S4, EP6: Debunking 5 Wedding DJ Myths

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. I thought you were gonna say hello.

Eddy: I was, but that’s okay.

Aleks: Well, you took too long. And I was like, oh, no, there’s gonna be dead air on the radio.

Eddy: No, we don’t want any dead air. We’re back.

Aleks: Yeah, we’re back. It’s just been a bit mad. So, apologies to our loyal listeners, but we will get these episodes out where we can. What can I say?

Eddy: Now, we’re gonna go. We are gonna go back to a weekly sketch.

Aleks: Yeah, sure.

Eddy: Let’s commit. Oh, it’s been a bit hectic. No, we’re gonna commit. Let’s do it. Let’s commit right now. Anyway, Khaleesi is our witness.

Aleks: All right.

Eddy: She’s currently asleep on the couch living her best life.

Aleks: That’s what she does.

Eddy: But, no, we have been quite busy. And it’s been great, though.

Aleks: It’s been so.

Eddy: I’ve been having a ball.

Aleks: It’s been so good. Yeah. You guys just love getting married, and we’re here for it.

Eddy: We are here for it. Although I’ve done engagement parties. I’ve done a corporate party this weekend.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: A bit of a mixed bag, which is nice to mix it up, I think.

Aleks: Absolutely. I’m excited about this episode. I think it’s a great topic.

Eddy: Yes. So we are talking about debunking wedding DJ myths. So what does that mean, Aleks?

Aleks: Well, actually, I’ve been surprised lately with some of the conversations that we’ve had with potential couples. And even couples have booked us already about what they believe that wedding DJ’s actually do before the day on the day after. The day after the day.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Yep. So we thought we would cover 12345 myths that we’ve come across. We’re gonna expose the truth.

Eddy: And look, these are very obvious to us and to other wedding DJ’s and maybe some other supplies potentially, as well.

Aleks: Maybe. I wouldn’t. Yeah, I reckon these are common misconceptions.

Eddy: Yeah. So, you know, why not just dispel these myths?

Aleks: Yes. And it’s important because I think it’s really important for couples to understand the role of each of their vendors and what they contribute and how they operate.

Eddy: How they work, because you do have to dig a little bit deeper to find these things out. I think a quick scan of a website will obviously give you a vibe of a DJ, maybe some mixes and things like that. And obviously, a scan of their Instagram will, you know, show them how active they are and the types of weddings they play. But you do have to dig a little bit deeper to get to know some of these and dispel these little myths.

Aleks: I think this is for any wedding vendors listening as well. I think one thing I’ve learned this year is just not to make assumptions. And, you know, don’t be afraid of over explaining things, because most of your couples are getting married for the first time. They’ve probably never, ever had to book a DJ for anything or a photographer or celebrate or a florist. They don’t know what goes on.

Eddy: That’s a great point. And explaining. Over explaining, but then explaining again.

Aleks: Yes. Don’t assume that everyone has read and seen every bit of content that you put out, because they definitely haven’t.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: So don’t be afraid to repeat yourself. It’s in the interest of the couples.

Eddy: Absolutely. Well, let’s kick things off with our first myth. So, wedding DJ’s, you know, they just show up and press play.

Aleks: Yes. I love this one. We do press play. That’s true.

Eddy: Yes. It’s a very important part of the job.

Aleks: Now, what. What. What is this? Yeah, what does this mean? Does this mean that, um. I think this means that couples think that. And we’ll get into this in the next myth that, um, you know, there’s not. There’s not a lot involved. Maybe we set up our equipment. Yeah.

Eddy: I mean, we get the booking. We get the booking, you know, they pay the. The deposit, and then. Yeah, we just show up on the day. Right.

Aleks: They give us some songs and.

Eddy: Yeah, give us a few songs.

Aleks: Press play on something.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: What are we pressing? Play.

Eddy: What we’re trying to say is, um, you know, experience wedding DJs. We’re big planners.

Aleks: Yeah, we are.

Eddy: We’re meticulous.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: So we will meet our clients beforehand. I mean, book before they even book.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: So I’m speaking for us. So we’ll do a zoom process. Yeah, our process. And I’m pretty sure that most wedding DJs will do this. I’d hope, you know, we’ll discuss your big vision for the day.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Musically curate, you know, start to curate the music in that first meetup in our heads.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: You know what I mean? So it’s like, okay, cool. So they might like disco, funk, soul.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Awesome. Okay.

Aleks: We get a really good sense of where it’s gonna go in terms of their music. Brief, I think, in that conversation.

Eddy: Yeah. And it’s also a conversation around scoping for equipment as well.

Aleks: My favourite word. I was gonna say scoping. I’m like, I hope we get to the scoping beat. Scoping.

Eddy: I’ll let you take the scoping.

Aleks: Well, it’s very important, and I think this is one of the key benefits or reasons that you should meet with your wedding DJ before you book them in, is obviously every venue is different, you know, depending on how many guests you have, where things are happening. Where’s the ceremony, where’s the cocktail hour? Where’s the DJ setup? Where’s the dance floor? Is it in a different space? There are some venues that have kind of like two different spaces for dinner, say a sit down dinner and the dance floor. So where’s the music going to be coming from? The DJ set up in a different room for the first part of the night. This is all stuff that really, to be honest with you, your venue probably won’t cover when you book the venue in, when you book the date in, it’s probably not a detailed conversation that you have until later down the track.

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: So when you’re chatting to your wedding DJ, it’s really, really important that they ask all these questions, you know, what’s the layout like? Are you going to have tables really far away from where the DJ set up? Because you might need an additional speaker, for example?

Eddy: I’ve got a really good example of that. I’m playing at the trust in the city this weekend. And so it’s, it’s an interesting one because for dance floor, they’ve got an inbuilt system, but for the dinner, which is in a slightly different room for sit down, they don’t have any speakers there. So we need to bring in speakers for dinner, a set of DJ decks, but then a second set of DJ decks for the dance floor as well. And as of this day, date of the podcast, they’re also allowing us to bring in speakers for dance floor as well to complement their sound system. So these are all things that you do need to have a discussion about as a DJ with the venue to scope that out first. So that’s probably something that we also want to mention if we’re not familiar with the venue. Yeah, so if we get a venue that we’ve not played before, we’ll go on, scope that venue out.

Aleks: Yeah, I did that this week.

Eddy: I did that, yeah, this week with Captain Melville for a corporate party. I went in there during the week and I sussed it all out. Similar sort of situation there. I brought in some speakers, a set of decks, but I was able to plug into their system as well. So there was music throughout the venue. But obviously my big speakers were the main speakers for the area where people were dancing.

Aleks: Yeah, that’s a really good example. I think another thing is just in terms of music generally, like where, who is looking after music? So often couples will, you know, I’ll ask them who’s your celebrate? Are they looking after the music? If the celebrants, not me, you know, where little plug, just Aleks is a celebrant, you know. No, some couples don’t. I talk to them about deejaying on the media and I say who’s actually. And this happened this week and they said we don’t have one. Do you have any recommendations? And I said yes, me.

Aleks: So they don’t know, again, we have to open.

Eddy: So you’re recommending yourself?

Aleks: I’m recommending myself. Just easier, smoother. No. So yeah. So who’s looking after music as guests arrive? People always forget about this. Half an hour. Your guests will arrive half an hour before the ceremony starts. What is happening in that half hour, particularly if you don’t have drinks? People just standing around to silence.

Eddy: Well, yeah, absolutely. And if the DJ’s not there yet, I mean, for instance, we’ll talk about the post office hotel. Cause you were there.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: Congratulations for your third ceremony.

Aleks: Third ceremony, thank you. My first one at Post Office.

Eddy: First one North side.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: Your spiritual first. In a strange way.

Aleks: Yes it is.

Eddy: But you know, sometimes, you know, we won’t start till say cocktail hour or reception or something like that. So it’s a conversation that you can then have with your venues. Like can we put a Spotify playlist on through your sound system before the DJ gets there? And their questions will automatically just start asking in conversation with clients.

Aleks: Exactly. And at least it, you know, you, you can go back to your venue and confirm a few things. I also asked about lighting. So a good example is I booked a wedding for Trawool Estate and they had some lights in there. The first, when they first opened. I did one of the first weddings there. But I did ask the client to check with the venue about the lighting situation and they said no, I think we’ll just book yours. That was a recommendation from the venue. So that’s a good example as well, of asking about lighting. The first myth was about showing up and pressing play.

Aleks: We haven’t even gotten to booking the couple. This is all the work that we do before we’ve even booked our wedding.

Eddy: Yeah. Yeah.

Aleks: Just to give you some sense of what’s involved. So, obviously, once we’ve booked the couple.

Eddy: Well, can we.

Aleks: Oh, yeah, we’re sorry.

Eddy: Sorry. So I want to. I want to talk about. Just chatting about the. The day, obviously, musically, but also who’s going to be there. So, yes, we have quite a long conversation around, obviously, music tastes for the couple themselves, but then we start talking about family members, friends, workmates, all that kind of thing, just to get a sense of who’s there.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: What they may be into. Are they a party crowd? Will it take a little bit longer for them to warm up things like that? And we can start to get a really good sense of. Okay, so how. How, mate, how would this not play out? And there might be couples, like, our friends are crazy party animals. You won’t have a problem getting on the dance floor,. Fantastic. Or, you know, our friends.

Eddy: Yeah, they’re a bit shy. They might take a little bit longer. So then, you know, we might delve a little bit deeper into. Okay, so, you know, are there any family or friend in jokes that you have? Were you at festivals back in your heyday or maybe heydays now still? Yeah. Were you overseas? What was the anthem for that trip and all that kind of stuff? So we start to really pick apart that. That kind of musical, you know, connection between your.

Eddy: Your friends and family and yourselves.

Aleks: Yeah, that’s a really good point. I have a good example as well of why these conversations are important. A couple that I played for this week at Zonzo estate, Hannah and Zac, they kind of was sort of. There weren’t that many oldies, but they also didn’t really want to cater to the oldies. I don’t know if they were just thinking the oldies probably aren’t dancing types. They’re more likely just to sit down. And it was a really, like, a young crowd, like, the majority were friends, so that, you know, from the get go, I knew that that wasn’t really a concern for them. So, you know, I. I chucked in a couple of classics, but I just didn’t really focus. They weren’t really my core.

Eddy: What. Do you remember what you chucked in, classic wise?

Aleks: Yeah, I played a couple of, like, sweet dreams.

Eddy: Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, that’s a banger.

Aleks: Yeah, it’s a banger. Like, it still did not veer away from the bang. Like, there was no, like. Yeah, you know, really corn. Like, I played, man, I feel like a woman was probably the cheesiest song of the night.

Eddy: Fun, though.

Aleks: Fun. I played dancing Queen. I threw that in after. Turned down for what?

Eddy: Oh, you did that?

Aleks: Yeah, well, I did it, but I didn’t really. I didn’t nail it. But anyway, it was a great moment and the young ones loved it, too. And the oldies kind of peeled on for a bit, so it was great. It was great. But, yeah, that’s an interesting, you know, we do ask that, like, what were your family members like? Oh, don’t worry too much about them. They’re not big dancers or we kind of really want a big, you know, young festival party vibe.

Eddy: Yeah, yeah.

Aleks: So that’s. Yeah. So that’s also talking about in that initial meeting asking about the other vendors. And I find this serves the couples really well because if they mention a photographer or, I don’t know, florist or stylist or whatever that we work with, we can say, oh, cool. We’ve worked with them. We love them. Then they can go back to those vendors and ask about us and get more of a sense. So it actually helps them get to know us a bit more.

Eddy: Qualification mechanism for them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And look. And also, if they perhaps haven’t found their photographer yet or they’re still looking at their celebrant, you know, obviously you can go, Aleks, and celebrate, but, you know, like, that’s great, too, because we can. We can help them out with recommendations, suggestions.

Aleks: And we have, we have often, like, you know, we have our own photo booth. God, I’m so shameless with the plugs today. No, but I was gonna say we have our own photo booth, but we don’t offer printouts. And sometimes couples want a photo booth.

Eddy: Yeah. Well, shout out to the amazing Jimbo, who we always actually, who will be seeing today. So today as we’re recording this, it’s the Sydney Road festival,

Aleks: Street festival,

Eddy: Annual street festival. And Jimbo’s gonna be there with a photo booth.. So we’re very excited to see him.

Aleks: Very excited to see. Maybe Fred again will rock up.

Eddy: Maybe Fred again will rock up.

Aleks: Please put it out to the universe.

Eddy: Maybe he’ll be at the Retreat Hotel at 03:00 a.m.

Aleks: I will get out of bed and go.

Eddy: Yes. Let’s set our alarms just in case. Okay, so we’ve not even booked. So. Myth busted. We don’t just show up and press play.

Aleks: We just. We haven’t even got into the other stuff we do. But I think we’ll get into that with.

Eddy: So we should we bust this myth?

Aleks: Let’s bust.

Eddy: Let’s bust it. Myth has been busted. We do not just show up and press play.

Aleks: Yeah. Yeah. And that was. That was only just booking you guys in. We haven’t even got into any.

Eddy: Yeah, we’ve already spent 13 minutes on this.

Aleks: So there’s other episodes where we cover exactly what goes into deejaying a wedding. So just check that one out.

Eddy: Yeah. Excellent. All right, so myth number two, the wedding DJ. They’re just gonna play a playlist in the order that it’s been given to them. What do we think about this one?

Aleks: Well, I’ve had a couple of people mention this to me this week, new couples. I had one couple ask whether I’m gonna provide a final version of the playlist that I’ll play on the night.

Eddy: Wow.

Aleks: Again, assumptions, right?

Eddy: Exactly.

Aleks: Not obvious enough from our content that that’s not what we do.

Eddy: It may be from their experience of speaking to their friends that have been married, and that’s exactly what they do.

Aleks: There are DJ’s that do that, I’m sure.

Eddy: Oh, yeah, no doubt.

Aleks: So, no, we do not have a playlist. And it’s a little bit confusing with the language around playlists.

Eddy: Set lists, like a pre prepared playlist.

Aleks: Pre prepared playlists. No preparation. The only time we would play a playlist is if we’re not on our DJ decks and we’re out in a field or whatever. And you know what?

Eddy: That’s a really, really good point, particularly for yourself. As celebrant, we will curate a playlist ahead of time and then put it through some specialised DJ software so it’ll blend nicely, which, for Aleks, gives her the opportunity to do what she needs to do prior to the ceremony kicking off, rather than being stuck behind a set of decks. So that’s the exception to the rule.

Aleks: Cocktail hour as well?

Eddy: Cocktail hour. Sometimes, yes.

Aleks: If we’re in a different spot to.

Eddy: If we’re in a different spot. So that’s kind of a little exception there. But it’s not going to be something, Rando. No, we’re going to prepare it based on the conversations that we have with the couple, their music tastes. So, you know, if they’re really into indie, it’s not going to be something else. So we’ll obviously curate ahead of time that kind of really cool indie stuff that will suit that time.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: So another thing you’re mentioning quite often is Spotify players that you’ve received from the couple that have these crazy bangers really early on in the night or, you know, during the day. So you might go from something kind of acoustic and then, I don’t know, like uptown funk comes on.

Aleks: Sorry, just to clarify, this is when couples put together their own Spotify playlist for a ceremony or cocktail hour, but then decide, actually, can you look after the music for it and they might send it to us or.

Eddy: Yeah, or they’ve done it themselves and they’re sending to us so we don’t double up on things.

Aleks: Maybe later on. Because we. Yeah, because we’re not start. We’re not playing for that part of.

Eddy: So we’ll look at that. We’ll sense check that playlist, even if we’re not involved, even if we’re not actually booked for that time and perhaps suggest some. Some changes to that.

Aleks: I’ve edited those.

Eddy: Yeah, absolutely. We got to take some of the songs out that we actually want to play.

Aleks: Ain’t no mountain and I want to dance to somebody like, for cocktail hour. Hello.

Eddy: Yeah. Does it make sense then?

Aleks: No, but, yeah. Look, the only reason we would have playlists for those bits of the day is because we’re not physically at the decks, but we’re still looking after music for, you know, a certain part of the day where we’re not with our setup. So that’s the only time that we’re preparing something.

Eddy: Yeah, and that’s it. So we’ve got the exception out of the way.

Aleks: The exception is gone.

Eddy: So let’s assume that we’re behind the deck.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: Doing our thing.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: So, no, we won’t just. Just play a playlist in order.

Aleks: Well, we don’t have it. We. We don’t prepare a playlist like.

Eddy: Yeah, and I suppose. Well, look, we prepare music in advance based on, you know, the couple’s taste. So we’ll throw some tunes into a crate in simplest form.

Aleks: Okay, but let’s talk about that, because it’s not even one. When we say crate, let’s just call it playlist. This is where it gets confusing. Right.

Eddy: So, okay, so let’s go back. So the reason why I say crates is, back in the day, DJ’s would DJ on vinyl records and they will literally store them and bring them to their gigs in milk crates. So that’s where the word crate comes from. So it is a play. I guess it is a playlist. But I try to be cool and call them.

Aleks: Let’s call it crates. Let’s go. Let’s call it a folder of music. Okay.

Eddy: So really folder of music. We like MS, Microsoft Windows 95 or something.

Aleks: Look, this is gonna, this is going to. We actually haven’t got this myth in, in here, but we typically don’t. Stream music. We have physical. The physical files. Every single track. Yeah.

Eddy: Yes. There’s an exception to that as well. How confusing is this podcast episode?

Aleks: No, let’s not even get into it. All right. Yes. We.

Eddy: The technology is there to stream.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: So we have a library of physical mp3 files that are on our hard drive. Streaming can help. Sometimes when you don’t have a song that’s a random, requested by someone, perhaps the father of the bride or something like that comes up. I really want to hear this song after my speech or something like that as a dedication to the couple. Great. Don’t have it. Okay. There is a way to stream it through your DJ software. We’re not relying on that, though. No, we’re not relying on that, though.

Aleks: I didn’t have a, I didn’t have an Internet connection at the Post Office Hotel in Coburg yesterday.

Eddy: Really?

Aleks: Yes. My phone was just not so. I couldn’t even hotspot if I wanted to, you know. Very odd. I’m not saying anything is wrong with the post. I think it’s Vodafone or whatever we’ve got. But I’m just saying that’s an example of inner city, unreliable, you know, connection. Anyway. No. So we get prepare music in advance, but when we say we prepare music, it’s not a list that we’re gonna play in order.

Aleks: We take different parts of the night. We take your requests. So when you sent us a Spotify playlist, which is just basically a place.

Eddy: For you to play a brain dump of tunes that you like.

Aleks: Yeah. And most of our couples understand that. It’s not that we’re gonna play every single song, it’s basically your brief to us and gives us a sense of what you like. And we pick out the stuff that we’re like. Yep. That will work sometimes. Most of it will work. And it’s great.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: So we’ll separate that into our different crates or folders for, you know, early in the night out. Your request for early in the night, our ideas for early in the night, obviously your key moment songs, any guest requests that you might have sent on, etcetera. So we’ve got all these different folders broken up into different, um, sub folders, subfolders. You know, we might prepare double the amount of music that we need. So for five hour reception, we’ll have like 1012 hours. Yeah, stuff. And then obviously we’ve got our entire library past set list.

Eddy: And that’s all organised in a certain way, that systematic way, it helps us find tracks as quickly and efficiently as possible. Because sometimes you are in a bit of a jam. You might have 20 or 15 seconds to. To sort of find a song that will fit you might change your mind or something, or what’s happening in front of you might change too. You might get an influx of oldies that are jumping onto the dance floor or ladies leaving the dance floor or something like that. So you do need to be. You need to think about things, you know, split second approach sometimes.

Aleks: I’ve got a good example of this as well. That proves that we don’t have a playlist. So I had a couple recently. I think I mentioned them on another podcast, Matt and Tyler. They’re gonna jump on, actually on an episode soon. They really wanted just like cool electronic, you know, dance tunes, bit of like, sort of that. Remember that trop house kind of chilled beach clubs vibes? Oh, yeah. And just like EDM, like commercial dance and house bangers. And halfway through the dance floor and I had a sense this was coming, the groom came up to me and he’s like, look, you know what, just do what you need to do.

Aleks: Like throw in some classics. A lot of people wanted RnB and hip hop, so I changed up. Like, the brief basically changed on the night in the middle of the dance floor, 2 hours before the end, the brief change. And he kind of said, yeah, go for it, because people were wanting different things. And I. It was a very limited music brief, so I didn’t have much to work with, but I was, you know, trying to throw in some like nineties dance, et cetera. I could feel the people wanted, like a dirty RnB track. So that’s a good example of how quickly we have to change what we’re doing. And we do it all the time. Like, we watch people, like you said, the oldies, come on, you want to throw them disco tune or a queen or whatever.

Aleks: Like, if you play into a set playlist, there’s no way, like, you may as well just not hire a DJ. What’s the point?

Eddy: And we’re really, really fortunate in the couples that are coming to have a chat with us. They are pretty open as well.

Aleks: Very open, yeah.

Eddy: You know, they have their preferences, but they do understand that, you know, it is a wedding and you do have to cater to a wide variety of people.

Aleks: Yeah. And it’s very rare that a couple will come up to us and, you know, make a request on the night or the only time. The only time, no, but the only time that you change up the brief is when the couple themselves have been pretty adamant in what they want, despite us saying to them, look, we’ll see how it goes, but we can kind of guarantee people will want something, you know, bit of a more mix. Inevitably, that’s the only time they’ll come to you, say, yep, you know what? You were right. Just do your thing, let’s let it go kind of thing.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Probably a few drinks in, to be honest. Like, I want to hear Whitney.

Eddy: Well, it’s funny, actually. I may have mentioned this already on this podcast, but, um, sometimes those couples is like, oh, you know, we don’t want the horses. Yeah.

Aleks: Yes, yes. I’ve had this before.

Eddy: But then, you know, on the night, say the, the bride may come up to you, have a few drinks. Like, you know what? Let’s, let’s, let’s do that.

Aleks: I literally had that exact experience a few weeks ago and the bride was having the best time. She’s like, let’s do it. The moment’s right. Let’s just do it, you know, and it was great.

Eddy: So there you go and look like I, you know, I’m not condoning DJ’s having, having a drink or anything like that, particularly to excess when they, when they’re at work. But sometimes having one or two wines does get you in that vibe where people are at and it’s, you know, you’re like, okay.

Aleks: Weirdly, make better decisions.

Eddy: There’s a fine line you’ve got to traverse there.

Aleks: I think maybe we should start doing, saying to our clients who do drink or who, you know, who plan to drink on their wedding day, have a few drinks before you meet with us, before you meet us or before you do your party brief, you know, when you’re thinking about songs.

Eddy: Well, I actually do tell them to crack open a bottle of wine, you know, if they’re a drinking couple, obviously to, you know, to run through their party brief.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: And, yeah, the couples that do it have. Have a ball.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: You know, but then I also say, just vet it after you.

Aleks: And then some of them take it too far. Remember that time, oh, anyway, where I got just like really late in the night, got sent just a link to purple disco machine. Like some room set like this is what we want for our wedding.

Eddy: It’s amazing.

Aleks: Had an apology later. Someone had a few too many drinks anyway.

Eddy: That is hilarious.

Aleks: Very funny.

Eddy: Well, okay, so I think we dispelled that one. Well, so, myth busted. Busted DJ doesn’t just play a playlist in order. Let’s bust this myth. I should have had an explosion.

Aleks: I know. I was waiting for an explosion. Very disappointed in the sound effects department.

Eddy: Oh, come on. It’s still fun. Okay, so you want to take this next myth?

Aleks: Next one is all the DJ needs from the venue is a bump in time.

Eddy: And maybe we extend this as well to other suppliers in terms of what we need from them.

Aleks: What we need from them. Yeah.

Eddy: Yes. Very, very good myth. We do a little bit more than that. Obviously, we’ve kind of talked about scoping the venue for sound a little bit earlier on, but there are a plethora of other things we talk about to the venue.

Aleks: Yeah. So we typically, you know, the week of all the week before, we’ll reach out to the venue, you know, whoever your contact is at the venue. And there’s a few different things that we chat about. And it obviously depends on each venue. Some venues we’ve worked at multiple times, we know it back to front. We’ll just send a text and say, hey, see you at ten. Like, it’s just like same bump in time, we know what’s up, etcetera, venues where. But, you know, things change. As you mentioned, sound restrictions change, you know, the ability to bring in speakers, etc. Changes.

Aleks: So we always do check in. So we’ll ask, obviously the bump in time, but we’ll also ask about things like, you know, if the ceremony is held outdoors, what is the wet weather plan? Because often they will move the ceremony indoors to where we will be setting up our equipment. So are we in the way?

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: That affect it. So maybe we need to adjust the bump in time. When will they make that call? Will they call us on the day? Yes, we need to change things, etc. So even the bump in time isn’t just bump in time. We’ll ask about also, you know, I’ll often confirm like, things about the run sheet as well. So, like final song, like if there’s any discrepancy with when, you know, on the run sheet, sometimes the final song is half an hour before we scheduled to finish. Stuff like that. Like lots of.

Eddy: Yeah, it’s kind of. Yeah, just sense checking that, that run sheet, really. And it happens more than perhaps people would, would realise.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: The run sheets always have these little strange interests to them or glitches to.

Aleks: Them, I would call them.

Eddy: Yeah. That we do need to kind of iron out.

Aleks: Yeah. And then obviously. So, yeah, so we obviously have to kind of understand, you know, setting up our equipment. We’ll ask if it’s a new venue, whether they have a microphone, because I think if it’s a good quality system, our preference is always to use the microphone from the venue because they will have speakers all throughout in the ceiling often.

Eddy: Yes, we will always bring our own microphone just in case, as a backup.

Aleks: Yeah. But we ask if we can use mic, et cetera. Anyway, so there’s a bunch of questions we asked the venue, but then on the day, obviously there’s a lot of coordination that goes on as well.

Eddy: Absolutely.

Aleks: And it’s not just with the venue. We coordinate with all the other suppliers. I find that we’re often a central point in terms of the run sheet.

Eddy: Well, you know what, it’s funny, and I’ve thought about this. We are in one spot, so we’re not moving around. So people know where we are. So we’ll often get asked by the photographer, like, do you know, do you know what’s happening? Like, well, yeah, I mean, do you have a run sheet? Like, here it is. But obviously the run sheets change as well. So particularly if we’re MC as well, that make that kind of.

Aleks: That makes sense.

Eddy: Yeah, you know, it turns it up to ten in a way, because we are having that conversation with the point of contact that we have from the venue prior to people even arriving at the venue for the reception. For the reception, or obviously prior to the ceremony, just to get everything kind of on the same page. I do try and wrangle the photographer in sometimes. Celebrant, probably not so much, but certainly the photographer to run through everything. And then we will do mini kind of catch ups throughout the night as well.

Aleks: Mini meetings.

Eddy: Mini meetings.

Aleks: Often you have the photographer, videographer, venue person, MC, if it’s not us. And we’ll all be standing around and there’ll be multiple touch points throughout the night where we have to coordinate. You know, the other night I had the MC and the venue coordinator, and after the entrances, I said to the MC, what are you gonna say? Once the couple come in, he’s like, well, nothing. The venue’s like, well, nothing. And I said, well, no, like, I’m playing this banger for the entrance. The couple’s gonna sit down and then everyone’s just gonna be like, okay, yeah, what’s next? Like, do I just go back to Frank Ocean and, like, chilled tunes for dinner or what happened. So, you know, I encouraged MC to let people know what’s happening next. Okay, you know, your entrees will be served.

Aleks: We’ll be back for speeches in half an hour. Whatever it is, round it out, finish it up, check out. Our episode on MC, the truth about the MC role and what’s involved. It’s a good one. So, yes, lots of little touch points. Videographers as well, will often ask to. Will need to record the sound from speeches, the MC, even the music sometimes, which will involve plugging into our equipment, taping a recorder onto the mic, or the venue sounds.

Eddy: And this is where it gets tricky sometimes, particularly if a videographer hasn’t been in the venue before. So they’ll invariably sort of come up to us and say, can I plug in? And, you know, what do you need? Do you need music or do you just need the vocals for speeches? Oh, I actually just need speeches.

Aleks: It’s often quite late. Like, I actually wouldn’t mind if the videographers got in touch with us prior to.

Eddy: I mean, some do.

Aleks: The wedding.

Eddy: Yeah, some pretty rare. Yeah, well, yeah, it is. It is rare. It’s probably rarer than I would imagine. But then again, maybe they’re just contacting the venue more so than us, and.

Aleks: They’re saying the DJ will take care of the mic or whatever.

Eddy: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Even if perhaps, you know, they do have a sound system. Anyway, so where I was going with that is, if it is a sound system from the venue, then they’ll plug in. They’ll find a place to plug into the venue.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Which is something that sometimes we can’t really help with because we don’t really know how it’s all structured, configured.

Aleks: I do find that videographers often want to capture the music, though, and they will have to plug into our, like, mixer or whatever it is. So there’s a little bit involved in terms of coordinating. Quite a bit. I want to mention the entrances as well. So with the, you know, for those who choose to do a. An entrance into their reception with their wedding party, there’s quite a bit of coordination there with the MC, photographer, videographer. Often the photographer and videographer will ask us how many people are entering. Is there a different song for each person? You know, where are they coming from? So we kind of have to be on top of everything, really.

Eddy: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Aleks: Same with the MC. Often the MC will ask, well, like, when will you play the song for the. For each entrance? Like, will you play it when I’m announcing them and I, you know, we want to understand. Are you doing a little spiel about each, you know, group coming in or is it, are you just announcing them.

Eddy: And I’m dropping the name, playing the.

Aleks: Song and that’s it. Um, I even the other night ran quickly, found a bridesmaid and just confirmed that they were happy to come in on the chorus of a particular tune because the couple hadn’t confirmed and she didn’t really know. And I said, okay, I’m gonna bring it in on the chorus, just so you know. So even on the night we have to, you know, quickly put in a cue point, etc. And just coordinate. Absolutely. I think it’s more than just a bump in time.

Eddy: Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think another thing just around this out is having a chat with a venue on any sound restrictions as well. Any sound policies that they have complete mixed bag in Melbourne. Some have decibel limits that you can’t exceed. Other venues have turned down situation after a certain time if you plug in.

Aleks: Oh, right. Sorry. Yes.

Eddy: Yes. So volume goes down at say after eleven or something like that. Kind of a background vibe. So having an understanding as to all those different sound policies, particularly, say the turndown sound policy, you do need to play those last couple of songs at full volume, but kind of announce that, that this is what’s going to happen. We’re going to kind of roll back to background vibes and this is opportunity for you to grab another drink, grab someone you haven’t spoken to before. We kind of round the night out completely. So sound. Yeah. It’s a huge conversation, I think, to have with every single venue. And it always changes.

Eddy: I mentioned the trust before, prior to. And this could change again, by the way. But prior to their current policy, we weren’t able to bring in any additional speakers for the dance floor. They’ve kind of backflipped on that a little bit now, which is great, but that might change again. So, you know, these conversations are continuous, I think, in relation to sound.

Aleks: Absolutely. Or I think we have busted the myth that we need from the venue.

Eddy: So we don’t just, we’re not, we don’t just need bump in times. No mythbuster. All right.

Aleks: That’s loud.

Eddy: Okay. So this is. Okay.

Aleks: I mean, look, this is kind of.

Eddy: We kind of, kind of related, but we might be able to pick up a couple of things out of this one. So the myth is, you know, wedding DJs, huh? They just do their own thing. They’re stuck behind the decks?

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: You know, they’re siloed, I think.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: What do you think about that one?

Aleks: Well, we don’t operate in a bubble, do we? Like, it’s funny because when we did the live streams during the lockdowns, you know, even then, we had, like, some feedback from people on the, on the live streams, but that was kind of weird because you don’t have anyone around you sort of giving you feedback on what you, you’re doing. So we’re watching people. I mean, we obviously mentioned all the coordination and collaboration that happens with the venue and the other supplies and that sort of thing. But we do interact with the guests.

Eddy: Often throughout the night, even without verbally communicating with them. We’re interacting with them by watching them.

Aleks: Yes, exactly. Just being so creepy.

Eddy: Not in a creepy way, obviously, but, yeah. So we’re interacting with guests, either, you know, from, from watching what they’re doing. I mean, I always say that a great DJ is a good. People watch her. Yeah, they’ll just, just watch the flow and what’s, what’s sort of going on. But obviously, we’re making announcements if, if we are MC, even if we’re not MC, typically after dancing gets going, we might make one or two announcements during. And at the end, we pretty much.

Aleks: Always do the final couple of announcements. I would say after the dance floor has kicked off. There’s other things as well. For example, I’ve had conversations with, like, a whole table of guests, say, for a sit down where you’re set up quite close to a particular table, and sometimes during dinner, like, people have, like, a speaker, like, blasting them in the face. And I’ll ask if it’s, if the sound, you know, level is okay with them. And sometimes I say, oh, do you mind just turning it down just a tiny bit? We can’t hear each other speak. Like, just checking in and making sure people are comfortable.

Eddy: Yeah, and I love that you’ve mentioned that. I actually watch people as they asking down if I find that they’re leaning into each other and kind of asking, what was that? That’s a cue for me just to knock it back just a little bit as well.

Aleks: And look, sometimes people don’t mind. Like, the other night, I was like, hmm, this is quite loud, June dinner, but everyone was just vibing, and they were just loud and mingling. So I was like, I’m gonna leave it. I think it’s fine. I think it’s fine.

Eddy: Someone will come up and tell you.

Aleks: Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah, so we’re always interacting people will ask. I don’t know. Like, family members will ask, oh, is this on the playlist? See myth number two.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Always correct them. Actually, I don’t have a playlist, but what are you after? Obviously, once the dance floor kicks off, we’re interacting with guests in terms of, you know, requests that they might make. They might say, oh, there’s a special song that we would like. We have to kind of negotiate, you know, when to play that and that sort of thing. So, yeah, there’s a lot. We’re not kind of just there in a big bubble behind our text, just operating on our own. Absolutely not.

Eddy: Yep. Yep. No, I think that’s. I think we’ve kind of covered that because it did kind of piggyback off of the last one, I think so. So we don’t just do our own thing with blinders on behind the decks.

Aleks: No, we don’t.

Eddy: We bust this myth.

Aleks: Yeah. Busted.

Eddy: Let’s bust it. Every time I do that, your face just.

Aleks: I just squint.

Eddy: It screws up a little bit.

Aleks: Scrunch up my face.

Eddy: Okay, so, fifth and final myth of this one.

Aleks: I love this one. This is not just couples, by the way. This is every person that we talk to.

Eddy: This is my family, I think, to be honest. Sorry, Mum. DJs wedding. DJs. They just work on the weekends.

Aleks: Oh, I wish that was true.

Eddy: You know, actually, it’s funny at the Sydney wedding that we went to a few weeks back, that Aleks was a celebrant for somebody, or. I think we were both there at the time. They’re like, oh, you just DJ’s. You just work on the weekends, right? What do you. What do you do during the week? Okay.

Aleks: I’m like, I’m gonna go to the bar and grab myself.

Eddy: I think I said, I just play video games, chill, sleeping, hang with a cat. They kind of looked at me with a perplexed sort of expression on their face, but an answer as odds of.

Aleks: The question, I would say there.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Well, I think the only people who probably would understand is anyone with a small business and other wedding vendors would totally get this. But, no, we actually work, I would say, six and a half days a week. And it’s very hard to talk about, like, the structure of a day because we will meet with couples during lunchtimes and evenings. So as well as weekends, we’re also, you know, working in your free time to accommodate when you’re available to meet with us. But what else do we do during the week? What do we do during the week.

Eddy: Well there’s. There’s so much.

Aleks: We run a business.

Eddy: Run a business. So you know, we’re doing the invoicing, we’re doing the marketing and the social stuff. We. Yeah, like you said, we are meeting with clients. We. This is random things that always seem to come up that we need to do. Obviously we have this podcast so this is probably over and above what most wedding DJs are doing with it. With particular. Yeah, with the podcast obviously. But there is so much.

Eddy: And then there’s sorting all the equipment out before a gig. There’s you know, sorting your music library out. There’s just all this random stuff that comes sometimes. I don’t even know what I’ve done in a day, but I’m tired and I’ve been working for 9 hours.

Aleks: Yeah, absolutely. And yeah I’d be. I actually track my time and I have nine hour days like very very often. And you know, even on a Sunday we’ll probably do half a day of work.

Eddy: Yeah, we’re doing this on a Sunday morning.

Aleks: It is a Sunday morning. Yes. So yes, obviously, look, just running your business and I think that’s the difference as well. There are some DJ’s who are just, you know, have a full time day job and do this on the side. So. Yeah, they’re probably not doing as much as we are doing, but they may.

Eddy: Be working with an agency.

Aleks: That’s what I mean.

Eddy: So they sort of get delivered a brief and we’re obviously, we’ve. We’re putting together a brief for sometimes for our say sax players.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: And obviously Dale who sorts out all our sound.

Aleks: Yeah. So we have to organise like an equipment swap every week. So Dale comes with his van. We have to sort like have everything ready for that weekend.

Eddy: Random things like charging equipment as well. So charging all the lights, charging the battery powered speakers that we use.

Aleks: Charging the charges for the lights.

Eddy: Charging. Okay. So one for you. Charging the charges for the lights for the photo booth that go into the lights. Yeah. So there’s a. There’s a bit involved there just to keep on top of obviously. And it’s a timing thing too. Right. So you want to charge things say a certain number of days before so you don’t forget that they’re charged or they’re not losing charge or what have you.

Aleks: So putting post it notes on the big lights bags to indicate to make sure.

Eddy: Yeah, these ones are good to go.

Aleks: Charging mics. And obviously because we’re working most weekends. Right. I would say. And we have anywhere like between two to five. Between us or between us? Two to six.

Eddy: Yeah. Okay.

Aleks: Weddings or events a week. Mostly weddings. So, yeah, from. I would say like the early part of the week is like all the admin, meeting with new couples, also inquiries as well. Responding to inquiries, also meeting with the couples for the weddings and events that week. So it’s a mixture of meetings between new and existing couples because we meet with all our couples the week of then. I would say from Thursday onwards, it’s like all the focus is on that weekend, preparing for that weekend. So.

Eddy: So actually there’s a bit of a method to the madness.

Aleks: Yeah. It’s not random.

Eddy: There is a bit of structure that. That is involved.

Aleks: Yeah, yeah, there is a bit of a structure, you know, so, like on a Monday, although we try and take Mondays off so we can have at least one day off. That would be nice. But it doesn’t always work out that way. We’re often doing a couple of hours at admin in the morning just to catch up on things from the weekend. Inquiries, emails, etc.

Eddy: Yep.

Aleks: Yeah. So from Thursday onwards, you’re basically. Your whole life is just like getting ready for that weekend of events. So, you know, music preparation can take between two and 3 hours, and that’s not including, obviously, like all our backup. So we have backup, you know, devices that we put our, you know, all of our music prep on to. If we’re involved in ceremony, we’re not playing on our decks. We have to load all the music for the ceremony onto an iPad or an ipod. So, yeah, there’s a lot. There’s a lot that happens. We’re working, as you said, you know, and we’re working often late into the night during the week as well because we’re doing as meetings and that sort of thing to accommodate everyone else.

Eddy: We haven’t really even touched on the marketing part of what we do as.

Aleks: Well, which is I love marketing, but everyone would love to outsource it better. You can’t.

Eddy: You can’t really, because you will lose your brand.

Aleks: Exactly.

Eddy: You lose your brand. So, yeah, so that’s kind of what we do. Yeah, hopefully, hopefully that shed a little bit of light onto it. I don’t think my Mum listens to this podcast, but hey, Mum, like, you.

Aleks: Know, just send her the time stamp for the last. She’ll be like, here’s what I do, Mum.

Eddy: Sure, she’ll be chuffed with a shout out.

Aleks: Maybe she gets a shout out and it’s not that flattering.

Eddy: Sorry, Bob. Yeah. So can we bust this myth? We you know, we don’t just work on the weekends.

Aleks: Yes. Myth. Busted.

Eddy:
Busted.

Aleks: Beautiful.

Eddy: Beautiful.

Aleks: All right. I think that’s it. Five myths. Busted. Hopefully it gives you more of an idea of what’s involved in being a wedding DJ. It’s a lot.

Eddy: Yeah, it is a lot. Now that we’ve. We’ve talked about.

Aleks: Now, very tired. Thank you so much, as always, for listening. Let us know if you want to hear about anything in particular. Leave us a rating review on Apple podcast. Is that right?

Eddy: Or wherever your podcast.

Aleks: Or just send us some nice feedback. We’d love to hear from you and know that you’re listening.

Eddy: Actually, no. If you do send us a DM or what have you with some nice words or review, we. We will start reading them out on this podcast.

Aleks: Yeah. And maybe even post them on our. Oh, yeah, we can do that on our socials. I had a wedding. It’s really nice. I had a wedding a couple weeks ago for a lovely couple. Daniel. Megan, who I think we’re gonna get on the podcast. Very hard to pin everyone down when they’re off honeymooning and stuff. Rude.

Aleks: We’ve got a podcast to do, guys. But they were huge listeners, so they listened to every single episode. And on the wedding day, the bride said to me, I feel like I already know you. So it was like seeing an old, old friend. I think she meant old as in she’s known me for a while. Not old as in I’m old, I hope.

Eddy: Well, actually, we should probably read out some of our reviews from, you know, from one more song as well.

Aleks: Yeah, we should.

Eddy: We’ll read each other’s out. It could be strange if I was reading one for me.

Aleks: We also did a podcast with. We haven’t plugged it yet. Cut the Cake with Tania and MellyRain was amazing. So we were on the other side of the mic, sort of. I don’t know what the official term is, but that was great. We go into a lot of detail. Detail about our style, how we work. So check that one out, Cut the Cake podcast.

Eddy: Definitely.

Aleks: Cool. Thanks so much for listening.

Eddy Thank you, guys.

Aleks: Until next time 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.