The studio
Six people on Ridge who plan twelve celebrations a year, and have turned down rather more than that.
Founded 2014 . Accra
We plan twelve celebrations a year and we are not trying to plan thirteen
Gala was started in 2014 by a woman who had spent eleven years running conferences and thought weddings were harder. They are: a conference has one client, and a wedding has two families, four hundred opinions and a fixed date that cannot move. We took the parts of that job that actually transfer — the schedule, the supplier list, the person standing at the door with a clipboard — and gave the rest of it back to the people it belongs to.
Eleven years later there are six of us. We still take one wedding a month, we still take no commission from any supplier, and we still write everything down.
The name
Gala is the word for the gathering itself. A wedding, an outdooring, the thanksgiving a year after somebody has died — three completely different days that turn out, underneath the seating plan and the generator hire, to be the same day. We took the name because every celebration we are asked to plan is a family looking for a way to mark something out loud, and because everything we actually do is logistics.
Adjoa Mensimah, founder
Ridge, Accra
The studio
A room on Ridge with a very long table in it, a wall of fabric and paper, and the mock-up of whatever is happening in six weeks standing in the corner.
14 Ridge Crescent, Ridge, Accra
Tuesday to Saturday, 9am–5pm
First conversations by appointment
11
Years planning in Accra
148
Celebrations run in full
62
k
Guests seated and fed
6
Regions we work across
How we work
Four things that do not change
They are inconvenient often enough to be worth writing down.
One wedding a month
Twelve a year, and never two on the same weekend. It is the reason the planner who answers your call at nine at night is the planner who wrote your plan.
No commission, ever
We are paid by you and by nobody else. No supplier pays us to be recommended, which is the only arrangement under which a recommendation means anything.
The budget is shown, not sent
Every line, in cedis, revised in front of you once a month. Couples who fall out about money almost always fell out about a number they saw for the first time in April.
Both families, early
We sit with each side before anything is booked. Most of what goes wrong at a Ghanaian wedding was decided, silently and differently, eleven months earlier.
The people
Six of us, and you will meet two
One planner from the first conversation to the last invoice, and a production director who arrives six weeks out and does not leave until the chairs are stacked.
Adjoa Mensimah
Founder & lead planner
Started the studio in 2014 after eleven years running conferences she found considerably less interesting. Plans six weddings a year herself and has never once been late.
Kwabena Asare
Production director
Runs the weekends. Power, water, access, permits, generators and the thing nobody thought of. If a truck is going to be late, Kwabena already knows.
Mansa Otoo
Design lead
Draws every room to scale before a stem is ordered and photographs the mock-up six weeks out. Trained in textiles, which is why the linen is never an afterthought.
Asked often
What people ask before they ring
How far ahead should we get in touch?
Twelve to eighteen months for a Saturday between November and March, which is when most of Accra marries. We take one wedding a month and the good months go about a year out. If your date is closer than that, ring anyway — we keep two weekends a year deliberately open.
Do you plan the traditional ceremony as well as the white wedding?
Yes, and we would rather plan both than one. The two days share a guest list, a budget and usually a family, and the mistakes almost always happen in the gap between them. Kofi sits with both families early and writes down what each side expects before anybody has booked anything.
We are planning from London. Can that work?
About a third of our couples are abroad. We work on a fortnightly call, send a written note after every supplier meeting, and film the venue visits so you are looking at the actual room rather than at the marketing photographs. You need to be in Accra twice: once for the venue and once for the tasting.
Enquiries for 2027 are open
Tell us about your day
One conversation, an hour, no charge and no obligation — at the studio on Ridge, or over a call if you are not in Accra yet.
