Wedding at Hasselbacken: a photographer’s guide

A wedding at Hasselbacken usually takes place in the Hazelius room, which measures 335 square metres, seats up to 300 guests and opens onto a connected terrace of 240 square metres. The building sits at Hazeliusbacken 20 on Royal Djurgården in Stockholm, next door to the Skansen open air museum, and it combines a full function floor with 113 hotel rooms under one roof. That combination is the practical argument for the place: nobody has to leave the address between getting ready, dinner and breakfast.

This guide is written for couples who are already looking at the venue and want to know how the day actually runs there. It covers which rooms can be booked, how they differ in size and character, how ceremonies and dinners are usually arranged, and what is worth knowing about the light, the transport and the parking. The numbers come from the hotel’s own pages. The rest comes from photographing in the building.

If you are still comparing options in the city, the guide to a wedding at Grand Hôtel Stockholm covers the closest equivalent in the centre of town, and a wedding at Ett Hem covers the small end of the scale.

The renovation: Hasselbacken is being rebuilt

This is the most important line in the guide if you are planning far ahead. In April 2026 the owner Miramis announced that Hasselbacken will undergo a major transformation and become the group’s Swedish flagship, with openings across the portfolio through 2027. The direction is a higher standard of rooms and restaurant and a sharper focus on food, culture and live experiences. The announcement is on Hospitality Net.

In practice the building is expected to close for the works, reportedly for something in the order of two years. Exact dates are not published at the time of writing, and schedules like this often move. So ask this before you ask about price or menu: is our date bookable, and what happens to the booking if the schedule changes?

Get the answer in writing and read the rebooking and refund terms before you sign. A wedding is planned one to two years ahead, which is exactly the horizon the rebuild sits in. If you celebrate before the closure you get the house as described in this guide. If you celebrate after the reopening the rooms will most likely look different, and the figures below will need checking again.

Where is Hasselbacken and what is the building?

Hasselbacken stands on the slope above Djurgårdsvägen, between Skansen and the Gröna Lund amusement park. The name was established in the 1760s after the hazel thickets that grew there, and the pastry chef Jacob Wilhelm Davidson opened Restaurang Hasselbacken in 1853. The building burned down in 1923, for the seventh time, and was rebuilt two years later. That is the building standing today.

Between 1947 and 1969 the house served as a catering college. That is where the trainee cook Leif Elisson created the hasselback potato in 1953, which is the most widely travelled fact about the place and a good one to hand your guests. In 1992 the building became the hotel, conference and restaurant it is now, and in 2020 the restaurant, lobby and reception were renovated. Hasselbacken belongs to Miramis Sweden, which also runs the Cirkus arena next door. The history is set out on the hotel’s own about page and in the Wikipedia entry on Hasselbacken.

For a couple, the location matters more than the history. Djurgården is parkland in the middle of the city, so you have old timber houses, water and heavy foliage within walking distance, and you are still ten minutes by taxi from Stockholm Central Station. Guests flying in sleep at the same address as the party. For a Stockholm venue of this size, that is unusual.

Which rooms can be booked for a wedding at Hasselbacken?

The hotel has several function rooms in different sizes. Three of them matter for a wedding. The rest are built for conferences and work poorly for a dinner that turns into dancing.

Hazelius, for 150 to 300 guests

Hazelius is the largest room in the house and sits on the top floor. It measures 335 square metres and holds a maximum of 300 people. Columns run the length of a hand painted wooden ceiling, and antique chandeliers hang from it. Outside lies a single connected terrace of 240 square metres, which is a lot of outdoor space for a Stockholm venue and lets the reception and the dinner flow into each other without moving anyone far.

The room has a six by two metre LED screen and installed speakers, which covers speeches, slideshows and music without hired equipment. For photography, the ceiling height and the windows are what count: daylight reaches well into the room, and the evening can be lit with the room’s own chandeliers instead of flash bounced off the ceiling.

Crown, for up to 150 guests

Crown is 227 square metres and holds up to 150 people. Large mirrors line the walls, crystal chandeliers fill the ceiling, and the palette is red with gold detailing. The original wooden floor has been kept. The hotel lists it for seated dinners, balls and cabaret, which in practice means it handles dinner and dancing without moving the party to a second room halfway through the evening.

The mirrors are worth a thought in advance. They give the room depth and double the light from the chandeliers, but they also reflect everything standing along the walls. A table of boxes or a service trolley shows up in every frame taken from that side. Ask the staff to keep the walls clear before guests are let in.

King and Queen, for up to 70 guests

King and Queen are on the third floor, 68 square metres each, with room for 70 people. Both have tall French windows facing the hotel garden and the southern parts of Stockholm, the windows open, and they lead out to a shared balcony. The ceiling in King is four metres high, which makes the room feel larger than the floor area suggests.

These two are the best rooms in the house for a smaller party, and they are also the best for portraits. The southern aspect gives soft indirect light for most of the day, and the balcony works as a small stage with the garden behind it. If you are planning a ceremony for under seventy guests, start here.

Ceremony on site or in a church first?

Many couples who celebrate here marry somewhere else first and arrive for the reception and dinner. It is a common arrangement in central Stockholm and it works particularly well at this address because the distances are short. A church on Östermalm or in the old town is ten to fifteen minutes away by car, and guests can be sent ahead while you take portraits on the way.

If you want a civil ceremony, the most common address in the city is the Blue Hall at Stockholm City Hall, covered in the guide to a wedding at Stockholm City Hall. From there it is about a quarter of an hour to Djurgården. Foreign couples marrying in Sweden apply for a Certificate of No Impediment (hindersprövning) through the Swedish Tax Agency, Skatteverket, before any ceremony can be booked.

A ceremony on site is also possible. The Hazelius room is used for ceremonies, and the garden and the terrace work outdoors when the weather allows. What decides it is how you want the guests to move. A ceremony in the same room as the dinner means the room has to be turned around while everyone is out on the terrace, and that turnaround takes roughly forty five minutes. Put the reception drinks and the group photographs in that window and you lose no time at all.

Rooms, getting ready and the morning after

The hotel has 113 rooms and suites, from classic rooms of nineteen square metres up to the Åbom suite at fifty. Some rooms have a private sauna. For the wedding day it is the suites that matter, because that is where the morning happens and the floor area decides whether the pictures feel open or cramped.

Ask for a room with a garden view when you book. Those windows face south and give a large, soft light into the room, which is exactly what you want for the dress, the rings and the first frames of the day. A room facing the inner courtyard or the corridor side forces lamp light in the middle of the day, and it shows.

You can also book the entire hotel. Hasselbacken calls this a takeover, and it includes all 113 rooms, the restaurant, the bar and the spa area, with the option of adding stages at the Cirkus arena next door. That is the route for couples who want to spread the celebration across a weekend instead of an evening. How that changes the photography is covered in the guide to building a wedding day timeline.

Practical information: getting there and parking

The hotel gives these travel times from Stockholm Central Station: ten minutes by taxi, fifteen by tram, fourteen by bicycle and roughly forty minutes on foot. The Spårväg City tram runs from Sergels torg via Nybroplan out to Djurgården and stops below the slope. Timetables are on the SL site.

Hasselbacken has no parking of its own. Spaces are run by Aimo Park, both in the garage under the hotel and outside it, and they cannot be booked in advance. The hotel quotes 375 kronor per twenty four hours for a standard space and 450 kronor for a charging space, plus a ten percent service fee capped at fifty kronor. There are two charging points in the garage.

One detail catches guests out every summer. The road onto Djurgården is closed to cars without a permit at weekends during part of the summer season. Have the booking confirmation ready on your phone, and tell your guests to do the same, then check the current dates with the hotel when the invitations go out. It is one line in your guest information that saves twenty minutes of frustration at the barrier.

Light through the year in Stockholm

Djurgården is densely planted, and that affects the light more than people expect. At midsummer the sun sets just after ten in the evening in Stockholm, which gives you a long bright window after dinner and the option of stepping outside between courses. At the end of August sunset is around eight, and by the middle of September just after seven. Those are three completely different evenings, and they need three different schedules.

In practice a June wedding can leave the portraits until late without any risk, while a September wedding has to book them before dinner. The foliage around the building also means direct sun rarely reaches the ground in the garden, which is an advantage at midday and a disadvantage late in the evening. If you have chosen September, expect the evening pictures to be indoor pictures.

What couples often miss

The first thing is the distance between the hotel rooms and the function floor. Hazelius is at the top of the house and the rooms are spread over several levels. Walking from getting ready to the room takes a few minutes longer than you plan for when a dress has to be carried and the lift is shared with hotel guests. Build in ten minutes of margin before the entrance.

The second is that Hasselbacken is a working hotel. There are other guests in the building on the same day and the lobby is shared. That is not a problem, but it does mean the picture of the bride alone on the staircase needs to be scheduled for a quiet moment rather than attempted in the middle of check in at three in the afternoon.

The third is the group photographs. With 300 guests in Hazelius you need a surface where everyone fits and everyone is visible. The terrace works when it is dry, the room works if you stand along the short wall, but in rain without a plan you end up crowded into a stairwell. Decide the wet weather option during the walkthrough with the hotel, not on the day.

Gallery

A photographer’s perspective

My name is Karin Lundin and I am a wedding photographer based in Stockholm. I have photographed at Hasselbacken and I like the house for a simple reason: everything is in the same building. The morning starts in a hotel room, the evening ends in a room two floors up, and nobody has to get into a car in between. It sounds like a small thing and it changes the rhythm of the entire day.

The south facing rooms are the best thing in the house. Light comes through the French windows broad and even, and it lasts all morning without me setting anything up. The balcony outside is a small place of its own with the garden behind it, and it works as well for the groom with his friends as it does for the first frames of the two of you.

The function rooms take more thought. The crystal chandeliers in Crown look good but they throw hard shadows straight down, and the mirrors show everything I would rather leave out. Hazelius is easier, with its wooden ceiling and its tall windows, but it is large enough to swallow a small party. If you are not filling the room, ask for the table plan to be pulled towards one short wall. The room gets warmer and the pictures get closer.

What I tell couples celebrating here is not to plan Djurgården out of the day. You have parkland, avenues and water within a few minutes of walking. Fifteen minutes out of the building between the reception and the dinner gives you pictures that cannot be taken in any function room, and your guests barely have time to miss you.

Want to capture the day on film as well? I often work alongside Nordvér Films.

Key takeaways

• Hasselbacken is due to be rebuilt and is expected to close for a long period, ask the hotel to confirm your date in writing before you sign.

Frequently asked questions about a wedding at Hasselbacken

How many guests does Hasselbacken hold?

The Hazelius room holds a maximum of 300 people and is the largest room in the house. Crown holds 150, King and Queen 70 each. The exact number depends on whether you want a dance floor, a stage or a buffet in the same room, so ask the events team for a floor plan built around your setup.

What does a wedding at Hasselbacken cost?

Hasselbacken does not publish wedding prices on its website. The cost depends on the room, the number of guests, the menu and whether you book hotel rooms. Request a quote directly from the events team and ask for a price per guest including drinks, which makes it easier to compare against other venues.

Can you hold the ceremony at Hasselbacken?

Yes. The hotel offers ceremonies in the Hazelius room, and the garden and terrace are used outdoors when the weather allows. Many couples still marry in a church or at Stockholm City Hall first and come here for the reception, because the distances in the city centre are short.

Can guests stay at Hasselbacken?

Yes, the hotel has 113 rooms and suites in the same building as the function floor. The whole hotel can also be booked, which the hotel calls a takeover and which then includes the restaurant, the bar and the spa area.

Is there parking at Hasselbacken?

The hotel has no parking of its own. Aimo Park runs spaces in the garage under the hotel and outside it, at 375 kronor per twenty four hours for a standard space and 450 kronor for a charging space, plus a ten percent service fee capped at fifty kronor. Spaces cannot be booked in advance, so expect some guests to take a taxi or the tram.

What is the best time of year to marry on Djurgården?

June and early July give the longest evenings, with sunset just after ten, and the option of stepping outside between courses. September gives warmer colour in the foliage but shorter days, with sunset just after seven in the middle of the month. Both work, they simply need different schedules.

How long does it take to get there from Central Station?

The hotel gives ten minutes by taxi, fifteen by tram, fourteen by bicycle and roughly forty minutes on foot. The Spårväg City tram stops below the slope. At weekends during part of the summer season the road onto Djurgården is closed to cars without a permit, so ask guests to keep the booking confirmation to hand.

Do we need to hire sound and lighting for the function room?

The Hazelius room has a six by two metre LED screen and installed speakers, which covers speeches, slideshows and music. A live band will usually bring its own equipment anyway. Confirm your technical needs and the stage position with the hotel well in advance, especially if the band wants to stand in front of the screen.

Is Hasselbacken closing for renovation?

The owner Miramis announced in April 2026 that Hasselbacken will be rebuilt and become the group’s Swedish flagship, with openings across the portfolio through 2027. The building is expected to close during the works, reportedly for something in the order of two years. Exact dates are not published, so ask the hotel to confirm your date in writing and read the rebooking terms before you sign.