S4E01 - Rentals, Revelery, and "Oh No" Moments

In our season 4 opener for that's Rad we welcome Dakota Bateman (she/her) from Boom Event Rentals and Good Party to discuss her journey in the wedding planning industry. Dakota shares her experiences, the evolution of her planning style, and the challenges of running an event rental company. The conversation delves into creating memorable events, the impact of COVID on couples' expectations, and highlights some unforgettable wedding moments. They also reflect on their own wedding experiences and play a fun game of 'Wedding This or That.'

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Hello and welcome to That's Rad, life, love, and wedding planning in the Pacific Northwest. I am Rad, your host and wedding planner for now over 10 years in Victoria, BC. And after a little bit of a hiatus, we are back with season four of That's Rad. And I'm so excited to have our guest Dakota from Loom Event Rentals and Good Party on today to talk all about her experiences in the industry from the very beginning until now. Welcome to the show, Dakota. Thanks.

SPEAKER_03 0:45

Thanks for

SPEAKER_01 0:45

having me. And you're so glam right now. I know it's like 10 in the morning. I

SPEAKER_03 0:49

appreciate it. It was a lot of work.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

So how are you? How are things? We saw each other like a month ago. Yes,

SPEAKER_03 0:57

things are good. Just getting ready for wedding season and all the things that are weddings. Yeah, it's been great. How about you?

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Yeah, it's been like nonstop computer work, I feel like. The thing that nobody tells you about wedding planning. Yes,

SPEAKER_03 1:11

yes. That 90% of your life is behind a screen.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Yeah, and then the other 10% is actually on site, sweating a lot.

UNKNOWN 1:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Okay, we're not here to talk all about that. But I wanted to talk to you more because I feel like it's been a long time since I've had a planner on the podcast. And I want to talk about you and memorable moments and like how you got into this. So can we start there? How did you get into this?

SPEAKER_03 1:40

Yeah, well, I started wedding planning unofficially probably like 15 years ago. And like party planning, I was always like the one out of my group of friends that kind of just had the decorations together. And I was always the one that was comfortable organizing and talking to vendors and things like that. And my sister-in-law, so my husband and I met at work. dated kind of word together for a couple of years and my mother-in-law throws these like epic Christmas Eve parties and so Emma who owns the good party was best friends with my sister-in-law in high school and she used to often attend these Christmas parties and so I remember one night she was there and my mother-in-law and Ashley were sort of talking about how like fabulous her company was and you know everything she was doing and I kind of got a little drunk and worked up enough courage to go talk to her and I kind of just went up to her and sort of like mumbled something like if you ever want someone to follow you around and put flowers in the vase like I'm your girl and I was like I just kind want to get some experience and then the next day she had sent me an email and she was like I didn't forget what you said and you know like I'd love to meet you for coffee and then the next day we had a meeting at Starbucks at Uptown and she hired me on the spot and I've been with her ever since so I think February 2018 was my like first official planning project with the Good Party and it was our styled shoot at Uptown which was

SPEAKER_01 2:49

oh my gosh wow long

SPEAKER_02 2:51

ago

SPEAKER_01 2:51

what a journey yeah And I mean, I feel like so much has happened since then. How do you feel like your planning style has changed from then to now? That's actually a really good question. I

SPEAKER_03 3:05

feel like when I first started, I was so excited about what Instagram weddings were. I wanted to be on the trends and all of those things. And I think as I've kind of matured and as I've got older, it's more about the sentimental, the value, and how to build long-lasting relationships with clients, I think is my most overall big achievement. I think being a wedding planner is that I'm able to maintain these relationships throughout years and years after the weddings, you know, going to babies, birthday parties and things from clients from years before. I think when I was really young and in the beginning, I was just so eager to kind of learn everything all at once. And I was absorbing and absorbing. I didn't really take the time to just sort of like be in the moment. And I think now as a more of experienced wedding planner, I think being in those moments and really getting to know your clients as friends first, I think is really just like my favorite thing.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Yes, and I feel like that also helps in having a good fit and an open, honest working relationship so that everyone can say what they want to without feeling like you're walking on eggshells. Totally.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

Totally. yeah I think being able to make people laugh is the most relaxing thing especially when you're talking about weddings like for us it's it's our thing it's our job it's what we do but for these people for our clients it's their first time getting married most of the time they don't know what they're doing you know they're trusting us with their day and I think when you're you're kind of like your initial consultation if you're very serious and very poised you know you're kind of like robotic that's not going to do much for them either right I think it's all about being bubbly and fun and welcoming and I think that that just works so well for everyone

SPEAKER_01 4:36

oh my gosh speaking of I remember my very first client that I ever met, I like followed the book, the Wedding Planners Institute book to the key, brought my little kit and everything. And I think she knew I was so nervous that she gave me a giant hug at the end of it. And she was like, can I hug you? And I was like, yeah, I can use that. But like, it's funny that you say that because I found that we ended up booking clients that maybe weren't necessarily the right fit for my personality or my way of doing things because we were following the scripts But you don't know any better at that point.

SPEAKER_03 5:11

Totally. And that's the thing too, is like, we're so good here with our team. It's the initial consultations, getting to know the person. And we've got a good group of girls so that there's kind of someone for everyone. And I think that that's, that's something to say, because it's true. Like I'm really loud. I'm outgoing. I've got a little bit of a potty mouth, which doesn't go over very well for people, but I use it as an adjective. I don't use it to be offensive. And I feel like there's certain clients that work really well with me. And it's, there's certain clients that work really well with other people, you know, that are maybe a little bit more soft, a little bit more gentle. Like I have no problem being like black and white this is going to work for you this isn't and I think that that vibe works for a lot of our clients

SPEAKER_01 5:47

that's totally fair yeah and I just heard that apparently if you swear you live longer so congratulations

SPEAKER_02 5:53

thank you I'm going to take that I'm going to remember that forever. So

SPEAKER_01 6:00

I know you now have an event rental company on top of everything else. How did that happen?

SPEAKER_03 6:05

Well, so this is kind of a bit of a labor of love. Like we all remember Darling Vintage, shout out Jen and Brad. And when they sort of closed down their rental shop, we were all so devastated. And it just kind of happened one wedding. One of the girls on the team was really wanting a white wood bar and we couldn't find anything that kind of matched the aesthetic for her wedding. And I was one of the only ones left on the team that was still kind of chatting with Jen quite a bit. My husband and her both CPAs so they kind of have their own little connection there and for their professional stuff and so I just reached out to her and I was like hey I'm going to be in Nanaimo like can I pop by for a visit I'd love to say hi and just kind of see you and I'd heard through the grapevine that she was thinking about moving some items out and she was looking to sell some of her inventory so I went up and we walked in looking for bars and ended up leaving with like almost over well not almost almost half of her stuff like we got her candle holders her you know we've got bars we've got the Prosecco champagne walls We've got like everything. It was so great. We were kind of sticking away from like the plates and the cutlery and things like that. And we wanted to just do more of like a tabletop kind of like just decor items. And now it's turned into this like big thing. And now we're building custom rentals for event planners that have, you know, big requests and things like that. It's just been growing and it's pretty great.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

That is amazing. Yeah. I'm always curious when things come back, how much time does it take to get it all ready for the next one and do the after work?

SPEAKER_03 7:32

Yes. So we do a lot of stuff in our house. So that part has been a bit challenging. We sometimes use industrial things to clean the coops. Our coops are one of the most popular things we rent. So we try and keep those clean as much as possible. As soon as they're washed, we kind of wrap them and store them. But it has been interesting just keeping things kind of in order. I think candle holders, I think everyone that owns a rental business can say that candle holders are the most annoying thing to get back with wax in them. Yes,

SPEAKER_01 7:59

and I try so hard, but sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 8:02

You know what, I actually kind of figured out a way that works with like, hot water and like a little bit of Dawn dish soap and it's not stressful anymore. So I've kind of like figured out a way to navigate that. Um, but actually we're pretty fortunate that all of our rentals have come back in excellent condition. I think we've only ever had one candle holder broken. Um, but yeah, we've been pretty fortunate. So knock on wood there.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Yes. Knock on wood. I was having this conversation with somebody about how when vapes first came out, I had a tablecloth that had a burn hole in it, like perfect hole. And I was trying to figure out where it came from. Cause I was with the candle holders didn't get too hot or whatever. And she was like, it was vapes. She's like, we got back so many of those. And this was a planner on the mainland. And I was like, Oh, so this is a common problem at the beginning that none of us had any idea where these holes were coming from.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

It's so funny. I never even thought that a vape would burn through a linen, but I guess if it's sitting there and you're

SPEAKER_01 8:54

kind of holding on. And also, yeah, I don't know. Maybe like when they were brand new, they, they weren't as like heat proof.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

Yeah, that's true. That's crazy. I was fortunate enough to have a leg in the industry when we started doing the event rentals everyone was quite welcoming right away like super big shout out to like Crystal from Tabletop she was like so sweet and like right on it like right away asking me for things and using them and you know kind of utilizing our business right away even before we kind of got started so there's been a lot of people that have been really supportive like obviously the girls on the team anytime they needed something and it wasn't available on the island they'd send me a message to go could you please bring these in so we've actually got quite a bit of stuff that's not even on our website, which I'm so bad at that. I need to get that back on the website. I need to spend more time focusing on that. But yeah, it's great to watch it grow.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

It's amazing. It sounds like you need like a co-op student or an assistant or something.

SPEAKER_03 10:15

Yes, yes, hopefully.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

And I'm also, I'm going to do the same probably now that I know that you're taking requests.

SPEAKER_03 10:23

Yes, yes, please let me know. It's so hard on our island. Like there is so much more off the island in terms of what's available for rentals. Bringing things in and looking at a price tag. When you love your client and then you have to send them an invoice that says, here's your $700 to $1,000 delivery charge on top of it. That just kind of gives me the ick a little bit. And like weddings are already so expensive. We're the queens of trying to figure out how to keep costs down and keep things effective. So we're looking at sourcing things locally, would locally having things made on the island of doing everything to kind of help grow our industry back up and support a lot of local businesses. So yeah, if there's anything you need, let me know.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

I definitely will. Yeah, it's interesting that you say that because we actually have a couple coming here from Atlanta and they were looking at getting a lot of things off island. And then you see like all the delivery fees adding up and different decisions were made.

SPEAKER_03 11:14

Yes. And it's, and then you kind of want to resource back in, you know, like Sandy from decorate Victoria. She's just got her new website up and thank the Lord. Because if you look at that stuff, no one had any idea that that was even in her warehouse.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Yeah, I know. I was so

SPEAKER_03 11:28

happy. There's so much. And people forgot that she was like, she did all the movie sets in Victoria. Like if you want something always start kind of with Sandy or designer weddings, Linda, like those women have a lot of stuff that they've built up over the years. And you know that they've got an incredible, amount of inventory and you know sometimes if your clients want something you can also get away with like draping it a little differently you know like and things are really utilized differently and I think we need to start Pounding more on the island and getting more of our local guys, giving them some more business.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

100%. I think we ended up taking like a carload to the roof to Salt Spring Island because there wasn't anything available like back in 2018 in terms of rentals. And I was like, I want to save them rental costs. So to the roof, everything filled. We got it all there.

SPEAKER_03 12:16

That's good. Congratulations. That's honestly, I remember when I first started and I had a Hyundai Veloster. It was like the three door little like hatchback car. And I remember my first wedding, I couldn't even properly load one bin in the backseat without having to like open all of the doors, the trunk and everything. And it was just awful. And then the next year I got a truck and I never looked back.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Perfect. One and done, never again. So, Art, what do you think, in your opinion, makes a memorable event? I want to think, like, talk, like, good and the bad and maybe even the ugly.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

The good, I think... Little moments, I think. I feel like when you want to make a memorable event, it's all about guest experience. My brain immediately goes to guest experience, you know, like some kind of cute food station, a boozy lemonade cart, you know, like shout out Bubble Bus Co. I'm a big fan. Like I know the Kardashians kind of started that black and white photo booth trend, whatever. I'm not a fan of Kardashians, but what Derek and Lindsay have, I think is the biggest thing as a memorable guest experience is having that black and white portrait studio, having your photos, having those printed out right away. I feel like we're in this more modern era like nobody's taking their wedding favors home anymore there's often at the end of the night I'm finding like if somebody makes a cute little thing like a jar of jam or honey or something There's a lot of that left on the table. There aren't a lot of photos left over at the end of the night, if you know what I mean, with those unlimited printouts. I think those kind of memorable experiences, you're putting your money where it matters. And then for that couple of thousand dollars, you're creating an experience for your guests that's memorable. You're also getting your favors kind of in there. And it's kind of like killing two birds with one stone. I think memorable, I think those little kind of experiences throughout the day, through cocktail hours, through reception, you know, having somebody that's doing your emceeing that's hilarious, I think makes a huge impact on making your wedding memorable. There's nothing like a funny emcee. You know what I mean? Like to just have your entire group of everyone you love around you, 150 people or 30, whatever your guest count is, just laughing their ass off because somebody is just, you know, there's something to say about that. And I think my opinion here might be a little unpopular. But for the bad, I am a big person on cut the fat. If you have someone in your family that is causing you stress, anxiety, that you know that you're having to sit them away from somebody, you have to strategically keep them from somebody else. You think that they're going to have a fight. You think that they're going to be somewhere. We love our family and friends, but if they're going to ruin the best day of your life, cut the fat. Have a nice party later. I don't know. Make your wedding guests count smaller so you don't feel as awkward. I think that's the biggest thing that I've learned with clients that have said from day one, well, there's this person that's coming and I think they're going to have an issue and you know they're going to be something and then they don't cut the fat and then come wedding day and that person causes a major problem whether it's a fist fight throwing a bride in a pond in her wedding dress in front of guests like we've seen no way there's been some things I won't go into too much but I think having people around you that are for you that love you that are with you is the most important part of your wedding day it's not a show it's about you and the person that you're wanting to marry I think that it's totally appropriate to have everyone you want around you and it's okay to keep people up.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Yeah. And I mean, that goes back to like what we say always about community and it's like bring the people that are going to lift you up and don't worry about the rest. And I mean, when worse comes to worse, just blame the venue. You're like, oh no, our venue can't fit that many people. Yeah, that's the best.

SPEAKER_03 15:41

That's a good fallback.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Have you found that couples have changed since you started? I know we talked about like the changes that you've experienced, but what about the couples themselves?

SPEAKER_03 15:54

I mean, I feel like I don't know if you feel this way, but I feel like ever since COVID, obviously, I hate using that word. I hate saying it. I hate bringing it back to life. But ever since COVID. couples have a more intense way of wanting things done right away a certain way at least a little bit not necessarily in like a negative way I just think that the intensity of COVID kind of ramped up everything and I think everybody's kind of sitting here instead of a little bit calmer like it used to be I don't know if you feel the same way but I feel like there's a little bit more like an urgency to get things done and to find things at the right price and to get things sort of where it used to kind of be more like calm and flowy and I feel like now it's a kind of comes and goes. I don't know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Yeah. I mean, I feel like some people will take a really long time to make certain decisions and other decisions are like same day they're done. So I have been finding that like the things that used to be that we, it was really quick to decide, like, say like you're catering, people are taking a lot more time to like be intentional with that and like find out where the food is coming from and find out if they really like it and like really like digging into like the tastings. And, and I think that's good because then you're not getting like the same kind a meal and you're getting a meal that like you actually want to eat, that you're excited about. Like one of our couples, she's just so excited about beets that her entire like sheet of notes was just beets, beets, beets.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

I love that. Are you going to use dead beets food truck?

SPEAKER_01 17:21

No, they're getting married at the Empress.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

I'm sure they can have a nice beach buffet. Come on, Empress. Load all the stops. How many different ways can you do beets? Hey, I think, I think that could be really exciting. I love a good beat with some goat cheese, you know?

SPEAKER_01 17:38

Yeah, I know. It's perfect. And some honey in there. Yeah. And now we're like hungry at like 10, 30 in the

SPEAKER_03 17:43

morning. I know, but now I'm starving. I do have, Cassie is here with me in the studio today and there's, we have some chocolates. And so I've been snacking on a box of chocolates. So I wish you were here and you could enjoy them with me. So if you see me munching, it's the

SPEAKER_01 17:56

chocolates. I won't tell anyone. What memories stick out to you? I know you already mentioned one briefly that was not so great, but is there anything else that you remember that

SPEAKER_03 18:08

you look back on? I feel like I have so many memories. I think I kind of touched on former clients, past clients, being able to watch their kids grow up and things like that has just been pretty cool. I have this one couple... Back in 2021, beautiful couple. Actually, as a collective, I think we planned five of the friends' weddings. There was a group of friends, and I think we planned five of the weddings. And they were so fun. We went to Port Renfrew, and it was a five-hour power outage, unexpected, in a storm, wedding day. It was about... probably about five and a half hours before the wedding was to start was when the power went out. And so you're in Port, Port Renfrew, there is no cell service or anything like that. So I'm having to like drive from my truck from Big Fish Lodge all the way up to the Airbnbs up in Handsome Dan's and back. And then my girls are setting everything up in the dark and it's like a dark cloudy October day. It was actually my birthday and it was so dark and cloudy. We couldn't see anything. And these girls, like my assistants were like the sweetest things. They're laughing. They're having the time of their lives. The bride and groom had kind of left their own personal boxes of decor for us to take out it was like a mix and match of rentals and DIY it was kind of the vibe up there anyway being like right on the beach it was beautiful and we just made it work we're pulling things out of the bag in the light like running outside trying to see what the color is like where we can put it it was so fun and ended up like half an hour before the ceremony power came back on and it was like I think we all cried like five times in an hour it was like hilarious that was probably like one of my most exciting moments was when that power went on and we had like a room full of like vendors I've never really worked with because it was all the way up there and it was so fun. I'll never forget it. The bride and groom were so happy. We kind of did like a reveal of the event space with them walking through as they were going to walk down the aisle. And it was just like beautiful. I think the bride and I cried a couple of times and hugged before she went down the aisle and we're trying to like clean up her makeup. It was great. Yeah. I've had some interesting, one of my favorite standout memories of all time was a dry wedding. I won't name any vendors because I love them all, but we had a very, it was a very dry wedding. The bride and groom are recovering alcoholics and which is like, you know, the entire wedding They just asked, no one drank. It was a little bit of an earlier start, a little bit of an earlier finish wedding. The one thing that meant anything to the bride was having creme brulee. And it was like mentioned to catering in my, on my notes, in our meetings, at the tasting, it was creme brulee, creme brulee, creme brulee. When you bring out that dessert board, it's got to have like 19 creme brulees on it. That's the only thing that matters to this sober bride. So desserts come out, the board comes out and I'm looking at it and I like, it's kind of like in production, like below, like they hadn't brought it out yet. It was still cocktail hour. And so I kind of got a sneak peek of the desserts that were coming out later on. And I went and looked and there's no creme brulee. And so I sort of sent, went over to the caterers and I was like, hey, where's the creme brulee? And it was like, we don't know anything about creme brulee. There's no creme brulee in our notes. There's no nothing. So it was just like no time to, no time to fester. I have to like go into over control mode. And so I just called my husband who, as we call them on our team here, we call them the good husbands because like I'm about to talk about, they come out time and time again and save our asses. We're in the middle of, you know, up Schitt's Creek soda paddle. And so I called my husband, I'm like, where are you? And he's like, I'm at the Savon Foods by Costco and Costco has the best creme brulees that at least I've ever found. So I called him, I'm like, you whip behind the road, go to Costco, get me creme brulees, whip up here now. Like I'm in Micho's and like, get here as fast as you can. And he just kind of went like, I'm about to go golfing. And I was sort of like, golf doesn't matter today. Like it's this or bust, like you gotta help me. So he rips down to, rips up to Costco, grabs the creme brulees, meets me in the run down into the basement of where we were and we don't have a torch so we have three barbecue lighters at once on this creme brulee and they're bringing up this tray and I just walked right up to the bride with a spoon and handed her the creme brulee right at the same time the desserts came out she's dancing on the floor eating the creme brulee and looked at me and was like this is the best thing I've ever had best day ever and I literally fell to the ground outside and just went like wow that was like something I never thought I could pull off and it was just like it takes a village wedding days are wild but that was probably like one of my like favorite moments because she had no idea. That's our job. The bride and groom shouldn't know about the shit that goes on behind the scenes. They don't know about the bad and the ugly. We do. We carry that for them. It's their day. And so doing that and taking ownership of that was probably like one of the most fun things that we've sort of done. The photographer and I were just like, we were laughing so hard and he was like, I can't believe you pulled that off. And it was just, it was fun. It was cool.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

That's amazing. Yeah. It's a good thing he wasn't already golfing.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

I would

SPEAKER_01 22:51

have been

SPEAKER_03 22:51

like, leave the golf

SPEAKER_01 22:52

course.

SPEAKER_03 22:53

Yeah. I mean, we've had some pretty great like triumphant moments at weddings. Like I remember talking to honey do me, who's a local drag queen. When I had a pair of grooms getting married at church and state and they wanted like an epic drag queen kind of surprise performance for their guests. And with like, at the same time, honey and I both said like, man, I feel like a woman needs to happen as the first song. And she like kicked in the doors of church and state and like ran in and the crowd went wild. It was like one of my other top, I have probably like, 50 top wedding moments, but those are probably like my core three that just always kind of stand out. Just make me smile every time I think about them.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

It's funny. My core three also include a drag queen, but it's Vivian Vanderpuss. And then they work together. They're besties. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like that one wasn't as, I guess like dramatic. It was more like interrupting and Vivian was coming from the fish factory and had a gift for them, which was a stuffed fish. That's, funny. Do you have a video? They didn't have a videographer and I tried to get some video, but I also didn't want to be ruining the guest experience. So I kind of just stayed off to the side.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

Yeah. I know. I feel like that too. When there's no videographer, you don't want to be like in the corner with your cell phone.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Yeah. Yeah. I

SPEAKER_03 24:04

know that feeling.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like we also had a power outage. It only lasted an hour up at Sean again and everybody like started singing Kumbaya and having like a camp moment. And like somebody had a guitar and like they used the piano. Yeah. It was, it was not what I was expecting. Not on my bingo card for that

SPEAKER_03 24:24

year. Well, I'm glad the musical talent came through for you.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

Yeah. I, was like, well, I guess this is what happens when you have a wedding at an actual campground. I

SPEAKER_03 24:32

love that though. I love a good rustic wedding. There's, I've had some pretty good ones over the years and they're. When you have the good, when you have a good vendor team, they just like make it worthwhile.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Now, I know you just celebrated a wedding anniversary, didn't you? Well, ours is, we celebrate

SPEAKER_03 24:48

quite a bit, but our wedding anniversary is July 13. Okay. So we celebrated something else recently, which we're always celebrating. It was 10 years together. That's what it was.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

But it was like our, because we've dated, my husband and I were together for like three years, kind of in secret because we worked together and no one really knew we were dating. And then I kind of, it was weird and then we bought a place together so we sort of had to tell everyone at work that where our address was and how things have changed and then yeah so that's kind of how our we had several dating anniversaries so that was our 10 years together that's that was what we were celebrating yeah

SPEAKER_01 25:23

so we're going to talk about then like your wedding anniversary is in july so anything that you would have done differently for your wedding

SPEAKER_03 25:32

Well, we actually did a surprise wedding. So I don't know if you know this, but we were never engaged. So we were just sitting on the couch drinking a really great bottle of rosé. And he kind of said something to me like, you can't plan a wedding in less than two weeks for under $5,000 or something like that. And I'm like, I don't ever, I don't ever back down to a challenge. And I was like, what? Yes, I could. And I didn't, and I didn't even think about it. And we were already like in the middle of wedding season. Like it was June when we were kind of talking about this and he was sort of, or no, sorry. It was the first week of July. Um, And then he was like, yeah, there's no way or whatever. And so I just stuck up my hand and shook it. And I was like, you want to make a bet? Like, should we get married? And I'll like, let's do it. And he was like, yeah, okay, whatever. And so we shook on it. And then the next day, um, he's kind of like up showering, brushing his teeth. And I kind of walked in his bathroom and I was like, sorry, I'm like a little stale and hung over. And I was like, do you remember what we talked about last night? And he was like, yeah. Oh, you know, brushing his teeth. Like we're getting married. And it was kind of like, oh, okay. So this is happening. And then fast track a week later, like we had shared, do you remember Sherry Lynn Eastholm? She used to be purple hair. Yeah. I just called Sherry. Cause she was kind of my girl for that summer that I was working with quite a bit. And I just called her and I was like, what are you doing on Friday morning next weekend? She's like, like oh nothing I was like you want to come officiate my wedding in my condo and she was like okay yeah so I had my core couple of people my best friend who's been my photographer um for like my entire life another friend that we had that were our witnesses and Sherrilyn Eastholm we tied the knot in our loft didn't tell anyone except those people I went on site with Emma and we did a wedding like kind of over by Elk Lake that day and that was my first day meeting Carly who was on our team she was like climbing up a ladder and she's like how's your morning she's like hanging something I was like great I just got married it was so funny and that kind of like took her back. She was like, what? You just got married? And then two weeks later, we surprised everyone with like, kind of like a bougie barbecue. We had those like fancier picnic tables with adjacent benches. And we had like our favorite foods, which were like handheld little burgers. There was like chicken wings and four or five different kinds of salads. We had lots and anything you could think of to drink. And then it was like a four hours one and done. And that was it. It was awesome. And I think ever since then, we've kind of tried to do something like a little bit of an ode to that on our anniversaries. So we tend to go for food everywhere. Like we don't... My husband's a great cook, but we go out to eat more than we should. So for the anniversary, I like to do things like picnic style and kind of go back to that. Kind of like... glamorizing the picnic a little bit. We have like this cute little table that we have that fits our wine glasses, meat and cheese in the middle and like our Tommy Bahama chairs and just go sit on a beach with our dog. And that's honestly the best thing we can do is just spend time together because we're both so busy that that's sort of the best celebration for us is just a little bit of one on one time.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Yeah, I mean, especially when you decide to get married in the middle of wedding season.

SPEAKER_03 28:23

And then thinking about it now, I'm like, wow, it'd be really nice if our anniversary was like, you know, December or something, but that's okay. It's part of the job. And I love love more than anything. So it's fine by me.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

That's fantastic. I, I know you may already know this, but we also had a surprise wedding and, but I like decided, you know, you have to like make sure that we sell it. So like we did like the whole year, but really the wedding was already planned in like three months.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

That's amazing. I love that so much. I know. I remember where you guys were engaged and then I saw the Was it supposed to be your reversal dinner? It

SPEAKER_01 28:55

was supposed to be a surprise engagement party. A

SPEAKER_03 28:58

surprise engagement

SPEAKER_01 28:58

party? Nobody would talk to us about it. We made it as complicated as possible.

SPEAKER_03 29:02

Yeah, we have to. We did too. I think we told people it was like Cody's first wine tasting that he was going to be a sommelier or some reason we lied to get everyone there. I remember we told like four different lies. It was awesome. That's great. One of my friends was like, well, I'm in Lululemons. And I was like, it's not about you. Did you have to buy me a gift or go to like four different awkward parties that you didn't want to go to? No. Enjoy it. I love you. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

And it's so interesting too that you say that like there was like that budget limitation in there too. Because like we've had friends that just got engaged and they told me like, hey, can we – plan a wedding for like under ten thousand dollars and I was like depends on what you want to do yeah because like if you want like the full plate of dinner in a hotel and all of that ten thousand isn't gonna get you very far

SPEAKER_03 29:43

yeah I mean remember in the good old days ten thousand dollars used to be like a full all-inclusive wedding for a hundred people down in Mexico and now it's way more than that

SPEAKER_01 29:52

oh yeah

SPEAKER_03 29:52

yeah I

SPEAKER_01 29:53

don't even want to know

SPEAKER_03 29:54

I know there's been times though where I've been at a resort and watched them set up chairs at a wedding and just like excuse myself from my family and just walked over and started out I just can't resist.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

That's fair. I mean, I restrain myself.

SPEAKER_03 30:12

See, after a couple of tequilas, I can't.

UNKNOWN 30:16

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_03 30:17

Yeah,

SPEAKER_02 30:18

tequila, blame it on that.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Well, actually, this is a really good segue. So I'm going to do a little game with you. Wedding, this or that. So we're going to start right away. You can do a quick answer. You can explain yourself. You can do whatever you want. Okay. Cocktail style or sit down? Cocktail style. Open or cash bar? Cash bar.

SPEAKER_03 30:44

Cash only. I will touch on this a little bit. Open bar. I don't like that people will take a sip of a beer, put it down, go out for a smoke or go chat with someone and come back and forget about it and get another drink. So that's on the couple. I like if you kind of have a little bit of ownership, like a toonie bar or something small. The idea of open is great if you have a smaller crowd. I'll go with that.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

I feel the same. And I also think too, that like, if you're going to do open, you could do like open for like say the cocktail hour and then like do like dinner, wine, and then leave it to cash. Like some sort of like mix. I like that a lot better.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

Totally.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Okay. Well, I don't, I know the answer to this. Plan a wedding in three months or three years. Three months. Yeah. I think so too. I feel like you can change your mind so much over three years.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

Okay. No wedding party or a 10 person wedding party? No wedding party. Is that personally or just like in general too?

SPEAKER_03 31:36

No, I just kind of like, I just like it just being about them. I think when you get 10 or more than it's the photographer struggles a little bit trying to get everyone in one shot. I think in theory, it's great. I guess it depends on the person. For me personally, I just love just the couple.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

That's fair. I get it. It's a lot less to manage and it's a lot more time for them to get photos.

UNKNOWN 31:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:56

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 31:57

Okay, this might be a hot topic, especially because you're in the studio right now, but balloons or paper lanterns?

SPEAKER_03 32:04

Ooh. As long as it's biodegradable. I love a good balloon. Balloons bring me joy. So I'm going to go with balloon. Okay. Backyard or hotel wedding? Hotel because of all the support that you get.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

Yes, so much support. I also find that when you're in a house, even though everything seems like so close, it also seems so far away because there's so many stairs.

SPEAKER_03 32:31

Yes. And I feel like the bathrooms are always a situation. I feel like people often when they have a backyard wedding and they have more than 50 people attending, they always want to just use their own bathrooms. And I strongly recommend not doing that because then your bathroom gets trashed. Your house gets trashed with people going in and out. I think break the bank and get those like Dave from black and whites, like toilet trailers. Those things are a godsend.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

They are so nice.

SPEAKER_03 32:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

And then I think they like the one that I was in also even had like cloth, like towels, like real towels. Maybe blue ones. Yeah. It's perfect. We love a good bougie toilet. Yes. Okay. Would you rather work a wedding on a Saturday or the Sunday of a long weekend? Sunday. I love a Sunday wedding. I do too. And then I feel like you can kind of like relax the next day because you know, maybe some load out, but then you have the rest of the day to yourself.

SPEAKER_03 33:26

Yes, the day of the wangover. That's a good term for it. The wedding hangover, in case anyone's wondering what that

SPEAKER_01 33:35

meant. Okay, would you rather deal with a last-minute vendor cancellation or a wardrobe malfunction? Wardrobe malfunction. Really?

SPEAKER_03 33:42

I have a history with fashion design, like with menswear and things like that, and I kind of feel like it's ricocheted a little bit into females things and wedding dresses and things. And I know that there's been a few times Emma and I have pulled out And like fixed a wedding dress going from like with a big catastrophe going from photos to ceremony. And in the middle of the limo, we had them like veer off and go to Lily Kennedy's shop and have something fixed. Like, I feel like that would be more obtainable for me. I feel like a last minute vendor cancellation would just stress me out too much.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

That's fair. I mean, yeah, because then you have to call everybody and anyone and see if they're available. I don't know. Wardrobe functions for me, I feel like maybe it's just because it takes so much time, but it doesn't actually. I feel like it takes so much time. Like we like sewed like the chicken cutlets, like the fake boobs into somebody's dress once. And I was like, why does this feel like it's taking forever? And then I was like, oh, right. It's like 100 degrees out. That's

SPEAKER_03 34:35

fine. When your hands are sweaty and you're trying to like hold the needle and you're like, this is a nightmare. I guess that's true. two when you put it that way they both kind of were like

SPEAKER_01 34:45

I gave you an impossible situation basically would you would you rather a morning or afternoon wedding I

SPEAKER_03 34:54

if it's morning and it's brunch themed brunch I think hands down overall have been like my favorite weddings yeah I love eggs benny And a mimosa, I think it's my favorite thing to eat and drink if we're talking about events. And just, like, having that at a wedding I think would be so fun. I just love it so much.

SPEAKER_01 35:11

I know. I feel like the brunch weddings are coming back because of all of the expenses people are realizing weddings are.

SPEAKER_03 35:19

Yes, exactly. It's going to be, what, less than half if we go,

SPEAKER_01 35:23

like, in the morning? Okay, let's see. All right. You might have already answered this question, too. But would you rather a margarita or a mimosa? Okay.

SPEAKER_03 35:32

Are we talking morning or afternoon? I'm going to say mimosa. I love prosecco. I think prosecco is delicious. I'm going to go with that. Final answer? Yes, final answer. All

SPEAKER_01 35:45

right. Well, with that, I'm going to thank you so much for being on the show. And I guess we'll have to go get some mimosas sometime.

SPEAKER_03 35:51

Yes, please. I mean, I'm free this weekend. Hit me up.

UNKNOWN 35:56

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

Is there anywhere that people can get in touch with you? Anything you'd like to share that's coming up?

SPEAKER_03 36:02

Um, we're just really excited about what's coming with Boom Event Rentals. So watch our Instagram and we're going to start slowly showing things on our stories soon on our progress and what's going on. And yeah, hit me up on Insta.

SPEAKER_02 36:15

Awesome. Thank you so much, Dakota. Thank you so much. This was so fun. This was great. All right. We'll talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

Okay, bye. A huge thank you to Dakota for joining us for the very first episode of season four. We'll be back every Tuesday for the foreseeable future with another guest and a great conversation. In the meantime, stay rad. Can you

SPEAKER_00 36:35

get into the funk tonight? Can you stomp to the beat and sway to the right? Can you feel it deep down in your soul? Can you dance to the rhythm and lose control? Can you let it move you, let it choose you? Get in the funk and the funk will flow through you. Up and down you'll be bouncing like a yo-yo, feeling frisky, dancing like a disco.

SPEAKER_04 36:53

Let's get up

SPEAKER_00 37:01

and dance