S3, EP16: Real couple: A vibrant, vegan wedding at Glasshaus (Pia + Suny)

Eddy: Welcome to Project Engaged, a podcast for fun loving couples planning their non traditional wedding.

Aleks: We’re wedding DJs Aleks and Eddy Mac from Melbourne. We run a business called One More Song, and our tagline is No More Nutbush.

Eddy: In this podcast, we’ll share our wedding experiences and chat to some of our past couples.

Aleks: We’ll also interview bold wedding suppliers who share our philosophy of your wedding being a celebration of you as a couple and wild. One epic party.

Eddy: Let’s get into today’s episode.

Aleks: Welcome to another episode of Project Engaged.

Eddy: Yeah, I’m excited.

Aleks: So am I. We always say we are, but we are doing a real couple episode today. Woohoo. Eddy is a little bit sick. Oh, no, you’re gonna tell people.

Eddy: Oh, no, I’ve just got a bit of. I think it’s called man flu that’s going around. It’s a technical term, so my voice is a little bit huskier than it usually is. So, yeah, just FYI, guys.

Aleks: Yes, I think everyone knows what the man is like. Anyway, anyway, let’s get into it. So today we are chatting to one of my couples, Pia and Sunny, who got married in November last year at the lovely glass house outside. And then with the reception at Glass House inside. Yeah, this couple. I mean, talk about non traditional. This is it. The couple had such a unique day and really put their stamp on it.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: You know, everything from what they wore. Lots of little personal touches throughout the day. Really long. Do not playlist, but we’ll get into that later. And we’ll put some photos up as well when we share the episodes.

Eddy: Yes. See, I think they broke the Internet when those sneak peeks went on Instagram.

Aleks: I know I said that, too. Absolutely. So let’s welcome Pia and sunny.

Pia: Whoo.

Eddy: We are clapping away. What’s all happening?

Aleks: I feel like you just, like, hit all the sound effects we have in one go. How are you guys?

Pia: Great.

Suny: How are you?

Aleks: Good. We’re very good. And we were chatting.

Pia: Thank you so much for having us, guys.

Eddy: Oh, the pleasure’s all ours, guys. Thank you.

Aleks: Thank you so much. And we were just chatting before we started recording that you guys are planning a wedding. 2.0.

Pia: Yes. In India. We’ve got our hindu celebration with Sunny’s family in October, so looking forward to that. But, yeah, more wedding planning now.

Eddy: Just when you thought it was over, it starts again. Oh, that’s so cool. That’s so exciting.

Aleks: Just keep the party going, we say.

Pia: Absolutely. And, yeah, it’s just gonna be so lovely. Like, all my family are here and we had that beautiful celebration and then to have that with Sunny’s family as well. Yeah.

Suny: Especially when most of them couldn’t make it to wedding here.

Pia: Yeah.

Eddy: Yeah.

Pia: It’ll be lovely.

Aleks: Aw, that’s amazing.

Eddy: That’s so cool.

Aleks: All right, well, let’s start at the beginning of the story and tell us about your engagement and how long you’re engaged for before you started planning your wedding and maybe even go back to how you guys met. Cause that’s cool as well.

Pia: We met at a salsa dance class.

Suny: Yeah.

Pia: Yeah. So it was actually lovely. Cause there were, like, 100 people all coupled. And then the music stopped and the dance class stopped while we were partnered.

Suny: It kind of rotates while the partners change.

Pia: Yeah. So.

Suny: And when the music stopped, towards the end, we were together. And I asked Pia for her number so we can practise later.

Pia: She said yes.

Suny: She said she would give it. And then we listened to the teacher speak, and then afterwards, she said she would rather be friends on Facebook, just.

Pia: In case you were creepy.

Eddy: Yeah, smart. It’s also smart.

Pia: Yeah.

Suny: That was a bit of a bummer, but it worked.

Aleks: Oh, my God, that’s so funny. And how long was it before you guys got engaged?

Pia: Three and a half years.

Suny: Yeah.

Pia: Yeah.

Suny: 2020. December.

Pia: And then we were engaged for two years. Thanks, COVID.

Eddy: That little chestnut.

Aleks: Oh, yeah. They took the, you know, in the supermarkets, they put up those, like, screens. I don’t know if you guys had this at your local supermarket, but at local Audi, they had, like, the screens up, you know, to protect the. What do they call it? Cashiers. Anyway, they took them down today, and it was quite shocking.

Pia: Yeah.

Eddy: You know, the pandemics truly over when those come.

Aleks: I think that was the sign. So we try not to talk about it too much, but, yeah. So quite a. Quite a long planning period for you guys, then.

Pia: Yeah, well, we didn’t do anything for the first year because we just didn’t want to book anything in, but that meant that we did book things in just over a year in advance. So we got everyone that we really loved, which was fantastic.

Suny: Yeah.

Pia: And the engagement, you can tell that.

Suny: Oh, well, I was initially gonna propose to her in Paris because we were gonna go on a Europe holiday in 2020, and then we had to cancel it because, obviously, lockdowns.

Eddy: Yep.

Suny: And then I improvised, took her away to Phillip island because she hadn’t been to Phillip island before then I wanted to propose in the vineyard, and the.

Pia: Entire island lost power.

Suny: Yeah. On that night, I was, like, very lucky.

Pia: But on the last day sunny got us breakfast. He booked this beautiful, like, b and b overlooking the ocean, and he hid the ring in an avocado, which I almost ate. And then he used the avocado as a ring box. And I was laughing so much that, like, that was like the perfect vegan proposal that I forgot to say yes. So he was just kneeling there, like, what’s happening? But the whole weekend was just beautiful. It was so. It was so lovely. And, yeah, it was a really, really beautiful time.

Aleks: So tell me, do you slice open the avocado and then, like, smoosh the ring in?

Pia: Yes. So it all covered in avocado. When I put it on, I hope.

Eddy: It wasn’t a shepherd avocado. I hope it was the other type, the hass.

Pia: Yeah. So.

Suny: Smoosh it right before the Christmas as well.

Pia: Yeah. And after a year of lockdown, it was so lovely to see the family over Christmas and celebrate engagement, sort of. Yeah.

Aleks: Good timing. Who needs Paris? Hey.

Pia: Yeah.

Eddy: An island with a blue island and a vegan proposal.

Pia: I love it.

Aleks: Ah, now that does that. Is that why you wore the avocado socks? Sunny?

Suny: Yes. Yes.

Eddy: That’s the thing, right?

Pia: It’s kind of an in joke because I love avocado so much and I put it in everything and he absolutely hates it.

Suny: I hate it. I’m allergic to avocado.

Eddy: Oh, no.

Suny: My whole mouth gets wounded.

Pia: And so he wore the avocado socks because I always make him eat it. So it was like a bit of an joke on the day.

Aleks: Oh, my God, that’s so cute. I love it. I love it. Let’s talk about wedding planning process. Did you guys have a sort of vision for your big day? At the outset?

Pia: Yeah. So we never had, like, a theme or even, like, you know, a colour scheme or anything like that. I think we tried to base everything off sustainability. So when you. When we made big decisions, it was what was the most sustainable way that we can do this? Our whole wedding was vegan. We did things like, I actually hand wrote all the place cards on leaves from our lime tree, and then that all ended up in our compost bin. So, you know, things like that. That’s what we meant forward in the wedding. And I think the venue also really helped us with our vision because it’s got that industrial and a bit rustic look. So that really helped us. And we wanted it to just feel like a big family dinner. Like, not formal, relaxed. We had gnts when people arrived and we just wanted it to feel like us. We wanted it to feel personal and we just wanted everyone to have fun. And, of course, like, the music really.

Suny: Informed that as well.

Pia: Like, I feel like the. I don’t know, the music, like, is such a big part of our vision. Like, we. We met dancing and we love dancing and we love music and we felt like that was such a huge part of our day.

Suny: It was amazing having all the music that we love being learned.

Pia: I know, like, you know, you never have that.

Suny: It’s always like there would be some song that you don’t like or don’t really, really connect to.

Eddy: Yeah.

Suny: But that night, it was all.

Pia: Yes. And it wasn’t generic. You know, it was like, you know, you just. You can see the love and, like, that it was really curated for us, which was so beautiful.

Suny: Yeah.

Pia: Wanted to thank you for that, Aleks.

Eddy: Well done.

Aleks: Thanks, guys. Good job. Good job.

Suny: Obviously, and obviously we wanted to do a vegan dinner as well, so moroccan subba.

Pia: Oh, my God, that was incredible.

Suny: It was all absolutely incredible. Plant based and vegetable and, you know.

Pia: Yeah, she just did an amazing job.

Suny: Nothing mock, mock meaty.

Aleks: That’s right. Actually, very true. Hearty, beautiful food. And the. The team there is just gorgeous as well. Just really, like, you know, I felt like, I did feel like I was at some, like someone’s house, like at a family.

Pia: That’s right. Yeah. And we, you know, the wine menu we curated ourselves. We had sparkling wine from our favourite restaurant, our cake toppers. We had our national animals from Australia and India. So we had, like, a little kangaroo bride and a tiger groom on top of the cake.

Eddy: I remember seeing that. That was so cute.

Pia: Yeah. So we just wanted everything to reflect us and our. And your wedding is about celebrating our, you know, your love and so you want everyone to feel that and to feel your love for them being there on that day. And so, yeah, that’s what we. We wanted everything to feel like.

Aleks: Yeah, I feel like you guys still got such a good balance of, like, a really aesthetically beautiful and vibrant wedding with that warm feeling, which I think is really, like, it’s good to achieve that because sometimes, you know, there’s a huge focus on, like, aesthetics, but then, yeah, not so much the atmosphere, which is, you know, I think what you guys are talking about, that feeling that you want your guests and you guys to come away with. So that’s really good. And I’m glad I wore. Given it was a sustainable wedding, I’m glad I wore a higher dress.

Pia: I actually didn’t know that.

Aleks: There you go. You heard it here first.

Suny: Nailed it.

Aleks: Except now every time I see, like, our sound guy, Dale, every time he sees me when I’m setting up, he’s like, is that one of your high addresses?

Eddy: Well, most of the time it is.

Aleks: It is, actually, to be fair. Yes, yes. But the way he asks is weird. I’ll have a chat to him about that.

Eddy: So, guys, you obviously spent a lot of time really thinking about the overall experience, not just from the aesthetic, but from the atmosphere as well. Who were the other vendors that you chose in order to make that happen?

Suny: We sort of went. Started with the venue, there were a few venues, and Pia was like, okay, let’s go to this.

Pia: Yeah. I told Sunny I wanted to buy plants at a very particular pace that was not close to our house.

Suny: Yeah.

Pia: Oh, yeah.

Suny: I didn’t actually know that this was going to be a hallway.

Pia: That’s right. I remember you walked in and you took this deep breath and you. You just said that it had such amazing energy.

Suny: Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Eddy: We’ve discussed it a few times on this podcast we have with Glass House. Inside vibe.

Aleks: Good vibe.

Eddy: Just the. The plants soaking up all the carbon dioxide, I think is what.

Suny: What? Wedding.

Eddy: Yeah.

Suny: And, you know, since weddings can be intense, we. We thought, that’s perfect. That’s venue. So after that, we sort of went with the biggest vendors. I mean, like, main vendors.

Pia: And the ones that, you know, were really important to us.

Suny: Were important to us, like, you know, photography, DJ celebrant and, uh, catering.

Pia: Yeah. Um, so for. I think we got precious first, our celebrant. Um, yeah, she was absolutely amazing. Incredible. Um, the most amazing acknowledgement of country I’d ever heard, actually. And just. Yeah. Really got to know us. Yeah, she’s amazing.

Suny: Very funny.

Pia: Yeah, yeah.

Aleks: Wicked. Wicked.

Eddy: Yeah, wicked sense of humour. That’s a, that’s a good way of putting it.

Pia: And we had b here. B. Now for photos, as we said, moroccan super. And I don’t know, we just. Every time we chatted with a new vendor, like, it just. They just felt like a friend. And I think we just really connected with everyone and we felt so taken care of by everyone on the day. And just so. I don’t know, like, it’s safe. A weird word. Like, you just want to leave it with the vendors and trust them.

Eddy: Yeah.

Pia: Even though I gave you the longest loan list you’d ever seen, that’s kind of how we went with our vendors. Just. Yeah, yeah.

Eddy: And you had. You also had Emma curry as your coordinator, right.

Suny: That was towards the end.

Eddy: Yeah.

Suny: But before that, we had you.

Eddy: I didn’t even need to do the sound effects.

Aleks: No, I do. No, we should be. Yeah, sorry, I thought Emma was involved early on. So we will go into Emma’s role, but just to talk about the meeting, initial meeting I had with Pia and Sunny as well. They were so excitable and they also. So to our listeners, we have something that we call the ultimate 40 Wedding Bangers, which is a playlist of songs that if we had to go to a wedding and we had absolutely no brief, we would play, because they’re pretty safe bets and cover a lot of genres. Well, anyway, Pia and Sunny had, in preparation for the meeting and then sent to me afterwards a sort of colour coded assessment of every single song. And there was an excel spreadsheet and there were columns. One column for Pia, one column for Sunny, and how they felt about each song. I have to say, by the time you actually put all the brief together, I don’t know if I referred back to. No, it was too much for my brain to process.

Eddy: I remember Aleks showing me this. I’m like, yeah, who are these people?

Aleks: That was really. I really liked that because I was like, okay, they’re invested. Yeah. Music is really.

Pia: Yeah. And music is so important to us. We know we loved it. And on the night, like, yeah. We just felt that you really got us and you played music that reflected us as a couple, not just what you felt like would work at a general wedding, you know what I mean?

Aleks: Yeah.

Pia: Everyone loved it. And, you know, you still have to put into account the varied people that are at weddings and what’s going to work and what people and everyone just had such a great time. I can’t believe it. You even got my dad on the dance floor, which I couldn’t believe. I have photos of him dancing. There’s proof.

Eddy: He can’t deny it.

Aleks: He’s like, I didn’t dance. He’s like, yes, he did.

Pia: Oh, sorry.

Aleks: No, you gone. Gone.

Pia: No. Well, we definitely want to talk about Emma because we had a blank canvas venue. You can go with packages at Glasshouse, but we wanted it to be curated by us. And there were just so many details and liaising with so many different vendors. And we wanted to say that, like, so many people say, oh, get a coordinator. And we were just thinking, oh, it’s not quite in our budget. And we made sure that we had the room to hire Emma. And I’m so glad we did that because she was so incredible and we wish we’d done it sooner. Even just emailing her. Emma. Where on earth do I get biodegradable confetti from? And she just, you know, has the information always. She took such amazing care of us. I went up to her and I said, oh, I’ve got a bit of a headache. And then she leaves the venue and comes back with Nirofen. Like, she just was so kind and lovely, and I definitely would recommend finding a coordinator and someone like that who’s really lovely and genuinely cares about you, you know?

Eddy: Yeah.

Suny: Closer to the wedding, the amount of emails we were getting.

Pia: Yeah.

Suny: Without Emma, we would have been.

Pia: It would have been too overwhelming. Yeah, absolutely.

Eddy: Yeah.

Pia: So big shout out to Emma.

Eddy: It doesn’t surprise me. Yeah, absolutely. Go, Emma. It doesn’t surprise me that she’s so good in the lead up because I’ve worked with her a couple of times now, and it’s honestly like having another member of the family helping you out on the day. She’s just fantastic.

Pia: That’s Emma Curry for everyone listening.

Aleks: Yeah, I think she even. Did she even drive you guys at the end of the night? Did I imagine that.

Eddy: Trouble for saying that?

Aleks: The uber. The uber, yes.

Eddy: That’s not part of the service.

Pia: She packed with, like, a big bunch of food as well. She’s just beautiful.

Eddy: Going over and above. I love it.

Aleks: I know. She was running around. Seriously, I was like, wow, she. Yeah, she’s on top of everything. It was so good. So good.

Pia: And I just. I feel like. Yeah, just a shout out to all our vendors. That was so incredible. Yeah, everyone. Yeah. Really, really. So loving and took such good care of us.

Aleks: Oh, it was an absolutely gorgeous day, and I do feel like there was a lot of love between all the vendors as well. Everyone was just working together. That always makes for such an enjoyable experience for everyone. Um, so you guys also had, uh, precious MC as well, which was a nice, nice touch and obviously very good to have. I still get the rogue MC’s, you know, the ones who precious bringing is.

Suny: Um, g and t’s.

Pia: Yeah.

Aleks: Now that. Yeah, that is a good serve.

Eddy: That doesn’t sound like precious. Just kidding.

Pia: But the celebrate really, like, forms, um, your day and, like, your wedding. And so having that continue into an MC role was. Was really wonderful.

Eddy: Yeah. Yeah. Pia, you literally just took the words out of my mouth. I was going to say the exact same thing, but, yeah, well, also, like, they build a sense of authority as well, so it’s so much easier for them later on to capture the attention of your friends and family when it’s time for speeches and things. Like that. So, yeah, she does a great job.

Pia: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Aleks: Um, Pia, I helped. I think I told you I helped your mum put on her sketchers.

Pia: Oh, my God. No, I didn’t know that.

Eddy: All this new information is being uncovered.

Aleks: It’s, like, hard to lean over in a dress and put your shoes on. She had these hot pink sketchers.

Eddy: Oh, that’s nice.

Aleks: And I was like, where did you get those from? And obviously, it’s in my best interest that the mother of the bride is comfortable and ready to boogie.

Eddy: Tear it up.

Pia: Yeah. She had her runners ready for the dance floor.

Aleks: What a legend they were really. They were really nice, too. I have to check them out. But anyway, that was. That was a pretty funny little moment, too. Lots of night, everyone just chipping in, you know, as.

Pia: I didn’t know about that.

Aleks: I think I told you that. But, you know, so much happens if you’re gonna remember every single detail.

Suny: Yeah.

Aleks: So, guys, let’s talk about. So you mentioned, obviously, the venue and stuff. So what? Where else did you find your vendors? Like, what sort of process did you go through in finding process?

Suny: Probably Google.

Eddy: Yeah.

Suny: And also wedding blogs, correct?

Pia: Yeah. So I was a little bit of a wedding stalker because we had such a long engagement. I just followed so many people, like, on Instagram, and I would read blogs every morning. And when I saw a wedding that had an aesthetic that I love, I look at the venues that they had.

Eddy: Yeah.

Pia: And then, you know, when we started deciding on the venue that we had and, you know, a couple of vendors that we liked, we’d see what vendors they’d worked with. So I used rock and roll magazine, Bride magazine, and hello, May. And, yeah, a lot of Instagram as well.

Suny: No wonder. Just as we were about to book or decide on the date and everything, I went to Pierre and I was like, yeah, let’s book the date. And she was like, here’s all the vendor lists.

Pia: Now you know who’s making all those lists?

Eddy: Aleks, you’re the culprit.

Pia: I’ve always been someone who loves organising things, organising parties. I even organise events at work. And I was chatting to precious about that and saying, you know, I felt a bit bad, like, I wanted to make sure that sunny was included, too. It’s both of our wedding. And precious was talking about how, if one of you love organising, just go for it. As long as you’re involving your partner and you’re giving them a whole lot of options. If one person enjoys that, I think it’s really good because we discussed that we love documentary photography. So I researched into that and we wanted a photographer who, you know, we could laugh with and have fun with and not feel formal with. And that’s. That’s how we found Chris and Charney, who are incredible. So I think it was just a lot of research over a long time. There wasn’t really one particular place that we went to.

Aleks: Yeah. And it’s interesting what you’re saying about being organised because I think as long as you’re making decisions together as a couple and.

Pia: Yeah.

Aleks: So it’s not just like one person.

Eddy: Just doing everything, just.

Aleks: Yeah.

Pia: But I love it. I love doing that kind of stuff. And I would start my morning with coffee and a wedding vlog while we were. I come up to sunny and say, oh, you know, here’s a few that I like, and then we go through it together.

Suny: Yeah, yeah. Decide to get. We decided everything together. Yeah. Except for the dresses, I mean.

Pia: Yeah.

Aleks: Oh, okay, well, let’s get on to that topic because it’s a big one. Tell us, Pia. Tell us about your dresses.

Pia: We completely surprised each other. Only one person knew what we were both wearing and that was because I was really worried Sunny was going to wear green and we’d look like Mister and misses Claus, so. Yeah. But it was just great surprising each other. It was so fun. I loved what you wore.

Suny: Yeah. And choosing my suit was sort of a challenge for me because Pia already chose her dress, so she got to, you know, pick whatever she wanted. I had to be specific. I had to be specific. It had to match her dress. So I was liaising with her friend, one of the brides people, and, you know, figuring out if the colour matches and if it’s suitable.

Aleks: A bit of pressure for your brides person to.

Suny: She was very helpful. Anna.

Pia: Yeah. She’s got, like, a background in art curatorship, so.

Eddy: Oh, if there’s someone that can help you.

Pia: Yeah. But, yeah, sunny got his suit, you know, hand tailored and it just looked amazing.

Aleks: It was gorgeous and it was like a plum sort of colour, am I right?

Suny: Yes, it is.

Pia: Yeah. And velvet.

Suny: Yes, velvet.

Eddy: I love velvet.

Suny: My concierge, they’re based in Richmond.

Pia: Yeah. And I, I knew from the get go I didn’t want to wear white and I felt a bit overwhelmed about where I wanted to go. I went to one bridal boutique and said to them, I only wanted vegan fabric. And they said to me, oh, we value quality over sustainability.

Aleks: Oh, cougar. I see ya.

Pia: And so I try. I went online and I got a beautiful dress and then it arrived and it was made so incorrectly that it fell off my body and so stressful. And then I was stressed and I posted it back to them, put it in the wrong bag, and Australia post never found it. It’s still wandering around somewhere.

Suny: Yeah. Putting it in an international parcel bag. We put it in a national one.

Pia: Yeah. So it was just so stressful. And look, they just gave me a refund, which I’m so grateful for, because a couple of days later, I just went on Google, I found Duchess boutique, and I thought, I’m just gonna, you know, give it a go. Walked in and I bought the second dress that I tried on that day. You know, they were just so lovely, so incredible to work with, and I just felt amazing. And I found. Yeah. The dream dress. I loved what I wore, and Duchess were just incredible show stopper.

Aleks: And you had. So the. Again, we’ll put the photos up. How would you describe the colour? Like a cherry.

Pia: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Like, yeah. Very red and a very big dress. Lots of chool. I knew I wanted some sequins and that, you know, there was some sequins along the corset. Yeah, it was just gorgeous. And then I was like, oh, no, it’s too big to dance in. I’ll have to get a second dress. Because dancing said it was very important to us.

Suny: Yeah. Because we met at the dance class.

Pia: Yeah, yeah. And we had a choreographed dance that we did for our first dance as well. So the second dress was blue and sparkly and had a corset as well, with sequins and basically as extra as you can get.

Aleks: I love it. I think I actually went up to you again. You probably don’t remember this because me and my silly comments I make, I’m like, I would describe your dress as a pinot noir.

Pia: Oh, I like that.

Aleks: Yeah. Because it wasn’t a shiraz. It wasn’t a shiraz. It was like a pinot noir.

Eddy: I love that you’re just, like, coming up.

Aleks: I really feel like a glass of wine anyway.

Eddy: Lots of descriptions on the dance floors.

Aleks: Like, no, this is before the dance vlogs.

Eddy: I was picturing Aleks, like, moving away from the decks and just describing everybody’s outfit on the dance floor. It’s like part of the service.

Aleks: No, me go, you know, going to the bathroom when it’s a sit down, a glass house, it’s snug, very lovely and cosy and intimate, but snug. So I just took the opportunity. Whenever I saw Pia and sunny on my way, just to some more descriptive, some more descriptive words. So, um, yeah, pinot noir dress.

Pia: Um.

Suny: Oh, I love it.

Aleks: I’ve lost my, lost my track. Now, there was something else I was gonna ask, but I’ve completely, I’m sure. Oh, no, we’re gonna say, okay. So, yes, at one point during the. Actually, it was before the beginning of the dance floor, your mum came up to me and said, oh, Kylie wants to sing. And I’m like, who the hell is Kylie? I’m like, oh, yeah, great karaoke time.

Pia: Oh, my God, we’re so funny because you look so stressed.

Aleks: I was like, I was like, okay. I just, I’ve had before where like, people, like, someone wants to sing and then it just turns like. And then everyone is like, drunk and wants to grab the mic and they scream into the mic and it’s distorted.

Eddy: The venue’s annoyed at you.

Aleks: Venue’s annoyed and it’s just like, kind of ruins it and it just turns into a sort of drunk karaoke. But so I thought it was that. So I’m like, I’m like, okay, yep, just like, get her to come and chat to me or whatever. She grabbed the mic.

Pia: Anyway, imagine the stress that you’ll be under. Like, well, because I had to come up to me because mum said, oh, Kylie wants to sing a song. And I was like, oh, wow, that’s so lovely and generous of her. And then Aleks asked me and I said, yeah, no, that’s fine. And Aleks is like, are you sure?

Aleks: Oh, I did, yeah, I checked with you. That’s how stressed I was.

Pia: I was like, hmm.

Aleks: I was like, okay, all right. Anyway, Kylie’s the vocalist on what a very, very popular. What is it? Like a fungsol house remix song? Anyway, this girl, which is kings versus.

Eddy: It’s kung’s kungs. This is them smoking on three burners.

Aleks: Cooking on three burners.

Eddy: Sorry, Kylie.

Aleks: Which is a great song. And then once, yeah, she got on the mic, I was like, okay, okay.

Eddy: Yeah.

Pia: Yeah. So talented, so generous of her. It was just amazing to have her sing on the night.

Suny: Totally.

Pia: Yeah. I love her.

Eddy: That was so cool because I think Aleks sent me a video when she was like, I don’t know, in the cab home or whatever, and I’m like, oh, my God, is that person.

Aleks: I know. And so many people commented like, oh, my God. Because it’s such a, such a popular tune.

Eddy: Oh, it’s huge.

Aleks: For weddings. So I was like, very happy player. I’m very happy for Kylie. Whoa.

Eddy: Wow.

Aleks: So unassuming. She was your next door neighbour growing up, was she?

Pia: Yes. Yeah. So I went to school with her eldest and I babysat her youngest growing up and, yeah, she’s a good friend, so it was. It was just.

Aleks: Yeah.

Pia: Very lovely of her to do that for us. Little gift, extra gift on the night.

Aleks: What a legend. It was a very, very, very special moment. Yeah.

Pia: She’s been a friend for years, so you guys.

Aleks: You guys could have told me. It’s nice when the DJ gets a surprise too, you know.

Eddy: You know what’s gonna happen next time? Next time Aleks gets asked if someone can sing, she’s gonna hand the mic off Willy nilly and it’s gonna be opposite to that experience. Maybe someone’s singing living on a prayer or something.

Pia: Oh, my God.

Suny: I think horses would be even better.

Aleks: Look, if it’s at the end of the night, just let them do it.

Eddy: So funny.

Aleks: Yeah. People just, after a few too many drinks, scream. Absolutely scream.

Eddy: They do belt it out. Oh, we’re getting slightly back on track. What did you guys find challenging, or perhaps even surprising, during the planning process?

Pia: I feel like something that surprised us, and it was a bit challenging, was budgeting. At the start of the wedding, we had an Excel spreadsheet, which is very helpful. I think you definitely need to have that to keep track of everything. But when you’re looking on wedding vendor websites, usually the prices aren’t actually listed, so you have to reach out to people and, you know, there’s a lot of emails. We set up a wedding email and I’m so glad we did that because. Yeah, a space for wedding planning. So I think that was challenging at the beginning because you’ve never organised a wedding before and it’s such a massive event and you’re just sort of scrambling in the dark a little bit and you have to learn to get your feet. And that is why I would hire Emma from the very beginning.

Suny: That’s another reason. Another one would be the venue was a blank canvas.

Pia: Yeah, we mentioned that and that was what Emma really helped with, just bringing everything together, all the little details.

Suny: Yeah, because we didn’t have Emma before. That was sort of a challenge.

Pia: Yes. And I think everyone warned us, but it was still a surprise about how much we were contacted just before the wedding.

Eddy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aleks: Soz, guys.

Suny: Yeah, we thought we. We had it all done, like, oh, everything’s done. No, no need to. No more organising. And then just before the wedding, two to three weeks before, we had to meet with everyone. Have.

Pia: Yeah, speak with everyone and, you know, just be prepared for that. I mean, that’s just what it’s like. And, you know, if you’ve got vendors who are, you know, really supportive and you’ve got that support, then I think it’s okay. It’s just a surprise.

Aleks: Yeah, yeah, that’s actually really. Yeah. Really good tip. And I feel like, you know, even though, like, for example, with our processes, it’s pretty detailed and you, you know, you. Your party brief, and there’s lots of.

Pia: Detail there that is so helpful. Aleks at party brief.

Suny: My God.

Pia: Yeah, yeah.

Aleks: And you guys made good use of the party brief.

Eddy: Let’s just say that particularly one section.

Aleks: There’s one section, actually, I think it’s longer than the actual request. Oh, no, no. The requests along, too. Oh. I will talk through the music in a moment.

Eddy: We’ll dissect that.

Aleks: Just with the final meeting. I wanted to say, even despite that, like, there’s a couple things. So you guys, you know, had a really specific music brief, which, you know, some people will say, well, why do you need to talk to them if you kind of have everything? But, like, for me, it’s like I want to do it like, almost like a temperature check. So, like, you know, we go through everything and you’ve given me really, really detailed stuff. But then at the end of the day, I want that kind of confirmation that you guys are like, but you know what? At the end of the day, like, you know, if some of this stuff isn’t working or whatever, like, we’re happy for you to kind of judge the room. And then I just come away feeling like, okay, cool, like, you know, we’ll kind of see what happens. And I’ve got the brief, but if I need to mix things up, I know I’ve got permission to do that in a way, so. But I think you, like, I think you actually wrote it in the other notes section. Yeah, a couple of paragraphs, actually, about that.

Pia: Meeting. You. Every meeting was a connection as well, and we wanted to connect with all our vendors.

Suny: Yeah.

Pia: And so I think it was great to have that catch up just before and just to have a chat. And I think that’s really important.

Suny: I just kept thinking every time Pia updated the. That sheet online, the number of emails, you must have got, like, updated the sheet of this.

Aleks: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ve got an email alert every time.

Eddy: It goes to our main email, too. So we both, we both sort of get it.

Aleks: You know what, actually, on Pia and Sunny’s point about having an email, a wedding email, we should set up an inbox just for those notifications.

Eddy: Yeah, yeah.

Aleks: Look. Yeah, but we love it. We know. And it kind of, like, puts our mind at ease in the lead up as well to know that. Okay, great. Like, you know, P and Sunny are looking at it and they’re over it. We don’t have to, like, chase then chase you as much or be worried because, you know, sometimes a couple maybe hasn’t looked at it. So we have to give them a little prod because it can be a bit of a shock to then imagine, like, filling that out in the last week, let alone meeting with.

Eddy: Exactly.

Aleks: So let’s talk about just touch on music, because we often talk about our do not playlists. And we said before the call, I think you guys were one of the first ones to really give a very detailed do not playlist that went up on Instagram.

Eddy: And what was the catalyst for our weekly?

Aleks: It was.

Eddy: Which are very popular on Instagram. They are very popular.

Aleks: They’re so hot right now.

Pia: I have to say, Aleks I think it is your fault because I read all your blogs and I just think you had such great tips on your website and with your podcast. And I remember there was somewhere where you said, oh, telling us what you don’t want to play is just as important. And I’m like, okay, I’ll take that on board. Had such a long engagement. I had a little note in my phone, you know, like the notes app.

Aleks: Yes.

Pia: Every time I would be somewhere, I’d hear a song I hate. I’m like, no, that’s going on the no list. That list was curated over, like ten months. So I just like, no, I hate that song. I’m writing that down.

Eddy: That’s genius.

Pia: It just got pasted into and then I realised how long it was.

Aleks: Yeah, seven. Seven pages we have. But what I like as well, just to go through. So with your request, you know, you put a lot of thought into putting your song requests in. So you had kind of like, pia, your kind of favourite. No, first of all, you had a wedding dance Spotify playlist, and then from that, you kind of picked out your sort of favourite tunes and artists. Then Sunny’s favourite as well. Look, there’s a huge variety of stuff.

Eddy: Honestly, one of the most comprehensive that we’ve ever seen. And, like, you know, we’ve, we’ve been joking about. You do not plays, but, like, you’ve got so much in here, there’s so much guidance here. Um, one of the things that, um, Aleks really worries about when is when there’s not much guidance at all, uh, in a brief. And look, it is worrisome for every, every DJ. Some are like, oh, I’ll just wing it. But, you know, if you do have a lot of detail, you know what’s going to work, what’s not going to work, so much family. You know, if you’ve got a bit of wiggle room like Aleks mentioned before, so it’s you. Yeah, absolute bang up job.

Aleks: Really good. And for those, those listeners who are thinking about collecting some song requests from their guests on their RSVPs ahead of time, Pia and Sunny, I think you guys did it really well. You kind of split them up and said, look, here are the ones that we would be happy with. Here are some that we’d be happy with. They’re not our favourite, but they’re okay.

Eddy: That’s great.

Aleks: And here are some that we would struggle to dance to. So I think you kind of put them all in, but you sort of categorise them. So I think. I think that’s really helpful too, because although, you know, obviously you had your do not playlist, but you still put in the requests that people had noted down that you were, like, not. Not huge fans, but, you know, it’s good for you, DJ, to have those just in case.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Someone really wants to hear it, just to, you know, make sure you’ve got it. So. Really, really liked that. Yes. And then do not plays. I mean, what I found tricky. Do not plays is there was no. And this is. And now that you’ve told me that you did over ten months, it makes sense. But there was no, like, pattern.

Eddy: No. I’ve been trying to. I’ve been trying to figure that out. Most of this.

Aleks: Most of this podcast question on, like, a maths exam, I’d be screwed.

Pia: I actually kind of feel really bad now because I didn’t realise that it would stress you out. I probably should have.

Aleks: No, not at all. No, I just printed it, I made sure I had it and I just, like, looked over it quite a lot because there was no pattern. So some people will be like.

Pia: Yes.

Aleks: So, for example, you said, you know, we like crazy love in uptown, but we’ve heard it a lot. Okay, so you probably don’t want to hear that, which is. Actually makes sense. Right, that’s fine. But then you liked other songs by, like, particular artists, but not, you know, one song.

Eddy: Yeah. And it’s like you’ve got some funny ones on here, like Prince with the monkey hiding its eyes. I thought that was, that was quite, that was quite good. You got another one here. Rod Stewart, comma, generally. So you generally don’t like Rod Stewart. Not just Rod Stewart. Generally. Generally don’t like him. And eagle Rock. Ha ha ha. That’s my favourite.

Aleks: Mister Bright side by killers. Please know.

Eddy: Oh, yeah, that’s a good idea.

Aleks: No, but. No. And it wasn’t stressful, and I’ll tell you why it wasn’t stressful, is because you guys gave me such a long playlist of stuff you do, like. So all I did was focus on that. There was enough stuff in there and with your request for me to feel confident that I was not going to play anything that you didn’t like. Do you know what I mean? So I just had that list there, but I used your request because there was so much there. I didn’t struggle with stuff thinking, oh, are they gonna like this or not? So that was really helpful. So, yeah. Long do not playlists are totally fine, but it’s gotta be matched with an even longer list of requests for.

Pia: Yeah, yeah. Well, I was happy to provide you with both.

Aleks: You had, you had plenty of time.

Suny: Another detail that really helped us with choosing the songs is we struggled with time. You know, we both worked full time and we struggled with picking the songs and going through the playlist. Hence we. We thought every time we were in the car, we were on a drive, every time we went away. So we played these songs, played the playlist and then, okay, yes, this can go into the. This can stay on the playlist and this can go. Yeah, yeah, that really helped. So times just to philtre out.

Aleks: Yep, may as well. What a good use of time.

Eddy: Yeah, that’s awesome.

Aleks: And also, it’s kind of good to do it while you’re like, you know, driving or doing something else, because the context of a wedding is you’re not going to be like, standing there staring at the DJ. Hopefully you get some weirdos. You get. I think you had one at Glass house once, didn’t you? That’s just sort of. But anyway, sorry for another time, but like, to be actually listening to the music while you’re doing something else as well, and then you kind of being, oh, I’m hearing this and actually, it’s not bad.

Eddy: Vibing to it.

Aleks: Yeah, yeah, it’s. It’s got a good, you know, it’s got a good feeling to it. So that’s a really, that’s a really good, really good tip for our listeners. I’m sure there are loads of them. But tell us about a couple of your favourite moments on the day itself.

Suny: Ooh, I’ll go first. Getting my hair done with my mum. We went to a salon, hair salon. That’s the first thing we did.

Pia: And Sunny had longer hair than me on the day.

Suny: Yeah, yeah. I had a bun done, like. And my mom, too, so that was fun.

Pia: Oh, that’s lovely. She came out from India and she hadn’t been here for so long because of COVID so that was just a lovely moment.

Suny: Yeah, yeah. And then she made biryani for all the groomsmen, so everyone enjoyed it. That was fun.

Pia: Yeah. And hanging out with my. My brides people. My mum made everyone soup, so I think both of our mums made everyone food. And I. I know that you get lots of photos with your. Your wedding party. I really wanted a beautiful moment with my mom, and so I got into my dress just with her, and we’ve got photos of that. That was such a special moment. I really loved that.

Aleks: How lovely. That’s. That’s so beautiful. Yeah, it’s those. It’s those moments where you can actually, like, you know, not be distracted.

Eddy: Yeah. Really take it in, be present.

Pia: Yeah. We put that into the timeline just to really enjoy. Enjoy that moment. It was really lovely.

Suny: And then the first look, of course.

Pia: Oh, yeah.

Suny: Was one of the best moments.

Pia: Yeah. Chris and Shani. Sorry, I need some water. Christian.

Suny: Shani did it so well. Like, they had everything pictured, planned beforehand. They knew where we were going to meet and they brought us together.

Pia: They went. They walked all over Richmond finding locations for us. They found our first look location, and in the morning, construction workers had, like, put signs up all over the area. They picked, and Shani asked them to move everything.

Eddy: Yes.

Pia: And it was. I mean, I got to the point where I really missed sunny and I really wanted to see him because, you know, we’d already been living together for, what, four years, and we had. We wanted to have that night away and to enjoy the morning with our wedding party and then surprising each other with our outfits. That first look, it was just. We also had both had bouquets and just seeing all that and seeing each other for the first time, that was such a wonderful moment. It was just lovely. And we did quite early, like, at, like, 130, and we just felt like it’s our wedding day, we want to spend as much time together as we can.

Aleks: Absolutely. I mean, you know, we’re big fans of the first look. Not everyone agrees, but, yeah, we are huge fans of it. And, yeah, you get that time, you know, and it will probably settle your nerves if you’re nervous before your ceremony.

Eddy: Yeah, good point.

Pia: Yeah. Yeah, it did. And it did settle the nerves. And because just having that, that time together and the session, the photo session with our wedding party, it was all just so much fun. And, of course, we’ve already talked about what an incredible job precious did. The ceremony was so us. So beautiful. I remember it being so heartfelt. But also laughing a lot, which I think was really special.

Suny: Yeah, I remember laughing the whole time.

Aleks: Yeah.

Suny: Yeah. She was very funny.

Pia: Yeah. And we both, you know, wrote vowels, making fun of each other, which I love.

Eddy: Yeah, that’s cool.

Pia: And we left. So we did. We had the cocktail hour there, but then we left a little bit early so we could see the reception set up before everyone arrived. And I’m so glad we did that because we had little pieces that we curated. And just being able to see the setup, it just was such a magical moment. And having that time, I put into the timeline a few moments for us to have by ourselves. Our first look and that moment there as well. And we also did a sunset photos as well. So there were three times during the day. And they were some of our favourite moments because we got to really stop, take it all in, enjoy it.

Suny: And last but not the least, having, like, our favourite music towards the end of the night for, like, continuously.

Pia: Yeah. All night.

Suny: All night. That was amazing. It’ll never happen again unless we played for ourselves.

Aleks: You have to renew your vows at some point, don’t you?

Pia: Yeah. Yeah. True.

Eddy: Wedding 3.0.

Aleks: Wedding 3.0. Let’s do it.

Pia: Let’s do it.

Aleks: Yeah. It was, it was absolutely. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. I mean, I don’t know what, what more you can say. Actually, I do want to mention one very, very quick thing, which was you had a couple of guests who had birthday. So you guys had three cakes.

Eddy: Oh, yeah, I heard about this.

Suny: Three cakes. Yeah.

Pia: Yeah. Yeah. Because we, we did that as, like, a wedding favour. So we got biodegradable pulp like containers to give to everyone. And we gave everyone a piece of cake as they left because I’m always snackish after a wedding and we thought that was something we could give everyone.

Eddy: That’s a nice touch. I like that a lot.

Pia: And then we got a birthday cake and my cousin and Suny’s mom. That was our fourth cake that we didn’t give away to my cousin. Yeah. So that was singing Happy Birthday, which.

Aleks: Was really lovely, really special and really considerate of you guys, too. Is there anything. Is there anything that you guys would have done differently.

Suny: Um. Oh, again, reiterating would have gotten earlier.

Pia: Yeah.

Suny: Was the beginning of the whole planning, but not.

Pia: Not on the day. I think that there’s always going to be little things that go wrong, but that’s what your vendors are there for, having vendors that you really love and trust. And I don’t think you can regret it, because it’s a moment in time. It’s what reflects you at the time. If you’ve created a wedding that reflects you, which I hope everyone does, and, you know, it’s all about just celebrating the love with your partner and having that incredible day with all the people you love, you know, all together in a room. It’s so special. I don’t think that we would change anything about that.

Aleks: That’s the correct response.

Eddy: Oh, yeah. That’s amazing. And any sort of final hot tips for couples that are planning their own non traditional wedding?

Suny: I think just do it your own way. We were getting a lot of suggestions and questions about the way we were doing things, how we were doing things. Why are doing it like that? Maybe change it. You know, that’s not how it’s done. People may not like it.

Pia: Especially. I think that’s particularly about vegan food. Like, I’ve had someone say to me, oh, you know, you gotta be. But, you know, everyone. Everyone loved it.

Suny: I had a nightmare where everyone left when the dinner was served. Yeah. So.

Pia: But, yeah, just do it the way that you want and everyone’s gonna, you know, have an opinion. But it’s your day and, you know, we still make sure that we put our guests first as well. We want everyone to have fun, but do it in a way that you’re gonna have fun and that you’re gonna love. And.

Suny: Yeah. Especially when it represents you. Yeah, it’s your.

Pia: Yeah, and. Yeah, get a wedding coordinator.

Suny: Again.

Pia: Yeah.

Aleks: Do it from the outset. Yeah.

Eddy: Good advice. Good advice.

Aleks: Eddy, you love. We’ve got one more question for you.

Eddy: We do. We didn’t send this across previously, unfortunately.

Aleks: We’ve got lots of suggestions.

Eddy: We’re going to put you on the spot here. Final question. So each of you have to answer this individually. What song would get you on the dance floor?

Suny: Oh, okay.

Pia: I got one immediately.

Eddy: Let’s hear it.

Pia: Rasputin.

Eddy: Nice. Okay, so sub question. Original or new remix?

Pia: Oh, that’s good. Maybe original because I’m so familiar with how it starts and I love that.

Eddy: Yep. Great. Good answer.

Aleks: Yes.

Suny: I would say, for me, I would say any hip hop, especially the ones that were played at the wedding, like by Snoop Dogg.

Aleks: Yes.

Suny: Love those songs and all. Any salsa songs? Latin.

Eddy: Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

Suny: If I should pick one song, we have that Cardi B song.

Pia: What? I like it.

Aleks: Yeah, that’s fun. The best of both worlds. That song is so, so perfect for you guys. Yeah. I absolutely love it. Well, thank you so much. We’ve loved chatting to you.

Eddy: Yeah, it’s been amazing.

Aleks: And I’m sure you’ve given us so many tips. Not us. We’re not getting married. Sorry, guys. Everyone else, so many really, you know, helpful tips. Really practical stuff for people to take away. And, you know, we’ll share the photos again because they’re amazing and it’ll give people real sense of, you know, what your wedding was like and what your vision was like for the day and how you achieved it. So thank you so much for your time.

Pia: Thank you.

Suny: Thank you for having us on your podcast.

Pia: Yeah, thanks so much.

Suny: It’s been brilliant chatting with you.

Eddy: Yeah, it’s been so pleasurable for us.

Aleks: Yeah, it’s been really lovely. And we wish you all the best with wedding 2.0. I was gonna say three. Now I’m jumping.

Eddy: 2.02.

Aleks: Are you getting a coordinator for that? For that one?

Suny: Yes.

Pia: Yes, we are.

Eddy: Yes. I mean, I suppose it comes with its own challenges, being overseas, you not being on the ground to organise it, so. Yeah, coordinator is a good shout.

Aleks: Yeah.

Suny: Yes.

Aleks: Yeah. All the best, guys. Thanks again.

Eddy: Thank you so much, guys.

Suny: Thank you so much.

Aleks: Thanks for tuning in. If you’re enjoying Project Engaged, please hit the subscribe button on your fav podcast app.

Eddy: You can also follow us on Instagram, @projectengaged and @onemoresongdjs.

Aleks: We’ll see you next time. And until then, have fun out there.