Owen & Lauren’s Wedding at Hakone Estate and Gardens

Owen and Lauren’s wedding at Hakone Estate and Gardens was a day that felt deeply rooted in family, community, and all the little personal details that make a wedding feel truly their own.

They started the morning separately at local venues in Saratoga before heading over to Hakone, where the gardens were looking especially lush and peaceful. One of the cutest parts of the day happened right away: Owen and Lauren’s first look on the wooden bridge, with their husky Maki right there with them. Maki was basically an honorary VIP all day, from portraits to ceremony moments, and easily won over everyone with her very good-girl energy.

That same sense of closeness carried through the rest of the celebration. For the ceremony, Lauren changed into a vintage wedding dress that had been passed down to her, and the arbor was built by a friend — both such meaningful examples of how much love and community surrounded them. Their Ketubah signing added an element of Jewish tradition to the day, and then their ceremony unfolded in the gardens beneath the trees, with guests shaded by white parasols and the wooden arbor framing them perfectly.

After the ceremony, we wandered through Hakone for portraits, taking advantage of the bridge, the garden paths, and that warm golden light coming through the trees and bamboo. Their reception continued that same feeling: warm, celebratory, and surrounded by the people who know and love them well. It was such a joy and an honor to photograph a wedding that felt this personal from beginning to end!