After 10 years of service on Guam Watabe Wedding will open a new wedding chapel behind the former Fujita Hotel location in Tumon.

Watabe Wedding will open a forth location in Tumon in the spring of 2006

According to Shingo Yasutake store manager at Watabe Guam Inc. “Construction on the new chapel is slated to start sometime this fall and should be completed by next spring.”

Watabe Wedding has three chapels on Guam the San Vitores Bayside Chapel at Hotel Nikko Guam and the St. Probus Holy Chapel and the St. Grace By the Sea both at the Hilton Guam Resort & Spa and operates out of one chapel at the Hyatt Regency Guam all of which are located in Tumon. This will be Watabe Wedding’s first chapel to be located right on the beach and it will also include two banquet rooms which the other chapels do not have. Yasutake also told the Journal “With the new chapel being located where it is newlyweds only have to take a short walk for wedding pictures right on the beach and will be spared the extra cost of having to hire someone to drive them there.”

Although final plans for the new chapel have not been completed Yasutake said “It will have a maximum capacity of 40 to 50 people.” Just like the other properties Japanese designer Sawamure designed the new chapel.

Watabe Wedding has been doing business on Guam since 1995 and will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. The company performs an average of 6 000 weddings a year. Watabe Wedding continues to expand its operations on Guam. Watabe Guam Inc. also recently opened its reception hall operation on Tumon at the site of the former Seahorse Restaurant as first revealed by the Journal. (See “Watabe Wedding says ‘I do’ to reception business ” in the Sept. 19 edition of the Journal) According to Yasutake “Most of our customers about more than 95% are Japanese but we also perform weddings for locals and other tourist groups.”

Yasutake said Watabe Wedding also caters to Korean Chinese and Taiwan couples.

He added Watabe cares about the impact this project may have on its future neighbors and plans to hold a meeting with them sometime in October. “Once they approve. We can move forward.” According to Yasutake Watabe met with residents in the area and have worked to address their concerns. MBJ

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