Alexandre Bourguet

Alexandre Bourguet is a wedding photographer based in Fribourg who has worked professionally in Switzerland since 2010. His site names Geneva, Lausanne, Vevey and Montreux, Neuchâtel, and Gstaad and Rougemont as the places he photographs, "… et partout ailleurs" (and everywhere else), and his line "Je voyage où vous irez" means he travels wherever the couple go. The style is documentary: he lets the day run without directing it, and he publishes both his prices and a clear answer on English, which makes him one of the easier Romandie photographers for a couple abroad to assess.

How he works

The homepage sets out the approach in a few lines. He lets the day unfold freely, "sans jamais le diriger" (without ever directing it), and says his role is the same for an intimate wedding, a large mountain celebration or a rainy day full of surprises: stay discreet, observe, anticipate. "Un mariage ne devrait pas ressembler à un shooting," he writes: a wedding should not look like a photo shoot, it should simply look like the couple.

The Geneva page is more specific. "Je ne dirige presque rien," he says (I direct almost nothing): a few minutes of couple photos if the couple want them, and for the rest he documents the day as it happens, planned moments and surprises alike. He lists three principles. Discretion, joking that half the guests take an hour to work out who the man with the Leica is. Authenticity, meaning no staging, because a forced pose still shows twenty years later. Spontaneity, the tear during the vows or the children's table going off the rails. The Lausanne page adds that he follows the rhythm of the day rather than a prefabricated shot list, with no imposed poses unless the couple want them.

Packages and prices

The Geneva and Lausanne pages both answer the price question directly.

• 5 hours, from CHF 2,500. Covers the ceremony and the vin d'honneur (drinks reception).
• 9 hours, CHF 3,400. Continuous coverage from the preparations to the opening of the dance floor.
• Forfait +, CHF 4,200. 7 hours with a second photographer, which he suggests for weddings held at two separate locations or with large numbers of guests.

All packages include professional retouching, a private high-resolution gallery and downloadable files. The pages refer to a separate tariffs page with the full details, including options and the album.

On delivery, the Geneva page says couples receive a preview of 30 to 50 images within 7 to 10 days, then the full retouched gallery of 300 to 600 photos, depending on the package, within 6 to 8 weeks at most. The gallery is online, downloadable and kept for at least 12 months.

Booking and timing

The Lausanne page is candid about demand. For weekends in June, July and early September he recommends booking 12 to 14 months ahead; for May, late September and October, 6 to 8 months is enough. A booking becomes official once the contract is signed and a 30% deposit is paid. He also photographs weekday and Sunday weddings at no extra charge, noting that many Lausanne weddings fall on a Friday, and that high-season Saturdays are booked first.

English, second shooters and video

For an international couple, the most useful answer on the site is on language. Asked whether he speaks English for international weddings, he answers yes: he works regularly with English-speaking couples, including diplomatic weddings, international unions and expatriate families, and the whole day can be run in English, from the preparations to the last toast. He also takes instructions in German for guests from German-speaking Switzerland. The website itself has an FR / EN switch.

A second photographer is available on request for weddings in two separate places or with more than 120 guests, and his two recent mountain weddings credit Aurélie Ayer as second shooter or assistant. He does not film, but he works with two trusted videographers whose style complements his, so that the couple get a coherent team.

Ceremonies and venues he knows

The Geneva page says he photographs everything from a civil ceremony at the Mairie de la Ville de Genève to a three-day wedding on a wine estate in the canton. He names the Mairie de Genève, the wedding hall at Plainpalais and town halls in communes such as Carouge, Vernier, Meyrin and Cologny; his page says most of them ask the photographer to stay in one spot without flash, so he plans exit photos outside and, if the timetable allows, a short couple session nearby. In Lausanne he names the Cathedral, the Basilique Notre-Dame du Valentin, the Temple Saint-François and the Chapelle du Château d'Ouchy, and says each has its own rules on movement and flash that he knows and respects; for the Cathedral he discusses them with the officiant beforehand. For couple sessions in the Olympic Museum gardens, which his page says need prior permission, he arranges it himself.

He is honest about limits: on the Geneva page he writes that he does not know every corner of the canton and will not promise to. The Lausanne page puts that city forty minutes from his home and says he works there several times a season, scouting unfamiliar venues in advance.

His blog lists past weddings including the Victoria Hotel on Lake Geneva, the Château de Cormondrèche, the Golf de Bonmont, the Kornhauskeller in Bern, a Maiensässhotel at Guarda in Graubünden, Zermatt, Gstaad, and one in Alsace. Two mountain stories give a feel for the work. At Chetzeron above Crans-Montana, in December 2018, guests reached the 5-star hotel at over 2000 meters by gondola and then jeep, in snow, for an outdoor ceremony and dinner behind panoramic windows. At the W Verbier in March 2019, a London couple married on a snowy day at over 1500 meters.

What the site does not settle

The Geneva and Lausanne pages send readers to a separate tariffs page for the album and the options, and do not give those prices themselves, so a couple should ask what the album costs and which options can be added. Travel costs for weddings far from Fribourg are not stated. The site does not say who the two partner videographers are or what they charge.

Who it suits

Bourguet suits couples who want a photographer who stays out of the way and records the day as it happens, and who want to budget before the first email. The published packages, delivery times and booking lead times answer most practical questions up front, and the clear yes on English makes him a strong option for international and expatriate couples in Geneva, Lausanne and the rest of Romandie. Couples who want a heavily posed, styled album should look at his portfolio first, since he says plainly that he directs very little. For a peak-season Saturday, the booking window he gives is more than a year.