Destination Wedding at Baur au Lac, Zürich (Zurich)

Some wedding venues need no introduction. Baur au Lac has been receiving guests on the western shore of Lake Zurich since 1844, and in nearly two centuries it has not particularly needed to change: the private park running down to the water, the garden where ceremonies have taken place for generations, the discreet formality of a hotel that understands exactly what it is and does not need to announce it.

Caspar grew up in Switzerland. He met his partner when he was living in China, and by the time they married they were based in Singapore, which is to say, they were the kind of couple who have built their life across several countries simultaneously, for whom Zurich was home in the deepest sense and a destination in the literal one. The wedding was designed to bring both families together in Switzerland for the first time.

Baur au Lac — The Venue

Baur au Lac occupies a position in Zurich that is both central and quietly apart. The hotel's private park — one of the last private gardens in the city centre, creates a natural enclosure that makes the garden feel removed from the surrounding city despite being minutes from the Paradeplatz. The lawn where ceremonies take place faces west, which means late afternoon ceremonies in summer receive the full benefit of the golden hour as it descends over the Uetliberg.

Inside, the hotel's event spaces range from the intimate to the genuinely grand. The salons have the proportions and the finishes of a 19th-century house of a certain standing — not ostentatious, but unmistakably considered. For photography, the combination of the garden exterior and the salon interior gives a complete day's range of settings within a single property.

The Ceremony — The Garden by the Lake

The ceremony took place in the garden. The florals, orchids, white and cream, with architectural arrangements that suited the formality of the setting — were placed throughout the ceremony space. The officiant was Sven from Happy Heart Wedding, who managed the tone of the occasion with the kind of precision that a setting like Baur au Lac requires: warm without being informal, specific without being cold.

The bride wore a dress by Rosa Clará, the Spanish designer whose particular gift is for a kind of contemporary classicism that photographs extremely well in natural light. She had chosen comfortable shoes and a red lip, a combination that made the images both timeless and immediately themselves. There is nothing in those images that will look dated in ten years.

The groom was in a classic dark suit. The garden was in full summer. The ceremony was everything it was supposed to be.

The Reception — Evening in the Salon

After the ceremony and cocktails on the terrace, the wedding moved inside to one of Baur au Lac's salon spaces for dinner. The floral palette shifted for the reception — from the white and cream of the ceremony to a richer pink and purple, which worked with the warm interior light of the salon in a way that the exterior florals, in natural daylight, did not need to do.

There is a particular quality to evening photography inside a hotel of this standard: the combination of warm ambient light, the geometry of a well-proportioned room, and the specific visual texture of high-quality fabric and floral arrangement creates images with a depth and a richness that outdoor photography, for all its advantages, cannot quite replicate.

Baur au Lac as a Destination Wedding Venue

For international couples — particularly those based in Asia or the US — Zurich is a more practical destination than it might initially appear. The city has direct or one-stop connections from Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, and most major international hubs. Baur au Lac is eight minutes from Zurich Airport by train. And the hotel's capacity to manage the full scope of a destination wedding — ceremony, cocktails, dinner, accommodation — within a single property removes most of the logistical complexity that multi-venue events involve.

The garden ceremony in summer, with Lake Zurich visible through the private park, is among the most quietly beautiful ceremony settings I have photographed in Switzerland. It does not compete with the drama of the Alps or the scale of the mountain landscape — it offers something different: an urban elegance, a sense of occasion rooted in history rather than geography, that a certain kind of couple recognises immediately as theirs.

→ Capacity: the garden accommodates intimate ceremonies and larger gatherings. The salons can host receptions from 20 to several hundred guests.

→ Best season: May–September for garden ceremonies. The park is particularly beautiful in June and early September when the summer crowds have thinned.

→ Permits and logistics: as an established wedding venue, Baur au Lac handles all ceremony logistics internally. I coordinate with their events team in advance of every wedding I photograph here.

You can see the highlights of Caspar and Jillian here:

Baur au Lac is the kind of venue that does not need to impress. It has been doing this for nearly two centuries, and the confidence that comes from that history is visible in every room, every service, and every detail of the day it holds.

If you are planning a destination wedding in Zurich, at Baur au Lac or elsewhere in Europe, I would love to hear about your day!

Photography: Gloria Velvet — gloriavelvet.com

Venue: Baur au Lac, Zurich, Switzerland — bauraulac.ch

Officiant: Sven, Happy Heart Wedding — happyheartwedding.com

Bridal gown: Rosa Clará — rosaclara.es