S4, EP8: Real Couple: Carla And Baz’s Destination Extravaganza [Part 1]

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: Welcome.

Eddy: How are you, Alex?

Aleks: Good, how are you?

Eddy: Very well, thank you.

Aleks: It’s getting cold now. I’m happy.

Eddy: It’s getting cooler. Yeah, absolutely. So it should be quite a nice, pleasant weekend about this weekend off, actually.

Aleks: This weekend, that’s nice, isn’t it?

Eddy: You’ve got a couple, but I am helping you out.

Aleks: I know, I know. I always put you to work when you’ve got a weekend off. I’ve noticed. Sorry about that.

Eddy: That is okay. Happy to do it. So we’ve got a very special episode this week. It’s actually a two in one. So there’s two parts to this one.

Aleks: We’ve got an absolute whopper of an episode for you today. We’re chatting to a real couple, but the circumstances around it are a little bit different because we didn’t provide DJ services.

Eddy: However, we were actual guests at their wedding. Actual guests.

Aleks: Oh my God, what a luxury.

Eddy: And Alex was the lucky celebrant too. So Alex was sort of working, at least at the beginning. The best time.

Aleks: The best time to work at the beginning. Yeah.

Eddy: Plus, our couple Carla and Baz, are also wedding vendors themselves.

Aleks: Told you it was a whopper.

Eddy: So their wedding business is Mr and Mrs Social. You may have heard of these wonderful people, and they are there to capture extra memories from your big day with two very cool services, a video, guestbook and content creation. Think of them as your own party paparazzi. I love that.

Aleks: Yeah, it’s so good, isn’t it? You know, I love a bit of alliteration obsessed, actually, but we’ll get more into Mr and Mrs Social later. But first of all, we want to do a bit of a 360 degree look at a where we saw things from a different perspective as guests and obviously with me being a vendor as well as a guest. So these two plan a gorgeous, gorgeous wedding that was so high energy throughout the whole day and so true to who they are. We’ll chat to Carla and Baz all about the wedding planning journey and provide our own observations as guests.

Eddy: And so Carla’s and Baz’s wedding was actually in Sydney. It took place in Sydney. So that was pretty exciting. So we went interstate. We don’t get out much. So it was a destination wedding with some interstate vendors and a lot of.

Aleks: Interstate guests and some internationals, would you say?

Eddy: Yeah, absolutely. We cannot wait to chat all about it. So let’s welcome Baz and Carla.

Carla: Hey, guys.

Baz: Hey, Alex and Ed.

Aleks: Geez, you really went all out with the bloody.

Eddy: I’m very excited. How are we?

Carla: Really good. Guys. Was that us going all out or.

Aleks: We expect.

Eddy: We expect at the wedding, you were.

Carla: Oh, well. I know. Can we go back to it, please?

Eddy: Yes, let’s do it.

Aleks: I know, I know. It was five weeks ago now, I think.

Carla: Oh, I know.

Aleks: Is the post wedding blues is a real thing. Yeah, you know what?

Carla: It’s a real thing, and everyone told me about it, but I just wasn’t warned. Poor Baz. He has to put up with me now.

Baz: Yeah, actually, yeah, it hasn’t been that bad for me, I think because we’re having a honeymoon, um, later on in the year, so we’ve kind of got that to look forward to.

Carla: So.

Baz: Yeah, hasn’t been that bad.

Eddy: I’ve been seeing some things pop up on socials about your honeymoon, and I’m very jealous that you’ve got Ibiza on that list.

Aleks: Yeah, we do.

Carla: We know you’re a fan, Ed, just a little.

Aleks: I know. Can you guys stop with the social media updates every time you book an exciting new flight? Because I’ve got massive fomo.

Carla: It’s so true, actually, I said to Baz, I was like, oh, my God, people are going to think that we’re, like, flaunting it.

Aleks: And you should. You absolutely should.

Eddy: Absolutely.

Aleks: And look, I think, you know, talking about kind of honeymoon and post wedding blues and stuff, you know, you will get into your business later, but Mr and Mrs Social is very much about. And we’re big fans of these, kind of extending the life of your wedding and extending the memories and. Yeah, waiting for new content to come through and constantly having those little bits, you know, of. Yeah, extending the big day, I suppose, which we absolutely love. And we always encourage our couples to, you know, make sure they’ve got different ways of doing that. Now, I should probably preface this by saying, obviously, we are friends with Carl and Baz. We’re not random people invited to their wedding.

Eddy: Yeah, that’d be weird.

Carla: Would it be? Or would it just be cool? I like that.

Aleks: It would be. Yeah. I don’t think you would allow that.

Baz: Wedding crashers.

Carla: Wedding crashers. The new business guys, isn’t it?

Aleks: We have.

Eddy: You had it here first.

Aleks: Yeah, we have thought about this. Get that dance floor started. No, we are friends. Carla and I have known each other for a very long time, 13 years or so, obviously being your celebrate as well. I was heavily involved. And Carla, you also do my hair, so lots of hours of conversation about the wedding. But let’s tell our listeners how you kind of started. What was your vision for your big day and how did you kind of get yourself organised in terms of planning?

Baz: Well, so it actually started off as what was to be like a grand affair on Mykonos island, actually, in Greece. But unfortunately, just the celebrity price tag just. It just didn’t align with our budget after we met with a few event planners. So, yeah, we crossed that off the list.

Carla: That’s an understatement.

Baz: Yeah. And then we kind of went to Italy, seeing. That’s both our backgrounds. And then from there, we kind of set it on Sydney, as we both loved the grounds, the venue that we had it at. And, yeah, we had one of our first dates there, so we. And we still wanted that destination wedding, so. Yeah, that’s why we chose The Grounds in Sydney.

Carla: Yeah, it was a bit of a journey. Now, looking back when we actually were thinking about this today, we were like, wow, I can’t believe we actually thought we were going to get all our friends to fly to Mykonos.

Aleks: That’s insane. Actually, you know, I must have blocked it out from my mind, because it was a traumatic time when we were talking about dealing with. Dealing with all the, you know, vendors over there can be hard enough to pin down people in Melbourne, let alone trying with, you know. Glad you guys didn’t go down that road. That would have been a nightmare. So, obviously, The Grounds of Alexandria, gorgeous venue. Very, very special to you guys. Was it the only venue you considered, or did you kind of have other places you were thinking about in Sydney as well?

Carla: Do you know what we did? We had a little look at a few, but I’ll be honest, I was just. I was a stubborn one. Not baz, he was being really. You come up with a few suggestions, but it was the grounds for me all along. I think we. Because we had our first date there and I just thought I fell in love with it. But what it was, it was out of the two rooms. I really couldn’t decide whether we would have the linseed room, which was more of the ballroom within the grounds, or whether it was the garden where we ended up having it. And then we settled on the garden, actually, just because it was more of, like an industrial vibe, even though it’s the garden, it was in the city.

Carla: So because we’re quite a party couple, we liked the creativity of the venue, but also, you know, we wanted the option to go and go out, party after, let’s be honest.

Aleks: And we did.

Eddy: And we did.

Carla: And in saying that as well, I’d say the big thing for us, you know, with the process of the, you know, deciding on Mykonos and then going to Italy and then going to Sydney, Baz and I had so many visions and so many themes. I think there was once we were going to have a. What’s that theme, Baz? Italian.

Baz: Amalfi coast.

Carla: Amalfi coast, yeah. Then it was lemons. Lemons on the table.

Baz: Yeah. I think in the end, we kind of combined all that and. Yeah, it came out through some cultures and traditions and dances. Italian dances. So. Yeah, yeah.

Carla: Which we saw you guys dancing to those Italian music on the dance floor. So it worked.

Aleks: We, like, we.

Eddy: Yeah, no, it was so much fun. There’s actually. There’s actually an Irishman that was dancing the italian jigs better than the Italians on the dance floor. Seamus. Shout out to Seamus.

Carla: Yeah, let’s give a shout out to Seamus. I mean, people are still asking me about, who was that guy on the dance floor? He’s still getting questions. So he lives on that one.

Aleks: Seamus. At one point, I thought I would crack my head open. He was, like, picking me up and spinning me around and I was like, this is so much fun, after a million whines. But then I thought about the next day and I’m like, wow, that could have ended really badly.

Baz: We heard that from a few of our aunties as well, and even our older aunties. That’s so good.

Aleks: Look, we’re nearly at St. Pat’s Day, so everyone. Everyone needs a Seamus in there.

Eddy: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I wonder what he’s doing for St. Pat’s day.

Aleks: Oh, he’ll be.

Eddy: Oh, he’ll be. Yeah. Anyway, let’s get back on track.

Carla: Yes. Sorry.

Aleks: We can catch up. So you’ve got your venue and, you know, I think you guys kind of had a contact there as well, which is always obviously helpful when you’re locking things in. Did you sort of agree, like, in terms of. I suppose the vision you mentioned, you had a couple of different, you know, kind of aesthetics and stuff you wanted, but I’m assuming there’s a few things that you guys straight away knew that you wanted. And I think we can all agree it was a huge, huge party atmosphere from the get go. Would you say that you were both aligned in that at the beginning of the wedding planning process?

Carla: 100%. So it’s interesting that you bring this up, like, actually was going to mention that something that we did. Yeah. Well, first of all, we’re definitely a party couple. I don’t know if anyone noticed that, but we do love a good party. But Baz and I actually did a activity that we, at the very, very beginning of our wedding process, sorry, wedding organising process was we actually sat down separate rooms and did like a list of our values on separate pieces of paper and then went and collaborated together and goes, so what do we actually want for this wedding? Because especially before you set a budget, you don’t know where you’re going to spend your money. And, you know. And they were what, two out of two were aligned when they both.

Baz: Yeah, exactly. And we’d actually recommend it to other couples. So for us, yeah, the biggest things were what you’ve mentioned earlier. So, yeah, we wanted high energy, we wanted good food, drinks, good music and. Yeah, just something. Just values that reflect us as a couple.

Carla: Yeah, just, yeah, really, just so that we had all of our friends having a good time, but at the same time, we didn’t lose sense of, like, who we were as a couple and that our wedding ultimately was about us and we didn’t want to follow the norm, did we really? You know, what is the norm for you? Really? Yeah.

Eddy: And were there any stick in the mud suggestions from either side that you were like, we really, really need this or I really, really want this? And there was a bit of sort of back and forth. What were the sticking points?

Carla: Oh, yeah, that’s pretty interesting. You mean as in like, sort of like what Baz really wanted? What I didn’t want.

Eddy: He was in the ground sort of thing. Yeah.

Baz: Well, to be honest, even before we, we kind of were talking about Greece and different locations, I actually had said, oh, actually, maybe we should just not have a big event, big wedding.

Carla: You want to elope?

Baz: Yeah, we just, we just do something casual. We just elope. And Carla was just like, no way, no way, we need it in the same room. We’ll never have this opportunity again to have everyone we love all together. So, yeah, I guess that was a pretty big one. But I’m glad she did kind of persist, because in the end, it was the best day, best day and night of our lives.

Aleks: So, yeah, I was just gonna say, baz, you have such a huge family. I can’t believe you for a second thought that you’re gonna get away with eloping.

Baz: Yeah, I know, I know. But, um, I’ve tried to be sneaky.

Carla: There, but so true.

Eddy: Sneaky. I love that.

Carla: I mean, I feel like. Yeah, it’s actually funny that, um, you’re gonna laugh at this because it’s really ironic with what we do now with Mr and Mrs Social, but I actually even said to Baz, no, we don’t need a videographer. I actually said at the beginning, and in hindsight, like, who am I and what was I talking about? Like, it’s probably one of them. I’m literally living on refreshing my emails just to wait for it to come through now. Do you know what I mean?

Baz: Yeah. Obviously, for me, I video everything, so I’m not complete opposite to that. And for me, it was like, up there with being one of the most. Number one, most important things just to capture the day. Obviously, you’re kind of putting so much into that event and you’re spending so much on that one day. And for me to not capture it. Yeah, it’d be a shame. So for me, it was important.

Carla: Yeah. So thank you for pushing me.

Aleks: Absolutely. I feel like we’ll talk about suppliers in a moment, but I do feel like the music was really important to you guys, too. I mean, I couldn’t imagine that it wouldn’t be. You guys go out a lot, you know, you party a lot. Yeah, I just couldn’t imagine that that wouldn’t be a huge part. But let’s get into your suppliers. As I mentioned, obviously, I was one.

Eddy: We started with you. Shall we?

Baz: Most important first.

Aleks: Well, I did marry you guys. No, no. There was myself, obviously a celebrant. And you had the wonderful, wonderful DJ Sammy as your DJ from Adelaide.

Baz: Yep.

Aleks: And T-One as your videographers and photographers. And they have, I think they’re in Melbourne and Sydney. And you, you have the Sydney team, is that right?

Carla: Yeah, exactly.

Aleks: Yeah. Awesome. Tell us about. Obviously not me, because, you know, I was a shoe in for the job, but with the others.

Eddy: Did you get the separate email Alex sent? Have all the nice things to say about her?

Carla: Yeah, I’ve just printed it off.

Baz: Misplaced that one.

Aleks: No, we’ll talk about that in a bit. No, no, with the other. So obviously, you know, you flew in some people. Well, you flew DJ Sami in and stuff. So what was the process that you went through in actually choosing your suppliers?

Baz: Well, specifically with DJ Sami for me, it was a no brainer. I mean, like you mentioned, Alex, we do go out a lot and we go, go to a lot of. He actually travels a lot to Melbourne and Adelaide and. Yeah, all over Sydney as well. And yeah, we go to a lot of his events in Melbourne where he dj’s and yeah, we obviously we had seen his work. We loved his work. We’ve seen that the energy that he brings to an event and just how. Just the way that he knows, the way that he reads the crowd and kind of creates. Yes. Such a high energy event.

Baz: And for us, it was an easy choice to kind of. To choose Sami.

Carla: Yeah, I mean, it was. Especially because we had you guys working and you guys as guests, so.

Aleks: Yeah, that’s right. We couldn’t.

Carla: You could do both.

Aleks: We couldn’t. Yeah, we couldn’t. Um. We couldn’t do that. It is nice to be a guest. It’s very nice to be. Yes DJ Sami was amazing. Of course, Ed goes straight up to the dj.

Carla: Oh, yeah, let’s talk about our course.

Aleks: And I do want to. Let’s talk about it from. Because unfortunately, as much as we love being guests at weddings, you can’t help but talk about, you know, what you notice, what you don’t notice and it’s super, super interesting. Like, it’s just looking at me like, what the hell? Where are you going with this? But I mean, like, as a. As a wedding vendor, you obsess about your role, your bit of the day and you think that everyone, the couple, every single guest is just staring at you and worried about what you’re doing. Right?

Carla: Yeah.

Aleks: And it’s not true. There’s so much going on. So I think being a guest just made us realise, hey, like, DJ Sami, he’s nailed every moment. There is such a good vibe, you know, even while we’re eating dinner with such a high energy vibe, really, really fun music that really I knew was really you guys. When we got on the dance floor, there was such a mix of stuff. It was just interesting. Like, you get the overall.

Eddy: Yeah. You get all the really wonderful distractions at a wedding. Like, everything is going on around you. You know, you’re sort of zoning into different conversations. You’re drinking, you’re eating and there’s just a vibe the whole time, but. Yeah, exactly. And you probably feel this too, I imagine as wedding vendors yourselves, you do get very, very, very caught up in what you are doing. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. That’s what makes you great as well.

Aleks: Yeah, that’s right. But I think, I think seeing it from the perspective of a guest, it’s so important that everyone and everything comes together. So like, working with Sami as a celebrant was amazing because, you know, I had a good chat to him. He was, you know, he gave me the mic, we did a sound check. He was super organised. We went over the moments. He double checked with me. We had a little system for me giving him like the, you know, look across the 160 guests or whatever it was. So he knew the right moment to play everything then fade it down, then put a playlist on. Like it just.

Aleks: Yeah, it’s really, really important, obviously that, you know, all your vendors do come together because then the guests don’t notice anything except I’m having a great time and everything’s going really well.

Carla: Yeah. And I’d just love to add to that, you know, why. And this is obviously, this includes DJ Sammy, t one and yourself. And actually I was. Communication process before the actual event. Like for me personally, that was a really, really big deal breaker, was like how the vendors communicated with me at the beginning. And of course, like price comes into it. But to be honest, it’s more about like, do I connect with you? You’re going to be there during probably the biggest day of my life, part of my day. And I just want to get along with you, do you know what I mean?

Carla: Like have that connection with them and rapport, I suppose, which is what we had with all our vendors. So we’re just. Yes, super grateful that it worked out like that. I feel like we’re friends with, I mean, we’re friends with half of them, but we’re the ones that we weren’t. We’re friends with an hour.

Baz: Yeah, but, and not being biassed or anything, but I, me and Carla both agreed that in the whole process we’d have to say that Aleks as our celebrant just. You made the process. It was a smooth process from the get go. He was so organised, like the level, like the attention to detail. Yeah. For us, like it was so important. And you just, you just nailed every, every kind of, every part of the process.

Carla: You were like our little guide. So thank you. You just helped us, you know, when we, when we didn’t really know. And it’s true, like, you have no idea what to do at a wedding ceremony. Like, I think I might have even said this to you last time I was doing your hair, babe. Like I said, I had no idea where to put my hands and it’s like things that sort of just reminded me where to put my hands. And I was like, you don’t think of these things when you’re about to walk down the aisle.

Baz: Or when I started to freak out.

Carla: About, you know, kind of why you’re marrying Carla.

Baz: No, no. Putting together my, um, you know, just my vows. And Aleks came in to save the day and she said, don’t worry, you know, I’ll take care. I’ll be able to help you. That, and it just. It made it. You don’t realise how much kind of that helped, and that made me more at ease and just took the pressure off me, and I really appreciate that and. Same as Carla. Thank you.

Aleks: Thank you. Thank you for reading out that email that Ed sent to you.

Eddy: It was word for word, actually.

Aleks: No. And that’s. And it’s really. It actually surprises me getting that feedback, because for me, obviously, you know, it’s an obvious thing, but ceremonies are a bit tricky, like, in terms of, you know, the legal beats, all the logistical things that happen on the day as well. Like, for example, Baz going off and talking to everyone, you know, a minute before Carla’s going down the aisle. He wasn’t the worst offender, though. We got to talk about the aunties. But anyway. Yeah.

Carla: Oh, yeah, they were in trouble, aren’t they, Aleks?

Aleks: The aunties were at the top of the aisle

Carla: She got. Yes, he got right in front of the aisle.

Baz: Or taking photos.

Aleks: Yeah, yeah, but it’s. Look, it’s. Yeah, you’ve got to just be able to wrangle everyone and, you know, make sure when Carla comes down that aisle, it’s all perfect. I’ve got to ask one thing. And I thought it was an interesting decision, and I know. I know why you decided, but then on the day, I was like, mm, the red lipstick. Carla, how did you.

Carla: Oh, I knew this was going to come up. I had this feeling. Do you know what? The red lipstick. It’s just Carla. Through and through. It’s Carla. It’s Mrs Social.. It’s my look. I just would have felt naked without wearing it.

Carla: He had to get all over his face. It was just. There was nothing we could do about it.

Baz: Yeah, you probably. Probably. I don’t know if he’s noticed, Aleks.

Carla: I think everyone noticed.

Baz: Yeah. Yeah. I had to ask for, like, Soviets all the time. Every time we’d kiss. I’d be asking so, yes, to wipe my lips.

Aleks: Yeah, but Carla wouldn’t change that. Even those impractical red lips.

Carla: No, I wouldn’t change it, but I would definitely. Next time. Yeah. Probably, like, carrying some little wet wipes in your kit there, Aleks. I reckon for the next bride. That game enough to wear?

Aleks: I actually did you. You know, I had it, but it was so awkward because I had put my. Because the bag I had was so large, and we had a dining table. I had put it all the way to the side. And then you got down the aisle, and I was like, the music still going? I’ve got to. I’ve got to basically just wipe it off your face. So I literally took my finger and just, like, wiped your chin so no.

Carla: One would see a girl. Mom, you’re like a Mum. You, like, lick your thumb and, like, come over and take my $350 makeup off my face.

Aleks: You got to do what you got to do, right?

Carla: You got to look.

Aleks: You got to look perfect.

Carla: So you do.

Aleks: Um, I want to talk about. So we’ve mentioned some of the suppliers and stuff. I want to talk about some stuff that you guys had as part of your wedding that I would say was non traditional and super fun and high energy. Do you want to talk us through a couple of the little extra bits and pieces? Let’s talk about your entrance, because that was pretty epic.

Carla: Okay. Okay. You think it’s non traditional?

Aleks: I think you guys. But you guys took things that maybe could be considered traditional and just, like, made them super high energy and you guys, if that makes sense.

Carla: Yeah, no, of course. Okay, so I will be super honest. Our entry. So the champagne tower was actually meant to be on the other side. So there’s a few little things that didn’t go as planned, but I’m really glad that sounds like you guys didn’t notice, so it’s okay. But essentially, we saw this video, like, at the very beginning, like, just of this really cool, fun couple spraying champagne. And it was in our. It was in our, like, you know, goals or pinterest board or whatever for, like, months, months, months. Anyway, we completely forgot about it. And I was really hooked on, like, going to an espresso martini tower.

Carla: So we’re, like, going back and forth. But, nah, we landed on the champagne tower and. Yeah, we only had one practise of the. Yeah, we spraying the. We practised once, and it was a massive fail. I went down to Dan Murphy’s and bought these, like, really cheap fizzes. And I said to Baz, come, let’s go down the thing. I got it all over Baz, and I was just like. Mine just kept going, and he’s just did this cute little plop, and I was like, well, we can’t do that on the night. So we’re so happy that it ended up with, like, the crazy entrance and pouring into the champagne tower.

Carla: But it’s funny, though, because, like, champagne towers, they take so much longer to pour than what you think.

Eddy: Yeah.

Carla: And it’s. I’m sure you guys noticed that from going to a lot of weddings.

Eddy: Yeah, absolutely.

Baz: Yeah.

Eddy: It’s cool for the first 30 seconds, and then this is like, oh, and you see the look on the face of the couple is like, oh, wow, we’re gonna be here for a bit.

Carla: Yeah.

Baz: So that’s what we. Yeah, we got. We had two cousins come in and pull the rest after we kind of done the main entry.

Carla: Yeah.

Baz: So little things like that that, I guess. Yeah, yeah.

Carla: And I suppose that was in replacement of our cake. We decided to not go with a cake as much as to a few people in our families disgust. Yeah, that was quite funny. You want to tell the story?

Baz: Yeah. So when I. I mean, should I mention that?

Carla: Just mention it.

Baz: Okay. So I’m. Yeah, like I mentioned earlier, I’m from an Italian family and, yeah, traditions are quite strong. Strong. And, yeah, new ideas don’t always. They’re not always accepted straight away. So I was on the phone to my mum probably about. Was it about two months before the wedding, and I. And I just said, oh, yeah, we’re not having a cake. Just pretty casually.

Baz: And she. There was just dead silence throughout almost a minute, and she was like, oh, and, um.

Carla: Yeah, you weren’t in the good books that day. She was a bit. Just a bit confused.

Baz: It took a while to kind of explain to her that, you know, times have changed now there’s going to be plenty of desserts there. And, um. Yeah, she was. She was fine on the night and, yeah, it all worked out well.

Carla: Yeah, I think it was that she was thinking there wasn’t going to be food to serve the, you know, the older generation. Yeah.

Eddy: The desserts were amazing, by the way. You had.

Carla: Oh, did you get one? I didn’t even get one. I’m so glad you got it.

Eddy: It’s okay, Mum. It was amazing.

Carla: Yeah. And then on that one, we did a first look, which are definitely more popular now. You guys have talked about this on your podcast before, but that was also another one, I think it was actually. Sorry, I’m going to throw my Mum under the bus now. But I think when I told her about her first look, she goes, what? What’s that? Oh, my gosh. I’ve heard everything now.

Aleks: Oh, my gosh.

Eddy: Oh, wow.

Carla: And I was just like, yeah, that’s what we do now.

Baz: Reactions that you get.

Carla: The reactions you get pretty funny. Yeah.

Baz: Because we actually. We stayed in the same hotel room. We woke up, you know, breakfast together. I’m an amazing kind of buffet breakfast at the Crown in Sydney.

Carla: I mean, I didn’t eat bread, but. Yeah. Fat day.

Baz: Yeah. So we got to share that moment, which was really good. Got to share the excitement on the day to come and. Yeah. And then we kind of. Carla had her kind of split up and went into different rooms on the day, so. Yeah. So then the lead up to the having the first look, I think it took pressure off walking down the aisle. Yeah. Seeing each other for the first time with the aisle, where sometimes it can be quite intense, I think, if you haven’t.

Carla: Yeah.

Baz: If you haven’t spent much time together.

Aleks: Yeah, absolutely. And let’s talk about the getting ready, because I was on the bloody WhatsApp group. Yeah. And I said to Ed, I’m gonna have. I’m gonna have a heart attack. Like, I need to mute this group because I was running around. Yeah, I had to go. I had stupidly. We were staying in the city in Sydney, and I had stupidly booked makeup and hair at different times, at different spots, and I had to walk 15 minutes. And I was just, like, just, like, obviously thinking, you know, about the ceremony.

Aleks: I’d only done a couple, so it was, like, big deal for me. And obviously marrying your friends, a big deal. So I was like. Anyway, I was just getting messages, like, where’s the hat? Where’s the page Boy? Let blah, blah into the room. Let this. And I just said, this is so. This is so intense. You guys can be so exhausted by the time you get to the wedding.

Carla: Well, the content creator had my phone, so I had no idea that any of this was going on. I was just had. I was in blissful unawareness.

Baz: It was me, on the other hand. Yeah, I got all those. I think I sent that message, like, we’ve lost the page boy’s hat.

Aleks: That’s so funny.

Carla: Yeah.

Aleks: And let’s talk about. Obviously, would be. We have to talk about having a content creator who. I’m still waiting for my content, by the way, but that’s okay. Who was amazing and has delivered so much stuff. Was that someone that you booked in quite early, or was it something that you booked later on and actually just tell people what a content creator is? Because some people still don’t know. It’s a fairly new concept.

Baz: Yeah. So with content creation, it’s pretty much just capturing raw, behind the scenes content as well as, like, getting ready throughout the day and first looks in the ceremony and the first dance and dance for, depending on, you know, what package kind of you go with and then create. We, as content creators, just curate it into, like, a short video ready to upload onto social media within 24 hours. So it’s instant. And, yeah, there’s nothing kind of worse.

Carla: Than waking up on your wedding morning.

Baz: Yeah. And the only photos that you have are once taken by, you know, old Auntie Shaz. It’s just taking questionable angles and drunk snaps. So, yeah.

Aleks: So you guys had, you guys had a content creator. Is that someone that you booked your, like, for your own wedding early on, or did that come a bit later?

Baz: So we, we booked. So it was Danny Camel from That Media Crew and we booked him probably about six months before the wedding.

Carla: Yeah, like, we’ve. Yeah, we’ve known of Danny for a while and we just knew that he was the one that we wanted to get for our wedding. And he was brilliant. He literally just took over on the, the day, the second he came in, he decided to take my phone for that because I was like. Because we do do content creation too. I was like, just cut the middle man out. That’s a normal. That happens. Usually they use their own phone, but it was actually great not having the phone, but, yeah. And he just got whipped up this stuff that, like, high energy.

Carla: Yeah, just awesome.

Aleks: Yeah, he’s, um, really good at what he does. Very, very good.

Baz: And to be honest, Alex, it’s probably our fault that you haven’t got the videos yet, because we have all the content, so, yeah, we’ll have to.

Carla: We’ll get you that.

Aleks: I see.

Carla: I didn’t even know. I didn’t even know you wanted it.

Eddy: She hasn’t stopped talking about it. Every day. Every day.

Carla: Okay. Okay. We’ll get it to you tonight.

Aleks: He’s, he’s, he’s joking, but we’ll use it to promote this episode.

Eddy: It’s actually really good call.

Carla: That’s very true, if that helps.

Eddy: Yes, yes, yes. Can you tell us about your sort of all time favourite memories of your day? If you could choose one.

Carla: Just one, Ed.

Eddy: Well, you can. We’ve got all night, so.

Carla: Yeah. Okay. No, you’ll be like, I want to go to bed soon. Do you know what? Honestly, for me, would honestly be walking down the aisle. It was one of, it was an amazing moment. The song, the music, having all my beautiful friends there, like, favourite people in the room. To my husband, who, you know, who just.

Baz: Yeah.

Carla: To read my vows. I was just insane, honestly. And then my second one was actually the C02 guns. They were just insane. Loved them! I’m sorry, that was also my. Oh, sorry I said Baz’s. Actually, my dad’s speech, he. He really pulled it off. And like, if those of you don’t know my Dad, obviously, but he, um.

Baz: Tell him about his wedding.

Carla: He’s not really a speaker. Yeah. So basically, at my Dad’s own wedding, he stood up and, uh, he thanked the groom and that was it. So his sisters said to him, make sure you do better this time. And, uh, he really did. I think you guys can agree he pulled it off.

Eddy: Oh, great speech.

Baz: Yeah.

Eddy: And we look, obviously we hear a lot of speeches going to a lot of weddings, but.

Carla: Yes.

Eddy: Yeah, it was really fantastic.

Aleks: So was his suit.

Carla: Yeah, you love his suit. Yeah, that was good. We got that made. Him and Baz got his suits made and we want it to be a little bit different. And he. Yeah, he pulled off that burnt orange suit in style. Yeah. Yeah.

Baz: Very cool. He lived up to his Daddy Cool title.

Aleks: Yeah, that was a fun thing as well.

Carla: Yeah.

Aleks: You guys had tunes as people came up to make their speeches, which I love. And honestly, we don’t see it that often and I wish we saw more of it.

Eddy: Yeah, that’s. That’s so true.

Baz: Oh, really?

Aleks: Yeah.

Carla: I loved that. That was, that was great.

Aleks: It reminds me that we should be encouraging our couples to do that more.

Eddy: Yeah. And I think if you’re a little bit nervous as well, it can kind of diffuse that. If, you know, you had that song, come on and it’s a bit of fun and you might think, oh, this isn’t so bad. I can get up and do this. I can get up and do a speech. No worries. I was at a wedding recently. I was playing a wedding recently and for some reason, I don’t know why, I think it might have been because the MC perhaps was. Well, there were two MC’s, but they weren’t very experienced. So when they were getting people up to have speeches, father of the groom, bride, what have you.

Eddy: No one clapped for everyone that walked up, nobody clapped.

Aleks: It was so the MC has to.

Eddy: Awkward. Yeah, it was so awkward.

Aleks: Which actually is even more reason to have a tune going in case people don’t cheer.

Eddy: Yeah. But of course, when you have a tune, they’re gonna get even more excited.

Aleks: Exactly. That’s right.

Carla: Yeah, exactly. Oh, God, let’s. Sorry. I took over. What was Baz’s favourite?

Baz: Yeah, I’d have to say the highlight was the first look and seeing my beautiful bride for the first time and. Yeah, and then the CO2 guns, definitely. And just the dance floor. I love that dance floor. I just thought the way that it turned out. So the wet weather kind of, we had to change a few things on the night and the setup, the DJ had to reset pretty much when it started to rain and so we used the arbour part as the dance floor and it just was, I don’t know, it was just a good setup.

Eddy: Um, yeah, that was a very, that.

Aleks: Was, we were shaking in our boots.

Eddy: I mean, that’s, that’s one of the worst things could possibly happen to each other. Their equipment, laptop, etc. But may I say that he handled it like a champion and I did. I honestly think it was better for it with the positioning.

Carla: I reckon the dance law definitely wouldn’t agree more. Yeah, it was better. We should have put that in the first place. But, you know, I did say that.

Aleks: Just to let you know, the wife is always right.

Baz: Yeah, everything happens for a reason and, yeah, end up turning out amazing and he did handle it really well and, yeah, it does get, it gives you, yeah, just a greater kind of level of understanding for vendors. Again, just with when things like that come up and different stresses that are pretty much inevitable on the night. Um, yeah, he done more.

Aleks: Yeah, he was, he was great. I was very nervous, but, um, it ended up okay. I was like, wow, he’s being so chilled. I said, I turned out to Ed.

Eddy: Losing Aleks would be on the ground, like just, you know, in the foetal position. No, no, just kidding.

Aleks: No, but it was just fun.

Eddy: She would have summoned her sound team to move everything forward.

Aleks: That’s right, yes. Ed always laughs at me and says I’m a rock star because I never set up my own gigs, but you try having. Is there anything that you guys would have done differently?

Carla: Oh, do you know what? It’s a hard question because probably not, you know, except for I’d love to start earlier. I just have a longer day, honestly. And probably more photos with everyone. Like individual photos with people. Like, I feel like we didn’t get enough photos. The night went so quick and I’m sure this is like, you hear this every single week, but it was just so quick.

Baz: I don’t even think we got a group shot.

Carla: Yeah.

Baz: Ceremony, which is a shame, but yeah, anyway, what can you do?

Carla: Yeah. Besides that. Absolutely not. Let’s do it. All over again.

Aleks: Absolutely.

Eddy: Yeah, absolutely. And we’ve sort of skipped a question here, but I want to know what you found sort of challenging or even a little surprising during the wedding planning process and maybe even on the day itself. Were there any sort of surprises or things that popped up that you didn’t expect?

Baz: Actually, yeah. To be honest, one that stands out for me is just the expectation or the assumptions around invites or invitations. So just people ask and also, like, people asking for plus ones when we’d never even met the partner. Like, to me, that was. That was a little surprise.

Carla: Yeah. Like, definitely. I. Sorry, you go out.

Aleks: I was going to say, we definitely didn’t talk about that in the salon. Did we call?

Carla: We love talking about that one. Yeah, it was an interesting one. But I suppose until you get engaged and you start doing this, you don’t know of these issues. And, of course, the good old favourite is keeping on top of the budget. I mean, you want to have. You’ve got to still have what you want for your special day without having to compromise too much. But at the end of the day, it’s money, right? And you’ve got to hit that budget. So I think, you know, that. I reckon you get to that six months mark where you’re just like, oh, like, can I have it?

Carla: Can I not? And you’ve kind of got to wait till the end. And then. This is a really interesting. I call it the psychology of wedding money. Or, like, you know, your wedding budget is you get to the end and then you’re just, like, the complete opposite. That you’re at the beginning and you’re just throwing money at everything and you’re. It becomes. The value of money becomes so irrelevant. Like, it was monopoly and I was like, what is that, a $1,000 for, like, an extra couple of pieces of dell?

Carla: I was like, yeah, that’s fine. Throw it on the bill.

Baz: Yeah, I think at that point, you just. Yeah, it’s. It’s.

Carla: It’s nothing. Yeah, that was probably surprising for me, how I changed my mindset towards the end. Honestly, Ed.

Aleks: That’s right. We do have a thing about wedding shoes. We were like, what’s another $2,000 for shoes?

Carla: Yes, so true.

Aleks: Well, for our wedding vendor listeners, there’s a hot tip for you. You get them at the end, get.

Eddy: Your upsells in late in the.

Aleks: Yes, one month. Well, it’s funny that you say that, because we do notice that, like, we don’t push our upsells, but a lot of people. People do come to us, like, a few months before their wedding. Like, can we out on the lights? Oh, do you want to mc. Oh, do you want to do this? I’m just thinking maybe things haven’t worked out. You know, for example, the venue, maybe the lighting’s right, maybe an emcee, a friend is nervous and dropped out.

Eddy: Or maybe the venue was doing sound but isn’t doing sound anymore.

Aleks: Oh, I have this next week.

Carla: Yeah.

Aleks: I was like, the couple thought, I’m just doing ceremony for a couple. And I was like, they’ve got a mic. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. All pa is covered. I emailed the video, like, no, there’s no pa supplied at all, so. And it’s 165 guests, so I have to bring in two speakers now as big stands and set up.

Baz: Oh, well, yeah, so it’s all those last minute things. Say, you know what?

Carla: I would give one little advice, if I’d like. I’d like to give one real hot tip that I have. Sorry to jump the gun, because I don’t know if I. If you’ve asked us or not, but is what I really felt was, um, all the things I stressed about did not matter on the day. It was insane, like, how many things I over thought, and it just. I just loved every second of the wedding, even when things went wrong, I was like, oh, whatever. What a great day. Honestly, it was a weird feeling, but you just. It doesn’t matter.

Baz: Well, personally, now she says that, yeah.

Eddy: Five weeks later, I’m going to live.

Baz: With her for a year.

Aleks: And then now she says, no, I have to say I agree with that, because I saw a couple of things that weren’t right on the night, and you took it like an absolute champ. So you guys were definitely not bridezillas and groomzillas.

Eddy: Very much water off a duck’s back at that point, I think.

Aleks: Yeah, yeah, I love that.

Carla: Or was that just all the espresso martinis that the venue was putting in.

Eddy: My hand every time strategic drinks just appear in your hand whenever something goes wrong.

Carla: Correct. No joke. It was like magic.

Aleks: Oh, I love that. Ed, you can ask the final question for this bit.

Eddy: Oh, yes. And by the way, Carla, you were bang on with that hot tips. That was our next question. So you’re. You’re following along beautifully. Okay, thank you. Baz, do you agree with Carl, or did you have, like, a hot tip from your perspective?

Baz: Um, I just say, don’t feel like you have to conform. We kind of touched on it before, but, yeah, don’t feel like I have to conform. To just not just, you know, anything that’s non traditional or that’s the norm. Um, like I said, we didn’t have a cake. Um, we. Yeah, staying together the night before and, um, not having a bridal party. We didn’t have a bridal party. I’ve heard, you know, just some of the crazy stories I’ve heard just from the stress of having a bridal party. Sometimes we had our Mums as witnesses, so, yeah, little things like that that we did to kind of. To make it authentic to us.

Baz: Yeah. That’s kind of a tip that I’d say, just be authentic to you and that’s perfectly something.

Eddy: Be authentic to yourselves. Fantastic.

Aleks: Your family will get over it. They had a great time. They were fed.

Baz: Yeah. Another thing I’d probably just say, yeah. It’s just even though people around you may not understand or may not get it, just do what’s right for you as a couple and for you guys, you know, at the end of the day, it’s your wedding and just. You’ve got to be happy.

Eddy: No, that’s great advice.

Aleks: Million percent.

Eddy: Well, I will get to my bonus. Last question now. And I imagine that these songs came on at some point on your night, but what’s. And you have to answer this separately, obviously. So what is your number one song that will get you on the dance floor?

Carla: Oh, mine has got to be. Don’t you worry, child by Swedish House Mafia.

Eddy: What a big number that one is. Yes.

Baz: All right. I’d have to say this is a.

Carla: Big deal for Baz.

Baz: I’d have to say TS, though. There’s so many.

Carla: This is really hard for him.

Eddy: I feel him struggling over the mic over the years.

Carla: Struggling, guys, he’s struggling. This is a big call for baths.

Baz: Anything or vicin, wake me up, all of that.

Carla: Oh, yeah, you do like that one now, I think.

Aleks: I say, did I send it to you guys? Ed, actually, because we love the music so much. Ed did put together, you know, on our Google Pixel phones, which we all love. Everyone makes fun of us for them, but, you know.

Carla: Oh, wait, shout out to Younes. Because you can move the people around.

Aleks: You can. You can get rid of people. Yeah. One of the guests loved our Google Pixel phone. He had a lot of fun making fun of us all night. The whole weekend, actually. Anyway, so, yeah, it picks up. We have this feature called now playing. So we pick up the tune.

Eddy: So, like, wherever you are, it’s like a shazam. That’s always on.

Aleks: Always on. Yep. So he did. Ed picked up most of the tunes, then he threw them into a YouTube music playlist.

Carla: Oh, no, I think you did mention we’d love to get hold of that. That’d be awesome.

Eddy: Yeah, yeah. We can convert it into a Spotify or something like that if that’s easier. But yeah, I don’t think it picks up, up every single tune, but it picked up a fair whack of them because maybe when I was in the bathroom or something, Sami put a song on it, didn’t hear it, but yeah. So, no, it’s got most of there. So you definitely give you a flavour and might sort of, some memories might pop, pop in your heads based on that.

Carla: Yeah.

Baz: That’s awesome.

Carla: Oh, thanks, guys. I’ve never say no to that.

Aleks: Yeah, because you can forget it. So, Ed, what’s our summary? What’s our 360 degree summary? I don’t know why I’m obsessed with this 360.

Eddy: You’ve been talking about this 360 degree summary, to be honest with you, like, I never really asked you what that meant and then we got further into the week and then I couldn’t ask you what that meant.

Aleks: So it’s not even, it’s, it’s silly. But anyway, it doesn’t even make any sense. But, no, my point was, like, kind of seeing things from the holistic perspective of being a vendor, being a guest, etc. Right. What are your kind of, what were your final observations? Was anything that you picked up being a wedding guest and a vendor?

Eddy: Very good question. Thank you for asking. I honestly, being a wedding guest, I think it’s healthy as a wedding vendor to be a wedding guest as much as you can, because it really teaches you a few things. Like, I think the biggest thing it will teach you is that there’s so much going on at a wedding that is awesome and fun and engaging and exciting that you do forget. For a moment there, I forgot I was a wedding DJ. I was just a guest at a wedding having a fantastic time. And I think from the mindset of, on the other side of the coin, when you are working at weddings, you know, obviously you’re doing the best job that you possibly can, but you’re one of many vendors that are all working together, hopefully in harmony, to just put on the best possible night and day for some, some wonderful couple. So, yeah, that’s kind of what I took out of it. I kind of got lost in the wedding.

Aleks: Yeah. Which is awesome because it was such a. Yeah, it was such a good night. I think for me, I realised how much you get fed as a wedding guest versus being a wedding.

Eddy: Okay. Yeah. Okay. Here comes the truth.

Aleks: I couldn’t even eat the mains, guys. Sorry.

Carla: Like, that was an Italian wedding, my love.

Baz: We had. Yeah, we had that feedback quite a bit.

Carla: Yeah.

Baz: That’s good to hear.

Eddy: It’s better than not enough food.

Aleks: Oh, and I didn’t, I didn’t even have anything during cocktail hour. I only had the entree and a bit of bread, and I was very full.

Carla: There were all those Italians like, hi. They couldn’t, wouldn’t let us in to the antipasto platter.

Eddy: And there you have it all about Carla and Baz’s wedding. It really was such a, such a lovely day, and it was very, very interesting, I thought, because obviously, I was privy to what was going on through you, particularly when it came to the WhatsApp group and things like that, because I was in ultimate chill mode, so I was just coming along, I think I was having a few drinks, and Alex sort of said, oh, this? What’s that group? It’s all kicking off. And I’m like, yeah, you know, I’m comfortably numb. I might have had a couple of beers in me at that point. Yeah, but you were off getting your head done.

Carla: I did.

Eddy: I did have a couple of little missions to do during the day, but apart from that, it was a very relaxed day for me.

Aleks: Well, that’s great. I’m glad to hear it. And look, it was just funny seeing it from that perspective, because when we’re DJ’s, celebrants, MC’s for weddings. Well, yeah, some of us, anyway, we obviously see the detailed run sheet that we get when you see what goes on. 06:00 a.m. Starts for hair and makeup, getting ready photos, all these people coming in for different shoots. It’s like 4 hours, 5 hours, 6 hours of stuff before we even get there.

Baz: Yeah.

Aleks: But to actually kind of be a part of it and see the communication that goes on in the coordination was something else. So that was very interesting for me.

Eddy: A bit of an eye opener.

Aleks: Bit of an eye opener.

Eddy: I figured that I was really leaning to this wedding guest mindset because it doesn’t really happen very often.

Aleks: I know what a luxury.

Eddy: And look, once, obviously, the ceremony was finished up and you, you’d handed off the paperwork that you needed to hand off, etcetera.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: Then you clocked into wedding reception mode as a guest.

Aleks: I definitely did. And you can’t, you know, you do, as we mentioned in the episode, you do notice things, and you can’t help but kind of notice little things, but at the end of the day, being a wedding guest is so much fun.

Eddy: It’s honestly the best party you can go to.

Aleks: Absolutely. So you know we are grateful for any invite.

Eddy: Yes, that’s a hint if I had ever heard one.

Aleks: Yep, yep.

Eddy: Anyway, that’s part one all wrapped up. Feel free to jump onto part two if you want to hear all about their wedding biz. Mr and Mrs Social. Thank you so much for listening.

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

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

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