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We Got Married! Our Wedding in Switzerland

Baptiste Wicht | Updated: |

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links)

We got married! Last Friday (18.05.2018) Mr and Mrs the Poor Swiss got married! It was a charming and straightforward official ceremony in our state. We invited our closest friends and family members to the ceremony. And then we did a simple party at our apartment. Find out about our wedding in Switzerland.

This post is mostly an occasion for me to share the good news ;) And some photos! I will also share information about how weddings in Switzerland. It is nothing extraordinary. But it could help some readers if they do not know how it works here.

Wedding in Switzerland

Our Wedding at the Civil Office
Our Wedding at the Civil Office

How does a wedding in Switzerland works? First, you need to get married in front of the law. This is a civil wedding. The civil wedding needs to take place at the civic center of your district. You need to fill a few forms in advance and reserve a date.

Contrary to some countries where anyone can officiate a wedding, only a civil officer can officiate it in Switzerland. You will then have a small civil ceremony. You can invite people to this ceremony, but the rooms are not very big. After the ceremony, you will receive your marriage certificate and your family certificate. A lot of people invite very few people (if any) to the civil ceremony. They then do a bigger party with the people they want to invite.

Of course, this will cost you some money. On average, you will have to pay between 300 CHF and 400 CHF to get officially married in Switzerland. If one of the spouses is not Swiss, you will have to pay more. Since my wife is Chinese, we paid around 550 CHF for the civil ceremony and certificates.

If you choose to, you can then marry at the church. Historically, every couple was also getting married at the church. Today, fewer and fewer weddings are religious.

Our Wedding

Our Wedding Signature
Our Wedding Signature

We got married at the civil office in Fribourg. Only my close family and our two witnesses were present for the ceremony. After the service, we invited them to a Chinese restaurant.

Our wedding lunch at Chinese Restaurant
Our wedding lunch at Chinese Restaurant

After this, people came to our apartment to continue the party. And my closest friends joined us there. We did it very simply with BBQ and salads for dinner. But it was a lot of fun :)

Wedding party at our apartment
Wedding party at our apartment

We did not have a lot of time because of the duration of my wife’s visa. That is why we only invited a few people. We plan to do a second ceremony with more people. I will share more details about this on the blog later. We are still in the planning phase. We will not have a religious ceremony. It will be a simple ceremony. There should around 50 people to the second party. We may also do a small reception in China around the Chinese new year.

How much did our wedding cost?

So far, the costs of our party are relatively frugal. We paid around 550 CHF for the official registration. We were planning to pay the restaurant for everyone, but my parents were faster than me. Thanks a lot to them! We spent around 250 CHF for the food and drinks for the party at our place. So the day was not very expensive for us.

There are also other costs. Let’s start with the wedding suit. I had my suit tailor-made in China. I paid around 400 CHF for two beautiful tailor-made suits. This would have cost me almost ten times more in Switzerland. I am very happy with the result. Mrs. The Poor Swiss’ dress also came from China and was about 300 CHF. We are also delighted with the dress. Again, we would have paid much more had we bought it in Switzerland. We paid 418 CHF for the wedding rings. Overall, we managed to stay under an excellent budget so far.

We received a lot of gifts from my family, more than 4000 CHF. I was really not expecting that much. It is really lovely! We will use it for our honeymoon and for the second wedding reception. The month should have a reasonable savings rate, but expenses are definitely too high.

Conclusion

That is it for this post!

For once, it is a concise post. But I just wanted to share the good news. If you have more questions about our wedding or weddings in Switzerland, feel free to ask ;)

I will let you know with more information once we have done the second wedding reception with more people. And I will also be sure to let you know details about our honeymoon.

If you are interested in weddings in Switzerland, I have compiled a list of tips to save money on weddings.

How about you? How was your wedding?

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Baptiste Wicht started thepoorswiss.com in 2017. He realized that he was falling into the trap of lifestyle inflation. He decided to cut his expenses and increase his income. This blog is relating his story and findings. In 2019, he is saving more than 50% of his income. He made it a goal to reach Financial Independence. You can send Mr. The Poor Swiss a message here.

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19 thoughts on “We Got Married! Our Wedding in Switzerland”

  1. Oh my gosh, your wife’s dress is GORGEOUS!! It’s absolutely stunning. Give her my congratulations (and to you as well!)

    Given how beautiful Switzerland, is it common for people to have big weddings outside? In the US, it’s common to do indoor or outdoor weddings, depending on the time of year and where you get married. We had our reception outside because the weather was great. This is fairly common. Is it less common to have outdoor, destination weddings in Switzerland? Is it more common to have dinner receptions?

    I think I would get married outside in the mountains if I lived in Switzerland, but I might be crazy haha :) Congratulations again!

    1. Thank you :) I gave her your congratulations, she thanks you and is happy :)

      It’s quite common to have parties outside. It mostly depends on the time of the year too. And it also depends on how many people you want to invite. If you want to do in the moutains, which is possible, you will find it difficult to find a place for a 100 guests. We are having our party in August next to a lake :)

      You are not crazy, a wedding in the mountains sounds pretty nice :)

      Thanks Melissa :)

    2. Thank you so much Melissa !! Hahahha ~ I am so happy to hear that !
      Best wishes for you !

  2. 😄😄😄nice couple !!!! Beautiful and simple !!!! The sweet life are not always depends on the large scales and big expenses.

  3. Congratulations on your wedding! The photos are very lovely – the dress and suit are both very beautiful and I am surprised at how low the price was. My family is Chinese too and my mom wants me to have a huge wedding (with 500-1000 guests maybe), of course, I refuse :D

    You got a pretty nice amount for the wedding gift, hope you enjoy the honeymoon!

    1. Thanks Janet :)

      My wife keeps telling me about stories of gigantic Chinese wedding. I managed to turn it down for now. We’ll see how it goes. We plan to have a small (hopefully) reception in China for the Chinese new year. I think it’s really crazy to have so many people. In the end, you have time to exchange two words with each guest…

      Yeah, the suits and dresses were really fair price. I’m pretty happy at the way it turned out.

      We’ll sure enjoy the honeymoon.
      Good luck with your PHD ;)

  4. Congratulations! The pictures are beautiful and you and your bride make a lovely couple. I wish you much happiness and joy in your life together. It’s interesting to learn about wedding customs in Switzerland. In the New York metro area of the U.S., weddings tend to be very large and expensive parties. But because my wife and I had both been married before, our wedding twelve years ago was a bit smaller and we managed to have a very nice party while still keeping a reasonable budget.

    1. Thank you very much Gary :)

      From what I’ve seen, most weddings in the US are quite large. Neither me nor my wife wants very large wedding parties. I think after some number of people, it’s not really personal anymore, you can’t talk to every body. And we tried our best to keep it in a frugal budget. No need to impress people!

      Thanks for stopping by and I wish all the best for your marriage as well!

  5. Congratulations! Best wishes for a long and successful married life.
    Personally, I am attached but have not yet crossed that boundary towards marriage. Maybe some time in the future.

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