About this vendor
Located in Saratoga, California, Hakone Estate and Gardens is a historic wedding ceremony and reception venue. Unique in its appearance, Hakone Estate and Gardens is one of the oldest Asian estate and gardens in the Western Hemisphere. The beautiful Japanese gardens are the ideal place to exchange vows with the person you love the most. Cascading waterfalls and koi ponds are just some of the relaxing features that Hakone Estate and Gardens has to offer. With breathtaking Japanese flora and architecture, some straight from Japan, Hakone offers an international experience without the hassle. This hidden gem nestled between Silicon Valley and the beautiful Santa Cruz Mountains provides a convenient retreat for a peaceful and truly unique wedding experience. If you want to give your guests an unforgettable cultural experience in a timeless oasis, Hakone Estate and Gardens is the place for you.
Facilities and Capacity
With a maximum capacity of 180 people, Hakone Estate and Gardens offers both indoor and uncovered outdoor settings. The overall feel of the 18 acres private venue is classy and outdoorsy. Small ceremonies with up to 30 guests can utilize the beautiful Moon Bridge over the koi pond for an intimate ceremony. The main garden area showcases the sprawling gardens as the backdrop for your wedding ceremony with up to 180 guests. Cocktail hour may be held in the Cultural Exchange Center with its viewing deck showcasing Hakone's fantastic view of the Santa Clara Valley. Receptions with up to 180 guests can use the outdoor Madrone Mound area surrounded with bamboo and showcasing an exquisite 100-year-old oak tree. Hakone Estate and Gardens also provides the Lower House as your bridal suite, overlooking a tranquil zen garden.
Services
The wheelchair accessible venue offers nearby parking for its guests. Although the venue does not provide catering or event rentals, they have a list of trusted preferred vendors who have years of professional experience. The long list of preferred vendors that Hakone Estate and Gardens provides range from caterers and florists to entertainment and coordination. Each of their preferred vendors have worked with Hakone Estate and Gardens before and is familiar with the venue’s policies and regulations.
History
As mentioned above, this 100-year-old garden is one of the oldest Asian estates and gardens located in the Western Hemisphere. Hakone has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2013 and is known as one of the premier sites of the Nation Trust for Historic Preservation. It originally started as the private estate of a San Francisco philanthropist and his wife in 1915. A half a century later, the gardens were sold to the city of Saratoga, and Hakone ceased to be a private estate. Since then, Hakone has flourished as a non-profit public garden with the help of its dedicated staff, frequent visitors, and event hosts who help keep this garden beautiful for generations to come.
Amenities + details
Ceremony Area
Covered Outdoors Space
Dressing Room
Handicap Accessible
Indoor Event Space
Outdoor Event Space
Reception Area
Wireless Internet
Liability Insurance
On-Site Accommodations
Ceremony Types
- Civil Union
- Commitment Ceremony
- Elopement
- Interfaith Ceremony
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Religious Ceremony
Settings
- Garden
- Historic Venue
- Tented
- Trees
Venue Service Offerings
- Rentals & Equipment
- Tents
- Service Staff
Reviews
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3.8
out of 5.08 reviews
Review photos
Showing slide number 1 out of 3
Don't be fooled by the price of this location. Coordinators made us feel uncomfortable with their racist remarks.
We had our wedding at Hakone in June 2023. We booked the venue early out (Sep 2021) and have had an extremely positive experience from planning up to our wedding day.
Amenities:
...
Their "base" rental includes most essentials - tables, chairs, dance floor, and basic sound system. It is one of the few places we could find in the bay area that allows BYO alcohol which is typically more cost-efficient than an alcohol package from caterer. The only "con" is due to being in a residential area, dancing/loud music has to be wrapped up fairly early.
Service:
Although the venue does not technically come with a formal planner/coordinator, we felt taken care of by Tony and Melia every step of the way. After booking, they willingly allowed us to come back for 2-3 additional tours and answered our emails promptly. They even coordinated rehearsal and allowed us to drop off decor items/alcohol on the rehearsal day.
We did not hire a planner/day-of coordinator (just had family friends help out) and yet we felt completely taken care of. On our wedding day, Melia ensured our ceremony started on time and directing the procession. Most of our vendors had worked at Hakone before which made the day even more seamless. After the wedding, we promptly received our deposit.
We hosted our October 2023 Wedding Ceremony at Hakone and we were so happy with the beautiful gardens and overall experience.
The staff at Hakone (Tony and Melia) were extremely ...
helpful, friendly, and easy to work with and they went above and beyond to make sure our rehearsal and ceremony went smoothly. We requested a unique setup with two aisles and we had a large decoration to attach to an arch we rented through a vendor, and they worked with both us and our vendors to make sure that everything was set up just right with plenty of time to spare. They also helped us work through all the important details of the ceremony without being overwhelming, and they did a perfect job executing on the actual ceremony, queuing our party to walk and managing the music and sound system.
The garden itself is beautiful in any season. We visited multiple times throughout the year leading up to our wedding and enjoyed different plants in bloom every time. In October, the garden was still lush and green with redwoods, bamboo, and the Koi pond providing amazing variety. Our guests had a great time strolling through the gardens before and after the ceremony, and there were tons of amazing backdrops for our wedding photos. They even gave us a complimentary year-long membership following our wedding so we could come back to relive the memories!
In summary, we highly recommend Hakone whether for a wedding ceremony or just a visit!
The venue was beautiful in May. Tony Barbatti (the event manager) is great. He is so helpful and knowledgeable. He makes the wedding planning easy! The venue was easily accessible ...
and opportunities for pictures are endless!
I did not go through with booking Hakone Gardens for reasons that will become clear: my first tour, the guide Christine did not tell us where to meet and didn't show up on time. Th...
ere is a gift shop in front of the gardens, so we asked the cashier to call her. It was probably 15 minutes later that she came, and it was awkward waiting there in the gift shop. The tour was unprofessional and brisk. I asked to come see an event with specialty lighting. Christine put me in touch with someone named Sandra. Sandra was supposed to meet us at 8:00 at an event (note: they never mentioned how to dress, but I assumed it was a wedding so put on a dress). From 8 to 8:30 we were calling Sandra's cell, the office phone, and emailing. No one responded. Sandra eventually called at 9 when we were on our way home. One hour after the meeting time... We left and never looked back. Take your money and run. Utterly unprofessional.
Hakone Gardens gave us the perfect wedding! When we first started planning our wedding, we got the idea of having cherry blossoms and so the search for the perfect venue started. T...
he first time we visited the garden was in late November, but despite the gardens not being in bloom, we pretty much knew immediately that this was the venue for us. Also, the little town of Saratoga is very cute and has a wonderful NON-city, clean air, quiet vibe to it that was a huge plus.
We booked the venue approximately a year in advance. We initially were in contact with Candyce for all our planning, but I believe she is not working at Hakone at this time. Because our wedding date was literally two days after the end of off-season, she gave us the off-season rate anyway, which really helped us out being on a tight budget. We met with her at the venue in June 2014 and pretty much got an idea of how everything would be set-up and what parts of the gardens would be available for our use. She even helped us contact catering companies when we were having issues with one of the companies failing to respond to us. Generally Hakone Gardens requires that you use one of their preferred caterers or else be charged an additional fee. We were having a hard time getting responses from some of the caterers on their list and couldn't afford the others. So Candyce graciously said she'd waive that additional fee if we needed to find an outside caterer (but fortunately we didn't have to do that and it all worked out). Approximately two months before the wedding, we visited the venue again with our caterer and photographer. Candyce was no longer working at that time, but we met with Nancy instead, who was equally helpful. Being as they host a lot of weddings and events, it was easy to rely on the staff of Hakone to just tell us what to do and where to do things. Then for the actual wedding, we were put in touch with Tony, who ended up being our contact person for the day of. He ran the rehearsal for us and was extremely helpful and had great positive energy. He was there with us all day for the wedding and reception, and did all those day-of coordinator type things. We should mention, Hakone doesn't provide an actual day-of coordinator for weddings. We decided not to hire one, and were a little concerned that that may have been a bad decision. But with the wonderful help of Tony, everything worked out smoothly.
The only slight kink we had in working with Hakone was that during the month leading up to the wedding, I had inquired several times via phone and email regarding renting a projector and screen for our reception, which I knew they offered according to some of the paperwork. And for some unknown reason, no one ever responded to that inquiry. They'd respond to anything else I asked, but never that one question. Fortunately, it didn't matter because they ended up letting us use this large HD-TV with a blu-ray player, which ended up working out better anyway, and there was no additional rental charge for that!
We got EXTREMELY lucky and the cherry blossoms where in bloom for our wedding day, which was mid-March 2015. In addition, the weather was perfect. I suppose Hakone Gardens can't technically take credit for the weather, but we truly found the perfect venue for our wedding and would recommend it to anyone looking for a Japanese garden setting.
I gave this venue a 4 star out of 5 exclusively because of the site, which is simply gorgeous. We had our wedding ceremony and reception here (both outside) in early Sept and the w...
eather was perfect (no need for a covering).
The minus 1 star is because you basically get no help with this venue. The venue is very strict on its many rules and their staff only helps to set up items you rent directly from them. Also, you have to share the site with whomever also rents it out. The day before our wedding, we had to coordinate with Hakone for a time to have the rehearsal and when to set up the decorations because another group had rented out the site the same day. The frustrating part was that Hakone failed to coordinate or tell the other group that we were allowed time to rehearse our wedding and set up our decorations. We had a confrontation with the other group because they didn't want us to set up the decorations (even though Hakone said we could). This is definitely something you don't want to deal with the day before your wedding.
The gardens are gorgeous. Plenty of great spaces for pictures even a bamboo forest.;The main contact for events is a little intense. She was very knowledgeable but if anything go...
es wrong or you try to do something you didn't know was not allowed she freaks out and ends up making the situation more stressful that it has to be. Not comforting on your wedding day. Plus she had to leave the country during our planning process but didn't let clients know or have an out-of-office notice on e-mail so I was e-mailing with questions and trying to pay our next deposit and didn't hear anything for weeks.
Contact
21000 Big Basin Way, Saratoga, CA | San Francisco Bay, Santa Clara County
