City venue guide

The 10 best wedding venues in St. Gallen

Most St Gallen weddings are held within a few kilometres of the abbey precinct. In the old town the choices are Forum St. Katharinen, a former women's convent whose church, cloister and foyer come to 250 across five bookable areas, and the Einstein St.Gallen, which grew out of an 1830s cloth works and runs its receptions through a 342-square-metre ballroom; a short walk west, the Militärkantine pairs a 100-seat hall with a terrace and garden. Couples who want a park or a view go out to Schloss Wartegg at Rorschacherberg above the lake, to the Hundertwasser-conceived Markthalle Altenrhein at Staad, or up the hill to Restaurant Falkenburg. The legally binding civil ceremony happens somewhere else again — the city licenses only three rooms for it.

Researched and last reviewed 2026-08-26. We have no commercial relationship with any venue listed.

St. Gallen, Switzerland — where couples marry — St. Gallen · Photo: albinfo · CC BY-SA 3.0

Forum St. Katharinen — wedding venue in St. Gallen, Switzerland

Photo: forum-stk.ch

No. I

Forum St. Katharinen

Former conventOld town, St. GallenUp to 250 across five areas

A former women's convent behind Katharinengasse, reopened as an events house after a restoration completed in 2015. A wedding here normally splits across three of the five bookable areas: the church for the ceremony, the cloister courtyard for the apéro, the modern foyer for the dinner. There is a full catering kitchen but no in-house restaurant, so couples bring their own caterer and build the day from scratch. Access is step-free throughout, which is not a given in a building of this age.

Cloister courtyard for the apéro

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Forum St. Katharinen

Einstein St.Gallen — wedding venue in St. Gallen, Switzerland

Photo: albinfo · CC BY-SA 3.0

No. II

Einstein St.Gallen

City hotelAltstadt, St. Gallen330 standing in the Einstein Saal, 150 at a seated banquet

Berneggstrasse 2 started life as a cloth-finishing works in 1830 and was rebuilt in 1884 for Isaak D. Einstein, a New York embroidery manufacturer opening a St Gallen branch; the textile industrialist Max Kriemler bought the complex in 1978 and opened it as a hotel in 1983. Receptions run through the Einstein Saal, a 342-square-metre room measuring 18 by 19 metres with a six-metre ceiling, built with the congress wing in 2009 rather than inherited from the old works. Wedding packages are quoted per head and start at 50 adults. The old town begins at the door and the station is three minutes' walk, so guest transport looks after itself.

Ballroom inside an embroidery house

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Einstein St.Gallen

Hotel Restaurant Militärkantine — wedding venue in St. Gallen, Switzerland

Photo: militaerkantine.ch

No. III

Hotel Restaurant Militärkantine

Heritage houseKreuzbleiche, St. Gallen100 seated in the Saal, 50 in the Alte Küche

Listed, built around 1900, restored in 2014 and named Swiss historic hotel of the year in 2017. The Saal seats 100 and opens onto a terrace with steps running down into the garden the house is known for; the Alte Küche takes 50 seated, or the same number standing and dancing. Bedrooms upstairs mean the evening does not have to end at a taxi rank. Ten minutes on foot from the station, on the edge of the Kreuzbleiche.

Hall, terrace and garden in one booking

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Hotel Restaurant Militärkantine

Restaurant Falkenburg — wedding venue in St. Gallen, Switzerland

Photo: EtschPat · CC BY-SA 4.0

No. IV

Restaurant Falkenburg

Panorama restaurantFalkenburg slope, St. GallenUp to 120 indoors, plus about 100 on the terrace

Falkenburgstrasse 25 sits on the Rosenberg slope, high enough that the dining room looks out over the roofs of the old town — the house sells itself on that outlook rather than on any ballroom. The restaurant and its Wintergarten seat 120 between them, and from spring the summer terrace adds roughly another 100. It trades as a restaurant with a handful of rooms and a seminar room, not as a dedicated events house, so a wedding here means taking over a working dining room. Get the exclusivity in writing before you commit.

Old-town roofs from the terrace

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Restaurant Falkenburg

No. VGut & Güter

No. V

Gut & Güter

Modern event hallGüterbahnhof quarter, St. Gallen150 seated, up to 480 standing with the adjoining hall

Out in the old goods-yard quarter, Gut & Güter is a plain contemporary room let by the hour at CHF 200 — dinner for 150, or a flying dinner for 200. KUGL, the concert hall on the same site, can be added for 480 standing with a stage and backstage already built in, and a covered terrace seats 60. Catering comes through the house partner, and bar, service and technical crew are hired from them as well. It suits couples who would rather assemble a night than accept a package.

Hired by the hour, crew included

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Gut & Güter

Schloss Wartegg — wedding venue in St. Gallen, Switzerland

Photo: wartegg.ch

No. VI

Schloss Wartegg

Country house hotelRorschacherberg, above Lake Constance120 in the Konzertsaal, 77 seated for the banquet

Thirteen hectares of park laid out in 1860 surround this house on the slope above the lake, and the grounds themselves are offered for civil and free ceremonies. Indoors the Konzertsaal takes 120, the banqueting room seats 77, and the Stille Raum holds 16 for something deliberately small; the south terrace handles the apéro under sun sails. Booking the property exclusively brings its 25 bedrooms with breakfast — CHF 10,500 from Friday evening, CHF 13,500 from Saturday afternoon, on top of a CHF 10,000 minimum spend on food and drink — which makes it a weekend proposition rather than an afternoon one.

Whole house with 25 bedrooms

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Schloss Wartegg

Schloss Dottenwil — wedding venue in St. Gallen, Switzerland

Photo: Armin Rusch · Public domain

No. VII

Schloss Dottenwil

Small castleWittenbachUp to 50 seated in the Schlosssaal

Dating from 1543 and run by a local association, Dottenwil is an official Traulokal — the binding civil ceremony can be held in the Kohler-Stube or the Schlosskapelle, and free ceremonies use the same two rooms. The first-floor Schlosssaal seats 50 for the celebration afterwards, but on weekdays only, which rules it out for most Saturday plans. Drinks have to be bought from the house. A village museum and a small vineyard share the grounds, and Wittenbach residents get ten per cent off the hire.

Licensed for civil ceremonies, weekdays

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Schloss Dottenwil

Restaurant Erlenholz — wedding venue in St. Gallen, Switzerland

Photo: erlenholz.ch

No. VIII

Restaurant Erlenholz

BarnWittenbach, by the Sitter50 to 90 in the Schüür

Between the Sitter river and the forest edge outside Wittenbach, the Erlenholz keeps a renovated barn — the Schüür — with a stage, taking parties of 50 to 90. Smaller numbers go into the conservatory at 40 or the little Sääli at 20, and in season the sunny terrace seats 60. This is a working country restaurant with a steady trade in walkers and cyclists, so the barn is the part you book rather than the whole site.

Renovated barn with a stage

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Restaurant Erlenholz

Markthalle Altenrhein — wedding venue in St. Gallen, Switzerland

Photo: Richard Mayer · CC BY 3.0

No. IX

Markthalle Altenrhein

Landmark architectureStaad, near Lake ConstanceUp to 200

Built after Friedensreich Hundertwasser's death to a concept he left behind, the hall breaks every rule a conference centre keeps: no two windows line up, the floor rolls underfoot, and gilded domes sit above planted roofs. Nothing in the room needs styling for the photographs. It takes up to 200 and starts at CHF 1,500 with screen, projector, microphones and sound included, though the caterer is yours to find. Friedrich's Bistro and a small bed-and-breakfast share the site on Knotternstrasse in Staad, roughly 15 km northeast of the city.

A hall where nothing is straight

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Markthalle Altenrhein

No. XRüsterei Rorschach

No. X

Rüsterei Rorschach

Town event houseRorschach, Lake ConstanceAbout 100, divisible into rooms of 16, 30 and 60

Rorschach's municipal Stadthof on Kirchstrasse reopened under this name with a new operator and a regional production kitchen built into it. The event floor holds around 100 and divides into three rooms of 16, 30 and 60, so a ceremony, a dinner and a dance floor can run in parallel without moving buildings. An interior courtyard seats 50, or holds 150 standing at high tables. A deep garage sits directly beneath the building and the lake promenade is a few minutes off — useful when half the guest list arrives on the shore-line train.

Courtyard plus three joinable rooms

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Rüsterei Rorschach

Marrying in St. Gallen?

Want an invitation designed for your venue?

Tell us where you’re marrying in St. Gallen, Switzerlandand we’ll build the invitation around it — the venue’s own colours, an illustration of the building if you want one, your map and timings already in place. One link for every guest, with live RSVPs.

Make ours for St. Gallen See the designs

Planning a wedding in St. Gallen

Only three rooms in the city are licensed for the binding civil ceremony: the regional registry office on Poststrasse, the Bürgerratssaal at the Stadthaus, which carries a surcharge on top of the standard fee, and the Tröckneturm at the Burgweier — a 25-metre wooden tower built in 1828 to dry freshly dyed cloth, now listed as a cultural asset of national importance, which seats 50 to 60. All three are arranged by appointment rather than booked from an open calendar, and none of them is where you will eat, so almost every St Gallen wedding is split across two addresses on the day. Two periods to avoid if guests need hotel rooms: OLMA, the national agricultural fair, fills the city for eleven days each October (8 to 18 October in 2026), and the OpenAir festival in the Sittertobel does the same at the end of June (25 to 28 June in 2026).

When to marry — July and August are the warmest months, but St Gallen sits at 675 metres and takes around 1,300 mm of rain a year with July the wettest month of all, so September — nine rain days on average and highs near 19°C — is the better bet for anything happening outdoors.
What it costs — Venue hire in the region runs from roughly CHF 500 to CHF 1,500 for a straightforward hall up to CHF 3,000 to CHF 8,000 a day for an exclusive historic property, with catering almost always billed separately — Swiss budget surveys put a whole wedding at around CHF 35,000, but that figure tracks guest numbers far more closely than it tracks the building.

Once the venue is settled, the next thing most couples deal with is telling everyone. A digital wedding invitation carries the address, a map, your timings and a live RSVP on one link — which matters more than usual when guests are travelling to St. Gallen and need directions, and plenty of notice.

Questions

Marrying in St. Gallen: your questions.

Can we legally marry in St Gallen if neither of us lives in Switzerland?

Usually not. Swiss law requires foreign nationals to show lawful residence in Switzerland during the marriage preparation procedure, and a couple arriving as visitors cannot normally do that; Article 43 of the private international law act allows an exception only where the authorities are satisfied the marriage would be recognised in both partners' home or domicile state, and that permission is not routine. In practice foreign couples complete the binding civil marriage at home and hold a free or symbolic ceremony here — Schloss Wartegg offers its park for precisely that, and most venues on this page are used the same way. Remember too that in Switzerland only the civil ceremony creates a marriage: a church or celebrant-led service carries no legal effect at all.

Where does the civil ceremony actually take place in St Gallen?

Inside the city there are three licensed rooms: the regional registry office on Poststrasse, the Bürgerratssaal of the Stadthaus, which is charged at a surcharge above the standard fee, and the Tröckneturm at the Burgweier, an 1828 drying tower that seats 50 to 60. Just outside the boundary, Schloss Dottenwil in Wittenbach is an official Traulokal and will marry you in the Kohler-Stube or the Schlosskapelle. Once the preparation file is complete the ceremony can be held no sooner than roughly ten days later, and it must take place within three months or the whole procedure has to be started again.

How far ahead should we book a St Gallen venue?

Twelve to eighteen months for a Saturday between June and August is the figure local venue directories give, and it is not padding — the city holds relatively few properties that seat more than 100, so the date and the venue effectively have to be chosen together. Midweek and off-season dates are commonly free at six to nine months. Before you fix anything, check your date against OLMA in mid-October and the Sittertobel festival at the end of June, both of which take the region's hotel rooms out of circulation.

What will the venue itself cost in St Gallen?

For hire alone, Gut & Güter lets its room at CHF 200 an hour and the Markthalle Altenrhein starts at CHF 1,500 for the hall. Full-service houses quote per head or by minimum spend instead: the Einstein St.Gallen prices wedding packages from CHF 177 to CHF 230 a person with a 50-adult minimum, and an exclusive booking of Schloss Wartegg runs CHF 10,500 to CHF 13,500 for the house and its 25 bedrooms, plus a CHF 10,000 minimum spend on food and drink. At the smaller historic venues expect drinks to be tied to the house — Schloss Dottenwil states this outright — which limits how much of the budget you can move around.

Keep looking

More wedding venues near St. Gallen.

Dornbirn Bregenz Uster Dübendorf Zurich Schaffhausen Chur Zug

Or browse every venue guide.

Marrying in St. Gallen?

Want an invitation designed for your venue?

Make ours for St. Gallen See the designs

The 10 best wedding venues in St. Gallen

Researched and last reviewed 2026-08-26. We have no commercial relationship with any venue listed.

Want an invitation designed for your venue?

Planning a wedding in St. Gallen

When to marry — July and August are the warmest months, but St Gallen sits at 675 metres and takes around 1,300 mm of rain a year with July the wettest month of all, so September — nine rain days on average and highs near 19°C — is the better bet for anything happening outdoors.

What it costs — Venue hire in the region runs from roughly CHF 500 to CHF 1,500 for a straightforward hall up to CHF 3,000 to CHF 8,000 a day for an exclusive historic property, with catering almost always billed separately — Swiss budget surveys put a whole wedding at around CHF 35,000, but that figure tracks guest numbers far more closely than it tracks the building.

Want an invitation designed for your venue?