S1 E21 - How to Choose the Right Wedding Planner (and spot the Red Flags)

You think they're worth more money than us, who's gonna spend a year to 18 months working on your wedding and then making sure not just the photographer, but every single person on your wedding day runs perfectly.

And also we're not just doing a 9 to 5, like we wake up in the morning, we're straight on admin, on just a pure admin day. On those days that I just have pure admin in peak season, I'm working till sometimes midnight. So that is a massive day alone, it's like I'm working over hours.

You want someone with that passion though. I can tell you that we've let staff go recently and we had one particular staff member and it was like our finishing hours are 5:30 on the dot and I reckon if I emailed any of our team at like 7 o'clock at night, 100% of them would answer me. Yeah. 100%. Do you know how hard it is to find somebody that loves that job that much, who has never planned a wedding in their life, has also started a business?

Yeah.

Wedding planning. And I'm now seeing comments all over Facebook like, hi, wedding planner here. I'm like, you have never planned a wedding in your life. And I know that because I've known this person person for a very long time, it was complaint after complaint after complaint once they were sold.

Yeah.

Of, but that person told me I can do this, and then as the planner, we were like, well, actually, you can't do that. No, you can't get that for, you can't get a whole wedding flowers for $500 for your entire event. Well, that's what that person told me, and it was an ongoing issue.

Yeah.

The amount of things that happen, you need to be able to handle it, and it's very hit and miss when you get a new wedding planner because you need to be able to cope in a high stressful situation. Yeah. So when choosing a wedding planner, I would be asking them generally like, how much experience do you have in planning? And have you ever coordinated a wedding day?

And they're like, oh, so sorry, Britta, we're gonna be about an hour late. And I was like, shit, but okay, it's manageable. Another company, they were like, oh, so sorry, Britta, we're running an hour late as well. So I can't set up the dance floor.

And we're on timelines, like certain things can't be set up until that first thing's set up.

Yeah.

I fucking loved that bride to death. There is no way in hell I was missing that wedding because she, like, I just fucking loved her. You're allowed to fire your wedding planner. We're allowed to fire our clients. I fired two clients in the past that we weren't getting along with because I'm like, this is not a nice relationship. Not every client is for every planner and not every planner is for every client.

And sometimes you don't figure that out straight away.

Hey B, guess what?

What?

So according to Google, because Google knows all, most podcasts don't make it past 3 episodes. Industry sources also report that around 90% of podcasts fail to reach episode 3, and of the 10% that do make it past episode 3, a significant number of around 90% will not make it to episode 20. This means that if a podcast makes it to episode 21, it has already surpassed 99% of other podcasts. So with that, welcome to episode 21 of Bali Weddings Unveiled. Cheers! I'm Tristan.

And I'm Britta.

And welcome back. We are so excited for today's episode. We are gonna be covering off a very important topic, one that I see so many comments on social media about, how to choose a wedding planner.

Oh yeah, it's like so many comments all over the Facebook pages, just, oh, those can get really chaotic actually.

They can, and look, do you know what I hate?

What?

Anonymous posts.

Oh yeah. Anonymous 439.

Oh, do you know what's hilarious? I don't know what it was on the other day, but I saw a couple of replies to comments and it was like anonymous otter or beaver. It was like some sort of animal. And then it was Tash from Plan A. She goes, oh my gosh, it's Tash from Plan A. I don't know why I'm anonymous and I don't know why I've become anonymous. I saw that.

I had a bit of a laugh. I was like, this sounds like a planner. Oh wait, it is.

It is a planner. At least she was like, hey, I'm a planner. Because I swear to God, so many planners are getting on these forums, these like new planners, and like recommending themselves or asking information about their own companies. Like it can be so misleading. So what we're gonna cover off on today is how to choose a wedding planner, what questions to ask, what you should be looking for. And I guess the difference between like a salesperson, a wedding planner, a wedding coordinator, and a wedding stylist, because it can get very overwhelming, especially you know, in Bali where there's just so much information out there about how to do this, right?

Yeah, for sure. And I think it's really important to note like, we're not just here for our clients. Like we're here for everyone else. We're here to help you.

We're here for the industry.

Yeah, we're here to help you plan your dream day, but whether you're with another planner, like we're just here to help. Yeah, that's true. And I think a lot of other planners have been like, been loving your podcast. Like, thank you so much for doing it. Like it's actually been really cool.

Yeah, it's really sweet actually. I had another wedding planner reach out to me last week and she's like, oh my God, 'Oh my gosh, I just love your podcast.' And I was like, 'Oh, that's so sweet.' She's like, 'It's so raw. It's just like saying all the things that we wanna say.' I was like, 'Yeah.' So it's been really cool. And also a big shout out to all of our clients. The amount of feedback that we are getting on email, like even in person, we showed up to one of Yanti's weddings the other day and she was like, 'Oh my gosh, I've seen your podcast. I feel like I'm meeting a celebrity.' It was so cute.

I just got an email this morning from a new client that Steph just handed over to me. And she was like, 'I feel like I already know you.' through the podcast, I'm like, that's so sweet.

It is really cute. So I'm just gonna throw us under the bus here, B, 'cause we're not busy enough. If you want me or Britt to pop by your wedding and you're booked in with Barley Brides, if we have nothing on, just say to your wedding planner, hey, is there any chance that Tristan or Britt can come past my wedding? Would love to meet them. And we're more than happy if we have nothing on to come out to your wedding and help out for the day.

I love a wedding day.

I love a wedding day. We do work. Someone said to me at one of the weddings, like, what are you doing here working? Like, you're the boss. And I'm like, And like I still work. So yeah, if you do want us to pop by your wedding, please feel free to reach out. We're all a big happy family. We love going to all of the weddings across the team. So on that note, let's get started, shall we?

Yeah, just kind of dive right in.

Let's dive right in.

I think first off, you had a planner.

Yes.

When you planned your wedding.

Yep.

How different is it from back then to now?

Oh my goodness. It's like leaps and bounds.

Yeah, 'cause that was how long ago?

2000 and, I don't even know when I got married, 2011? So it's been 14 years. But obviously before that I was planning the wedding for a while. So it would have been 2010 that I was engaging. Gosh, there was nothing back then. It was honestly, so my ex-husband was like, the wedding planning was a whirl. We just got engaged and he was like, "I've booked Bali." I'm like, "What for?" And he's like, "The wedding for August." And this was like, like January. Um, so he was very certain he wanted to get married here, and I was just a very yes sir, no sir type of girl back then.

Yeah.

So I just went along with it. And look, I would say that I'm a pretty organized person in general. I'm very good at figuring things out. But also, the internet wasn't what it was now back then, so finding things was really hard. We booked our hotel, we booked our hotel for our reception. We had two different venues. I booked in cake, photography, videography, and then I got stuck. So then it was like, how do we arrange the legal side of things? 'Cause we wanted to do a legal wedding. How do we arrange buses to get our guests around? How do we get a band? So then I started reaching out to wedding planners and I got like a stack of paperwork back, like not even relevant to what I was asking. 'Cause I already had a venue and stuff. So it was very clear to me that no one had read my emails. and I must have reached out to 5 different companies and only one replied to me personally. And that's a lovely lady, bless her soul. She actually passed away a few years after I moved to Bali, unfortunately. But she was the only person that replied to me personally. And it was like, yes, Tristan and I can help with XYZ, great venue you've chosen. Like, it was just really warm and fuzzy. But like, I look back at it now, and not that it wasn't a fantastic job she did, she did our legal, she did everything I needed her to do. Yeah, but compared to what we do for our clients, like It's like this, like it's like some of the leftover wedding flowers we've brought in compared to today's arrangement, which if anyone's noticed, these are by Sandate, of course.

They're bloody stunning.

Like the up here in the floristry world. Like if you want them for the wedding, massive, massive budget you're gonna need, but honestly you get what you pay for. And Ferrari of the flowers. We call M&M Ferrari of catering, Sandate is the Ferrari of flowers. Like this was organized last minute 'cause we forgot. And it was like, hey, whoops, forgot to order flowers for today's potty.

Tristan messaged one person, I messaged 4 florists. Forest, and I was like, I need them in like an hour and a half.

Yeah, and they were sitting on here waiting when we got here. I mean, they were very expensive compared to everything else, but honestly, you do get what you pay for. So yeah, the wedding planning back then, like, it was just emails. There was no calls, there's no Zoom back then. We had one meeting when we got to Bali, and then on the wedding day, she was obviously at the hotel. I showed up at the hotel, she grabbed me, put me in my prep room. I was already ready, and then she came pick me up and sent me down the aisle. I actually don't remember seeing her again for the rest of the day. Oh, wow. Like, I'm sure she was around, but I do know she left after dinner started because then my sister-in-law was like emceeing for the night and she kind of did the rest. But I don't remember seeing her again. Oh, wow. So compared to like now, a full service, we're there from start to finish thing, it was, yeah, it was very different. I also didn't get a run sheet or anything like that. Like, I just kind of showed up.

You didn't know when the formalities were happening?

No.

Any formalities at all?

Well, no, because like, I'm a pretty organized person. I asked my sister to emcee, and back then I just told her this is what what we're doing. Because again, I'm that organized person. If I wasn't, if I was like half of our clients that come to us, I would be like, I don't know what I'm doing. Like I would have been screwed in the nicest way. But I was just one of those people that was like, okay, I kind of know what I'm doing.

Yeah.

So yeah, very, very different.

Very different. It's funny because you look at our systems now and you've just come back from a 3-day all-intensive course in Sydney.

Yeah.

Like, how, how was that?

Honestly, it was really eye-opening. Just the way that technology and AI in particular is just going to evolve the industry. Like, if you don't keep up with these sorts of trends, you're going to be left behind. And in the nicest way, I see some wedding planners that are still doing things the same way they did 5, 10 years ago. And you can't be that person. Like, the trends are constantly changing, the way things are happening, they're constantly changing. People want you to be more accessible. and they want more now, like, especially after COVID. Remember after COVID, it was like, it was just a different pace. And now everyone wants everything 24 hours. I want immediate attention. If I don't answer a client's email, like I can guarantee over a weekend, I'll get another one and then another one. I'm like, babes, chill, I'm coming back to you. So the course that I just went and did was 3 days of intensive. The first day was just learning about growing the business and how to make it better. And then day 2 and 3 was really heavily focused on AI and how we can utilize it in the business, not to take people's jobs, but just to level up the way we're doing things. And I took Steph, who's our sales girl that a lot of you would've spoken to, and me and her were just like, all 3 days, like even little things like using ChatGPT reverse engineering to show you mockups of your flowers on a table. Like we can do that now. I mean, I'm gonna have to teach these skills to the whole team, but the things that we're gonna be able to do for our clientele because we're staying on top of it is just gonna be next level.

[Speaker] So cool. I guess like we've got school and everything now.

Well, we've got school, we've got our 24-hour AI assistant.

Yes.

Which I integrated into school, which is a mix of both of us.

Yeah, it's funny because the first time I heard it, I'm like, it sounds like me, but it sounds like Tristan as well, because I've uploaded all of our podcast episodes because we cover a lot of topics on it. We do.

So I have trained this beautiful AI bot that now sits on the back end of Barley Brides planning. You can't get it unless you're a Barley Brides planning, but let's say it's like 10 o'clock at night, midnight, whatever, and you've got like, I just want an instant answer. I'm very instant gratification. You're like, you're gonna email your planner, but you know the planner's not gonna answer you till the next day. If you want instant answers, we have an AI tool that you can go on, you can either type into it like you would with ChatGPT, or you can physically call it and you can ask it questions and it will answer you. And it will answer you the way that I would answer or you would answer or one of your planners would answer. It's actually incredible. Should we see if we can test it?

Yeah.

Yeah, let's see if we can test it. So if you're a Barley Brides client, I honestly recommend playing with this. Obviously it's still new, so it's still got a lot of learning to do. So if it can't answer something, it will just say, please refer to your planner, I'm not sure. But there's a lot of things that it can just give you like on-the-spot advice about.

And you have put it on Skool, haven't you?

It's on Skool. So if you go onto Skool and you search, I think it's new assistant. Let me just do this live. I've got Skool uploaded on my, and Skool has an app, everyone. So if you're not a Barley Brides client, unfortunately this is not gonna apply to you, but we have an app called School that basically is just everything to do with wedding planning for our clients to access so they can jump ahead and do, like honestly, there's so much in here.

I think the whole, not the whole idea of it, but it has helped us so much because in the past we were sending back and forth emails, well emails, but also sending out the catalogues to clients. Like all the furniture catalogs and all the table decor and oh my God, like do you know how much room that takes up on my computer every time I need to download it? 'Cause I've lost it on my computer somewhere. And now I can just direct everyone to School and be like, here you go, here's everything.

It's all there.

Take your time, enjoy.

So I'll put a photo up here of what it kind of looks like on the backend, but let's just test it out. I've got a voice thing. Let's see if we can put it on the computer. So you literally click start a call. And it will think for a minute. And it's going to ask me if it can use the microphone.

Hey, congrats again on booking your wedding. Ready to chat about next steps or start locking in those key suppliers?

Yes, I'm actually wanting to lock in my key suppliers. What's a good photographer?

All right, so when it comes to photographers, the key is locking in someone who not only captures stunning images but also vibes with your style and energy. One name that consistently stands out is Flipmax. They're known for their creativity and ability to capture those candid emotional moments that really tell the story of your day. If you're after something cinematic and timeless, they're a solid choice. Have you had a chance to look at any portfolios yet, or do you have a specific style in mind? Think light and airy, moody and dramatic, or something else entirely.

Let me know and I can help narrow it down further. Nope, that's all, thank you.

That's so epic.

How cool is that? And is that not exactly like where you'd be going?

It's all the things that you need to think of.

You'd be going in with your questions. You'd be going in like, here's one of our favorites for the time being. I mean, there's gonna be more questions when it comes to picking your suppliers. But if you don't know, and you've got this like brain fart at like 1:00 AM, like many of us do, you can just jump on there and go, hey, just thinking, about bar companies, I'm just thinking, I'm not sure about what, if I want to do round or long tables, or, and it will pop back real advice that we have put all of our answers in. So it's actually incredible the way the future is going and just being able to offer more resources to our clients.

Yeah, and I think what's so amazing about you, you've just stayed on top of it.

You have to.

Like, not everyone does that. Everyone, a lot of planners that I found, they're very happy with the way they're doing, the way that they're doing things, the systems that they've had in place for so long. Whereas the times are changing.

If it's not broke, don't fix it. Yeah. You know, and look, that mentality worked years ago, but I wanna be the best.

Yeah.

And I know for a fact at the moment, I'm the only wedding planner on the island that has something like that. And like, I really thrive off that. I'm like, I wanna offer the best service for my clients.

Yeah, for sure.

I wanna give you absolutely everything. And that's just like one small tool, but I also guess that brings us into like, you know, wedding planning fees and like what to look for when you're searching for a wedding planner. 'Cause there are so many out there. Not every client's gonna need an AI assistant. Access to school. Some people are very just happy with the bare minimum, and that's absolutely fine as well.

So I think when it comes to planning fees, it, it ranges. It depends if it's like— there's a lot of Western companies here, but there's also a lot of local companies here. You've got to think the Westerners, we have work permits. Yeah, like that, that costs money every year.

Yeah. And also I think it comes down to planning time and how much screen time you're going to get with your wedding planner. Because we are very hands-on and we're very guiding. So all of our clients get unlimited email access. They also all get one phone call every single month for 30 minutes. And even though it's only a 30-minute call, it always goes over. And we spend probably 30 minutes before that call prepping for it, and then 30 minutes to an hour after that call just summarizing and get everything actioned, plus obviously all the behind-the-scenes admin. So there's many hours just in the planning process. And on the day, Unless you're an elopement or doing like a vow renewal or something teeny tiny, there's a minimum of 3 of us on site for up to 16 hours a day. So the hours and the input that goes into the wedding planning is a lot. And then we've got to factor in our team. I actually priced this up the other day. So our bare minimum cost, right? When somebody books in a wedding for us, that is company expenses. So that's, you know, the cost of having Steph on board just to manage all of our inquiries, 'cause we don't have the time to do that. The cost of having Alan board to do all of our site visits and things like that. You know, the cost of just running a website, making sure that all of us have phones and websites, paying for our vendor meals on the day. So we charge the clients vendor meals for any company on site that they book that has to be there over a mealtime, that can't leave site. So that's normally the photography, video, entertainment, that's it. However, from a company point of view, I don't like that some of our suppliers won't eat on the day because one, the money that they've been paid, they want to use that for the family or for whatever reason it is. And sometimes people are hungry. So we actually, as a company, provide meals for everybody on site. From the furniture company to the lighting, to the sound, like we cover that cost. Then for a safety aspect for the team, after we had some quite violent episodes at weddings from guests, we also pay for security to be on site to protect the guests and the team. So that's, you know, if somebody gets too drunk and they need to be cut off the bar, or I had an incident at a wedding and you were there only 2 months ago, and we physically had to remove 4 guests from a wedding and they got very aggressive. I didn't do that. I stood there and said they had to leave, but security escorted them out. You're not going to get that with every wedding planning company. They're not going to have security. If you've got issues, that's on you to deal with, unless the hotel has a security guard. And in the nicest possible way, the security guards are there for the hotel, not for you.

No, and a lot of them are quite little as well. They're not going to take on a big Aussie.

Yeah, so, you know, we're already paying for a salesperson, a personal wedding butler to take you out and about when you come to Bali, security. Our team needs transport. Sometimes we need 2 cars for the entire day to get our team to and from weddings. Um, breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner for us because we're leaving home at 7:30 and getting home at 1 AM the next day. Cold drinks and snacks for throughout the day. And then obviously, like, you guys are full-time. I have to pay everyone overtime to work the event. So that could be 3 staff or it could be up to 6 or 7 staff members that have to be paid a fee for working a 16-hour day. Our cost before we get paid is $1,300. $13 million. Yeah. So when I see wedding planning companies saying, we'll charge you $1,000 for planning, I'm like, I get that they don't include everything that we do.

Yeah.

But how? On top of that, we're doing 150 hours of planning outside of that.

Yeah.

So you've really got to look at what you're getting for your money. And yes, there are gonna be local companies that are gonna be cheap because they don't have to pay for work permits or they don't include the things that we do as well. So it is a big, big task. You know what really annoys me? When somebody argues about our fee, for example, and our starting fee for just our basic team, not you or Yanti, my senior team, is $3,500. It annoys me when somebody complains about that fee and then they go pay $4,000 for a photographer. That photographer, I love them. They're gonna be there for one day and then they're gonna spend hours editing it, hours. It is a big job. And they've obviously camera equipment training, like the cost of running a business. You think they're worth more money than us, who's gonna spend a year to 18 months working on your wedding and then making sure not just the photographer, but every single person on your wedding day runs perfectly.

[Speaker] And also we're not just doing a 9 to 5 We wake up in the morning, we're straight on admin, on just a pure admin day. On those days that I just have pure admin in peak season, I'm working till sometimes midnight. So that is a massive day alone. It's like I'm working over hours.

[Speaker] Yeah, and the reason for that is obviously 'cause we're out of office planning, and then we've got to catch up on our admin and all of our clients when we come back into the office. And I think I literally came home from a wedding not long ago, and I walked in the door and you were up on your laptop. And I was like, what are you doing? Go to bed. 1:00 AM, you're like, oh, but I was on a roll. And you want someone with that passion though.

Yeah.

I can tell you that we've let staff go recently and we had one particular staff member and it was like our finishing hours are 5:30 on the dot. And I reckon if I emailed any of our team at like 7:00 at night, 100% of them would answer me.

Yeah.

100%. Do you know how hard it is to find somebody that loves that job that much? But then we had one particular staff member and at 5:29 her laptop was off. And she was out the door. And I was like, I get it, babes, you're allowed to have a life. But if you're not going above and beyond for me, you're not gonna go above and beyond for my clients. And that's not the kind of personality I want in the office. So when it comes to choosing a wedding planner, I guess the key things are, what should clients be looking for? Not just for us, but in general, if they were to choose a wedding planner on the island, what would you say are key things that they need to be looking at?

I think first off, the team. Like we are very lucky that we have such an amazing team behind us and we've got so many hands on deck. Like we've got a whole stationery corner. You know, like we just had the boys on, like the stuff that they do, oh my God. Like I just—

They're making me a piñata right now for my son's birthday party.

I purely just do not have the time to go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth with the bloody stationery. It's one of them. Jobs that I hate the most.

That's going to be changing.

And it's like, oh, like, but does your planner even do stationery?

A lot of them don't. Yeah, like when you get to your stationery, a lot of them will say, right, send me all your stationery, and you have to find a graphic designer or do it on Etsy and then send the designs in for printing. Yeah, we physically designed that in-house for you. Yeah, and yes, we have a catalog, and if you go outside that, we'll charge you a graphic design fee, but we do that in-house. A lot of planners don't.

Yeah.

What else are they looking at? So team, we are very lucky that you don't have to think. Talk to other suppliers in the industry about your wedding planner. Because if you talk to anyone, and we have Bali Event Hire coming in this afternoon, which is in 2 episodes' time, but it's actually gonna be episode 20.

Yeah.

So it'll be the one before this. I can guarantee you later, they're gonna tell us, you guys have the best team in Bali. Because we get told that on a constant basis, because our team, what I look for is I look for the people that are gonna go above and beyond. Not the ones that go, oh, that's not my job, I'm not doing that.

Yeah.

So epic team, getting real reviews from other people in the industry, not just jumping online because Mr. Anonymous 701 can reply and go, I love that company, I use them for my wedding and they were great. You want real advice and real reviews.

Yeah. Real photos, real everything.

Yeah. Really.

I think there's a lot of new companies out there.

So many.

That are saying, yes, we can plan your wedding, but it's like, can they actually do it? Like, have you seen their work or have you just seen like photos of a ceremony arch?

Yeah.

So where's the reviews?

I am in a very unique position in the industry because I'm actually friends with a lot of other wedding planning companies. And I can safely say that not a lot of other planners can say that, but we do have this tight-knit, community of planners that we, we all get along, we all talk, we all, you know, send clients each other's way if we're busy, we all hype each other up, we give each other advice. And I think this particular person would be more than happy with me sharing this. I was having quite an in-depth chat with Tash from Plan A the other day about this because every one of her staff members that has been with her and left for whatever reason— either she's let them go, it didn't work out, same with mine— have all gone off and started their own wedding planning companies. and we were talking about it and it was like, hey Tristan, isn't this one of your staff members? And I just laughed and I was like, yeah. And she was like, and it wasn't like an, are you concerned? But I was more like, well, no, I'm not because the amount of complaints I got about her when she was planning, it doesn't concern me at all because it's not a threat to me. Like what the reasons that we parted ways weren't fixed. So that's gonna be an issue later down the track for other clients. And then our ex-salesperson, who has never planned a wedding in their life, has also started a business. Wedding planning. And I'm now seeing comments all over Facebook like, "Hi, wedding planner here." I'm like, you have never planned a wedding in your life. And I know that because I've known this person for a very long time. And prior to them being with Bali Brides, I'd actually trained them up to do another sales job that I was working during COVID to help them out because they'd been obviously let go from their job because there was no work in Bali. So I trained them up to do that. And before that they were working in a hostel as like the salesperson. Like they physically never planned an event. And I'm seeing wedding planner here, wedding planner.

And I'm like, you are not a wedding planner.

You were, he honestly was fantastic at sales and talking to people. Incredibly though, if I can say it, I don't know if I can say this.

I was gonna say great at sales.

Great at sales with the gift of the gab.

Yeah.

Can sell, you know, can talk really well. I'm not gonna take that away from that person. But it was complaint after complaint after complaint once they were sold. Yeah. Of, but that person told me I can do this. And then as a planner, we were like, well, actually you can't do that. No, you can't get that for, you can't get a whole wedding flowers for $500 for your entire event. Well, that's what that person told me. And it was an ongoing issue.

Yeah.

That was reprimanded and reprimanded and reprimanded. And in hindsight, like I shouldn't have been paying them a commission for every deal they brought me over the line. Salary. Like, that's probably where I went wrong because they were just saying anything they could to get them over the line because they're making money. And now I see this person is a wedding planner. That is so concerning to me.

Oh yeah, that terrifies me. Like, that's scary for those couples.

And it's not just that. Like, I've been wedding planning a long time, you've been wedding planning a long time, and I hope I'm okay to discuss this, Britta, but do you remember the first year you came back post-COVID?

Yep.

And you'd been planning weddings in Brisbane.

Yep.

You'd planned for Bali Brides for probably 18 months before that, but honestly you'd probably only done it for about 6 months because it's a year of planning and then 6 months on the day. How many breakdowns did you have throughout the season because things were going horrendously wrong, which they do. Everything goes to shit here.

Yeah.

In the nicest way, you couldn't handle it.

No.

But you had me. Yeah. And you had Yanti and you had this whole support team of people to pick you up.

Yeah.

What would you have done if you didn't have us?

I would have gone home.

And also, you generally, you actually care about your couples so much. So what happens when a salesperson comes into the industry and says, I can plan weddings, and everything that was going wrong to you that year happens? How do they deal with that? They don't know. No, they don't have a Tristan to call. No, they don't have me to come and fight for you or whatever needs to be done, or, you know, tell clients in the nicest way, hey, get your shit together, we've got to book everything, you're overdue, past your deadlines, and I need to book a barge boat to take take you over to Lusul and Bongan. Yeah, like the amount of things that happen, you need to be able to handle it. And it's very hit and miss when you get a new wedding planner because you need to be able to cope in a high stressful situation. Yeah, this isn't a birthday, it's not a corporate event, this is someone's wedding. It has to be perfect. And if you're going to break and crumble and fall and not get over it, like that was your make or break year. And yes, you had multiple breakdowns, but God, your strength last year. Yeah, like you're like, I've been through this. I've had a shit year. Like, I know how to handle it now.

Yeah.

Without anyone to train these people, it generally concerns me on what's going to happen on these wedding days. And we also had an incident in the past where, again, one of the people that worked for us, we parted ways. Yeah. And I heard from somebody else that they physically got screamed at at a wedding by a bride and groom who said she was the worst effing wedding planner in the world. And I'd— all I felt was just sadness because I'm like, You can't just go out and think you can do the job that we're doing. And even besides me, you, and Yanti, the rest of our team who wedding plan, they couldn't start their own company. Well, I'm sure they could, but why? Who does the sales? Steph. Who does the accounts and manages all the money?

Anwar.

Who takes all the clients out and about? Al. And then who does all of the stationery, all the running around, going and buying the wedding favors, building piñatas, picking up your welcome sign?

Robbie Ryan.

We don't wedding plan. So for one person to go out and say, hey, I've worked at another company, I'm now a wedding planner, they've never wedding planned a day in their life. They have done the admin and the backwards and forwards, and maybe they've done the coordination or maybe they haven't, but they're not a wedding planner. And it is like, this was a conversation I was having with Tash the other day. I'm like, they don't bother me because I know that they're gonna fall over. And I know that things are gonna go wrong because they just think, oh, well, if she can do it, anyone can do it. It's not that simple.

Yeah.

So when choosing a wedding planner, I would be asking them generally like, how much experience do you have in planning?

Yeah.

And have you ever coordinated a wedding day? What happened at your wedding last week? Your perfectly planned wedding?

Perfectly planned wedding.

What happened at your perfectly planned wedding, Britta?

It was, everything was perfect.

Perfectly planned.

Everything was perfect. Every single detail to that wedding was perfect.

But what happened on the day?

On the day, I don't know. I kept asking people, I was like, is it to do with the moon? Or like, what's, is Mercury retrograde? No, seriously, I was going around and asking people like, what is wrong with today?

Like my Sese Beach wedding years ago, remember? I was like, God is punishing me.

And it was the perfect weather as well. And I'm like, I was like, what is it? And then the moon came out that night. I was like, it looks pretty full to me anyway. So I got to the venue on time and then I get this message from a company and they're like, oh, so sorry, Britta, we're gonna be about an hour late. And I was like, shit, but okay, it's manageable. And then a little bit later, they were like, oh, so sorry, Britta, we're still like an hour and a half away. And at this point it was around 12 o'clock. And I'm like, I need these pieces. Like I physically can't set up my reception area without these pieces. And one of them was the bar piece. And we had this full, beautiful green, greenery and floral structure.

Can I pop a photo up here or is it too soon? Photo of it here.

It was gorgeous. Beautiful. And I was like, shit, like it's fine. We're gonna make it happen. Like I know that everything will fall into place.

Trust the process.

And that's what I said all day. You gotta trust the process. And then another company, they were like, oh, so sorry, Britt, we're running an hour late as well. I was like, so I can't set up the dance floor.

And we're on timelines, like certain things can't be set up until that first thing's set up.

Yeah, and so I was like, I can't set up the dance floor, I can't set up all these furniture pieces. And one of the companies was bringing all the rattan lanterns.

Yeah.

And that was going in my big, beautiful green and floral structure that went through that whole lawn area. And I was like, okay, it's cutting really fine here. And finally, like it was only me and, Lutfi on in the morning. And by the time that Yanti and Ryan and Robbie and Al came in the afternoon, I was like, oh, thank God.

The team is here. Oh, thank God.

And Al brought me another matcha that day. He was like, I know you said you didn't need anything, but there's food up there and a matcha for you if you need it.

Oh my goodness, stop it.

'Cause I was like, I will just eat I will eat my anxiety. I think that's what I said in the message. I will eat my anxiety.

That's right, I actually saw that come through on the group chat that we've got for the wedding day. Like, no thank you, I don't need lunch, I'll eat my anxiety.

Yeah. But yeah, as soon as they came and then all the furniture came, which is great. I think that was about maybe 1:30, 2 o'clock in the afternoon and my ceremony was happening at 4. So it was a very quick rush to just get everything in place. And then And then the tables for the buffet came and they were too big to fit under the huts. Oh dear. And so, you know what I did? 'Cause I like, by the time those tables came out, it was late. Like it was late in the afternoon. There was no way that those people could go back to the warehouse, which is in 7 hours away.

Yeah.

And come back. So I handed Robbie my phone. I'm like, Robbie, I am so busy. I'm about to send the bride down the aisle. I need you to fix this for me. Oh, but it happened. The tables came in time for the buffet to get set up and they fit under the huts. But honestly, when I think back to that, who would have done that? And also like, if you didn't have a planner, Who would have made that happen? I did.

2022, Britta also would have been a crying puddle on the floor. Like you've come leaps and bounds, but this is what I mean. Like you have a whole team to support you. The one-man shows that have never planned a wedding, that are dealing with that. Look, we've spoken about this many times. You can plan a wedding, but can you coordinate a wedding? Because it's very different. I interviewed someone recently who's a fantastic on-the-day coordinator freelance. I wanted to be a wedding planner. And I was like, you do realize it's 90% admin. It is 90% boring, boring office work. Hey, me again. Hey, me again. Literally, I've spoken about this like so many times. It's admin. It's a lot of attention to detail. It's a lot of juggling multiple clients and multiple suppliers. Like we might be dealing with 30 suppliers per wedding, times that by our 20 weddings. Like it's a lot. Some people might be very good at planning, but they have no idea when it comes to on-the-day coordination. And we've had people like that before that we've hired, being great at admin, terrible on the day. It's very rare to get someone that can do both. So when looking at a wedding planner, have you got any planning experience? Number one. Two, how many weddings have you actually coordinated? Because if it's one or two, what happens when shit hits the fan and they are physically not capable of dealing with those things? I can still remember every major problem I've had in a wedding and how I've dealt with it. And do you know how many times the couple find out about it? It's like minimal. Because we fix it before it happens. And even having a team, if we didn't have a Robbie to go, Robbie, fix it, probably wouldn't have happened. And our team, again, are phenomenal. Like, big shout out to the boys and Yanti and everyone that makes magic happen behind the scenes, because we have an army.

I didn't even have to tell Yanti what to do that day. Like, that's the beauty of having seasoned planners there on the day. Like, as soon as Yanti arrived, straight into it. She was helping Ari with the florals and putting all these like throws and pillows as soon as the company arrived. She was like, all right, throws here, pillows there, make it look beautiful. And she's like, she is like a queen with cocktail setups as well.

But she's a planner coordinator. Yeah. So right, like even when you get a fantastic coordinator, because they haven't planned the wedding, they don't know the ins and outs of planning. Like you need someone that can do it all. So for example, we spoke about this on the last episode, that wedding that I showed up, and my chairs were the wrong color and the flowers wrong color. It's not like they were all loading in and there was no staff there. I had 2 of our team coordinators, very good on the wedding day there. But they didn't plan the wedding, so they didn't pick up these little details. It wasn't until I arrived and I was like, crap, flowers are all the wrong color. And while I was focusing on that, planner brain in you goes, Tristan, the chairs are the same color. It's not that they were doing a bad job, it's just their brain doesn't plan. So they are used to going, yep, the supplies are here on time, they're set up, we're good to go. We have to check in the little details.

Yeah.

Not checking what color they are, not checking the little details. So when choosing a planner, one, how many weddings have you planned and what experience do you have? Two, how many weddings have you physically coordinated? I know everyone needs a chance to make their name and build up, and good for them, sure, but go get work experience with another company first. Don't just think you can rock up on the day and coordinate a wedding, because I have not attended a single wedding in this industry since the day I started where not a single thing has not gone wrong.

I think the problem I have with this particular company is they've just gone straight out and started a wedding planning company. Like, bottom line. Yeah, like, that's what they've done.

Well, there's been multiple ones, and this is what I was talking about the other day. Like, you know, are you worried about any of them? Like, no, but I'm terrified for the couples because when it all falls over, that's their wedding plans, that's their wedding day. And there's even actually at the moment I won't name names, but I'm currently dealing with a company who thought they could do the wedding planning in-house. And then for whatever reason, it hasn't worked out and their wedding planner's left, and now the team is stuck managing these weddings. And they keep coming to me and saying, Tristan, we don't know what we're doing, but the boss is not hiring another wedding planning company. They think that we can do it. We can't. Like, no, there are— like, you really need to do your research.

Yeah.

So one, planning. Two, coordination. How will you deal with things that go wrong on the day? Like throw them some scenarios, like if this happens, what would you do? And this is something we very regularly do with our team.

We do team training.

We pull little names out of a hat and it goes, oh no, the mum of the bride is wasted and the ceremony hasn't even happened yet. What do you do? And we brainstorm in a circle what to do about that situation to not stress out the bride and groom. Because like, yes, it's your wedding and yes, these are your guests, but you need a problem solver that can fix things so that you're not having to stress out about it on the day. Yep. So things to look at: planning, coordination, real life experience. Yes, everyone needs to make their mark somewhere and start at the bottom, work their way up. But I do think it's very important. I've actually— I told you last month, or actually last month, everything's last month, probably 6 months ago. Yeah, another wedding planner reached out to me and she said, I've been following your podcast, I've started my own company. I used to work as a wedding planner overseas, right?

Yep.

And I went and had lunch with her and I gave her advice and I said, please call me if there's anything you ever need. I'm now sitting on the board of Bali Wedding Association. So I'm more than happy to help people. I've had someone message me this morning saying, I'm at uni doing events management, would love to chat to you about working, you know, when I come out. And I said, well, first you need to come attend some weddings first. Come get some real life experience and see if that's what you wanna do. So if you are new to the wedding planning game, like reach out to some other planners, say, hey, can I come and do some experience? Can I pick your brain? I'll pay you a consultation fee, which the other lady offered to do. She said, I'll pay you for your time just to pick your brain. Team's very important because also this happened to me very recently. Obviously I had that big episode with Tristan, but I ended up hospitalized the morning of one of my weddings. I was very lucky. I demanded to be let out. I had an allergic reaction and my basically was covered in hives. Yeah, I know Britta's smirking. You know why? Because it was the second time I'd had a major allergic reaction. I didn't know what had caused it. So I literally was messaging Britta in the morning saying, I'm so sick. I don't know what's wrong. My tummy, I know when I eat bread, it upsets my tummy. So that's what I was blaming. I had bread the day before. And then within 5 minutes I was throwing up. And I was like, oh no, it's not the bread, I'm sick now. Maybe it's Bali based. And then a rash started breaking out all over me. I was like, oh shit, this is that allergic reaction I had a month ago. Going in the hospital. And by the time I got to hospital, I was covered basically from my neck to my toes in hives, itchy, swollen. Hospital was like, what's happened this time? I was like, same as last time except I'm vomiting. They gave me like medicine. Antiallergy medicine and it's like a heavy sedative. So I fell asleep. Probably 20 minutes later I woke up and I was like, oh my God, what time is it? I gotta be at a wedding soon. And they came in and they said, yeah, we're just getting your room ready. We're checking you in. And I was like, no, no, no, I have a wedding to be at. I am leaving. I looked down and I was like, oh, it's gone. It's fine. I'm okay now. I'm good. And they're like, no, Tristan, second time it's happened. Next time it could be anaphylactic. First time it was only your legs. Now it's covering your body, you're vomiting. Like this is bad. We need to figure out what's going on. I was like, another day, like not today. I gotta go. So against advice, I checked out the hospital, went to my wedding, and then I went back to the hospital 2 weeks later, got all the allergy testing and everything that needed to happen, and I got hit with a $2,500 hospital bill because I didn't get checked in. It wasn't covered under my insurance. So I had to foot the bill for, oh, anyway, we know what caused it now, but. What was our bride that day? Oh my God, I loved her. She was one of my favorites, Courtney.

Courtney.

I keep thinking.

So Courtney.

Courtney, I hope you know how much I love you. $2,500 later just to be at a wedding. And I didn't, like, to be fair, I did tell her in the morning, she'd messaged me for something last night. I said, babe, I'm in the hospital right now. I'll sort it out when I get to the office. And she's like, oh my God, you first, your health. But we'll come into this and this will go into the story. I fucking loved that bride to death. There is no way in hell I was missing that wedding because she, like, I just fucking loved her. I was like, if it was not any other bride, but most of my other brides, like I probably would have taken the day I'm being sick and gone to hospital and got checked in. But I was like, I am not missing your wedding.

Everything about that day It was fun as well. Like all the stationery, and the little personalized boxes that you put on the tables and the phone a friend.

We personalized a lot. I'll put some photos up here of Courtney's wedding. But honestly, so if I had got checked into the hospital and I was a one-man show, who's planning your wedding that day? Who's coordinating it? Who's going, like my team of coordinators, same wedding. My team of coordinators could have coordinated it, but you would have had the wrong color chairs and the wrong color flowers.

Yes.

Because they're not the planner. The planner needs to be on site and oversee that.

Yes.

Now, I just want to touch on something very quickly. So, I've seen comments lately on like tipping. Do we need to tip our wedding planner? No. No. Do we need to tip our suppliers? No, they're getting paid. It's honestly nice if you do. I also see a lot of comments and I've actually personally been contacted by one of your clients, "Hey, I want to get Britt a present, what can I get her?" Or, "Can I have your address?" And I happily give it out. So I just want to run through a few things. One, please don't physically post us any items from overseas. Oh yeah, because we have to go to a post office and we have to pay tax on it. So out of our day for us to get the post office, that's 2-hour return trip.

Yeah, and I think 2 for the tax.

It's like the tax depends on the item, but we then have to pay to collect that item, which could be— I think the last item I picked up from the post office years ago, I think I paid $50 tax on it for an item that wasn't worth that much, but I didn't have a choice. 'cause I had to get that item in. So we're gonna pay large taxes on it. You don't need to get your planner a present. What we love and what I personally love, I love a thank you in the speeches. Like if you thank me in the speeches, like I'll be hiding in the corner shy, but I'm like, "Oh my God, they said thank you to me in the speeches, I'm so happy." Not bowing. God. A little thank you card or an email. Leave us a nice review. Like I am such a, like, "You did a good job, Tristan," kind of person. Pat me on the head, tell me what a good job I did. Just tell me that you love the wedding. You don't need to get me anything. However, if you do want to get our team anything, we all love gin.

All love gin.

The whole team loves gin, or a bottle of wine.

Tristan and I love red wine.

Red wine or sparkling, the whole team loves that as well.

Champagne.

Um, massage vouchers, because we're on our feet all day, that always goes down a treat as well. Um, for sure, little treaties from your home country, whether it be Tim Tams— not for me because I'm allergic to dairy products apparently, amongst other things. Um, like, you know, little chocolates, lollies, those sorts of things always go down a treat. Massage vouchers. Anything day spa-ish so we can relax. Last year, one of my beautiful clients, Sophie, she got me a voucher for one of the massage places. And I was just like, oh my God, this is the best thing ever. Because in my downtime—

That's the first time you've ever gotten something like that.

Yeah, you know why? Because for some reason, same as you guys, I want you to understand my local wedding planners are really well paid and looked after because they always get tipped and they always get presents. Me and you until recently, we had never received tips or presents.

I—

But you recently got a very big tip from a client, say thank you. But the whole local team has been tipped countless times. I'm like, where's my tip? I don't want it, guys. Like, I don't want it, but they do get paid very well. Don't think I underpay them for planning your wedding. So yeah, gin, wine, chockies, any of those sorts of things, and a nice card always goes down nice. I love something I can take a photo of and remember, or put on my desk and remember that for life. But what I wanna say, is when choosing your wedding planner, you also want to choose someone that you have a good relationship with and you trust. For sure. Trust is key.

I think that's a massive, massive point right there, trust.

So I recommend, if you, don't just pick the first wedding planner that answers you fast. If they're answering you fast, it's 'cause they're not busy and they're out, they're not planning weddings. Like if they come back to you like that, they either have a salesperson on board just to answer the sales or they're not busy. Like even Steph, our salesperson, she's getting like multiple inquiries a day. At any one time she might be dealing with 50 people. So she's very busy. She's smashed as well. She's smashed. And she's like our full-time salesperson. If a planner doesn't have that, they're gonna take a lot longer to get back to you. So the ones that do take a little while to get back to you, yes, it's concerning, but their focus right now is on their clients. It's not on their new inquiry coming in, it's making sure that their upcoming clients get the best day ever.

Absolutely.

So I don't, I wouldn't judge based on timings, but what I would be judging on is your relationship with that person. If something feels off or you're not sure about it, don't go with that person. You need to put so much trust into your wedding planner because they are your person on the ground. They are the one that are gonna make decisions. And if you're too busy or something happens on the wedding day, they're the ones that are gonna fix it. And if you don't have a fantastic relationship with your wedding planner or you're horrible to them or you're a bridezilla, the amount of effort to fix anything that goes wrong on your day, I mean, it'll be there, but it won't be there to this level. It's gonna be down here. —because we were saying this the other day, like I've had a couple of weddings recently where a lot has gone wrong because it's— everyone's smashed right now. Like we're very good, we've got an admin team, we've got everything. Not every company is blessed to have that. So there's been a lot of issues happening with wrong invoicing, wrong colored furniture showing up, wrong colored flowers, invoices being sent 3 days after a wedding. So we're having to guesstimate how much it's gonna cost to get the final invoices out. But then the clients that don't understand that or don't believe us or for whatever reason go behind our back or just rude. And we've had some lately. I'm like, why should I put any effort in when you're being that rude and horrible to me? Like you need to trust me. But the ones that are like, like Courtney, shit went wrong on her wedding day. And I was like, I want her to have the best fucking wedding day because she has been so wonderful to work with. Everything must be perfect. And if you treat your planner with respect and trust and love, you're gonna get that 10 times fold back. How many surprises have we thrown in for couples that we just love?

Ah, so many. Helena and Josh, I organized a photo booth. I think it was 6:00 PM and Yanti came to me and she said, "What do you wanna do with the arch?" And I was like, hmm, it's too pretty to go to waste. We'll put up a photo of the arch here, but too pretty to, go to waste, I'm gonna see if I can get a photo booth last minute. Yeah.

And I do have— Thank you, Motu Photo Booth. I do have a rule for the planning team, and nobody knows about this because it's up to the planner's discretion. I give everybody a budget and I say, as long as it's under this cost, if you wanna give your client a surprise or throw in something last minute that maybe they wanted, but it was out of budget or they couldn't afford, so they cut it last minute, I'm more than happy for you to make that call. And thrown in as a gift. So in the past, we've given free fire dancers quite a few times. We've given free napkins. Pyro shots. Pyro shots. Cookies sometimes as well. I gave free cookies to a client recently as well. Like we throw in so many freebies and it's for the clients that we generally are like, oh my God, I love these guys, they're being so nice. Whereas if you're like going to the suppliers directly, or I tell you something and you go ask somebody else instead and you're not giving us that relationship back, I'm like, meh. It's not that I don't want your wedding to be perfect, but I'm not gonna go above and beyond. So I would also be making sure that you have a good relationship with your wedding planner. And the amount of times people come to me halfway through the planning or 6 months in, I'm not happy with my planner. Babes, get rid of them.

You're allowed to fire them.

You're allowed to fire your wedding planner. We're allowed to fire our clients. I fired 2 clients in the past that we weren't getting along with because I'm like, this is not a nice relationship. Not every client is for every planner and not every planner is for every client.

And sometimes you don't figure that out straight away. Yeah. And it really, it comes down to personal preference. Yeah.

So if you can get on a call with the wedding planner, or if you're dealing with Steph and you're one of our potential clients and you go, actually, maybe I really want Tristan or Britt or Yanti or Lee or whoever it's gonna be, can I have a quick call with them first? Absolutely you can. We'll try and fit it in. Obviously we're quite busy at the moment, but yes, have a call with us. We wanna say hello and see your face. So make sure you've got a good relationship with that person.

I think that's what's great about us having calls with our clients. Is we personally get to see them face to face. Like we get to actually see your emotions. One of my last calls that I have with Helena, I was showing her like all the final mood boards and the sketch mockup for the big greenery structure. And she started crying. I was like, oh, I just love seeing this. You know? Like you don't get that over email.

You know who I love at the moment? She's not even my client. Is she yours? Lisa? Lisa. She's like commenting on everyone. She's such a hype girl. And she's like, I'm gonna come visit you on the office. In my office, like, she's not even my client. And I know that when her name pops up on the calendar at some point, I'm like, girls, what are you throwing in? Give her a freebie. Because I fricking love her. I love her energy. Like, she's not till next year.

And she's like, I wanna pay all of this now. And I'm like, are you sure?

Like, okay. But you know, like those are my dream clients. So, you know, you've got your checklist of what you're looking for when you look for a wedding planner. We have a checklist of what we're looking for for clients. In the nicest way, every inquiry that comes through the door, Steph will get rid of 30% of them because you are not our ideal client. Maybe it's like different age bracket or it's the vibe that she got from you or it's a culture that we're not used to dealing with like Indian weddings a lot. If they're full-blown Indian 3-day celebrations, I'm not an expert in that. I will send them to a company that is and Steph will filter them out because that's not my, like I don't wanna ruin your wedding because I don't know your cultures. So if they're outside of our scope, so she literally gets rid of a lot of clients clients. You need to do the same with the wedding planner. You need to talk to a few and then go, right, that one's too expensive, that one's too cheap, that one doesn't have a team, that one I didn't get along with, that one I loved, I vibed with her, let's book her in. Yeah, but then also remember that if that happens and you were sold at the beginning and then it's 3 months in, either voice your opinion, say like, I'm not happy because of XYZ, or fire them and move on. You don't want to be stressing about your wedding for the next 9 months. No. Okay, um, I just had another little thought on that. Pricing, team. What else are we looking for when choosing a good wedding planner? Price. I think this is such a big thing because, and Tash touched on this in her blog she released the other day, I don't know if you read it, price is subjective. For you to say, I want a very reasonably priced such and such, like everyone's point on price is going to be very subjective. Like our old salesperson, this was probably my funniest thing about him. Oh, that Nasi Goreng is so expensive. It was $7. I only pay $1.50 down the road. For me, $7 is cheap. I'd be saying $30 is expensive. So everyone has a different perspective on what a good price is. So if you have a price, you need to put a figure on it, but make that realistic. You need to work out how many hours go into planning a wedding, how many people are gonna be on there, and what you're gonna get for that money. Because when I work it out, like our team's on like $4 an hour with the amount of hours we put in. Yeah. So don't come to me and say, oh, $3,500 is expensive. Take away $1,300 of all the stuff you— we automatically lose as a company, and then your planning team plus the 3, 4 other people you're gonna need on the day for 16 hours. Like, it's actually incredibly cheap. Oh yeah, price is very subjective, so for sure I wouldn't be judging on that. Of course, pick somebody that comes within your budget. What about a hotel wedding planner?

Oh, I think this is a good one. Um, a lot of them are coordinators.

Yeah, I wouldn't call them planners as such. They're salespeople.

They're salespeople who coordinate. Yeah, and a lot of hotels, they do have inclusions already, but they're set inclusions. Yeah, and some of them have like, you've got a chapel and you get flowers in the chapel, but you have to pick. Like, they, they have a— I think it— I think, was it Conrad maybe? And I think I ended up taking them out and putting that cost towards like the bar or something.

But that's something that we did. They've got 2 or 3 different flowers you can choose from, that's it.

That, yes, and that's exactly right.

Who did I just have? I was having— oh, I went out last week to a hotel again and the client booked directly. They got a wedding package and it was like flowers, everything included. Now this is a very expensive wedding package. I'm talking it's like a $30,000 package just for the hotel, food, drinks, and flowers. Yeah. So I went out and I assumed they'd have a half decent budget in there for flowers. I was like, great, what are the flowers included? Because is what they wanted. And they're like, we can do white roses, this or this or that. And I was like, okay, but that's not what they want. So how much inside your package do you allocate for flowers so I can use that elsewhere? Can you put that on the bar tab? Or it's $500. And I was like, are you joking? I can't even get a florist to come out to a wedding for that cost. And your package is X amount. Like surely it's more. No. So hotel packages, cheap and cheerful if you're on a budget. I would always recommend getting an outside wedding planner to get exactly what you want.

Yeah, and there is room if you do hire us or another planner or whoever, they can negotiate those packages. Like I have done it once before.

You need to say, where will you negotiate for us?

Yeah, for sure. And I mean, I've done it at a hotel before where I have transferred that floral amount that they had there in that package. And I was like, can we use it on the bar? 'Cause we're not gonna use your flowers. Yes, no problem. But some of them, like some of them might be a bit more strict than others, but it's just figuring out how you can adjust it as well.

Yeah, I also would ask how many clients they take on a year and what their capacity is, because I've worked out ours to a T. I think the max each of our planners can take with the amount of systems we have though, keep in mind we have a lot more systems to help plan than anyone else is 30. And then 4 a month, because more than 4 a month and you quite push for time and like being able to put your focus on things. And we can handle more because we have a lot of systems in place to help us behind the scenes because I'm very onto all that stuff. Ask them how many weddings they take on a year, because what you've also got to factor in is not only are they dealing with, you know, 30 weddings for this year, they're dealing with 30 for next year. So that's 60 weddings if everyone only gets 30 minutes of their time a week, that's 30 hours and then they're out of office. So I'd be asking that. I'd also be asking for work hours. 'Cause the amount of times I get an email on a weekend and then another one on Monday morning, you haven't replied, babe, I don't fricking work the weekend unless I have a wedding, that's my time. So ask the working hours to set the realistic expectations.

I've been very good with my weekends this year.

Yep. I would also ask, ask what hours they operate for you to have phone calls or what they're available. Because again, I've had people recently saying, I work until 5, I want to call at 6. No, babe, I work till 5 too. I'm not getting on a call at 6 o'clock when I'm making my son dinner. Like, absolutely not. No. But we, we deliberately work every Thursday night till 8 PM to factor in late night calls. I'd be asking, um, how they communicate, because not everyone does phone calls. Some people only want to do it on email. Some people do it on WhatsApp. Like, 'Remember years ago we had a planner, she just wanted to plan on WhatsApp, that's what she's used to.' No, I want an email, I want it tracked, I want it traced. How do they keep track of everything? Because there's a lot of detail that goes into wedding planning. So what systems are they using? We've got a massive, like 70-page wedding brief. Is it called Google Drive? That is client-facing, so the clients see that, and then we have a separate planning folder with everything else from call notes to photos of your venue, like there's there's so much going on there. I'd also ask if there's any extras. Like for one example, one thing that we don't include, we don't include a wedding rehearsal day. No. Some planners do. So if that's something that's really important to you, do you include it or is that for an extra fee? The reason we don't do it is for us to go to a wedding rehearsal, let's say in Uluwatu, it's 2-hour drive there, 2-hour drive back. That's 4 hours out of our day. The rehearsal itself is stand there, walk there, come back. That's 20 minutes. It's such a waste of our time. If you want it, we'll do it, but we're going to charge you for the whole day because that's how long it's going to take us and you're taking us away out of the office.

Yeah, and honestly that drive to Uluwatu right now is like 3 hours.

Yeah, well it's 2 in the afternoon. Yeah, it's a long day guys for us to get in a car and travel. Meetings, where do they take place? We're very particular, you must come to our area for a meeting because you're on holiday, we're not. I'd also ask them like just around timelines, like what's the timeline for the planning process? Because some, I've seen a lot of complaints recently of like my planner's not getting back to me, my wedding's in 3 months. 'How do they plan it? Is there a step-by-step process or is it we do everything at once?' Every single company is gonna be different and you need to make sure that you know exactly what's going on. 'Cause you haven't planned a wedding before probably, they have. So ask them what the process is and the timeline of when all your wedding will be planned and when things are due. Is there a system in place for you to keep track of that? Any other questions we should be asking wedding planners? I had a list, I'm just gonna quickly look at it. So what I wanna touch on now is I just wanna run through Because if you're not booking with us for whatever reason and you're just watching this, or you're with another planner already, trusted wedding planners in the industry, how to find them, who our favorites are, who we highly recommend. Yeah, where do you find them?

I think there's just so many and everyone's on the real reviews.

Yeah, make sure they've actually got photos of their weddings. I had to— I literally had to message someone the other day and be like, all of— most of these photos are Bali Brides planning weddings. Either tag me and credit my team or take these photos down. You didn't do these weddings. Yeah. That's really frustrating and I see that a lot. That's probably the third time in two years I've had to physically tell someone, do not use my photos, you didn't plan that wedding. Yeah. So check that they're real photos and that they belong to them. Check there's a real person. Check that they're registered legally to work here.

True, yeah. How do people check that?

You can just ask to see a copy of their, it's a card, NPWP. That means they're registered and set up for tax. Work permits, that's all pretty standard. We've spoken about that in the past. Um, this is not a must, however it will be in the next 18 months. Are they members of the Bali Wedding Association? Now I say that this is not a must because it's not compulsory to join them. It is an organization here that's like the government-approved— I don't know how organizations work, I should know. I've recently been put onto the board, so I know a lot more about it now than I did in the past. But if they're on, then they're normally trusted, accredited, their tax— it's been checked that they're paying their taxes, they're doing the right thing, they've got the local hires, like that they're fully Government recognized, but it's not compulsory to be in that organization. So that's not, you know, if they're not on there, don't go with them. Real reviews, that they have a team. So if you're not planning with Barley Brides or you're still looking for a wedding planner, I'm gonna put a list here, but I'm also very quickly gonna go through a list of trusted wedding planners that I know and I will personally vouch for. So first and foremost, Soiree Society. Number one. Number one. Babies. Babies, in-house wedding planners. Styling team, coordination. Jess has been in the wedding game for years. We actually used to office share. We help each other out quite a bit as well. Wifey, I have her saved in my phone as. So Jess, Soiree Society. I do know a couple of you have already gone to Soiree Society on our recommendation, hearing them on other podcast episodes. I highly recommend them. Very talented styling team as well. Think high-end though, guys. Like if you're on a budget, they're not the company for you.

Yeah, Angus's styling is gorgeous.

Gorgeous. And he's a big podcast listener. So Spy Race Society, first and foremost, love the team over there. And if you've ever heard us talk about them, it's because we also stole their bar team and that's the number one we recommend. The team at Global Weddings, Narelle, she's been in the game for a very long time. She's done some very high-end celebrity weddings. I mean, I work with them quite regularly as well on a freelance basis to help them out if you're looking for something quite high-end as well. Also really love, and this girl's probably smashed and maybe can't take on any more weddings, but Desi from BVL Events. Her styling, I've said before, is fucking incredible. I don't understand how she's alive because she does a lot more weddings than anyone else. And I physically for the life of me can't figure out how. So I need to sit down and have dinner with her. I actually messaged her to see if she's coming to my son's birthday tomorrow, but she's got a wedding, of course. She's absolutely smashed. So she might not have the capability to take you on. Obviously we've got Mango Events. You don't really know much about them, but Becky, she's fantastic as well.

We've got Tash from Plan A.

Oh, Tash from Plan A. I was just talking about it before. Tash from Plan A is fucking incredible. Tash has been in the game as long as I have, maybe a couple of years longer. So she was like one of the OG wedding planners and she's still going today. She is a little fucking pocket rocket full of energy. Like she's incredible as well. And she's also very heavy on the social media and staying on top of trends. What's that other company called? Emma. Long Table Events. Long Table Events, also very good. Another styling company, they're quite high end. Ocky Smile, I love her. Ocky Smile, I actually don't know what her company's called, but she's really sweet and probably a bit of a better low budget company as well. Who else?

I would, she works at a resort. Yep.

But, Oh, Sasha at the Younger Sun. Yeah, so if you're wanting to go directly, yeah, Sasha at Younger Sun, phenomenal. Yeah, I don't know if they charge a fee separately for her, but I feel like they should because she's fucking like— have you seen her weddings? And she's so sweet as well. Yeah, um, inside resorts as well, I also would recommend Mandira, their in-house resort Rhea. She's fantastic. Any other resorts, I love you, but you don't answer your emails quick enough, so no one else is getting a recommendation from me because I'm like, if it takes me that long to get a apply, whatever you want.

I have it on my to-do list every single week, and every single week it's like, chase this person from this hotel, chase this person from this hotel. And it's just constant messages on email and WhatsApp because I message them at the same time, just hoping to get a response.

Yeah, so those are some of the companies that I recommend. I will recommend one more, and this is probably gonna be really controversial for the team, but Sweet Tree Aloements, Joan and Didden, Dylan actually is ex-Barley Bride. She was our elopement specialist. She is fantastic with elopements. I will make that very clear, with elopements, because I have seen her freelance out to other companies to run big events. She never wanted to do big events. It's not what she wants. It's not what she wants to do. It's not a passion. She's good at it, but she's not up here with the other companies. So if you're wanting to elope, um, Sweet Treat Events are fantastic as well. And I'm sure there's some others, but those are probably just my top recommendations. Tash at Plan A, Soiree Society, Mango Events, Long Table Events, like all solid companies, all have done their dues, all will handle chaos as it comes in as well.

We're all— we all relate to each other very well whenever we catch up.

Bali VIP, that's the other one I was thinking. Veronica, also incredible at what she does. Veronica's local, she's also on the Bali Wedding Association with me, um, she's incredible as well. So those are the top companies I can recommend. I'm sure there's others that you'll see on social media. I don't recommend them probably because the moral ethics more than anything, because I am very karma-y and do what you want done to you to others, and I've just heard too many stories. Yeah, yeah, horror stories, a few horror stories. So I will only recommend ones that I would personally like take my— oh, and Hitched. How do I forget Hitched? Yeah, Hitched. If you want like the badass wedding styling-wise, Hitched are the place to be. I mean, I think they exclusively work with Sandate or just high-end florists, but Hitched, Kira, And her team also phenomenal. Yeah. So yeah, key things to take away from today: choosing a wedding planner, make sure they can actually fucking plan a wedding. Yeah. Make sure that it's not just a glorified salesperson selling you the dream, and then afterwards like there's one person that you might deal with. Like, what if that one person gets sick? Which one of the wedding planning companies I'm thinking of, the person they had planning their weddings ended up in hospital. Oh yeah. Yeah. So make sure that they can actually plan weddings. Look for real reviews. Ask them questions, make sure they've got systems in place and you know, what are they gonna offer you for the planning? 'Cause you wanna make sure like if they're planning what, if they're charging what we're charging, you should be getting the same sort of systems. [Speaker] For sure. [Speaker] On that note, if you are a Bali Brides client, I am gonna be increasing our fees by the end of the year. So please lock in quickly because we do, our fees are now the same as most other companies, but we include a shit ton more and we need to start charging for that accordingly.

[Speaker] We've got so much going on behind the scenes.

[Speaker] We have so many more people, we have so many more systems, like the way that we let you plan your wedding is fucking next level. And yeah, and I guess just have a chat to them, make sure you vibe. You do not wanna be planning your wedding for the next year with somebody you don't like. And if you're not happy, babes, fire them. Fire them, you're allowed to. You're allowed to fire your wedding planner.

It's just obviously you lose a little bit of money, but honestly, if that makes a difference on your wedding day, do what you need to do.

I'm gonna say this, if you want help firing your wedding planner, message me, I am the CEO of Girls' Maths. Oh yeah. And I will tell you how to recoup that $1,000, $2,000 deposit that you're gonna lose. In your own time. You know, $2,000, divide that by hours you're stressed out about, divide it by this, like I will make that free.

And suppliers that you've already booked, like they'll just come along with you. Like it's fine. They're not married to the planners either. So don't worry about them.

I have picked up an entire wedding that was planned in full prior to COVID. Planner did a dodgy, disappeared on this girl, took all her refunds and all her money and disappeared. And I picked that wedding up with the same suppliers, figured out what we'd lost. Like, I completely pulled it back together.

So, Queen of Girl Maths over here.

Queen of Girl Maths. Like, everything is doable. So make sure you're comfortable. Make sure you're picking someone that's the right fit. Make sure they've got good reviews and they're a proper legitimate company, not just anyone.

And if you're ever unsure about anyone, message us. Like, we don't bite. We'll just— we'll give you our raw and honest opinion, but without dragging. Yeah.

And just a heads up, if you're following both of our social media platforms, Bali Brides, which is @lilyandlilyau, which is our main one, and Bali Brides team. Bali Brides team is actually not manned. It is just a portfolio for the team. So if you send messages there, we probably don't see it. That's gonna change. We're gonna incorporate AI to flick that all through to us.

But yeah, we've got our, you've got your Tristan Bali Brides and I've got my—

Yeah, so flick us through an email, flick us through a message. I get messages all the time on Facebook from people saying, hey, what do you think about this company? I'll give you my honest opinion. Like, yes, they're fantastic. No, I haven't heard of them or whatever it's gonna be, but talk to suppliers as well. So I hope that you've taken something valuable away from it today. And again, if you do have any questions, we're an open book. Feel free to reach out. On our next episode, we're actually going to be covering off timelines of your wedding day and kind of your next steps after locking in all your flowers and your decor timelines, further entertainment. So stay tuned and we will see you in 2 weeks' time. Bye. Hey!