S3, EP20: Ideas to make your wedding unique

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. My, oh my. How cold is it getting at the moment?

Aleks: I’m so cold. What is going on?

Eddy: Is definitely on its way here in Melbourne.

Aleks: Anyway, we are off to Queensland at least for a few days next week, so that will be good. Woohoo. They get the best weather. It’s like 20 something degrees.

Eddy: Like mid twenties sunny. Beautiful.

Aleks: Jealous. I’m jealous.

Eddy: Meanwhile, we’re in jackets to and from cafes and meetings, etcetera.

Aleks: The worst thing in Melbourne is you wear a jacket and then you go outside and then like randomly in the middle of the day. It’s sunny and hot and you’ve got too much on.

Eddy: That’s right.

Aleks: You need layers.

Eddy: It’s a constant juggle.

Aleks: It’s a constant juggle. Welcome to another episode. It’s us to again today we’re going to be talking about a very exciting topic. But before we do that, we are going to do the weekend wrapper. Our cat is licking the water off the sink like some sort of little thirsty martyr because you can’t find her glass because we had to move everything to make for our microphone. It’s over there. Khaleesi, do you want to go give her the water while I think that’s a great.

Eddy: So you wrap up your weekend and I will hydrate our cat. I’ll be back.

Aleks: So last week I had one wedding on Saturday for gorgeous couple Katie and ant. There we go. The cat’s getting some water, so everyone just calm down. There she goes. Wonderful. It was at cargo hall, which is in South Wharf, right near DFO. So city wedding, which is cool. I was involved in the ceremony and the reception, everything. So it was very long day. I was there for like 9 hours or 10 hours or something. Silly. Really, really good list of supplies on this one. I’m gonna read all of them out. Georgia wigs, photographer. She does lots of fun, colourful weddings. Faz iconic pictures, was doing film. We had lovely celebrant. Awesome first time seeing her. I think we’ve got a few with her. So it was really good to see her in action.

Aleks: We had our friend Jimbo with his amazing photo booth and banging hangings. You know I love a banging.

Eddy: Oh, yeah.

Aleks: And I have to mention the flowers. But botanics of Melbourne because they were like bright pink and bright purple.

Eddy: That’s pretty cool.

Aleks: Black room.

Eddy: What colour were the bean hangings?

Aleks: Really good. Like all pinks.

Eddy: Oh.

Aleks: So really super colourful wedding, lots of fun. I mentioned the couple. I’ve had them booked for a while, so I think it was like somewhere in between lockdowns, I don’t know, three years ago or something. One of those couples.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: So it was a long time coming. There’s a lot of excitement. It was just a really fun night. And they just danced all night. They were just there for a party. You know, they were drinking before they rocked up. Not too much because you can’t legally get married if you’re drunk. But, you know, they were just enjoying it. They were just enjoying their day. And I love to see that. So it’s epic.

Eddy: Excellent. I was at church here with the one and only Jackson Grant, who we’ve been trying to get on this podcast. He tells me that in June he’s up for it. Nice. He’s actually about to go away for two months to Europe. So he’s planning all that out.

Aleks: He’s had all the life of.

Eddy: He hasn’t been out of the country. Oh, apparently. So this will be the first time taking such a big trip. Yes. So hello to Jackson. Just a bundle of joy, that gentleman is. He’s just unbelievably talented as well. So, so much fun. We had a good old chin wag at that wedding and. Yeah. Great night. I actually went back to the initial notes from, from the clients, Rachel and Nathan, and they said maximum Abba. So I think I would have played. It would have been more than four ABBA songs.

Aleks: Yeah. Yeah. You know, I have to say, ABBA is one of those. ABBA Queen. One of those artists that you can get away with playing a number of songs.

Eddy: They’re very versatile. You got your dancing queens, your voulez vous, your gimme gimmes.

Aleks: Just sprinkle it in. It never feels like too much.

Eddy: No, it really doesn’t. And hey, that’s why that they have staying power.

Aleks: Unless it’s on the couples do not playlist, which I have had. I’ve had queen.

Eddy: It’s not common, though.

Aleks: Not common, but I’ve had queen.

Eddy: Yeah. Queen’s more common than ABBA, I think.

Aleks: Yeah. ABBAs very. Yeah, you very, really, really get ABBA but let us know, listeners, if you.

Eddy: ABBA, do you hate ABBA? Do you hate ABBA or do you hate queen? Maybe we shall do a poll on Instagram and really settle it.

Aleks: Actually, that’s a great idea.

Eddy: Okay, so this is quite a nice little podcast that we’re doing today. Aleks is looking at me strangely.

Aleks: Well, I did print out some notes for you, actually.

Eddy: That’s okay. I’ve got my phone. I’m using technology.

Aleks: Cool.

Eddy: So we’re talking about real wedding ideas to make your wedding unique.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: And we have actually covered a lot of what we’re going to mention in an Instagram live. This is last year.

Aleks: Yeah, I think so.

Eddy: But there’s also some new ideas that we’ve come across since then that we thought would be great to share.

Aleks: Yeah. So basically, as everyone who listens to our podcast will know, all of our couples are party lovers and they just want their weddings to be super fun. But I think beyond that, there’s also an aspect of wanting to make their wedding really reflect them.

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: And, you know, to have a lot of personal touches and for it to be authentic.

Eddy: Memorable.

Aleks: Memorable.

Eddy: Memorable.

Aleks: Yeah. Unique. And not just like another cookie cutter wedding. So today on this episode, we’re going to share some really cool ideas from our real clients, our real weddings that we’ve worked on to hopefully give you some inspiration for your own wedding planning. And there are a lot.

Eddy: There are a lot.

Aleks: We’re going to rattle them off.

Eddy: We’ve broken them up, though, into different parts of the day. So starting with ceremony. Okay, cool. So this was one of your weddings, so let’s have you kick this one off.

Aleks: Yeah. Cool. So pre ceremony, and there are a few examples from this wedding. If you have listened to the episode we did earlier in the season with Nat Sproul celebrate, you would have heard a lot about this wedding. Matt and Kirstie at noisy ritual. So pre ceremony guests arrive. They had super upbeat tunes and they had cake and drinks straight off the bat, which I loved. Why not, right?

Eddy: I’d go for some cake.

Aleks: I’d go for some cake, too. I’d rather eat it at the beginning of the night than at the end of the night. Let’s put it that way.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: And look, we’ve mentioned it many times. Drinks as soon as people arrive, obviously.

Eddy: Yeah. Because otherwise, what do you do with your hands?

Aleks: Yeah, it’s just awkward. People probably feel a little bit, ooh, beep beep. People feel it’ll be awkward. You know, breaks the ice, loosens people up and kind of gets that party atmosphere going, but yeah, throw some cake into it. Guarantees that people will eat it at least.

Eddy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aleks: I had one. So I mentioned Katie and Ant last Saturday night. So this is a new one for their ceremony. The groom and the groomsmen actually did a really fun entrance down the aisle. So rather than them being in position, as you traditionally might see, they did a fun little dance down the aisle to Gary glitters. Rock and roll part two, which is.

Eddy: Such a questionable artist.

Aleks: Yeah. But, you know, let’s not get into questionable artists.

Eddy: That’s a whole other episode, I think. Yes.

Aleks: Might have to do a poll for that one, but I just loved it. I don’t know. It was just fun. Everyone did an entrance. It really set the mood.

Eddy: Yeah, set the mood for great.

Aleks: It was great. Um, another aisle thing, if you’re doing an aisle, is dance down the aisle together. Have you seen this much?

Eddy: I have a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, I have a little bit. Which is on their ceremonies that I’ve been involved with. I think it’s fantastic. It’s turning tradition on its head. It’s so much fun. The photos you get are unbelievably cool.

Aleks: Yeah. And you feel more relaxed. You know, it kind of, I think, you know, people will cheer and clap and it really feels like you can kind of breathe a sigh of relief, like, okay, this is not like a tense, kind of formal bit of the day, you know what I mean?

Eddy: Yeah. Well, this is one we’ve seen on instagram recently in doing a shot, either sort of before you go down the aisle or just after you’re down the aisle.

Aleks: Yeah. Just like halfway down. I had one, Jane and Andrew last year, they danced down the aisle to a Martin Garrick’s, like really, really high energy song and had a shot halfway down a bit.

Eddy: Both halfway through, they took a little break. Yeah, had the shot. Kept going.

Aleks: Kept going down.

Eddy: Troopers. I love that. Yeah, that’s fantastic.

Aleks: So good.

Eddy: Um, I mean, I’ve seen this one a lot. Yeah, I think so. Have you. Flower men instead of loud girls. Yeah. Bonus points if they have beards and they’ve got little flowers in their beards. Oh, have you seen that?

Aleks: No.

Eddy: Yeah, you? Little bit. Extra work.

Aleks: Wow.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: That’s epic.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: It’s got to be a confident man. Confident man going down the aisle. Yeah. Because normally they’re the first ones. Right. So she’s a super upbeat song, one that I saw.

Eddy: Confidence man.

Aleks: Confidence man. He had like a long stemmed rose in his mouth. That’s pretty dance down.

Eddy: That’s pretty.

Aleks: And threw out flowers, you know, to everyone. It was lots.

Eddy: I love this next one.

Aleks: Again, that one I mentioned earlier, Matt and Kirsty with Nat Sproal had a witness raffle. So rather than choosing their two witnesses to, you know, for the paperwork afterwards, we did a little raffle. So I was playing music for that moment. So the celebrant picked two names out of a bowl, and I played tequila.

Eddy: Yeah. Very cool. Very cool.

Aleks: Just fun. Just fun.

Eddy: Yeah. It just means that I think everybody will be on their toes, listening intently at the ceremony as well. No one’s gonna be clocking off because all of a sudden their names gonna be read out.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: What’s this for?

Aleks: Although, to be fair to Nat, no one tunes out of her ceremony.

Eddy: That is very true. Yeah, that is very, very true.

Aleks: No danger of that happening. Also that with that wedding after. So they did their certificate signing afterwards, which we would recommend. I mean, obviously, it’s up to your celebrant, but it means the ceremony goes quickly and there’s no kind of weird waiting around during the ceremony, but they actually invited all of their wendos to the bar during certificate vendors.

Eddy: Wendy’s vendors. You said Wendy’s did. I could be a new word.

Aleks: Um, for a whiskey nipple. Whiskey.

Eddy: Wendy’s having whiskeys. I think that’s my. That might have been the issue.

Aleks: Cool.

Eddy: When does having whiskey hashtag. Yeah, I absolutely love that as well. I mean, that’s kind of a hallmark of Nat Sproal anyway. I don’t believe she does the signing during the ceremony.

Aleks: No, she doesn’t. No. Yeah, no, she doesn’t.

Eddy: So.

Aleks: So a lot of our. The celebrants that we work alongside don’t do the.

Eddy: I’ve often thought it strange, to be.

Aleks: Honest, to do it during.

Eddy: During. Yeah, but, I mean, that’s traditionally how it was done.

Aleks: All right, post ceremony. So we’ve covered the ceremony. We’re going to talk about post ceremony, which is normally cocktail hour. Some cool things that I’ve seen is particularly at studley grounds, a venue that’s kind of indoor outdoor. Also, I’ve seen at the borough event space to. Out in wombat forest, something like that. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know what it’s called anyway, is lawn games during cocktail hour, which is lots of fun. Have you seen much of that? Kind of, like, giant.

Eddy: Yeah, I have here and there, obviously, is weather dependent. Some venues do it very well, and they have them all sort of set up ready to go, you know, pretty much straight after the ceremony is done, people sort of cruise off to the next area and they just sort of. There. Um, but, yeah, look, probably not as often as I would have liked. Um, I feel that perhaps more venues should do things like that.

Aleks: Yeah. Just to have something going on. Particularly if you have kids at your wedding, for the earlier part, um, just give them something to do during cocktail hour while the adults are having drinks.

Eddy: Yeah. If they’re still there, a lot of the time they’re sort of taken away.

Aleks: Most of the time they are taken away. Or we mentioned the common theme throughout this, which is alcohol shots while you’re signing your marriage certificates. That’s an obvious one. The other thing that I’ve seen, I’m sure you’ve seen as well, is signature cocktails. So either having, like, two different types of cocktails, one for each of you, either kind of your favourite drink, if it’s like a g and t or whatever, or like a special cocktail that’s created just for your big day, and people can kind of choose. So that’s quite a nice personal touch.

Eddy: That is a nice personal touch. And also, some venues actually brew their own beer with your name on it. So there are. I think it’s post office hotel does it. So that’s pretty damn cool as well. It’s probably dipping more into the reception at this point, which is kind of perfect because we’ve just hit that.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: So one thing that I’ve seen that’s really, really cool for the reception is an icebreaker game. I had this. witnessed this, I should say, at Glass House Brook. I think it was the first time I played there, which I believe was their first ever wedding, which was pretty cool. Yeah. Their inaugural wedding in that particular venue. So let me paint a picture for you. So the game’s called heads and tails. You may have seen it at a pub quiz or something similar like that. So everyone basically stands up and the MC will ask questions about the couple that basically have 50 50 answers. So, for instance, you can ask them, you know, which one snores at night. And if you think it’s one of them, you put either your hands on your head if it’s, say, the bride, and your hands on your butt, or your tail if it’s the groom, if it’s a bridegroom based wedding.

Aleks: That’s fun.

Eddy: Yeah. So it’s pretty cool. So, obviously, as time goes by and as the game’s played, there’ll be less and less people standing, as people get any answers wrong, and the last person standing wins a prize, whether it be a bottle of champagne or something like that. So I think that’s a really cool way to break the ice, loosen everybody up. This was, uh. This was a sit down format. I don’t know how well it would work at a cocktail.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Um, but, yeah, that works really, really well. People got really super excited, quite rowdy before the wedding. This is before the wedding party comes out, by the way, so.

Aleks: Oh, that’s good.

Eddy: Yeah. Really, really cool.

Aleks: I love that. And you had one recently, which I loved as well, at Rupert.

Eddy: Yeah. Yeah. So it was for Sarah and Zach’s wedding. This was a couple of weeks ago now, and they had conversation cards. It wasn’t a sit down. It was a cocktail based wedding. But they had conversation cards around or given out, handed out by the. Excuse me, the Mc. And, yeah, they were to sort of tap someone on the shoulder and have a conversation with them based on what was on the card.

Aleks: I love that. I’ve never seen that before.

Eddy: Total icebreaker. It’s really cool. Yeah.

Aleks: Well, when you think about it, there’d be so many people who don’t know each other. It’s just such a nice way to break the ice. Love that.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Very, very cool and unique. So I’ve never seen that before. I had one which I was very impressed with recently as well, at a post office hotel wedding that I did. It was a sit down. Each of the place cards for the guests had a photo of the guest taken.

Eddy: It’s amazing.

Aleks: By the couple or pulled from social media or whatever. And in most cases, it was a photo of the guest with either the bride or the groom or just a photo of them, but it was such a personal touch.

Eddy: Did they have the names as well, or did everyone have to look for themselves? Okay. Extra faces.

Aleks: I know, but it was so unexpected. Such a nice person.

Eddy: Well, speaking of which, I don’t think I told you this, but again, at the post office hotel, we had a wedding whereby the bride, I believe, had written a handwritten note to every single person. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I think it was a bride specifically because the groom was. Was quite busy.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: So she undertook it all herself and wrote lovely little notes to everyone, thanking them and super personal touch.

Aleks: That is so nice. And it just makes your guests feel so warm and fuzzy about your wedding and feel more engaged and excited about the night ahead. I think so, yeah. Love those things. Another one that I actually would like to see more often. I don’t see often enough. Is to choose a song for each person making a speech.

Eddy: Yeah. So that would be play. So the MC would announce that person and the song would be played as that person’s walking up to grab the microphone.

Aleks: Yeah. I love that. And it’s more fun when the couple actually chooses a song.

Eddy: You can have fun with him. Yeah, yeah.

Aleks: Just something to make fun of, you know, whoever’s coming up again, it just. It can be like a little bit of a quiet, weird, silent moment as people make their way.

Eddy: Yeah. Particularly if the clapping slows down or stops halfway.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: That person’s walking.

Aleks: So having some music really lifts the vibe. I had one where I actually played a song each time the MC got up to make an announcement and it was, man, I feel like a woman. So I had to have, like, a few different cue points throughout the song to have different bits of it, but everyone just laughed each time. It was obviously some sort of inside joke.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: But that was a really fun idea as well.

Eddy: Very fun.

Aleks: Yeah. You had a really fun one for entrances.

Eddy: Yeah. So you can have a lot of fun if you have a group of people entering your reception, say, paired up. For instance, I had one. It was my first wedding of 2022 and it was at Lance Moore, Lyndon, Derry, over in Red Hill. And we had people. So each of the wedding party paired up, coming in and one was sort of doing the wheelbarrow.

Aleks: Yeah. Actual wheelbarrow.

Eddy: No, no, not in a wheelbarrow.

Aleks: So I’ve seen this, by the way.

Eddy: Oh, really? That’s pretty funny. No, no, no. So the female was. Was basically, um. We were burying the male sort of in. So the males on his hands, walking in. I’m terrible. Yeah. Um. Terrible job of explaining this, but, yeah, so there’s wheelbarrow. There was, like, certain types of dancing. There was sort of the fishing rods, you know, so someone would come out, fishing rod to the next person, kind of reel them in. And my favourite was, um. Obviously they. Different songs for each couple as they entered each pair. And the funniest one was the fireball one, which was. I played fireball, the pitbull song, and they did a shot of fireball, any cinnamon shot when they came in. So that was very cool as well.

Aleks: It’s really fun when you’ve got. I think if you’ve got, like, a massive wedding party and you’re including, like, your family and people outside of the wedding party, you’ve just got a large number of people doing those entrances. Just make them count, because they make for epic photos.

Eddy: They really do. And they had a videographer on this one as well. I think Alex Modder was taking the photos.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: And I took a video, in fact, of all of this happening. It’s floating around YouTube somewhere.

Aleks: Oh, yes. Yes. We should put that in the show notes. People can have a look at the entrances.

Eddy: Yeah, maybe we can.

Aleks: Maybe we can maybe edit this out. We always say that and we never do alternatives to cake cutting. Now, if you’re having a cake cutting, we’re seeing less of this. But there are other things you can do. I’ve had a cheese tower cutting. Cut the cheese, which is quite funny.

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: Especially if you’ve got a farty partner. You saw a cool one recently.

Eddy: I did. And I have to thank. Marry me, Megan, for this one, because one of ours. It wasn’t one of ours. No, no. I just saw it. And I messaged Megan and. Oh, my God, this is amazing. It was cutting the pizza. So they had the. The names or the congratulatory message written, piped, but that was with mozzarella piping instead. And. Yeah. And they cut it with a pizza cutter, which I thought was friggin awesome. So good. Yes. Love that.

Aleks: So then did everyone get a piece of pizza?

Eddy: Well, it was only one pizza.

Aleks: Oh.

Eddy: Unfortunately. So I don’t think everyone. Maybe they brought some other ones out. This is a ceremonial piece, so maybe it was pizza manoeuvre. Maybe.

Aleks: Oh, okay.

Eddy: No, I’m just making this up now. If you’re listening, text us and let us know.

Aleks: Correct us. Yeah, definitely. I love that. Yeah. So definitely some fun alternatives there. One of my favourites. I’ve spoken about these a lot because I’m hoping someone else will do it at their sit down reception, but I haven’t seen it and it was epic. So I did a sit down wedding and the MC would randomly, throughout the night, announcement different members of the wedding party just announced their name. And basically I just played a song. They didn’t know what the song was. I just made it up as I went along. And they had to dance and they had to kind of dance in front of the. It was a bride and groom at this wedding. They had to dance in front of the bride and groom, and they couldn’t stop until the whole wedding party stood up and clapped.

Eddy: Wow.

Aleks: So it was so much fun.

Eddy: That sounds to me like it’s a form of torture.

Aleks: Yeah, that’s all right. I’m sure they had a few drinks, but it was super unexpected and hilarious. And I think, you know, I chose some really fun songs like Macho man and James Brown and stuff. Just like really high energy stuff. So if one of my couples listening, please do this, the upcoming wedding, because we’ve never seen it again and it is so much fun.

Eddy: And you know what, it would be a great way to get some revenge if you roped into doing something at their wedding. I think perhaps friends groups that get married should just keep one upping each other as. So if you’re the last in your friends group to get married, you’ve got so many options.

Aleks: Yeah. If you were dissed as maid of honour.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Here’s your payback.

Eddy: Don’t forget it. Don’t forget it. Oh, how funny. Another one that we see quite often is doing something fun with the first dance. So instead of obviously learning steps to a first dance, maybe do like the one in pulp Fiction.

Aleks: I love that.

Eddy: So theme it further, in a sense.

Aleks: Yeah, yeah. It’s a really good song as well, I think, to get everyone up and about. You had a really good one, though. Do you want to talk about that one fake first dance?

Eddy: Yes, I did. So this was a while ago now, so gay wedding, fabulous wedding. So good.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: And the couple decided, and look, not, no one knew about this, by the way. So, you know, I was, I believe, I think it was Mc. No, I wasn’t mcing. The celebrant was emceeing. So she said, hey, everyone, come up, we’re going to do the first dance now. Everyone’s getting super excited. The parents are getting super excited to see the first dance. And I started to play a song and then stopped playing. That song ripped into something just absolutely jaw droppingly amazing. And, and Art Simone and another drag queen came out and basically stole the show. So the gents said, nah, we’re not doing a first dance. We’re gonna hand off to the professionals. And, yeah, just brought the house down. It was unbelievably cool.

Aleks: How were the parents? Were they, like.

Eddy: I should have kept tabs on how they, how they looked, to be honest. But, um, no, and they were hidden away as well, so they literally burst through a doorway. Very, very fun.

Aleks: Now, I saw a photo of you with, with art Simone and I’m not sure who, who else was performing, but, yeah, they were very tall. They were tall. So I don’t know how. I’m very surprised. It was all kept a secret.

Eddy: Yeah, it was, it was hidden away.

Aleks: That is impressive.

Eddy: No way. Very, very well. But yes, they were tall. They made me look very short.

Aleks: Yeah. And shout out to Gemma Duncan, who is the celebrant on that.

Eddy: Gemma, very good memory.

Aleks: Amazing. I loved that one. That was probably one of my favourite first dance or non first dances, I suppose. Another one example that I have, and I always think about this one whenever I hear the song blinding lights. But I had a very dramatic kind of re entrance back into the reception after an outfit change. So this was at half acre. Amy, she kind of wore a classic, very, very kind of classic, you know, clean white gown for dinner and stuff. And then, like, I don’t know, half an hour into the dance floor, went away, got changed to a little short, sparkly number and kind of shimmied her way back onto the dance floor while I played blinding lights. Everyone kind of parted like moses parted the Red Sea, and it was just such a cool moment.

Eddy: It’s actually a great idea to make a moment of that, whether it be on the dance floor or even if it’s not ready in time for the dance floor, for instance, to just make a moment. I had one similar dress change and we were still eating dinner at that point, but we made a point to sort of reintroduce her. And, yeah, it gets some great photos. It gets everybody really, really excited and energised again. And it wasn’t too far away from the first dance anyway, so it sort of pepped everybody up.

Aleks: I love that. Love that. Particularly for a sit down, I think, to kind of get that, you know, energy back up.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: If you listen to our episode with Simon and Tom, one of what they had were hangover kids for all their guests, which was amazing. What a great idea.

Eddy: And there are a few other things that were going on at that wedding. What else was happening?

Aleks: Yeah. So they had glow sticks, they had a cannoli car, they had a photo booth, they had a drummer, and they had bubble guns. Like guns that shoot out bubbles.

Eddy: I’m surprised that Rupert allowed all of this. Yeah, actually, we had a percussionist. I remember Mac, the bar manager, saying, how the hell did this get approved? I think this is before they sort of tightened up on their noise policy.

Aleks: Yeah, there was. Yeah, it was a grey area at that point. Grey area.

Eddy: But.

Aleks: Yeah, but they had. The hangover kits were really, really fun. I thought they were a cute little idea. And they had, like. They were in little bags with, like, a little, you know, medical symbol cross thing on it. I don’t know. Another one I’ve seen anything booze related I think is good for a bomberi. Is it called bombinieri favour? Whatever.

Eddy: One of the two.

Aleks: Whatever. Like limoncello for an Italian client recently. That’s quite a nice little personal touch. Have you seen any kind of good party favours?

Eddy: Not really, but another sort of. Nothing further to what you’re saying, but one thing I have seen is when the couple sort of loads the bathroom up with like, panadol, sanitary items, deodorant and all that kind of stuff. So helps people sort of freshen themselves up when required.

Aleks: Yeah, I love that, actually. That’s a really good point. I had one that was particularly upscale and they had like, chanel perfume and stuff. And I was like, oh, I was very upscale.

Eddy: What venue was that one?

Aleks: Ormond hall.

Eddy: Oh, yeah, upscale venue.

Aleks: Yeah. Very beautiful venue. Another one that I had recently. So we provided a photo booth for a couple and they also had Polaroid cameras, which we see very often. So they. We actually placed the Polaroid cameras on the same table where all the props were for the photo booth. So people kind of put the props on, took a photo at the photo booth, and then kept the props on, took, you know, Polaroid photo and stuck it in the guestbook. So just adding a bit more fun to the standard kind of Polaroid. Polaroid shots.

Eddy: Yeah, that’s pretty cool. I have seen a relatively new service. It’s kind of like a Polaroid camera, but you scan a QR code and you use your phone to take one off. Pictures that you can’t change. And they get like, basically uploaded to a cloud drive and then presented to the couple post wedding. So, yeah, I can’t remember what the name. There’s a few of them around. You just have to quickly google them to find out. But I thought that was really cool as well. A little bit more sustainable, really fun. And I just like the idea that you can’t edit the photos once you’ve taken it. It just goes, yep, sent. I think you get. I think from memory, it was like five or ten shots that you could take. And there were cards on basically where everybody was sitting that they could pick up, scan, and then you’d open the webpage or wherever it took you to take those photos.

Aleks: That’s going to be huge, I think.

Eddy: Yeah. I’ve only seen at one wedding, but I think it has the potential to really catch on.

Aleks: One thing that has caught on is audio guest books.

Eddy: Yeah. And we have a bit of an announcement on that front as of. I think it was last week.

Aleks: Yep.

Eddy: We have now basically gone into the audiobook game. So we now offer audiobooks to all of our one more song clients. So that’s pretty cool. Nice so very excited about that. You know, if you are listening to this podcast and you’re either a client that has a wedding coming up of ours, or you’re thinking about using our services as DJ’s for your wedding, feel free to ask us about our audiobook offering. And that ends the sales pitch. I’m not going to be salesy about it. They’re really cool.

Aleks: No, and we’ll do, we’ll do another episode with a bit more on it once we’ve got it on the website, etcetera. But I do want to say one thing, and that is that we have enough for every client because we only ever have two events on at a time because there’s only two of us. So we have enough for each and every client plus a backup for each of us.

Eddy: Always bring it back up just in case.

Aleks: Yeah, yeah. So yeah, definitely get in touch.

Eddy: And oh, by the way, if you don’t know what an audio guest book is, so you may have seen these at weddings. It is a retro phone that has been refitted with a little chip, a little microphone, a little speaker. So you pick up the handset from that phone and you can leave a message for the couple, which is a voice message for the couple, which is really cool after the wedding is done. For instance, if you booked one from us, you get those audio messages delivered to you within seven days. So you can kind of relive what was going on at your wedding, you know, from straight from the horse’s mouth, so. So to speak.

Aleks: Yeah, we had one in for a couple a few weeks ago now and listened back to all the messages and they were hilarious.

Eddy: We had a lot of pizza orders. I think there might be a common trend. I actually had a chat to one of our industry friends, the amazing Jimbo, who Aleks mentioned, the photo booth guy who started, you know, offering these things as well. And he’s mentioned that there are pizza orders often.

Aleks: It’s pretty funny.

Eddy: Yeah. So it’s great.

Aleks: It’s also funny because you get them in order so you can listen to like, you know, everyone’s really civilised and well wishing at the beginning and then it just gets sloppy and sloppy up. So much fun. So much fun. So, yeah, that’s something that we think is.

Eddy: Well, it’s huge now, taking weddings by storm. I think it would be the hottest new thing, uh, at a wedding for this year. Definitely hands down.

Aleks: Be cool. But I agree 100%. Going back to reception, just a couple more things. So I think I mentioned this on a previous episode. I had one couple, actually, their whole day was full of personal touches, but one in particular was they met at some dirty nightclub at uni, and they basically gave me, like, ten songs from 2012 to play in, like, a mini set that I announced. So halfway through the dance floor, you know, I sort of said, gonna take you back to 2012 to mish or whatever it was called, the nightclub, and then just played, like, banger after bang, like Rihanna. And, you know, people and everyone just lost their minds was so much fun. So doing something like that, you know, particularly if it’s going to be, you know, involve a lot of people and you can.

Eddy: Well, you can do a lot like that with the music. I have a wedding tomorrow. I’m back at Brunswick Mess hall, or as I should now call it, the hall. Welcome to Brunswick. That’s going to take a little bit getting to use to getting used to. They wanted me to put together, like, a brief Disney mini mix, so that was fun. And, you know, a lot of their crew are huge Disney fans. They’re also into pop, punk and Eurovision. So it’s going to be a very interesting and fun fueled wedding.

Aleks: It’s gonna be an eclectic night.

Eddy: It’s gonna be an eclectic night. I have Malia from love. Good images, they’re taking photos, so I’m very excited to see her. Yeah, so should be a good one. So you can have a lot of fun and create a lot of unique moments with your music. Like, hands down, if you listen to this podcast a little bit, you know this.

Aleks: Yeah, definitely.

Eddy: But there are so many other wonderful things that you can do that really put your own spin on your wedding.

Aleks: I think it’s important to let your DJ know those songs and those moments that you want as well. You mentioned one last week with the horses. Maybe it wasn’t a couple who would necessarily want to hear that at the wedding, but it was a song that was special to the bride and her dad and, you know, you picked the right moment, made sure the dad and the bride were on the dance floor, and it was a really fun, energetic part of the night. So don’t be afraid to let your DJ know, even if you think it’s a bit, like, a little bit corny or a bit cringe or maybe, you know, if it’s. If it’s got significance to, you know, a core group of people at your wedding, it’s gonna be a great, great memory.

Eddy: Honestly, if it’s just got significance to you guys as well, as long as you’re enjoying it, as long as you’re having a good time. Enjoying.

Aleks: Finally. Look, we had an episode with one of our real couples, Sunny and Pia, and they had loads of ideas on personalising your wedding. So go back to that one. Have a listen. You know, their wedding was entirely vegan, which I haven’t seen before. They even used leaves from their garden for place cards for people’s names. They also had a couple of guests who had birthdays, so they made birthday cakes for them and announced it. Just like so many little personal touches. And I think, yeah, that’s a good one to listen to as well. As well as Simon and Tom, which we mentioned.

Eddy: Yeah, awesome, awesome. Well, I hope that you have a few extra ideas up your sleeve for your own wedding. If you are planning one, and if you perhaps are listening to this podcast and, you know, a friend or family member that are, you know, are planning their weddings, send this across to them because there’s some great ideas.

Aleks: Yeah, definitely.

Eddy: If I don’t say so myself.

Aleks: Yeah, no, they’re our couple’s ideas.

Eddy: They are our couples ideas.

Aleks: Reflection of how amazing.

Eddy: Well, we’ve been very blessed to see all these ideas unfold. And not only the weddings that we’ve been at, but obviously on social media, Instagram, etc. Seeing some other really, really cool ideas play out.

Aleks: Yeah, definitely non traditional. Do it your way.

Eddy: Do it your way, guys.

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.