A Vow Renewal at Blausee, Switzerland
- May 26, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Ten years of marriage. Two children. A flight from Australia to Switzerland. And a lake so impossibly blue that it seems, when you first stand at its edge, like something a painter invented.
Adam and Cat did not plan a traditional anniversary dinner. They did not book a weekend away in a city hotel or arrange a private room at a restaurant. They flew across the world to stand beside a lake in the Bernese Oberland with their two children and say, again, the words they had said a decade before, with everything those ten years had added to them.
I have photographed proposals and elopements and weddings in Switzerland for six years. I have photographed very few vow renewals. This one stays with me.
Why Blausee for a Vow Renewal
The Blausee, literally 'blue lake', sits in the Kandertal valley in the Bernese Oberland, a few kilometres south of Kandersteg. It is a small, privately managed nature reserve: a lake fed by underground springs, its water a colour that sits somewhere between jade and turquoise depending on the light and the season, surrounded by ancient pine forest that filters the sound of the outside world almost completely.
It is not a famous location in the way that Zermatt or Interlaken are famous. It is known to photographers, to Swiss locals, and to the small number of international visitors who discover it and remember it with the particular intensity of a place that exceeded expectation.
For a vow renewal, its qualities are specific and significant. The forest creates a natural enclosure, a sense of being contained within the landscape rather than exposed to it — that gives an outdoor ceremony the privacy and intimacy of an interior space. The lake provides a visual anchor: the water is so still in early morning that photographs taken beside it have a quality of reflection and depth that is almost impossible to achieve elsewhere. And the scale of the location, intimate rather than vast, suits a small family ceremony in a way that a mountain summit or a lakeside city does not.
Adam and Cat had researched Swiss locations for months before settling on Blausee. They had considered Zermatt and the Matterhorn. They had looked at the Bernese Oberland's more famous lakes. They came back, repeatedly, to Blausee, because it had the quality they were looking for, which was not spectacle but depth.
A Family Ceremony. Their children as Witnesses
The ceremony was led by Marylin Rebelo, an officiant whose work I have seen on several occasions and whose particular gift is for the specific, for finding the words that belong to a particular couple rather than the words that belong to any couple.
For Adam and Cat, the ceremony had an additional dimension that most elopements and vow renewals do not: their two children were present. Standing beside their parents at the water's edge, they were not performing a role, they were not ring bearers or flower girls, not participants in a staged ritual. They were simply there, as they have been present for the decade of marriage being celebrated, as they will be present for what comes after.
There is a particular kind of image that only a family vow renewal produces: the moment when a child, understanding something of what is happening without understanding all of it, reaches for a parent's hand or looks up at a face. These are unrepeatable moments. They happen without warning and last for one or two seconds. I was watching for them.
The ceremony itself was brief, deliberately, purposefully brief. Ten years of marriage is long enough to know that what matters in a vow renewal is not the length of the ceremony but the quality of the attention brought to it. Adam and Cat had written their own words. They were specific, personal, and not intended for anyone other than the two of them and the children standing beside them.
After the Ceremony: the Forest and the Lake
After the ceremony, we had the reserve. The Blausee nature reserve is small enough to feel intimate and varied enough to give a morning of photography genuine range: the lakeside paths, the forest trails above the water, the wooden bridge that crosses the lake's outlet stream, the viewpoints from which the full oval of the lake is visible with the peaks above it.
Adam and Cat moved through the reserve with the ease of people who have spent ten years learning how to be together — without performance, without self-consciousness, with the particular comfort of two people who know each other completely. Their children ran ahead on the paths, doubling back, stopping to look at things in the water, asking questions that adults have learned to stop asking.
The photography from this part of the day is the kind I find most rewarding: genuine movement through a genuine landscape, with the camera following rather than directing. The family images, all four of them together on the lakeside path, or by the water with the forest behind them, are, I think, the images that will matter most in another ten years.
The Light at Blausee: what Makes It Exceptional for Photography
The pine forest that surrounds Blausee is old-growth, the trees are large enough that the canopy is high and the light that filters through it has a quality that is specific to mature forest. It is diffused but directional: warmer than overcast light, softer than direct sunlight, and consistent enough to work with throughout the morning without the rapid changes that open Alpine locations produce.
The lake itself acts as a reflector. The turquoise-green water bounces light upward from below, which means that portraits taken at the water's edge have a fill light from the lake surface that creates a three-dimensional quality in the faces, shadows lifted from below, warm tones from the forest above. It is, for a photographer who has worked at dozens of Swiss locations, genuinely unusual.
The best time to photograph at Blausee is early morning, before the day visitors arrive, when the lake surface is completely still and the forest is in its quietest state. I arrange early access for the couples I bring here, which means the morning begins before the nature reserve opens to the public. The difference between Blausee at 7am and Blausee at 10am is significant, and for a vow renewal that wanted privacy and intimacy, the early start was the right call.
Vow Renewals in Switzerland. What to Know
A vow renewal in Switzerland follows different rules from a legal marriage, there is no civil registration process, no permit requirement, and no bureaucracy. A vow renewal is a personal ceremony: it requires an officiant willing to lead it, a location that permits the gathering, and the two people whose commitment it celebrates.
Blausee, as a privately managed nature reserve, permits ceremony photography with an advance arrangement, I coordinate this directly for couples who come here with me. The reserve is small enough that early-morning exclusive access is possible, which is what I recommend for any couple doing a vow renewal or elopement at the lake.
→ Best season: May–September for the most vivid water colour and wildflowers in the surrounding area. October for autumnal forest colour.
→ Group size: Blausee suits intimate gatherings of up to 10–12 people comfortably. Larger groups can be arranged but require more advance coordination.
→ Access: by car from Kandersteg (approximately 10 minutes) or from Frutigen (approximately 15 minutes). The reserve has a car park and a short walk to the lakeside.
→ Children: the reserve is entirely walkable and safe for children. The paths are flat and the lake is fenced at key points. Adam and Cat's children were entirely at ease throughout the morning.
From Australia to Switzerland. International Couples and Swiss Vow Renewals
Adam and Cat's journey from Australia to the Bernese Oberland is not unusual in my experience. I work regularly with couples from the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia who choose Switzerland for a significant anniversary or vow renewal because the country offers something that is genuinely difficult to find elsewhere: extraordinary natural beauty at a consistently high standard of accessibility, combined with a quality of service and hospitality that makes complex logistics simple.
For couples planning a vow renewal from abroad, the practical picture is straightforward. Switzerland has direct or one-stop flight connections from most major international cities. The Kandertal valley, where Blausee is located, is reachable by train from Bern in under an hour. And the planning process, from the couple's perspective, requires very little: a date, a decision about what the ceremony will include, and an arrival.
Thinking About Renewing Your Vows in Switzerland?
Ten years is long enough to know what matters. Adam and Cat knew it was this: the lake, the forest, the children beside them, and the words said again with everything the decade had added to them. If you are planning a vow renewal or anniversary elopement in Switzerland, at Blausee or anywhere in the Bernese Oberland, I would love to hear about your plans.
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