L'As de Coeur

A photo and film studio that travels

L'As de Coeur is a wedding photography and film studio run by Céline and Emmanuel, who describe themselves as photographers near Lyon and wedding videographers in the Rhône-Alpes region. They offer both stills and film, and their site gives destination weddings a section of their own, with Switzerland listed beside Marrakech, Morocco, the islands and Monaco. Their page on a wedding at the Fairmont Montreux Palace is the best view of what they do in Switzerland, and the site's blog category for Swiss weddings holds 2 posts.

Their summary of the studio is short and specific. They love photojournalism and, in their words, "voler les émotions" (stealing emotions), meaning they record real moments rather than directing scenes. They also make wedding videos "avec une esthétique cinématographique en format court" (with a cinematic look, in short format). They write that they travel all over France and abroad with pleasure.

Language

For a couple from abroad, the most useful line on the page is about language. The studio's closing summary says that Emmanuel is English-speaking, and adds in German, "und ich verstehe Deutsch" (and I understand German), without saying which of the two means. The rest of the site is written in French, with a few English headings and an English-language blog category. The page's tags also target English searches such as wedding in Switzerland and wedding in Montreux. An English-speaking couple can at least expect one member of the team to work in English.

The Montreux Palace wedding

The report follows Nadia and Jorge, whose wedding the studio filmed and photographed, and introduces a few minutes of their future wedding film. The couple, it says, wanted to give their guests a special day, "une journée riche en paysage et en émotion" (a day rich in landscape and emotion).

The images follow the day in order. The preparations came first; the report notes that getting ready among sisters and best friends is one of the studio's favorite moments, and nods to the bride's Jimmy Choo shoes and a younger sister amazed by the dress. There is a toast with beer, with the caption that in Switzerland people like to clink glasses of beer. The religious ceremony was held in the church of Montreux, followed by a short cruise on Lake Geneva to start the celebration. The reception was in the palace, whose reception room the report calls truly sumptuous, with a very baroque decoration where a few candles and flowers are enough to personalize the evening. Friends' surprises and a quiet moment for the couple inside the palace round off the story, and the page links to a short clip filmed at the Fairmont Montreux Palace.

The report also shows the personal side of the videographer. He dedicates the film to the film composer James Horner, one of his favorites, whose music for the film Un Homme d'Exception he uses for the clip; Horner also scored Titanic, Apollo 13, Avatar and Braveheart, as the page notes. That kind of care over music says a lot about how the studio treats its wedding films.

Where else they work

The site's menu lists wedding pages for the Rhône-Alpes region, Beaujolais, Burgundy, Paris, the Jura, Drôme, Bordeaux and Champagne, and the Montreux page states that they have traveled for 5 years to photograph weddings around the world, naming weddings in Ibiza, Canada, Bora Bora, a riad and the dunes. The blog categories include Jewish weddings, multicultural weddings, winter weddings, secular ceremonies and castles. For a Swiss wedding with an international guest list, that breadth is relevant: they are used to working far from home.

The blog's category counts show where the weight of the work lies. Multicultural weddings account for 28 posts, international weddings for 26, secular ceremonies and castles for 25 each, Marrakech weddings for 18, English-language wedding posts for 18, photo-plus-cinema posts for 15, and wedding planner posts for 10, against 2 for Switzerland. The posts linked beside the Montreux report are an outdoor Jewish wedding in Ibiza, two Marrakech weddings (one at Dar El Sadaka) and a wedding at the Château de Rajat. The monthly archive runs from January 2013 to August 2023, and the copyright line names Céline Cartallas. For a couple, that is a useful signal of a long-running studio with a strong international and multicultural focus, and it is also a reason to ask how recent their Swiss work is.

Besides weddings, the studio photographs families, pregnancies and babies, and the site has a client access area.

Planning a Swiss wedding with them

The Montreux report shows the kind of day the studio is comfortable with: preparations with family and friends, a church ceremony in town, a move to the water for a lake cruise, then an evening reception in a grand hotel. Couples planning a similar multi-location day on Lake Geneva can use the report to check that the team's style suits them, and then raise the practical points in a first message: whether both Céline and Emmanuel attend, how the film and the photos are delivered, and how travel from the Lyon area is costed.

What the site does not answer

The Montreux page gives no prices in francs or euros, no package contents, and nothing on how travel to Switzerland is charged. It does not say how long delivery of the photos or the film takes, how long the short-format films actually run, or whether photo and video can be booked separately. It does not date the Montreux wedding either, so couples should ask about recent Swiss work. Booking terms such as deposits, lead times and cancellation are not on this page. The site has FAQ and contact pages, and those are the next stop before an inquiry.

Who it suits

L'As de Coeur suits couples planning a destination wedding in French-speaking Switzerland, especially one with a church ceremony, a lake setting or a grand hotel, who want photos and a cinematic short film from the same team. The English-speaking team member is a real advantage for couples from abroad. The caveats are that the studio is based near Lyon rather than in Switzerland, that its Swiss portfolio on the site is small, and that prices and terms all have to be requested.