wedding (I think) with the rainbow bridge, tokyo bay etc in the backround, you have the LeMerdian Grand Pacific and Hotel Nikko nearby along with some others.

http://www.meridien-grandpacific.com/
http://www.meridien-grandpacific.com/banquet.html

I hate to have been there if there was a minor earthquake at that couple's wedding!!! :eek:

I would say go for it in Tokyo. Head outside and you will get very quickly into the "Inaka" mindset. (i.e. from the people at the establishment). Most places here tend to try and approximate what one would find at a wedding in the U.S. for example. The PH is a good callas would be the Grand Hyatt. New chapel that is non-denominational and the staff are second to none IMHO.

The cake cutting thing as shown in the link above is a cheesy affair as the cake is false and there is a small glue like substance into which you press the long knife. After the act you will have pieces of boxed cake brought out from the kitchen. The changing of clothes three times etc. that are part of what the Japanese do at reception do as much to take away from the wedding as the exchanging of vows in front of family and friends does to make it special.

Consider how you wish to make the public statement of being with another exclusively for the balance of your life and then design the ceremony, the approach to it, the exit from it, and any after celebration of it accordingly. The better venues in town will be eminently flexible in this regard and very savvy to the desire to "make it your own". The Japanese wedding halls and many Japanese hotels will not have a clue and you will drive yourself crazy making sacrifices to what you really envision as your special day. Here one seeks to “do things as they should be done” and only the better hotels or boutique places will allow you the ability to “do it as you wish”.

Mike

Have you considered Kyoto as an alternative? I´ve attended a very memorable wedding at the Westin Miyako there. The Brighton Hotel has similar "Olde World" surroundings that many Japanese tend to prefer on these occasions.

As you are looking at a smallish group, it's increasingly popular to use restaurants for weddings and I believe you get more bang for your buck -- at least on the food. One of the better Italian restaurants in Omotesando (Riva Degli Etruschi) is popular for weddings. See photos here.

Shouldn't be a problem at the Fujiya Hotel - they've actually marketed themselves at foreigners who want to get married/honeymoon in Japan. The link I wanted to post from 2005 is dead now. It included this:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Share the Same Memories as World Celebrities

Fujiya Hotel started business in 1879 as the first full scale international resort hotel in Japan.
It has been loved by many celebrities including Charles Chaplin, Helen Keller, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, and the Japanese Imperial Family.

After a Japanese-style wedding held at Hakone Shrine, which boasts a history of over 1200 years, enjoy staying in the Flower Palace, well known among distinguished foreign guests, and a dinner in the main dinning room The Fujiya. The ceiling of the dining room is painted with flowers, butterflies and wild birds in a motif of nature's bounty in Hakone. The beautiful space will be the perfect setting to celebrate your new relationship.

*The hotel offers both Japanese and Western-style weddings.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are costs for some of their set 'plans' here: http://www.fujiyahotel.co.jp/fujiya/...an.html#enishi

Costs for sample menus here.

I hope at least this helps when you're making comparisons.

(The Ukai Toriyama is a restaurant housed in a collection of 'private' buildings and is less than an hour from Shinjuku - I suggested it as it would have been my own 'fantasy' venue if I'd have married in Tokyo).

Hmmmm......

A place advertising a "Heartful Wedding Plan" and offering Sparkling Wine as part of the package will likely not make my shortlist if I do the "New Relationship" thing again.

Still, it does look okay. I think the upshot is, in Japan, a Japanese style wedding is going to be perfect, and a Western style wedding is best organized by, well, Westerners.

Bit like the Sushi in other countries conversation. Therefore if one wishes to go Western style here, the clear bet is to use a Western place such as the Grand Hyatt etc.

Just one man's opinion. :)

Mike

Thanks so much guys. Im going to do all the research and see what is best. The reason that I think its best to do it in Tokyo, is I will be having many guests coming from overseas who are not japanese. That being said, it would be hard for them to get to places not in central tokyo. Also, I cant have the wedding in Thailand or somewhere else because my fiancees family will be in attendance, and its not logistically possible for all of them to travel very far. Thanks again everyone!

I would highly disagree.
With Kansai Airport one can get to Kyoto by direct rail transport or bus, or from Tokyo very easily.
Hakone, where the fujiya is readily accessable, as most major cities are, without the need to have any Japanese language ability.