Anne Scherrer

Anne Scherrer's own site walks a couple through four numbered steps before she writes a word of the ceremony, and the first one costs nothing: a free, roughly half-hour introductory call over video, offered specifically to find out whether, in her own words, "the chemistry is right" between her and the couple. That's the actual starting point of booking her, not a generic pitch about personalised ceremonies. Scherrer, whose full name is Anne-Lena Scherrer, works alone from Niederhelfenschwil, in the Lake Constance corner of eastern Switzerland. She trained as a journalist and copywriter, and says on her site that this is where she finds the words that fit a couple's own story. Her intro paragraph names the mood before a couple faces their guests, the emotion on people's faces, and the tension before the vows as the reasons she became a "freie Traurednerin," the German term for an independent, non-religious ceremony officiant, as opposed to a civil registrar.

Four steps, one of them at your kitchen table

After the free video call, step two is planning: Scherrer's site names mutual vow exchanges, a sand ceremony, and readings or contributions from family and friends as options a couple can build into the day, and she offers to bring in her own network of other wedding vendors at this stage if a couple needs more than a ceremony. Step three is where the actual writing happens, and it's the most specific part of the whole process. She says she takes a lot of time over the speech, meets the couple a second time for a longer conversation, and states a preference for holding that meeting at the couple's own home rather than a neutral location. Ahead of it, she sends a questionnaire designed to surface what matters most to the couple, and she offers to speak separately with witnesses, friends or family members if that would help the speech. Step four is the wedding day itself: she says she arrives early to make sure everything is ready, then checks in one last time with everyone involved before the ceremony starts.

The service isn't limited to writing and reading a speech. Her site lists bringing, setting up and packing away her own sound system, including a handheld microphone, as part of what she does, which matters for a couple weighing an outdoor or unstaffed venue where nobody else is providing amplification. She also lists staying in touch by mail, phone and WhatsApp with everyone involved, not just the couple, through the run-up to the day. Beyond weddings, she offers the same kind of ceremony for independent baptisms, child-welcome celebrations, and renewing a couple's existing vows, all stated directly on the same page as the wedding service rather than as a separate offering.

Six names, and a seventh from the blog

Scherrer's site carries a short, named list of vendor recommendations, introduced as suppliers she works with "in Switzerland and around Lake Constance": a bridal-wear shop (La Novia), an event-decor and cake supplier (Forest Events), a hair and makeup studio (Glanzstudio), a florist (Silvia Dörig), a photography and video team (Helena Görtler), and a stationer (Letter-Werk). That's 6 named partners across 6 different parts of a wedding, not a logo wall and not a vague claim to "trusted partners." It reads as a working local network rather than marketing copy, and it doubles as a geographic marker: everyone on it is placed in the Lake Constance area, which lines up with Scherrer's own base in Niederhelfenschwil.

Her blog adds a seventh name that doesn't appear on the recommendations list. One recent post, dated 21 Aug and the newest of the three currently live (the others run 5 May and 22 Oct 2025), tackles the exact dilemma a foreign couple weighs when picking Switzerland: the appeal of an actual destination wedding abroad against the logistics of getting guests there and coordinating vendors across a language barrier. The post's answer is to profile Denise of Maison Améa, a wedding planner Scherrer describes as building "mediterrane Hochzeiten in der Schweiz," Mediterranean-style weddings held inside Switzerland instead of flown to one. It's a collaboration piece, not a paid ad, and it shows Scherrer's working circle extends past the six names she formally recommends. There's no sign on either page that the relationship runs the other way, with Denise recommending Scherrer back.

German only, stated once

The service-list section of Scherrer's site ends the sentence about writing and delivering the ceremony speech with a flat statement: "Ich spreche Hochdeutsch," I speak High German. That's the only language statement anywhere on the site, and there's no English toggle, flag, or separate English page reachable from the navigation, which runs Home, About, Offer, Contact and Blog entirely in German. Nothing on the site suggests a bilingual ceremony is something she offers routinely, or at all. A couple who need the speech itself delivered in English, or built around two languages for families who don't share one, would need to establish that directly with her before booking; her own materials don't address it either way.

No price, and nothing about the registrar

Underneath the service list, Scherrer's site states plainly that she sends prices on request, with no figures, packages or minimums published anywhere on the page. There's also no founding year, no stated count of weddings performed, and no travel radius or travel fee anywhere on the site, so none of that can be reported here.

On the legal side, the distinction that matters most to a couple marrying in Switzerland from abroad, her site says nothing at all. It never mentions a Zivilstandsamt, a civil registrar, or the words legally binding anywhere. That silence isn't itself a claim, and it shouldn't be read as one: a Swiss marriage becomes legally binding only when a civil registrar performs it, and only somewhere the canton has approved for that purpose, a fact that sits entirely outside what any celebrant's own site does or doesn't say. Scherrer's site simply doesn't raise it, which means a couple booking her should expect to arrange that civil act separately, through their commune or a cantonal registry office, rather than assuming her ceremony covers it. She doesn't claim otherwise anywhere on the site, and nothing here should be read as her marrying a couple: she writes and delivers the ceremony that follows the legal act, not the act itself.

Contact runs directly, not through a booking system: her site lists a personal email address and a Swiss mobile number, plus an Instagram link, with no intermediary form beyond a short enquiry field. For a couple planning from abroad, that means the first reply comes from Scherrer herself.

What holds this listing together is how specific the process is compared with how little else is stated. A free call to check the fit, a second longer meeting she'd rather hold in the couple's own home, a questionnaire, her own sound equipment, and a short list of named collaborators: all of that is on the page, in plain language, with nothing dressed up. What isn't there, price, tenure, legal status, English service, is left unstated rather than implied. For a destination couple planning a ceremony in German-speaking Switzerland who already have their civil paperwork sorted elsewhere, that combination, a documented process from someone who works alone and writes for a living, is a clearer starting point than most celebrant pages manage.