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A Wedding at Beau-Rivage Palace, Lausanne
One hundred and fifty guests on the shore of Lake Geneva — a celebration shaped by tradition, and by the wishes of the family who hosted it.
Tradition meets ture swiss nature
Venue: Beau-Rivage Palace, Lausanne, Switzerland
Guests: 150
Duration: One celebration day, with staging and build in the days before
Programme: Welcome ceremony, garden reception, five-course dinner
Spaces: Hotel foyer, lakeside garden and terrace, ballroom
Scope: Planning, design, floral design and stationery — all in-house
We began with the place
Beau-Rivage Palace sits directly on Lake Geneva, its garden opening to the water and the French Alps beyond. A setting of this kind asks for restraint. Our design let the lake and the light lead, using natural, unforced arrangements rather than anything that would compete with the view.
The couple came to us for that natural signature — and because a celebration of this kind asks for more than design. It asks for someone who understands how different cultures mark a marriage, and can realise those expectations in Switzerland, where they are not always understood.
Conception, design, decoration, stationery and the full planning of the day were ours.
A day built around tradition
The day followed the family's traditions closely.
Guests were received in the hotel foyer by the two mothers, in a welcome ceremony that set the tone before anyone reached the garden. The reception opened on the lawn by the water, a string quartet playing as the aperitif began. Then the bride made her entrance into the garden — the groom joining her there, the one moment the two families' celebrations met.
Dinner was five courses. A singer, flown in for the evening, welcomed the guests. Later the couple entered the ballroom together, to a song composed for them alone.
A scent to take home
In place of ordinary place cards, each guest was met by a bottle of fragrance, blended for the bride and marked with her monogram. It named their seat and sent them home with the scent of the day — the one thing from the evening they could carry with them and open again months later.
What the day asked of us
A celebration this rich in tradition asks for more than a planner who can set a beautiful table.
For religious reasons, the celebration was held among women. With the exception of the head chef, every member of staff and every partner we brought to the day was female — a requirement we understood from the first conversation and built the entire team and supplier list around.
This is the part of our work that rarely appears in photographs: the cultural fluency to understand what a family needs, and the reach to assemble, in Switzerland, exactly the team that can deliver it. Italian, German, English, Portuguese and the sensibilities of the families we work for — none of it passes through translation.
Some of what a day like this requires can be shown. Most of it cannot. Discretion is part of what our clients ask of us.
Planning a celebration at Beau-Rivage Palace, or a wedding that asks for particular cultural care?
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