S3, EP8: Real couple: Big party vibes at Rupert (Simon + Tom)

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 one epic party.

Eddy: Let’s get into today’s episode.

Aleks: Woo. Hello.

Eddy: I’m gonna tell you, Aleks, I’m very, very excited about today’s episode.

Aleks: I know, I know. It’s our first real couple. Is that what we’re calling it? Sure. Real couple episode of this season. So we’re absolutely pumped. And it’s one that we both had involvement in.

Eddy: That is true.

Aleks: As in, we were actually both there, so we’ll have lots to add. Do you wanna tell everyone about our couple that we’re chatting to today?

Eddy: I would absolutely love to. So Simon and Tom got hitched at Rupert on Rupert in Collingwood on the 4 June 2022. And it was such a huge party, wasn’t it?

Aleks: Yeah, huge. There were bubble guns, glow sticks, a photo booth, percussionist hangover kiss.

Eddy: Love that.

Aleks: I love that one. A cannoli car.

Eddy: Yes, I love that.

Aleks: I think there was a cannoli car. There’s so much going on. This wedding had absolutely everything that you need for an epic party.

Eddy: So their wedding was featured on the ivory Tribe blog, where Simon and Tom summed up their approach more concisely than we could do things your way. We wanted a party and so that’s what we got.

Aleks: I think that really sets the tone. So, yeah, let’s get straight into it and welcome Simon and Tom.

Eddy: Welcome Simon and Tom.

Aleks: Hey, guys, where’s the sound effect?

Eddy: I put it in post production. It’s clapping now. It’s clapping now. Post production.

Aleks: Woo. Disappointing start. How are you guys going?

Simon: We’re really good, actually. That wedding feels like it was yesterday and so long ago at the same time.

Eddy: Yeah, I know what you mean, actually. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

Aleks: I know. And we do love a winter wedding. I love a winter wedding. Oh, yeah. And I couldn’t think of a better venue than Rupert on Rupert.

Simon: We loved the venue. That just helped make everything so much easier.

Aleks: Yeah, absolutely. So we’re going to start from the beginning. Yes. It’s a good place to start, isn’t it? No, no. Let’s go backwards. The story of how you guys met is so cool. I just love it. Can you tell our listeners how you guys met?

Simon: Yeah, you tell it better.

Tom: So we decided, well, I decided to go on a bit of a trip over to Europe. We took five, six weeks off work, spamming around Spain, got to the last week of my holiday. I’m like, oh, I’ll check out Barcelona. Then I went up to this rooftop bar and there was this Aussie guy sitting there and just happened to be Simon.

Simon: And that’s when the whole world just got fed up.

Tom: Did it?

Aleks: Oh, you. You guys sound like an old married couple already.

Tom: But, um, we got to chatting and it turned out that Simon was also on a trip and then he just flown over from London for a little bit.

Simon: Yeah. And we realised that we had so many mutual friends and we were both from Melbourne and both lived around the corner from each other. So it was almost. When I say around the corner, it was literally around the corner too. It was a bit freaky. So we.

Tom: And we’d never actually met before. And in Melbourne. Gay world. It is so small, yet I have never seen.

Simon: Wow, maybe I have.

Tom: On the grinder grid.

Simon: So we then decided, well, we both had separate itineraries for the rest of the trip. And it ended up being that our separate itinerary was going to the exact same holiday destination in a few days time, which was ciches. So we thought this was too good to be true. Let’s just continue on travelling together for a little bit.

Tom: So we hung out for a bit.

Simon: I got so drunk, I don’t remember most of that night anyway, and I fell asleep on the train going to sitchet. But Tom had seen me at my work within the first 24 hours and never been so sick. But then we decided to keep hanging out and it was a bit of a weird goodbye when we went our separate ways.

Tom: Yeah.

Simon: I had to go back to London for work and Tom continued on for a couple more days before he went home. And then I was in borough markets and he was back in Melbourne hanging out with all my friends to try and really make sure he got in with the group before I even got.

Tom: Back to telling him.

Eddy: Good strategy.

Simon: So that was. It was great. And then I think. I don’t think Tom ever left my place after I got back.

Tom: No, I quickly moved in.

Simon: Yeah. So we kind of knew after that we were on a good thing and let’s not ruin that. And then.

Tom: Yeah, the rest is history.

Aleks: You got engaged.

Eddy: It’s a pretty. It’s a pretty incredible meat story.

Aleks: Oh, I love it. I love it.

Simon: It almost travel and you’ll meet the one around the corner. Yeah.

Tom: What’s that?

Simon: I don’t know.

Tom: I know that’s a saying from somewhere.

Eddy: Cute me or meet cute me.

Simon: Cute. Yeah.

Eddy: Yeah, meet cute.

Simon: I know I’m from somewhere.

Eddy: I wish I could tell you what it is, but I’ve heard it on movies.

Aleks: Oh, I think it was referenced in the office.

Eddy: Oh, okay.

Tom: Yeah, I don’t think.

Aleks: I don’t think Ed would be into the holiday. I think. Yeah, I think the. He’s looking at me like, what is that?

Eddy: No, I haven’t heard of that one.

Aleks: But, yeah, it’s got Cameron Diaz. Does it?

Tom: Yes.

Eddy: Is that the one with Jack Black?

Aleks: Oh, yes, it is.

Eddy: Oh, I actually heard that they were going to do a second one of those.

Simon: Oh, really?

Eddy: Apparently. Yeah.

Simon: I take these. Yeah.

Aleks: I stand corrected. I stand corrected.

Eddy: Oh, okay. Well, we’ve heard about your meet cute. Let’s now talk about the very beginning of your wedding planning process. So tell us about what your vision was for your big day.

Simon: I think you guys mentioned it earlier. We wanted a big party. We didn’t want anything that was too traditional. We wanted to make sure everyone had fun. And I think, most importantly, that we had fun.

Tom: Yeah, no fuss.

Simon: So originally, I think we first thought, let’s just fly us and a couple of friends over to the Whitechapel in Vegas and get married by Elvis.

Eddy: Yes.

Simon: Then COVID hit and we were like, well, that’s not going to happen or it’s going to get too far. So then all of a sudden, we started looking around Melbourne because we thought it would be pretty easy to get married here and still chuck a whole big party. So our vision was really no fuss, really took the approach that whatever will be, will be. And we both kind of thought, you know what? We want a ceremony and reception. Either really, really close together or in the same place.

Eddy: Yeah.

Simon: The same venue. That was going to be really important for us.

Aleks: And because I think you guys, by the way, we probably should have said, I deejayed at the wedding and Ed was there because it was our first time with the photo booth.

Eddy: Yeah. Yeah.

Aleks: So you weren’t working very hard.

Eddy: I quickly realised that it didn’t need to be manned or personed. So I was kind of just floating around.

Aleks: I saw you having a drink. I saw you and Tom chatting at the bar. Where’s my drink?

Eddy: Anyway, maybe I’ll just become your manager, Aleks, and just cruise.

Aleks: Sure, sure. And did you? Yeah. So I think you guys were postponed. Did you how did you like. I can’t remember the original date. I think it was August. So it was always a winter wedding.

Tom: Wasn’t it, in August.

Simon: And COVID hit about a month beforehand. So we spoke to the venue and made the call to push it out. And I think some great advice you gave us, Aleks, was getting all our suppliers to try and nominate two or three days that we knew the venue was available so that we can try and line everyone up in the relocation. And it was so helpful because we got everyone on June 4. It was quite a bit of a delay, but we thought a bit of. A bit of a delay will help us. August into a middle of winter wedding was a bit of a. An exciting.

Tom: Yeah. And we already had our suits organised, so we had this winter wedding prepared, so we weren’t exactly going to be having a worn suit in the middle of summer, so it had to be long away.

Simon: You go into the next winter and hopefully not.

Aleks: Well, I’m glad I was helpful, but I never want to have to do that again, so it’s a useless skill I had to be done. And how did you. Did you guys always, like, think about, Rupert, was it a venue that you kind of knew straight away or did you look around a bit?

Simon: No.

Tom: To start off with, we kind of went far and wide. Like, we were looking we up in Sydney, because at one stage, because Simon’s family is from Sydney, so why don’t we got there for a little bit? And then it just kind of got. Well, I’ll be honest, I got a little bit overwhelmed.

Simon: Tom had a few meltdowns.

Tom: So then we looked a lot closer. So we looked at a few really local venues and then we just kind of. We did stumble across Rupert, but it was just. It was stupidly close that we, like, let’s just check it out.

Simon: So we actually went there for dinner.

Tom: Yeah. And we walked in, like, the hour.

Simon: As soon as we walked in, Tom just had this look on his face of like, oh, we’re going to have so much fun tonight because this is going to be our wedding venue.

Eddy: So that’s amazing.

Simon: It was mid week. We knew straight away it took a lot of Instagram stalking, other people’s weddings and that kind of stuff to try and narrow down a few venues. And we knew that was the kind of.

Tom: That was a vibe.

Simon: The vibe and the photos that we’d really love to have as well.

Eddy: Yeah. It’s an amazing place. You can’t take a bad photo there. It’s just incredible.

Simon: No, how would.

Aleks: Yeah, I suppose to our listeners who don’t know Rupert, how would you kind of describe style, Ed?

Simon: Very much like an industrial warehouse style. And I think the one thing that really hooked us was the amount of indoor plants and great plants they have. Tom had the love of indoor plants. I think when we lived in a smaller apartment, it was more like a jungle that you had to walk through.

Tom: We used to joke that you need to bring a safari hat every time you came over.

Simon: For one. You needed to get your way through all the indoor plants. So it was a perfect fit for us that I knew as soon as I walked in, I was like, oh, yeah, there’s that many. Tom will probably end up watering them for them just to keep them alive during COVID if you needed to. So it’s a really good vibe, and it’s a good setup. You can actually do ceremony and a reception at the same place without feeling like you’re in the same room all night.

Eddy: Yeah, that’s a good point.

Aleks: Yeah. I mean, Ed’s played there numerous times more than me, but that’s an offline discussion that we can.

Eddy: I love that you mentioned the plants, too. It’s funny. I was having this conversation with Aleks a couple of days ago. The venues that we play with, a lot of plants around seem to be the most fun venues to play in. I think the plants do something like, they. They give off this. This special energy.

Aleks: They absorb all your carbon.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Is that right?

Simon: Yeah.

Eddy: Well, I didn’t get that scientific.

Aleks: I learned something at school after all. Let’s CO2. They absorb all the CO2.

Simon: Yes.

Aleks: Anyway. But I think it’s funny that you mentioned industrial. I never think of that venue as industrial because of the decor. Like, it’s very warm, and it’s. You know, it’s vintage. Very cool, kind of very Melbourne. Very Melbourne.

Simon: And it just made it a really good fit out. Like, it’s. It’s just a really good room that doesn’t feel big no matter what size.

Tom: And for us, it wasn’t over the top. It was really chilled. Yeah, I did.

Simon: I did have visions of, like, swinging on a chandelier or something. I thought I couldn’t do it. There’s. It was probably not the look and feel we were going for.

Eddy: I would have loved to have seen that.

Aleks: Yeah.

Simon: That wouldn’t have surprised me if anyone’s doing it.

Aleks: Yeah, I think. Yeah, I think it. And you’re right with the spaces as well. You know, you can have your ceremony, and then you got your kind of cocktail hour sort of in that back bar area. So there’s like a separate area.

Simon: Yeah.

Aleks: And you guys had a sit down, which we’ll go into, but you can also have a cocktail style, which, Ed, I think you’ve done a lot of cocktail format.

Simon: Yeah.

Eddy: I mean, it’s all good. It doesn’t really matter what format it is. Yeah, it’s incredible.

Aleks: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can’t say enough about it. So tell us, how did you kind of get organised at the very outset in terms of the planning or who did most of the work?

Simon: Simon’s really.

Tom: Well, Simon’s really good at Excel spreadsheet, but I feel like I did most of the planning.

Simon: I work in venues and events, but I’m really good at delegating and I delegated very well to Tom, who did all the planning for the wedding, and I was just, like, a good boss and approved.

Aleks: The budget.

Simon: So, weirdly, Tom, who is horrible at organising even a trip down to the brewery, even trying to go to the pub over the weekend is an effort. But for some reason, the wedding, he was onto suppliers. I think he just loved Instagram stalking, and that led him looking at so much on Instagram that as soon as he liked something, he would send it through.

Tom: We were engaged for probably 18 months.

Simon: Before we kind of actually get around.

Tom: I should probably do something about it.

Simon: I wasn’t really getting onto it. So I think Tom Rose is. I need to lock him down before someone comes along. And then all of a sudden, I was getting these Instagram notifications of wedding venues and suppliers and celebrants and stuff like that. And so I was like, I need to put this in an Excel spreadsheet so I can start making sure we’ve got everything done and narrowing things down.

Aleks: Yeah, you had a rogue employee there. You’re like, why is it not in the spreadsheet?

Eddy: Exactly. These macros aren’t set up properly.

Tom: It’s all in my head.

Eddy: And you mentioned, obviously, looking for suppliers, booking suppliers, let our listeners know who else, obviously, besides Aleks. Did you book for your day?

Tom: So, funnily enough, I knew who I wanted for our celebrant before we even got married. I’ve been stalking this girl named Precious for quite a while and we became friends on Instagram. So she was our celebrant and MC. She is amazing. Like, she’s just. She’s us, she’s.

Simon: She pretty much was going to be a party. And that’s exactly the vibe, the vibe we wanted. So it was almost by the end, asking your friend to be a celebration MC for us. And we knew then that we were onto a good thing. And then it came down to lots of recommendations. We got recommended through precious Elsa, our photographer, who has done the most amazing photos, which is great.

Tom: So I hate getting my photo taken. So whenever Simon, I go on holiday, he. So many photos of me, he’s like, stand there, pose this way, pose this way.

Simon: I hate this, but he loves it because it all ends up over Instagram. But then Elsa was great.

Tom: It was really natural and she. I didn’t have to pose for. I posed for, like, a couple of photos, but just bearable.

Simon: Yeah. And that was the thing. When we looked up a few of our suppliers, it was like she was kind of a natural looking vibe that we were going with. And that’s the kind of photos we wanted as well for our wedding. That was amazing to get her on deck pretty early on as well. We got you guys to do, and it was great to do the music. And let’s not talk about the photo booth just yet because I think my mum still would love to purchase it. And.

Aleks: Oh, my God, everyone’s mum.

Eddy: Everyone’s mum, like, loves the photo booth, I think.

Simon: I don’t think. I think you were at the bar because my mum was manning it.

Tom: Like, when everyone talks about our wedding, it’s the photo booth that gets the.

Eddy: Most star of the show.

Simon: So that was really important. I think photos for us were going to. It was one of the most important things as well. We knew how we’re going to capture the day and we have so many photos that that was going to be really key for us.

Tom: And then we had wild bloom for our flowers, which do a lot of australian natives, which is kind of vibe that we’re going for, really.

Simon: It was quite hard to pick flowers because there’s so much greenery already there. We didn’t want to. We didn’t want to trump it. Yeah. So we wanted to keep it really simple and go with natives and that kind of look and feel, which was, you know, actually a harder brief than we even thought once we started talking about it.

Tom: Yeah. And we kind of.

Simon: We gave them the worst brief.

Tom: Yeah. We’re like, just. Just do it. We kind of, like, screens and drowns and just. Just go with it.

Simon: On the day.

Eddy: That’s so. It’s like telling a DJ we like music. Just. Just go for it. Yeah, just play it.

Simon: So that was. That was a hard brief for them.

Tom: Yeah, but they nailed it.

Simon: They did. They did nail that.

Tom: And then our suits, our suits from Oscar Hunt.

Simon: They were incredible.

Tom: Yeah, they were really good.

Simon: There’s something about getting a, um, a suit fitted to make sure it actually fits. That makes all the difference.

Eddy: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Aleks: You had that shirt once, Ed, that you got made, remember?

Eddy: I had the suit made to talk about. Did you know? You know, Aleks, I don’t think you’ve had a suit tailored for you. It’s a pretty.

Aleks: I’ve had a dress made.

Eddy: Yeah. I mean, it’s amazing. Similar vibe, I suppose. It’s incredible. Yeah. And your suits look amazing.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Amazing, yeah.

Simon: Because, like, as they say, blue and green should never be seen. So that’s exactly what we went with. One blue and one couldn’t go further away from it. But it actually worked really well. The guys, they were so great at making. They were really helpful that it would just stand out and pop without.

Tom: But due to COVID, we probably had like, a dozen fittings.

Simon: I put on weight, I took the weight, the weight came off, went in and out that many times. And they were great at just accommodating all that and making sure it was ready to go by the time June came around.

Eddy: That’s actually a really good point you make. I imagine there was a lot of extra alterations across the board for everyone involved in a wedding because of COVID bloody St Andrews.

Simon: I think all our guests had, like, two or three outfits.

Tom: I know your mum.

Simon: My mum had three options for the August wedding and another three for the June. Got sick of looking at it.

Aleks: You’re like, it’s our wedding.

Simon: I said that.

Aleks: That’s so funny. So you sort of talked about how you found your supplies. So lots of Instagram stalking and then kind of pretty much going based off recommendations, is that right? From precious and others?

Simon: Yeah. Between precious and the venue, we thought the venue is always a good place to start. We were doing so much there that if they’ve got recommendations, they’ve obviously worked with you, those suppliers before as well, so they felt comfortable and to back them. And. And then Instagram’s talking. It’s amazing what an Instagram reels can do when you start looking at weddings and how much pops up.

Tom: We really wanted people that would fit our. Our vibe, so obviously we did a.

Simon: Few interviews and stuff. Interviews, it sounds like.

Aleks: Oh, my God. I didn’t realise I was being interviewed.

Simon: Just catch up, really.

Tom: Don’t worry, Aleks. The minute that we sat down, chat to like. Yeah, yeah.

Simon: You know, pretty quickly, if you want someone at your wedding, our supplier group as well, we were like, if we’re gonna have a chat to them, if there’s just a bit of a moment that you just gel pretty quickly, that’s gonna be quite fit. They’re gonna be on the same page as what we want as well.

Aleks: Well, I think our kind of final catch up that we had, we just ended up like drinking for 2 hours.

Tom: And I know it was longer than 2 hours. I reckon we.

Simon: A couple of hours and then Tom and I looked at ourselves and who’s driving home?

Aleks: Whoops.

Simon: Good sign.

Aleks: I don’t even think we talked about the music, but anyway.

Eddy: We spoke about.

Tom: How bad, how my sister hijacked the wedding playlist. She put like random, random music like Toto Africa and.

Simon: Yeah, that was never going to.

Aleks: Given that your brief. Given that your brief was twelve year old girl, pop, what is it? Was it, you have the taste of a twelve year old girl. I didn’t think the horses and what it was, if you’re the voice would work. So I can see because they were added at the end, it was like a pub vibe. Yeah. And I think at that point you had to shut off. Yeah, yeah, that’s right. I remember that you had to shut off the playlist, turn it to redo it.

Simon: We did ask for recommendations and people, but, yeah, I think we overruled quite a few of them.

Eddy: Yeah, I think you have to. The floodgates over my wedding.

Simon: Yeah, that’s it.

Aleks: Yeah. We always say to couples like, you know, definitely do it if you want to kind of get a vibe from people, but just be prepared for the fact that you’ll dislike probably six. And was there anything that you found kind of challenging or surprising during the planning process?

Tom: Surprising play, how easy it was, really?

Simon: I think, I think I. Well, I’m going to take credit here. I told Tom not to plan every minute of the day and we’re just going to. Just going to go with the flow and run with it. And I think that kind of really did help because we’re not worried about what’s happening over the next minute, but we knew within the hour we kind of had to do something and get that ticked off and that kind of really helped. I think that was the most surprising part. Tom was like, oh, I could do this. He definitely couldn’t. It was one of those moments where I think we realised it’s actually not that hard. It’s only hard if you make it hard.

Eddy: Yeah, totally.

Tom: Like it wasn’t. Yeah, it wasn’t challenging at all.

Simon: As long as you got the right the right supplies lined up in the right venue. I think that kind of was when we realised we don’t have to make this hard. Yeah, yeah, I love that we can make it hard. You can definitely challenge us.

Tom: Yeah.

Simon: It’s okay. We didn’t want to go down that path.

Aleks: Yeah. And I think it’s because, you know, you guys had a really good idea of what you wanted the day to be and what you didn’t want it to be. And then if you kind of go along that and choose supplies that fit into that, everything should fall into place. Yeah, exactly. And with stuff like, you know, you were saying about every minute of the day and stuff, the run sheet, you know, your venue, your MC, which, you know, and obviously had precious, and she’s a professional, so that’s great. And your DJ and, you know, everyone coordinates to make sure that things are happening and everyone. Yeah. Everyone’s communicating, so.

Simon: And I think that was, hey, for us, is whilst we had a run sheet. I live by a run sheet anyway. Even on a weekend, you have to know it. Things won’t go according to plan. It’s going to change and that’s okay. And your suppliers, if you’ve got the right ones, they’ll adjust without even roll with it, you know? Yeah. People stick to a run sheet and your suppliers do. That’s when you probably roll into issues. We were lucky enough that we picked everyone that didn’t. Didn’t have that philosophy.

Eddy: Yeah.

Simon: So much easier.

Eddy: It’s funny, with all the weddings Aleks and I do, it’s actually uncommon for anything to be running perfectly to the run sheet. When that happens, I’m like, wow, this is running on time.

Aleks: What’s happened?

Eddy: Yeah, something must be wrong.

Simon: What’s happened? That they’re probably watching their clock.

Eddy: Exactly. So tell us about your favourite moments on the day itself. Tough question.

Tom: It really is. I really liked the. So we had all our family and close friends come over to our house beforehand and we just kind of hung out here and we got. We got ready and we just drank a lot of champagne.

Simon: Girls got their makeup done here and.

Tom: Then our dads are watching the races on the tv and doing some bedding. It was just. It was good fun. And then we all just kind of hanging out and then we caught the tram to the venue and I think.

Simon: Yeah, all of us jumping on a tram down the road to get to the venue. There was no way we were going to pay for cars to go ten.

Tom: Metres down the road.

Simon: It was way too close. So we all just jumped on the tram. And it was one of those moments that I’m sure the people of Victoria street in Richmond were like, what is going on?

Aleks: Victoria street, too.

Simon: My God, about 35 people jumping on a tram that are all dressed up. But, yeah, that was pretty special. And I think we decided early on we weren’t going to walk down the aisle together and we wanted to get to the venue first with our family and friends, and then as the rest of our guests arrived, we wanted to greet them at the door and offer them a champagne. And that was pretty special too, because I think it started off as they knew we were in for a party because they were getting a glass of champagne.

Tom: And their reaction as well was like, oh, my God, have we missed the ceremony?

Simon: Are we late? Yeah, that was a good moment. It was one of those ones that, um. I think it was just a bit out of the box, but it actually cost nothing and it was easy to do and, yeah, I think that was the moment we were on it.

Tom: Some of the photos we got from that moment as well. We got a photo with every single person as well, without having to organise.

Eddy: Yeah, that’s good.

Aleks: Oh, yeah, I love that. More organic.

Simon: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Kind of fit the brief of what.

Tom: We want, the vibe we’re going for.

Simon: Yeah.

Aleks: How did you guys come up with all ideas of, like, when the dance. Once the dance floor kicked off, you know, we had, like, I mentioned that, like, bubble guns. Bubble gun. So gun. Yes. Sorry, no, that shoot, shoot bubbles is epic. And glow sticks.

Tom: Glow sticks, yeah. Well, originally I wanted the dance floor, I think, to start like eight. I think, Aleks, you’re like Tom, that’s going to be like a six hour dance floor. What the hell?

Simon: Different kind of party. Very different kind of party. We did take on advice as well from the venue and suppliers on going, hang on, this is probably a bit too long, or this might not work. So we kind of knew that we wanted to do the cake cutting, get that out of the way, but pretty quickly hit the gas for all our friends and family are very much like us and love a drink.

Tom: Just want a drink. And we only did so there were no speeches except for Simon and I, so that was done. And we ate and then we just wanted to kind of hit full party mode, really, that was.

Simon: Yeah, yeah. And get into it. So that happened pretty quickly.

Aleks: Yeah. I can’t remember the exact timing, but it was a good, decent amount of time for dance. Thor.

Simon: Yeah, I think we compromised around 830.

Aleks: God, I’m so fussy. Hey, so petty splitting hairs there. I’m like. I’m like, no. 815. The perfect time. And I think we kicked things off with Spice Girl song. No.

Simon: First dance wannabe. Yeah.

Aleks: Was it wanna be?

Simon: I love that song.

Tom: Yeah, well, we didn’t do it. We didn’t do a first dance together. We’re like, a first dance. Everyone.

Simon: Everyone.

Tom: Yeah, everyone up on the dance. That was good fun.

Simon: And everyone went straight to the dance floor because no one, they. I think they thought they were going to watch this dance, and that was clearly never going to happen with Tom. So all of a sudden, everyone was on the dance floor, and then no one left the dance floor after that. Everyone stayed on, which was great.

Eddy: Yeah, I’m pretty sure you were.

Tom: You doing shots at the bar with my brother in law.

Simon: I did that. That’s different.

Aleks: That’s important.

Simon: Yeah, I had to keep going.

Aleks: It’s pretty impressive that you guys had, like, champagne at home. I’m always impressed by couples, like, keeping it together. I would be lobby mess by then. You guys were good.

Simon: Oh, the next day was a struggle. Yeah. I don’t know how. How he managed to get through the day, but hangover kids.

Eddy: Yeah, they probably came in handy.

Simon: Thank God. I actually took a few of the panadol to get through the night.

Aleks: I think also with Rupert. And where the dance floor is, there is a bar there.

Tom: Yeah.

Eddy: That keeps a lot of people there, which is great.

Aleks: Yeah. So you kind of have to go too far. And with the photo booth, particularly in Rupert, I mean, that backdrop, that floral.

Eddy: Yeah. You can’t get much better than amazing.

Simon: Yeah. And where.

Tom: And where the photo booth was as well. Like, it wasn’t out of the way. It was kind of involved with everyone.

Simon: And you didn’t have to run off to another room to get a photo done, so. Yeah, everyone just kept around the photo.

Aleks: Booth, especially Simon’s mom.

Eddy: Shout out to.

Simon: That. We ended up using all the photos from the photo booth to send everyone a thank you as well, because the photos are so good. Yeah. So cool. I’ve never printed so many photos in my life, but hopefully everyone’s got them on their fridges at home. It was a great memory.

Eddy: Oh, that’s a nice touch. Yeah, that’s really cool.

Aleks: And the kids loved it, too. I saw Ed light adjusting the head of.

Eddy: That’s when I was. That’s when I was manning it. I was. Yeah.

Tom: Watching it like a hawk.

Simon: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tom: They were first up. Yeah.

Aleks: I also think I set a record for the number of Spice Girls and Britney songs I play that night. I’m not joking.

Eddy: Good record.

Simon: I am not surprised, but I was. That was pretty much prerequisite, though. Yeah.

Aleks: Yeah, that was the brief. And I, um. Yeah, I mean, I was surprised, and I was like, oh, Brittany, good tunes. I played slave for you, which I’ve never played.

Simon: I’m pretty sure we got on the floor for that a little bit.

Tom: Yeah, of course it was.

Simon: Yeah, it was some really good slut drops. Be honest.

Eddy: Love it.

Aleks: Of course. And there was. I think there was one, um, atomic kitten song that I regretted not playing earlier, but anyway, I will always think about that, but that is a great song. Which one? Hole again?

Simon: Yeah.

Tom: Hey, my birthday’s coming up. You can do it.

Aleks: Just play on repeat all night.

Eddy: Atomic hidden all night.

Aleks: Why not? Why not? Is there anything that you guys would have done differently?

Tom: Um, I kind of not regret, but it would have been good to have a videographer. Like, we. We do have some awesome photos, but there are moments that I would like to see.

Simon: Yeah, you were adamant you didn’t want one.

Tom: Yeah.

Simon: There were some things I lost in our arguments, and that was one of them. And now he wants one. It’s too late. But anyway, friends have some really good videos anyway. Yeah, I reckon we can piece together. And probably a really big honeymoon post. We went to Bali because that’s about as far as we could book at the time with COVID But it would have been great to go on a big honeymoon afterwards. Yeah, we went from planning and talking about the wedding for so much to sitting by a pool, and it was like one extreme to the other. It’s probably a bit too much.

Tom: And then I went straight back to work, so it was, like, in full on depression mode.

Eddy: So you. You took your honeymoon quite, quite close.

Simon: I think that was the one thing we learned, is, um, he’s probably try to ride out the high a little bit longer. Yeah.

Eddy: You could always do a second honeymoon.

Tom: Oh, we’re playing to, don’t we?

Eddy: Oh, good.

Aleks: Foul. Renewal party.

Eddy: The sky’s the limit, really?

Simon: Not after a year.

Aleks: True, I think.

Simon: Really?

Tom: So gone.

Aleks: No, no. Go on. You know, there’s not really anything different. I mean, it’s interesting that you talk about the video stuff and the honeymoon stuff, because that is extending that high. Yeah, it’s. You kind of want a bit more out of the day, so I think it’s good. I think it’s good because a lot of people do debate whether, you know, a videographer is something they should look at and. Yeah. Yeah. So that’s interesting. Yeah, just. Yeah. Awesome.

Eddy: And are there any sort of other final hot tips for couples that are planning their non traditional wedding?

Tom: Don’t stress about it.

Simon: I think as long as you’re on the same, communication is the key. I think as long as you keep talking about what you want and being honest and saying if you don’t like something straight up.

Tom: Yeah.

Simon: There was a few things that I reckon Tom mentioned, and I was like, no, I don’t like that. So you just take it and go move on. Yeah.

Tom: If you have all the essentials locked in, everything kind of falls into place. Like, you really just need your core things. So you like your venue, your celebrant, and your music.

Simon: And photographer.

Tom: Oh, yeah, and photographer. And really everything just falls into place. And we were really lucky that, like, we got a killer DJ and we got a really good. We had a really good mc that.

Simon: Everything just kind of made it fun.

Tom: It just. Yeah.

Simon: If, you know, you’re brief, then I think you’ll find everything you need to look for as well. So nail that.

Aleks: Yeah. Just have a really good idea. And to any poor listeners who are a bit stressed about their wedding planning, it’s easy.

Simon: Call Tom.

Aleks: Yeah. Thompson is easy. So, you know, deal.

Simon: He’ll plan what he wants for you.

Eddy: That’s a. That’s a business idea right there.

Tom: Because of lockdown and COVID, like, we had so long to think about it and to plan it.

Simon: Yeah.

Tom: But I think by the time we came out, lockdown, like, oh, whatever, let’s just get this done.

Aleks: Yeah, there’s definitely. Yeah, whatever. There’s definitely decision fatigue if you leave. Like, if you plan for too long, I think, as well.

Eddy: Definitely.

Simon: Yeah. Once we lock things in, I think it was always a sign of relief. Okay, that’s in, and we know that. And now we can just go into the next supplier that we need to walk in. And I think that was the key. And then I think the worst part was the anxious wait. Like, we really wanted the wedding in August, and it got put off, and then it was just the wait because we actually knew what we wanted.

Tom: And there were some moments where we were thinking, like, originally, like, oh, no. Bon bonieris. Whatever. And then at the last minute, like, shit, I kind of really want them.

Simon: And I was.

Tom: This was this frantic rush probably, like, four days before the wedding. Like, I’ve got to get these bomboneres.

Simon: All through tennis, workout, panigole, nurofen, band aids, whatever we could find.

Tom: And then we, um. We found a. Because we had these little bags, these little hangover kits, and they were little hessian sacks and they had this printed name on it. Tom and Simon’s have ever kid wedding, whatever, but the only place that would print them was like Gosford in Sydney. So luckily, Simon’s mum lives up there, so we sent her up and that was her one. One job for the wedding.

Simon: She was so nervous she put it on her carry on luggage because she didn’t want to put it in her suitcase in case it went missing on her alarm. I think that’s the stuff we’d never do again. It’s just if you really want it, there’s always a way. You can find a way to make something or something similar happen.

Tom: Yeah.

Aleks: Yeah. I mean, they’re pretty. I wouldn’t say they’re traditional bombing. They’re super unique and fun. Yeah. Still keeping with your vibe. And finally, if you had to choose, this would be hard for you guys. If you had to choose one song to get you on the dance floor, one song each, what would it be?

Simon: Wanna be Spice Girls. Wannabe Spice Girls. That was easy. That was easy.

Tom: Super easy for silence for me. Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I want to dance with somebody by Whitney.

Aleks: Classic.

Simon: Yeah.

Eddy: Good answer.

Simon: Thank you. Good insight into our wedding.

Aleks: Pretty much sums it up. Yep. Thanks, guys. That was so much fun.

Eddy: Such a pleasure.

Aleks: Yeah. Such a pleasure. And gives our listeners such a good insight and hopefully, you know, makes people realise that it doesn’t have to be hard. Should be enjoyable.

Simon: Yeah, it’s super. Yeah. That’s okay.

Aleks: Well, thank you again and, uh, yeah, enjoy. You guys are off to the tennis.

Simon: Can’t wait.

Eddy: Well, enjoy.

Aleks: Sarcasm. Thanks, guys.

Simon: We’re leaving the wedding.

Aleks: Thanks so much, guys. Have a great night. And thanks again for joining us on the poddy.

Eddy: Thanks, guys.

Aleks: Bye. Thanks for tuning in. If you’re enjoying project engaged, please hit the subscribe button on your fave 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.