Home Real Weddings Blue Weddings Yoko + Brian's Rustic Cultural Wedding

We're rounding out our day with a special Japanese + Jewish wedding from Robin Jolin Photography. This super lovely wedding is a great example of how two completely different cultures can be combined seamlessly into one perfect wedding. Marin Art & Garden Center is just the perfect backdrop for Yoko + Brian, lovers of outdoors and music, to set up their Japanese-Jewish-rustic wedding.

To blend in the two cultures and to truly make their wedding all about them, Yoko + Brian folded 1,000 origami cranes as their ceremony backdrop. For those that are unfamiliar with the significance of origami cranes, it's best to hear straight from Yoko herself:

"... In the Japanese culture, the crane is a symbol of longevity and prosperity. Folding a crane takes time, patience and understanding. The crane is a majestic bird which mates for life and is extremely loyal to its partner. The bird is strong, graceful and beautiful. These origami cranes bring good luck, good fortune, longevity, fidelity, and peace to the marriage."

In addition, Yoko folded mini cranes to decorate for each seating place cards, as well as to be used as decorations throughout the reception.

They also had a ketubah (Jewish wedding contract) hand-made for them. They wrote their vows together and had an artist hand-painted the vows in Hebrew and English. They also worked with the artist to have her design two Japanese maple tree that join together with accents of cherry blossoms and cranes to represent Yoko's Japanese background. This is not only something super meaningful for the two of them, but also something very beautiful that they can use to display as art!

Similar to the more well-known Chinese Tea Ceremony, Yoko + Brian had a traditional Japanese sake ceremony called "san-san-kudo". Yuko: "Through the tradition of going back and forth by each sipping the sake three times each from 3 different sized sake cups for a total of nine times, we brought together the two families and celebrated with all of our guests. The ladies who served us the sake need to be "unmarried ladies" so I had 2 of my best friends and single ladies help me out. It was like my version of the bouquet toss."

I love seeing how traditions from two different cultures come together for a beautiful wedding. And yes, Yoko + Brian are super cute together, but I have to say, I think Yoko + her mom really spoke to me. I love how you can see how much they love each other and what a strong bond they have!

Congratulations Yoko + Brian!!!!

Photographer: Robin Jolin Photography//Wedding Date: March 23, 2013//Reception Venue: Marin Art & Garden Center// Submitted via Two Bright Lights