Gasthof zum Schützen

The kitchen comes first at Gasthof zum Schützen, a traditional restaurant and hotel at Schachenallee 39 in Aarau. The Aarau tourist office describes it in November 2026 as a traditional yet cosmopolitan restaurant with a large terrace, known for game dishes in autumn and for house classics such as "Hausi's Geschnetzeltes", with modern hotel rooms, free Wi-Fi and parking. The wedding side grows out of that kitchen. If you want a wedding partner with a real restaurant behind it, this is a smart pick, and it travels well beyond its own dining room.

A team of three, and a tasting dinner before you commit

Your contacts are Flurina Bossert, Melanie Altorfer and Manuela Schmid, an experienced events team. They talk through your wishes and advise on menu, apéro, schedule and organization. A tasting dinner (Testessen) lets you check that the menu matches what you hoped for, and it is a thoughtful touch that the house builds this into the process rather than leaving you to judge from a menu card. For a couple planning from abroad, it is the step worth putting in the calendar early.

The team also helps with the planning questions that tend to trip people up: which running order creates the right mood, when the apéro should start, how menu, entertainment and program fit together.

Package examples, not a single fixed rate

Rather than one price, there is an event brochure with menu suggestions, notes on schedule and organization, and sample wedding packages (Fest-Pauschalen), supplemented by separate apéro packages (Apéro-Pauschalen) that also suit weddings. The aim is that you get a realistic early idea of options and costs, and no figure is quoted here.

A worked example is linked too: a wedding apéro at Schloss Wildegg, showing how services, infrastructure and costs can be put together. Museum Aargau's page, read in November 2026, says Schloss Wildegg rents baroque castle rooms and its Schlossscheune for up to 200 guests, bookable April to October, so the example is a realistic one for a castle wedding with outside catering.

Catering that goes to the venue you choose

The catering is where the house is most flexible. It serves at your home, in a castle, a gym, a forest hut, a festival tent or your company premises, and can supply only food and drink or full service, infrastructure and on-site coordination. The offer is fitted to your wishes, the location and your budget.

Advice on choosing a location comes with regional suggestions: KUK in Aarau, Vianco Arena in Brunegg, Bärenmatte in Suhr, Schloss Liebegg in Gränichen, Schloss Wildegg in Möriken and Schloss Lenzburg. Schloss Lenzburg's own wedding page, read in November 2026, lets couples take over the Great Hall, courtyard and gardens for the day, with church and civil ceremonies possible, and it names Gasthof zum Schützen among its authorized catering services, for drink receptions and flying lunches of 50 or more guests.

The wedding apéro is the part the team covers while you celebrate: apéros presented with care and personal service, the start of the wedding day taken off your hands, so the first glass you raise is one you did not have to organize.

Suppliers the house already knows

The house knows a set of regional professionals personally: photographers Michael Auer, Remo Peer and Cornelius Fischer; Blattform Aarau for flowers; Törtlifee in Suhr for the wedding cake; SmARTec for event technology; and DJ Monsieur Fischer. For someone new to the region, a ready list like this shortens the search considerably.

Open six days, with the office staffed on Mondays

The restaurant is open Tuesday to Sunday from 6:30 to 23:00, Sundays until 21:00, closed Mondays, though the office is staffed on Mondays. Holiday closures are 31 January to 15 February 2027 and 18 July to 4 August 2027, so a site visit or tasting is best planned outside those windows. Contact is by the inquiry form, by email at info@gasthofschuetzen.ch or by phone.

Planning in German, with a kitchen you can trust to travel

The one thing to weigh is language: the conversation, the brochure and the site are in German, and no English service is stated, so the house suits couples who can plan in German or bring someone who can. For those couples it is a favorite of ours: a working restaurant kitchen, a three-person team that knows the region's castles, and a tasting dinner before you sign.