Most couples ask me this about two months out, usually in the same email as the seating plan.
The honest answer is that the arrival time matters less than what sits either side of it. An hour that starts calm produces different photographs than an hour that starts late, and nothing I do afterwards fixes a morning that ran forty minutes behind.
Here is how I think about it, and a rough timeline you are welcome to steal.
How early should a wedding photographer arrive?
Two to three hours before the ceremony for most weddings in Switzerland. Three if you are getting into the dress somewhere separate from the ceremony, or if the two of you are getting ready in different buildings.
That sounds like a lot, and most of it is buffer. Roughly forty minutes goes on the room and the details, twenty on the dress and the flowers, and the rest absorbs whatever runs late. Something always runs late.
The part people underestimate is travel. A twelve-minute drive between a flat in Zurich and a church is twenty-five minutes once everyone has found their shoes.
What actually happens in that first hour?
Less than you would think, and that is rather the point.
I photograph the room while it is still tidy — the dress where it hangs, the shoes, the rings, whatever is laid out on the table. Then I stay out of the way while hair and makeup finish, working quietly around the edges of the room.
Nothing in that hour is directed. If I am asking anyone to do anything before the ceremony, something has gone wrong with the schedule rather than with the morning.
How much time should I leave for couple portraits?
Forty-five minutes in total, and it works far better as two shorter blocks than one long one.
Twenty minutes shortly after the ceremony, while everything still feels immediate. Then twenty-five later, timed to the light rather than to a gap in the running order.
In June and July around Zurich the sun sets close to half past nine, so that second window falls somewhere between about half eight and nine. Resist the urge to move it earlier just because the timeline looks neater on paper.
Should there be a gap between the ceremony and dinner?
Yes, and a generous one. Ninety minutes is comfortable. Two hours is better.
That gap is where the aperitif happens, where your guests actually talk to each other, and where every unposed photograph of them comes from. Compress it to forty-five minutes and you get a lot of pictures of people holding drinks and glancing at the time.
Does a smaller wedding need less time?
A little, but not proportionally.
A wedding for twelve people still has a dress, still has a ceremony, still has flowers and light and a whole morning before any of it. What a small wedding saves you is queueing: no group-photo list, no receiving line, no half hour while everyone finds a seat.
For those I usually arrive two hours before rather than three, and the day tends to breathe more, not less.
A simple timeline to start from
Photographer arrives, three hours before the ceremony. Details, dress and flowers, thirty minutes. Getting ready, quietly, one hour. Buffer and travel, forty minutes. Ceremony. Aperitif, ninety minutes, with twenty of those spent on the two of you. Golden hour, twenty-five minutes, timed to the light. Dinner.
Adjust all of it to your own day, but keep the buffers. They are the unglamorous part that makes everything else possible.
I photograph candid, fine-art weddings in Zurich, across Switzerland and in the Alps. If you are building a timeline and want a second pair of eyes on it, a free discovery call is the easiest place to start — bring the draft, however rough.
Frequently asked
How early should a wedding photographer arrive?
Two to three hours before the ceremony. Three if you are getting ready somewhere separate from the ceremony venue, or if the two of you are in different buildings.
How long do photographs take after the ceremony?
About twenty minutes for the couple, straight afterwards, plus whatever group photographs you have asked for. A list of eight groups takes roughly twenty minutes if somebody who knows everyone is helping to gather people.
When is golden hour for a summer wedding in Switzerland?
In June and July around Zurich the sun sets close to half past nine, so the best light falls roughly between half eight and nine. In September it moves back to around seven.
Do I need a second photographer?
Only if you are getting ready in two places far enough apart that one person cannot cover both, or if the guest count is large enough that the ceremony needs two angles.
What if the day runs late?
It usually does, a little. That is what the buffers are for. The parts worth protecting are the getting-ready hour and the golden-hour window; almost everything else can compress.
Do you travel outside Zurich?
Yes — across Switzerland, including Graubünden, Vaud and the Alps, and for destination weddings further afield.
