About me
Hi, I’m Manuela.
And actually, I never wanted to be a wedding celebrant.
MissionLove did not come out of a business plan. It came out of my own wedding.
My husband has Serbian roots, I am Swiss – and for us it was clear that our ceremony should bring both families, both cultures and of course both languages together.
What sounded quite obvious in our heads turned out to be surprisingly hard once we started looking for the right celebrant. Surely there had to be another way. After a few more “coincidences”, an idea took shape.
In 2015 it became MissionLove.
One idea turned into more than 380 stories.
What started as a solution to something I had missed myself quickly became much more. Since then I have accompanied more than 380 couples.
I have accompanied people who could hardly be more different, in places that have stayed with me to this day, and told stories that made me laugh, moved me and sometimes even surprised me. That is exactly why I love what I do.
And that is exactly what I still love about it: before our first conversation I have no idea what you are going to tell me.
Maybe you have been together since school.
Maybe you found each other on Tinder.
Maybe you didn’t like each other at all on the first date.
Maybe there are 5’000 kilometres between your home towns.
Tell me.
Attitude
Emotion yes. Kitsch no.
I love weddings. But I don’t think everything at a wedding suddenly has to be incredibly romantic.
So you will rarely hear me say that “two souls became one” or that fate always had a grand plan for you. Unless, of course, you really are two souls who believe in fate and grand plans. Then let’s talk about it.
What matters far more to me is that your guests recognise you in the ceremony. That they laugh because a story is simply so typically you. That it goes quiet in between. That someone perhaps wipes away a tear.
And that at some point you think: yes. That is exactly who we are.
Multilingualism
Languages are part of my story.
Travel, other countries, people and languages have always fascinated me. Before MissionLove existed I worked in marketing, PR and events, among other things.
Today a lot of that comes together. I write. I organise. I speak in front of people. I travel. And I get to meet new people and new stories all the time.
I hold ceremonies in Swiss German, German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Serbo-Croatian – and very often in more than one of them at the same time.
Because sometimes one language simply isn’t enough for a whole family.
A few things about me
And by the way, I am …
What’s next
And now MissionLove moves on.
After more than ten years and over 380 weddings, MissionLove is changing. Not completely. But geographically.
From mid-September 2027 my focus will be on destination weddings and international ceremonies. I want to accompany Swiss couples to wherever they want to say yes – and welcome international couples where it all started for me: in Switzerland.
Travel, languages, people and stories. When I think about it, it is actually quite a logical development.
A ceremony led by friends
A very personal note.
Maybe there is that one person in your life who knows you both like almost no one else. A best friend, a brother, a sister or someone who has walked beside you for years – and for you it is clear: this is the person who should lead our ceremony.
A beautiful idea. At least at first glance.
Because let’s be honest: usually that person originally comes from one side. It is your best friend, his brother, your long-time companion. And that is exactly where one of the biggest challenges of a ceremony begins: bringing both stories, both personalities and both sides together so that what emerges in the end is not one person’s ceremony, but your shared story.
And there is a responsibility that is easy to underestimate. A free ceremony is not simply a nice speech. It gives your wedding day its actual centre. For that one moment all of your favourite people are sitting together, you are standing at the front, maybe with a pounding heart and wet eyes – and that moment cannot be repeated.
That is why I like to ask couples one very simple question:
Would you let a colleague who has never done it before cut your hair on the morning of your wedding?
Probably not. Not because you don’t trust them. But because this day matters far too much to find out on exactly that morning whether it works.
And that is exactly how I see a wedding ceremony.
Personality matters enormously. So does closeness. But a good ceremony also needs experience, a feel for people, timing, dramaturgy, composure and the ability to lead at the right moment – and to step back completely the next.
Your friends should be doing something else on that day: laughing with you, crying with you, raising a glass and simply being guests.
The responsibility for your ceremony you may hand to someone who knows exactly how to turn it into your moment.
But really, this isn’t about me at all.
It is about whether you can picture me standing up front when you say yes. Because in the end you can choose the most beautiful venue, the most beautiful flowers and the best food. Your ceremony is where it gets personal – because in the end it is the ceremony that makes this day a wedding!
You tell me your story. And I tell it to your favourite people. So we should like each other and the gut feeling should be right. Don’t you think?
