37 Frames

People who haven’t been to Japan don’t quite realise that scenes like this don’t really happen.

A cherry blossom forest at peak bloom, in Japan, with nobody else in it. No crowds. No queues. No festival noise. Just blossoms in every direction, soft ground underfoot, a cellist, two best friends, and two people about to be married.

We’ve been circling this location for a couple of years, quietly waiting for the right couple to say yes to it. These two were that fabulous couple.

Joas, our cellist, came up from Tokyo for the ceremony. Watching Meagan walk her processional with petals falling and the cello playing through the trees is something we will all carry for a long time. There aren’t really words for the kind of stillness that lands when music and weather and timing and intention all arrive in the same minute. We just stood in it. So did they.

This is the part of our work most people don’t see from the outside. The location scouting that takes years. The conversations with local communities, landowners, permit offices. The weeks of trying to get a drone licenses in an area that doesn’t usually grant them. The kind of patient holding-onto-a-place until the couple who deserves it walks into our inbox. I don’t think Dakota and Meagan ever knew how long we’d been waiting to bring someone here. They just trusted us when we said we knew where to take them.

The reward for that trust was an elopement that almost nobody on earth has experienced. A blossom forest, peak bloom, completely empty, in one of the most photographed countries in the world. The country gave them the gift. We just opened the door. They walked through it like they understood exactly what they’d been given.

We adore these two. Always grateful. Already missing them.

📋 Planning | 📸 Photography | 🎥 Film

Planner/Production | Dee 
Assistant Planner | Sumika 
Film & Photography | Dee, Junko, Nick, 
HMU |
Flowers | .regalodesign
Cello | .cardoso.cello

📍 Aomori, Tohoku

Dakota and Meagan reached out with a video introduction. Personal, thoughtful, properly considered. Not just an availability check. A real hello. We were already fully booked for our spring season. But there was a very small window in late April. And to be honest, it’s the first video enquiry we’ve ever had. How could we say no?

They had never been to Japan. They were willing to fly to the far north of the country to chase cherry blossoms that don’t perform on demand. They wanted something quiet, intentional, completely theirs. We headed up to Aomori, into the kind of remote rural Japan that most travellers will never see. One hotel in the whole area. A long drive through trees just starting to bloom. Hair and makeup done in a room that had probably never hosted a wedding before, and absolutely should now.

Then the day. A cherry blossom forest with nobody in it but us. Joas, our cellist, who’d come up from Tokyo, playing as Megan walked her processional with petals falling through the music. Cedric, one of their fabulous friends, officiating with the kind of warmth that makes you want to fold him into your studio permanently. Vows. Tears. Cheers. A blessing at Takayama Inari Shrine, where 200 vermilion torii gates snake across the landscape like a sleeping dragon. Drone permits, secured through months of careful collaboration with the shrine. Hirosaki Park at sunset for the festival energy. A genuine earthquake in the middle of it all. A hotel under tsunami alert by the time we got back. Then, days later, a romp through Tokyo to finish the story.

We truly adore these two. The intentionality of how they reached out. The trust they extended to us, to Japan, to a country none of them had ever set foot in. The way Dakota looked at Meagan during their vows. The way Meagan held her vows steady through it all. Already missing them. Gallery on the way. So much to share. 🤍

Planner/Production | Dee 
Assistant Planner | Sumika 
Film & Photography | 
HMU |
Flowers | .regalodesign
Cello | .cardoso.cello

📍 Aomori, Tohoku