READING TIME: 3 min 20 sec
PUBLICATION DATE: 10/16/2025
From Tokyo boardrooms to forested Japanese hillsides, Chihiro Oe's journey to becoming a wedding visionary is anything but ordinary. After graduating, she worked at a major advertising agency in Japan. Then she spent several years living abroad—searching for her next path while exploring what unique value only she could bring.
By 2018, Japan still lacked destination wedding planners fluent in English. “I believed that with Japan’s rich nature, food, and culture, I could surely create a truly unique and wonderful experience using my planning skills and network,” she says. With that conviction, she returned to Japan and launched Landress.
When asked what she enjoys most about wedding planning, Chihiro is animated:
I love traveling, discovering beautiful scenery, art, food—everything—and I pursue it all hungrily, whether I’m on or off the clock.
Her adventurous spirit didn’t just shape her life—it led her to her calling. She realized that creating weddings was a perfect fusion of everything she loves: storytelling, design, experience, and connection.
Many of Landress’s clients share that same wanderlust. They are ambitious, curious, and seek more than a standard wedding—they want moments that resonate on a deeper level.
At the heart of Landress lies a guiding principle: “creating opportunities for people and nature to connect.” Chihiro broadens the definition of nature—not just landscapes, but also the inner nature of people, their true selves.
She reflects on modern life:
“Economic rationalism and information overload rob us of rich, meaningful time.”
Weddings, she believes, are rare opportunities to pause.
“We wish to help create pure moments—breaths of time to recognize your true self and those you love deeply, and to cherish your loved ones.”
With that as their north star, Landress designs weddings that lean into stillness, authenticity, and resonance.
Landress doesn’t just plan weddings—they craft immersive weekends:
“We make weddings a vacation.”
They weave together celebration and discovery: ceremonial moments, welcome receptions, and cultural experiences. Landress handles everything—from negotiating exclusive venues and managing guest logistics to curating shuttle services, arranging tea ceremonies, boat tours, wine tastings, and more.
Each wedding becomes less an event and more a journey—a narrative unfolding across days.
If there’s one wedding that sums up Chihiro’s ethos, it’s the one in Niseko, Hokkaido. A typhoon-strength storm battered the region that day—flowers drenched, the sky unruly, and nerves stretched thin. The plan to host an outdoor ceremony seemed doomed.
But the bride and groom’s unwavering smiles shifted everything. In that moment, Chihiro chose trust over fear.
“They gave me the courage to say ‘Go ahead.’”
Against all odds, the ceremony unfolded—wild, beautiful, and unforgettable. That day became a testament: even when nature resists, hearts can guide us to create something transcendent.
Chihiro admits that a major part of her role is being a bridge:
“Japanese weddings present significant barriers that differ greatly from international standards, both linguistically and culturally.”
Couples often feel overwhelmed by industry norms, contract language, or disconnected vendor networks. Landress steps in to shoulder those challenges. They vet vendors, negotiate terms, and translate not just language—but expectations.
In essence, they become the conduit through which global couples manifest their Japanese wedding dreams.
When Chihiro launched Landress, Japan had no precedent for planners of her kind.
“While there are world-class destination wedding planners, there were no world-class wedding planners in Japan, and no one had ever successfully planned a wedding for an international couple.”
To many, her vision was puzzling. To Chihiro, it was a calling. She studied the world’s top planners, absorbed best practices, and applied them in her unique voice.
Today, Landress stands as proof that innovation often begins with following your own questions.
Budget tension can derail even the best dreams. Landress addresses this by centering conversations on values.
We always discuss their unwavering values. We help prioritize and guide couples back to that beginning when they feel uncertain or budget-conscious.
By anchoring decisions to what truly matters—connection, memory, authenticity—couples avoid regrets and trust their choices.
Chihiro offers heartfelt guidance to couples still planning:
Always continue to improve yourself. Keep moving forward. If you keep moving forward, your clients and the people around you will eventually notice the value that only you can create.
She also reflects on her younger self: diving into uncertainty, seeking clarity, failing, learning, and advancing. That courage, she says, is the foundation of every meaningful path.
Through Landress, Chihiro Oe reimagines weddings as portals—moments where heritage, nature, intention, and love converge. She shows us that a wedding is not just a celebration but a luminous pause: a breath in which couples and communities remember what matters most.
If you dream of a wedding in Japan that is more than ceremony—one that sparkles with depth, beauty, and resonance—Chihiro and Landress await.
