Photographing a Civil Wedding in Switzerland

The marriage preparation procedure takes place at the registry office of your place of residence. Once completed, the ceremony itself can be held within three months (Art. 100 of the Swiss Civil Code), at any registry office in Switzerland, not necessarily where you live. Two adult witnesses of sound judgement are required (Art. 102).

Photographically, the appointment breaks into five moments: arriving and waiting (often the most honest pictures of the day), entering the room, the yes and the rings, the signatures, and the exit with the first embrace outside. Couples who book only the ceremony miss half of it; the strongest images usually happen before and after.

Whether and how you may photograph is decided by the registry office, not the couple. Three models are common: free photography without flash, photography from one fixed position, or photos only during the ring exchange and signatures. Clarify this with the office before the date, a short email is enough, and pass the answer on to your photographer. Professionals work without flash, quietly and from a distance; the ceremony belongs to the couple, not the camera.

Inside a Swiss registry office the rule is simple: no flash, no noise, and the office's rules come first. Good wedding photography is invisible there.

After the ceremony there is usually half an hour to an hour for couple portraits before the apero. Choose the registry office wisely and the backdrop is right outside the door:

• In Lucerne the Chapel Bridge, the Jesuit Church and the lakefront.
• In Zurich the Stadthaus itself, Lindenhof and the lakeside quays.
• In Bern the arcades, the Minster terrace and the Aare.
• In Basel the Rhine banks and the Minster hill.
• In Winterthur the old town and the Sulzer industrial backdrops.
• In St. Gallen the Abbey District and the red City Lounge.
• In Zug the lakefront with its famous evening light.
• In Thun the castle hill and the Alpine panorama.
• In Chur the old town lanes with the Grisons peaks minutes away.
• In Schaffhausen the Munot fortress and the painted oriel facades.

Two to three hours of coverage usually suffice for a civil ceremony with a couple shoot. What that costs is covered in our pricing guide; the questions worth asking before booking are in the checklist guide; and what documentary images of a civil wedding look like is shown on the style page.