S1 E23/2 - Meet the Team: Leah & Monthly Recap - Chaos, Cough Syrup & Client Rants

That day was catastrophic for Bali. We had flash flooding, buildings physically went under. I just remember getting messages from Robbie saying, 'Ibu, like, bossku, so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm worried about your car, I'm flooded.' And I was like, 'You okay?' He's like, 'Yeah, but the car's not.' And I was like, 'I don't care about the car, are you okay?' Yeah. And he was so concerned. But then photo, the work car went under.

I just said, 'I'm not doing this, like, this is stupid.' So I was like, 'I'm canceling,' obviously.

So we canceled the wedding. We canceled the wedding.

And then Solea had a moment to cool down and not be such a hothead. And then realizing, you're probably gonna lose all those deposits, Solea.

Not probably, you are. Even as a wedding planner, you were not getting those deposits back. Oh, I was 100% never getting them back. Everything was paid. Ceremony, lighting, everything's gone into place, then I go look at flowers. So I walk out to the flowers and I'm like, these are not the colors.

I think I know this one.

These are not the colors. Not only did we revise this, I sent you a run sheet a month ago and we sent you an updated run sheet a week ago. Did you even look at them? I said, "Show me your emails." And I physically made the florist go get her laptop out and she opened the laptop and said, "Show me your emails." She opened her emails and she goes, "I don't know what kind of florist." And then I literally, she had like 40 unread emails. I'm like, "There's my last run sheet a week ago and there's my other one. You haven't even opened things." Welcome to part 2 of Bali Weddings Unveiled. This is the first episode we've actually had to split into two.

I think it's because we've, we've had a lot going on.

Part 2, there's been a lot going on in the last couple months. We've got Leah here, which Leah is like a— supposed to be a couple times a year, but this is the first time I've had you in the pod to catch up. So this is part 2 continuing on. Thank you for rejoining us. Let's try and spread these out within a week, I reckon. So with that venue, I just feel like, as a wedding planner, we go to bat for you. Okay? That is our job as a wedding planner, but also know what we're dealing with behind the scenes. It's not just as simple as, hey guys, this is the lighting I want, or this is the sound that I want. We then have to get it all approved. There's gonna be an event management plan. There's gotta be a floor plan of like, we're gonna put the sound system there and the lights there and the DJ booth there. Like there's also some venues, right? That you are only allowed to stick the bar on a specific part of that venue because they don't wanna damage the grass. So there's a lot of logistics that go in behind the scenes.

That was bizarre to me.

Oh, the venue that's changing.

Just knock the green out, the real grass and leave it please. It's so much nicer.

And this is where I love you. This is where being a remote planner, you've got no idea what goes on here.

I know, I know that the grass starts. Look, I know, I get it.

Let's backtrack because this is a very good thing for the monthly recap. What happened last week, Britta? I woke up at 3:00 AM on whatever day it was last week, 'cause time does not exist in Bali right now. I woke up at 3:00 AM and we have at home a puppy, a Bali dog. Me and Britta live together. I have a son, he's 10 years old. We have a cat, the cat lives outside. And at 3:00 AM, bang. Thunder.

I know.

Okay, thunder started at 3 AM. Now my puppy, my puppy is beautiful. You weren't here, were you? Yeah, I was messaging you. You were here. That's right, we were talking. So last week, 3 AM, bang, I woke up to thunder and lightning. Now I said about 3 hours. Yeah, so I was awake at 3 AM, it started and it was just flash, even though my curtains were flash, flash, bang. Now my Bali dog is terrified of thunder. I'm gonna put a photo of him right here.

I feel like the storms in Bali are next level.

Like, yeah, we get pretty good storms in Queensland, so it'd be, you know, in hindsight, it'd have been raining the day before that.

It feels like an earthquake is going off because when you see the flash, the bang is happening almost instantaneously.

Oh yeah, it was like he was on top of you.

My son decided to go in the pool.

Yeah.

And I was like, get out.

But then the whole villa where we're living is shaking. And I'm just in bed because I'm kind of used to it. You've only just moved upstairs, so you're not as used to it.

And you'd only just got home from that wedding at midnight. So like, imagine we're getting to bed at midnight because we've had a wedding. Breda's been stressed, she's been running around. We were drenched. We were at that elopement. We were soaked because it was raining at our wedding.

And I'm a really terrible sleeper.

And so 3:00 AM thunder starts. So then my Bali dog— I think it started at 2:00 AM. Well, 3:00 AM is when I woke up. So maybe, I don't know if it hit different parts at different times in Bali.

Yeah, it must have.

So 3:00 AM, my dog comes in. Now my dog's big. He's a big Bali dog, photo here. He's literally petrified. So he's in my bed and for the first half an hour he's like trying to snuggle with me. He's getting onto my shoulder, thunder's going off, he's convulsing. And then after a few minutes, he's going blind, he's old. I just hear Christian, 'cause Christian's come, got into bed with me. And then I just hear Christian go, "Buddy, it's okay, you're safe." Like, because he knows the dogs. So I don't know if he's awake, but then within the hour we're all awake. By 5:30 we're out of bed and I physically got out of bed at 5:30 because I was like, I've got things on today, what's the bet the road is flooded? So I go out the front, I'll put a video here, that's my street. My street is now a river. So I go back to bed and then I think I didn't even sleep. Me and Christian got out, we started watching TV, and then that day was catastrophic for Bali. We had flash flooding, buildings physically went under, like we have a couple of cars for work.

So we've got my personal car and then we've put in some videos of where Robbie lives as well.

Yeah. So photo here, I have a work car and the work car at the moment takes Christian to school in the morning. One of our team comes to pick Christian up, takes him to school and he'd taken the car home, which he does a lot of the time. It's like, can I take the car home and pick Christian up? Yeah, no problems. I don't care. But I just remember getting messages from Robbie saying, Eboo, like bossku, so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm worried about your car. I'm flooded in. I was like, are you okay? He's like, yeah, but the car's not. And I was like, I don't care about the car. Are you okay? He was so concerned. But then photo, the work car went under. It was completely underwater.

She went under.

She went under.

Now it's Bali at the office right now.

It's Bali. There's no insurance on that car, so the car's basically written off, um, you know. But it's a physical item, so in hindsight, like, yes, I'm very upset, but like, Robbie's safe, his family's safe, his kids are safe. But like, that day was pure chaos. Like, Robbie got flooded in their physical downstairs. I'll put the video here.

There's a photo of, um, Ryan and baby. And so Ryan, little Ryan, who was one of them—

I'm not a hugger, and I think I hugged them when they came into the office. Yes, I did as well. That day, like, we knew it was bad, but our road always floods, so we didn't know how bad it was until we started checking social media. And then Robbie's sending me videos that they're like trapped in the house, they're on the second floor, they can't get out, my car's underwater. Ryan was with Robbie and he's physically been evacuated on a makeshift shaft. I'll put the photo here with his little baby being evacuated out. People have lost cars, people have lost homes, people have been displaced. I'm trying to make sure like, you've been evacuated, where are you going? That's the day I had the massive fight with the supplier who was demanding, if you don't have all the answers to me by 3:00 PM today, I'm not doing the wedding.

Oh well.

Well, it wasn't oh well. I know, I know, I know. But she was trying to tell me it was a booking that came through yesterday, whereas I had proof we booked it a month ago. Yeah. So there's just been so much going on in the last month. So that was also, like obviously sick, flooding. Like I just, it was really sweet actually. I think I told you on the way here before. So one of my clients, My robot, love you. I had an email today, Leah. Actually, it might've come through yesterday. Like I'm not really on my emails right now, but I had an email come through and I obviously, we check in with clients, we give them homework, we need replies. So I emailed this client maybe 2 weeks ago, blah, blah, blah, this is what I need from you right now. This is reply from supplier, whatever it was. I don't really know because I just saw the email back today and it was like, Tristan, I'm so sorry for the delay. I actually saw your email come through and then I saw that Bali was flooded and everything that was going on. So I thought I'd just give you some space to deal with everything.

Bless him.

I hope you and the team are okay.

'Is everyone okay and everyone's safe? Here's all your replies below.' And I just like this morning, my respect for that client just went whoosh. Like she didn't need to say that. She could have just written back everything at the time, but she actually stepped back and went, 'Is everyone okay?' Yeah. So like Bali, it was disastrous. And like the last week calls, everyone's like, 'Is, are you okay?' And I'm like, well, like physically we're okay. Like obviously there's a lot of displaced people. There's a lot of people that have lost homes. We lost a car, yes, it's bad, but we're safe. So in hindsight, we're okay.

I've had a handful of clients like in their last couple of emails like, oh my God, the flooding, like, are you guys all okay? Like actually checking in on me.

And then we had the opposite.

I had a— so nice.

I got lost for 4 hours because of the flooding, but that's another story. But we say we say we couldn't— issue happened anyway. I went back to the client. We're 2 weeks out.

Oh, because some of the warehouses went under. I walked past, they were saying that's how lost they were. We were very lucky. We have a warehouse for a lot of higher items. We were completely safe. But like, actually, I don't know if I told you guys, but Jess from Swire messaged me the other day. Hey, do you have another contact for this one particular item she needed for a wedding this week? They lost their warehouse.

Yeah, because I ended up in that area somehow. I walked past. Multiple of our suppliers somewhere. And they had like, they were damaged.

Yeah.

And I just went to the client and I said, look, we can't give you this napkin. Here's the alternative.

Look, because they lost it all or it's damaged. Yeah.

It's like some got damaged in a wedding. Some got lost.

They complained a bit, didn't they?

Yeah.

They kicked off.

They had a go at me. It's like everything should have been locked in.

And I was like, it was, but Mother Nature. I know.

That's what I said.

You can't help a natural disaster. Are you joking?

No.

No. I think it's just, I think it's just me yesterday.

I was like, are you serious?

I think it was just a stress moment, you know, like a Leah in M&S.

All right. So like, I'm just going to reframe this. And this is a very like good insight to people to how we work. So when you told them what had happened, did you present? Okay. So you did present them options. Cause my big thing is we don't go to a client with a problem. So these napkins are damaged. This is the closest thing. Here's your two different options. So you did that and she's still complaining.

There was an option. Literally, I wouldn't be able to tell the color difference. And I'm very particular on those things. Like that's how close to the match was. The option was get a full refund, we get it from someone else. We use the latte napkin instead of the sand napkin, or we use the venue napkins and we get a full refund still. Still was angry.

So you presented what had happened that was completely out of our control, presented new options and they were still not happy. Mate, fuck off.

It was a natural disaster, you know.

I was like, I literally was like, I guess so.

And you know, these are the kind of clients Steph looks out for. She's amazing though. Like, I get it, you're stressed.

She's just had a moment. If it's like, it's this pink or this pink, I know, that's why I was like, I shouldn't have said anything really. But I'm like, also, that's— I feel like I'm lying to them if I don't say something.

I— this is probably very controversial if you're a client— if they're not going to notice the difference, that's why I'm not. I thought maybe you make a decision for them and you just don't tell them. Okay, I had a decision a few years ago and it was like, this happened, and I didn't even tell the client. I just replaced it with the ballet company.

And then I think we had to do that earlier this year.

We did at Wonderland, remember? Because the tablecloths came in, they were damaged. Was that your wedding or Lisa's wedding? Yeah, your wedding. And I was like, I don't think we've told them. Like, we had—

they have no idea.

We had 7, 8 tablecloths ordered from the company.

9.

And 5 of them were damaged. And of course, and the napkins. And then so when we figured out they were all stained and we couldn't actually use them, I was like, well, we need to get 4 from another company. But what if the 4 from another company were a completely different color? So we just ordered 9 from another company.

Yeah.

And we got a full refund. And then we, out of the goodness of our hearts, actually, it was, it was about $100 difference and we covered it. We didn't even because we just didn't want to deal with that situation.

How do you go to a client? Like, this is the benefits of having a wedding planner.

I mean, obviously we probably should have told the other company they have to pay for it, but I was like, I just don't want to deal with that one. Don't want to tell them, like, it's $100. But how do you like it? For me, that's not much money. I imagine being the bride and dealing with that on your day.

It's the things that we do. Like, I had a wedding in February.

Any other wedding planner would have charged them. We didn't.

I was, I was meant to have a 360 photo booth.

Yeah.

And then they canceled on me last minute or something because they were like, oh, actually we don't have enough staff. I was like, but we booked you, what do you mean? And they were like, oh, we just, we can't do the wedding now. And I was like, okay, what? And we're a few days, literally, I think we're 2 days out from the wedding, deposits, full payment has been made actually. How can they take the full payment and not be able to take you? Well, that's what I said to them, like I don't understand how you don't have a team and we paid a deposit like however long ago.

How does that happen?

And then when we paid the final bill.

How hard does this happen?

And then when we've paid the final bill, that's when they were like, oh, we're actually not available. I'm like, what do you mean?

Anyway, what about that?

That was 2 days out and I ended up getting— thank you, Motu. Yeah, Motu was available and yeah, they were the exact same price. So thank God, but the bride never found out about that. Like that's the shit that we deal with a couple of days out from the wedding sometimes. Yeah, you won't ever find out.

Do you know what I loved? I think it was Alyssa's wedding. We had a wedding a few weeks ago. It actually was a few weeks ago. And we had booked and paid for I actually don't even know what, I think it was content. No, it was, it was content creation. Brooke and Josh. Brooke and, no, not Brooke and Josh. It was after Brooke and Josh. Anyway, we'd booked and paid for a content creation that the client wanted. New company we hadn't worked with, but they'd found them. So we're like, yeah, sure, we'll work with them. We booked, we paid, sent the money, whatever. Anyway, so we send them the final payment, like a month out from the wedding, send them the receipt, send them their start times. And you know what they write back? Oh, we didn't hear back from you. When we've bought into the state.

What do you think the money in your account was for?

Exactly. Exactly. So we're like, sorry, what do you mean? You sent us an invoice. We paid the invoice. Yeah, but you didn't tell us you'd paid it. Babe, does the money not going into your bank account, did you not spend that money or is it still sitting there? And it's also clearly marked Bali Brides client and the date when we send a payment and Ammar physically sends in the receipt. So I don't know if it had gone to junk, but they're like, oh, well, sorry, but we hadn't heard from you and we're now, we have a wedding that day.

We've paid.

Oh, we'll refund you.

Actually, that what happened to me on Sunday. That what happened to me? The cake company forgot about my cake. Well, they forgot about your cake. But no, literally, I, because whenever a cake—

It's been like a while too much.

Whenever a cake doesn't arrive between like 12 to 2, I'm like, all right, where's my cake? Let me check in on them. I'll message them.

I'm gonna put some cryptic code on these run sheets and they've got to find it to make sure they've read it soon.

So they don't read it on 2.

And they were like, Oh, we didn't realize it was booked in. You didn't send us a receipt. And I go through, I find the receipt. I'm like, here you go. It was paid like a week earlier because everything was last minute for this wedding.

I know which wedding you're talking about. You were sent the receipt.

You were sent the receipt. And literally it's got the client names on there and the date. And they're like, oh, you never sent it to us. I'm like, I mean, Anwar pays all the bills. I'm not the accountant here.

So without scrambling trying to find the receipt. I'm pretty sure I said to them like, oh, okay, no problem.

And thank God, they're a great company, but they were like, okay, we'll get the cat to you by like 6:00 PM. I'm like, thank you.

'Cause otherwise I would have had no, you know, like how do you explain that? Well, see, this is the thing with the content creation. So my big thing with the planning team is you never go to a client with a problem. You go to the client with, here's the problem, but here's solutions we've come up with and this is what we're gonna do to fix it. So then they can, Yeah, pick. If, if we have to present it, if we can just fix it behind the scenes, we fix it. If not, we obviously present it. So I've then gone to Alyssa, you know what, let's just blacklist that company. We'll never work for them again. Fuck them. Here's a couple of other content creations. But of course now we have to find a company within that budget. Yeah. So thank goodness we went to the client and said, this is what's happened, we're so sorry, we have two other content creation companies on hold at a similar price range. That one's more expensive, this one's cheaper, not as well known. But, and so we've booked another content creation, but like This is the shit that we have been dealing with behind the scenes. And then just on your thing with the cake, I had a wedding 2 weeks ago. Yep, 2 weeks. Oh, was the dow sick? Dow sick. So I arrive at the venue and I've gone out. So normally when we arrive in venue, we go to certain places first to check. So I always check in with the bride, make sure she's okay. Then I go straight to ceremony, straight to furniture, make sure the ceremony lighting, everything's gone into place. Then I go look at flowers. So I walk out to the flowers and I'm like, these are not the colors.

I think I know this one.

These are not the colors.

I think you sent it to me.

No, no. Was it yours? That was another wedding. We fixed that. So anyway, I get out there and these are not the colors. And then the florist is like freaking out and she's like, no, this is what I sent Alyssa. I'm like, when? And she was like showing me the emails and I'm like, yeah, but we revised this and you sent us an updated bill. And she was still showing me the same run sheet. And I said, I not only did we revise this, I sent you a run sheet a month ago and we sent you an updated run sheet a week ago. Did you even look at them? Uh, I said, show me your emails. And I physically made the florist go get her laptop out and she opened the laptop and said, show me your emails. She opened her emails and she goes, see, I know which florist. And then I literally— she had like 40 unread emails. I'm like, there's my last run sheet a week ago and there's my other one. You haven't even opened these. And so I said, look, "It's gonna be a secret password on a certain sheet." "I am not paying any extra money. You will fix this. You will get me the correct flowers. This is not on me, this is on you." And we fixed it by the ceremony time. But like, this is the shit we're dealing with behind the scenes. So when we are giving you obviously weddings remotely, like there's so many things that you're doing that are going wrong behind the scenes there. But on the day, it's like a whole different ballgame because it's like, we're now on the day, why is it happening? Helpless.

But I've started to work out— I think now that I'm starting to know suppliers better and getting a relationship with them, obviously harder because I don't see them face to face. Like the other day I had an issue with cushions and I was like, oh yeah, these are the cushions I'm like—

and the next thing we knew the right cushions were rocked up.

What?

I was like, yeah, because I was like, because what were they? They were like yellow, blue, pink, or they were like—

and I took a photo, I'm like, are these the cushions that you ordered? Can you just check the invoice for me? and she was like, nope, what the hell are they?

Do you know what's funny? My wedding on Saturday, right? So obviously there's a lot of things that we change after a final meeting with the client. Like it might be like we've removed 3 for catering or 1 more, or like it's always little things, or photography's now starting at 1, not 2. So we're setting up this wedding on Saturday, and because it was a remote planner, like I know 90% of the details, but there's always gonna be a bit of questions on the day, which is why like the remote planners have to be on call on the wedding day. We need to be able to check in with them. So anyway, furniture company comes over to me and they go, where do we want this? And I'm like, what is that? And it's literally like a chest of drawers. And I'm like, what? So I'm going through the wedding brief and I'm like, why a chest?

I don't understand.

So I'm like, I'm looking at— I'm like, could be a welcome table, registry table, maybe we're putting photo booth. So I'm going through, I can't find it. Check the furniture invoice, it's not on there. And then I said, I didn't order that. And they said, yeah, you ordered that with the altar table. So I look at the altar table, the altar table matches the arch, it's the beautiful Javanese one. And I was like, okay. So then I messaged Elissa, hey, just checking, what's this for? She goes, I didn't order that. And I said, yeah, it got ordered with the Java table. She goes, I didn't order the Java table either. So she's like literally ordered all the tables, but everyone's so busy that they just, I don't know how, if that was meant for someone else, but they just sent us two items of furniture. And I was like, it's not for me. That's so random.

What do you use a chest of drawers at a wedding for? I've really wondered this one.

Well, you know, like sometimes people have like unique things and they might, we might put a guest book on there and like memorial table. So it's like a table. So it wasn't like drawers, drawers. It was like a table drawers. So there is some drawers, Drawers, drawers. But no, it was like one of the, like the long 2-meter, like you'd set up as a registry, guest book, candles, like, you know, that kind of vibe. Um, but yeah, there's just like random things. Like everyone's brains are diluted this time of year.

I feel like, and I honestly think everyone has been sick.

Yes.

I think I was talking to everyone, my friends in a car, and I was like, I've been sick for about 3 weeks. And she was like, oh my God, me too. And I'm like, you too?

My hairdresser, I said to you the other day, my hairdresser was messaging me saying, I'm so sorry I missed your birthday. Well, hairdresser friend, I'm so sorry I've been so sick. I was like, same. She goes, you know what it's like? It's like in 2019 when we all had COVID.

But we didn't—

No, she said it was when we all got sick with COVID but we didn't know it was COVID because COVID wasn't a thing. So me and brother and Christian went to Malaysia. We came back deathly sick on our deathbeds coming in. We were scared we weren't going to get into the country because COVID— they didn't know it was COVID, but there was a sickness going around. So we came in and we were sick for weeks. And then obviously like a month later it was like, well, there's this thing called COVID. We obviously had had it, but we didn't know it was COVID. So I'm wondering if like a month there's going to be like this worldwide pandemic or like this illness. It's influenza B, I'm telling you.

Maybe.

'Cause I was sick for ages and that's why I wasn't doing anything about me.

Well, that's what Tan.

Yeah. You heard me, I think.

I'm like, am I allowed to talk about that? Tan, our friend Tan has just had that. We've got a very exciting project on the side and we're just waiting for some final confirmations. You know, you know the thing that we can't talk about yet, the very exciting project that we're going to be a part of.

Oh yeah, the thing.

Yep.

So Tan, who's in charge of that. Okay.

We're working on the Bible.

We're working on the Bible.

We're supposed to have a meeting a couple of weeks ago and Tan basically said he's been down with the flu. The Barley Brides Bible.

I thought I had COVID and then I tested and it's like, said influenza B, and I was like, what the heck?

Yeah, so like I said to Britta, I think it's COVID because my head feels like it's been squashed, but everyone's been sick, like everyone's brains are hurting.

And then that started off my gastro, like my throat and everything, and I just thought— you heard me on the phone and I was like literally like I sounded like I was dying.

Well, that's— and now for sure, I think I was messaging you about some other clients.

It's like it was all just— there was a lot going on at once and I was just like, I'm so sorry, but what's going on? And you're like, well, I've been in and out of hospital the last few days. I'm like, what do you mean? I know you went to surgery one day.

I didn't have my laptop on me and it was stressing me out and I couldn't update.

But I didn't realize that you had gone back several times. All I knew was you had one surgery emergency because it's like, I was like, what the fuck are you doing? She's like, I've been in hospital.

I'm like, what do you mean you've been in hospital? I've been in and out of hospital with my allergies. Christian's obviously in hospital right now. I've got to go back there tonight and sleep on the floor again. Delightful.

Um, but we're going to have a Summer I Turned Pretty.

Oh yeah, you're gonna come to us. What is this final episode? Have you not seen Summer I Turned Pretty?

I feel like you understand.

It's like, did you ever watch Gossip Girl? Yeah. Okay, so like Summer I Turned Pretty is like our Gossip Girl right now. Like, it's the— it's like, is it less drama, more romance-y? But like, it's— yeah, so Christian's really gotten into it as well.

I said to Tristan, I was like, at what stage do I stop watching like teenage love shows?

Probably.

Because I've always watched them and I love them to death. At what age do I stop watching these shows?

And it's the finale tonight and it's gonna happen to me. We've all been watching it together, but obviously— It's not gonna happen to you, it's not like the movies, okay? Christian's in hospital, it's big at the moment. So if we get on social media, we're gonna see it. So we're gonna have a little hospital party tonight and we'll watch it together from hospital. I completely forgot what we were talking about.

We're talking about—

Sickness. Sickness and health.

Oh, actually this is what I was thinking about. This is kind of the other thing that's happened in the last 2 months. So I was obviously very sick. We had my birthday and I thought I was getting better, but this has been the thing with the sickness, up, down, up, down. I'm like, I'm fine today. And then the next day I was like, I lost my voice. But last week, was it last week we went to the village?

Yes.

The village.

So if you are a client of ours or you have been on site visits, you would probably have met either Ketut or Kadek from Bali Bound. They are our— 2 weeks ago. Was it 2 weeks ago? The time doesn't exist in Bali.

Because the floods happened last week.

finally creeped up. 2 weeks ago, all of our staff, we went shopping, we bought kebayas, the Balinese outfit photos here, and we went out to one of the random Balinese villages. We thought we were going to die driving the roads out there, and we spent 3 days with Kadex Village, and we were very over the top. Every time we go around the corner, we'd be like, we did, we took a desk full of drinks. And Katut was like, Katut the driver, like, he was like, you know, like I, we're very bantery when you get to know us. Like I always say there's 7 personalities of Tristan. There's mom Tristan, there's work Tristan, there's boss Tristan, there's friend Tristan, there's drunk Tristan. Like I've got all these personalities and my voice literally changes depending on who Tristan I am like. So on that trip, I was not boss Tristan. I was like fun holiday Tristan. And Kutoot was fun holiday Kutoot, remember? Like Kutoot was not professional Kutoot at all. And then the following week it was like, hey, you're a completely different person. He goes, yeah, 'cause last week you weren't my boss.

Don't talk to drunk Tristan, talk to sober Tristan.

It was honestly like, I understand it was a funeral, it was lovely being there.

Well, it wasn't a funeral, it was a celebration of life. It was like sending him off to—

That's beautiful though.

It was sending him off to his afterlife basically in his reincarnation.

It's not just him, it's—

There were 10 people total.

10 people.

Oh, so it's like a group.

So they're all going off in—

Well, because these ceremonies cost so much money, when one happens in the village, it's like, has anyone else passed away in the village? Does anyone wanna contribute? We'll do one for everyone.

I thought you were sending them off together though. Yep.

So they basically— this was the final step before reincarnation. So now Dad will go off, Dad will be reincarnated according to the Hindu culture. So there was a massive 3-day celebration of life. So we put all the staff into a minibus, we blocked out the week, I booked accommodation. It was a couple hours away and we had like— it was actually really nice pool party. But you did— the problem was I was still so deathly sick. So like, I planned this trip a year in advance and night one they had like what were they called? Like sexy dancers. Let's see if we can put a video up here. So like, oh, I remember this fun thing where this Balinese girl comes out and you gotta dance with her. So they pulled me up first. I don't know why, like there was like 300 people.

Because you're blonde, blue eyes.

I said to Britta before we got out there, I said, tonight when we go there, be ready to smile. She goes, why? I said, because I'm pretty sure we're going to be the only white people here. Like we're going to be the only bullies. We're going to be a photo opportunity. Well, within 5 minutes of sitting down, so we arrived there, right? There's maybe I would say 70 people within seconds, almost 70 people. So Cadet runs away, gets us a chair, sit down. No, like, I'm in the village, like, no one else is sitting down. I'm not sitting down. Gives me a chair, gives like 5 chairs for the Barley Brides team. Nobody else has chairs. So we sit down, and I'm not even joking, within 10 minutes, with like 100 people behind us. Yeah. And then within like another 5 minutes, the kids are walking past, like, high-fiving in front of us. And then there's this little girl, and she's standing in front of me, she's high-fiving me, and she's I said, do you want to sit on my lap? And she's like— so I've got this little girl on my lap, and then another little girl comes up. She's— so I've got two kids on my lap, of course. And then they're like, then she gave us a friendship bracelet. Another one, another one standing next to Britta. So we're like, within, I want to say, half an hour, there's probably 200 people just surrounding us. Like, it was wild. And then these performances start. It was a beautiful night.

It was so funny.

It was so funny. Like, the dancers, they pulled— was it Robbie up?

We got told that it's actually illegal to do these dances.

It's not like a common thing in a village, so you've got like old school Bali, so it used to be common, but it's not illegal, it's like frowned upon. Yeah, kind of like gay marriage, it's not illegal but you can't do it.

Yeah.

Um, so, but the dancers are like, the dancers, a girl in her, um, traditional Balinese outfit, you know, and then they come up and they dance with her and they get a bit cheeky with her. Um, it was hilarious. And my favorite part was pulling up all the men.

I think you guys sent the video.

Can we put the video up? It's going to be culturally inappropriate. I reckon we'll put it up here. I will remove the song that I put on there. So like, so Robbie got up and danced. Robbie's got a wife, we love his wife, but Robbie got up into the stance and then I jokingly put over the top, somebody come get her, she's dancing like a stripper, but like implying that that was Robbie, not the Balinese girl, right? And then I sent it to his wife. So that was hilarious.

We, we brought drinks with us as well.

Like, so we, we had a gin party by the pool, we had sand ties first, we'd had a cheese platter that afternoon. So day one was great.

How did the cheese go for you?

I didn't eat it. I've been really good with my allergies. I'm actually like, I don't know if anyone at home's watching, but I've gotten quite skinny. Yeah, I've been very good with my diet.

Can I be allergic to everything?

Yeah, I've been very good with my diet. So like I probably, I actually probably had 2 cubes of cheese and I stopped it there because the thing is I've got like 14 things I'm allergic to. So if I have one thing, I will only have one thing for the day. But previously I'd had 4 things and allergic react. So I've been very good. So we had that big night, but because we were like, woo-hoo, yeah. The next day I woke up, I couldn't talk. Ketup was going out getting me medicine. I was down and everything. So that night I went to bed very early and that was the big ceremony day. I got there and I was like, I feel like I'm gonna pass out. But yeah, the whole team spent 3 days doing the traditional Balinese village thing, traditional dress.

That must have been a great experience.

It was. I'll try and put some photos up here. But also I think that sets us apart from a lot of other companies. I am so down for supporting all of our suppliers and anything they want us to. 'Cause you care. And for Kedek, even night 2 when we arrived there, straight away it was like, you guys have a table? I was like, no, no, no, like this. Let the older people sit down.

Like, could I pick Jamie up from the airport?

Like, personally?

Yeah, it was either him or it was one of the two. And I just said, just message him, he'll sort it out.

So like, I just feel like it's been such a massive couple of weeks. Like, we've gone from sickness, we've had floods, we've been on hospital visits, we've had this massive like Balinese village thing, plus all of the weddings. I don't actually know how we've juggled all of it, but I'm pretty proud of us. Yeah, it's been a lot. It's been a lot.

And then obviously you've arrived, but I think that's just I feel like that's just probably any wedding planner, to be honest. It's peak season.

We've seen a lot of weekends as well, which was an adjustment, which I think threw us a bit.

With all the people we let go? Yeah.

Yeah, that's an adjustment. It doesn't matter good or bad. When someone leaves, it's obviously an adjustment.

Well, we had to downsize. We spoke about this in one of our last episodes that I, as a boss, fucked up a lot. I hired very quickly and we discussed this in the car on the way here. I just had the most spec— well, no, you— I know, I know, you came and helped us with a thing and then you've slowly moved through the roles. But I just had the most spectacular CV come across my desk and I was like, Tristan a year ago would have been like, let's have an interview, you're hired. Which is how a couple of our people got through the door because they look great on paper. But now, like, new Tristan is like, first CV looks great, here's 10 questions. And they're like very strategic, but they're also like, tell me what your favorite cocktail is. And like, I love you guys at home, but if you don't have a gin and tonic with us at the party, you might be a great worker, but you don't fit in with our team. So you're not gonna be a good mesh for the team. If you, you know, if I say we're having a movie night next week, who wants to come? And you never attend a social event because it's outside of work hours. Like, I don't want you on the team.

Meanwhile, Leah jumps on a plane.

We have to spend so much time together because we work long hours in peak season. Outside of working, you need to fit with the team. So like my hiring process now, courtesy of my business school, is very strategic. It's very planned out. So like we've got people that were supposed to start a trial this week. Previously it wouldn't be a trial, it was like, you're great, loved your interview, here's your contract. And that's where we fucked up. So now it's like, question 1, question 2, send me a video, interview 1, interview 2, trial. You get a 1-day trial if I like you, 1-week trial, team judges, and then you start.

You're very good at being transparent and involved in the team though, like, yeah. That's not often the case.

Well, I think I also took from Barley Event Hire when we had them in for their interview, they said that their team hires the team because they need to work together. They need to make sure that the people that they're hiring suit the team. And I think that's what I kind of fell down. I was like, oh, their resume is great. They've got so much experience. They're gonna be great. But I haven't factored in what they were gonna fit in with. Jill, like, you know, even like Thursday, like you were in the office the other day and it hit like, 6:00 PM and I had one more call, you had one more call. And I just messaged the group chat, little gin, do we want a little treat? And I was like, yes. And then Al had nothing to do. So we sent him to buy gin. Well, we already had gin. So I sent him to buy tonic waters.

Al, you failed miserably, by the way.

This is the difference between a wedding planner and a staff member.

What did Al do?

We sent him to buy tonic and he brought back warm tonic, like just warm cans. Like, no, we want cold tonic for the children.

And only a few. 5.

I thought it was gonna be a gentle night.

No, because he's not a wedding planner, so he's, he's not logistic. Like, he's very good, he's artistic, he's great with people. Like, that's not his role. Amazing. So like, it was like the ongoing joke, like, tell me you're not a wedding planner without telling me you're not a wedding planner. He bought warm tonics and 5 of them. So yeah, but like, you know, the other night, like, you're here at the moment and you're coming to the office, like, imagine— and this was one of our team members— it hit 6 o'clock in the night, and I was like, yeah, so like, I've personally, out of my own money, ordered a bottle of gin had it sent into the office. We found a bottle of whiskey because that's what you drink. Elle's gone out and got drinks, but the company's reimbursed it. And then we were at the office till midnight just having drinks. Like party outside. But if you're not going to stay and have a drink, or I get it if you've got kids, you've got something on, but if you've got nothing on that night, you're like, no, I don't want to hang out with the team. You're not my kind of person. Sorry.

You spend so much time with people. Like, I mean, we spend so much time on computer.

So our hiring process has actually gotten really good. This year, I feel. Yeah, I mean, we haven't hired— I did a mass cull and we got rid of a lot of people, but now we're rebuilding and I feel like it's gonna be a lot better. I feel like it was essential for Bali Brides to scale back a little bit. We grew so fast post-COVID and we fucked up a lot.

I think people were taking the mickey out of you as well.

Well, they were, because like, as I said, like generosity, some of our hires, like, it was like, I've known that person for years, they're a fantastic wedding planner where they are, but I hadn't actually seen them work. I just kind of, yeah, you know what I mean? Like, I'm like, no, they're great, but I hadn't actually physically seen that. So we offered them a year contract and then I was like, oh shit, like we're 7 months in and they're actually useless.

Yeah, well, not useless, but they're just, no, they just, I feel like they really did take the mickey out of you. Like, you don't ask for much from your team. Like, you're very trusting in us that we're going to do what we, we need to do. Yeah, yeah, you are.

It's like if someone is very morning off off. Like, Tristan trusted— we'll be in on—

in like in the afternoon. Or the other day, like, well, Britta promised me yesterday she's gonna have it to me today. And I was like, well, it's literally 12 o'clock, she'll have it to you today.

And also, I trust her.

I'm not going to message her right now.

Like, our working hours start at 10 AM, so of course, like, that's only 2 hours.

If it gets to 4:45 and she hasn't replied, then I'd be worried. It's literally midday. Yeah, she's been online for 2 hours. You're not like— you're not the only thing she's dealing with.

And then I feel like these people were— you asked for Very little. And when you're taking the piss out of that very, very little.

You know what, actually, so like, this is completely random, but on the way here today, we've got a staff member at the moment who I love. And this year I think the pressure has been too much and they're not doing a great job right now. Me? No, but I literally said to Britt today, like, it's actually like sometimes I'm like, rah, and like, I I question things and I'm like, what are we going to do about this? Because I do believe in like giving chance, chance, chance if I can. Or if it's a major fuck-up, like we've only ever terminated one person on the spot and that was a major breach in like my morals more than anything. And that was a— I found out it happened, they were fired an hour later, don't even come to the office. So like I'm a big believer in giving second chance, letting people like fix things. So like this person's— not that they're like, they've done nothing majorly wrong, it's just they're falling behind. Yeah, they're not keeping up. There's a lot of things happening behind the scenes personally as well that I know about.

Out.

But I was at the hospital last few days, been working a lot on the business, and there's a system that I wanted to introduce that I kind of said to them, hey, look, there's something we're going to be doing, we'll slowly move to it, but we need time. So like in offseason, we'll sit down and go through it. So anyway, we're slowly coming to offseason. I'm just going to log in and have a look at that again. I logged in and every single item since I introduced that person and said just have a look at it is logged. All the finances logged. I'm like, oh my God, this person has been working behind the scenes logging every single order every single inventory and all of the billing. And I've literally logged in, I'm like, I didn't even ask them to do this. And it's fucking done.

Like, whoosh.

So good.

Yeah, I know.

Amazing. Yeah, but you do, you give a lot. Like, I've fucked up plenty of times.

Everyone's fucked up.

Yeah, I know. But like, you know, like in some businesses, you're not a human. You're just—

Unless you have— My biggest thing is accountability. And this is my word of the year. If you fuck up, like a couple of our companies have that we work with in the last couple of months, own it. I'm so sorry I fucked up. I've got this thing with Britta and I had to teach Britta this. If you work 2 events Thursday, Friday, and you email a client Monday, never ever, ever write I'm sorry for the delay.

I don't say sorry in any email.

You do not say sorry unless you've fucked up because then when you actually need to say sorry—

I remember you telling me about this. You're like, why are you saying sorry?

I don't say sorry anymore.

I have this weird thing. With Christian at the moment. Like, so my little boy says sorry to me like 10 times a day. I always say, don't say Christian, turn the TV off. Oh, sorry, Mom. I'm like, what are you sorry for? Like, I've just— do not apologize to me unless you've generally done something wrong. So when Britta was last— not last year, maybe the year before— she was emailing, sorry for the delay. I was like, no, you're not sorry. Thank you for your patience. Yeah, you say sorry when you've fucked up and you've done something wrong, you're generally— because otherwise when you do mess up, they've already heard sorry so many times, it's irrelevant. So So at the moment I'm canceling calls left, right and center this week because I can't, I can work, but I can't take calls from the hospital. People are in and out. So I'm emailing, hey guys, just to let you know my son's in the hospital. I'm gonna cancel our call. I'll come back to you Thursday. Thank you for your understanding. There's no sorry. I'm not sorry I'm canceling that call. I'm gonna rebook you. So like my biggest thing at the moment is everyone makes mistakes. As long as you own it and I can fix it, it's not a massive deal because if you don't make mistakes, you don't learn. So some of the mistakes you've made, some of them didn't need to happen. You will never make that same mistake again. And unless you are physically fucking up one of my clients' wedding days and you have no care in the world, it's not a massive deal. I don't know how people couldn't care about their wedding. Well, some of them don't.

I know, I know. I think that's just who they are.

So everything behind the scenes is fixable. I don't even know what mistakes you've made because they're not a massive deal to me anymore.

Oh my God, I could list them all off.

So you could, but for me, it's already been gone. As long as it was fixed and the client never found out about it and didn't impact on their day, not a big deal. Feeding someone something they're allergic to, that's a massive fuck up.

Yeah, that's a massive—

I'm so sorry, it will never happen again. We didn't even get that. It was like, oh, well, it was our SOPs and this person. And I'm like, no, there's actually been no apologies.

You literally could have killed them.

You own it and you say sorry. That is when you say sorry.

Also, I really, I think I said this to you, like in that case, you really need to offer them some kind of stomach acid. You've lost their trust.

At the moment they're offering us a full refund.

Probably what we said, I'm like—

That's not, they like the venue.

Yeah.

Sorry.

So when you're saying to me, I know I've made a lot of mistakes and like, that's me, like, but you haven't, you have obviously, everyone makes mistakes, we're human. You don't do everything perfectly. So the biggest thing I think is we learn from it. We figure out how to fix it. And you need to be a critical thinker. Like you need to be able to figure out how to fix it and not just go the napkins. And one of the planners that we worked with would literally email that client with the napkin or whatever it was and say, they don't have the napkins. And then it would be up to the client to figure that out. But we want critical thinkers and—

Oh my God, there was an issue with the hair and makeup artist once.

They're not available anymore.

Hair and makeup artist double booked us, so we got a refund. But there was nothing else to that email.

I've had that issue this year. There was nothing else. There was no outcome. I've checked 5 other companies and I've got 2 on hold. This is similar. Like you have to present a solution. And I think that's where you're really good at. Like, yes, you're making mistakes, but you're also learning. Like you're not repeating the same mistakes.

No, I just have to learn the hard way sometimes, which is atrocious. It's just, look, it's just—

But you're very lucky that we have a whole team behind us. When you make a mistake, it's fixable.

Yeah. But I've also like, I think yesterday I was like, why am I asking you? You're in hospital with your kid.

I have a random question. So this is coming back to something we're just going to continuously pick on. You've been with us now, let's say if we purely focus on your wedding planner role, how long have you been wedding planning now?

I think like 2 and a half.

All right. So this is like a hypothetical.

I'm scared.

Very hypothetical. You've been with us 2 and a half years. If I fired you tomorrow, do you think you could start your own company?

No, I wouldn't even bother.

Why?

Because it takes a team and you are my knowledge. There's still things I, on a daily, I'm like, hang on, I don't think I need you. Like I generally will be in the right direction. But I need confirmation. That is someone's most important day of their life.

So what do you feel about our ex-staff members who you know, who have worked with us? Let's say one of them was with us for a year.

Yeah.

Actually, it was probably 15 months. 15 months has started their own company wedding planning before us, never wedding planned in their life.

They're going to fail. I'm sorry. Like, and I know who you're talking about, obviously. Yeah. I have no hard feelings towards these people.

I didn't even get a blessing.

How do you feel about this? So like, I actually get more pissed off because I feel like I don't care that they want to do their own thing. Like, I feel good on you, but I feel like you need to do some freelance for a few years to really get—

or have some experience.

Yes, build up.

Or like, when you've been with us a lot longer, so the fact that you've been with us 2 and a half years planning and you think you couldn't run a company—

no, because I, I don't have those skills. Number one, I do not have the management skills that you have computer-wise. Yeah, which I don't think any of the people that have gone out and started their own who have that, just knowing them on an admin level and cleaning up some of their mess. Um, and not only that, I've worked in hospitality. I managed, yeah, bars and things, all sorts. Very different to wedding planning, very different to wedding planning in a different country, very different to wedding planning— they're locals trying to cater to a Western market. Very different, very different.

What about for like, let's say our ex-salesperson, only ever worked in sales, never planned a wedding. Idiot. Started their own company replying on forums, I'm a wedding planner, we'd love to help you.

You're not, you're a salesperson and you're a shit one at that, sorry. You just sold things to get money. You sold things to get a commission. That's what he did.

So like, well, that's what they do. I'm not trying to badmouth any other company.

No, and I think that's a massive—

But do you think with that, like knowing everything that goes on behind the scenes with 2.5 years, experience, you're saying that you couldn't start another wedding planning company. So like, not just our staff, but other company staff who have left and now are popping up on Facebook undercutting us, which is fine. Like, you have your own prices for your own value. What do you think is going to happen with those clients in 6 months' time?

They're going to come to you. They're going to go to other— look, there's other amazing wedding planning services in Bali. Well, and I've said this to people, it's a very personal thing.

I am very supportive of whatever you want to do. Like, if you were to like like this is kind of delving into staff things, but in our contracts now, we revised all our contracts this year, we actually have a non-compete clause. So if you leave us, you can't directly compete with us for a minimum of a year because my process is—

That's very common.

My processes are like my brain, my blood, sweat, and tears. I don't want you copying that and going out and doing that somewhere else.

No.

So Yanti, who's been with me for 10 years, when we presented her the new contract, 'cause that was a new thing after all the issues, she said, Tristan, that's not fair. and I said, you know what, Yanti, I fucking love you. You were the only person. So my general manager was like, has to be in there. And I said, no, I trust Yanti. And if Yanti was to come to me and say that she's not happy, she's starting her own company, I would 100% back her because she has spent 10 years with me. That's her prerogative. I would support her. Obviously I'm not going to be happy, but if she leaves me, that's my fault for not retaining her. So when people are leaving and starting their own companies after a year, I have genuine concerns. Like, one of these people, we're friends, and I'm like, I would support you if you just told me about it.

But like, yeah, you would as well.

That's the thing, like, you weren't a good wedding planner. What are you doing?

Also, they couldn't follow basic procedures that you had set in place.

Well, we had a major issue that Britta had to clean up the pieces from, and thank God she was there that one night at a wedding because something happened and they had a major meltdown at midnight and wanted to call me. And Britta was like, no, no, remember the dance floor marquee debacle? Oh yeah, yeah. So You need to be able to problem solve on your feet and you need to be able to do it without upsetting the client. So I'm really curious as for you behind the scenes moving through the roles with 8 years of experience in Barley Brides, why you think you couldn't start another wedding planning company?

That's the thing. I don't have the management skills that you have. I do not have the ability to sit down on that computer and do what you do. I can see you on spreadsheets and I'm like, what the hell?

Tristan loves a spreadsheet.

She loves a spreadsheet.

I can't work it out.

I'm like, I don't understand your spreadsheet, mate.

I don't get it.

No, wait till you see what we're introducing this year.

Oh my God, I'm so excited.

So excited. So excited. But not only that, I think there's times where even you've asked questions and then with all this 10 years plus experience and you've had a team to fall onto. I don't think wedding planning is a one-person gig.

No.

No.

Not at all.

I mean, this week, thank goodness I have no weddings on this weekend, fingers crossed. Lost, my son will be out of hospital by the weekend.

You run yourself down.

Imagine if we had weddings this week and I was a one-man band. I'm sorry, I'm not leaving my son in hospital to come to your wedding. Like, my son comes with— I would hire another wedding planning company, but I've got Britta, I've got you, I've got Yanti, I've got— like, I have such a team behind me.

I also think they're very scattered, and I don't think as a client you're going to feel reassured and I'm safe in that. And I think you see these posts quite often on Facebook and they're like, oh, I'm like 4 weeks out and I haven't got my florals. And I'm like, what? Like, huh?

My biggest thing is like anyone can start a website and reply to emails. It doesn't mean that on the day when you show up and the tables are wrong that you know how to fix that.

No, but also.

It also doesn't mean that you're not gonna have a breakdown. Like both of you have had breakdowns, mental breakdowns, but you've got me to fall back on. You've got me to fall in and say, hey, like, let me help you.

You.

What do you do when you don't have that experience and you're having a mental breakdown?

You have a breakdown and then your client cops it.

I had Tristan, I think it was, I physically left a wedding and went to Britta last year because she was having a breakdown at a wedding. And I just went out and had to calm her breathing down.

How do you do that without a team? Is it not a one-man show?

Because so many things had gone wrong and the pressure on her. And I took her outside and that's why I said to her, it's good you're crying because you care that shit's gone wrong today. And it was nothing that Britta could control. The cake had shown up wrong. There was all these little things and she was so upset for the client.

It was the lead up to the wedding as well. Lots of supply issues.

The DJ, the makeup artist. Oh my God, there was a lot. So like, this is my biggest thing, like anyone can answer an email, anyone can be bubbly for you, but do they have the backup and can they cope?

But how long are they going to reply to that email after they've got your money? Like if we don't reply to our client's email, we, we'll see.

This is the thing, the new companies, they can, they're like so fast because they have nothing going on. They're not out of office, they're not going to meetings, they're not doing anything, they're behind the scenes.

I also think I've always, I don't know why this was happening to me so young in working. If you have to badmouth someone else to get customers, you need to reassess what you're doing.

See, like I'm the biggest advocate for other companies. And like on one of our coming episodes, we're actually gonna have Desi from BVL Events has already agreed to come on the podcast and be a guest. We've got Soiree Society, Ingra, Jess, and potentially Wayan, who's part of, well, he's them, but he's Drunken Love. So we've got like other wedding planners lining up. I can tell you that there's like, I think me, like we've got this little community. I am very close with all the other wedding planning companies, but not all the other wedding planning companies are close to each other. If that makes sense. Like I went and worked in massive—

I don't think I've ever heard you badmouth. Besides people that deserve it, which I wouldn't technically call them a big wedding planning company.

We've never said anyone by name.

No, but I've never heard you like, you—

I remember when you were training us and you were like, what sets us apart? And I was like, well, nothing. We're no better than anyone else. It's if we gel with a client or not is the difference. And everyone was like saying, oh, you know, we have more experience and stuff. And you're like, nope, nope. Are you going to go say that to their face? But that's the thing. If you have to badmouth someone and try to poach someone to get work, your work isn't good enough.

100%. And see, this is like one of my biggest mindset changes the last 2 years because my business coaches were like, and we get clients say to me, I'm talking to this company and this company, why we should choose you? I said, they're all fantastic. Of companies you're talking to. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna try and push you into any one company.

It's such a personal experience.

But then like my business coaches are like, no, but Tristan, look at everything you've built. Like, I don't know everyone— well, I know a lot of planners personally. I know that I am the only company that has a built-in AI bot to talk to my clients 24/7.

Yeah, that was sick.

I know that I am the only company that if I fall sick today, one of my senior planners can step in and take over my wedding. Like, we have process. So like, I do think there's things that set us apart. But from a personal level, like, I think everyone's fantastic. And like, I do have a very good relationship with all the other wedding planners, which, you know, not every wedding planner has. Like, we had a wedding planner a couple days ago and I sent out a group message, does anyone want to go work with this wedding planner? Two of their staff are sick, they don't have the team we do. And no one put their hand up. But then I literally— she was like, what about this person? Like, she had no one. So I said, look, leave it with me. And within an hour I had literally spoken to 4 other wedding planning companies and I had the owner of another wedding planning company introduced her and had her go out and help her for the day. Like, who does that?

Me.

But that speaks volumes about the quality of your work. You're not scared.

I'm not scared of other companies. Like, everyone has their own thing. And like, honestly, me and Soiree Society, me and Jess are very close. And 2 days ago she said, the warehouse is flooded. Do you know where to get this? Yep. Give me a minute. Here you go. Here's a contact. And we go backwards and forwards. And like, I am so down with sharing information. Or like, I don't think we're a good fit. You should go talk to you know, Bali VIP, they do that better. Or I think that you're a good fit for client A because she wants like a Lombok wedding. I don't want to do them, but I know that Tash and her team likes doing those weddings. I don't want to do them, go to them. So I'm very big on sharing that knowledge. Yeah, but again, like, I think this works.

But I think that speaks volume about you're confident in your own work.

But I think it comes down to the bad mouthing. Like, I'm not bad mouthing these new companies, I'm just saying they have no experience. And why would you go with them over an experienced wedding planner that actually knows their shit?

Also some of them only have the knowledge because of you.

Yeah. I don't know how much they only have a snippet of knowledge. Like we have a salesperson, we have a wedding planner, we have an accountant, we have a boss. When you're going into a one-man band, I didn't teach them how to boss. I didn't teach them how to problem solve. I didn't teach them how to do the accounts.

Like I don't know how Amor does that. Like he's like, remember?

And I'm like, What the hell? See, I'm like, you're dyslexic. Yeah, I'm dyslexic with numbers, so I see 6 and 9 as the same thing. Or if there's like 85—

yeah, that's a word—

like 8585 or something like that, I can see that as 5858. So my numbers mix in my head, so I physically can't do accounts. Yeah, but I know how to do the accounts, it's just I can't do it because I make mistakes. So like, I've trained Anwar, who does accounts. I've trained Steph, who does sales. I've trained you, who does the behind the scenes. I've trained Britta, who does wedding planning and coordinating. So when you've got 6 different roles and I've trained you in one, how do you do running a company not knowing the rest of the roles?

And how do you do all those roles and give the client the amount of love that they deserve? Because I'm telling you right now, if I wouldn't be able to, like sometimes I need help from other people. Like you were like, how can I help you? How do you?

Well, even our sales girl today is like, Tristan, I don't know how to do this. And I said, give me until tonight and I'll come back to you.

You're like, how do you get that help when it's just you?

Exactly. And I have a business coach. So even me as the owner, I still have a business coach. So I'm like, hey, I've got this problem, how do I fix it? And then we've got a community that comes back and helps me. Like you can't do it on your own.

No. I would have multiple meltdowns if I tried to do that on my own. I'd be sleeping in my cupboard permanently in the little dark in the corner, like, like shaky backwards and forth.

Now I feel like we probably do need to start wrapping up because we I don't think we can do another episode today. I don't think so. No, we're not. I think this two-part episode's perfect. Leah's— Oh, so if you're watching along at home, don't.

Leah.

Leah.

I've been waiting for this opportunity.

Does all our artwork for the podcasts. That's also part of her role. She does our artwork. So I don't know what, we need a cute photo of the three of us. Maybe we can take it at the wedding on this weekend. Yeah.

I've got to try and not be a dinosaur.

We've spoken about this.

So Leah's getting married this weekend.

Maybe. That's our final thing. So the next thing we're going to have a recap on Leah's wedding. So Leah was supposed to be getting married and then it was not getting married and then it was. What's going on? Like, give us a tea, Leah. Listen, that's fine.

None of my family listens, so let's go.

Let's go. Spill the tea on your own wedding because this is probably a very good perspective on— you're a wedding planner in Bali, obviously you've got a team behind you. Tell me about planning your own wedding because I've explained spicy, ADHD, autistic, um, yeah. So that's what we call spicy.

Very, very straight black and white thinking in some situations.

And also I can't concentrate on one thing at once.

Yeah, nah. I think I was walking down, I was like, oh, butterfly. And I was like, shit, Leah, on task, on task.

You were.

I was like, oh, butterfly.

I was like, oh, pretty butterfly.

And I was like, on task, Leah.

But your brain works a bit differently.

Yeah, it does. It does very differently. It just likes to be, do its own thing. But originally we had, it was always gonna be small. We've both been married before.

Can we just first of all, like we recapped on when you were engaged. When did we decide to have this wedding?

Jamie decided we're getting married before he even proposed.

Yeah, but when did you actually pick a date for the wedding?

I don't know, before like January, December last year. Yeah.

He picked the date. So like 7 months, 8 months before.

It was in our calendar first.

It was before, before they even, the ring was getting made. Oh, actually I deleted it because we got canceled.

You got canceled?

No, I put on the calendar and then we canceled it from the calendar, so I don't even know if the original date's on here. Ah, no, it was always a wedding this weekend. Yeah, I know it was, but we put it on the calendar when you told us and then we canceled it from the calendar because we canceled the wedding. Yep, 7 months ago it was put into the calendar. Okay, so it's still the same. So in September— in February we put this on the calendar. You got engaged in March. Yeah, so 7 months ago, December, Leah booked in her wedding. Tell us about your wedding planning process.

Well, It's still going.

I don't care.

Like, I care about other people's wedding more than mine. It'll be a jolly old time. But I was originally, so it was always gonna be sport, both been married before. I'm also a bit of a bitch. So if you can't make an effort for me, I'm not gonna make an effort for you. [Speaker] All right.

So I'm just gonna like, for all those DIY brides at home who are like, I'm gonna plan my own wedding and you are not a wedding planner. Let's just run through Leah's wedding. So Leah, have you got a celebrant?

Yeah, you.

Like, let me just put this in. I am not a celebrant. We've touched on this. Legally, I'm not allowed to be a celebrant. However, Leah's a bit— Leah had a celebrant booked in. Leah canceled her celebrant. And then she said to me a week ago, you're going to be a celebrant for me, right? And I was like, well, no, because you booked someone else. And she said, oh, but I canceled them.

I feel like we need to tell them the whole story.

You didn't book me. Did you book me?

No, I didn't. I thought I messaged you.

All right, so we're just going to go through the checklist. So celebrant, technically—

But wait, wait, wait.

I'm going to stand up and talk. But aren't I supposed to be your flower girl slash champagne girl? Yep. So I'm walking down the aisle and then I'm going to leave the ceremony. Yep. Well, that works. We don't know. See, this thing, her wedding's in a couple of days. All right. Do you have a photographer? Yep. Videographer?

No, don't want one. I'll never watch that video.

Hair and makeup?

Well, yep. Thanks to you.

Yep. Entertainment?

I just had to cancel that.

Yes, I do.

I've even got a saxophone booked.

So these are your key suppliers. Very easy to book. Do you have a florist? Yep. Easy to book. Do you have sound system booked? Yep.

Only because I know.

Yep. Do you have lighting booked? Yep.

Only because I know.

When did we do that?

When I booked the DJ, I made a little—

No, no. When did we book your lighting?

Well, Thursday last week in the office.

Yeah, Thursday last week. I also want to change that. Do you have a floor plan?

Yeah, I do. I did that last night.

Last night. We did a floor plan last night. Do you have a run sheet? No. So when on the day— Have you chosen cake flavors? No.

Cake flavors.

Catering's booked, that's pretty easy.

Have I sorted stationery?

Where's the speaker's gonna go?

Look, this was me at 5 AM this morning.

So you're a wedding planner, and I just wanna point out—

I've never seen the venue. Yeah, you can't do it.

You cannot plan a wedding by yourself. Leah is a wedding planner, and Leah is still, I was supposed to run through things on Sunday with you, but obviously I went to hospital. So it hasn't been done yet. Thank goodness it's small. We're gonna be able to do this with a few days notice. It's not possible to plan your wedding by yourself at home, guys.

Also, if you haven't seen the venue, Probably, like logistically I could probably work it out.

But I know it's going to be a bit fiddly.

I sent you 3, 4 plans a few months ago of where things should go.

And I don't think it's gonna, like logistically for me, I gotta think I'm gonna have to switch the bar. Like I've got a tattoo, temporary tattoo bar and stuff.

I've booked you a couple of freelancers who are ex-Barley Bride staff. Like again, I've got a good relationship with most of our ex-Barley Bride staff that can coordinate.

Again, I openly said I don't wanna be sitting there directing people on my wedding day.

Yeah, and you also don't speak Indonesian. So like Echo, like even the other day when we booked your lighting in, I had to get Robbie to come translate. Yeah. So like now that we've kind of established that as a wedding planner, you still need help. Where's your wedding at? What's going on? Tell us the tea.

Okay, well, what happened was, excuse me, you listening to my tea?

Yes, I am.

It's boiling kettle.

Ting! Ah! What's the teapot noise? You know, it's like you put it on a thing and it— my brain is— yes, that one, that one. Of course I can come up with that. The kettle is going off.

Listen, Robbie's just sending me photos of cleaning my scooter.

Oh, slay Robbie.

Love him.

Can he go clean mine?

Yeah.

Well, mine's been at the mechanic.

Oh yeah, that's right.

Yeah. We originally invited like 40 people. We told people before we were even engaged.

Like in January?

Like in December last year. We told my family and his family September next year because we were able— Jamie's got a son that lives in a different state. He gets him in school holidays. Obviously the school holidays he gets him in isn't good weather in Bali. We were always going to do in Bali. It was a no-brainer. 40 people were invited. That was bare minimum, just family, close family. Um, my family just complained about it constantly. And I just had enough. Once again, when I say I'm spicy, very black and white thinking. So yeah, that's literally what happened. Um, and then his family just said, oh no, we don't want to go to Bali. One lied to our face and said that they didn't have the money, and then one bought a truck. So that was cute. And I was like— and the other one lied about the allowances.

So is this when the wedding got canceled?

Yeah. And the final straw was my sister told me me after carrying on for months and months about flights and stuff, then my nephew wasn't going to be able to come. I don't care about them, I care about my nephew. Like, if he can't come, what's the point?

Yeah.

And that, that was the final straw. And like, obviously my dad fell quite ill with lung cancer, so he couldn't come.

Um, that was—

I'm not close to my dad, so that wasn't—

I was gonna say, because I've known you like 10 years. Yeah, it wasn't a big thing for me.

But like, on the same day was the date, my sister literally casually texted me Oh, it's just me coming, positive notes that can help you on the day. And I was like, what? Hang on, hang on. Rewind. Where's Harry?

I don't care about you.

I love you, but where's Harry?

He's the star of the show.

And I was like, no, I'm done. I just looked Jamie and I was like, I'm done. I was like, why are we spending? I think, look, also extravagant. I had been given a budget of 30 grand. I didn't need it. I probably would have gone overboard.

I would have gone and got a stylist.

And done the florals, because we all know how much I love flowers and plants. Um, I just said, I'm not doing this, like, this is stupid. So I was like, I'm canceling, obviously.

So we canceled the wedding.

We canceled the wedding. And then Leah, um, had a moment to cool down and not be such a hothead, and then realized, you're probably gonna lose all those deposits, Leah.

Not probably, you were. Even as a wedding planner, you were not getting those. 100%, never getting them back. Everything was paid.

Yeah. And I was like, all right, we'll just go.

It's not like a little thing like, no, everyone's keeping your money. She's a wedding planner, she's got the relationship. She still wasn't getting—

no, I wasn't getting the money back. I wasn't even gonna ask.

Yeah, like, that's, that's— it's terms and conditions.

Yeah, that, that's black and white. I'm like, sorry.

Um, did you take out wedding insurance?

No.

Oh, Leah, what was I going to say?

I changed my mind, I want, I want my money.

No, you'd make up an excuse and went back here. Yeah, no, we wouldn't. We would not do that. That's fraud.

That's insurance fraud.

We would never do that.

No, cut, edit. So it was 7 grand for the villa and I kind of woke up one night as I do and I woke Jamie up and I said, are we really going to waste 7 grand on a holiday? And he was like, typically Jamie, babe, I just do whatever you want.

And I was like, fuck man.

Make him mind up.

I said, he's like, I'm not planning it. So yeah, it's a joke.

You're the wedding planner?

Yeah, literally. I'm gonna throw something at your head, mate. He did go buy candles. That was good of him.

Did he measure them?

No, he did buy the ones that bleed though, because they bleed red.

That wedding's gonna traumatize me.

Yeah, I don't understand the candle situation. I do not get it. So I said, okay, if I spend 10 grand on the wedding, might be slightly over. He doesn't know that. "Can we spend the 20 grand on Tokyo and go to Disneyland?" And originally we thought, we did look into eloping at Disneyland as well.

And I said I wanted to come 'cause I missed your first wedding.

Yeah, and that was big. That was actually a big part of my decision. 'Cause I was like, do you know what? Tristan stood by my side through more than what they have.

I planned your first wedding. I missed your second wedding. Well, you organized the engagement. Your first wedding didn't happen. Like I'm blessed. Well, you rang me when like your last marriage, obviously it was COVID. I don't know. Was it rushed? I can't remember. But for whatever reason, you got married and the borders were shut. And you rang me and I was like, why am I not there? And you were crying. Yeah.

Yeah.

It was an emotional day. So I was like, I was pissed that I was, there was an opportunity, like a possibility that I wasn't coming.

You've also done a lot for me over the years that like, I think I would call you before I'd call some of my family members. And there was also a dynamic in my family that was being forced upon me inviting someone. And that was a real big, and I was like, you are not respecting that this is a solid boundary.

Yeah. I remember.

And like, I don't know. Obviously, you know, I've suffered with mental health over the years. Like, I've come a long way to who I was 10 years ago.

We both have. Like, you've seen me in my lowest points. Like, we've come a long way.

And it's been hard work, and it's hard work putting in boundaries, and it's hard work sticking to those boundaries, especially when people cave in. And I just said, well, they don't care about me realistically.

Yeah, they don't care.

If I said some stupid thing like, I'm canceling my wedding, you'll be like, okay.

Like, would we support you? Yeah, like, and no question about it. Okay, I can't— are you okay? I canceled the day coordinator because I knew that there was the opportunity to take the other work, but anything I paid for I didn't cancel. I said, we'll figure out—

no, no, I think Brittany said—

well, uh, I don't think she actually canceled, Ronnie, because she knows what you're like.

Yeah.

Um, we could have used something with— we could have gone out, you know, a day.

Yeah.

Well, and then I was like, why, why am I catering to people? And I think this is a big thing, especially working in industry, A lot of brides forget it's actually about you and the groom. Like my mother said to me, oh, it's about me too. And I said, it's not about you, mate.

You're not getting married.

I am.

Yeah, exactly.

She just couldn't comprehend that. So that's why I was like, nah, do you know what? I'd rather just have you guys there. We didn't tell the kids until they got to Bali. And then my daughter called my sister yesterday and told her. And I was like, Billy.

Yeah.

I think they know. I think they know it's gonna happen. Well, look, they know what I'm like.

I was gonna say anyone that knows you probably knows it's gonna happen.

Yeah. And I just said, well, I'm not wasting this money.

I've already spent it. It's not my fault you didn't come.

And Jamie was willing, like, God bless him, useless human being, beautiful heart.

He's got a beautiful man, beautiful soft man.

He was like, babe, I'll just cop it.

Don't worry about it.

I'll just pay for it. It doesn't matter. I want you to be happy. And that's when I was like, nah, fuck him.

And it's already booked. We'd already started planning.

Yeah.

And I was like, let's make it another beautiful little staff day on Sunday supporting you. Essentially, that's all it is.

Oh, then we looked into an engagement party, you know.

I hope I'm out of hospital by then. I know, I might— I've just come like—

I know, I've already like— I've already— it's fine, I already— if you can't, you can't.

Well, no, like I've already teed up IU, so IU's already working. So even if I come to the wedding, go straight back to the hospital, like I'll be there.

Can we get him a nanny? And not a nanny, a nurse.

Well, no, IU's there. Well, no, it's more if he's still in hospital. If he's at home, it's not a big deal, but the problem is he's still in hospital.

And yeah, I would, but I also wouldn't expect you to come.

No, of course I can't. Like, my thing is, like, this is what I mean. Like, my family can't be bothered getting on a plane.

Like, yes, he's still sick, but he's better than he was.

Yeah, I know.

And I'm not— like, besides, you're not concerned that I'm waiting for a doctor today, which is why I keep looking at my phone, because we're waiting for a doctor to come consult, and I'm not there. You're not scared he's going to plummet down? I'm not scared he's not going to plummet. He's like— we're just waiting for him to get better. So I obviously, as a solo mom, I have to be at the hospital for him because he can't sleep by himself. He has to have someone with him at all times. But it's not like Saturday, Sunday, Monday where it was like consults with doctors and what's going on. We know what's going on. We just need we need him to get better. He's not getting better. So like me leaving today, I was like, well, I'll come back at 6 and we'll have— and then I'll send the nanny home. So like your wedding, I will be there. If he's in hospital, I will come out for the day and then I'll just go back to the hospital. I won't stay the night and I won't come out the night before. I won't get married, but I'll be there. We need to work out your ceremony script.

Yeah, well, that will happen. Um, I got my dress now. It's all right. I left my dress behind as well. That was a nonchalant, like, oh, it'll be right, someone will bring it.

Can we have the tea of like, you're a wedding planner, what are your suppliers? Tell us what, who you've picked and who you've recommended and why you've picked them.

I don't want to because some them wouldn't be my—

Okay, cool. Let's not talk about anybody. Let's talk about your wedding supplies afterwards when we do a review.

Because there was someone that I wanted, but because I canceled, I couldn't have them.

I know who that is and I know why. So that's fine. Anyway, we've got your wedding this weekend. So let's just wrap it up because we are probably way over time on this episode, which is now split into two episodes.

That's why Leigh can't come here often.

No, you know what? You're here, like we said, we're gonna do a meet the team and you're obviously remote. So we had a lot more to run through and a lot like because we do a monthly recap and normally it's a month, but it's been 2 months. It's been a lot. But anyway, thank you for joining, Leah. Next episode, we were going to film it now, but I'm exhausted.

I think I'm going home.

I don't know what the next episode is. It's going to be a good one. We are actually going to get Soiree Society in as well as Drunk in Love to chat about catering and bars and all those things. And future episode coming up, we have just got Ungasan, the— what's her official role now? She's been promoted. Sasha from Ungasan. Wedding director? Yes, I think that's a role she got promoted recently. So Sasha from the Ungasan, one of Bali's top venues, is going to be coming in and joining with us. And on the same episode, we are getting Yudi from Soul Social. Yeah, Soul Social creator. So future episodes coming up, amazing. Thank you so much for joining us for another— but where are you? Right, another episode.

Another one.

Another episode. And we'll see See you in a fortnight. Woo!