Julia and David from Leipzig got married on March 11, 2025 in the Seychelles and had booked me as their wedding photographer for two days.
After the beautiful wedding ceremony at Grand Anse on La Digue, we visited many great photo spots on the east and west coast of La Digue. On the second day of photography, we took a speedboat to see the turtles on one of the many neighboring islands. The grand finale of the second day of photography then took place on La Digue again in the finest conditions. Photographer’s heart, what more could you want!
We decided a few years ago that we wanted to get married on a tropical island on the beach when the time came. And it actually became clear relatively quickly that it should be on the Seychelles. A few videos on YouTube and Torsten’s pictures and website made it clear to us that this was what we wanted. When we got engaged in April 2024, we more or less went straight to planning our trip and contacted Torsten, who gave us the feeling that this was the right decision. In Germany, getting married often involves a little more stress: Finding a location, catering, writing invitations, decorations and planning all of this preferably many months in advance. We always asked ourselves: what would we do this for and who would we do it for? For us, a wedding including celebrations in Germany was more associated with the social norm. It’s one day, it’s our day. And then it was clear to us that we would get married far away, just the two of us, in a beautiful place.
We had the opportunity to fly with Condor in Business Class from Frankfurt directly to the Seychelles. This meant that we each had two pieces of hand luggage free and were able to transport our wedding dress and suit in our hand luggage without the other person seeing any of it beforehand.
Once we arrived in the Seychelles, we flew with Air Seychelles in a small propeller plane from Mahé to Praslin, a good 20-minute flight. Please note the luggage restrictions of max. 23 kg and 5 kg hand luggage. If this is not enough, it is best to book additional weight in advance.
The wedding was in short: DREAMY, our dream. We had wonderful weather, bright sunshine and beautiful decorations. Everything was perfectly organized.
Now for the slightly longer version: We had already arrived on La Digue 3 days before our wedding day, which we would recommend to everyone. This allowed us to explore the island and see all the possible wedding venues and decide for ourselves where everything should take place, especially if we had never been to the Seychelles before. We decided to get married at Grand Anse on La Digue. This place is simply beautiful and picturesque. White sand, turquoise blue water and amazing rock formations with lush green jungle in the background. That makes it the perfect place!
Our day started at around 7 a.m. when the stylist came to do Julia’s make-up and hair. At this point, we had separated a little so that we also had the surprise effect of the “first look” on the beach. We would also recommend this to you if you want to have a first look. In our hotel room at Le Domaine de l’Orangerie, this was no problem in terms of space. David was picked up at around 08:30 and then changed into his suit on site in the hope of sweating less. I recommend all future grooms: Don’t do it like this, get dressed at the hotel. You can also change at the venue, but it’s a bit more inconvenient. You’re going to sweat anyway, just accept it.
Julia was picked up 15 minutes later and everything went smoothly. There was a bit of activity on Grand Anse on our day, but you don’t need to be bothered by the crowd. There were about 20 people, most of whom spread out at the other end of the beach. Of course people were looking at you, but they were all nice and friendly without being intrusive. Torsten captures everything so well that no one can be seen in case of doubt. So don’t worry about an “audience”, we were so caught up in the moment that we didn’t notice it. On request, Torsten also knows great places for your wedding ceremony on La Digue, where nobody is guaranteed to be watching!
The ceremony itself was beautiful! The decorations were a 10/10, everything took a good 15-20 minutes. First the ceremony, then toasting with coconuts and cutting and tasting our delicious cake. Wonderful and above all very relaxed with an incredibly beautiful backdrop! And of course everything was wonderfully captured by Torsten.
Then we started the photo shoot. We took photos in the north and east of the island from around 10 am to 12:30 pm. We had perfect weather and didn’t have to wait for the sun once, so it went a bit faster. The lunch break from 12:30 to about 5 pm was great to relax a bit as a newly married couple, enjoy the wedding cake, exchange gifts and just realize that you are now married and how lucky you are to experience this moment in such a beautiful place.
At sunset at the Anse Source d’Argent, we were able to take some great pictures again. The wedding planner then organized a lovely BBQ on the beach for dinner, definitely recommended!
The second day of photography then took place on one of the neighboring islands. We can also highly recommend this. It’s a great way to add variety to your pictures.
It is no more complicated to get married in the Seychelles than in Germany. You go to the registry office and have your marriage certificate issued in English, as well as the extracts from the birth registers in English. Furthermore, an application form and copies of the passports. The copies must then be sent by email and also in advance by post to the registrar and the wedding planner in the Seychelles, then everything is prepared. And then, 1-2 days after the wedding, you will receive your wedding certificate with apostille from the wedding planner in person. We therefore recommend staying on La Digue for 2-3 days after the wedding. Then nothing has to be sent by post elsewhere.
YES! It was even more beautiful than we had imagined.
The best thing is: you simply arrive in the Seychelles with your dress, suit and rings and decide not even 48 hours beforehand which decorations, flowers and cake you want. DONE.
You are simply relaxed before, during and after the wedding. This also fits perfectly with the island life and feeling in the Seychelles, decelerated and paradisiacal!
Thanks to the wedding planner and Torsten, you never have the feeling that there could be any problems. The two of them are very well-rehearsed and everything has a certain flow and smooth flow.
We found Torsten many years ago on Instagram while browsing through Seychelles pictures and then also saw a few documentaries on YouTube from German TV channels. From then on, it was always our plan that we would consider doing the same as soon as we got serious. Torsten’s great website in particular gave us another clear insight into how the whole thing could work and made it much more tangible. After the long and detailed initial meeting with Torsten, everything was clear and we knew that we would hire Torsten as our photographer and contact person for our wedding.
The pictures turned out incredibly beautiful! We had 2 days of perfect sunshine, different locations on both days and also brought a few of our own photo ideas with us. We also crawled onto some rocks and didn’t shy away from anything. The result was overwhelmingly beautiful. Torsten put the pictures together beautifully so that all our best moments were captured. The pictures speak for themselves and for Torsten’s great work!
Our favorite photo spots were definitely the Grand Anse with the wedding location itself, the beach and the surrounding rocks on the neighboring island and of course the Anse Source d’Argent, where we were able to take different pictures on both evenings at sunset. These are such great and magical places.
We generally had a lot of fun with Torsten, e.g. on the second day of photography we climbed and hiked through the jungle over granite rocks to get to great photo spots. Running through the water there or carrying my wife on my shoulder through the water are great moments that you never forget.
The wedding at Grande Anse was of course very special with the backdrop. You say “I do”, toast with coconuts and cut the cake. And after the initial excitement, you’re suddenly totally relaxed at this point and just enjoy it.
Other anecdotes that are also quite funny afterwards: Julia tripped a little on the last step when climbing down a granite rock and landed in the water with her wedding dress. It was on the second day of photography in the afternoon, so it wasn’t quite as bad and she was able to laugh about it. Afterwards we took our great race pictures through the water because everything was wet anyway. So be aware, the pictures are also a bit of work for you, but it’s so incredibly worth it! And we can only tell you on the way, yes the dress was certainly expensive, the suit certainly too, but you bought it exactly for this day and the photos. If something gets dirty or wet, it doesn’t matter as long as you had fun and the pictures are beautiful!
The second short anecdote is the incident with the Aldabra turtle and the wedding dress… We recommend that you don’t hang the dress on a tree to dry during the lunch break on the neighboring island, or be aware that other day-trip guests are also walking around the island and are “curious”. In our case, a few tourists had thrown treats, such as bananas, near the hanging wedding dress, so that the turtle also nibbled on the dress, which fluttered nicely in the wind and then claimed it for itself. A funny story in hindsight, but of course we could have done without it. But who can say that my wedding dress was eaten by the largest tortoise in the world? You only experience something like that in the Seychelles!
On La Digue, we had booked Le Domaine de l’Orangerie with a Garden Residence. Beautiful large rooms with the option of a partition, where you can also separate well on the wedding day before the first look. The service wasn’t overwhelming, but we were happy with the hotel afterwards. It was great for the wedding, but as normal tourists we would perhaps have booked Le Nautique (a small boutique hotel). Especially with two or three days of photography, you want to have quick cleaning services for shirts or pants, for example, or other amenities as part of the wedding. You might just have to point this out to the staff more than once and then everything will run smoothly.
After 6 days on La Digue including the wedding and two photo days, we spent 5 days on Praslin and then 10 days on Mahé. We liked La Digue and Praslin the best. La Digue with its bicycles and world-class beaches is of course also a very special island in relation to our wedding! You can really spend a lot of time here just slowing down and exploring and soaking up everything on your bike. It’s not enough to just cycle to a place once and then you’ve been there. It’s about experiencing the places on different days. One day there are big waves at Grand Anse, the next there is a mirror-smooth water surface and the day after that it might even rain. You should discover this variety for yourself.
For us, Praslin offers everything you need for a relaxing vacation. The island is small, but big enough to explore everything by car. There are two national parks for short hikes and beautiful views, there are other world-class beaches with Anse Georgette and Anse Lazio, as well as a golf course. We loved it here too!
Mahé also offers everything that the other islands offer, but in a larger range and more space. This means more cars, more driving, more people. That’s not to say that it’s any less beautiful, but it’s just busier and you’re on the road a little longer. That’s why we had planned 10 days, although we would have liked to have spent a few more days on La Digue or Praslin afterwards. But Mahé is also definitely worth a visit during a round trip to the Seychelles.
You will always find some beaches or places on the islands where you can be completely alone, and for us this is what makes the Seychelles so incredibly charming. You have the freedom to move around everywhere and discover the beauty of nature at your own pace and sometimes all to yourself.
Hotel recommendations are of course very subjective. We really enjoyed our honeymoon hotel on Praslin. We stayed at Raffles there. Wow, it was beautiful! The privacy with our own villa and pool, as well as the comprehensive honeymoon package, were a dream.
On Mahé, we stayed at the Kempinski Baie Lazare, where we were naturally a little disappointed after having our own villa in total privacy at Raffles on Praslin. The Kempinski is a good hotel, but not a 5-star hotel in our opinion. We recommend looking for a boutique hotel on Mahé or going to a more “private” resort. This huge hotel complex near the beach doesn’t suit the Seychelles very well and it just feels more like mass tourism, which we only really realized once we were there.
We will definitely be back. Probably again very soon within the next 2-3 years. Next time we would probably only stay on La Digue and Praslin, as we think these two islands offer the most relaxation and vacation feeling. We would book a smaller boutique hotel on La Digue and hopefully stay at Raffles again on Praslin as we liked it so much!
Torsten is simply a great photographer and you can really have a great time with him. It’s not just a photo shoot, it’s fun, it’s sometimes exhausting, but it always feels like a vacation!
And if you compare other photographers in the Seychelles for weddings with Torsten’s pictures, you can quickly see the huge differences in quality! While Torsten’s pictures look like postcard motifs, his competitors often have motifs and poses that look less professional. And that is really difficult in the Seychelles, with such photogenic subjects from our point of view. But Torsten’s expertise in lighting conditions, his technique, the subjects and the right settings and poses are all part of making the pictures just as great! That’s what made it so special for us that Torsten accompanied us for two days.
And in addition to his great skills as a photographer, we must also emphasize that Torsten was always available and accessible during the organization of the wedding, from the first contact to the on-site support and afterwards. He helped us with everything and shared all his experience. So you don’t just book a photographer, but also a contact person for all your challenges and questions about the wedding and your vacation in the Seychelles. We were super satisfied and can only warmly recommend Torsten to any interested couple. You will definitely not regret it!
Our heartfelt recommendation: We switched off our cell phones completely the evening before the wedding, locked them in the safe and only took them out again 3 days later the next morning. What can we say: it was such a great feeling. We were able to soak up everything for 2 days without being disturbed. Family and friends then congratulated us 2 days later and that was totally fine because we were able to get involved, as we hardly had time to respond properly beforehand anyway. But these two days just for us, without any distractions, were great. You have Torsten at your side anyway, who captures all the great impressions. So the cell phone is not really necessary except as a means of communication (“troublemaker”). If that sounds good to you, by all means go for it.
For the wedding and the photo shoot itself, it is advisable to take a small towel with you to wipe away sweat from time to time, perhaps a small hand fan (also practical for the non-air-conditioned flight between Mahe and Praslin). And of course sunscreen. And please just accept that you will sweat. It’s warm and in very few of our pictures you can see that David is sweating in his suit and has a few beads of sweat on his forehead. Many pictures are also peppered with landscape motifs where it’s not even noticeable. Close-ups should perhaps be planned for the evening at sunset. The lighting conditions are also softer then.
We recommend wearing a pair of shoes that fit your feet well so that you can get up and down the granite rocks without any problems. The grip of the shoes on the rocks is great, but the foot should also fit well in the shoe.
The groom should ideally bring two shirts so that he can change his shirt in case of stains or in the evening.
David had a jacket, vest and suspenders, which of course gave us the opportunity to choose different outfits for different motifs and situations. This also makes the pictures a little more varied afterwards and we could recommend them if you feel comfortable in them.
We recommend a simpler dress for the bride, without a meter-long train and hundreds of layers. This will make it easier for you to get to the photo spots on the rocks. Also think about your comfort for the photo days, especially with regard to the tropical climate!
Another tip on the subject of paying the wedding planner: It is best to take the money for the wedding planner in euros with you to the Seychelles in cash. Withdrawals from the ATMs on La Digue in local currency for larger amounts are not much fun, as only small amounts come out. There is also no help at the bank counters. This results in higher transaction fees.
Otherwise, we simply recommend: get married in the Seychelles! It’s too good to be true!
