Weddingbee Blog

Looking for an interesting and unique way for your guests to wish you well in your new life as husband and wife? Try a tanabata tree!

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This is a bamboo tree that displays peoples’ wishes on strips of paper (called tanzuku) once a year during the Tanabata Star Festival, on July 7th.

The story of this tree is a love story!

The star Orihime (Vega, in English) was a lonely gal who wished to have a lover, although she was always very busy weaving clothes for her father, the Emperor Tentei. Tentei took pity on her and introduced her to the star Hikoboshi (known as Alter), who was a star herder. Orihime and Hikoboshi were very happy together and soon abandoned their duties; Hikoboshi’s stars were let loose and Orihime stopped weaving for her father. Tentei, thought to be the ruler of the heavens, was angered by their laziness and separated them on the opposite sides of the river running through the universe—the Milky Way. Orihime became very sad and began to cry. Tentei decided to relinquish his hold on the couple for one night, the 7th night of the 7th month, so that the lovers could be reunited. On the 7th of July people all over Japan celebrate the two lovers with the Tanabata festival. Traditionally, people wished for skills like that of Orihime, but now people wish for anything.

We’ll definitely be having a tanabata tree in place of a card box at our ceremony, of course with red, white, and pink strips of paper to go with our theme! Hmmmm, our little backyard wedding is turning into quite the Japanese ceremony. Maybe we could even incorporate our cherry blossom theme by turning the tanabata tree into something like this?

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Are you including any elements from your culture into your wedding? What will your guestbook look like?