At the Table with Alice Mopis

“At the Table” is a series of interviews and spotlight conversations with people I admire from within and outside of the wedding industry. These conversations focus on topics related to building an intentional, relationship-first business alongside a present, connected, values-driven personal life.

I met Alice this past March in Rome during the launch of The Wedding Privé. We spent 48 hours together, and I was completely enthralled with her joy, her creativity, and her energy. And she is such a BOSS!! Alice is from Ukraine and while her company was founded there, she designs and produces luxury events all over the world. I’ve loved getting to know her better since, and happy she said yes to an interview!

Follow Alice via her website and personal and business IG.

→ First of all, tell me in your own words what you do for work, and why you do it?

I’m Alice, the founder and CEO of Mopis Wedding Agency, and I’ve been planning and creating weddings for over 15 years. Weddings are not just my work - they are my lifestyle. They are a part of me, and I honestly can’t imagine living a different life.

I feel grateful and excited every time I become part of a couple’s love story. When I have the opportunity to create the concept and vision for a wedding, and then witness how it all comes to life - and to see how two separate families become one through this day - it feels incredibly special to me.

→ What does a typical day look like for you?

My routine day is about waking up at 5am - I start my day with meditation and my morning rituals, my quiet morning time. Around 6:30 - 7am my kids wake up, we play together and have breakfast. From 9 to 11am I try to schedule time for my personal development - English classes, sport, swimming (I really love to swim).

From 11am to 6 pm it’s typically work hours. Some days I work from home with my laptop, and some days are full of meetings - Zoom calls, planning, communication with couples and vendors.

The evening from 7 to 9pm is for kids and family - we spend time together and play. After that I usually either have Zoom meetings with couples from countries in different time zones, or I rest.

This is my typical day, but I’m not that much of a routine person - I don’t like when days all look the same. I thrive on different days, different rhythms, and different energy. I often have photo shoots or trips, both bit and small. I am addicted to traveling, and we often travel with the family (3 - 5 times per year). I also have many FAM trips, conferences, education trips, and of course I travel a lot for weddings and work.

During the year I have many wedding days - it’s a typical wedding planner’s day, from early morning until late at night, fully dedicated to the couple and the project. Wedding days are long and intense, but they are also the most beautiful and meaningful days in my work.

→ In her book Dare to Lead, Brené Brown says that every person has just two core values that shape everything else that they do or believe. Do you agree with that idea? If you could boil your values down to just two, what would they be? How do those influence how you do your work & live your life?

Oh, it’s difficult to frame all my beliefs and values into just two things, but I will try - I will take the courage to name three.

First - authenticity and inner work. I truly believe that every person already has all the answers inside. Everything is already within us, and it’s very important to learn how to listen to yourself, to go deeper, to find your strength, your freedom, your calm, your truth inside yourself - not outside, not by constantly chasing gurus or experts. All of that can be inspiring, but the most important work is the work you do with yourself. Reflection, silence, meditation, and time alone really help me stay connected to myself and understand my path. This value influences all my decisions in life and in business. In difficult moments, when life feels like a storm, I go inside - into silence and reflection - and I look for answers within. And when life is good, I still take time for silence and for myself, because in this very unstable world it’s very important to have inner strength and inner support.

I take care of my mental state, and this helps me a lot in my work - because no matter what force majeure happens, I stay calm inside. I know how to calm a couple, and I can always find a way to solve any problem.

Second - family and people. Family is everything to me. I truly value connection with people, and I believe that a person needs another person - we are not meant to do life alone. Big things are never done alone, they are done with a team. I value building deep, long-term relationships with people, in life and in work. For me, it’s very important to work not only with professionals, but with people who share the same values, because then work becomes something bigger than just work - it becomes a shared journey and shared responsibility.

Third - full self-realization and living up to your full potential. When I was younger, in my teenage years, one of my biggest fears was to grow up and be mediocre, to live an average life and not become who I truly could be. For me, it is very important to fully realize the potential that is inside me.

In my profession, many decisions I make are driven not by money, but by realization. I have a very clear point B - for myself and for my agency - and it’s very important for me to move toward it in an ethical, beautiful and meaningful way. For me, it’s not just about business, it’s about understanding what I am capable of creating, about growth, about becoming who I am meant to be.

→ The British author Alain de Botton has this famous quote: “There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.” I tend to agree with this idea, that work-life balance is an unhelpful goal, and we should instead think about aligned values and healthy rhythms in all spheres of life. What do you think about the phrase “work-life balance?” How do keep healthy rhythms & momentum going in both work and personal spheres?

This is an amazing question. I have thought about the idea of life-work balance many times and tried different strategies and practices to achieve it, and I have a very clear opinion about it.

I believe that in order to have the strength to build a career, a business, a family, and a meaningful life, a person has to take care of themselves first. I believe in the importance of taking care of what I call the four parts of a person - physical, emotional, mental and soulfulness. And I truly believe that it is very important to take care of all these parts. No matter if I have travel days or routine days, I always plan my schedule so I do something for each of these four parts.

For the physical part - it’s physical activity, sport, swimming (that’s where I really recharge). For the mental part - learning and personal development. For the emotional part - enjoying life, travelling, creating beautiful moments, because living like a robot and just running after goals is definitely not for me. And the soulfulness part - it’s silence, meditation, and time alone to reflect and reconnect with myself. I believe that if you take care of all these parts, you will have the strength and energy to achieve a lot in life, and to stay balanced through different life periods.

I also believe in focus, and I believe in periods of total focus - when in some periods of life you are fully focused on work, in some periods on children, in some periods on rest. When you are fully present in the moment, it creates very powerful results. For example, if I am at my child’s performance, I will not answer the phone, no matter what emergency it is. We have a family habit that we spend evenings without gadgets, when we hide our phones and spend time together for two hours. I will not reply to messages even if something happens.

And the opposite is also true - if I have an important big wedding in France, for example, and it’s the final week of preparation, I am fully immersed in it and I don’t pay attention to other areas of life except my health and my family. I believe that these periods of total focus can last for weeks, months, or even just 30 minutes a day, but when you are truly focused and fully present in what you are doing, the results are different, the experience is different, and the quality of life is different.

→ Some people argue that a focus on people and a focus on profit are competing priorities, but I love talking about the ways that running a relationship-first business aids in building more profitable, sustainable businesses. What do you think about this idea? Are they competing ideas? Why or why not?

I believe that a project should bring two kinds of satisfaction, joy & profit, and then it becomes a win-win. I could never do projects only for profit without getting emotional and aesthetic satisfaction from them, no matter how much money they would bring.

Of course, sometimes you can sacrifice one of the two. Sometimes you take a project that brings a big profit, but you understand that it’s not a portfolio story. And sometimes you sacrifice profit and take a very creative, beautiful project simply because you really want to create it. But this is only sometimes. Ideally, a project should bring both - satisfaction and profit.

This is the concept I believe in. When I was creating Mopis, the goal of making money was never the first priority. In the first years, I often worked at zero or even at a loss, because I was driven by interest and by the desire to create something extraordinary. I wanted to create “wow” projects, to surpass myself, to bring ideas to life that felt new and meaningful. This curiosity to create and this love for creating were, and still are, in the first place for me.

I believe that if you create something truly beautiful and meaningful, profit comes as a result. It’s very difficult to create grand, aesthetic, well-executed projects, to grow and to develop, and not have financial success as a result. For me, profit is a consequence, not the goal.

→ What are some ways that running a people-first business has benefited you? How has it benefited others?

When it comes to our approach, we try to make the whole working process comfortable and respectful for everyone involved. We really take care of our team and our vendors. For us, it’s important that people feel good working with us. We don’t see vendors as just suppliers - we see them as part of one team working on one project.

We build long-term relationships, we support each other, and I think people genuinely enjoy working with us because they receive not only well-organized work and clear communication, but also a good emotional experience. For all of us, weddings are not just work - they are part of our lifestyle. We spend many hours and days together on site, and it really matters with which people you spend this intense and important time.

If we talk about benefits for Mopis, I feel very grateful for the people around me. Many times I received support in difficult situations, and I always felt that people were ready to help and do more. Sometimes vendors do more than what is written in the contract, simply because of the relationship and trust we have built over the years.

At Mopis, we have a principle - to do more than expected - and very often we receive the same in return. For example, on one of last year’s projects we agreed on a simple cover band line-up, but they arrived with the full band as a compliment and said that they love working with us and wanted to do something special for us.

Very often both we and our couples receive these kinds of things simply because of strong relationships with vendors. Quite often, things that are impossible for others become possible for us - because people want to support us, because they trust us, and because we have grown together over the years.

→ Our culture and our industry is fast—trends come and go in the blink of an eye, and there’s just so much noise, especially on social media. It can be tempting to believe that the only way to stand out is to add to the noise, to follow trends, to make a bigger flash than our competitors. But what if you’re a quiet brand? I have written about the difference between Fireworks and Fireplace brands here. Would you say that your business is more of a fireworks display or a fireplace? How does that influence how you market?

Definitely fireworks. I like to think about myself as someone who sets trends, not follows them. I love fashion, I love trends, but at the same time I deeply value timelessness, depth and quality. But for me, this wow-effect - like fireworks - is very important.

I want guests to truly feel the experience. I want them to be surprised, to feel something new, and to leave the event with the feeling: “Wow - I have never experienced anything like this before.” That is the feeling I want people to have after the weddings we create.

For me, it’s not just about making a beautiful event - it’s about creating an emotional experience that people will remember for the rest of their lives.

→ How do you stay authentic when it often feels that “fake it ‘til you make it” energy is rewarded?

I really love your questions. Just like with the idea of life-work balance, I spent a lot of time thinking about the concept “fake it till you make it” and whether it is relevant to me. I came to the conclusion that this concept doesn’t really work, or it works only for a very short period of time. Because in the end, you are either the person you truly are, or you are a fake - and fake is always something temporary, unstable and not very strong.

I believe in authenticity and individuality. I believe that every person has their own unique strength, and the most important thing is not to pretend, but to truly understand who you are, what you want to create, and who you want to create it for. When you are whole inside, when you have your vision and you move step by step, it doesn’t really matter how many competitors there are on the market or what others are doing. If you know who you are, if you understand what you want to create, and you create it honestly and from the bottom of your heart - you will be different. Your authenticity will always be visible, and your people will find you.

I really love one phrase and I often repeat it to my students - if you try to be for everyone, you become no one. People who try to always be in trend, to be comfortable and convenient for the market, usually lose themselves. Only when you are truly yourself, when you create what you truly love, there will be real results.

And please, don’t fake anything. Replace the concept of “fake it till you make it” with another concept - know yourself and show yourself. It works much better.

→ What is bringing you joy in your work right now?

I truly love creating concepts. I’m also the owner of Mopis Decor Studio - we create decor and floristry, and aesthetics are very important to me.

There are two moments in my work that bring me the most joy. The first one is the moment of creating the concept - when it’s just an idea, a vision, a sketch, something that exists only in my mind and on paper.

And the second is the moment of realization - when I arrive at the venue and see how what was once just an idea, just a sketch, just a thought, comes to life in reality. When I see what we created, when I see the emotions of people, when I see how they experience this day - it brings me so much joy.

For me, this whole process - from idea to reality - is the most magical part of my work. That transformation is what I love the most.

→ If we were to meet here a year from now, what do you hope we would be celebrating?

What a beautiful question. I have a project in mind - I have a very clear vision, the budget, and the aesthetic I want to create. And I really hope that a year from now we will be celebrating the realization of this project.

For me, it’s a very special project, because it reflects the level, the aesthetics, and the ideas that I truly want to create and bring to life. So I really hope that next year I will be able to say - we did it.

→ Final question: what is the number one book you recommend to every creative entrepreneur?

Essentialism by Greg Mckeown. It’s not a book about creativity, but it is a book about the way we think and the way we choose to live. It’s about less but better, about focus, about choice, and about realizing your true potential. I believe everyone will find their own depth and their own answers in this book, and everyone will be able to take exactly what they need from it at the stage of life they are in.