In France, a visit to city hall is a must. Your local city hall, at whatever time it deems fit, in the setting it chose long before you did. A necessary stop, often squeezed in between two appointments, before the real day begins.
In Germany, I discovered another roadmap.
Civil marriage, with no set procedure
Here, a civil wedding can be held in a forest, a barn, or a castle. The Standesamt comes to you—or almost. The venue becomes a choice, not an administrative requirement. And most importantly: there’s no obligation to schedule this formality on the same day as the wedding.
Many of the couples I’ve worked with had legally tied the knot a few weeks—sometimes a few months—before their big religious or secular ceremony. As a result, the big day no longer has to juggle two events at once. All that’s left is what really matters: the vows, the guests, and the emotion. No rushing between City Hall and the reception venue. No tight schedule—just a whole day dedicated to what really matters.
The Freie Trauung, or a ceremony without a set script
What made the biggest impression on me was the Freie Trauung. It’s a secular ceremony, but one that’s tailor-made, with an officiant who writes a unique text for each couple, sometimes interspersed with songs. There’s no off-the-shelf script, nor are there speeches that can be used from one wedding to the next.
I’ve photographed ceremonies where the vows told the story of a specific encounter, a shared journey, or a private joke that only the bride and groom understood. Nothing generic. Each ceremony became a one-of-a-kind event—exactly what I strive to capture.
How this has changed my perspective as a photographer
This freedom forced me to break out of my routine. There was no traditional “city hall, reception, ceremony, evening celebration” schedule to follow blindly. Every German wedding had its own unique timeline, and I had to adapt to it.
There, I rediscovered—almost intact—the principle that guides my work: rigorous preparation beforehand, location scouting, timing, and anticipating the lighting. This allows me, on the day of the shoot, to be completely spontaneous in front of the camera. Less rigidity in the schedule, more authenticity in the images.
A lesson to take with you, no matter where you get married
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to marriage. The administrative flexibility that Germany offers can be replicated elsewhere through determination: separate protocol from emotion, choose a ceremony text that reflects who you are, and reject a cookie-cutter format.
Those are the kinds of weddings I love to photograph—the ones that follow paths they’ve blazed themselves.
