Zurich and Swiss Alps engagement photography Simon and Alyssa

Couple skipping through Swiss alps in dirndls

Zurich and Swiss Alps engagement photography Alyssa and Simon

Simon and Alyssa’s Zurich and Swiss Alps engagement photography with mountain adventures, unique outfits and a nod to Wes Anderson

On Saturday Pete and I had the pleasure of photographing and filming Simon and Alyssa’s London wedding. I can’t wait to share images from what was a seriously fun day but today I’m sharing their equally fun (and quite surreal in places!) engagement photography in Zurich and the Swiss Alps.

We’d never been to Switzerland before. Alyssa and Simon live in Zurich and they were absolutely wonderful hosts. They showed us around beautiful Zurich and made sure we got to experience Swiss-German sausage and fondu (mmmmm, fondu).

Swiss alps and the sound of cow bells

After a morning in Zurich, we headed into the mountains for the afternoon, where Simon and Alyssa dressed in their Oktoberfest outfits. They skipped through ridiculously beautiful mountain backdrops, while the sounds of cowbells echoed all around them. It was magical and surreal!

This is what they had to say about their pictures:

“The photos are amazing – even our local friends can’t believe they’re real! We’re thrilled! If you can capture the happiness of our relationship in our home city while we awkwardly pose in our odd Germanic costumes, we can’t wait to see what you can do with our wedding!

Scroll down to read more about Simon and Alyssa’s Zurich and Swiss Alps engagement photos in their own words.

Simon and Alyssa’s Story

Alyssa is an American city girl and Simon is British country lad – we live and work in Zurich, Switzerland (which is why no matter where we got married it would be a destination wedding for most!). We met on Tinder, of all places, which has a bad rep in the US and UK, but is how soooo many people in Zurich end up meeting each other.

Our first date was at a professional volleyball match that turned into dinner and drinks. To quote Alyssa “You had me at peanut butter cups” (Simon had been traveling for work in the US the week before and as a first date gift brought back Alyssa’s favourite candy which you can’t get in Switzerland). Our second date involved 5 hours on a train!

From the very beginning, we never had any shortage of things to talk about, and even now we still can talk and talk for hours on end. We’re both adventurous – within six months of meeting each other we had been to 5 countries on 3 continents together.

There’s a running to-do list on a window in our flat of all the things we want to do together. Everything from going to the local figure skating rink, to visiting Rome to hiking up Mount Kilimanjaro. This year, some of the things we’ve managed to cross off are stopping by the tiki bar in the Zurich Zoo, Paris and American Thanksgiving.

The Proposal

Simon proposed on his parents’ canal boat on the 4th of July, when Alyssa’s family was over for a canal cruise holiday. We were able to get both families together for a BBQ and it turns out, proposing in front of younger siblings is a blessing/curse! It was nice to have the people we love most around us, but he WAS heckled through his otherwise very sweet proposal.

We’re really excited to be able to start the rest of our lives together; to declare our intentions in front of the people we love most. Our plan is to celebrating with a day of our favourite things with our favourite people.

The Engagement Shoot

We were so excited that Laura and Pete were willing to come to Switzerland for our engagement shoot: Switzerland is where we are starting our lives together, so we were thrilled to have some professional shots in our adopted home to celebrate our engagement. It was great to get to know each other before the big day too. We knew we picked the right photographer when they were excited about our crazy traditional outfits and came tromping around the Alps with us. The photos are amazing – even our local friends can’t believe they’re real! If this shoot was anything to go by, the photos of the big day will be awesome!