S1 E8 - Yearly Recap

Wedding planners are just invaluable, honestly, for planning a wedding in New Zealand. Everyone speaks the same language as you. That's a big key point, right? So everyone gets exactly what you're saying, whereas there can be a language barrier over here. And you might say, I want this, but it actually ends up being something else.

You know, planning my own event, the suppliers just go awall and they just like, we're gonna put that there and we're put that there. I could not imagine if that was my wedding day and I didn't know someone. And to be fair, I did. I actually employed a freelance planner that used to work Valley Brides, but she worked in elopements. And she did a fantastic job, but not used to the big events that we plan and you know, my level of ocdness. So there were things that were picked up that if I hadn't been there, I don't know what I would have walked into.

And being able to make someone's thoughts into reality is honestly something that just I don't think can ever get old.

It was a celebrity wedding and even though we didn't have to sign an NDA, we will respect the privacy of that wedding because the media hasn't found out about the details.

Being a wedding planner, you have to love. You have to love your job you're doing. You have to love what you you doing.

That day, I feel like I was cursed because anything that could go wrong that day went wrong.

Foreign.

Hi, I'm Tristan from Barley Brides and welcome back to another episode of Bali Weddings Unveiled. I'm joined by my co host Britta and today's a very special day for us. We are doing our end of year recap. So stay tuned as we go through all of our highlights of the year, all of the issues from the year, and a little bit more about the team that we joined here today. We've got our wedding planners as well as our wedding butler, Al. But I will let them introduce themselves.

Hi, everybody. My name is Al. I've been with Bali Pride since May last year and it makes it one year and a half now. On the day, I will be in charge taking care of you, your bridal party and all of your guests to make sure they get what they want, what they need on the day, and just basically well taken care of.

Amazing.

Hi, my name is Mita. I joined body by since 2018. It's been seven years and I love being a wedding planner because may all fairy tale become a reality. That's it for me.

Amazing. We'll pass over to Yanti.

Hi, everyone. My name is Yanti. I'm with Ballybrides for 10 years. I'm based in Bali. Being on the grounds, it's. Yeah, I get to work closely with venue, all the vendors. That's a big plus.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Leah and I have been on and off with Bali Brides for five years.

And I am a remote planner. So I'm based in Australia, but come over every now and then and get to make people's dreams come true.

Hi, guys. I'm Emma and I've only recently joined Bali Pride, all the way from the Netherlands. And so far, it has been absolutely incredible to become part of the BB team and to learn all about planning your dream wedding in Bali. Hi, everyone.

I am Alyssa. I've been with Bali Brides for around two years. I live in New Zealand, so I am a remote planner. I started as a PA for Tristan. I still do that in the background with planning as well. And, yeah, it's been amazing meeting everyone and actually having direct contact with.

Right.

So that's been really, really cool.

All right, so today we are going to be doing our end of year recap, and we're going to dive in a little bit more to, you know, favorite moments from the team, learning a little bit more about us. Because we are your key planning team here in Bali. We are the ones that you're going to have frontline contact with, especially Alyssa. As you heard, she is also my pa, so she's been working behind the scenes, and she answers emails and helps me with my stationery and does all the things when I'm out with the rest of the team. So what we want to run through first, Alyssa, we'll start with you. What has been the highlight of your year, moving into a new role as a planner.

I feel like definitely the highlight of the year is coming forward and actually getting to have that direct contact with, you know, new brides and grooms. And instead of just being kind of behind the scenes, I've been able to actually plan people's dream days instead of, like, planning behind. Helping behind you. Yeah. So you've had your vision with your brides, and it's been really amazing to actually have, like, a turn at having a vision with the brides, too, and just plan everything. And, yeah, it's just absolutely phenomenal.

Amazing. Now, as a remote planner, you're obviously doing all the planning and the frontline communication with the clients, whereas our team on the ground here do the coordination on the Day, however. Cause you've been over for our anniversary party. You actually just attended your first wedding, although you didn't really get to work it because you're, you know, you're remote. You don't have the right visa to work. You got to come and observe and meet your client. How did you find that day? Run me through, like, what was different to, you know, sitting behind the scenes, actually seeing your day come to life, that you've helped this bride plan.

Yeah.

Honestly, it was amazing. It was absolutely amazing. Usually, like, with the ceremonies, someone will FaceTime me and I'll get to watch the ceremony. But actually being there and you actually feel the emotion of everyone, and it's just. You get tears in your eyes when you see the bride walk down the.

Aisle and help him.

Help him prep for the walk. And, oh, just watching the love. And the first dance. Oh, that is.

I love that you got very emotional during the first dance. I saw you filming it sent to your husband.

I was like, do you remember when this was us?

Yeah.

Just so special to actually be there and feel the vibe instead of just kind of watching through the cameras. You still get emotional, but just. It's a completely different feeling. And. Oh, and all the weddings that I have been to when I've been here watching and observing, you get that feeling every single time. Like, just to be on the ground is. Oh, it's amazing.

Yeah. Now you're probably going to have more insight to this than the rest of the team, yourself. And Leah, you've obviously planned your own wedding in New Zealand. You're now doing planning for couples, obviously, from all around the world planning their wedding in Bali. We have a lot of people that approach us that think they can plan their own wedding in Bali. From your experience helping couples plan weddings in Bali, but doing it remotely, are there things that you were surprised by or you're like, oh, my gosh, I don't know how they would plan it by themselves without the team. Is there anything that you're like, I don't understand, or you think it would be easy?

There are so many things. So wedding planners are just invaluable, honestly, for planning a wedding in New Zealand. Everyone speaks the same language as you. That's a big key point.

Right.

So everyone gets exactly what you're saying, whereas there can be a language barrier over here. And you might say, I want this, but it actually ends up being something else.

I haven't that pointer coming way too many times.

So much.

Yeah. Listen to, like, the tiny little things, like, you know, you hire a dj. You're hiring a dj. Yeah. You're not hiring sound, you're not lighting a gen set. Like those tiny little things as well.

Yeah.

Which I think especially in Australia, like you hire a dj, they're bringing everything.

Yeah. It's not the same here.

No.

Yeah.

And I think a lot of venues over here too, you don't realize that you actually have to bring power to run everything. So in New Zealand, comes with lighting, comes with power, you get everything kind of with the venue. But over here, those are small things that people forget. And if you rock up to your wedding day and you don't have that.

Yeah, a bit of a big thing. What was the biggest surprise that you found? You know, learning how to plan weddings and something that, you know, you may, you maybe have had to come to me or the team with and be like, oh, I didn't realize that. Because it's just a standard.

Definitely lighting. Yeah, yeah, definitely lighting. It was kind of like you expect lighting to be everywhere. Like at Wonderland, that venue, it's just.

Pitch black, there is nothing there and.

You'Re on a cliff top. Guys, like, you need lighting.

Yeah.

So, yeah, lighting was definitely a big one that I didn't understand. And also locking in key suppliers because they go so quickly, that was another thing. Like, you could usually leave hair and make up to like last minute in New Zealand.

Yeah.

And find a really good hair makeup artist. But over here, if you want one.

Of the good ones, you got to snap them up.

Now, before we move on to Emma, I do just have one final question for you and we'll come back to you a little bit later. Obviously you're not based in Bali as working as a remote planner. What advice can you give to clients that are obviously not in Bali of things that you've still had to come to the team with or get Yanti's help or my help or, you know, one of the locals to speak the language. What's the key thing that you think you need a wedding planner for that's based on the ground in Bali, or in your case, based in New Zealand, but has access to a whole team in Bali? Do you think you could plan weddings remotely without a Bali based team?

Quick answer. No.

There is a massive long answer, but yeah, quick answer. No, I think you definitely need a wedding planner for Bali. Yeah. There's just so many things, nits and grits that, yeah, you just don't even realize. And having a planner, especially setting up the day. There are so many times where I've seen people set up. Not to the floor plan.

You saw the debacle at our wedding the other day. It was your wedding. But I arrived after we had been getting messages all morning and the lighting was in a completely wrong place.

Yeah.

And you have to center everything. Like. Yeah, sure, it could get set up, but you're just going to have a setup. You're not going to have this beautiful, delicate, you know, ocd. You know, it can be just table plank there, dance floor plank there. It's not visually aesthetic, you know, but having a planner there that can actually direct and be like, this goes here. Read the floor plan. This is what the bride and groove want. Ding, ding, ding, ding.

Yeah.

I think it's like putting yourself into, say, a bride's shoes. And if you're in hair and makeup, who's out there overseeing everything?

Exactly. Yeah.

No one de stress like you. I don't know if you had it with your wedding. Like, when you're telling people you have to do it the day before and you have to set everything up. Whereas in Bali, you load in on the day, you're paying for an extra day. So having that planner there to be like, this is how it should be. The run sheet, like just the run sheet alone. The fact that, like a run sheet is done, you can just relax and sit and take in the moment of getting ready as a bride.

Like, this is your day. Yeah. And know what you're about to walk.

Out to is your wife's dreams. Like, that's what you wanted for that day. Yeah. Like, I think it's big thing.

Plus invoicing.

I don't know if you've had invoicing. Like, just see invoicing. In Bali, everyone invoices differently.

Our clients wouldn't see that because we put it all onto a master invoice. But every invoice is done differently. And some of them are so confusing.

Yeah, 100%.

And that's what I think. I mean, our system's not perfect, but we're getting there.

But I think when you ask the question of what, like the team like that just that invoicing. Obviously our client doesn't see that because we simplify it, but it's. It's a bright. If you got all those invoices with.

All those zeros, all the different bank accounts, all the different payment methods, different currencies.

Yeah, yeah.

Try to convert, like if some of USD into Indonesian from Australian dollar. Like, oh, my gosh, that would be so overwhelming as a. It's someone who's not used to it and on their own, trying to do you a big day. Like, my Lord, I don't know how anyone does that.

I, like, experienced this, but didn't experience this because obviously we've just had our anniversary party, which was incredible. Do we all have a good time? We all took the day off yesterday to recover, but I. I didn't want you guys to have to work. I wanted to make, like, this spectacular event for you guys as a team and also for all of our suppliers. So I did all the planning by myself.

Britta.

Britta was there as well because we obviously lived together, so she had to see bits and pieces. Alyssa checked my email, so I'm sure she saw bits and pieces. But because I was so OCD on that fact, on the day of the party, I was on site at 10am setting up and I was directing where the furniture's got to go. And like, no, I don't want that there. I want that there. The amount of times, like our welcome sign got moved from upstairs to the quarry area, like, no, that's not where I want it. So even, you know, planning my own event, the suppliers just go AWOL and they just like, we're going to put that there and we're going to put that there. I could not imagine if that was my wedding day and I didn't have someone. And to be fair, I did. I actually employed a freelance planner that used to work for Bali Brides, but she worked in allotments and she did a fantastic job, but she's not used to the big events that we plan and, you know, my level of ocdness. So there were things that weren't picked up that if I hadn't been there, I don't know what I would have walked into. I'm sure it would have been beautiful, but it wouldn't have been my vision and I probably would have been disappointed. Disappointed along the way. So, yeah, I completely get what you mean. Like, you have to be hands on to make sure things are set up the way you want. Amazing. Thank you. Now, Emma, you have recently joined us. Tell us.

Yes, you.

You lived in Bali before. Tell us a little bit about, you know, your journey with Bali, I guess.

Well, I have kind of lived back and forth between Bali and the Netherlands from a very young age. So from when I was three till I was 15, basically, because my mom was obsessed with Bali. And then I went back here in 2018 for a long period of time. And then about one and a half year ago, I was here for six months. And that was kind of like trial period to see if I could actually live here. And then I went back to the Netherlands for a bit, worked as a wedding planner in the Netherlands. And then I was like, there's just this one element missing, which is dream weddings in Bali. And yeah, that's when I came in contact with you. And now I'm here.

And now you're here. And being a wedding planner in the Netherlands, what are some of the biggest differences, you think from your job of planning a wedding in the Netherlands vs. Bali?

So many differences, to be honest. Actually, the entire setup of the day itself, we have cake cutting during cocktail hour. We have don't really have the groomsmen and bridesmaids. And then on the wedding day itself, it was just me as a wedding planner and we had party manager. So we don't even have like an emcee or anything. It was just me who did the emceeing as well. Basically, when your wedding much. Yes.

Basically when you're wedding planner in the Netherlands, you do everything by yourself.

Yeah.

And that's actually what I love about Bali brides. Teamwork makes a dream work.

Amazing. Now you're still fresh. You've only seen a few weddings. Have you got a favorite moment from a wedding so far that you've seen with us?

Favorite moment a lot. Let me think about that.

I just really love seeing the Ungersang clifftop resort.

Yeah.

Because I feel like that's such a beautiful venue and especially with the different, like you have several villas. So that gives you the surprise element when moving from, you know, ceremony into cocktail hour into reception.

Yeah. I don't know, it's just. Everything's just beautiful so far.

So you've been thrown with a lot.

I know. How long you wedding?

Only two months now.

We celebrated her one month anniversary at my wedding at Krester. We got her a cake, remember?

Yeah.

Well, dance so very fresh. Yeah. I mean, besides the venues, what would have been your favorite, like, let's say, entertainment so far?

First it was the fire dancers.

I've already seen them quite a lot of times.

Yeah.

So I feel like now it's maybe the water drummers. I really like the water drummers. It's very like interactive with the guests and everything.

So.

Yes.

Yeah.

They're a vibe for sure.

All right. Yes. Amazing. Leah.

Yes.

Leah. Your journey with Bali brides a little bit different because you have been with us for a long time on and off. And I guess the reasoning there was you came on board to help out a Little bit the sales and in the inquiries. And you kind of moved into an admin role, helping out. When we started getting busy, then Covid hit and we didn't really talk to you again until, you know, we needed help with admin again. And then we moved you into a role of wedding planning. Can you tell me a little bit about your journey and you know, how you've found that?

I found it extraordinary, to be honest.

Yeah. So obviously I've gone from an admin role, sales into planning. And I think for me, I mean, if you can't tell, I quite like to be creative and have a vision and follow that through. And being able to make someone's thoughts into reality is honestly something that just I don't think can ever get old. Yeah. Like ever in my life. Like, even the boring stuff that I know a lot of people don't, like, like just making stationary. Like, I find that such a thrill.

You're the only existence I know.

But people say that I literally stay.

Up until like 1am and like I will move something like a millimeter and I'd be like, yep, that's better. Like, it will be off. But I don't know, Like, I just find it so rewarding. Like, just. And seeing the pictures of something hits different when you know you've done that.

Yeah.

Like someone gives you a picture.

Oh, yeah, that's fine.

And then you make it. Yeah. And don't get me wrong, the process can be tedious and exhausting and extremely frustrating, but the end result makes it worth it like 100 times over. So, yeah, I guess. I don't know. I still remember when I was like, why is my name next to some of these wedding numbers? And you were like, well, you're going to be planning them. And I was like, what?

I think. I think you were similar to Alyssa. Alyssa was already working behind the scenes. Realistically, she's planning weddings. Like, the email would come in and she'd see it in the morning. It's like, can I book that photographer? She booked the photographer. And then it was like, hey, like, we'll only give you a small amount. And we actually stuck to that. Not like you small amount each year, but so you can make some extra money. Like, do you want to plan a few weddings? You're already doing most of it anyway. She's like, okay. And that's. I think it's kind of with you. It was like, you've worked in the admin and you've worked in the sales, but you weren't passionate about it, like, if I can say that.

Oh, yeah.

But, you know, the moment we gave you a wedding to plan and said, hey, do you want to give wedding planning a go? Like, I want to. You were actually. The trial. Because a couple of companies I know do have remote planners, and then they have coordination, team, et cetera, separate. And it was like, we'll do this on a trial basis, I don't think. And you can probably all assess that because we all follow you on Instagram. I don't think anyone on our team is as excited as you are about every aspect of planning a wedding. And, oh, my gosh, look at the fireworks and look at this beautiful thing the team are doing today. Like, you are so excited about every aspect.

And it's. Honestly, there's enough. Look, ducks and animals and weddings are probably the only things in life. Like, it just so. It feeds my soul. Like, I don't know how else to describe it. And like I said the other night at the party, obviously, you know, you hear that stereotypical boring. If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. And you just think, like, I don't know.

I don't know.

For me, I went 30 years of my life being like, yep, that's bull dust. Like, I don't think anyone loves their job that much. And then obviously, I moved into planning, and I was like, I get it. Like, I get it. And I used to think, how on earth do you guys. I don't know. I don't know if everyone else realizes how many hours you work in peak season, back to back. Like, my body would give out.

It would not survive.

And I always thought, how on earth do you do it? Like, how do you do it? But when you're hearing you're reserving, you're literally feeling that magic.

Yeah.

Like, you. Like, okay, I get it.

Yeah.

It's a different feeling. Like, you get it. Like, for me, it's like life changing. Almost seeing that from behind the screen.

Yeah.

And then feeling that in real life.

You're like, oh, God.

Like, okay, I get it. I get it.

Yeah. So, again, like, Elissa, you're not here on the ground running the weddings, but you have been. Like, you were here in Bali earlier this year, one of your clients was getting married. So we took you out, and you sat and observed and watched everything go down. And you went to Yanti's wedding the other day and kind of watched and had a look around the venue and just kind of watched it all come to life. What do you think the Most exciting part of that day was for you.

I think, so different. I think for the one that I. My wedding, I.

Because you had that relationship.

Yeah, I had a very good relationship with the bride. And, you know, there's ups and there's down, like everyone has in life. Like, in the bride experience that right up to the moment that I literally was pushing her out the door because she was said, I can't do it. I can't do it, and said, you.

Can get out of.

But just seeing, like, the beam and obviously even just seeing your bride walk down, I had tears. Like, just seeing that bride. Sorry, grooms, I know you're there, but.

It'S not about her.

Just seeing that bride come out and walk down that aisle and just that glow that they have is just. It doesn't even matter. It's like, they couldn't. Everyone talks about the white dress. I think the bridesmaid came out and I was like, oh, my God, her dress is beautiful. It was. It was like this glittery dress. I thought it was a bride.

And then the bride came in and I was like, oh, like, yeah.

Just. I don't think that could ever get old. And that's sunset.

Yeah.

Everything set up.

Yeah, yeah.

And then planning the wedding behind the scenes and being behind the laptop and, you know, the communication for us, that's like 80% of the job on the day is probably about 20%. Is there anything that happened at the weddings that you saw that you were like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe, you know, the team on the ground are dealing with that, or what would happen if they weren't there? Like, is there anything that's kind of shocked you that you just wouldn't have expected so much, so much, like, even.

One of our weddings not too long ago? Just the lighting, like, it's. Some of it. And the gen set, like. And I was like, are they indoor lights? Like, what is happening?

And obviously all the lighting went out. Yeah, yeah.

If the team wasn't there and you're on your wedding day and the lighting goes out, well, I guess I'm stopping partying and I'm going to sort that out. Whereas I don't really think they had much of an inkling. Like, obviously they knew parts of the lighting was out, but not.

That's right. That was your wedding. Yeah, I. I was like, I know that was your wedding. That's why you knew all the drama. Well, that's actually one of my stories for later is diving into that wedding, because that was a classic Case of why you need a wedding planner. Because the amount of things that went wrong that day, that weren't our fault, they weren't, you know, human nature or out of our control. But the bride had no idea about any of it.

No. They thought it was fantastic.

Yeah.

And which is great that that's what we dream of. That's why we're here.

Yeah.

But I just don't know how you even made it through that day. Like, from the moment that day started.

I think I've only cried twice at weddings. From, like, one was because we spoke about this in the last episode. I had a groom take us. Not a groom there.

What was he?

Grooms or no grooms, Groom. No, the daughters. The groom's daughter's husband. Yeah, Boyfriend. The boyfriend. He was very drunk. We cut him off in the bar because he did something very bad and he tried to take a swing at me. And from then on, we've had security weddings. So I cried at that wedding. And I think that wedding was the other one that I've become very close to tears, actually. No. I cried because I had someone else get really aggressive and scream in my face once and. Yeah. But I've never cried because of stress. I think some of the girls here have cried because mistakes have happened or whatever. But that wedding, I was like, what if? What have I done to the gods.

To deserve this day?

And you were just on the other end the phone. Because I just constantly like, oh, my gosh, this has gone wrong. This has gone wrong. I just needed someone to vent, to be dealing with it. But I was like, yeah, crazy.

And I think the other. The other big one is, if we give you advice, take it.

Because that was another wedding. Trust us.

I got a phone call. It was from Britta and you. It was about alcohol. Byo And I was like, no, that's what they ordered. I did suggest extra, and they were like, no, no, no.

We only need three bottles of vodka for our entire wedding. Yeah.

And I was like, no, I think you need about six. And then.

And we talk to a bar company. We talk to a bar company and we get the recommendations. Yeah, yeah.

And I mean, I've done a lot of work in hospital. And, like, I spoke to.

Yeah.

Bar company. And then I was like, no, you're definitely gonna need more alcohol.

Like, that's right.

That Mandera wedding, that was the one.

And I.

But yes.

And I'm messaging Leah.

Just checking.

Was there meant to be more alcohol? You were like, yes. It was like, stress at first. You Were stressed. You were like, oh, my God, like, did they forgot to bring it? And then you were going through the communications, like, no, they culled the bottles and reduced.

They reduced and then they ran out and they had to pay three times the price for us to get it, you know, outside from a different supplier.

Yeah. Because that's what happens last minute.

Trust your wedding planner.

Amazing. Now, Yanti, let's move on to Yandy. Yandy, for anyone playing along at home, is what I personally, I call her my unicorn because she is magic and unicorns are mythical creatures. There's only one Yanti. All right. Yanty's been with me 10 years. She started the business with me all that time ago, she was by my side as an assistant. She's moved into planning. Yanti, welcome back. It's been a year. How many weddings have you done this year?

This year, 25, if I'm not mistaken. 25. And I got one cancel sessions, I think.

Yeah.

Why did they cancel, may I ask?

It's family's issue. And, you know, one of their family members very sick.

So.

Yeah.

Now talk me through that. I mean, we've gone through a lot of the good things and you know, there are stressful things. What happens when you have to cancel your wedding in Bali? Is it. Is it refundable? Like, how much work do you have to do? Is it extra work for you because you've got to go through it or like, what's the process?

So it's absolutely non refundable. Once the deposit page, all the payments go towards to the vendors, like venues vendors. So we lock in the date with them.

Yeah.

And they typically ask for 50%.

Yes. And 50% don't pay straight to their fees. Yeah. I think one of the things that a lot of people don't realize is when you're booking, let's say a photographer. Yeah. And you paid the deposit to the photographer. You're not paying for that photographer just to be there on the wedding day. You're paying for the cost of their website, for the cost of them running a business for their cameras, for their equipment, for the admin, for the time backwards and forward for them to turn other clients away on that day. So even though they haven't worked. Yeah. They've still put in all this work behind the same.

Same goes to our wedding planning fees.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah. So when you cancel, like, what happens then? You've got to contact all the suppliers. Is it a lot of work?

Is 100%? Lots of work. So we have to, you Know, like get back and forth with the vendors.

Yeah. Do you think it's fair? Like, this is something, I mean, toying with and this would be very controversial, but for us as a planner, we take a 50% deposit upfront. That's to lock in our date and, you know, all the admin work and things and backwards and forwards and the quoting and then we get to workbooking everything. We lost a lot of money during COVID because everyone started canceling their weddings. But we'd done all the work. Yeah, it was all done. All we had to do was sharpen the day for, you know, the 10, 12, 16 hours, whatever the day was with our team and then the rest was done. But when they started canceling, not only had we done all the work, we then had to put in extra work to go through and either cancel or postpone everything. So I'm like now toying with the idea that we charge a cancellation fee to have to go in and cancel. So even though if you've only paid us up to 50% or 80% or whatever it is, would it be fair for us to charge an extra fee? Because it is a lot of work to go and cancel extra works for us.

And obviously, Tristan, you would know I have been in a position where I have had to cancel my wedding. And this was what, 10, nine years ago? Yeah.

That's how we met. Yes.

I am blessed that I was refunded, but never did I expect that refund because the amount of work that goes in what you see on the day is very minimal to everything asset, it takes place. And then to cancel, you know, you've got to contact everyone. Yeah. You've got to explain why. And it's not one person, it's a team of people. And then obviously sometimes there's a language barrier, so you've got to get other people. It's not a simple task, it's not a stress free task. So I think the idea, I mean, like you said, it's controversial, but being someone that's been in that state, I don't think that's amazing to ask.

I feel like it's harder to postpone a wedding than it is to cancel.

Yeah.

So I think charging a fee for a postponement. Absolutely. Like that is so much more work. It's going back and forth with so many different dates. Whereas if you're just canceling, it's like, sorry, guys, these guys are canceling. Please release the date. Like that's only really one email you got to send out. Whereas with Your postponing, you could be going back and forth with up to five, six times. Like.

Yeah, I mean, and we've just had issues at the moment.

I have to do that for, like, two of my clients for next year.

To find out what they've paid and what they need to pay.

So I think it's totally valid to have a fee to postpone.

It's a lot more work for us, you know, on a planning front, to have to go backwards and forwards and do that sort of work. And that's on top of our normal just planning your wedding.

Exactly.

We're not. We're not Billy new to cancel your wedding or to postpone your wedding. We really need to be doing that.

Yeah, yeah. No, just. Look, I've had that one wedding that I'm planning at the moment that is a postpone. And then we're read. It is confusing. Yeah, it is a lot.

Because you're talking about so many dates and you're getting confused.

Yeah.

And then you've got to work out who they've booked, what they've booked, what pack is, what the price difference is. If. And I think this is another big thing that people don't realize in Australia or when you're not from Bali, if it's a certain amount of time, your deposit is nil and void.

Yeah, well, we've got that in our T's and C's about you must postpone within a year.

Yeah, yeah. Which I don't think a lot of people understand. And they're like, what? But I've paid. Yeah, I understand that. But there's more.

Yeah, yeah. And also, like, if you postpone your wedding. We actually just had this. Luckily they're going ahead now, but the volcano has been erupting this week and, you know, it's delayed a lot of flights into Bali. And British client rung me on the day of our party. They're getting married tomorrow. And she said, my family can't get here. We're gonna have to postpone. And I was like, well, everything's done. It's all paid, the food's been ordered. I. Let me check the venue. Thank.

Good.

But then, like, I spent the first two hours of that day and Emma helped me, is trying to line up a date in the next week when the family could get here of, you know, who's available. Because once you've paid that deposit, if you change your date and they're not available, you don't get that money back. And they paid in full. So, yeah, it is a Lot of work. And for us like that. I should have been ready, getting ready for the party. And I was coordinating and I was messaging suppliers and checking about the food. Like it's a lot of work. Yeah.

And I think it's. Well, it's a. An emotional toll because I think you personally become invested in your clients.

Yeah.

As a planner and when these things happen, like you feel that on a personal level and then you not stress, but you know, you're. You're upset for them because no one's have to postpone or do anything. There's also you've got that emotional toll on top of everything. So it's more than just this, this black and white picture. Like there's so much more to it.

Yeah, 100%. And Yanti, you have had some really big weddings this year. You've been with me since day one. I just want to hear a little bit about your insight because I am. I don't know if anyone else finds this annoying, but I would. I've changed the way we do things so many times, and I think it's an improvement. Like, what's different about how you planned weddings, let's say, five years ago to now?

Five years ago, it's.

Yes.

Completely different from now.

Do you think the budgets have gotten bigger? Because your first wedding, if I may say so, was absolutely stunning. It was a venue that's shut down now, but you did all, let's say, hotel weddings and very small budgets.

Yeah.

You're now doing very big budget weddings. I think you've just done your most expensive wedding this year ever. It was stunning. It was a whole production. What do you like more? Do you have a preference?

I like about what you call it.

Hotel weddings, villa weddings.

I love filler weddings.

Yeah.

Because you get to see the beautiful setup and we use, you know, like higher end suppliers like the fenders.

You have a lot more freedom.

Yeah, true.

Especially the decor and stuff.

Yeah. What would you say your favorite wedding venue is this year?

Clifftop venue in Uluwatuit. Beautiful sunsets.

Yeah. Amazing. And let's move on to Britta. You're with us all the time. Let's move down to Meeta.

You know about me?

We all know about Bruno. You see her face every week. Mita, tell us a little bit about your journey with barley brides.

I joined in barley bride. Starting as an allopment specialist and doing like only for the intimate wedding and small wedding. And start growing up with the wedding planner. And then Tristan, trust me, with the filo wedding now.

Journey that's been a big journey.

You've come a long way from, you know, the small little elopements and, you know, vow renewals and things and into a planning position and some of the weddings you've done this year. We also just awarded you wedding planner of the year at our anniversary party because you're just so consistent with your work.

Yes.

What would you say has been your favorite wedding this year and why?

My favorite wedding is, I think it's like if that the guests like give me like a bigger trust and you know that she just like, okay, I just leave it to you and then I just give you the mood board and then I want. My vision has become the reality and then. Yeah, you see, just trust me.

Yeah.

I'm hearing a lot of trust. And me and brother have covered this so many times. You need to trust your planner.

So important because there's some of the client at the stages, don't really trust planner. Then they just like book the vendor by theirself and then just like ask the planner to contact them and then they expect the best thing from the vendor. But it's not really our recommendation, you know?

Yeah. Why do you even get a wedding planner if you.

Yeah, it's true.

Everything yourself. Like exactly. Exactly.

I had an inquiry call a few weeks ago and they wanted to bring everyone from America, all the key suppliers, photo, video, dj, hair and makeup.

You're getting married.

Exactly. I was like, why are you getting married here if you want to bring everyone with you?

That's crazy.

Unpopular opinion. If you don't trust your wedding planner, don't hire one.

No, I also say don't like over trust. Don't over trust. We need your opinion too. Yeah, guys. And have a big. There's like this happy grand. Or when we say trust, it means still have an opinion when we tell you something. Believe us. Yeah, just leave it.

We're not lying to you.

Amazing. Now, Mita, you did a wedding and we touched on this in one of our last episodes. You've been working at Ubud quite a bit this year. Yes, obviously. Myself, Britta, Emma, we're technically not allowed to work in Ubud because it's outside of the regency of our work permits. As a foreigner, you just did a wedding at a beautiful forest venue where, correct me if I'm wrong, they almost killed the DJ accidentally.

Can we name names?

Yeah. What was the venue? It was beautiful.

Do you like working in Ubud? Like, I think it's beautiful out there. Very gentle.

I told you that Working in the Ubud is like great venue but you know that the venue. The venue is like a bit, you know, we need to. Bit exercise.

Bit of exercise.

And the ground is so difficult.

Yeah, yeah. And do you get charged extra access fees, I guess for the suppliers that have to walk up and down those stairs a lot rather than just loading straight in. Is there extra fees?

Yes, they need like an extra fee for the loading because it's. They quite have a heavy access to do. Go to the downs. Yes, because it's like down.

Where they're.

Back and yeah, there's a lot of stairs. I did a lineup that is booking the other day. Normally we find out the exact venue but some hotels obviously have multiple areas and I feel so sorry for the boys. I know I did pay them extra but we would charge a hard access. But the boys arrived to Ayana and the client didn't tell me until like after we'd invoiced her. It's actually at the pier. They had to walk downstairs with those heavy light up letters, 300 stairs down and then back up because there was no lift access. They messaged me at 10:30 at night and Ryan said we've given up on the stairs. They'd only done one letter up. And I was like, I'm so sorry boys. So yeah, hard access fees. Now I want the tea on that wedding. What happens? I'm almost killed. Our dj tell me.

One of the bridesmaids is I think quietly drunk. She just like slipped her glasses because like the DJ is like a downstairs. Is he talking with me in upstairs. And then she just slipped her glasses and dropped and almost killed the dj.

She dropped a glass on his head. Just missed him. Just missed.

It's next to his head. Yeah, almost 70 meters away from. But his equipment. The DJ deck is quite wide and we need to stop the music.

So like lucky that DJ equipment was still working. So this is probably something a lot of people don't know. And I don't know if every wedding planner does it, but as Bali brides we do take a security deposit from all of our clients that is refundable within a month of their wedding, minus breakages to cover things like that. Like if she'd broken his DJ decks, we'd have to pay for that. You know, if she'd hit him and he had to go to hospital, like we'd probably have to pay some of those bills. You know, if you break a glass at the wedding, we've got to pay the hotel for that wedding. So this Is, you know, part of what our security deposit covers. Because that equipment's not cheap. And if a guest just gets drunk and breaks it, like, that's on. That's on you guys to sort out with your guests, not us. Amazing.

Al.

Hey.

How you doing?

From the party?

It's a struggle, but, yeah, I'll take that as a.

Have some champagne. Happy 10 years.

So, Elle, you have been in the wedding industry a long time.

Actually, almost the same with you.

Tell us about your wedding planning journey. You don't need to name names of previous companies, but, like, how did you get into wedding, like, weddings?

It has been. It has been fun.

Yeah.

There's always been a lot of dynamic. Things change, which I love. It's not going to be the same all the time.

Yeah.

Everything is just so colorful. New people, old people, always meeting at some point.

Yep.

Yeah.

It's just so dynamic.

Why did you get into the wedding industry by accident?

How do you. Was it just like, oh, there's a job going. I'll take it. I need work.

I was actually quite bored with university. I decided to come to Bali to find a summer job.

I'm just going to do this for like, okay, two months, three months, and then go back again to my university degree. And then I found this company before Bali Pride and offered me this wedding butler position.

The person is quite funny. I forgot the wedding rings because they don't tell me to collect them. So it was with the medal of honor. She brings it. She brought it without me knowing that she has it all the time. And then when the project manager on the day asked, what is the wedding ring?

My first day.

My apologies. Just observing. Yeah. She turned out to hand it over during the ceremony when the celebrant asked. And yeah, that was the point where I saw that this could be fun for a long haul. Like assisting clients for photo shoot. Make sure they look pretty. Yeah. The dynamic. And it turned out to be like the photos by the end of the day. Wow. These guys are good. Yep.

And you've been with Valley Browse now just over a year and a half. What would you say your favorite moment this year has been?

Parties.

The parties. Our parties. Or the clients parties.

And our parties.

We can throw a good party.

Yeah.

What has been your favorite wedding of the year?

Favorite wedding.

You've seen a lot. You've probably seen more weddings than any of us because you go to most of them.

Probably the first one that you hired me for when I was just freelancing.

That wasn't a Bali brides. Wedding.

Yeah, that was.

That was a global wedding that we sometimes help out our friends at global weddings. That was epic. Yeah, we can't talk about that one because it's still. It wasn't. It was a celebrity wedding and even though we didn't have to sign an NDA we will respect the privacy of that wedding because the media hasn't found out about the details. I don't know how. Over a year later. Over a year later there's still no information out. Still super secret. That was fun one. What about favorite barley brides wedding for this year?

Our wedding. Maybe the recent one.

Which one? That was fun. Oh that was beautiful.

I was in chat.

It's not a competition but it was my way. It is a competition.

Should we name names of the couple?

Yeah.

Nadia and Thomas.

Beautiful fun couples.

Beautiful venue, beautiful flowers, gorgeous video. I saw the sneak peek.

Yeah.

The BR party was fun. The MC was fine. I was assisting him on.

Yeah.

Personally, if we want to bring out MC's meter I've got a very incriminating photo of you. One of the MCs at a wedding.

That was my wedding as well.

It was your wedding. The MC that loved you and cuddled you and gave you an introduction and told everyone you were single.

The uncle.

The uncle.

The uncle. Yeah. The uncle is so sweet.

So sweet.

It's always my weddings.

Oh yeah.

So Ongushan wedding favorite so far what has been the most stressful moment at a wedding for you this year?

I know there's been some moments.

The worst. Where should I start? Should I mention the venue as a hint?

We won't name names. Mention the venue.

The venue. The one in Latitude maybe.

Oh gosh, she said Coca Cola.

Yeah.

The one that has a soundtrack.

Okay. Last year what made it stressful?

I think the couple itself themselves is very organized. Like they have certain things on their mind. But on the day turned out to be more of this, more of that, more of this, more of that and things can be just turned up as a magic.

Yeah.

Yeah. Because I think there's a communication issue.

Yeah. Some requests cannot be happening.

Yeah.

In one snap like that the providers sometimes taking a day off because it's Sunday apparently.

Right.

Yep. I think just some couples one don't trust and I think that was a big issue there. So it booked a lot of things themselves directly and there are certain expectations that when you get married even in Australia like you can't expect things to happen like that. Especially on a Sunday or last minute like things aren't always going to be able to happen just because you asked for them. And I think that was the biggest thing is we had two issues that day because we got told at the pre wedding meeting they wanted something particular. I said, let me find out if we can make that happen. Because it's now after hours, it's the weekend, we're very busy and the thing that they wanted couldn't happen. And that was all our fault.

Yeah.

And then after that, I just feel like there was a lot of things that day that weren't communicated as well or like mistakes that weren't our fault.

If that makes sense.

Like, yeah, they'd missed a guest off one of the gifts and it somehow it was our fault and we had to rectify it. But the DJ had been custom made. The DJ walked out of that wedding. Yeah.

That was directly brief. They had a playlist of like five songs.

Yeah.

And he was like, where's the rest? I'm like, this is it.

But also, we didn't book that dj. They booked directly and didn't, you know, send through the briefing in a good amount of time. So they were unhappy with the DJ and the video. Yeah, the video. They booked their photographer directly, but they.

Asked for raw footage that day. But I didn't.

Well, yeah, they emailed you later saying that their videographer lost the video, but they didn't actually book a videographer. That was weird. That one was a weird one. I can understand why that was the most stressful one. No words for that one, really. Yeah, there is. She sipped the Coca Cola.

Well, regardless, by the end of the day she still thanks all of us. How we handle.

They were so happy. But for us it was stressful because, you know, again, there's that expectation which we spoke about before, that we want that day to be perfect. And when there's things that we haven't been told about or communicated or we didn't book, like how do we make it perfect when we weren't the ones making that happen, if that makes sense. Oh, yeah. Let's pass back to Yanti. Yanti.

Tell us about your most stressful wedding last year. Like that's still within the last year, you know. Yeah.

Talking about the weather for last year, some venues they, you know, like quite windy and things. And we can't do anything about the wind.

Yeah.

One of the groomsmen came to me, hey, is there anything we can do with the wind? I'm like, oh God, yes. For the rain. We can easily book rainstorper. They actually can move the clouds away, but not the winds, unfortunately.

You know what? We had a wedding earlier this year and that. That was super stressful. The game wasn't mine. I was helping my friends at Global out, which we do quite often. If other wedding planners need help, we'll go out. And they booked a marquee because it was. The weather was bad. The marquee got installed the day before because it has to be fly away.

No.

But we had to take the roof off the marquee on the wedding day because it was so windy that it was going to fly away. They put weights on it. They did everything they could. It would not stay up because of the wind. It's completely out of our control.

Yeah.

Like, it is stressful. So although Bali is beautiful most of the year, you also need to factor in, if you're getting married outside, there's things that are completely out of our control. You know what? One of my most stressful moments has been just about to sit the guests down for dinner and do the grand entry. It's like 6.20pm, it's just getting dark and I'm like, oh, my gosh, what is that? What are these bugs called?

Oh.

The bugs that come before the.

Rain, the swarmy bugs that happen in wet season. So these bugs, girls, I don't know what they're called, what they're called.

They drop their wings.

Yeah. They swarm, then the wings fall off and they die. And the swarm might last 15 minutes. But this wedding got absolutely swarmed by them. So we had to turn lights off all through the dinner. Guests were in the dark. We had to turn spotlights to attract them over there. But then, because I'd already started swarming, they all died on the tables. So they were in the water glasses, they were in the candles. Me and Nanti walking around with tweezers and literally picking wings out of candles. And I'm like. And yeah, we had to, like, during.

Dinner as well, right?

No, it happened just before. Remember, it's sanctuary.

Imagine if we got in their food.

Yes. So they were in the water glass. So we had to, like. Yeah, we delayed probably 40 minutes going around. We had to clean all the tables, replace the plates, replace absolutely everything. So for me, that was really stressful and again, completely out of my hands. There's nothing I could do for it. So again, getting married outside, there's bugs. There might be, you know, frogs or something. Snails, nails.

Snail murderer. Over here.

Yeah.

East Asia, typical wedding.

Yeah.

Most of the time there are still things that are going to happen outside of our control.

A cat.

The Other day we saw five cats at a wedding.

What was that Villa Kayash K they got?

Actually, we have a lovely one. To my last wedding of the year, my personal one. What was our little uninvited visitor on the dance floor? Emma? During first dance.

There was a beach dog. He just wandered and plonked himself on the dance floor. We're all like, you don't want to touch him because you don't know if he's going to bite you. But I'm also like, get off the floor.

We were trying to feed him food as well and he didn't want to eat.

He's just like, this is my moment.

Yes.

Time to shine for me today.

I've got a beautiful video of him just roaming around the dance floor during party time. And as well, he was very cute. He's very sweet. But again, like stray dogs, you know, you don't. You don't want to touch them.

And.

And you do some venues because they're open. Like, you'll just have an animal wandering. Yeah, Monkeys, monkeys, monkeys. Stole your coconut. Stole my coconut at thean. I was filthy about that.

Monkeys.

Snack, snacks, snacks. Like peanuts, some chips from the bar.

Yeah, that's Wonderland. Really?

Yeah, yeah.

They want to joins with the couples having some cocktails.

Come. Like a small snake.

Is it summer, babe?

I would have been screaming. I was doing a site visit and I saw a snake and I screamed and threw the bridesmaid in front.

Oh, yeah, I remember you sent me the video.

I'm terror, like, absolutely terrified of snakes. I can't even watch them on the tv if they come on tv. My son tells me like, mummy, there's a snake. Shut your eyes. And he tells me when it's gone, like, my fear is next level. I'm trying to get better. But yeah, I was walking through Shalima Estate once and as we were walking out, I saw a snake. I just went. And then the Bryce, like. Did you throw me in?

Yes.

Yes, I did. I haven't seen one in an actual wedding, though.

No.

I saw once Wonderland Co. Big one.

Like python.

Balangan beach python.

I don't think I could.

Yeah, see, I probably try.

I burn the villa.

That's.

That's my level, actually. We found a dead snake out the front about out back of our villa the other day. But I think the cat brought it in. Yeah, it was. I. I felt bad. I was actually on the way to a wedding and I opened my front door and that driver was out there. I was like, katuk, you look so Handsome today.

I remember that.

So manly. And he's like, what? And I said, it's a dead snake. Can you get rid of that? And you know what he did? He just literally walked in the backyard, picked it up, and then just like it was nothing.

Different story when it's still alive.

It was 100 dead, but I couldn't let my dog dogs out because.

Yeah.

So anyway, we don't want to scare all the listeners away, though. Like, obviously, there's some. There's some horror stories that are out of our control. There's some. You definitely need to place a lot of trust in your wedding. What have been our favorite moments of the year? Like suppliers, weddings, venues. You know what my favorite moment? This is going to sound really bad. It wasn't actually a mean thing, but during party time, we're all kind of in the background. Like, there's not much for us to do once we're in party time. Right. The guests are drunk, they're on the dance floor. We bake, we watch the kids and make sure they don't get into fights or break glassware or, you know, pick up people on their shoulders and throw them in the pool or whatever it's going to be. I loved earlier this year. I caught Ryan, little Ryan dancing with one of the bar staff, but they went to do this twirl and Amanda was walking by at exactly the same time, and they just like hit her in the guts and she was bent over. And I'm like, the worst. I was like, oh, so funny.

Are you okay?

Like, she was absolutely fine. But like just this candid moment of them dancing cleaned up by Amanda not watching where she was going and just got sitting smashed.

Our train wreck baby brother.

Our train wreck baby brother. He's fine. Has anyone else got any favorite moments and highlights of the year?

Favorite moment is always sings the brides walking down the alley. That's like my favorite.

Do you know what I loved? Your weddings are cleaning up. So I had this at my wedding recently, but we saw it at British first. We had a bride that she pre recorded herself talking and then the DJ mixed it into her walk down the aisle song. So after the bridesmaids. After the bridesmaids had entered.

Yeah, it was after the bridesmaids had entered, the song played out. They had their own song. No, that was the same song.

Yeah.

Bridesmaids walked out to the first part of that song. And then it was kind of.

We.

We had to time this. We used the whole team that morning to time out exactly when the bridesmaids were going to walk. And then finally we got all the bridesmaids up there. She's about to walk. But she did this recording and she basically, a letter to the groom. And then after that, then she walked.

But it was like, my beautiful groom, I'm about to walk down the aisle, and I just. Like, I was around the corner. So earlier in the day, as Britta said, like, she had four, five bridesmaids, and they were busy getting ready. So we literally took our team, played the song over and over, and we practiced the timing so that we could tell them exactly when to walk.

The bridesmaids didn't know either, so that's.

Why we had to do it.

Was trying to coordinate with the bridesmaids when they wanted to do their own rehearsal. Apparently, like the day before, she was listening in her ears, and they're like, well, why can't we just listen to the song? She's like, no, no reason. I need to have it in my ears.

Like, yeah, that's why you need to be weird like me.

Because then if I know, everyone would.

Be like, yeah, that's fine. Okay, we all just take you weird. Like, you know, you called me an animal for a year, and I just rolled with it, right, Ron? Have Matt.

The goat. But. But yeah, that was like, one of my favorite moments because I. Because we're tied it out. I was waiting around the corner because that venue vedas very skinny on the poolside. So Brita led off down the aisle, but once she passed me, I just had to make sure her dress was okay. She kept going behind the scenes, fun things. But I was on the side. I was like, oh, my gosh. Looking at the group's face. And I just got so emotional because that was just such a special moment and surprise that for me, I was just like, oh, my God, I can't believe that I get to witness this.

I think I had one like that as well. Well, where the. Obviously, the nana had passed away quite early on. And the wedding for them, a lot of it changed at the last minute, which was stressful, I think. Look, the bride wrote her vows. We had to postpone her walking down the hall.

Oh, yes, that's right. You remember Wonderland Owl. I said, all right, can we get the guest seating? He said, no, we need more time. The bride needs to write a vows. And we're like, oh, yeah, yeah, it's all right, though.

But for them and their culture, like, it was a very mix ceremony. Like, it was very important for them at that point to have their Culture heavily involved. And the bride was handed over traditionally.

Yeah, that's right. We had the carpet and everything. And they had the.

The menus and everything were in two languages. Yeah, two languages, just so their culture. But that was apparently very healing for them, just losing her Nana, who. They made a lot of changes to the wedding to make sure Nana was coming comfortable.

Yeah. So we even had like a spare seat in the ceremony.

Yeah.

We'd put a photo on there. We put a flower on there for her. Yeah, yeah, that was. That makes me really emotional as well.

Yeah, it was just like, obviously I wasn't there. And especially you're from New Zealand.

Yeah.

And I think you were struggling as well that day. And I just said, look, you know, there's people around you looking over you, like, they know that you need a piece of home right now. Like, this is home. But I think it's. I think a lot of couples as well get so caught up in their moment, they forget their traditions and with their roots. And when people don't and they want to involve that in their weddings, it's. It adds an extra element.

Yeah.

We had a wedding and I'm not going to name when or who or the venue because I don't want to upset this couple, but mixed cultural marriage. And me and Britta were literally in the corner and we're like, she hates everything about this wedding because the groom's culture was heavily incorporated and you could just see she didn't want to buy in anyone. It was really sad because I'm obviously from New Zealand. Every wedding that there's a haka, I get so emotional. Like, I feel like I'm at home. But for this one, I was like, I could not understand, like, why you would marry someone into a culture that you just didn't want to be a part of.

We had one of these and we were like, this is.

This is going to be a struggle.

Like, how do you not want to take that on board? Like, that's what you're marrying into. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, definitely.

Do you have any favorite moments from a wedding that you've seen so far, Emma?

I think more like a funny moment. It was a recent wedding at Nusa Dua and we got all the guests to sit down to get started on ceremony. Groom was in place, grooms was more in place. And then all of a sudden the groom shouting and like pointing in direction of the pool. And just one of the day guests just completely passed out.

We just thought it was random and it was one of the wedding Guests.

He was still in his swimsuit, I guess.

No, he was wearing swimming shorts. He had a shirt on. But I think he had just gotten out of the pool a bit tipsy and just passed out and was just asleep.

Yeah, he had a few drinks, passed out, and then somehow he managed to get up and join the ceremony.

One of the groomsmen ran over, tried to wake him up, and, like, he was like, leave me alone, basically. I think he spoke German, so he didn't really understand. So they're like, don't worry. He's just gonna start the ceremony. And literally, just as Britt is lining up the bridal party to send them down the aisle, he starts walking. I'm like, wait, hold the bridal party. He's gonna coming. What wedding was this? That was a nusa dua. You were surprised it was you, the wedding. The last one.

You missed that part.

Did not know that. I told you to stop. I said, we're not ready. There's a guest coming. Because he'd woken up and he was walking so slow.

And I never.

No one told me that that happens. The things you don't see him while.

You'Re going to see really struggle to.

Yeah.

I had to carry the child halfway down the aisle.

Like, that's.

The bride has approved it. I'm walking down with the child.

I don't know the amount of times I've ended up with a child at a wedding.

He kept running on me.

Yeah.

I think really funny moments.

Yeah. I think one of my favorite moments was bringing our puppy.

Little Maple made an appearance at a wedding earlier this year.

They. One of my last video calls with them in the lead up to Wedding Home. Maple was at the office, and I was like, oh, Mabel's just coming in because they have dog. They have poodles as well. So I was like. They said, oh, my. We want to meet her. Brought her up.

And they're like, oh, my God, she has to come to the wedding.

And then I had one more video call with them after that. They're like, mabel's coming, right? Like, she has to come. And I'm like, here she is.

Oh, thank God.

She's so cute.

I was like, all right, I'll make it happen for you. Everyone else thought it was a joke. Tristan thought it was a joke. And then we're on the way to a wedding, and I'm like, who's bringing Maple? And she was like, I thought you were joking. I'm like, no, I'm not joking.

We literally.

They requested Maple be There.

So we had to get out to go pick up our puppy. We bring maple.

Wait, what?

Please go to our house and pick up the puppy. Yeah. Actually, talking about favorite moments, I think.

It might have been last year, but there was photos, and there was, like, the whole bridal party.

Jumped into the pool.

Yeah.

I was like, I'm here for that.

That's very common. I love it.

Yeah. They have the matching speedos and the matching babies.

Oh, I. Yeah, I know that wedding. Oh, that's. I saw the photo.

I don't know if I.

Cliff.

Everyone wants to do that, though.

Get one. Get into the pool with the labels.

Especially when it's hot.

Yeah, I've seen.

There's one.

That was a really fun wedding. Yeah, it looks fun, like, but that's what everyone wants.

That was that same wedding with bringing maple. We had to pull shots into guests.

Do you know what happened, though? They'd planned, like, this whole thing. So we had to put four chairs out just because the villa layout. There's a lot of people there. So we had to move everyone from dinner around party. And so we'd done the first dance down in one area. They wanted us to place four chairs, and they'd assigned four people. They'd already assigned these people to grab the tequila and stand on chairs and tip it. As the conga line came in, those four people were nowhere to be found.

No.

And they're coming. And me and Brenda, like, what do we do? So we just grabbed a bottle of tequila. I still had maple in my arms because they'd handed it back to me. And I'm literally on a chair with maple in one hand, pouring tequila into mouths with another hand. Yep. Hey, baby ooh, ah I want to.

Know.

If it be my girl.

Just.

One more thing for me. Being a wedding planner, you have to love. You have to love your job. You have to love what you're doing.

Ritter and I covered that on one of the other episodes we filmed today. But I was saying she had a wedding where multiple things went wrong. And this is what I'm going to close off with. But she cried, and she wasn't crying because she was weak or because she couldn't handle the stress. She was crying because she was so upset for the client, she didn't know how to tell them. Yet another thing's gone wrong that was completely out of her control. And I think that's, like, one of the things that I wanted to touch on. Like, you know, there's a lot of good in the weddings and the. You Know our social media, you'll only see the good things. But there is so much that happens behind the scenes. So I just want to touch on this one story before we wrap up today's episode. But Leah planned a beautiful wedding this year. And I won't name the venue, but there is a venue that has some sacred land, and you are not allowed to enter that sacred land. There are signs up. You do not. And it's part of the venue, but it's sectioned off as ropes. There's signs donated to this land. And I had arrived at 9am or whatever time we were loading into the villa. And the first thing I spotted was two of the lighting company on that land. And I was like, stop. Get out. And I think I came up to you, Yanti, and I was like, tell them immediately, get off that land. You're not allowed on there. And why. Which they should know there's signs. So Yanti told them, and then they said, we need to put the poles there or the lighting's gonna have to come out here. I was like, that's fine. Take the lighting out of there. But then they started setting the lighting up, and I was like, no, the lighting can't go there. Let me make a call. So I rang the owner and I said, this is a situation. We need to put polls. And she said to me, it's absolutely fine, but you must put offerings down first. Yeah. And then you have to ask for permission. So that took a long time. It took about 40 minutes for us to get all that done. So we were running late. Anyway, we reentered the land with permission, did everything that day. I feel like I was cursed because anything that could go wrong that day went wrong. So first of all, just before the ceremony, I'm talking to the bride upstairs. And what was that noise, Yanti?

The sound system.

It was the loudest noise. And it was so loud, we'd just seated the guests, and the sound system just freaked out. It made so much noise. Yeah. And I'm like, yanti on the walkie, what is that? What is that noise? So Yanti's trying to fix that. But then in my rushed talking, I'm like, yanti, like the noise, the noise. What's the song? And she thought I said, start the song, meaning that the bridal party was coming. So Yanti started the song. I'm still upstairs. I'm like, let's go, girls. Let's get downstairs and out the door. So the ceremony went perfectly, but then me and Yanti moved to cocktail hour. El's fluffy. And then I hear, Elle, we have a gate crasher. She's in a G string.

And I'm like, what?

So how did you know about that?

Tristan, There is a naked lady in the living room.

There is a naked lady in the living room.

Help me go.

So then I, like, go running down there and there's just this girl on the phone. She's in a see through dress and a bikini, a thong bikini. And I'm like, excuse me. And she's like, ignoring me. I'm like, excuse me, are you meant to be here? I'm looking for this. I'm like, you're in a private event and in a private, you need to leave. And she goes, yeah. I said, no, now. And I literally had to escort her out in a minute. Yeah. So then, like, the owners actually sent me CCTV of me removing her from the venue. It was hilarious. Like, I did very nicely. But then she screamed at me after she got to the door, and I was like, you don't just walk into someone's house in the middle of a wedding as well and stay. And she didn't even walk in and go oops and leave. She stayed in the living room where the cocktail out was happening. So that happened. Then just as we're moving guests into the dinner area, the lighting cuts out completely. Completely. We lose the entire lighting. So I'm like, what is going on? They're trying to fix it. Eventually they fix it. We see the guests, just as we're about to start speeches, happens again.

A few of the strings from the fairy lights.

Then we fixed it. Then half like. And then a lot of the fairy lights weren't working because they caught on fire because the sea salt was coming in and they actually caught on fire. So we lost a string of fairy lights.

It was an audio.

Yeah. It was an ordeal. And then when the dinner came out, like, the dinner plates were going back to the kitchen, I said to the catering company, like, that hasn't been eaten. Did you ask why? And they're like, no. And then another plate came fast and, like, half of the meals hadn't been eaten. So I was like, you need to ask. Like, you can't just go. Go find out. And they couldn't understand me. So I went over to one of the guests, I said, hey, I noticed you didn't eat dinner. Was it okay? She goes, oh, it was just a bit rare for me. It was steak. And I was like, okay, great. Went to the groom as well, because one of he didn't Eat this. He told me the same thing. I said, let me get you ones. And I went back to the kitchen. Please make it better. But what had happened first thing in the morning is the catering kitchen where they normally set up. They said, no, you can't have it there. It's going to go all the way at the back, so they're going to have to do a long walk. And I'm like, no, because the food's going to be cold. It's a set menu. So I had to have this argument with the venue about where the catering kitchen was. So everything was quite delayed that day. And so I think because we're running behind, they were trying to get the food out as quickly as possible, and the steaks weren't cooked properly. Then there was a major issue with the alcohol at the bar. So we were working with a new bar company. We do have our favorites, but, you know, because of a minimum spend or whatever reason, we booked the same bar company. And so I always say to him, like, try and have a cocktail. Try the food so that we can tell other people what it was actually like on the day. Because a tasting and an actual wedding day is very different. And Al, you tried a cocktail. And he brought it over Margarita, but.

It doesn't taste like margarita. So I should. You.

Yeah, try. So I tried it. Then Yanti tried my.

That's weird.

So I went to the bar, and I was like, maybe they're using, like, a cheap version of tequila. And that's why. And I said, can I have the tequila? And I was like, no, it's good tequila. Pour it into a glass, man. I took a sip and I was like, that is not tequila. That is watered down. And they're like, what? And I was like, that doesn't even make me like, you know, tequila. And then I was like, bring me the vodka. Bring me this. And literally, I stood at the bar getting tiny glasses, and I was like, that one's real. And half of their bottles from their supplier would, like. I don't know if it was fake alcohol or been watered down, but, like, literally every single thing that day that could have gone wrong did. And I was like, almost in tears. I was like, another thing. But guess who doesn't know any of the issues?

No, they said that. They messaged and said it was absolutely perfect. It was the best day. Nothing was wrong. Thank you so much.

And I was like, no problem. She heard the sound go. Because she could obviously hear that, but she does not know about a single other problem. And I Think that's like one of the biggest things that I just want to say in closing is weddings are so beautiful. They are magical. You definitely need a wedding planner. I mean, you can try and plan it on your own, but as we've kind of of realize, it's probably not the best idea. And you know, if you want to spend your money on photography and videography and flowers, that's great. But you need spend your money, get a wedding planner so you don't have to.

And also a few fandors that on site, they barely speak English.

Yeah. Even when I manage it. Like, I think my Indonesian's getting quite good now at understanding, but I can't. Can't direct very well. I'm like, I want any Disney. Yeah. Like, I've got very basic Indonesian. And sometimes you definitely need that. So things are going to go wrong and you need a problem solver. You need someone that's going to fix it for you.

I think you almost. Your wedding planning fee is paid by. We can negotiate prices.

Yeah.

We can negotiate your meals or bring down your bill and get things taken out.

Not for everything.

Not for everything.

No, no.

But there's like things that obviously barley brides have package deals and things like that.

Yeah.

Where you're not going to get that going out on your own. And we have that because we use those people so many times.

Like the wedding venue we just had our party at, they told me that they got approached by another company and they wanted the same rates as us, which they shouldn't even know about. And that was like, no, that's our exclusive deal with Bali Brides because they bring us the most business. Like, there are certain deals that we get that are a lot better, which.

I think a lot of people don't realize it by booking a wedding, even just if you're booking everything yourself, the transfer fees. Every time you've got to transfer money, there is a fee associated with that. Add that up, you're probably not saving that much money doing it all by yourself.

No. Definitely not realistically. Yeah. So just wrap things up. It was a fantastic year, everyone. Thank you so much for all your help and support. I am hoping we can make this a yearly thing and get the team back in. In the studio next year so we can recap on 2025 before we go. It's just, who. What trends are we going to see next year?

I hope pops of colors. I'm here for it.

Okay. What other trends are we hoping for?

More disco balls.

Yeah. Or beer boys instead of flower Boys.

Do you know what I love? And I hope this becomes a thing. I had it at a wedding and look, I loved them, but they were probably a bit too old and senile. I don't know if that's the right word. This is a nice word. Chat gtp. Help me flower grandmas.

Yes.

Very cute.

I would love that.

You know, a train. And you know, if you're a potential 2025, 2026, bro, please jump on this. I really want to do a wedding at dusk. Like, as this year. Like, the sun has already gone down and I want you to walk down the aisle to candles. I think that'd be beautiful. Yeah.

I also love ceremony. Yeah.

Yeah.

I love unusual seating charts. Yeah. Like not your standards.

And little dangling fairy lights from the trees. Like, my dream is to do a dusk wedding. So if anyone wants to do that, I'm your planner.

Hey, Jamie.

Yeah.

Leah's looking for a ring. Trains for 2025, I'm guessing this one. And hopefully this one will be married or at least have an engagement ring on their fingers. So we got something to look forward to because now that the party's planned, like, I don't know what to do with my life. Amazing. Well, team, thank you so much for coming in today and giving us a bit of a recap of 2025. Alyssa and Leah, it was so good to have you girls in Bali for the last couple of weeks and I hope you've seen some of the wedding venues. Has been really good. So just to wrap up, to remind all of our listeners, if you're watching on YouTube, Spotify, please like subscribe tag two friends in the comments because we are doing a giveaway. It will be drawn on Valentine's Day. What are we giving away, Britta?

We are giving away an iPad and.

Some AirPods so you can, so it can help you with your planning and also listen to our beautiful, beautiful voices. And also please, please comment in there if there's anything you'd like to hear about. If there's more stories, if there's anything that you're loving, please, please let us know so we know what to bring you more content of. Thank you for joining another episode of Bali Weddings unveiled.

Bye.