Exchange vows at a lakeside château in Thun

Think Loire château by way of English Tudor Gothic, built in pink brick and sandstone with a round tower and steep slate roofs. Inside, nearly everything dates from around 1850: painted stucco ceilings, dark oak panelling with blue and gold insets, parquet laid in a cross pattern. The sandstone spiral staircase in the entrance hall, carved by the Dutch sculptor Joseph Hubert Verbunt, is a photo stop in its own right. It's ornate without being heavy, and the lake light through tall arched windows keeps the rooms bright.

Schadau is first recorded in 1348, and a small walled castle stood here from around 1638. In 1837 the Neuchâtel banker Alfred de Rougemont bought the estate. He drained the marshy garden into an English park and commissioned the castle you see today, finished in 1852 as a summer home. On Sundays the people of Thun were allowed into the grounds, and in 1925 the town bought the whole estate to save it from demolition. After a two-year restoration it reopened in 2019 as a hotel, and ICOMOS named it Switzerland's Historic Hotel of the Year 2021.

Lake boats leave from the landing stage beside the park. The BLS fleet even hosts ceremonies on board, and couples can moor at the castle afterwards for drinks. Thun's old town and its own castle are a 25-minute walk up the Aare. Oberhofen Castle sits on the far shore, ten minutes by car, and Spiez with its vineyards and castle is a quarter of an hour. The Niederhorn cable car is under an hour away for a day above the lake. Couples planning a wedding in Switzerland often stay on for Interlaken and the Jungfrau railway, both an easy day trip from here.

Fly into Zurich for the most connections, then it's about 90 minutes by train to Thun with one change in Bern. Bern's small airport is 28 km away, Basel and Geneva around two hours by car. Cars can pull up at the castle for 15 minutes to unload, but there's no parking at the door. Hotel guests get five paid spaces three minutes' walk away, one with an EV charger, and everyone else uses the public Scherzligen-Schadau lot. Hotel guests also receive a PanoramaCard for free travel on the local buses.

Nine rooms and suites fill the two upper floors, reached by that spiral staircase or a small lift. They range from an 18-square-meter double with park view to two tower suites of around 45 square meters with the Eiger straight ahead. Two corner rooms have a balcony on each side, one to the lake and one to the Aare. Check-in is from 3 pm and check-out by 11 am, with breakfast served at the table until late morning. Guests also use the sauna and steam bath at the Hotel Seepark next door for free, and one suite is wheelchair-accessible.

If you'd rather not book the night before, two salons on the second floor, Oberhofen and Hünegg, are set up with tables, chairs and mirrors for hair, makeup and dressing. A bathroom sits right beside them in the corridor. Couples who do stay over get ready in their own room, and the best light for a first look is on the balcony or at the top of the stairs. Your booked rooms are yours to decorate from two hours before the celebration starts, and small touches like name cards are set out by the staff.

Your ceremony happens on the castle lawn, between the building and the low stone wall above the lake, with the Alps behind the celebrant. The venue sets out benches or chairs with white covers, a flower-dressed table and parasols. Up to 70 guests can be seated, because if it rains the ceremony moves into the Rougemont Hall. A legal wedding is possible too. The Bern registry office marries couples in the hall on one Thursday afternoon a month. Our wedding planner in Switzerland lines your date up with that calendar and books the celebrant for the lawn. For a church blessing, the thousand-year-old Scherzligen church is a three-minute walk through the park.

You won't need to leave the park. The lake wall gives you the water and the mountains in one frame, the balcony over the entrance gives you the classic castle shot, and the spiral staircase does the rest. The light turns soft and warm as the sun drops behind the Stockhorn range, so keep half an hour before dinner free. The park is public, so expect the odd swimmer or dog walker in the background on a summer weekend. Drone shots of the castle on its peninsula between river and lake are worth asking your photographer about.

Dinner is always in the Rougemont Hall, the de Rougemonts' former dining room, under a painted stucco ceiling and a chandelier. It seats 70 at long tables or 50 at rounds, and in good weather the doors open on both sides to the lawn and the lake. From 40 guests you also get the May-Salon next door for the dance floor or a dessert buffet. Smaller weddings of up to 24 take the two first-floor salons, Thun and Spiez, each with a balcony over the water. The terrace and the veranda stay open to the public, so the wedding party dines indoors whatever the weather.

Chef Norbert Patsch cooks modern French food with regional Swiss produce, and everything comes from the castle kitchen. You choose one seasonal menu for the whole party, and the kitchen adapts it for vegetarian, vegan or allergic guests. A tasting of the main course can be arranged a month or two before the day. The bar is known for its sherry and port list, and there's a menu of midnight snacks, from mini burgers to barley soup. You may bring your own wine for a corkage fee and order the cake from any baker you like, though spirits and soft drinks come from the house.

Music and dancing run indoors, in the hall and the May-Salon, with windows closed from 10 pm and a volume cap of 85 decibels. The party can go on until 1:30 am on Fridays and 2 am on Saturdays, with a small hourly fee after midnight. A DJ or dancing after 10 pm goes together with booking at least six of the nine hotel rooms, and a live band with all nine. A ground-level fireworks display by a licensed company is possible until 10 pm with a permit from the town. Sky lanterns, balloons and confetti aren't allowed anywhere in the park.

The Rougemont Hall and the salons are yours for the day. The castle stays a working hotel and restaurant, though, so the veranda, the bar and the terrace remain open to the public, and the park belongs to the town of Thun. Between November and March you can hire the whole castle, hotel rooms included. In summer the lawn and the hall are private enough for the ceremony and the dinner, while the rest of the place carries on around you, and our couples have liked the life that brings to the day.