While some couples go back and forth about the number of people on their guest list, Addie Ly and Richard Lee decided quickly that theirs would have just two: a bride and a groom. To Addie, whose sister, Quinn, had married in a "wedding for two" in Vietnam five years before, the number seemed ideal. Richard was hesitant, he says, "but Addie explained that this would be just for us, and a chance to commit our lives to each other without distractions."
Two weeks after they were engaged, the pair traveled to Japan for a vacation. "We fell in love with the country, the culture, the people, and the history," Addie says. "We knew we wanted to get married there." Once both sets of parents were on board—his, who told him to "do whatever makes you happy," and hers, after Addie and Richard promised to host a wedding reception closer to home—the couple called on Lisa Vorce, who had planned and designed Quinn's wedding. The bride had two requests: nature and traditional architecture. Tsukihitei, a ryokan (inn) in the mountains of the city of Nara, checked both boxes.
One year later, on November 17, 2017, the couple woke together in Tsukihitei on their wedding day, then dressed in separate rooms. When Addie was ready, she met her groom outside. "I'll never forget what she looked like stepping through the doorway in her white dress," says Richard. "It was so intimate, and she was very beautiful. It was surreal."
The two exchanged vows—"Richard's were very 'him,' with Star Wars references," recalls Addie—and then changed into traditional wedding kimonos. Lisa surprised the newlyweds with a rickshaw ride into town, to Nara Park, where they fed the sacred native deer (a designated national treasure) and posed for pictures under a bright-red parasol. "A lot of people were taking pictures of us," says Addie, "I remember thinking, 'Oh, my God, I'm here with you, and we're just so lucky.'" If he'd had any lingering doubts, Richard knew by then that their tiny wedding was perfect. "It felt like everything was exactly the way it should be," he says.
