Exclusive: Marianna Mukuchyan on Her Burning Man Wedding, Motherhood at 39, a Cake-Eating Bear, and Her Next Big Wedding in Marrakesh

By Syune Arakelyan
Photos courtesy of Marianna Mukuchyan’s Instagram

When celebrity hair and makeup artist Marianna Mukuchyan first danced through the dusty dunes of Nevada’s Burning Man festival back in 2013, she wasn’t just looking for artistic inspiration. She was dreaming of something bigger.

“I told my mom, ‘This is where I will find my love, and this is where I will get married,’” she remembers.

A bold declaration? Maybe. But fast forward ten years and eight trips to the Playa later, Marianna’s manifestation came to life.

In 2023, she met her now-husband Irenee Sutter at his first Burning Man. Two years later, in 2025, the couple returned to the desert to exchange vows in an unforgettable, eccentric, and deeply personal ceremony—with a few wild twists, including a bear that literally ate their wedding cake.

And that’s just the beginning.

“It took me 8 Burning Man to finally meet him”

“It was my 9th festival and his 1st,” recalls Marianna. “Since I went to Burning Man the first time in 2013, I had told my mom, one day I will meet my future husband at this festival. So every time I was going she was asking me, ‘And?… you met someone?’ And it took me 8 Burning Man’s to finally meet him in 2023… And now finally at my 9th Burning Man 2025 we got married.”

Irenee, it turns out, had a feeling right away. “He actually proposed to me at the Burn, where we met but I didn’t take it seriously. For me it took a little bit longer but it is all definitely meant to be… the real proposal was in 2024 in Ibiza where we already had our beautiful baby boy Phoenix Aram.”

“Our whole story is just such a destiny meant-to-be situation”

Marianna and Irenee’s love story didn’t follow a traditional path—and that’s exactly how she likes it.

“In our case things went very differently but I believe so much in destiny and that things happen for a reason and are meant to be, and our whole story is just such a destiny meant to be situation. I literally manifested all of it…

Now, when I look back at my first wishes before I went to Burning Man and after, what I said to my mom and what I wished for myself and also after, I was manifesting a lot to have a family and live in Ibiza (my favorite island) and to be with a man I can travel the world with and when I look at my life today… literally everything has become reality. This is so crazy… I have to do a new manifestation list now,” she smiles.

That cake… and that bear

No bohemian Burning Man wedding is complete without a twist, but even Marianna couldn’t have predicted the fate of their cake.

“As Burning Man is a festival in the middle of the desert of Nevada, it is pretty difficult to get a real wedding cake to that place and if you even get one, to keep it fresh till the wedding—especially when our wedding was planned on a Thursday and the festival started on Monday.

I actually had told Iveta (Mukuchyan) to cancel the wedding cake plans, but she was insisting to make sure we have one. So she went all out and got the marzipan figures made in Armenia with so much love and details. So the figures were transported all the way from Armenia and the cake was made in LA and Iveta herself drove it up all the way to Burning Man… such a journey!

Eventually, many things didn’t work out as planned and we didn’t have the chance to cut the wedding cake at Burning Man itself.”

So they brought it to Lake Tahoe, where they always unwind after the festival.

“And in Lake Tahoe there are many wild bears. We eventually had our cake-cutting moment with some of our crew at our last dinner in Tahoe and it was beautiful, and we left the cake with the friend of ours that is living in Lake Tahoe. She had stored it outside of her house and next thing we know—a real bear had attacked it and ate it… What an end to this cake,” Marianna laughs.

“At 39, I realized I wanted to become a mother”

After years of globe-trotting and styling celebrities like Aishwarya Rai, Priyanka Chopra, and her sister Iveta Mukuchyan, Marianna felt something shift.

“I actually was craving to have a change in my life and finally enter this new phase of life to become a mom when I was 39. Late, I know…

Actually, I knew I definitely wanted to have a family eventually, there was no question about it, but I didn’t feel like I was ready when I was in my late twenties or beginning of 30s. I was really loving and enjoying my life to the fullest… I was traveling the world and pursuing my career goals and jumping on all the adventure crossing my path.

And my parents were always asking me when I will finally be ready to settle down and I was always telling them to calm down, it will come in its time. But time was passing by and I was still living this wild and free life, and when I was turning 38–39, I was starting to feel a little bored of this life I was living…

Don’t get me wrong, it was still all amazing, but inside of me I was feeling some emptiness and I was asking for a change. I was seeing my cousins and friends with their kids and I was feeling the need to also myself finally enter this phase of life.”

She lit a candle at Geghard Monastery, made her wish—and a month later, her son Phoenix Aram was on the way.

“You never can be that old version again…”

“A lot is changing—your body, your feelings, your thoughts, and although you try to get back to your old version again (some take longer, some shorter to lose the pregnancy weight and become physically the old version again), you actually never can be that old version again…

Now you have this little human attached to you and are responsible for him. I am so blessed with such a sunshine baby.”

Life on the move—with a baby in tow

“I know I made it look easy (I heard it a lot from other people because I was still trying to work in between although he was just born). We are such a travel family, we literally take him with us everywhere. His passport is already half full with stamps from all the travels around the world, but it is still a lot of sacrifice and dedication to be a mother—especially I was breastfeeding him until he was 1 year and one month and that’s also another commitment on top…

You have to be fully available and dedicated every single day, but it’s all so worth it. He is just the new goal of life: to raise him and show him the world and give him a happy childhood and life, that’s my goal now.”

“Working and traveling kept me away from post-pregnancy depression”

“My mom has jumped in a couple of times and came and stayed with us in Ibiza, or India or Morocco to help us. I think it’s healthy to be active, also as a fresh mother—it keeps you away from depression.

So much is changing for a woman when she becomes a mother, and when she stays stagnant in one space and gives up everything, then of course she falls into depression (post-pregnancy depression is a hard thing).

So, I think because we kept me moving and tried to keep my work and travel alive as much as we could, it kept me away from the post-pregnancy depression.”

“Armenia is the perfect place for a child”

“I think Armenia is such a perfect space for children. Nowhere in the world have I seen such a child-friendly space where at every corner and spot there is something for children…

Of course it’s where my roots are and where I have grown up, and I love to see him here doing almost the same things I was doing when I was a child. He connects so beautifully with my family and Armenia. I will make sure he spends lots of time here every year. He loves it so much. So much entertainment for him here every day.”

Round Two: A Big Wedding in Marrakesh, 2026

Burning Man may have sealed the deal, but Marianna’s not done with wedding bells just yet.

“As many of our friends and family were not able to join the Burning Man wedding, my husband really wants us to do a proper big wedding with family and friends in 2026 in Morocco.

Like I said already, for me a Burning Man wedding is enough, but I understand his point and respect the fact and also want our family to witness it. So yes, we gonna have another wedding 2026 in Marrakesh, Morocco.

The date is actually already decided. November 22, 2026.”

“We are representatives of different nationalities, but we share the same value system”

“We both are from two different nationalities and upbringings: I am Armenian, I grew up partly in Armenia, partly in Germany. He is French from France (Metz). But we have similar values when it comes to family and how we see the world and life and want to be present and also goals… to set goals together and want to work on achieving them.

These things are important. They give the motivation for the relationship.”

Whether she’s styling A-list stars or chasing her baby across continents, Marianna Mukuchyan’s life reads like a manifest-your-dreams fairytale—with a little chaos, a lot of love, and just the right touch of Burning Man dust.