Oeschinensee Lake Elopement in Switzerland

Every day we receive inquiries from couples around the world interested in planning adventurous weddings and elopements in offbeat or private places. The majority are seeking our local expertise crafting full day wedding adventures that are away from typical tourist places worldwide. When we were creating our “mission statement” and compiling the list of countries we wanted to have adventure weddings prominently in, many countries did not make “the list” because… 1- They are overrun with tourists. 2- Way overdone in the wedding industry, 3- Didn’t fall in line with our Your Adventure Wedding focus. One place, we felt was the first was Switzerland, so until last year, we always felt it was not a country where our adventure wedding concept could thrive. That was until we met a super amazing couple from Chicago, Illinois, USA who insisted on us needing to add the country to our repertoire. You’ll be happy to know this story comes in two parts… So today you will witness the Oeschinensee Lake Elopement in Switzerland and the part two will come next time (so stalk this space!).

S+B from Illinois first reached out to our adventure wedding planning team seeking a fall elopement in Iceland, Switzerland, or Antarctica. The season for an Antarctica wedding begins in winter for the Northern Hemisphere (late December – January) so unfortunately they had to nix that initial idea. But they weren’t worried because Iceland and Switzerland are super strong options to hold an adventurous elopement! As soon as this fabulous duo signed on as clients, our team booked a scouting trip to Switzerland to explore some of the areas we knew we could monetarily privatize or would be offbeat enough to provide the intimate experience our adventure wedding clients come to us for.

But, when you think about scouting wedding locations in Switzerland, what comes to mind? The Alps, right?! Likely since it is the most extensive and tallest mountain range in Europe, which spans from France to Switzerland and down into Italy. Our Switzerland elopement planning team, stayed away from the French and Italian sides mainly because although they are beautiful locations within, they are compact with tourists and doing an adventure wedding or elopement at the famed Matterhorn is a bit overdone at this point. Our adventure wedding planning team decided to focus the places you likely have never heard of until we pitch them to you. We proposed adventurous elopements to S+B in both countries (Iceland and Switzerland) but at the end of the day, Switzerland stole their hearts!

So come along with us today as we share with you a very sweet Elopement in Switzerland (then checkout PART II of their Switzerland adventure wedding HERE)!

Our adventure wedding planning team creates full day schedules that are EPIC! You know, the kind of days where you wake up at sunrise (5am) and don’t end the day until well after sunset (10pm or later). It’s likely you’ll end the day saying to yourselves, “wow did that just happen?” or “Holy shit, THAT was our adventure wedding day, UNBELIEVABLE!” S+B were after an elopement adventure day that exuded awe-inspiring beauty at every turn, the grandeur of the Alps, and embraced their love of hiking. Because their were so many amazing locations they fell in love with, S+B decided to make their Switzerland elopement into a two day event! Day 1 began at the Cambrian Hotel in Adelboden, before sunrise on that brisk September morning.

Elopement begins at The Cambrian Hotel Switzerland:

S+B loved the idea of beginning the day on the deck of their suite by engaging in a first look before they began their Switzerland elopement adventure. The sun had just finished rising (hadn’t even made it over the mountains yet) and the view was stunning! This was also the brides first look of the view because they had come in very late in the night the day before. Such a sweet moment they shared!

Legal Wedding Ceremony in Switzerland:

Because Switzerland has super strict rules on how and where a legal wedding ceremony may take place, if you want to have an outdoor ceremony on a mountain top, you have to hold a courthouse ceremony the day before. The ceremony you will have outdoors in Switzerland will only be symbolic. Many find doing it first in your home country is easiest, but for some they want the Switzerland marriage license. This was the case for S+B who held their legal wedding ceremony in Switzerland on day one of their adventure. So the morning adventure began at the courthouse or the region followed by Switzerland wedding photos afterwards around the government buildings.

Interlaken Switzerland Wedding Photos:

Woohoo! Their married! The elopement adventure in Switzerland continued with exploring the Interlaken area. Sometimes the locals are the best resource when it comes to finding secret wedding locations in Switzerland because they own the sweetest little spots! There was a local hostel owner we seeked out and asked to use their boathouse and paddle boat for a Switzerland elopement photos around the lake. It was sooo freaking DREAMY! I mean come on, who doesn’t want to romantically row around a boat as an adventure wedding activity on their elopement in Switzerland?!

Oeschinensee Lake Elopement in Switzerland:

Above the town of Kandersteg you will find an offbeat area that is so much fun to explore and hike during your Switzerland elopement. Oeschinensee Lake is a beautiful area only accessible by hiking up a mountain and down or via a cable car and then a shorter hike. On S+B’s elopement in Switzerland, we opted to take a gondola car and then hike.

Adventure Wedding Photos at Oeschinensee Switzerland:

As soon as you get off the gondola at Oeschinensee, the exploring started right then and there and the views were endlessly beautiful. We had such a gorgeous day for Switzerland wedding photos too! S+B were in euphoria basking in all of the beautiful views over the mountains during their wedding photos in Switzerland. Our adventure wedding photography team are firm believers that if a mountain or area is perfectly lit the Switzerland elopement photos should be taken right then. Mainly because more often then not, clouds move in and cover the mountains. This was the case for the images below. When we hiked back the area looked totally different (and nowhere near as lovely).

Switzerland Elopement Photos

One of the most memorable things about about S+B’s elopement in Switzerland is the sense of wonder it brought to their faces. They seemed to have a little glisten in their eyes staring up at those big beautiful mountains. Not to mention they freaking loved hiking in their wedding attire and looked so good doing it! Their Switzerland wedding photos were stunning as well!!

Switzerland Wedding Lunch Break!

Lunch is an important part of every adventure wedding and we encourage trying out what the locals eat! So on the way to Oeschinensee Lake, we stopped at Panorama Restaurant Zur Sennhütte for a traditional Swiss lunch and it was sooooo DELICIOUS!

Switzerland Elopement Photos at Oeschinensee Lake:

Oeschinensee Lake is well worth the hike and time to explore! It was an easy 30-45 minutes one way from the gondola. There are more scenic routes and paths you can take to get down there that are away from the typical tourist routes too. This will allow you to have a more intimate Switzerland elopement photos or wedding ceremony. After thoroughly enjoying the lake area, it was time to hike up to a super secret waterfall within the mountains! S+B were excited by the challenge and it gave our Switzerland wedding photographers an opportunity to fly their drone!

Adventurous Elopement in Switzerland on Mountain Roller-Coaster:

After the journey to Oeschinensee Lake, we hurried to not only catch the gondola down, but also to enjoy the unique Alpine Slide (aka mountain roller-coaster)! Umm yeah, we ran out of time to do this during our Switzerland elopement scouting trip so we were excited to treat S+B to a ride on their wedding day! What a freaking AWESOME end to Part 1 of their Switzerland wedding adventure! Stay tuned next time for PART 2 of their amazing adventure wedding in Switzerland!