SEE HOW Vlad and Elena brought their floral-filled dream wedding to life at Bernadazzi RESTAURANT in Odesa, Ukraine with a modern romantic intimate wedding ceremony captured by Luxury Barcelona based wedding photographers Couple Stories.
Between Liana and I, we have over 20 years experience in photography and have shot countless weddings across the globe. But despite having shot dream worldwide destination weddings in beautiful countries like Spain (where we're currently based in Barcelona) and Greece, if you asked us to choose our favorite wedding venue, Bernadazzi Restaurant in our hometown of Odesa would be it. To us, it's the best wedding venue in Europe that mixes rich historical culture with modern elegance and style. And there's no better wedding that showcases its true beauty than Vlad and Elena's.
With wedding season in full swing and brides-to-be planning their weddings for 2024, we had to share one of our favourite ever wedding days for details and design: Vlad and Elena's chic, garden-in-the-city wedding.
Wedding trends have seen rustic and bohemian wedding styles become increasingly more popular, and have completely changed how planners approach the idea of a 'luxury' wedding. Luxury weddings are no longer about being over the top, rather organic, refined and intentional. We love this change in aesthetic because it feels so much more timeless and romantic, and means than your wedding day is all about making the intimate details of your love the focal point: It's all about you.
Keep reading to experience a wedding that truly felt like a contemporary fairytale, and fall in love with Vlad and Elena's fashion-forward take on a garden wedding in the city.
A modern, garden-inspired wedding in the bustling heart of Odesa, Ukraine
Vlad and Elena's wedding took place at Bernadazzi Restaurant, our pick for one of the most beautiful intimate wedding locations in Ukraine: they officially said “I do” in the building's courtyard under an altar of florals surrounded by candles designed by Anastasiia Kornieieva and followed up their ceremony with an indoor reception in Bernadazzi Restaurant's main hall. We loved this venue choice, as it's the perfect location for a non-traditional wedding that still celebrates the rich culture and historical architecure of Ukraine. It also has space for, so you can plan your wedding timeline without the need for travelling between venues to keep your wedding day simplified and stress free!
Although Bernadazzi Restaurant is already a stunning location, Vlad and Elena's personalities came to life in the details and decorations they chose with the help of Ma-Nisha Decor which truly transformed the venue beyond anything we could have ever invisioned. Their fashionable renaissance vision was brought to life by Ludmila Kashchyshena, one of the best planners and wedding stylists in Europe.
For their ceremony, overhead string lights and candles made the courtyard feel like a dimly lit Shakesperian castle, with orange, brown and pink flowers delicately scattered across the stone steps. The minimal decor perfectly balanced regal with rustic for an effortlessly refined take on the traditional luxury wedding aesthetic, capturing both the joyful warmth of spring/summer weddings and the cosy, ‘hygge’ vibes that Fall weddings are most loved for.
The reception dinner carried on the same theme, with centrepieces created using more fall florals by Anastasiia Kornieieva, wax dinner candles and brass accents. Their cake – a 2-tiered minimalistic wedding cake embellished with a sugar sculpture - truly felt like it belonged in an art gallery. Like the rest of their wedding, the reception followed the theme of keeping things sleek and intentional, with minimal yet breathtaking details that showcased Vlad and Elena's love for art and style but didn't distract from their love and creating raw memories.
Elena designed her own wedding gown: a unique, non-traditional gown that wouldn't look out of place on any runway in the world – the most stunning, high-fashion fishtail wedding dress with white tulle sleeves, a tulle neckline and a skirt with a high slit. The silhouette was almost sculptural, and It was a truly editorial wedding dress that was show-stopping and made an impact without being over the top. It's the kind of wedding dress we would recommend to anybody who loves minimal fashion and contemporary design, but still wants to make a statement with their wedding dress. To us, this dress is the definition of modern glamour.
The accessories she chose like a cream pearl necklace and effortlessly cool sunglasses were reminiscent of vintage models and actresses like Audrey Hepburn, and further emphasized the overal classic romantic aesthetic of Vlad and Elena's wedding story. It was so easy to get creative with this idea when we were creating flatlays and taking portraits, because we drew our inspiration from vintage fashion postcards and Vogue magazine, channeling 1990s supermodels to capture unique and glamorous editorial-style bridal portraits. It was important to us to take time capturing these photographs, as one of our main goals for capturing you wedding day is to make you feel like a beautiful model straight out of the pages of a magazine - It's your once-in-a-lifetime day to feel like a star, and there's more to your wedding that just the ceremony itself. We want to paint the whole story with as much attention to detail and artistic beauty!
Scroll down to fall in love with the beautiful editorial-inspired portraits we took of Elena and Vlad whilst they were getting ready at and exploring the nearby botanical greenhouse, and save them for your Pinterest Board for your own wedding planning ideas! These poses are guaranteed to make you feel like the most beautiful, stylish and empowered version of yourself on your wedding day and give you fashion magazine-inspired photographs you'll be proud to cherish forever.
A truly breathtaking wedding day to remember, forever.
Vlad and Elena – Thank you so much for inviting Couple Stories to be a part of your special day, we're grateful to you and all of the incredibly talented vendors who we worked alongside to bring your unique wedding to life! The timeless blend of Ukranian culture and architecture with contemporary fashion, art and style created moments we'll never forget and hope to channel into all of our future weddings in Barcelona, Spain and beyond.
Couple Stories are currently booking weddings for 2023, 2024 and beyond across Barcelona, Spain, Europe and worldwide — Book your Barcelona OR Destination wedding with Liana and Vadym by inquiring via the Couple Stories website, and for more of our favorite editorial-inspired weddings, modern love stories, luxury wedding concepts, real wedding and elopement inspiration follow us on Instagram here.
Full list of vendors :
Venue: Bernadazzi Restaurant (note: Since capturing this wedding, Bernadazzi Restaurant has sinced closed down. But get in touch with us for more of our recommendations on modern wedding venues in Ukraine!)
Photography: Couple Stories
Florals: Anastasiia Kornieieva
Planning: Ludmila Kashchyshena
Decor/Rentals: Ma-Nisha Decor
Share this story
