Top 5 Planners in Ukraine
Ukraine's wedding industry has always demonstrated a particular kind of resilience and imagination, and the planners building their careers here today are testament to that. Kyiv's ballrooms and riverside estates are just a few hours from the Carpathian Mountains, where wooden lodges and misty pine forests provide a completely different setting for celebrations. Meanwhile, historic cities such as Lviv and Ternopil boast centuries of architectural heritage. Ukrainian wedding planners have built a reputation for treating each wedding as a fully custom production, rather than a pre-packaged event. They stage everything from intimate garden ceremonies to elaborate productions fit for celebrities, with guest lists that span the globe. Even during years of large-scale warfare, with air raid alerts and a shrinking pool of male technicians available for large-scale construction projects, the country's leading studios have continued to work, adapting their logistics and finding new locations both in Ukraine and across Europe, without losing the ambition and emotional intensity that characterise their work. Here are five planners who are shaping some of Ukraine's most talked-about celebrations.
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DUDA Agency
Kateryna Duda founded the Duda Agency in Lviv, having started her career in wedding décor and event design. She was drawn to the idea of "how a space could be completely transformed, and how every visual detail could shape the emotions of a celebration." Thirteen years and over 1,000 events later, she has built the agency around large-scale, premium celebrations in Ukraine and beyond.
"The philosophy of DUDA AGENCY is to create weddings with soul, character, and a unique story," she says. "We do not simply follow trends, we transform each couple's personality and values into a meaningful concept." One of her most memorable projects took place across two venues in Prague in a single day, with more than 100 vendors coordinated alongside a custom conceptual show built exclusively for the occasion. Her advice to couples currently planning their wedding is straightforward: "a perfect wedding is not about a flawless picture, it is about genuine emotions that stay with you for a lifetime."
Touché
Frustrated by being kept at arm's length from clients through venue intermediaries, Anna Barabash and Oksana Lievdikova spent years working in wedding décor before founding Touché. "We always wanted more," they say. "That's how the idea came about to create something of our own, so we could fully realise our vision."
Nearly eight years later, the duo now works exclusively on premium-segment weddings, guided by a conviction they state plainly: "a luxurious celebration is a worthwhile investment in memories that will last a lifetime." One of their most ambitious projects was opening a new venue, the Edem Art Hall, for a large-scale celebration featuring a cascading fabric reveal, an eight-metre candlelit ceremony structure and a live performance from Ukrainian star Monatik. Despite the wartime conditions, their focus remains undeterred: "no matter what's going on around us, our mission remains to create celebrations for people." If circumstances allow, their dream project is clear: "it is definitely our Ukrainian Crimea."
JS Wedding & Events
Julia Solodchenko has spent more than eighteen years working in the Ukrainian wedding industry, running JS Wedding & Events out of Kyiv. She was one of the country's first professional wedding planners at a time when the role itself was still unfamiliar to most couples. "Part of my work was not only to organise beautiful celebrations, but also to introduce people to an entirely new approach," she says.
The philosophy of her studio is ambitious: "our philosophy is to do everything possible, and sometimes seemingly impossible, to create an unforgettable experience for each couple and their guests." One of her most extraordinary projects took place on a private, uninhabited island in the Maldives during the pandemic, with more than 300 guests and specialists flown in to build an entire celebration from scratch. "The wedding went on to reach millions of people through social media," she says, "but what stays with me most is the feeling of seeing that vision come to life against the beauty of the Maldives." Her advice to couples planning their weddings is straightforward: "choose your wedding planner carefully, so much of your wedding experience depends on the person you trust to create it."
Mopis
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Alice Vasylynka has spent more than fifteen years building the Mopis in Lviv, all the while running the Mopis Decor Studio alongside it. "Weddings are not just my work, they are my lifestyle," she says. "They are a part of me, and I honestly can't imagine living a different life."
She identifies two specific moments as the sources of her greatest satisfaction: "the moment of creating the concept... and the moment of realization, when I arrive at the venue and see how what was once just an idea, just a sketch, just a thought, comes to life in reality." What keeps her invested in each celebration, she says, is watching "how two separate families become one family through this day." One of her most memorable recent projects was a three-day celebration on Lake Como for a Ukrainian-Canadian couple. This event was part of a growing portfolio spanning Ukraine, Italy and Poland. Her advice to couples currently planning their wedding is simple: "choose the right planner and the right team, and once you do, trust them."
Be Happy
Eight years ago, Larisa Yarovaya founded Be Happy, building a boutique studio around a simple operating principle: "each of our projects is custom made, whether it's a wedding or a personal event, history, details, nuances, or a suddenly dropped phrase, all of this allows us to develop a unique concept of events." The agency's identity is summed up in two words: "a unique idea and sincere emotions."
Yarovaya is candid about what actually goes into a high-level wedding, which extends far beyond the décor: "it's also about timing, schedule, perfect coordination with contractors, soundcheck, rider, script, logistics, tents, generators, loads and connection points." The agency focuses on reputation rather than advertising: "we do not need advertising, word of mouth does the main job." Her advice to brides is straightforward: "organizing a high-level wedding is a task for professionals, do not trust it to random people."
Ukraine's wedding planners have spent years proving that ambition and heart don't have to be mutually exclusive, whether the celebration takes place in a Kyiv ballroom, a Carpathian forest lodge or somewhere new across Europe. Some have built their businesses over nearly two decades, helping to shape the country's wedding industry from its earliest days. Others are newer names, already staging productions on private islands and in unbuilt venues. What unites them is their refusal to treat any two weddings in the same way. They build each celebration around the unique story, family and personality of the couple, even while working through war. You can get to know wedding planners from across Ukraine on Wezoree and contact them directly to start planning your big day.
Cover photo credit @olya_carrera @gomeniuk_alex
