High Emotion Weddings is a destination wedding planning and design studio in Vienna, run by Irene Gutan and her husband Mihai, who started it together in 2014. They plan full weddings, elopements, marriage proposals, vow renewals, anniversary parties and editorial shoots for international couples, and they limit themselves to six to ten clients a year so that each one has their attention.
Irene leads the planning and the design. She studied economics and communication and PR, then worked in accounting, project and process management and internal communications at multinational companies before founding the studio. Mihai, who studied philology and business development and has a background in international logistics, scouts venues and handles the practical side, with a particular love of Italy.
“We believe your love story is unique and deserves our full attention.”
High Emotion Weddings
Their work is mainly in Austria and Italy, in historic settings: Vienna palaces such as the Liechtenstein City Palace, Palais Coburg and Palais Daun-Kinsky, Salzburg and the Alps, Lake Como, Venice, the Amalfi Coast and Tuscany. They have also planned weddings in France, Germany and the Czech Republic, and list Paris, the French Riviera, Provence and Greece among their favourite destinations. They are not tied to particular venues or vendors and make recommendations from the couple's vision.
They offer full-service planning, design and coordination only. They do not take partial planning or day-of coordination alone, and a design is created in-house to suit each couple. Most couples live abroad, so planning runs by email, a shared online planning platform and regular video calls, and the couple often meet the team in person only when they arrive.
The style is classical and elegant, with an emphasis on flowers, table design, couture and the character of each venue. Weddings often run over a weekend or longer, with welcome dinners, boat trips, tastings and a farewell brunch designed to sit alongside the wedding day itself.
