Sophie Robert-Nicoud

A Vaud Photographer Who Tells the Story of the Day

Sophie Robert-Nicoud is a photographer based in Roche, in the canton of Vaud, whose site lists births, maternity, weddings and events as her fields, with further sections on newborns, lifestyle sessions and concerts. The footer describes her as based in Switzerland and available worldwide. Weddings are one part of a wider practice, and she says so herself: because she is busy with other favorite photographic subjects, she accepts a limited number of weddings each year.

The page for this listing is a wedding story rather than a sales page, and it shows how she works better than a portfolio grid would. It follows a civil wedding in Lausanne on a Friday in November. She was called roughly 2 weeks before the date. The bride was a violinist, the groom worked in construction, and they were expecting their first child. The civil ceremony took place at the Place de la Palud. The story then moves through a meeting with the guests at the café Le Pointu, the moment the bride's parents arrive, the rue de la Madeleine, and the bride playing her violin, "de Vivaldi à Michael Jackson" (from Vivaldi to Michael Jackson). It ends with a walk through the city where she photographed the couple on their own before heading home. She writes that the bride was looking for a photographer "sans prise de tête" (no fuss), that the two became friends, and that she has photographed the family's life since, including the daughter who has since celebrated her first birthday.

Lausanne Through a Local's Eyes

Part of the post is a personal note on the city. She writes that she was born in Lausanne and lived there for some years, that she knows its steep, winding and often cobbled streets, and that she loves its cafés, its unusual places, its museums and its food. A day in Lausanne, she adds, means old streets, the shore of Lake Geneva and green parks, all reached on foot or by metro, bus or boat. She singles out the town hall: "L'hôtel de Ville de Lausanne est l'un des plus beaux offices que je connaisse" (Lausanne's town hall is one of the most beautiful registry offices I know), with wood-paneled walls and old stones that give civil ceremonies a majestic touch. For a couple planning a civil wedding in the city, that is useful local knowledge from someone who has worked there.

Wedding Coverage and Prices

Below the story, the page sets out her wedding offer, open to unions of every religion. Every package includes the best photos edited in color and/or black and white, and delivery of the digital images through a secure online gallery that the couple can share with guests. Travel within Switzerland is included.

• Hourly coverage: CHF 400 per hour of reportage, with a minimum of 2 hours on weekdays and 5 hours at weekends.
• Full day: up to 12 hours for CHF 4,100, including a 30-page fine-art album in 20x20cm.
• Weddings outside Switzerland: a travel and accommodation flat fee is available on request.

The weekend minimum is the figure to note for a Saturday wedding: 5 hours at CHF 400 per hour sets the practical floor for a weekend booking. The full-day rate is the only package with a fixed total.

The Fine-Art Album

The album offer covers design and layout of the wedding album, 30 or 50 rigid pages on fine-art paper in 25×25cm, a choice of linen or leather finish, and a personalized presentation box, from CHF 450 with shipping included. A 30-page album in 20x20cm is included from 10 hours of wedding coverage. The page also notes that the album can be replaced by an extra hour of wedding coverage, and that colors and finishes are chosen when ordering.

Day After and Engagement Sessions

For a shoot a few days or weeks before or after the wedding, she offers a session for the couple outdoors, under the name "Day After" or "Engagement". It includes 1 hour of photography, 40 edited digital photos delivered through an online gallery for download, and her travel within a 30 km radius of Villeneuve (VD), for CHF 509. Travel further out costs an extra CHF 100 for Geneva, Neuchâtel, Bern and Haute-Savoie, and CHF 50 for Fribourg. To avoid the travel charge, she suggests finding a location between her home and the couple's. Booked together with a wedding of more than 8 hours, the session is 10% cheaper. Extra images are sold in two steps: 20 more high-definition digital photos for CHF 80, or the full selection of around 80-100 high-definition photos for CHF 150.

How to Inquire

The inquiry form on the page asks for the couple's names and email, the type of union (secular ceremony or elopement, civil wedding, religious wedding, a Day After for couples already married, a party among friends, or other), the date, how many hours of coverage they want, and how they heard of her. She asks couples to take 2 minutes to answer, so she can respond to their needs. She can also be reached by phone on +41(0)79 282 4736 or by email at sofy@sofy.ch.

What the Page Leaves Open

The site is written in French. Her Instagram posts, shown on the page, carry notes such as "English below" and "Swipe for English", so she publishes captions in English as well as French, but the page does not say whether she works in English on the wedding day. It gives no delivery time for the images and no number of photos for a wedding, only "toutes les meilleures photos éditées" (all the best photos, edited). It does not name a second photographer or say what happens if the day runs past the booked hours. The wedding story itself dates from 2018, and a later paragraph was written during the coronavirus pandemic, so the page is a portrait of her approach rather than a list of recent work.

Who She Suits

She suits couples who want a photographer who follows the human story of the day, particularly for smaller city weddings and civil ceremonies in Lausanne and around Villeneuve, where her Day After radius is centered. Transparent hourly pricing makes short registry-office coverage easy to budget, and the fine-art album is a clear option for couples who want something printed. Couples wanting a large studio with fast, guaranteed turnaround should ask about timing first, and anyone booking a weekend should budget for the 5-hour minimum.