S4, EP4: The truth about the MC role

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: I just started with a yawn. Sorry. Hi. Happy new year.

Eddy: It’s our first episode since 2023.

Aleks: Yes. There you go.

Eddy: And it’s 2024 now, so we’re very excited. Yes.

Aleks: Oh, nice.

Eddy: Very excited.

Aleks: Back on track. Back on track. Oh, wow.

Eddy: Oh, yeah. I really should get some new sound effects, maybe for new financial.

Aleks: Oh, totally. Let’s do that. Well, shall we do our weekend wrap up?

Eddy: Yes. It’s actually a lot easier for me than it is you. I had a weekend off, which is lovely, but we’ll do it for you. Here we go.

Aleks: I actually meant let’s do the weekend before as well because you had two and I had three, so I don’t know if you.

Eddy: We can do that. Yeah. You can cap things off.

Aleks: All right, cool. Yeah. So we actually had weddings in between Christmas and new year. What was it, 29, 30 or 31st? So, yeah, that was a fun time.

Aleks: So I had a little tiny break and then went straight back into it. Super fun ones. I had three back to back, finishing with an epic banger of a wedding news eve. I won’t go into all of them because I think it’s a little bit much. But I played at Vue du Monde for the first time, which is the 55th floor of the Rialto Towers, arguably the best view of Melbourne.

Eddy: Even better than Eureka Skydeck.

Aleks: No, I haven’t been there, so the best view I’ve seen. I think Eureka’s too high for me. Is it better? Is it? I don’t know.

Eddy: I’ve never been to Vue du Monde. I’m not fancy enough.

Aleks: Yeah. And the food was amazing. There is a reel on our Instagram if you want to check it out. But it was really fun. I even had a guest take footage and create TikToks and reels for us just out of the goodness of her heart and.

Aleks: Cause she likes it and it’s enjoyable. So that was very cool.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: That was for Caitlin and Ash and had the lovely Liz Shaw, who was celebrant and MC, and she did an absolutely amazing job. We could talk more about that for this topic for this episode. Had a couple more New Year’s Eve wedding at Top Paddock in Richmond. So much fun. Had Hugo joining me on percussion.

Aleks: Yeah. What can I say? Absolute banger. New Year’s Eve. They’re fun.

Aleks: Fun weddings. We had a countdown, shots, et cetera. Good time.

Eddy: It was all happening. So I had New Years Eve off. So that was really nice.

Aleks: And what did you get up to?

Eddy: I watched a movie called the Creator, which is a Sci-Fi all my Sci-Fi nerds out there. No, I relaxed. I think I ordered pizza or something. Sounds domino.

Aleks: Yeah. Because I got him. And I was very grateful that you had ordered our favourite post wedding meal, which is Dominos.

Eddy: When’s the last time? I haven’t ordered it all year.

Aleks: Oh, wow. A whole week?

Eddy: Yes. No. So I did the 29th and I did the 30th as well.

Aleks: So where were you?

Eddy: So where. Where was I? So I’ll go from the 30th, I’ll go back. So the 30th, I was at Noisy Ritual for the first time for Lee and Grant’s wedding. It was really, really awesome.

Eddy: They had a really. They had a reverend actually, as their…

Aleks: Officiant..

Eddy: Officiant. And look, I didn’t know what to expect, but she was absolutely lovely. So, yeah, she did a really, really good job. Great ceremony. Um, they knew each other for years.

Eddy: Really, really, really lovely. I think she used to be the chaplain at the school that Grant went to. So that’s how they knew each other. Yeah, I think it was quite.

Aleks: She was a bit older.

Eddy: She was a bit older.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: So, um. Yeah, it was really cool. Yeah. Really deep relationship there, I think.

Aleks: Oh, that’s nice.

Eddy: Yeah. So, um, musically it was. Yeah, just. Just lots. Lots of anthems.

Eddy: I’d say lots of gay anthems as well.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: At one point, it was a lot of sort of Sircuit for those who, you know, that venue Sircuit vibes. I’m talking like Kylie, bang is, you know, Troye Sivan.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: You know, those kinds of. Those kinds of.

Aleks: You love a brief like that.

Eddy: Oh, yeah.

Aleks: So much fun.

Eddy: It is so much fun. Yeah, the music’s great. Everyone had a ball, which was nice, which was awesome. And the night before on the 29th, I was at Panama, dining room for Abby and Andy. Little bit of a slow burn.

Eddy: They didn’t get dancing till later on, so. Which sometimes happens. Yeah.

Aleks: Bust out all the bangers in an hour or whatever.

Eddy: Look, it was probably. Yeah, so they probably had a four hour dance floor. But they really got going. The last kind of two and a half hours. So we had a flurry of kind of sort of parents and maybe even some grandparents.

Eddy: It was a bit of an older crowd, but then it kind of flipped at about, say, ten because it was till you midnight. And, yeah, we had a lot of the younger ones come onto the dance floor. Although Andy’s dad was busting a move to, you know, all these sort of hip hop. Hip hop bangers later on, you know what you’re gonna. Paradise.

Eddy: Like Snoop Dogg, all that kind of stuff.

Aleks: Snoop Dogg.

Eddy: Yeah. So that was cool. Yes. That was the 29th I. So for those who may be getting married at Panama or thinking about doing so, they’ve recently made all of the DJ’s and the musicians in their play through their sound system.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: So originally you were able to bring in your own speakers and also plug into the sound system. Sort of a hybrid, best of both worlds approach. Actually, our sound guy, Dale, who’s in New Zealand right now, he’s getting married this week. So he’s been in New Zealand for a while. We’re very excited.

Eddy: We’ll have to get his download on how his wedding went. So he’s the guy that helps us with all our av setups week in, week out. So he’s got a team to help us as well. So he actually helped Panama Dining Room with all of their AV fit out. You know, just.

Eddy: Just kind of fine tuning and advising and putting another mixer and things like that in there. So it’s pretty good. Like, obviously, it doesn’t go as loud as what we used to bring in, but the reason why they’ve kind of tapered back is because they were receiving complaints.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Upstairs.

Aleks: That is not a news story.

Eddy: Yeah. Yeah. So from one or two particulars, apparently. So look, and, you know, that’s just. That’s all good.

Eddy: We just got to navigate around that.

Aleks: Yeah. Yeah.

Eddy: Which is totally fine. So. But I think it’s okay.

Aleks: Yeah, I think it’s. I’m very.

Eddy: Yes, I honestly, I have not had a complaint.

Aleks: No.

Eddy: Great.

Aleks: And that’s the thing, like, you know, if it’s not loud enough or too loud, because someone will tell you. So if you haven’t received any complaints, we’re all good.

Eddy: Yeah. So that was my last. Last weekend. Your last weekend.

Aleks: Where? I was a Friday night at higher ground, which is that really stunning cafe in the city on little Burke. That was really fun. The groom was. The bride and groom met in Canada.

Aleks: She was Aussie, and he’s Colombian Canadian. So he had a lot of family and friends over from Canada.

Eddy: Yeah, so that’s the trend over the break. So when I, you know, between say Christmas and New Year’s or even a little bit leading up to Christmas, we had a lot of, of international guests at weddings and it makes sense because people are off work and they’ve got the time to travel to hot yard, wherever.

Aleks: Absolutely. So yeah, all three of my weddings, the first one was all like UK, second one was all Americans and then the third one was Canadian. So yeah, it was all. Sorry, that’s. Oh, 31st.

Aleks: Was all from New Zealand. Yeah, sorry, on the fifth.

Eddy: So just. Yeah, there’s a lot of international.

Aleks: All four weddings that I’ve had recently in the break have had family.

Eddy: And you haven’t had a funeral.

Aleks: Yes, I haven’t had a funeral. Thank God.

Eddy: Sorry, terrible joke.

Aleks: Anyway, it’s great. And look, I really love the music brief and it was quite funny actually. I did say to the bride afterwards, I don’t know if she’d realise. I think she put in the do not plays in the party brief, but they also, they’re such huge music fans. They gave me two separate Spotify playlists, so with their own requests and both of them like 9 hours each.

Aleks: And I don’t think she realised that a couple of his songs were actually on their do not play. So a couple of his requests were sold.

Eddy: So how did you, how did you deal with that?

Aleks: I just didn’t play them obviously. And I let her know afterwards. I didn’t know they gave me 20 hours of music so I had plenty to get on with. But yeah, lots of, you know, latin anthems which so much fun, a reggaeton kind of vibe. So.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Well let’s get into today’s episode. So we’re talking about emceeing at a wedding. The truth about em seeing at a wedding, there is much more to it than one, maybe think. So we’re going to share our experiences in what goes into emceeing when we’re doing emceeing. And some tips if you have a family member or friend taking on the role.

Eddy: Having said this, you know there are professional MC’s that can MC a wedding for you. Our sort of, I guess, style of emceeing is a little bit more relaxed than maybe some of the real people.

Aleks: Who are like, I look, I’ve never seen one at one of our weddings. Maybe you’ve seen one or two. These are people who literally just get booked for the MC.

Eddy: Correct job.

Aleks: Yeah, because I would say we’re professional MC’s and so are celebrants, as in we are professionals that you can hire to do it, but we’re not. It’s not our.

Eddy: Yeah, but we’re not gonna go out and only do MC.

Aleks: Yes, that’s.

Eddy: It’s. Yeah, it’s something that we offer as part of our overall packages.

Aleks: Yeah, as an. Well, as an extra, but yeah, it is definitely something we offer. I think I’m really passionate about this topic and I think I want to talk about the truths of what’s involved in Mc’ing. If you are thinking about getting a guest so a family member or a friend to do it, because there are so many things that are overlooked that we as people who emcee regularly know about or celebrants who MC regularly know about.

Eddy: I’m just going to turn the aircon on because it’s freaking humid.

Aleks: It’s so humid. I’ll just keep banging on. That’s absolutely fine. Yeah. So there’s a lot.

Aleks: There’s a lot of stuff that goes on and we’ve mentioned it a couple of times here and there where we’ve done our weekend wrap ups, but these are things for you to pass on to the guest that you have fulfilling the MC role. So we hope that these are helpful. So we’re going to start with some truths. First one is it doesn’t matter how big or small or relaxed your wedding is, you need an emcee. Would you agree with this?

Eddy: Why do I need an MC? Are weddings really chill?

Aleks: Yeah. Why you need an MC? There are so many things that need to be announced that you probably don’t even realise from the venue, from. For the DJ, for the dance floor kind of part of the night, things that come up just randomly that need to be announced or, you know, guests need to be reminded of certain things you made a good point earlier about like things like, for example, if you’ve got a wedding out regional or in a winery or something and you have an organised transport, people need to book their cabs quite early. So, you know, you might announce at the beginning of the night.

Aleks: People will likely forget as they have a few drinks. So they need to be reminded a couple more times throughout the evening.

Eddy: It’s not that they might forget and absolutely agree with you there, but they might not be listening to you the first time you say it.

Aleks: Yeah, yeah.

Eddy: They might not be focused. So it’s. You do need to rem those really key things. They do have to be said more than once.

Aleks: Yes, exactly. And this is. We’re talking about a good MC. Like, we’re talking about how to get the most out of the MC role and make sure that it’s done properly because we see MC’s all the time, but it’s not always done very well when it comes to a guest doing it. So, yeah, it doesn’t matter how small or relaxed your wedding is.

Aleks: I have a lot of couples say to me, oh, we’re having a cocktail wedding. We don’t need, we don’t have many formalities. I’m like, cool. So are there housekeeping notes in the venue? Yes.

Aleks: Okay, cool. Are you having speeches? Yes. Okay, cool. Are you having a first dance?

Aleks: Yep. Are you doing cake cutting? Yep. Okay, so it doesn’t matter if it’s a cocktail. You’ve got things that need to be announced to make sure the night flows well.

Aleks: That’s the essential role of the MC, making sure that everyone knows what’s happening in the night flows really well. So yes, you do need an MC. Second one.

Eddy: Number two. I think it’s, it is sort of more than just having a copy of the run sheet.

Aleks: Yeah. I don’t know about you, but I often see this where the couple just provides the run sheet and look, it’s detailed. Great. You know, has a lot of information about the whole day, not just the reception. And the MC just literally comes to you with a copy of the run sheet, but has really no idea what is involved in making those announcements and ensuring that it’s the right time to make the announcements and that sort of thing.

Aleks: So, yeah, I think that’s a big thing when you’re speaking to someone, potentially to MC’s, for them to understand that it’s not just understanding timings.

Eddy: Yeah. And weddings, by their very nature, can run over time. We can be in front, we can be behind. So building flexibility into run sheet is really important as well, which I think that perhaps, and look, I understand this. So if someone’s been, quote unquote, roped into being the MC good friend or family member for the night, and perhaps, you know, they want to do a really good job, they might be just every single minute that might be like, yep, I have to do this now.

Eddy: Yeah, it’s time for speeches, et cetera. But, you know, there have been instances where perhaps the couple, you know, they’re out doing their sunset photos or something like that. We’ve seen these happen and. Yeah, okay, it’s time for speeches. Oh, hang on.

Eddy: The car. The couple’s actually.

Aleks: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Or it’s time to do a speech from the father. Of the bride, but the father of bride is in the toilet, like, yeah, just this is going beyond the run sheet and I can.

Eddy: Yeah. So little tidbits like that. But I understand that, you know, they’d be looking at that watch and be, okay, it’s time for this. Time for this. Yeah, time for that.

Eddy: Because they want to do such a good job.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: With it all, but, yeah. So that would be one thing that I typically, obviously have a chat and you do too, before things kick off to that person. That is the MC. If we’re not mc’ing.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: And just say, look, you know, we can be flexible, you know, and obviously everyone needs to be ready for each moment. That includes your photographer, videographer, all that kind of thing. So I’m probably skipping ahead.

Aleks: Yeah, no, that’s a really good point. Everyone needs to be ready for the moment. So the run sheet is a guide that you obviously want to stick to as closely as possible. But just because it’s 7 o clock doesn’t mean you jump up and go, okay, we’re ready for speeches.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Because you need to cheque with absolutely everybody who’s involved.

Eddy: Yeah. I mean, particularly if, say, for instance, it’s a sit down and food service, you know, is quite important at certain times. So that’s probably one. One of the first places I’d check. I check with a venue manager to make sure that we’re not stepping on anyone’s toes.

Eddy: And it could be little things like, do you want to have a speech? And the answer is no to this question, by the way. But do you want to have a speech when plates are being cleared, or do you want to have a speech when people are eating?

Aleks: Eating.

Eddy: That’s usually a big no no for both of them.

Aleks: Yeah. So when. Yeah, that’s. Anyway, that’s, that’s. And that’s a conversation that you have with the event manager or the venue coordinator on the night to say, okay, so when is this happening?

Aleks: Because I’ve seen some venues, depending if things are really running behind, they’ll say, just do it while we’re clearing because I need to get the next course ready or whatever.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Do you know what I mean? So you actually need to have that conversation. You can’t just make assumptions about it. So. Yeah, definitely much more than the run sheet you mentioned, obviously coordinating with all the vendors.

Aleks: This is one that’s. I find that the MC often coordinates, least with the DJ, and we’re the ones playing music. So if you pick up the mic and this happens, so often and start talking over the top of us. It’s, first of all, it’s ridiculous. No one’s gonna listen to you.

Aleks: It’s gonna be very loud. And second of all, it causes confusion for a lot of people, for the vendors. What is going on? Yeah, us as the DJ’s, don’t know. Okay, so are we getting into speeches now?

Aleks: Does that mean the first dance is coming up? Like we need to. You need to be able to coordinate with all your vendors. And one hot tip we have for this is make sure that the microphone is kept with the DJ so the MC doesn’t walk away and just hold onto it.

Eddy: Yeah, you can often say this is a boomerang microphone. It always comes back.

Aleks: Do you actually say that?

Eddy: No, but I don’t know what, like one of my teachers from school, this is primary school, by the way, lent me a pen once and he said, this is a boomerang. Oh, Mister Coleman, rest in peace, shout out.

Aleks: Okay. Not shout out to Coleman.

Eddy: Well, you can still shut him out.

Aleks: Good on you. There you go.

Eddy: It was like grade seven or something.

Aleks: Taking something away from that. So I find that’s actually a really good trick. And I normally will say to the event manager on the night, hey, I’m going to keep the mic. So when you’re ready, the MC is ready, come up to me and I know that they’ve coordinated with the event manager and the MC will come up and grab the mic. So kind of make sure there’s at least the three of us.

Aleks: And then obviously the MC’s role is to check that the other vendors are ready. So photographer, videographer, content creator.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Whoever else is involved.

Eddy: Yeah, I mean, in a perfect world, not that I’ve ever seen this happen, but, you know, if an MC was to do this, if a friend or family was to grab myself, probably at the decks, because we’re djing and all the other vendors and say, let’s go through everything. That would be incredible.

Aleks: Oh God. Have you ever seen that happen?

Eddy: I’ve never seen that happen, but I was thinking, hmm, that would be, that’d be sublime.

Aleks: Oh, there’s a couple of venues. I have to say whether that has happened, but it’s extremely rare.

Eddy: I’ve sort of seen versions of that. And that’s when you are at a venue with an extremely good coordinator from the venue and they just command everybody just to, you know, give them two minutes to run through things. Yeah, but like, we invariably do that anyway, you know, as just DJ’s when we’re not MC, just when we get set up, etc. But that would be, that would be ideal. Just so everyone’s on the same page and everybody knows who everybody is as well.

Eddy: Because I know, like, you know, and I don’t blame photographers for this, but they’ll be floating around and they may just forget to say hello to some of the other key suppliers because of the nature of their work. You know, they’re trying to.

Aleks: We can’t say hello because we’re kind of stuck.

Eddy: We can run a, run, hey, scare them. But yeah, so that’s, that can be an issue.

Aleks: Yeah, I agree. I think having that conversation at the beginning at least. DJ, event manager, MC go through all the run sheet.

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: Together. And so everyone’s on the same page and ask questions like of the event manager, like, so what happens if we’re running behind? Do you want the speeches to go ahead running to time despite what’s happening with meal service, etc. Very, very important.

Eddy: Definitely understand that you need to come in knowing that they. There may well be contingencies to the overall run sheet we’ve. Should, we discussed, obviously. But yeah, I think flexibility is definitely the key. Within reason.

Eddy: The last thing, and this is one, one of our, one of our pet peeves, the last thing you want is things to go way over time if it’s, if it doesn’t have to. And then it really eats into your dance floor time.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: I know that a lot of our couples would dread that, but sometimes it’s unavoidable depending on how things are going, of course. But yeah, that’s, that’s what you’re trying to avoid.

Aleks: I think the other thing is, and we’re jumping around a little bit here, but don’t expect your venue to be on top of everything either. I think obviously they’ve got their role and they’re managing, you know, food service clearing, they’re managing a team of staff, they’re managing the kitchen, the bar orders that are, you know, drinks orders, etcetera. There’s so much going on there, you cannot expect them to be coordinating. I mean, ideal world, they will be managing and leading, but sometimes it doesn’t happen. They might be under resourced.

Aleks: We’ve seen this often where, you know, three people calling sick and they’re running around serving drinks when they should be managing things. So all sorts of things can happen. So I think it’s really important. Also, we haven’t mentioned the MC, then also coordinates with the couple. We kind of haven’t mentioned the couple, mentioned the vendors, but actually checking in with a couple?

Eddy: Yeah, yeah. Just like a couple of light touches throughout the night, I think is kind of perfect. You don’t want to be there every 15 minutes. Hey, like, we’re now doing this or we’re now doing that, or how’s your food? Et cetera.

Eddy:
It’s really maybe five minutes before a key moment starts. Okay, are you ready? Do you need to go to the bathroom before we get onto the first round of speeches or something like that? I find that’s like, personally, I find that’s best sort of light touches for the MC. Yeah, for the MC to the couple, because the couple’s being pulled everywhere as well.

Eddy: Right. So.

Aleks: Well, it’s a good point that you make, and I think this is one that I don’t see often enough, which is actually getting the MC to give people a five minute warning.

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: That’s before every formality.

Eddy: Really, really good point to make.

Aleks: Grab a drink, go to the bathroom, back in five minutes, and then everyone knows where they have to be.

Eddy: I think such a good tip. And also. And this is something that. This is something for the DJ’s when that five minutes is up. And the MC, if it’s us, it’s easy enough, but if it’s a family member, friend, MC gives us the nod, you just pull the music down.

Eddy: And even if the music is like, some of, like, DJ’s worst nightmare is to have no music. Right. But if it’s down for like 15, 20 seconds, that means people, like, something’s gonna happen.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: So that can be a really powerful way to kind of get things going for the next. Next moment.

Aleks: Absolutely. That is a big one, actually, that I don’t see often enough, which is giving people those warming warning warnings before each formality takes place. Super helpful. And I think the other thing is we. We’ve talked about this a lot, is one of the MC’s roles is to make sure they’re using the mic properly, but also that others are using, which is more important and more of an issue.

Eddy: So, yeah, there’s definitely a bit of education that goes on there. I think you do the same thing as I do, particularly when we’re MC’ing and. Well, I can probably do this.

Aleks: You can do this live.

Eddy: Yeah. So I’ll say, you know, the best way to make a speech is with your outside voice and to hold the mic nice and close to your mouth.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: And obviously during COVID we had to wipe the mics down each time it. Look, we still bring wipes with us.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Do you? I do.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Just in case somebody doesn’t feel comfortable or what have you, which is totally fine, we can give it a wipe down with alcohol wipes beforehand. But coming back to what I was saying, and I’ll make an example and I’ll be like, okay, so if you are moving away from the microphone, no one’s really getting.

Aleks: He’s moving away from the microphone, so.

Eddy: You gotta come closer.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Did that work? I’m gonna headphones on.

Aleks: That’s really good. Why do you put your headphones on?

Eddy: I’m just being chill. Got my tea. I’m just being relaxed today.

Aleks: Okay. Yes, very true. So, yeah, proving that point also, I find so, especially when people, you know, really nervous, they’re about to make a speech, they’ll start really well. So the MC will say, make sure you keep the mic up. They’ll start really well, and the mic will drop and drop and drop.

Aleks: I think it’s MC’s role to go up and gently.

Eddy: That’s a tough one because you’ve got particular. If you’ve got a videographer. I’m really like, oh, don’t do it. Because obviously you’re going to walk into the line of the video if the photographer only. It’s, it’s much more chill.

Eddy: Then again, I guess.

Aleks: More important to capture a really important speech.

Eddy: And I haven’t found a good way to do this myself, but to get the crowd involved in saying, push the mic back.

Aleks: Oh, I like that.

Eddy: That’s a good crowd interaction there. So I haven’t quite figured out what, you know, I’m, you know, everyone’s learning all the time, so I’m quite figured out what to say in that, yeah, workshop this, workshop this. But, yeah, that’d be quite a good idea just to get people going, raise the mic and, you know, it makes it fun and, you know, to break the ice, too, I think particularly if someone’s kind of nervous.

Aleks: And this is, and this is also why when you’re choosing an mc, you need to choose someone that’s pretty confident in being able to do that. Because obviously, if they’re really nervous and they don’t want to kind of intrude, it can be of a huge downfall, everyone.

Eddy: I also think if we’re talking about nervousness and speakers being nervous, people that are making speeches, I should say, get confused with speakers being a dj. So if I can sense, or perhaps the couple said, oh, he’s really nervous for his speech. They said, the father of one of the couple, I’ll make a point to go up to that person beforehand and say, hey, how you feeling about your speech? Just so you know, I make a joke, like, everyone’s gonna switch off anyway. Like, obviously they’re not.

Eddy: They’re gonna listen to every single word, but I think it kind of makes them feel like, oh, you know what? It’s not, you know, war and peace.

Aleks: Yeah, no one’s listening to you, mate.

Eddy: No, I don’t say that, actually, but, yeah, just say, look, how you feeling? And it’s all good. Like, just have a. You know, if they’re drinking, just have a bit of dutch courage before you go up there. It’ll be all good.

Eddy: And that typically, you know, if they get to hold the mic for a bit after, they kind of feel like that ownership of it and it’s. Yeah, I find it helps a little.

Aleks: Bit, I think, for nervous people who are nervous guests or whatever, who is speaking as well. I had the situation recently, I think I mentioned it, where there were four speeches or five speeches, and they were going on for a really long time and I could see people were getting antsy and wanting to go to the bar to get a drink, so I just. And I was emceeing this one, but I just made the call to cut the speeches in half. We’re gonna have a break for 15 minutes and we’ll be back for the next lot of speeches, because it’s doing a disservice to the next person who’s speaking as well.

Eddy: There comes back the flexibility as well.

Aleks: Being able to do that. I just jumped up to the couple and quickly whispered, hey, guys, can we finish these in 15 minutes?

Eddy: The thing is, I imagine unless they’re quite confident, they’ve done this thing before, a friend, family Mc wouldn’t make that call.

Aleks: That’s what I’m saying. Yeah. So. But I think it’s good to have that conversation with them to say, look, this was a cocktail wedding as well, so a little bit different. You didn’t have like, oh, the mains have to come out now.

Aleks: So we had some flexibility there. But, yeah, being able to have someone who’s confident to make that call quickly, have that discussion and just make the decision really quickly is important. Yeah. What else did I want to say? Oh, my favourite.

Aleks: No, my least favourite. This is. So. This happens so frequently. We talk about this all the time, which is basically an MC goes through and makes an announcement.

Aleks: Let’s call it speeches or. No, let’s actually. Let’s say cake cutting. Does the cake cutting? The cake is cut.

Aleks: We’re playing in tune. We fade the tune down, expecting them to kind of complete that announcement or that formality, the moment. And they don’t say anything.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: They just kind of walk away.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: This is huge.

Eddy: Yeah, there’s no closure.

Aleks: There’s no closure and people don’t know what’s going on.

Eddy: Yeah. It’s tricky for us as DJ’s because we’re sort of in a lull. We’re like, do we play a track?

Aleks: Do we go back to playing tunes, like.

Eddy: I don’t know. So. Yeah, that’s a tricky one. So it just. Yeah, completing every moment and just letting people know what’s happening.

Eddy: Probably pretty obvious. Mains are going to come out, these speeches are done, but, you know, just a quick round of applause for all our speakers. They were fantastic. And mains will be out very shortly.

Aleks: That’s it. That’s perfect.

Eddy: Just kind of rounding it off.

Aleks: Yes. You know, even better, if you can include that on your run sheet for your mc, just to make it really easy.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Just make sure that you say yeah, and entrees will be.

Eddy: Close things up.

Aleks: Yeah. And look, if it’s nothing’s happening, um, like you said, let people know, uh, you know, we’ll be back in. In half an hour for speeches. You know, drink, eat and be merry.

Eddy: I think mine says eat, drink and be merry.

Aleks: Sort of like that.

Eddy: Something like that.

Aleks: Yeah. Just let people give people permission to, you know, even have a boogie or whatever if it’s a cocktail. And, oh, yeah, food service is over. But you’re, I don’t know, half an hour away from.

Eddy: Yeah, yeah. Dancer fires up soon.

Aleks: So important. In fact, I, um. And this is another good point of. Sorry. Another good reason for the DJ keeping the mic.

Aleks: I’ll actually say to the MC, what are you gonna say at the end of this, once they’ve cut the cake, what are you gonna say? And they’re like, what do you mean? I’m like, are you gonna. Can you say entrees will be served shortly. Thank you.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Or let’s give it up for the bride and groom or a toast or whatever they’re gonna do.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: It’s kind of always reminding them to.

Eddy: Complete the formality, complete the moment.

Aleks: Um, I think it’s good, you know, you were mentioning about letting people know what’s coming up. I actually like at the beginning of the night when the MC gives a little bit of a rundown of what’s happening as well, so people know, um, you know, about 07:00 we’ll have entrees. Then following that, we’ll have a couple of speeches about half an hour after that, we’ll have mains. Um, and then, you know, we’ll be kicking off the dance floor at about 8 p.m.. Yeah.

Aleks:
People know what to expect. I think that’s good. Just to give. It doesn’t have to be super detailed, just a brief outline.

Eddy: I think. Also my favourite piece of notes here that I’m looking at the moment is reminding people of certain things again and again and again.

Aleks: Yes, this is actually what I mean.

Eddy: By that is if you’ve got a guest book or if there’s a photo booth or any other special mentions, we refer to booking a cab or an Uber early in the night. If it’s a wedding at, say, in the Yarra Valley and they take a little while to get there. But also doing that again perhaps halfway through the night and even again towards the end of the night, bearing in mind that when we are playing weddings and there is a friend, family member MC’ing, once it gets to the dance floor time and all the major announcements are done, we are more than happy to take over for those night.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: You know, announcements. We do like some MC’s like that.

Aleks: They love it.

Eddy: Hang on and do it. And that’s totally fine. Completing the nights.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: But yeah. So that people need to be reminded a few times about things.

Aleks: Yeah, I think especially when you’ve got things that maybe people don’t expect or things that a little bit novel, like for example, our audio guest books or a photo booth or polaroid cameras or something.

Eddy: Be a little bit interactive with those as well. So, for instance, if we certainly do this with an audio guestbook, we’ll actually demo it live. We can do it a couple of different ways. We’ll have the audio track that our clients record what you hear for the voicemail message when you pick up the handset. And we will play that out loud.

Eddy: So it’s quite cool. It gets a kick and we will then sometimes even have the phone with us. I’ve done it once where I sort of held it up and everyone said.

Aleks: Congratulations and do a group message.

Eddy: I’ll do a group message and things like that. So people are okay, cool. That’s there. When it comes to the photo booth, if it’s one of ours or if, you know, if it’s somebody else’s, you can always come back to a round of speeches with a prop, like a sailor’s hat on or something like that. Just, hey, by the way, the photo booth’s not getting a lot of love, you know, make sure you go.

Eddy: And if there’s a photo booth operator, make sure you grab their name. It’s like Cheryl’s over there operating the photo booth. Make sure you.

Aleks: Shezza. Shezza’s got us ordered.

Eddy: Give her some love. You know, she’s a bit bored at the moment.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: So you can do, you know, things like that. With our digital photo booth, we can actually see all of the images that are coming through on our phones. Say, hey, there haven’t been many captures. Just make sure you get there. And we’ve not really had that problem, though.

Eddy: We don’t have that problem, to be honest, particularly towards the end of the night. So, yeah, you can have a bit of fun. It breaks the ice and makes the night fun.

Aleks: Yeah. And it makes it more memorable. If you do something a little bit more interactive or, you know, you show them a prop, people will actually go, oh, yeah, crap, I gotta go use a photo booth. There’s just a list of housekeeping. If it’s just included in a list of boring housekeeping, listen, where the toilets are.

Aleks: And we’re just pretty boring. Absolutely.

Eddy: So, Nate.

Aleks: Boring, but necessary, but still. Yeah.

Eddy: Oh, definitely. So that’s kind of fun.

Aleks: Yeah. You don’t want to kind of lump it in with.

Eddy: Then you can keep the surface like a captain’s pilot’s hat. You can then as a DJ, if you’re emceeing, just say, this is your captain speaking for the next announcement.

Aleks: Sure, sure. I think at least. No, no, I like. I like. I like your dad jokes.

Eddy: I was gonna have more of my tea.

Aleks: We are. So we’ve covered some truths and we’ve kind of got into, like, tips as well. Which really important one thing we. I have noticed a lot lately. Well, I mean, for the last six years.

Aleks: Oh, we celebrated our 6th business.

Eddy: Yes. Six years old, which is great. So what are we in grade two? Grade one?

Aleks: I don’t know. You’re from Adelaide.

Eddy: Is it different enough? Maybe grade two. I don’t know. I think I was in kindy at four and grade one at five. No, sorry, reception at five.

Eddy: Grade one.

Aleks: Okay, we’re in grade one. So we’re getting there.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Happy birthday to us.

Eddy: Happy birthday to us. We’ve made it. We made it through a pandemic. It’s pretty big deal, really. We underplay it a lot.

Eddy: Because, you know, anyone that has a small business, it’s just you go with emotions week in, week out. You forget to kind of step back and look at the big picture. A lot of time, but I think it’s quite good. So. Yeah.

Eddy: I can’t believe we didn’t announce that. Maybe I’ll edit it in at the start. I won’t.

Aleks: I know you never edit anything, but, um, we. We celebrate every year because it is a big achievement, I think. Um, so, yeah, happy birthday to us. Anyway, what was my point? Oh, uh, yeah, I’ve seen this a lot lately, but, yeah, it’s been a common theme in the last six years.

Aleks: And that is, um, meal times for vendors. So, yeah, having that really detailed run sheet and having a chat to everyone and giving them a copy of the run sheet ahead of time, not on the night, ahead of time, is super, super important.

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: Make sure all your vendors have this. We have advised. We have made so many changes to run sheets, haven’t we, for our couples. Like, we’ve received the draught run sheet gone. Hang on.

Eddy: Oh, yeah.

Aleks: The photographer and the videographer getting their meal when the speeches are on. That doesn’t make any sense.

Eddy: Yeah, it goes further than just meal times, though. It can be like, we sort of going off topic here, but we like grouping certain moments. Like, for instance, for the one that I got for this weekend is they were doing, rather, they were doing their cake cutting, like 15 minutes after the dance.

Aleks: I had these two.

Eddy: Okay, just do it. Yes, do it after you come in. And then, you know, it’s great for your photographer videographer if you’ve got one, because those moments are coupled. And if I’m gonna wrap it back up to MC, it’s really easy for you. MC as well, because that moment just falls into the next moment nicely.

Aleks: It’s quite natural, isn’t it? Yeah, I would say, especially with the cake cutting. For getting specific. I like either as soon as the couple enters or right before their first dance. Yeah, they’re the best moments.

Aleks: And you’re right. Couple them up.

Eddy: I honestly think. I honestly think that unless you want the cake to be on display for whatever reason, which I think for most of the night, I think can be a disaster zone sometimes if someone was to trip on it, whatever it is.

Aleks: Did you see there’s a post from Panama dining room that Wes put up with, like, showing the wedding cake and like, obviously some kids had stuck their fingers all through.

Eddy: Okay, well, there you go there. And there’s a good prime example. But I just think the venue can then take the cake away and cut it up or do what it needs to do with it without the pressure of. Because what they were going to do on Saturday is they were going to cut it up and then serve it. But everyone’s on the dance floor.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: So it would have been like past 9 o clock at 930 ish or 945. Actually. I think they would have then cut it out and they would be under a lot of stress time wise. So to get it done, it just means that they can take it back at 630 or quarter to seven and just have all that time.

Aleks: Totally.

Eddy: Anyway, off topic.

Aleks: No, but, and this is why you need to have a chat to all of your vendors involved. There might also be like, speaking of, if we’re gonna stay on cakes, might be temperature issues as well.

Eddy: Oh yeah.

Aleks: With leaving the cake out, sweaty venues lately, and let me tell you, that.

Eddy: Cake, it’s not gonna survive.

Aleks: Barely made it. Barely made it all night. So. So yeah, very, very important.

Eddy: So yeah, collecting moments and just streamlining them will definitely make the MC’s job a lot easier and pretty much every vendor will be happy.

Aleks: Yes. Yeah, exactly. What do we say? We mentioned letting the DJ control the. Yeah, and look, I mean, we are talking about, you know, if you’ve got a guest, family member or a friend doing this, these are some things they need to know.

Aleks: They probably don’t, but obviously if you hire your DJ or your celebrant to do the MC role, they’ll be all over this. You hope.

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: So if this has been overwhelming for you and you think, hmm, I haven’t really got someone that I can trust who I want to give this responsibility.

Eddy: Here comes the sales pitch. No, I’m kidding.

Aleks: It’s an option. And no, a lot of our couples do go away and have a think about it. We never do a hard sell because at the end of the day you might have someone and there have been a few occasions where I’ve had an amazing MC.

Eddy: Right, well, remember, it’s not just the DJ that can do it. Presumably some DJ’s don’t, but I would say a good 85% will do it. Yep, your celebrant may do it as well. So there’s a lot of celebrants that are starting to MC as well. I think that’s fantastic because there’s such a point of authority right from the get go and then to kind of continue on throughout the night and be that point of authority.

Eddy: Yeah, I think that’s great. People will listen to the person that’s married the couple, of course.

Aleks: I think there’s really nice continuity there. So yeah, there’s a couple of continuity yes, very. Yeah, it’s look like I was saying, a lot of our couples do end up just adding the emcee service later on, which is absolutely fine in terms of the process. All we need, nothing really changes in terms of your brief. We just need that run sheet.

Aleks: And when we do our final meeting with you, we will just go through that run sheet in quite a lot of detail and ask a lot of questions, you know, particularly like, okay, so who’s doing the speeches, how many or what we need to know as a DJ anyway, how many entrances there are. But with the speeches, how do we pronounce the names, who are they, etcetera. So it’s a little bit more involved. But from the client’s perspective in the lead up, nothing else we just added on.

Eddy: Yeah, exactly. Very easy.

Aleks: What else did you want to say about MC?

Eddy: That was kind of, you know, I think we bounced around a lot. The notes we have in front of us, we did not follow these to the tea at all.

Aleks: Why don’t we do it? I want to do a quick little summary. Okay. So bring it all together. So there’s a little bit of structure.

Aleks: Okay. First of all, you need an MC. No matter how big, yes. Relaxed your wedding is, you need to have someone there to keep the flow of the night going and coordinate things. Number two, it’s more than just having a copy of the run sheet.

Aleks: I think we’ve made that clear with everything that we talked about. So. Yeah. It’s not just understanding the time beings, it’s being able to be on top of them, manipulate them, change things, communicate well.

Eddy: Number 2.5, I think it was just make sure you build flexibility in where you can.

Aleks: Yes, true. Yeah. Make sure you’ve got enough time. If things do run over another one is when your MC is making announcements. Make sure there’s some closure and the moment is completed so people know what’s coming up next.

Aleks: Make sure, obviously they coordinate with all of the vendors and don’t expect that the venue will be on top of everything that’s going on. Everyone needs to be involved in that conversation. Make sure the MC knows how to use a mic properly and reminds others.

Eddy: How to do that. There’s a little bit of coaching there for people that are doing speeches.

Aleks: Yeah, definitely. And as a couple, what are things that you can do to make sure that your MC is equipped to do the best job? Make sure that all your vendors have a chance to input into the run sheet beforehand so that you have absolutely every announcement, every timing down pat, and you have a really nice detailed run sheet for your MC. As you said, building flexibility. Provide extra notes for the MC on things like we mentioned some, you know, activities taking place like audio guest book, photo booth, or maybe important announcements that need to be made throughout the night more than once.

Aleks: And don’t be afraid to actually add that into the run sheet itself for the MC.

Eddy: Yeah. Bring a pen with you.

Aleks: Bring a pen.

Eddy: If you don’t have one, borrow one from the venue. We will have one for you. I will bring plenty of pens with me so we can give you a pen.

Aleks: Yeah. And just another point on that. And make sure to build in those announcements, those kind of five minute warnings as well for key moments so that people know what’s going on. And let the DJ control the mic. Let the DJ have the mic for the night so that they’re coordinated.

Eddy: Even if it’s the venues, Mike. So even if it’s going through the venues.

Aleks: Oh, doesn’t matter.

Eddy: Give it back to the DJ.

Aleks: Give us DJ. Yeah, they can be in charge of it. The event managers running around doing things. So. Yeah, that’s the best place there.

Aleks: Go. I brought it together.

Eddy: You did, you did a very, very good job.

Aleks: Thank you. Are we doing a little segment? What segments? We can.

Eddy: We can do a segment.

Aleks: All right.

Eddy: Which segment would you like to do? Oh, you know it. You know we’re gonna do this.

Aleks: I always get a headache doing these podcasts. Is it the.

Eddy: I think it’s your headphones.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: You’ve got your headphones on for such a long time.

Aleks: Should do what?

Eddy: I do not use your headphones all the time.

Aleks: I thought we needed them for some reason.

Eddy: Well, I sort of need them to launch these musical jingles.

Aleks: Okay.

Eddy: Yes, but apart from that it’s. Yeah, we can just chill. So what have you been listening to lately?

Aleks: I tell you what I’ve been listening to. I don’t know if you’ve had listened to this, but the Spotify DJ thing, do you know it?

Eddy: Yeah, that’s my mortal enemy.

Aleks: Well, no. Okay, so I’ve had a couple of, you know, false starts with DJ. First of all, I don’t like the american accent, so Spotify DJ is just some AI function that they used to have your day, you know, some. Something very similar. But anyway, now it’s this guy’s like, hey, my name is x, and today I’m gonna be playing some music.

Aleks: Have you not? Yeah, so I was so curious, cuz. Yeah, like I said, try it a couple times. It was actually really good today. Yeah, so it’s like.

Aleks: He’s like, okay, I’m gonna start you.

Eddy: Off with some music class.

Aleks: Yeah. But it started with some, like, newer house tunes that I really like. I’m like, okay, this is awesome stuff that I had been listening to things. Okay, I’m gonna mix things up. I’m gonna give you some new edits you might not have heard and those new edits of our old songs, I kind of knew them.

Aleks: I’m like, oh, yeah, that’s cool. Then it went bit deep and like, with, like, hot sensated to stuff. I listened to that years ago. I’m like, cool. Then this is my favourite one.

Aleks: It was like, and I’m gonna take you back to tunes you listen to when you were at school or something. And it was like all these, like, old school hip hop and r amp b. This is so good. So actually rated it today. But it’s.

Eddy: I don’t know what if anybody’s used Spotify DJ for their wedding.

Aleks: Yeah. With the announcement.

Eddy: Yeah, but like.

Aleks: And there’s no. I mean, there’s no. There’s no mixing. There’s no end. It’s just literally just song after song.

Aleks: Like, yeah, it’s not replacing a dj, it’s just for you. I think it’s a really good tool to use when you’re filling out your party brief for us or for your dj for you. Yeah, brave. Because there were songs that came, like, had, like, the next episode. I’m like, oh, yeah, banger, like, stuff that comes up.

Aleks: New stuff, old stuff. Stuff by artists that you like that you might not have heard.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: Like lf system and majestic. Like a couple of tracks I hadn’t heard before. So it’s good for new discovery as well as old stuff that maybe you’ve forgotten about. So it’s quite good, I think. Yeah, we’ll see.

Aleks: You got it? Yeah, try it out.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: AI. You bloody love AI.

Eddy: Yeah, but like, I don’t want to take my job.

Aleks: No, it’s not taking job at all. It’s helping. It’s helping.

Eddy: I mean, eventually it probably will, but, hey, you know.

Aleks: Oh, well, we can.

Eddy: Everyone else’s. It’s got to bring that universal basic income and then AI can do all the work, right?

Aleks: Yeah, that’s true.

Eddy: How’s gonna happen? Oh, dear. So I’ve just been listening to a lot of late nineties, early two thousands trance music.

Aleks: It’s been a big feature in the house.

Eddy: Yeah. I just really enjoy working to that.

Aleks: To that music, I have to say. It’s like, I actually really struggle to listen to music when working, but trance is different.

Eddy: That’s what got me through.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Bloody specialist mathematics in school back.

Aleks: How did you do? How did you do in specialist?

Eddy: I didn’t do very well. I did. Oh, this is. Yeah. Jeez.

Eddy: In year twelve, I had to. I did all the scary subjects. They call it. It the suicide five. But specialist mass is just too intense for me, so I had to.

Eddy: To actually change to it, like, halfway through the second term. Like, all my teachers, like, do not do this. You’ll never catch up. Then I caught up in, like, a month.

Aleks: And those are the class teachers. And look at me now.

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: So, yeah, like, anyway, encouraging. Are they?

Eddy: So I did the suicide for nit and plus it. Plus it. Yeah. So I listened to a lot of trance music back then, too. So, yeah, it’s.

Eddy: It’s great. I never played at a wedding ever, ever, ever.

Aleks: Oh, you might. I mean. Oh, it’s gotta be very mainstream.

Eddy: Yeah, it’s. It’s not the main street. It’s not like Sandstorm. It’s not that mainstream.

Aleks: No.

Eddy: Like, better off alone and all that stuff that was, like, heavily rotated on commercial radio. It’s more like Pete Tong Radio one Ibiza session, sort of.

Aleks: But I think that’s good for us to listen to that stuff that we can’t play at weddings because we can’t just listen to stuff that we can play at weddings all the time.

Eddy: Oh, I’d go insane.

Aleks: Yeah, exactly. And I. Listening to my little Spotify dj today and, you know, like, hot sensation stuff reminded me, like, 2016, we were just listening to, like, tech house all the time was so good. Minimalist vocals, I reckon, for me.

Eddy: Yeah, yeah. Because the vocals, you start thinking about, what are they singing?

Aleks: Yeah, I’ll be distracted. Bring back the 2016, like, rhythmic clap.

Eddy: You know, house, you may come back. Everything does come back around, so. Yeah, there you go. So that’s what we’ve been listening to.

Aleks: Yay. Thank you so much for listening to another episode. We’re gonna get back on track with a semi regular. Regular schedule.

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: Everyone’s still on holidays. It’s quite hard to catch people to be guests, but we will hop them.

Eddy: Down as a few cheeky vendors semi lined up. We’ve just gotta get dates in the calendar. So we’re hoping to deliver some great episodes this year and, yeah, we’re pretty excited about it.

Aleks: Yeah, amazing. Thank you so much for joining us and let us know what you’d like us to chat about.

Eddy: Bye.

Aleks: See ya. 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.