S4, EP13: Everything you need to know about your key moment songs

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: Hello. And we are back. It’s just us two today. Hello, Eddy.

Eddy: Hello, Aleks. How are you?

Aleks: Good.

Eddy: I don’t have any headphones today.

Aleks: Okay. Can you. But you can hear me?

Eddy: I can hear you, yeah, definitely. You know what? I just don’t want to be confined.

Aleks: Okay.

Eddy: So I’m sitting here. I had to make sure that Aleks knew when to come in after the.

Aleks: Jingle, because you can’t hear the jingle in your headphones. You’re not here. The jingo.

Eddy: The jingo flying start.

Aleks: Oh, we’ve done well.

Eddy: So before we kind of kick things off on this episode, let’s talk about the weekend. Now, you, Aleks, had two events.

Aleks: Two weddings. I had two weddings. Yeah. I was all in a city. Very nice. And Friday night I was at half Acre in south Melbourne for Rosie and Stefan. Had to think about that one. Geez. Lovely couple. They have a disco ball in there now, I don’t know you if that is something that is there all the time. Have you seen this? The disco ball?

Eddy: I’ve never seen the disco ball there.

Aleks: And I think the guy who was sort of packing down from Harry the high rise said he has to take it down. So I assume it’s not always there, but looks epic as always. Actually, I had disco balls at both weddings. There you go. And I think I told you one of the songs that went off the most on the night was the White Lotus renaissance, which I was puzzled by.

Eddy: Because obviously we’re between seasons at the moment. I know there’s one being filmed right now.

Aleks: Yes. No, it’s like Thailand.

Eddy: Oh, yes. So Italy was the one.

Aleks: Third one now.

Eddy: Right. Thailand, yes. Very good. Cuz, um, what’s. His face is in it. Father mouth foyer from Jason Isaacs.

Aleks: That’s it, yes.

Eddy: Love that guy.

Aleks: It’s a good show.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: So.

Eddy: No, anyway, I was puzzled by. Usually you get a flurry of requests when the, you know, just after the seasons happened or during the season.

Aleks: Yeah. And it’s funny that you say that because the bride did go up to in the end. And she said to me, you must think we’re all a little bit weird. And she did that thing and I’m like, okay, not at all.

Eddy: That was weird in and of itself, I think so. Okay, so anyway, half acre on Friday, Saturday. I know where you were because I helped set up. Well, I did set up. You did set up at the post office hotel in Coburg.

Aleks: Yay. Just up the road. That was such a good team on this one. Just all vendors that we love. Malia from Lovegood Images was the photographer Nat Sproal, celebrant and Kahlo from Luna Red films on video and Babylon flower.

Eddy: Yeah, didn’t they?

Aleks: And banging hangings.

Eddy: And banging hangings, of course. So, yeah, all star team there.

Aleks: And we bought some fancy cameras for content. We ed bought some cameras for fancy content. And, yeah, you had all sorts of crazy things going on, didn’t you?

Eddy: Yeah, I did. I had like a body cam kind of strapped to the brim of my caps. So I, you know, I was walking around setting up and things like that and, yeah, put a little fun reel together. I just wanted to get a different perspective, I suppose, on what kind of goes into equipment side of things and the setup side of things before the wedding sort of kicks off.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: So, yeah, that was really cool. Yeah.

Aleks: Great job.

Eddy: It kind of tied in well with the podcast episode a couple of episodes ago about the equipment that you need for your wedding. So if you haven’t checked that out, be sure to do so, because, uh, it’s. Yeah, from the layperson’s perspective, I think it’s pretty interesting.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: As equipment goes.

Aleks: Exactly. We don’t get into too much kind of technical detail, so it’s, it’s easy to understand. But yesterday was a, an eight hour wedding, so it was a cocktail style. And I was emceeing as well, which was lots of fun.

Eddy: For a cocktail wedding, 8 hours is a fair stretch. Obviously includes the ceremony.

Aleks: It does include the ceremony, but it is long. In fact, they moved it forward, forward an hour. So it was actually an hour longer. Started earlier than it was originally intended to. So it was a little bit longer than the standard because obviously at the post office hotel, if you have a sit down, you kind of have a long cocktail hour and then you’ve got a kind of standard reception time. This was just like one long cocktail hour. But the couple, you know, were liking the tunes. They were very kind of funk, funky soul, and then quite a bit of like throwback sort of dance house anthems. I put up a fun little video of everyone dancing to love generation, which absolutely went off. I’m really, really into that song at the moment. You know, you just have. You go through those.

Eddy: You do go through them. And after this podcast episode, we’re going to be delving into our music organisation a little bit more. I suppose we might as well mention this now if anybody’s interested. But Aleks is finally moving on from her tractor controller, the piece of DJ equipment that she uses, and she’s finally moving over to a software platform called Serato, which is the one that I use, which is good for us and.

Aleks: It’s good for us to be on par. And the control I’m using is a huge, huge step up and I can be way more creative and, yeah, so I’m finally doing it. Now that we’ve announced it, I have to remain committed. I’ve got a bit of a habit of buying controllers, trying them out once, sending them back, and just not found a piece of kit that I’ve liked. But, yeah, everyone wish me luck.

Eddy: Everyone wish Aleks luck. It’s like, you know, a photographer going for a new camera with a few more bells and whistles.

Aleks: Completely different Camaro.

Eddy: Completely. Like it’s, you know, like Nikon to like Sony or something, or canon, I don’t know. Anyway, moving on. So today we’ve got a pretty interesting episode for you all. We’re talking about the key moments, songs that you will have or need to think about for your wedding.

Aleks: Yeah. And I feel like this is something that probably a really common thing that we get asked about throughout the process after a couple has booked us. There’s always a lot of discussion around what the key moment songs are, timings, what kind of tunes they should choose, etcetera. So it goes hand in hand with kind of discussing the run sheet with our couple. So there’s the music brief side and then there’s the kind of run sheet. And the key moment songs kind of, you know, fit across both of those categories. So pretty key thing to talk about today.

Eddy: Yeah, definitely. And we do touch on these songs and most of the time our couples have already started to think about them at the very beginning of chatting to us. And of course, they make quite a sizable part of the questionnaire that we send out to couples.

Aleks: Yeah, that’s true. And then other times they have. They can’t. They have having trouble choosing their song and we advise them and give them options. Sometimes we choose them on the night. We can talk about that or we.

Eddy: Have some options and we kind of make a decision based on what’s going on. But yes, let’s. Let’s discuss.

Aleks: We’ll get into it. But I was just to say, look, there’s one thing I found particularly, you know, in the last kind of week or two before your big day, is that you do get to that kind of stage of decision fatigue. So if you have had trouble picking some of your key songs, sometimes it is nice for your DJ just to say, do you guys want me to take care of it? Cool. All right, leave it with me. And maybe get a sense of, do you want something classic? Do you want something upbeat?

Eddy: Yeah. And that’s a good point to make. I obviously will always look at what they’ve requested and you, you know, if they’ve provided a Spotify playlist, what’s in there? And I’d often take inspiration or even pluck tracks from that playlist, which is exactly what I’ve done for a wedding that I have in a couple of weeks time. They have a bit of trouble choosing their sort of party starter after their first dance, and they wanted something to come in and do a shot to in the entrances. So naturally, I recommended fireball.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: By pitchball, which I think is a very fun song.

Aleks: It’s a fun song anyway, right? So it just elevated with the presence of shots.

Eddy: It’s funny because they originally wanted to shot tequila, and they’re like, we really love this tequila song. We just don’t feel like it’s got that kind of oomph to get everybody in the wedding party in the room to do it. I said, oh, it’s too bad you don’t like fireball, because you could use fireball.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: And the response came back, oh, my God. Yeah, that’s.

Aleks: Didn’t even think about it.

Eddy: Let’s just do that.

Aleks: Probably a bit more. Bit less dangerous than a tequila shot.

Eddy: Palatable, less alcoholic, sweeter. So I think it’s. Yeah, it’ll go down much better for a lot of people.

Aleks: Yum. I feel like a fireball out. All right, let’s get into it. So, look, and the thing is, no matter how non traditional your wedding is, whether it’s a larger kind of sit down or a more relaxed cocktail wedding, you are going to have key moments throughout the day. And they’re a really good opportunity to make some really great music choices. Um, one example I’d like to like, if you think you don’t need music, one good example is, like, the cake cutting. A lot of couples would be like, oh, we don’t need a song. For that. But if you listen to. If you watched it in silence, it’s not good. Not that we would let that happen, but.

Eddy: No, of course not.

Aleks: Sometimes you have a surprise cake cutting.

Eddy: That nobody wants those awkward silences. It’s an. It’s another really good opportunity to put in some of the songs that you love individually that may not fit super well in a wedding. So sometimes you get a couple and say one side of the. I shouldn’t say one side, but one of the parties. One of the parties loves, you know, like death metal or something, which is obviously extremely hard to kind of put into a wedding. Or maybe it’s heavy metal, whatever it is.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: But with these moments, you can actually use some of those songs and have fun with those moments without the fear for alienating everybody.

Aleks: Exactly.

Eddy: So say you’re coming into something really heavy rock style or whatever it is. You know, everyone’s gonna realise, of course, so and so then this genre. This is so them.

Aleks: Yeah. And there’s no pressure. Like, you’re not expecting people to dance head bang.

Eddy: I don’t know, Metallica or something.

Aleks: People like her, especially when they are the more unexpected choices. That’s what I like as well.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: So we’re gonna go. We go. Going to go into all the key moments and also throw in some examples where we can of real ones from real weddings as well. Course. So let’s get started with the ceremony. Seems like a good place to start. And there will be some considerations. We’ve talked about this a little bit on the podcast, so there are some considerations, depending on what you’ve got going on, who is actually looking after the music? Do you have a live musician, you know, an acoustic duo or whatever? Do you have a DJ looking after the music? Or is it just a friend or your celebrant, whatever, you know, playing through Spotify. So the reason this is important is because if you have songs where you have to start or they have to be queued up at a certain point, it is a lot trickier to do if you’re just playing it through Spotify. Would you say that’s a pretty accurate statement?

Eddy: Definitely yes. Now, there are cases where clients, couples will send through particular versions of a song. It could be something a friend recorded for them. It could be just a cut down version of a radio edit or something like that. So that obviously cannot be played on Spotify. Yes, because Spotify wouldn’t have it in their library. So you may need to play it from an iPhone or Android device or an iPad or something.

Aleks: Like that. Yeah.

Eddy: And take that in mind.

Aleks: Yeah. And I was gonna say your celebrant might be able to play that through an iPad or whatever as well. So you could ask. But I just think, keep it simple with this stuff. I think sometimes there is an unnecessary stress added.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: You know, selecting particular parts of songs, especially if you’re, like, outdoors and. I don’t know.

Eddy: Yeah. I think if you can choose a song where you actually do, like the lead in, you do like the song from the beginning of that tune just to make it very, very cut and dry. Also, you know, I know we’re sort of skipping ahead a little bit here, but with the aisle song, just make sure you’ve got enough time in the track for everybody to sort of come down, which we will get to, obviously. But if you’re looking at a pre isle song, you know, if you can sort of time it right, pick a song that kind of plays right before the aisle, I think that’s quite a nice thing to do.

Aleks: I like it, too.

Eddy: It gives you a little bit more homework, obviously, but I think, you know, it’s. What it will do for you is it will, if you’re in the vicinity, say you are, say the bride’s coming down or the groom that’s coming down, or you’re both coming down, or whatever it is, you’re able to hear that song and go, okay, cool, we’re almost ready to roll.

Aleks: Exactly. I was going to say it is such a good way. And since I’ve started my celebrating, I found that there’s this very hectic energy right before where people aren’t quite ready to go. When you’re trying to, like, coordinate someone, you know, who’s got the rings and the wedding party’s really far away, it’s quite a long aisle walk, and you have to run back and you have to coordinate. And it’d be nice if you could go. Okay, when you hear this song.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: It means we are almost ready to go. Obviously, you have to check that. Whoever’s coming down the aisle is ready, the venue, whoever’s coordinating will check that, celebrate, will check that, etcetera. But it’s a good signal, hey, after this.

Eddy: Well, definitely. So you can be ready to go. You’ve done all your checks. Whoever’s. If you’re doing the aisle walk, whoever’s up there waiting is ready. Then you play that pre Isle song and that’s almost like another two or three minutes just to settle yourself exactly. For the actual aisle song plays.

Aleks: Yeah. And I think that that settling is really important and it also depends on your celebrant and how they structure the ceremony. So for example, the way I do it, and I’ve seen a couple of other celebrants do it, is doing like a housekeeping Getty people to sit down. Once I’ve checked that whoever’s coming down the aisle is ready, you know, I’ll say, oh, you know, sit down, it’ll be an unplugged ceremony, et cetera. But I’m just going to go check on the wedding party, whoever’s coming in and I’ll be back in a minute. That’s when you can play the pre aisle song as well. Obviously if you’ve got live musicians that’s pretty easy because they’ve got full control. Always recommend live music for so live musicians.

Eddy: Or if you do have a DJ that’s is behind their decks, they can say maybe loop a part of the song or play the chorus again or something for that pre is more control. More control. Rather than, you know, you’re just playing a linear Spotify song a to b.

Aleks: And it’s very hard to fade down as well. You got to use the manual controls on your, the volume controls on your device, your phone or your iPad, whatever. On Spotify, it’s. Yeah, it’s just not ideal anyway. But if you are doing Spotify. Yeah. I think the trick is just to keep it simple and choose songs that you are. As you said, there’s a long intro and you’re happy with the full song for the songs we played from the beginning. But just with that pre isle song, you can make a choice in terms of the actual song you pick. It can be slow and romantic depending on the kind of tone that you want to set for your ceremony. Or it can be quite upbeat and anticipatory. I know you love your anticipation songs. How would you describe like an anticipation song?

Eddy: So I’ve got a crate called anticipation in my serato software that I used to DJ.

Aleks: Crate being a playlist for songs.

Eddy: Yeah. So I use those songs to signify an upcoming event.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: Like maybe we’re just coming out of mains and we’re just about to get to speeches. People are up and about again. Or, you know, I like spinning songs as well. A fun, fun song if people need to move from where they’re sitting. If it’s a sit down over to the dance floor before the first dance kicks off, if they’re kind of crowding around. So something kind of not, not too full on, obviously, but something fun and that you can kind of jive to.

Aleks: Yeah, quiet. I would say it’s like a little bit of a. It’s on the longer side, the track, and it’s quite repetitive. Yeah, but in a good way. It’s got, like a driving force to it that really gives you that sense of something. Something is coming. It’s like. Got a slow burn. It’s fun. It’s a fun song, but it’s a slow burn, you know what I mean?

Eddy: Exactly. So, yeah, so those kinds of tunes work very, very well for. Oh, something’s about to happen. Let’s get excited for what’s next.

Aleks: Have you got an example of one of those anticipatory kind of tunes? Is anticipatory a word?

Eddy: I mean, it should be.

Aleks: Okay, well, let’s make a word.

Eddy: Yeah, it should be. I’m racking my brain now. It’s always hard to be put on the spot, even as a DJ.

Aleks: I’ve got an example. Yeah, I’ve got an example of that. What I always think of is papa was a rolling stone. Oh, yeah, that’s the temptations, is it?

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Yeah, that goes and goes.

Eddy: That’s quite a long song as well, right?

Aleks: Long. So you definitely, definitely want a long song. As you mentioned, I had this the other night, so right after the speeches, before the first dance. So after kind of formalities almost wrapped up, before the first dance, the bride actually had an outfit change before we kicked off the first dance. And I put on around the world, the extended version. Daft punk. Yes, again, something super repetitive, still fun and upbeat. But you can play it for quite a while, and it gives you that sense of, okay, something’s coming, people can go grab a drink, et cetera. Obviously, we’re talking about the pre isle song, but I think the anti batory songs can apply to lots of different moments throughout the day as well.

Eddy: Absolutely. Yeah. I’m just trying to wreck my brain now. Look, you know what? I’ll put a few songs, maybe up on the podcast. Notes. Yeah, there’s a few rattling around in my head, but for the life of me, I just can’t name them.

Aleks: For whatever reason you had. You had a few for sure. All right, let’s get into aisle song. As you mentioned, you know, this sort of apply. Obviously, you have different circumstances. You might be dancing down the aisle together. There might be no aisle, in which case, just have a playlist going and do whatever you want to do. It’s very rare that we say no aisle, to be honest. A few things to consider. Again, what’s the kind of atmosphere and the tone that you want to set? Is it kind of soft and romantic? Is it emotional and nostalgic? Do you want people to shed a tears as you’re walking down? Do you want it to be fun and super, super high energy? As you mentioned earlier, you do have to think about the timings. This is crucial. You do not want to be stressed, particularly if you’ve got limited control with, you know, playing the tune. So you do. You are playing it through Spotify or have you. If you’ve got a few different people walking down the aisle.

Aleks: Yeah, there are a few options. You might want to pick more than one song.

Eddy: Yeah, sometimes I think that works quite well because, you know, again, whoever’s walk, whoever the main event is walking down the aisle, sometimes nice to have a short kind of silence after that first song and then go into their song.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Because, again, what are we doing? We’re building anticipation for those moments. I’ve just remembered my favourite anticipation song, by the way. It’s the Spinners rubber band, man.

Aleks: That’s it. I was trying to think of what it was.

Eddy: Yeah, finally. That’s a cool one. Got that.

Aleks: It’s a really, really good one.

Eddy: Brain still ticking over. But, no, I think two songs is good. Particularly if the song that the couple has their heart set on is a short song and there might be a longer walk down to where the aisle kind of finishes. I always like to err on the side of caution here because you don’t want to be running out of song. Not only that, but I always like. And you do this, too, to kind of keep the song going for a little while. Once that person has reached the other person, if it’s one of the more traditional aisle walks, because there is a bit of time where they might have to compose themselves and there might be some arranging of, say, the veil, if there is one, or something of the dress, floofing of the dress, or even, like, you know, brushing down the suit a little bit or whatever it is.

Aleks: Just taking a breath.

Eddy: Just taking a breath. And. Yeah, you know, you would know this as a celebrant, like making sure that people, you know, they’re ready to go.

Aleks: Yep.

Eddy: All that kind of thing.

Aleks: Don’t want to rush that. You’re so right. It’s really. Yeah, it can be quite stressful. You want to take your time. You know, there is absolutely no. No reason to rush. And I had some pretty close calls with tunes, so unless you’ve practised it to a t, which is almost impossible, particularly if you’ve got flower girls or page boys. If you’ve got kids under the age of ten, forget about it.

Eddy: Like they’re the wild cards. Right. Say, for instance, you don’t have those. And maybe you’ve got, like, I don’t know, two or three bridesmaids and all, what have you. They’re usually racing down the aisle.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: They’re very fast.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: It’s almost like I don’t want to be in the limelight.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Because it’s not my day. Yeah. And while that’s. You can’t bank on how fast people are going, you can generally probably tell that that’s gonna happen. Yeah. Like you said, with page boys, flower girls, etc. Who knows what can happen.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: I get distracted. Walk off or whatever it is. And maybe even pets as well.

Aleks: I was gonna say children, animals. Separate song.

Eddy: Not that we group those together, obviously.

Aleks: No, no, no. But then there’s an element of unpredictability.

Eddy: With a very diplomatic way of putting it. Yes.

Aleks: Thank you. Thank you. So I would much definitely recommend. Or if you’ve got, like, ten bridesmaids, you know what I mean? Definitely choose a different song and choose something that is well over three minutes. I would say maybe an extended version.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Maybe with something with an extended intro, that sort of thing. You’re really better off having a longer song than not. If you’re choosing only one song and say you’ve got, I don’t know, three bridesmaids and you’re a bride coming down with your parents or whatever, which is quite common. Fine to choose one song and if it’s got quite a long intro and they do race down the aisle, as you said, you can have that little break where the song keeps going and there’s a bit of anticipation being built before you walk down. You can time that. You can actually pick a moment. As long as there’s enough song left for you to make it back down. Sorry, back up, down, down the aisle and still have those ten to 15 seconds of being able to get yourself settled. You don’t want to get to the top of the aisle and, you know, you’ve sort of. You got there and the music just stops. You don’t want that, really.

Eddy: No way.

Aleks: So just. Just choose a long song. I think that’s the main thing on.

Eddy: The side of caution, choose something that is a little bit longer. Look, if you can’t, and it’s a short song, but you are set on that one song for everyone. And there’s a few people coming down before you maybe have a chat to your DJ about potentially extending it? Something like that. Ahead of time, I mean, yes. So you might be able to, like, include the chorus an additional time or the lead in and out, maybe. This is something we’ve done in the past. Look, I don’t recommend it for everyone, but if you are, if you’ve got your heart set on it, there are ways that we can. We can help, but it will affect how you’re playing the song. So, for instance, as we said before, you won’t be able to play it through Spotify. Then a device that has that file stored internally and a means of playing that dragon.

Aleks: Everyone who’s listening to this, like, I’m just going to choose one really long song.

Eddy: That is kind of the point.

Aleks: Yeah, we’re trying to put you up. Look, the other thing, again, can’t stress it enough. If you’ve got live music, they can play another chorus or do a little instrumental. So good you have full control. You do not need to stress. They can add another. Whatever. You know, normally they’ll do a little instrumental most of the time.

Eddy: They’re layering and looping their instruments these days anyway, so they can just maybe stop singing and keep looping the. The layers of guitar and or percussion or whatever it is that they’re doing. Um, yeah, really, really easily.

Aleks: Yeah. We also. I think we. We may have talked about this on our episode where we talk about sound equipment, but we. Brand new, pretty new. We have. We do have little DJ controllers that we have bought specifically for ceremony and cocktail hour where we can set them up and where it makes sense. So we do have a bit more control. So if you have booked us as your DJ for your reception and want to add on ceremony, that is an option, too. So we, you know, you can have those moments and have those cue points ready and all that thing, so a little bit more flexibility. Let’s talk about the ceremony. Oh, sorry. I want to mention one more thing about the aisle song. So if you’re both coming. These are my favourite. If you’re both coming down together. One of my favourite ones were Jane and Andrew, a couple who danced down the aisle together to a Martin Garrick’s, like, huge commercial dance banger. I can’t remember the name of it now. And had a shot halfway down the aisle. That is the obstacle.

Eddy: What did they shot? Do you remember?

Aleks: Tequila, I think.

Eddy: There you go.

Aleks: So good. Anyway. Yeah. So that’s always an option as well. If you don’t have a wedding party. That’s such a huge, energetic moment for. For the two of you to come.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Coming together doesn’t have to be super upbeat, but can be something a bit more romantic. But, yeah, I’m all for that. I would love to see more of that.

Eddy: Definitely. It’s becoming more and more common, which is a cool thing to see because it really bucks that tradition. Okay, we’ll talk signing a certificate. So there’s obviously two ways you can do this. Some settlements love to have you sign after the ceremony is done.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Which I think is great because it shortens the ceremony for a start. And, you know, you can sign on the bar with a drink. I mean, who doesn’t want to do that? I mean, Natsboro’s a big fan of that. Shout out to Natsral, and so I think that’s great. But obviously the more traditional way to do it is in the ceremony itself.

Aleks: Can I just say, also, it does depend on what you’re doing straight after the ceremony. If your timeline is really tight and you need to go have photos and you’ve got a million family members. Although I was awful signing after, sometimes it does make sense to sign during. Yeah, you just can’t do it. Get it done. Unless your DJs also your celebrant, then you can do it whenever during the reception. But if not, your celebrant probably won’t want to hang around for another 2 hours waiting for you to finish your photo. So that’s something to consider.

Eddy: That’s a really, really good consideration.

Aleks: That’s not a tune one, that’s just a logistical one.

Eddy: Well, okay, so, okay, so let’s say for the argument you’re doing it during the ceremony, we recommend choosing around three songs. Yeah, we used to say two, but I think three is a little safer.

Aleks: Two is cutting it fine.

Eddy: Yeah. And the reason why we choose, we asked for this is we need the time, you know, again, we don’t want to run out of song halfway through signing. Sometimes signing is very fast. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer. Obviously, there’s photos involved in that time as well, so we want to make sure that we’ve got you covered.

Aleks: Yeah. And some couples choose really short songs. Some of the older songs are like and a half.

Eddy: Well, the Motown’s like, yeah, two minutes flat.

Aleks: So it’s not enough. You probably need. Yeah, good six to seven minutes of tunes for that part. Again, totally up to you about whether you want something, you know, more classic and slower, romantic or upbeat. As you mentioned earlier, I think if there is something obscure that you like, I find couples often will put in a couple of their favourite songs during this part of the day that they know you just don’t have an opportunity to play for the rest of the wedding. So it’s a really, really good bit because you’re getting your photos done, you’ve just been married. Like, it’s a nice moment. Kind of enjoy something that’s meaningful to you or that you love.

Eddy: Absolutely.

Aleks: One of my favourite key moments of the day is the ceremony. Exit song. Ceremony finished song.

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: The final key moment.

Eddy: Yeah, you can have a lot of fun with this. It can be very upbeat, very energetic. People are cheering like, it’s a huge moment of your day, so it’s great to choose a song that’s fitting for that.

Aleks: Yeah, definitely. And, yeah, as you said, it’s a huge celebratory moment. I do have to say I’ve had this a lot lately. It’s really, really important to choose if you want the song to be played. As soon as you’re announced. Husband, husband, husband, wife, wife and whatever you’re being announced or newlyweds, it is important to choose something that doesn’t have a long intro and takes ages to get into the song because it can be a very anticlimactic moment. The walk back down the aisle doesn’t take much time at all, so you want the most energetic bit. You want something really, really big, high energy at that moment, or have a chat to your celebrant and suss out what their kind of final few words are. Will they ask everyone to be upstanding? Um, you know, what are they kind of saying in that last bit of the ceremony? You can actually start playing the song if it’s got a bit of a longer intro, you can start playing that song as they start announcing. So I’ll often have a chapter to the celebrant or the musician, if I’m the celebrant, to say, hey. Like, a good example of a song that takes a little while to get into is hall of notes. You make my dreams come true. So in that situation, I would normally ask whoever’s looking after the music to cue it up. As I say, there’s only one, one thing left for you to do. If you were able to please be upstanding at that bit, start playing it, wait for everyone to stand up, then I kind of wait for the right bit of the song and announce Mister and misses or the newlyweds or whatever, and then big cheer and you get the right big energetic moment. I have had situations where that hasn’t happened and there is a. It just falls flat and the big bit of the song comes in well after the couple have gone down the aisle. It’s a bit of a shame.

Aleks: Bit of a lost opportunity there. Yeah.

Eddy: So it’s almost the most important part in terms of timing for, I guess, the most energetic and best response in a way, obviously, the aisle you need to nail as well. Signing’s not so bad because, you know. Yeah, you can kind of come in and out of that pretty easily, but it, yeah. Really good consideration to have. Talk to your DJ or your musicians, talk to your celebrant and try and get them talking to each other. If you really want this to happen, you know, even in the lead up, try and connect them, if you can, so they can have a chat. So they just. They know exactly what’s going on. Because I can tell you as a DJ, it is a little bit nerve wracking with when you, you know, in that situation where the celebrate may not have been super clear to you on exactly what’s going on when. And I’ll ask them, like, 20 questions before things kick off for the ceremony. Like, okay, so what are you exactly saying?

Aleks: What is the cue?

Eddy: Yeah, what is the cue? And they’re like, oh, I might just. I’m like, no, no, no. I need to know because I want this to go off flawlessly if I can.

Aleks: You want to nail that moment. It’s a really, really huge moment. And it’s a. Yeah, it’d be very sad to miss that. I’ve seen it happen where a guest play the song on an ipod. There was. There were. There was live music. Sorry. But they wanted a specific song to be played through an ipod. And not only did they miss the moment, but the volume was turned down and it was the most. It was the saddest, most anticlimactic.

Eddy: And you can’t redo those moments. There are no redos on those moments. So, yeah, definitely get the celebrant and the musician slash DJ talking in the lead up, if you can. But, yeah, look, if they are good at what they do, they’re super professional. You know, one of you, if you’re there before the ceremony kicks off, will definitely be able to see them talking.

Aleks: Yeah, exactly.

Eddy: Prior. So. And that’s a good sign. Yeah, very, very good sign. So.

Aleks: And also be, be, you know, don’t be afraid of kind of providing instructions as well. We would love, you know, for us to be announced at this particular point. And then that gives a signal for your musician, DJ, whoever’s controlling music and you’re celebrant to then work it out. Okay, so we need to. There’s 8 seconds before this. They can even practise and figure out the wording, etcetera.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Have you got any favourite ceremony finished songs that you particularly have seen or like?

Eddy: Oh, look, I’m a huge fan of, you know, all those old soul classics, so. Your love is lifting me higher.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: You know, it might be a bit cliche, but you know what, like, it works. It’s proven. It’s just a nice warm vibe for that moment. So I’m big, big on those songs for. And what about yourself?

Aleks: Yeah, I always love like a everywhere Fleetwood Mac.

Eddy: Oh, yeah.

Aleks: I also, I’ve had a couple where I recommended the ceremony for me song, two separate couples and they went with it and it was I got you Duke DuMont and Jack Jones, which is a really fun, tropical kind of house upbeaty. So again, it depends on the location too. If you’re by the beach or if you’re in a winery, that might kind of dictate, you know, you can have a bit of fun with that as well. But yeah, I do like a classic. I do like a classic.

Eddy: Really beat a classic. Or if it’s not a classic as such, maybe a classic that’s been given the kind of modernization spruce up that we’ve sort of become quite accustomed to lately. But yeah, you gotta go classic.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Right?

Aleks: Yeah. Or there are songs that I haven’t heard. Have a chat. Have a chat to us if we are. Look, if we are doing in ceremony or even if we’re not, have a chat to us because we’ve always got unique ideas of things we haven’t heard. Like one song I would love to see as the ceremony for new song, if you’re a daft punk fan, is digital love. It’s got such a good intro. Great song, great song. So yeah, feel free to be a bit more.

Eddy: That’s a good one. Because even if people don’t know the song, like, it’s so much fun, so cool, you feel like you know it, even though you don’t. Because it’s just that. It’s just a brilliant, brilliant sound to it.

Aleks: Sound is great. I mean, you could do one more time, daft punk.

Eddy: You could do it. Yeah. I mean, I personally think that’s kind of bit cliche.

Aleks: Really?

Eddy: A little bit. I don’t know. Like, I don’t know.

Aleks: Okay, fair enough. I haven’t really heard it that much on a ceremony finished song.

Eddy: I think it works better in the reception.

Aleks: Reception, yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. Oh, well. Yeah. But definitely have a chat to your DJ and your, If you’ve got live music, obviously they’ll have their repertoire, but a lot of the time they will learn specific, a couple of specific songs as part of their package as well. So if you want something unique and.

Eddy: Yeah, get onto that early as well. I think if you were. And obviously, you know, you might not know what you want, but again, ask the question, but get on to them early because sometimes it does take them a while to learn.

Aleks: Yeah. And then one practise and stuff. Um, I had a fun run the other day, which was cheerleader.

Eddy: Oh, wow.

Aleks: Yeah. So they did have live musicians, but they wanted cheerleader, so they played that through.

Eddy: Yeah. Wow, that’s.

Aleks: It was so much fun. As the ceremony finished, everyone was cheering and dancing.

Eddy: I’ll see if I can bring that one back.

Aleks: Bring it back. It’s such a great. I forgot about it until you forgot about it.

Eddy: This is why we’re doing this music stuff after this is to try and, you know, rekindle a few of those songs.

Aleks: I know we do go through stages up. All right, let’s get on to the reception.

Eddy: Yeah. Okay.

Aleks: Do you want to kick things off?

Eddy: Yeah. So obviously entrances. Right. So if you are doing entrances at your wedding, there are things to think about. You know, how many entrances you’re having, so how many people are coming in the door before the couple comes in, how far you’re walking to once you’re inside.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: That’s another consideration and what you want to do with your music. So do you each couple or group that is walking into the room, do you want your own song, individual tunes as well, so. Or do you all want to come into the same tune?

Aleks: Yeah, exactly.

Eddy: So the best thing about this is if you do have a DJ, they’re generally, at this point, behind their DJ controller, behind their decks, which means. Which means that you are able to have a lot more control over the track. What I mean by that is we can cue point anywhere in a particular tune. Yeah, I’m sure we’ve mentioned this before on the potty, but which is great because that means that we can split songs up into different parts for each group or couple that’s entering the room.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: And you guys as the couple.

Aleks: Yeah, that’s right. So that’s. If there’s one song, if you’ve got a number of different songs, so say you’ve got people coming in pairs, or you’ve got all the bridesmaids and all the groomsmen or whatever coming in a group, and they’ve got different songs. We can also cue point, obviously, the particular point of each individual track. And some couples will tell us during this song, can you play at this bit? Can you play at this bit? Other couples will leave it up to us, in which case we will always choose the most energetic and recognisable part of the song. So it might be the chorus, it might actually be the beginning of the song. Just depends on them. On the tune.

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: And it really depends on the energy of the wedding party. So sometimes. Sometimes the groups will come in and just kind of walk in and wave and not really do much. Others want to do a full choreographed little sequence, little dance routine thing. I think that should, you know, you should consider that as well and have a chat to whoever’s coming in about what they want to do. If they’re just kind of doing a pretty stock standard entrance. I think having one song is normally good because it doesn’t create that kind of pressure of, like, a different song for each moment. You’re kind of expecting something, I think, of each group, but if they just want to kind of walk you in casually, I would do one song for everyone, but choose something that has a really long and natural build. So I had an example from last night. So we had the parents of the bride coming in, parents of the groom, maid of honour and groomsmen, and then the couple. So four entrances. And they chose thunderstruck AC DC. And I played it right from the beginning as a really good intro in and I just kind of faded in and out and kept it going for everyone. And then when I announced the couple, I just dropped it on the cue point. Right on the chorus.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: At the most, the loudest bit of the song. It worked. That worked really well, that particular track.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Another one I had, which I will never forget, was only the couple came in and they came in to let it happen. Tame Impala, which is super, super quirky and interesting choice. It works really well because it’s quite an epic, big sound.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Very, very unique. It’s very rare to be able to hear that as a key moment, especially the entrance. So I’ll always remember that sticks in my mind. But you can definitely choose something a little bit more quirky.

Eddy: Definitely, definitely. And, look, if your song does have a, like, a short lead in or something like that, again, you can do something in a similar way to the ceremony in that you can have that lead in start as the MC is announcing the couple to build that atmosphere, build that anticipation. One that I had recently was that glass house inside. It was walking on a dream. So I started the song like slowly built, built, built until the MC basically said, okay, let’s. Let’s get them in and then dropped into walking on a dream. Like bam.

Aleks: Beautiful.

Eddy: So you can have a bit of fun that it does require a little bit more coordination, obviously, but because you are behind your decks, you can kind of loop before the drop, so to speak. So you’ve got much more control over that. And look, if we’re Mc’ing, it’s much easier in that way too. Because we are in full control.

Aleks: Exactly.

Eddy: Because we’re emceeing and doing the DC.

Aleks: Very hard to coordinate. Last, last night I MC’d and I had. I have to start putting my MC scripts on an iPad on a little stand because I had a piece of paper, microphone and the controller and I was like, it’s quite a lot to coordinate. Well, I mean, I need a third hand.

Eddy: Yeah, I mean you can have a mic stand.

Aleks: Yeah. You know, not a bad idea actually. We can talk about that offline. But I wanted to talk about a time where an entrance song didn’t work that well. Just to give an example. Huge, huge wedding party. I think there were ten entrances. The couple only wanted levels. Avicii and to be honest with you, I had the extended version because they wanted that. There aren’t that many different moments in that song. So it got quite repetitive and it was a very long entrance. I’m talking like a hundred metres. Like very, very long. Started to get really repetitive and it was very hard to build up for the couple.

Eddy: Yeah, yeah. That’s a shame.

Aleks: Yeah. It would have been actually being better to have a different song for every single person.

Eddy: Yeah. Yeah.

Aleks: So that’s a good example. If you’ve got a huge wedding party, unless it’s a song that has so many different moments in it, you kind of lose that momentum a little bit. And it does start to get repetitive, especially if it’s a, you know, like a dance song or something that has a lot of repetition in it. So that’s something to consider as well. Great song, but didn’t work for eleven entrances or whatever it was. Just didn’t fit.

Eddy: And so often after the entrance. Well, with this is what we recommend anyway. We recommend going straight into cake cutting. So you as a couple will be the final entry. Entry?

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Into the venue. And it just makes sense to couple those moments up and your photographer and videographer, if you’ve got one, or content creator, will thank you for this because you’ve coupled those moments up.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Which is great.

Aleks: It’s just they’re ready to go, lighting’s.

Eddy: Ready to go, all that kind of stuff. So you can do one of two things. You can keep the entrance tune going that you had, or we can obviously transition into something else. Again, look for cake cutting. I don’t think it needs to be outright banger of a song, but keep something upbeat and fun. We’ve got some examples written down here, like client liaison is a really cool one. The real thing, you know, there’s a cool one for that. Or, you know, Natalie Cole. This would be an everlasting love. I like this one, the Archie sugar, sugar. Kind of a play on the sweetness of a cake. And if you want to kind of play it down a little bit more and just go with a classic. My classic go to is you’re my best friend, which is really, really sweet.

Aleks: Yeah, yeah, yeah. These. These are real examples of ones that we like, particularly for the cake cutting. Depends when it’s happening. So, as you mentioned, Ed, we recommend that it happens after the entrance, but it can also happen later on in the night, right before the first dance.

Eddy: Yeah. Speech.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Cut the cake. Bam. Onto the dance law. So I don’t think we need to spend too much more time on cake cutting.

Aleks: No, but definitely need a song. And if you don’t give us one, we will put one on.

Eddy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. And look, it’s something that we’ll just rumble underneath. It’s not going to overpower the moment. It’ll just. It’ll come in, it’ll be underneath that moment. It will take out any of the. The awkwardness as all your aunties get up and want to photograph you cutting that cake. And for whatever reason, forget that there.

Aleks: Is a professional photographer. Most of the time.

Eddy: Most of the time we are reminded we’re Mc’ing or all the other MC’s. We do see. Typically we say, make sure you don’t get in front of the photographer.

Aleks: Yeah, yeah. Oh, dear. The aunties. Anyway, all right, now, one that we talk about a lot, but we don’t see often enough is to pick songs for each speaker as they come up.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Why don’t we see this more?

Eddy: Yeah, I know. This is a great icebreaker, too, because particularly if you’re the first person getting up, it can be, you know, the nerves can get to you sometimes. And I think it kind of breaks the ice and it makes it fun. Everyone’s cheering, laughing, clapping. And you can have fun with these songs as well. Just remember all of these key moments songs, have fun with them.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Inject your personality into them.

Aleks: Don’t overthink it and don’t take it too seriously.

Eddy: And choose what you like, not what might fit in with a wedding or even with the.

Aleks: It doesn’t even have to fit with the brief of the day at all.

Eddy: It could be like, like I said before, could be like, I love heavy metal. Like I want something fun.

Aleks: Could be a tv show theme that you love.

Eddy: Yeah, there you go. Like that.

Aleks: Well, halo theme.

Eddy: Well, halo theme. Yeah. Halo is a video game that I really enjoy and I was lucky enough to play. This is a little while ago. I was at Trawool estate and he said, oh, I’d love to. Love to fit it in somewhere. But the groom was a big fan of Halo and we just were thinking where could it go? But we did it because they did a bit traditional and they did an arch exit. So I’m like, you know the best time for that?

Aleks: Oh my God. So happy.

Eddy: I’ll do it then. It was very epic. It’s a very epic orchestral. There’s a big choir. It’s like, oh.

Aleks: Like it’s really really freaking big sound.

Eddy: Big sound. So that was good for that. So, you know. And they actually sent me a video a couple of days later because they stayed in the area after the wedding and they were blasting that on their stereo. Stereo in their car. And they sent me a video of it after, which I thought was really sweet.

Aleks: So sweet. I’ve had one recently. Not for speeches but for the. In this case it was a bride and groom entrance. They had the Star wars theme, which.

Eddy: Was fun, you know, and you know your crowd’s gonna go, ah, yes, big Star wars fans. It’s, you know, it’s really fun to throw those things in now.

Aleks: You know what I’m just thinking? Because I do want to see more music moments during the speeches. But normally the speeches, if we’re not emceeing, are a good time to go to the bathroom. So selfishly I’m like, do I want to encourage this? But I do. Maybe we should add it into the questionnaire, people.

Eddy: Possibly. Yeah, we can maybe add a. Because there’s a few other things that we’ll discuss after the main ones here that like ancillary kind of moments.

Aleks: Songs if you like. Yeah, create additional.

Eddy: You know, we can create like a. Hey, would you like to add these in as well, which is great because it does create a bit more of a unique spin on your day.

Aleks: Exactly.

Eddy: Injects a lot of fun and. Yeah, just. Just bit of a. Bit of a laugh sometimes, too, which is great. So, yeah, that’s a good one to do. Well, let’s talk first dance now. And, you know, if you don’t have, like, a choreographed dance and you’re doing your cake cutting ride before you could kind of actually start the song then.

Aleks: Yeah, yeah. Your first dance song. Yeah. Particularly if it’s got a long intro and you don’t want to be dancing for super long.

Eddy: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. And this is a conversation we’ll always have. Most of our couples, to be completely honest, they don’t really want to be dancing for that long. I would say some of them try and do it in like, 30 seconds to a minute. I’m always sort of playing devil’s advocate if they say don’t want to do a first dance at all. And I say, you probably want the photos of that moment in, like, 20 years time or whatever it is to look back on. And I think photographers these days, particularly like the flat out ninja ones, they probably only need about 45 to a minute. And correct me if I’m wrong on this, photographers who might be listening, by the way, but this is what I’ve seen, what I’ve experienced in, you know, in the weddings that I’ve, I’ve played. So about a minute is probably a good amount of time to have a think about being in the middle by yourselves. And then it could be as simple as waving everyone in if they are crowded around you, which we highly recommend.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: If it is a sit down, get everyone on the dance floor in a half circle. Circle, whatever it is, and plonk you guys in the middle. Because when it gets to the party starter, which we’ll talk about in a second, boom, it’s on. And there’s no, like, drip feed of people from tables coming onto the dance floor, which is a real, like, energy burster.

Aleks: It is an energy burster. I like the way you did it. And look, even with a cocktail last night, I was emceeing a cocktail wedding and people were quite spread out because it was, you know, large space.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: So I had to get everyone together.

Eddy: Get everyone together.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: And it’s just gonna go off straight off the bat. But, yeah, coming back to the first den, what would you say? Works really well.

Aleks: Okay, so this is the thing with the first dance. It is so personal and it is so hard to recommend sometimes. I will recommend a few songs. I’ll always ask the couple, do you want upbeat? Do you want modern? Do you want classic? Do you want something from the request that you’ve given us? Can I just pick something out of there? That sort of thing. Some things I’ve liked is like, broken down versions of a song that you want to play as a dance fall starter. So you transition from, like, an acoustic. A good example I had was, mmm. Can’t remember the song.

Eddy: I’ll give you one. I’ll give you one like the broken down version of Empire State of mind into the Jay Z version.

Aleks: Oh, nice.

Eddy: That’s a cool one because that’s just piano. It’s beautiful song. And then it just lifts with. With when you know, the Jay Z sort of reversion, re edited of that. Yeah, that’s a really, really cool one.

Aleks: I had one recently, actually. I remember was we found love. Calvin and Rihanna went from an acoustic version straight into the. The original. Yeah. So that works really well.

Eddy: And you will find, most of the time, you’ll be able to find an acoustic version of an original. Like an. Even if it’s like a commercial dance song or if it’s a no r and B, or whatever it might be that you want to kick things off with, you typically will on Spotify anywhere really easily.

Aleks: Multiple.

Eddy: Multiple, yeah, multiple.

Aleks: Very, very easy. The other one I love, cold hard classic, is Frankie Valley. Can I take my eyes off you? Just works every time. And the reason it works is because it starts off slow and romantic and then builds in this huge sing along moment for everyone to join in on. I just. You can’t go wrong, honestly.

Eddy: Well, and it’s a classic again, so, you know, again, we’ll get onto this. On the party starter, the dance will start a bit. It’s always good to choose something that everybody’s gonna know.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: And if you are waving people on halfway through the song, then you know, you’re throwing a bone to the oldies sort of straight off the bat. Particularly if it’s that song that you mentioned, the Frankie Varley one. Everybody knows it. It’s a fun song. It’ll get everybody on your side. And as the DJ, you do want to prove two different groups in the wedding that you know what you’re doing. You understand music from back in the day, you know, you know what you’re doing there, and that helps you get them on your side and helps you take them on a journey. When it eventually does get to the point where you might be at Dom Dollar, you know what I mean?

Aleks: Oh, Dom dollar. I love Dom dollar. Um, yeah, the other thing. So obviously not everyone wants to do a first dance, but even those who don’t, we always say you’ve got to be on the dance floor, you as the couple for the first song. And ideally, if you don’t have a first dance, say, your mc will announce, okay, it’s time to kick off the dance floor. And x. And x, the couple will lead us on there.

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: Just get on there for like 10 seconds. Again, you can get a quick photo, quick photo op, get everyone on. Definitely the song that you’ll choose will probably be more likely a dance floor starter than a first dance song. So I just want to come back quickly. One more thing about the first dance song. So for us and other DJs might be different. If you’ve got one of us books, chances are we’re probably not going to play another slow romantic ballad for the rest of the night at that point. Unless it’s like a, you know, sing along really, really late in the night.

Eddy: Yeah, it could be like Backstreet boys. I want it that way.

Aleks: Exactly. Yeah.

Eddy: Like last half an hour, something like that. But again, it’s a little bit different to like a unchained melody, which I still were requested, by the way. Yeah. Like I’d be banger after banger. It’s like, can you play unshaded Melody?

Aleks: I’m like, no, no, don’t think that will fit in is the response, but I am because you won’t get an opportunity. If you do want to have a little slow romantic moment and you want to get the couples dancing to get those nice photos, this is your chance. This is your chance. So pick a song like that if you want it. Also, if you want a banger, pick a banger.

Eddy: Can I also just say if you are looking at something, feel first dance or even, even that, you can have a pre party starter that maybe is not like as full on as your party. The reason why I recommend this is it’s nice to get like some of the parents and maybe if you’ve got grandparents kind of doing a nice slower dance with each other because those photos are absolutely gold.

Aleks: Absolutely. Yeah. Had the 92 year old grandfather, the bride dance last night. So fun. Just, I think I was playing like, like newer tunes. It wasn’t even old.

Eddy: Yeah, it looks. Yeah. And some of them will jump onto anything. Didn’t you have, didn’t you have a couple of, like an older couple say in their, like, seventies, dancing to 21212 filthy.

Eddy: If they only knew what the lyrics said.

Aleks: I don’t think they cared. Those having a great time and they were just doing like, ballroom dancing. It was amazing.

Eddy: Do you have that video?

Aleks: I’ve got that video.

Eddy: You’ve got to put it online.

Aleks: I know, I really do. It’s so good. I tried to put on tv TikTok, but of course it takes. It distorts the sound, but. Yeah. So funny. What was gonna say about the. Yeah, first. Oh, the other thing. Really fun. We’ve had this a couple of times. Not always possible logistically. But if you are having a sax player, normally they will start during dance floor. You can have them come out halfway through your first dance.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Perfect way to kick it off. And it means you can still keep dancing, but it kind of adds a different element, a bit of distraction if you don’t want people serious.

Eddy: Yeah, look, you. And halfway through, I think, is a good time because you don’t want the sex players starting during the dance because it’s your moment.

Aleks: Exactly. Yeah.

Eddy: So, yeah, bring them in halfway through and then, like, wave everyone in and then it’s just well and truly party time.

Aleks: It is so good. And one of the best tunes I’ve had for this. I’ve had this, I think, two or three times with Kenny on sacks is Barry White’s can’t get enough of your love.

Eddy: Nice.

Aleks: Because it really kicks up a notch and then he comes in. Oh, what a moment. Gonna have to put some of these.

Eddy: What a moment. We’ve kind of been talking about both the first dance and the party starter, but just to, I guess, come back to the party starter. It is the song after your first dance. Like, obviously it’s a song that signifies it’s time for us to party. All the formalities are now done. Let’s have an awesome night. So that’s what we mean by the party starter. I don’t think we need to touch on too much more there, but, like, think of something that’s super energetic, will bring the house down. I always recommend, if you can, a throwback. And I understand now that the throwback now does include the nineties, maybe even the early two thousands as well, which I think works exceptionally well. One of the most popular party starter songs at the moment is murder on the dance floor because of Saltburn. I’ve always loved that song. I’ve always played that song.

Aleks: It always works well.

Eddy: I’m getting to the point now where it’s actually coming up on some do not playlists on Friday, unfortunately, because it’s been overdone.

Aleks: Well, anything that’s popular always makes its way to do not plays.

Eddy: It’s. You know, I’ve been in this industry long enough to understand and appreciate that things are cyclical. So it’ll come back around in a couple of years time. Yeah, it’s great. But if you love that song, please request it, because I love playing it. And it’s a great one to start the dance floor with.

Aleks: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Again, it’s hard, and I do think that you should stick within your. You’re sort of setting the tone for the rest of the dance floor with that song. So it is good to stick to within your brief, you know, so within.

Eddy: Joshua, obviously, always will anyway.

Aleks: Yeah. For the dance or what I’m saying, like, when you’re choosing your party starter song, it’s. Don’t choose something completely out of the blue, random.

Eddy: I don’t think that really happens.

Aleks: No.

Eddy: Does that happen to you?

Aleks: Sometimes.

Eddy: Really?

Aleks: Yeah, sometimes people overthink it. I feel like couples overthink the dance floor starter. It’s like, no, just choose something you like and we’ll let you know if, you know. It’s a little bit. Normally it’s fine. Like, you know, I think we mentioned a couple of episodes ago where we chatted to Daniel and Megan, who got married a half acre. Their dance fall starter was Jackie.

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: And I was like, whoa, that is a big way to start, but it works really well. Yeah. And I kind of brought it back down into an old. Well, that is an oldie.

Eddy: Now, I think we would naturally, if we are concerned, or it does kind of. It’s outside of the sphere that we kind of read into as their party brief in the lead up or their, you know, music brief in the lead up. I would just question, okay, so what’s the relevance of this song? And they might say, and it’s probably rightly so for your couple. All of our friends love it, or it means something to us. We had a, you know, a huge party night once, and it was the biggest anthem of the night for us. So there’s usually a reason when you kind of dig a little bit deeper on that one.

Aleks: Yeah, I agree with that.

Eddy: Awesome. Okay, so we’ve got some, like, bonuses here, but I wanted to kind of. Let’s do the final song first, and then we can talk about a few extras.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: So final song. I’ve always recommended a sing along for the final song. Personally, we often now ask for more than one final song as well, because we. I know you don’t do this. You kind of say, this is what Aleks does. So at the end of the night, she go, we got two songs to go. Yeah, you’re off the dance floor, make sure you get back on. And usually you do get quite a few, say maybe the oldies who might be sitting down, they’ll sort of come back on.

Aleks: Yeah. I like to give them a warning.

Eddy: To know that this is the second.

Aleks: To last song, you’ve got a bit.

Eddy: Of time to get on there, etc, etc. So. And then obviously you play second to last and boom, your final. Yeah, I do it a little bit differently. So I will announce that the second to last song is actually the last song of the night. And obviously the couple knows that I’m going to do this. We have a big long chat about it and I get them to give me two songs. I do my very best to get the people that may be off the dance or back on there. I launch into that song and then after that I kind of wait and I say, hey, do you guys want one more? Do you want an encore? And most of the time people are screaming out for an encore anyway. And then boom, I launched that final song, which the couple and myself knew that was always going to happen, but all the guests there, they didn’t. So they feel like they’ve gotten their extra song, which is great. And the venue loves it too, by the way, because they’re like, okay, cool. You’ve kind of given them the encore. Invariably they want another one after that, obviously. And that depends on whether the venue is happy for me to spin an additional on top 99.9% of the time, particularly these days, the Vinnie’s like, nah, it’s eleven. We’re done because of the neighbours.

Aleks: Yeah. So regardless of whether we’re using my method or yours, the point is we want to finish on time so that no one gets into trouble and, you know, everything wraps up as it should. But at the same time, we don’t want people to be caught off guard and to announce the final song two minutes later. People are raring to go for another one.

Eddy: Exactly.

Aleks: So, same outcome, I think.

Eddy: Yeah. And given that there’s two songs to think about, you can look at each as an individual experience. So the first song might be. We’ve mentioned Calvin Harris before. It could be a we found love or a feel so close. Feel so close. Probably the better one, I reckon.

Aleks: I agree, too.

Eddy: And then you can go into just a stone cold sing along where, you know, pitch of the song is where people are throwing their arms around each other and swaying. Or you can do a bohemian Rhapsody. Cause that’s got both kind of elements in it of like that, you know, full on fun. Everyone’s jumping around to that kind of more mellow beginning and end. You kind of want to pick a song that will mellow out in the end to an extent and not leave you on a cliff edge, so to speak.

Aleks: The only reason I would say that it’s good to leave on a cliff edge is if there is a actual defined, like an organised after party.

Eddy: Yeah. Oh, absolutely.

Aleks: So, like, I was at Trawool the other day and they had an after party on location organised. So I’m like, okay, let’s keep the party going. And in that case, I would recommend high energy.

Eddy: Great consideration. So if you are. Yeah, if you’re doing exactly that, if you do have an after party, I think, yeah, let’s. Let’s leave them on a cliff edge.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Leave them wanting more.

Aleks: Don’t put them to sleep.

Eddy: Don’t put them to sleep. They’re gonna go party some more.

Aleks: And in terms of. Actually, lately, I’ve had the couples not nominating a final song and just leaving it up to me.

Eddy: Yeah, it does happen.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Again, it might play into that decision fatigue.

Aleks: I think it does. And actually, I’ve had a lot of couples not even choose a danceball starter either. So normally, I will try and choose something that’s within. If they’ve given me an extensive Spotify playlist of their requests, I would try and choose songs within that, because I know there’s songs they love. And it is such a personal thing to choose those key moments. Sometimes on that final call that we have the week of or the week before, I will say, I’m thinking these two songs. Are you guys okay with that? Or I’ll give them three options and they’ll say, yep, see how you go on the night. But they sound good, so either way. Yeah. But feel free to leave that up to us.

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: Yeah. Um, let’s talk about some other key moments, options. We’re not. We’re not seeing these ones. I would say maybe we see it twice a year. It’s not very often, is it?

Eddy: Bouquet toss.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: And garda toss.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: garda toss. I hardly ever seen ever. Yeah, very. I reckon two. Yeah, a couple times a year probably right.

Aleks: Yeah. I’ve seen. We’ve had the funny kind of bouquet where it’s a bit of an ironic or piss take. So, I think I’ve mentioned on the podcast before when I had a jackalope, rare hair, where the bride was a bride and groom in this situation, and the bride pretended to start to do a bouquet toss, but then the groom took over and did it instead, which is kind of fun and funny and just poking fun at the tradition. Yeah. Don’t really say often you love a particular song. It’s really inappropriate for bouquet toss.

Eddy: Oh, yeah. I don’t know if I should say it.

Aleks: Oh, you know what? Actually, speaking of inappropriate, wap, you did have wap. I have had before.

Eddy: Yeah, I had wap. Yeah, I had wap. But also a funny one is disturbing the piece. Move, bitch, get together. Ludicrous.

Aleks: You’ve got to have a sense of humour.

Eddy: You got to have a sense of.

Aleks: Humour and not find it derogatory.

Eddy: Yeah. And I. You know, obviously, you know, I do not find that derogatory. I see the fun in it.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: But I can imagine that, you know, some people would, which is they’re prerogative, obviously.

Aleks: Oh, absolutely. But, yeah, that’s kind of fun. You can have fun with that if you wanted to do it. I don’t know. It might be for a photo. It might be family, you know, tradition or whatever. So, yeah, there are a couple of options. Have a chat to us. Overdone songs for Bo Katos are single ladies.

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: And, man, I feel like a woman.

Eddy: Yes. Yep. Absolutely.

Aleks: That’s all I have to say about that.

Eddy: Done to death. I mean, single ladies is typically a track that comes up on our do not play lists.

Aleks: I had beyonce on the do not play yesterday, and it offended a lot of people on my instagram, but I was very happy with it. Sorry, everyone, but not a big fan.

Eddy: I mean, I’m probably gonna offend a lot of people by saying that I much prefer Taylor Swift to Beyonce.

Aleks: Oh, dear. Well, if you disagree, please let us know.

Eddy: If you disagree. Right in. You know, we’ll read out your. Your emails, but I think that. Okay, so this is where I’m going with this. Taylor Swift pulls a far greater crowd reaction when I’m playing her music.

Aleks: Okay.

Eddy: Than Beyonce does.

Aleks: Yeah. Yeah.

Eddy: I’m there to, you know, give based on your experience.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Like, make those memories on the dance or, like, I want people to sing at the top of their lungs. And Taylor. Tay tay, tay tay, shizzle. Tay Swizzle.

Aleks: Actually, although she does also come up on the do not play, so.

Eddy: And, look, either way, I’m happy to do it. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to play Taylor Swift if I didn’t have to or it wasn’t requested.

Aleks: Same Beyonce. Just one of those.

Eddy: Same with Beyonce.

Aleks: Cuz they divisive.

Eddy: So, so crazy in love. Like it just flops for me now.

Aleks: Flopper.

Eddy: Flops. Flopper.

Aleks: Huge flopper. If anything I would play budalicious or some sort of destiny’s child. Still kind of.

Eddy: Yeah, that’s cool. That’s more edgy.

Aleks: Way more edgy. Love story is actually a great final or second final tune.

Eddy: I do like that song.

Aleks: I think I’ll be playing that next this weekend.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Um, what we’re talking about. Bouquet. Yeah, we’re done.

Eddy: Bouquet toss. Garda toss. I can’t even remember the last time that I. That I saw that. And I think. I think it’s a bit cringe. The garden. I don’t know, it’s just because you, you’re taking it off and then you’re throwing it at your mates.

Aleks: I don’t know the whole thing. Anyway, um, another one that I’ve seen only a couple of times that I love is if you’re doing an outfit change to have a big, big reentrance. If you’re doing an outfit change after the dance floor started. So say like you’ve done your first dance. Whatever.

Eddy: I do like an outfit change. I would like to see more grooms do the change put on like the party jacket.

Aleks: Party jacket. Yep. Yep. But yeah, you can choose a really fun song. I mentioned it before, have a heart, fake wedding. I had a bride who got changed into like a glitzy outfit and we had blinding lights and everyone parted, parted ways and she switched a red dress. No, no, no. But there was a red dress. There was one of the ridges. But she kind of like sashayed her way and the dress kind of. Yeah. Anyway, it was blinding lights. The weekend.

Eddy: I think I had one and it was actually to a tower swift song. There you go. Can’t escape her. Can’t escape her. Um. Okay, cool. So bokeh toss, garda toss, outfit change. What else do we have? You’ve gotten some notes scribbled down there.

Aleks: Yeah. So I wanted to mention something. And that was any kind of cultural music?

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: So if you’ve got, you know, some italian family, greek family, whatever it is, sri lankan. Anyway, family. So last night, huge italian family on one side and no italian songs were requested by the couple. And I felt like the oldies wanted them. So I was like, you know, this is probably something to raise earlier on. It is a good idea to throw in a couple or at least say to your DJ, hey, if the vibe is right, maybe have these three songs.

Eddy: Ready to go sort of up your sleeve.

Aleks: Yeah, it’s seven minutes, six minutes. It might make for some fun moments on the great.

Eddy: It’s a great point. Even if they are happy for two or three songs. I often ask for a couple of extras just in case because it might be going off. You know, sometimes it does go off, but sometimes you kind of want a couple kind of up your sleeve for a bit later on.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: If you’re getting pressured and obviously you get the okay from the cup and the lead up, you are getting a bit more pressure. And it works for that time on the dance or later on in the night. Absolutely. Spin them because. Yeah, I think it’s. It’s just nice to be able to have those spares.

Aleks: Yeah. I don’t be playing and look, we have in the past have had to play like 40 minutes of greek music, but probably get a Greek DJ if you want that because I don’t really understand the music as well. You know what I mean?

Eddy: Or, you know, they’re couples that I. And look, you know, greek songs are great cuz like everyone gets involved even on. Yeah, love it. But, yeah, you are right. But I also think that if you, if you do choose someone like Aleks or myself, and we’re not greek, obviously, maybe spend a little bit more time on with us on, on those songs, like, give us the order. I know they all have meanings and.

Aleks: There’s a certain order and there’s a certain order.

Eddy: And I know, you know, being a layperson, I know that there is a song you play later on at night, which I love, by the way, where you’re kind of running or walking around a bottle of whiskey and you’re kind.

Aleks: Of drinking and stuff, it does create really fun moments.

Eddy: It really does.

Aleks: I think I’m talking about, like, that’s fine. Like, if, you know, you want that stuff. Yeah, definitely work closely with your DJ. We’re very happy to play it. No problem at all. But if you have a huge, like, it was a big, big italian family yesterday and I didn’t really expect that because there weren’t any. Normally you get like, oh, can you throw a few italian songs in? But do consider it at least have it up your sleeve because I feel like we could have played some, but the couple didn’t really want it. So, you know, at the end of the day, it’s. But I don’t think the family would be mad if I had. Let’s just put it that way. So, something to consider. We are super happy, and it’s a question that we get asked very often. Inquiries. Are you happy to spin a couple of serbian macedonian songs for a family? Absolutely, we are. We obviously need to just work together to make sure we have the right versions, because there are specific versions of songs as well. If you can source them, great. If not, you know, if we’re unable to find something, then we’ll let you know. And, you know well in advance, so just work closely with your DJ on that.

Eddy: Definitely.

Aleks: The other thing I wanted to mention as a key moment was, this is not really a key moment, but I’ve had a couple of weddings recently where they’ve had, like, group sing alongs for a sit down while everyone’s still seated, and they’ve been surprises from a couple. And I love this. So obviously this is not something that you would organise if it’s surprise. But one I had recently was a daytime wedding at the terrace in the botanical gardens. And the. There was a band before I started, and they handed out little song books and they did, like a little group sing along, like, three or four songs. It was so high energy and it really got everyone warmed up and amped, really amped to dance. It created such a fun moment. Another one I had recently at Glass House Brooker, there were two embassies who were friends who worked with me to organise the surprise for the couple. There was. They did like a rover mic thing, so they went around and talked to people, you know, to guests sitting down before speeches or whatever, and they had one guest in the crowd who was singing, was a singer, and they got her to start singing Aerosmith. I don’t want to miss a thing. Just the first verse. And then they got everyone to join in on the chorus.

Eddy: Wow.

Aleks: And obviously that song had some sort of significance to the couple. And she said it was one of the best moments. Like, it was just.

Eddy: Yeah, that’s great.

Aleks: Pretty epic. Everyone’s singing their seats.

Eddy: I love that. And, yeah, it just creates the best memories, I think. I’ve had a couple of situations similar. One was sort of sprung on me, actually. This was at Panama dining room, I think. I think it was. The maid of honour came up to me, she said, oh, can you play an instrumental version of American Pie? And I’m like, oh, wow, it’s quite a long song. This is like eight minutes or whatever. She’s like, yeah, yeah, I have. I’m gonna sing it to the couple. And what she’d done is she changed all of the lyrics to, you know, be about them and I thought, okay, cool, no worries. So fortunately I was able to take the, the vocals out of the song with the software that I use. If otherwise I’d be chasing her like a instrumental from wherever, freaking out. It worked really real well. And I said to her, well, you’ve got your work cutter for you. But everyone loved it and it’s eight minutes. And I gave her kudos after. And the other one was, it was a Kylie Minogue song, can’t get you out of my head. This is back at post office.

Eddy: And she gave me a heads up, luckily. So she asked that I’d send her a version of that song without the lyrics and, you know, so she could practise. I think she was quite nervous about it and that just went off like a house on fire. So she sung that to the couple or everybody?

Aleks: Oh, okay, everybody.

Eddy: So the first example I gave you, she was the only one, but I think what she did, she had a bunch of papers and she sort of gave the lyrics out to everyone so they can kind of follow along. But this second one, the Kylie song, it was more of a full on sing along similar to the one you’ve mentioned.

Aleks: It’s fun, isn’t it?

Eddy: It’s fun, it does happen and yeah, I love it. But just where you can just give us notice, most of the time we work it out, but it just means we’re ready for it if we do get a bit of heads up.

Aleks: Normally it’s a surprise from the couple. So unless there are some future wedding guests and wedding parties listening, we might be have it sprung on us. But I did have, for the one I mentioned at Glasshaus Brucke, I did have the MC’s reach out to me and email me ahead of time. So that’s always very much appreciated.

Eddy: Absolutely.

Aleks: Look, it’s not something we have mentioned, a few examples, but they’re probably the only examples that we have over six, seven years, twelve years for you, Ed. So it doesn’t happen that often. So there’s still an opportunity to do something that’s super unique and get, you know, everyone to kind of sing along. So yeah, definite would love to see more of that. Anything else that we want to mention?

Eddy: I think that’s everything. So, yeah, it’s been quite a long episode so I’m hoping everyone’s kind of still with us if you’re still with us.

Aleks: Thank you.

Eddy: Yeah, thank you for listening and bearing with us. While we speak about your key moment songs.

Aleks: Yeah. And I just want to say, obviously, you know, Spotify, I’ve actually been using YouTube music a lot lately, and I find it extremely good for doing, like, music discovery. So, yeah, YouTube music, Apple Music, Spotify, we also. We also have a number of playlists on our Spotify that includes short playlists that we’ve created for specific key moments as well as the set list. So that literally, like, the order of the songs we played at real weddings as well. So check that out.

Eddy: Yeah. So obviously we have mixes and all that kind of stuff.

Aleks: Oh, yeah, mixes, yeah.

Eddy: But don’t be afraid to ask us the question. You have us as a resource if you’ve booked us to play your wedding. We live and breathe this stuff. So, yeah, we’re always more than happy to chime in and give you a few examples of things that might work for you. Not everything you like, obviously, but, you know, we’ve got a fair bit of experience between us, so I feel like we’re selling this. We shouldn’t be.

Aleks: What I would say, though, what I would say is, if we do give you options, I’ve mentioned this before. You know, people have reached out and asked for examples of first dance songs, which I mentioned is very, very personal. I can provide some examples. Normally, the couple won’t choose one of those, but it will prompt them to think about other things they like by realising, maybe not that, but, hey, this might work.

Eddy: Instead, it made me think of this.

Aleks: So at least it prompts them thinking. So, yeah, absolutely. All right, well, thank you for joining us again. We hope you’re enjoying the episode. Let us know if you’re listening. Until next time.

Eddy: Until next time, guys. Thank you so much.

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.