May has become one of my favourite months to work in. Not just because of the light (though that long, low, golden European light is something I will never take for granted) but because of the kind of couples who choose it. May couples tend to be planners who are also dreamers. They’ve thought carefully about where they want to be and who they want with them, and they’ve arrived somewhere beautiful with a clear sense of what matters.
Over the past four years, I’ve led ceremonies across England, Germany, The Alps, and Switzerland every May. Looking back at those five weddings now, I’m struck by how different they were from each other, and how much they share.
Each couple chose meaning over convention. Each of them travelled for their ceremony. And each of them wanted, above all else, to feel something.
Christina and Jeffrey, Eibsee, German Alps, May 2022
There’s a moment at Eibsee when the mountain comes fully into view and most people simply stop walking. The colours of the water there, turquoise shifting into deep green against the rock and pine, are unlike anything else in Bavaria, and on a clear May morning the Zugspitze sits above it all like a promise. At 2962 metres, it is majestic!
Christina and Jeffrey chose this place for their elopement, just the two of them, and it was exactly right for them. When a ceremony is built for two people who know their own minds, it has a particular quality about it, being quietly unhurried, intentional, entirely theirs.
Christina left me a review afterwards that I’ve carried with me ever since, and I’m so grateful to her for the words she chose.
Thank you Yvonne, you made our wedding day truly magical and we appreciate your kindness and attention to detail in your efforts to create a ceremony that spoke to our love and our hearts.
Telima and Matthew, Alpine Meadow Cabin, near Grainau, German Alps, May 2022
This one is difficult to describe without running out of words.
Matthew is a US Army veteran who wore his dress uniform to his ceremony. He and his brideTelima had travelled from Portugal where they had recently sent up a new home. With only their closest family, we held a truly emotional and intentional ceremony in this tiny cabin , in the shadow of the Zugspitze, since the rain simply would not give up at all and the lakeside photos were captured later when the thunderclouds had moved on. But it was a truly defining moment for me too, to stand with a man who had served his country and even though he was no longer active, he wore his uniform as a mark of respect.
As a child of the military myself, I know what this means and it was an absolute honour to stand with him – a person who has served their country choosing to mark the most important day of their personal life in a place of such peace and beauty.
This was one of those ceremonies that reminds me why this work matters. A unique, emotionally centred love story told with respect and regard, while the heavens opened around us. It really was elemental.
Kelly and Marius, Manchester Art Gallery, UK, May 2023
Not every May ceremony belongs to the mountains.
Kelly and Marius chose one of Manchester’s most beautiful buildings, significantly because it was where they had met while studying. They travelled from their home in the USA and filled it with an international guest list and a bilingual ceremony that moved between English and German as easily as the couple themselves moved between cultures.
The Manchester Art Gallerys a gorgeous, generous space and we held the ceremony in a room where we were surrounded by the Lowry paintings. It really added another level, with this sense of local creativity, passion for local artists, in a thriving northern city that is diverse and exciting to visit, live, and work in, which sat beautifully alongside a ceremony reaching across languages and continents.
Bilingual ceremonies carry a particular warmth. When a guest who doesn’t speak one of the languages suddenly hears something offered in their own language, you see their shoulders drop in relaxation. They’re in the room in a way they weren’t before.
Kelly and Marius understood that being in the place their love story began, was instinctively the best decision they could have made, and their photoshoot around the city are a testimony to their absolute joy at being there again and sharing it with all their favourite people.
Victoria and Trequan, Schloss Berlepsch, Hessen, May 2024
Victoria and Trequan travelled from the USA to a 14th-century castle in the green hills of Hessen, and brought an intimate group of people who love them to bear witness in one of Germany’s most quietly beautiful regions, holding their Ceremony in the 19th Century non denominational chapel which is almost hidden in a valley within the castle grounds.
Schloss Berlepsch is the kind of venue that doesn’t need to announce itself. The stone, the age of the place, the grounds it sits in really tells its own story.
What I love about ceremonies in spaces like this is that history becomes part of the frame. You’re not just making a promise; you’re making it inside a location that has already heard many beautiful love stories and promises.
For Victoria and Trequan, it felt entirely right. Their ceremony was intimate in the truest sense by being small in number, but with the comfort of having your closest loved ones as your witness. Perfection.
Ashley and Sean, Villa Honegg, Lake Lucerne, May 2025
I never tire of returning to Villa Honegg. Perched nearly a thousand metres above Lake Lucerne, with the lake and the Alps spread out below, it is the kind of place that makes people fall in love with the view from the moment when they first step onto the terrace.
Ashley and Sean brought their siblings and partners, kept the group intimate, and chose a ceremony with both communal and personal vows. It’s a combination I find especially moving, because it holds both the couple and the people who love them in the same moment.
May in Switzerland can be unpredictable, and that day was no exception. We heard the boats being signalled to find shelter, we saw the clouds starting to form across the lake but we decided to hold the ceremony on the alpine meadow as planned. The weather held perfectly until the vows were exchanged, and then, right on cue, a thunderclap rolled in from the mountains, and laughing and gathering ourselves up we made a swift retreat to the covered terrace to watch nature and find that the champagne was already waiting.
I think of that thunder as a good omen. Dramatic, memorable, entirely beyond anyone’s control. Rather like love itself.
Ashley and Sean had time to relax, and when the clouds cleared by enjoyed some lovely evenig light before hosting their reception at the Villa in the early evening. Their kind words really mean so much.
Yvonne made everything feel so seamless — even with us being abroad and meeting only over Zoom, she made the entire process feel personal, easy, and incredibly meaningful.What stood out the most was how she took the time to craft an entire ceremony script based solely on the details we shared with her. She captured our love story so beautifully — it felt like she had known us for years. Her words were heartfelt, genuine, and so reflective of who we are as a couple. We felt so seen and celebrated.
What May has taught me
Although I have led more than five weddings in the month of May over the last few years, I wanted to share these particular five. Weddings for couples from around the world, held in England, Germany and Switzerland. At glacial lakes, alpine meadows, a city Art Gallery, a medieval castle and in the shelter of an alpine wooden Cabin when the rain just refused to stop for us! Each has been thrilling, exciting and memorable in its own way.
What connects all of them isn’t the location or the season. It’s the choice. Every single one of these couples made a deliberate decision about where to be, who to bring, and how they wanted to feel. They didn’t follow particular traditions, other people’s weddings or trends but wove together their own ideas and style, personality and invited me to help craft omething that was theirs alone.
That is what a celebrant-led ceremony makes possible. There’s no script handed down from an institution, no format that has to be honoured regardless of who you are. There’s just the respect for you, support for your dreams and wishes, the celebration of your story, and the care that goes into telling it well.
You can see all five of these weddings, and many more, on my real weddings and elopements page.
If you’re dreaming about a May wedding, in Germany, in Switzerland, in the Alps, or somewhere else entirely, I’d love to hear about it. My diary is open for 2027.
Warmest wishes
Yvonne
Yvonne Beck is a bilingual wedding celebrant based in Potsdam, Germany, leading personalised ceremonies in English and German across the UK and Europe. She has led over 600 ceremonies since 2011.
Thinking about a destination wedding or elopement? Weddings and elopements in Germany | Weddings and elopements in Switzerland | The Alps, Austria and Dolomites