Olja Dietiker

Olja Dietiker's homepage carries a "DE" link in its main navigation, the kind of small toggle most bilingual sites use to swap a page's language in place. Click it and you land somewhere else entirely: olgadietiker.com, a second, separately spelled domain with its own homepage, its own About page and its own FAQ, cross-linked back to the English site by an "ENG" button rather than a shared header. This isn't a translation layer sitting on top of one build. It's 2 parallel sites, built around 2 spellings of the same first name, Olja in the public-facing copy, Olga in her own email address and in both footers' copyright line. Reading only one of them turns out to leave real gaps, and which one you read changes what you're told.

Dietiker works solo out of Zurich, shooting weddings, elopements and civil ceremonies across Switzerland with occasional work in northern Italy. Her own language for describing the work is soft-focus rather than technical: "a blend of natural elegance, authenticity, and heartfelt emotions." On the elopement page that turns into a stated preference for staying out of the way: she'd "rather guide you gently when needed" than direct a couple into poses, wanting them "to experience the moment instead of performing for the camera." Her civil-ceremony page repeats the same instinct in a tighter setting. She works "discreetly inside the civil registry office," aiming to "capture emotions without interruption" during an appointment that gives a photographer almost no room to stage anything. None of that is a claim about where a Swiss marriage becomes legally binding. It's a description of how she shoots a short, fixed appointment, and it reads as one.

The marketing reaches further than the portfolio does. Both the home page and the About page describe her as working "in Switzerland, Italy, France, and beyond," naming Lake Como and Provence and promising to travel "worldwide." The actual wedding portfolio holds exactly 3 galleries: Switzerland, Tuscany, and Verona & Garda Lake. No France, Provence or Lake Como wedding gallery exists anywhere on the site, though a separate proposal page does sell sessions specifically at Lake Como. Inside Switzerland, the elopement page names a tighter, checkable set of spots: the Matterhorn above Zermatt, alpine meadows around Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, and, on the Italian-speaking side, Lake Lugano and Morcote, including 2 named villas, Villa Heleneum and Villa Castagnola.

On the English site, weddings and elopements come as 2 packages. The Wedding Day booking runs 10 hours, with extra hours available; the Elopement booking is shorter and left untimed on the page. Both include retouched, high-resolution files, a password-protected online gallery, 30-60 preview images within the first week, and drone coverage "when possible." Full-gallery turnaround gets two different answers depending on which English page you read: the services page says 7-9 weeks, the FAQ says 6-8 weeks, with "10-15 sneak peek photos" promised inside the first week either way. Neither page states a CHF figure for either package. Every quote for a wedding or an elopement runs through the contact form, "tailored individually," in the site's own phrase, rather than published outright.

What the German FAQ answers that the English one doesn't

That's where the second domain starts to matter. The German FAQ carries 9 questions to the English FAQ's 4, and 3 of the extra 5 are exactly the kind of thing a couple needs before booking. Asked how many photos come with a package, the German answer is specific: "Die Anzahl Fotos sind unlimitiert. Im Schnitt bekommt Ihr pro Stunde zwischen 50 – 70 Fotos" (the number of photos is unlimited; on average you get between 50 and 70 photos per hour). The English FAQ, asked the identical question, declines to give a rate at all: "I don't want to limit myself by giving a specific number of images." Asked about travel costs, the German FAQ states a threshold: covered in full for weddings of 6 hours or more and for shoots at her own recommended locations, billed separately for a special venue or a session at the couple's home. Neither the English FAQ nor the English services page raises travel cost as a topic at all. The German FAQ also lists gift vouchers, valid for a year from purchase, for any session type, a product that doesn't appear anywhere on the English pages.

It isn't a one-way gap. The English FAQ's turnaround answer promises those sneak peek photos in the first week; the German answer to the identical question, "Im Hochsession nach 6-8 Wochen" (in high season, after 6-8 weeks), doesn't mention a preview at all. And one German-only entry is a sign of a page that hasn't been fully revisited lately rather than a language gap: a still-live question asking what happens if a wedding has to be cancelled at short notice "wegen Corona," answered with a flat no-cancellation-fee policy. None of this says anything about whether Dietiker can run a consultation, a contract or a wedding day itself in English. Her English pages read as fluent, native-level copy throughout, which is itself a kind of evidence. What it does say is that right now, a couple reading only the English site gets a thinner set of published terms than a couple reading the German one, on the 2 questions, how many photos and is travel included, that matter most before signing anything.

The one page with real Swiss francs on it

Wedding pricing on this site is inquiry-only, which is normal for the category. Proposal photography is the exception, and it's a useful data point precisely because it's rare here. A 1-hour session near Lucerne or Zurich is 350 CHF, with a 70+-image online gallery and an optional highlight reel for an extra 50 CHF. A longer session near Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald or Blausee is 600 CHF, with the reel included. A Zermatt session, pairing Gornergrat with Rotenboden or Riffelberg, is 800 CHF. A private helicopter proposal, a 30-minute flight over the Alps plus a 30-minute photo session on the ground, starts at 3400 CHF, with travel fees calculated separately. None of these figures turn up on the wedding-day or elopement pages, on either language site; they sit on one page, published plainly, in Swiss francs, with the kind of detail (session length, image count, exactly what the extra 50 CHF buys) the wedding pricing never gives.

Solo, on a 30% deposit, with a bench of recommended vendors

Booking runs the same way on both language sites: email, then a call or a meeting if the date's free, then a 30% deposit and a signed contract to hold it. She replies, by her own stated timeline, within 48 hours. Asked whether she has a team, both FAQs give the same answer in substance: she works alone or brings in help, and keeps a referral list of hair and make-up artists, bridal boutiques, florists and videographers rather than running an in-house crew. That matches the About page, which names no second photographer anywhere. Both footers carry a live 2025 copyright line, and the contact form, blog and FAQ all read as currently maintained rather than left to sit.

Four reviews, and they're all in German

The clearest sign of who's actually booking her right now sits on the reviews page, and it's on the English domain. All 4 published reviews are in German. One, headed "Schöne Hochzeit im Schloss" (beautiful wedding in the castle), from a couple named Sandra and Reni, says they found her through Zankyou, a Europe-wide wedding-vendor marketplace, and booked her for a September wedding. Another, "Kleine Hochzeit im Familienkreis" (small wedding within the family), from a client named Ebru, calls her "sehr freundlich, sehr positiv eingestellt" (very friendly, very positively minded). None of the 4 is translated, paired with an English version, or attributed to an English-speaking couple. That isn't proof she can't run a booking in English: her own English pages are fluently written, and the whole English domain exists for exactly that audience. It is, though, the one piece of documented client history on the site, and right now it's entirely German.

For a foreign or destination couple, that leaves a straightforward instruction rather than a warning. Don't stop at the English FAQ. Email her the 2 questions its German counterpart already answers, how many images a package actually delivers and whether travel to your venue is covered, and get both confirmed in writing alongside the 30% deposit and the 7-9 (or 6-8) week turnaround before you sign anything. The style on offer, discreet and unposed, comfortable with a fixed civil-ceremony appointment as much as a full wedding day, is well documented and consistent across both languages. What isn't yet documented in English is the fine print, and asking for it costs nothing beyond the 48 hours she already promises to reply within.