About the studio
Twelve years of other people's best days
Six planners in East Legon. Fifteen celebrations a year, no supplier commission, and one person whose only job on the day is that you never have to think about it.
Our story
Joy began in 2013 with one couple, one rented compound in Osu and a running order written on the back of an invitation. We have held three hundred and forty celebrations since, and the running order is longer now, but nothing else about the job has changed.
We are planners rather than a venue, a caterer or a decorator, which means we have no reason to recommend anybody but the right person. What you are buying is judgement, a supplier list built over twelve years, and somebody whose only job on the day is to make sure you never have to think about it.
More about the studio
The studio, East Legon
Set-up at Aburi, six hours before
Labadi, four hours before
What we will not do
Three things we decided early and have not revisited.
We take nothing from suppliers
No commission, no kickback, no preferred-partner fee. Every quote reaches you exactly as it reaches us, and our fee is our whole income. It is the only arrangement under which our opinion of a caterer is worth having.
We take fifteen celebrations a year
Not thirty. A planner running forty weekends is a diary, not a planner, and the difference shows at four in the afternoon when something has gone wrong and nobody senior is on site.
We work with the families, not around them
The customary side of a Ghanaian wedding is not an obstacle to be managed. We sit with both families before anything is booked, so the order of the day is agreed while it is still easy to change.
12
Years planning
340
Celebrations held
6
Planners on the bench
94
%Booked by referral
How it works
One — the conversation
A first meeting | 60–90 minutes | No charge
We ask what the day should feel like before we ask what it should cost.
You leave with an honest budget range and a note of what we would do first.
Two — the plan
Design, suppliers and a running order | 4–8 weeks
A drawn scheme, a costed supplier list and a schedule that survives contact with a real morning.
Every quote comes to you as it comes to us. We take no commission from any supplier, ever.
Three — the day
Rehearsal, set-up and the day itself | From dawn
We are on site before the tent, and one of us stays until the last chair is on the lorry.
You are handed a phone number in the morning and asked not to use it.
A note from Adjoa
I planned my sister's wedding in 2012 because nobody else would take it seriously at the budget she had. It went well, and then a friend of hers called, and then somebody I had never met. By the end of 2013 I had stopped doing anything else.
Twelve years on, the part I still care about most is the first meeting — the one where a couple tells you what they actually want and then apologises for wanting it. There is nothing to apologise for. Tell us the real thing and we will build the day around it.
Adjoa Mensimah · Founder