Hey everybody, welcome to Get to Know Your Wedding Pro®. My name is Reid with Best Made Videos. We are a wedding videography company based out of West Seattle, Washington. And I'm excited today to, we joined by a Travis Engelhart of Cue It Up Entertainment. I want to thank you so much for coming in. We're kind of getting now the wedding season on a DJs are a little more year-round than I am. But now why don't you introduce yourself, tell us who you are and what you do.
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me Reid. My name is Travis and I am the owner and DJ/MC with Cue It Up Entertainment. I'm based out of Olympia, Washington and they help couples with wedding entertainment throughout Western Washington.
And so how long have you been doing this?
I started, I did my first wedding in 2014. I started deejaying in 2013. The bars and clubs primarily country bar and kind of been through a couple of those and then got started with weddings the next year or so.
I'm sure being a little more down South, you do get a little more, do you feel like you go a little more country stuff down in Olympia and Lacey and kind of that area? Yeah.
I get a little bit of country stuff. Honestly, most of the weddings that I do are more up North kind of, you know, Tacoma, Seattle area. I've had some, you know, I did one wedding as far North as Bellingham and some arounds to homeless area. So I tend to work a little bit further up North, but I do get a little bit of country certainly, you know, the barn weddings and some of the backyard weddings and that sort of thing, which, which are always a good time. Yeah.
And so what, what do you feel like is your selling point that you say, you know, you as a DJ, why do people want to hire you? Where do you kind of Excel in that?
For me it's, it's about creating an experience for my couples. I'm definitely not the DJ that just shows up and plays music. I spend a lot of time working with my couples in the planning process and trying to really create a better experience for their couples than just music. I think that people who are you know, entertained throughout the whole event that it's not just, you know, all formalities and then all of a sudden we want to turn on the music and start a dance party. It's about, you know, removing some of those barriers and creating an experience for their guests and for them that everybody's having fun the whole time. And then we're able to kind of keep that going through the night is, was we bring, bring the dance party into the equation. So,
No, I do think that's a good point. And I think, you know, especially a lot of DJs, like you said, that you know, that that maybe started in the clubs or the bars and making that transition. You do have to be a lot more personal, you know, in contact. Cause it is, you know, this the, you know, wedding day or whenever, as opposed to like, well, we're just going, it's more than just playing music. Right. Yeah,
Absolutely. I think, you know, when you, when you start out in the bars and the clubs, you know, you have a, a very clear objective as a DJ there. And that's to get people to drink and to spend money in the bar. Part of that equation is making sure that they're out on the dance floor drinking, which that, or I'm sorry, out on the dance floor, dance dancing, which really then sort of, you know, makes them want to go grab a drink or whatever. And that, that's a very different objective from what you're trying to do at a wedding. I'm not trying to sell anything in a wedding. I'm not trying to, you know, yeah, I want the dance floor to be busy and packed. But I want people to have a good time and having a good time isn't necessarily dancing for everybody. You know, there's gonna be people there that haven't seen each other in years. You've got grandparents and, and just extended family that, you know, maybe doesn't see each other very often at a wedding often can be almost like a family reunion of sorts. And so it's not all about dancing, although for a DJ, obviously, you know, my high is seeing people out on the dance floor reacting to whatever song I'm playing and that sort of thing. So that's important. But yeah, it is a very different world.
Yeah. No and that's a good point too cause you do, I do talk with some DJs sometimes and they do say like, well it's like the number of people on the dance floor is equal to like how good of a DJ they are. But that's not necessarily the case. Like you said, you want to really build that whole, you know, night Riley live entertainment and people being able to comfortable hanging out and talking.
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that that's important to STEM. Make sure that, you know, some DJs, I, I hear a lot of talk about, you know, having all these speakers and that sort of thing and, and really, you know, you want the music loud and all that and that's not necessarily true. You know, I think it's really important that people are able to have conversations. For example one of the great things about like a historic 16, 25 in Tacoma, that many that I was just at recently with the two separate rooms that they have their, you know, we have dancing and decently loud music going on at one room and then quieter music, the same music in the other room where people can still hang out and talk and visit and do that sort of thing. And I've had weddings where absolutely nobody dances or you get three or four people out on the dance floor, a couple of songs, but they really want to hang out around the bonfire or go play the yard games or do that sort of thing.
And they're just visiting and they're not a dancing crowd. And I've had weddings where it's an absolute rage or on the dance floor all night long and everywhere in between. And you know, at the end of the night if the couple leaves and they had a great time, you know, I have some of those weddings where I'm like, man, I just can't get people to dance tonight. He kind of leave almost feeling like you didn't do your job, but at the same time you get the couple that at the end of the night is super appreciative and they said you did an awesome job and, and that's great that they just weren't as into dancing as maybe even they thought they were.
Yeah. And then it's, everybody is different. I do think like every group is different. You know, we were just at the tree, the tree farm, like the barn side and that's kind of the same thing. They had a bonfire outside. They had a fire or a bonfire with some more is they have like a fire pit, the dance floor, and then that room is really big and it's just not possible to get everybody to dance. People want to kind of sprawl out and do other things as well, right? Yup. Yep.
Absolutely. In fact, I was up at Trinity a couple summers ago and that's exactly what happened. It was a hot summer day and they had, you know, once it started kind of getting a little bit dark, everybody was hanging out outside the two different that are doing the smallest thing. They had yard games. This particular wedding had done a like a brick oven, pizza buffet and there was still pizza leftover. They had a photo booth. So there was a ton of stuff for everybody to do. Everybody had a great time, but there wasn't a ton of dancing going on even though I was playing dance music all night long. And they loved it, but they were enjoying it in a different way.
So one thing that was kind of interesting, we were just talking when you got here was about you know, really meeting with your couples and you know, doing the walkthroughs and things like that. And I said, well, that to me seems a little different than some of the people I normally talk to. Just just in terms of like kind of being, getting a lot of FaceTime with them. You know, with video, like I said, we don't get as much FaceTime. It's like the planner that photographers are talking about that and kind of your motivation of wanting to make sure you get a lot of like a good time with a couple, you know, pre wedding planning.
Yeah, absolutely. I spend quite a bit of time with my couples and planning. In fact I probably spend more time planning with them than I do on the day of the event between working with that and not necessarily with them specifically, but when my couples we meet at least a couple of times before the wedding. Usually I'm at this point, I'm trying to meet with them about three or four months before the wedding before that they're going to fill out. A pretty brief planning for most of it is pretty much just informational. I want to know who their other wedding vendors are so that I can coordinate and communicate with them and kind of start that process. Cause we are working together as a team and that's really important to me and talk or I ask him about, you know, who the different players are in their family and who the parents are.
They're siblings who's in the wedding party and that sort of thing. I tend to reach out to the parents and or people on the wedding party, anybody who's giving speeches or toes to work with them a little bit or try and kind of provide them some tips. In fact, one of my favorite parts of, of of wedding, believe it or not, is toast. Good toasts. That's important factor there. But that, that's kind of an important part for me. So I want that part of the reception to be as, as good as it can be. And so I try to kind of help with that process. But then there are some other questions. A lot of them tend to be more ceremony related on my planning form because most of the planning that I'm going to do with my couple as far as all the details of the day is going to happen in person.
When we get together, we're going to get together for two or maybe three hours and really go over their day from top to bottom. And depending on how much work they've done ahead of time as far as going through some of my planning materials and learning about some of the formalities and how different things in the wedding go that kinda basic details of their day and how things are gonna go can either go really quick or we can spend most of our time there. And if they happen to spend some time before we meet learning about some of those formalities, then we end up being able to spend a bulk of that meeting working on ways to personalize their reception rather than kind of working over some of the basic details. So
The other thing I was going to say, you know, when you do kind of that pre planning is I think a lot of that stuff, it's always to me and like I think even today I saw online, you know, someone's looking for trying to figure out a way to do the wedding without the DJ or low budget, you know all this stuff. And I think that, you know, cause people look at it as like play music and nothing else and when you're doing all this other stuff, there's just a lot of things that go that people don't realize. Right. They go into it. I mean do you want to kind of give your spiel on that of like your thoughts of like that iPod wedding versus like what you do as like an emcee? Yeah,
Slowly. I think that is a pretty common misconception about the DJ is they're just the music. You know, they're asking the question, you know, how much for the music. Right. And I think, like I said, I really think that's one of the biggest misconceptions out there is the D. The DJ really is just the music. And especially when you're looking at a couples that are trying to kind of pinch pennies and do that budget wedding or even the do it yourself are, are couples who tend not to have a wedding planner. And there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, a lot of the couples that I work with don't hire a wedding planner, but that's partly because once they hire me, they feel like they've gotten, they can handle a lot of the decor stuff or the, the kind of prep work for the wedding and, and that, and then sort of leave the entertainment portion up to me.
A DJ really can make or break your wedding. And that's, that's not me trying to sit here and sell you on a DJ. But I think that there's so much that goes into the wedding and making the day run smoothly and putting that timeline together and just, you know, the, the flow of the day. A lot of the couples that come to me, you know, they say they want to have fun, they want people to dance and that's all well and good. But the biggest thing, they come and say, they want to be able to relax. They want to be able to enjoy their day and they want it to flow smoothly. It's super easy for your guests to recognize a wedding that is not flowing at all. And if people aren't having fun up until, you know, dancing time, you get through dinner and all that stuff, then that's kinda like, all right, well, you know, maybe it's time for us to kind of head out of here.
And I hear all the time about people that have weddings where you know, they have their ceremony and some drinks and then they have dinner and then everybody just kind of leaves rather than saying and hanging out and having a good time. And I'm like I said, that good time doesn't necessarily mean that they're dancing. Although as a DJ, that's what I want them to do. You know, but people are there and hanging out. [inaudible] One of my biggest things that I talk with my couples about is we wanna make sure that your guests are there with you to party all night long for the entire length of your event rather than checking out after dinner, the cake cutting or, or whatever. So
Yeah, I mean someone needs to be in charge of that kind of day of execution and it, it, it should not have to be, you know, use D J but if they don't have a planner and they don't have a DJ, like you said, someone needs to be in charge of that. And I just talked, I think that the podcast I recorded last week about, we just had a wedding where, you know, there wasn't a planner and the DJ was like a friend kind of thing. And so me and the photographer a lot of time that day, like doing things like you would be doing you, okay, Hey, we're getting ready for tows, let's go talk to this person. And so not only is that, you know, stressing us out the couple out we're having these discussions, so don't need to be had, but then we're not doing our job either. Right. You know, cause we're busy trying to figure out like, okay now where is grandma so we can do this versus like trying to film stuff or take photos and it's just someone has to be in charge of that. Yeah,
Absolutely. I think that, you know, what you're going to find is as you start eliminating vendors from the equation, that that sort of coordination portion of the day is going to kind of roll downhill and somebody's going to have to pick up that ball or just nothing's going to happen. Right. The bride and the groom on their wedding day are not looking at a clock. They are not paying attention to what's going on. I've even had couples where I've really had to sort of corral them into, okay. Like we need to keep those moving like, no, no, no. Come back inside. We got to get your first dance done. Like we're, we don't have a break here. Like, let's get through these like two or three formalities and then, and then we can move on and you can just mingle and hang out and do whatever. But yeah, those things roll down Hill.
So if you don't have a planner, your DJ is probably the next one that's going to take charge of that. And we were, even if you have a planner you know, if you work with me, we absolutely take charge of your day from essentially the beginning of your ceremony through the end of the night short of your sendoff. If you're doing that, I usually leave that one up to a planner or a photographer to kind of help coordinate that because that's really kinda what they tend to, you know, they want to get that shot of your sparklers signed off or whatever you're doing. But you know, between, you know, the last song of the night and that, you know, the beginning of your ceremony, we're pretty much running the day. We're the ones that are, you know, most upfront and visible. We've got the microphone. And so, you know, we're the one that are kinda, it's our job to sort of guide your guests.
If you don't have that person, then somebody else is gonna have to do it and maybe that's a family member or maybe it's your photographer, you know, we, you know, all your, all your wedding vendors know kind of how your day should flow and you know, for them to do their job, they need those things to happen. If, you know, if you don't have a DJ and you don't have a planner and you've got a photographer or videographer there, you know, obviously they know, Hey, like you need to have a first dance, you need to have this or that. And so they're going to have to kind of walk you through those things. But that takes away like your like, you know, like you said, read from, from being able to do their job, which is to, to capture that day. So you really do want to have somebody in charge.
Yeah. It just is crazy to me. Just like you said, how quickly kind of things will spiral out where you know, you're, we might be booked till 10 o'clock and it's like eight 30 and nothing's going on. Or a lot of people have left and like you said, I mean, you know, there are circumstances, okay it's like a Sunday or okay this isn't the older crowd. People are even, but a lot of the time it is kind of mismanaged time and either front-loading stuff or not letting people know what's coming up next or stuff takes too long and then people get restless. You know, the people just keep that feeling right. Like something's off here.
I that, you know, when I first started I was a little bit looser with my timeline. I would, I even asked my couples, you know, how, how closely do you want us to stick to this timeline? Do you, are you really strict about it? Do you want to kind of play it a little bit looser? I don't ask that question anymore. We tried to stick to the timeline as much as possible because it really does affect, you know, if you have a lot of kind of low moments in the day or Lowell's through the, through the day, your guests are going to notice that and they're going to sort of just feel that disorganization and they're going to be more likely to leave a little bit earlier, which is not what we want. You've paid a lot of money for your day and for your venue and, and all of the things that go along with it.
You really do want your guests to stay there. And I think that it's important for, for your day to have that good flow. So one of the things that, that I've noticed when it comes to, you know, where your timeline is going to fall apart during your day. There's two spots that it really tends to happen more than anything else. The first one is during cocktail hour if you haven't planned enough for photos. And this is a great opportunity to briefly talk about, you know, the opportunity to do a first look versus doing all of your photos or in cocktail hour. I highly recommend doing a first look. And if you want to know more about that, I'd love to chat with you about it. But you know that that's one of the places that your, your timeline may fall apart if you figured, you know, 45 minutes for cocktail hour and your photographer wants to take an hour and a half to do photos and you haven't kind of worked all that out ahead of time, I'm, you're going to be running late.
The downside to running late during cocktail hours and your caterer might be a little upset if their food's getting cold. They, you know, you really want to hit that dinner time on time. And so not having your timeline fall apart during cocktail hours. Important. And so working with somebody that's gonna help you put that timeline together and be aware of those things is important. And the other place that your timeline may fall apart is during dinner. If your caterer is underprepared or you didn't plan enough for dinner you know, if you have 300 guests and you figure you're gonna get through dinner in 45 minutes, it is possible, but it's not going to happen with one single side of buffet for example. Right? You're going to have to work a little bit, you know, do some things differently to make that quick dinner happen.
And so those are the two places that I see timelines or have seen in the past. Timelines falling out, fall apart. I work really hard with my couples and, and talking with them about catering and how we can kind of make that dinner time happen in whatever time that we have for it. And really just creating a realistic timeline so that we don't lose a whole lot of time during those two things. Obviously starting your ceremony on time, if that doesn't happen, it's kind of where you could fall apart too. But the two biggest are cocktail hour and dinner time after that. It's kind of about moving on to those formalities when the time is right. And, you know, a few years ago when I first started, I would put a little bit of time in between those things. You know, we do cake cutting and then we'd give it a few minutes and do first dances and give it a few minutes and then, you know, open the dance floor or do toasts or whatever.
And I've found just in my experience and some of the education that I've had that that's just really bad idea and that it's much better to really kind of get through those things as quickly as you can. I always tell my couples something, you know, along the lines of, you know, it's my opinion that you should try to get from dinner to dancing as expeditiously as possible. Because not having those LOLs or those kind of moments where people are wondering, Oh, what's going on next? A really kind of kills that flow. And so if you are going to have, you know, some sort of few minutes of spacing in between those things, it's really important that you have somebody that's letting your guests know. Like, Hey, we're, you know, where you got this coming up and just a couple of minutes we're going to take a quick break or give them, you know, if he did a messy cake cutting union in a few minutes and sometimes it's making that call on the fly. And I was like, Hey, we're gonna give him just a couple minutes to get cleaned up there and then, and then move onto their first dance or whatever so that people know what's going on. I think that, you know, when people are kind of sitting around wondering, that's where they really start to kind of go. [inaudible] And I think we're going to take off here in a little bit. You know, they're trying to think about how they can work
They're way out. No, it's definitely, yeah, it's that cities around in wondering. I definitely know. I've definitely seen a lot of legs. I was laughing, you were talking about the killer and we had a, one of our last weddings this year, they it was the same thing and it was like, you know, 250 gas, one side of the buffet. You know, so we had gone through, so we're, we, we've eaten, we're all standing there and the DJ like, all right, table number nine. And we're like, Oh my God. Like they're not even, you know, and there was like a lot, it's a lot more than nine tables and we're like, wow, this is going to take forever. But it did, you know, it takes and, and it's, it's someone needs to let me know that, that, that,
Yeah, definitely, you know, if, if you can get your dinner time wrapped up, you know, about an hour is usually probably good. 45 minutes to an hour is about perfect. And so you kind of gotta look at your guest count and figure out how you're going to do that. You know, if you've got a wedding with a hundred people, you're gonna have no problem in most cases getting through, you know, dinner time and an hour if you have a one single signup effect. But if you have 300 then you need to double sided buffets. See, in order to make that time or you're going to be looking at a two hour dinner. I mean, it's just, it takes people a long time to get through that buffet line. And, and so then it's a question of, you know, what do you, what are you going to do to kind of keep these people entertaining? Cause a little bit of background music and some conversation isn't going to get you through two hours a dinner without your guests being kind of Borden and ready to go once they're done with dinner. So if you want them to stay, you got to come up with something to do to entertain them. That's really kind of where your DJ and MC comes in.
Yeah. And talking about you, it's, you know, touched on wanting to talk about the first look and that sort of thing. And I mean, I obviously agree with that as well and, and really getting a lot of that stuff, you know, that's what we did for our wedding and trying to get done with, you know, Dorothy, my wife's big thing was she didn't want to leave the reception. You know, once the ceremony was done, she wanted to be a part of everything. And so we, you know, we did the first look and family. I mean everything. I mean we were like four hours ahead. We started, you know, cause she that was so important to, to be a part of that. Talk about from your perspective as a DJ and that whole kind of debate. Yeah, definitely. So I,
I started I was a little bit more of a traditionalist. I'd like to say anything that I've kind of learned a little bit about why traditions maybe aren't necessarily the best way anymore. But you know, I, I used to sort of encourage my couples to, you know, if you really like the tradition then go ahead and do the, she doesn't, you know, he doesn't see her until she walks down the aisle for the first time thing. But from the perspective of your timeline and your experience and your guests, and even for you, I think that the first look really is a good idea. You know, there, there's four that traditional kind of speak to that first. I think that, you know, from, from my perspective of what I've seen, when you, when the bride walks down the aisle for the first time and if that's the first time that he's seeing her, that can be a really cool moment.
But it can also be a little overwhelming. It can also be the situation. You know, in most cases when the bride walks down the aisle, all of your guests are gonna stand. And that's really sorta gonna block that view. A little bit, especially if the groom is not standing, you know, up on a podium or up higher on a stage or something like that. And so there's a little bit lost in that moment. I think that you can have that special, he sees her for the first time moment privately and I think you'll get more out of that moment that way. But from the perspective of your guests, I think it allows them to not have to go through a long cocktail hour if you're going to have, you know, 45 minutes or an hour for drinks and then an appetizers and, and visiting and that sort of thing.
And then turn around and have an hour to an hour and a half of dinner where it's basically drinks and waiting for food and hanging around and having conversation. You've really got a lot of that time anyway. And if you've got a lot of guests that are coming from out of town and family members or friends that you haven't seen in a long time, being able to spend more time with those, with those individuals and those folks is probably more what you would want to be doing. Then you know, off taking photos with you know, 30 people you know or, or you and your new husband or wife or whatever. I think that, you know, being able to spend that time with your guests is probably a better use of that time. And I also encourage my couples, you know, if you have that cocktail hour, you know, sign your marriage documents, spend five or 10 minutes, 15 minutes, just kind of relaxing. It's going to be the last time you get to kinda chill for a few minutes for your day. You've gotten through the big part of the day, the big high pressure part, which is the ceremony. Take a few minutes, sit down, relax, and then come join your cocktail hour, have a drink or two, you know, hang out with your guests and then kind of move on towards, you know, dinner in the formalities and that sort of thing.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, definitely get out and senior gas sometimes we do them and it's like, you know, it's like the Royal couple, they're like hidden off somewhere for, you know what I mean? It is take a few minutes and then it is good to kind of get some of those greetings and stuff out of the way with like older, you know, some of your older guests that maybe we won't be there the whole night, you know, and by the time you get to them later on, you know, they've already gone there, you know, at home. Yeah, absolutely. I do think that, you know, coming out and seeing your, I mean they, they came all this way to see you and I think you should spend as much time with them as you can. So that's awesome. So I want to talk about how you kind of got into deejaying, you know, to begin with and then we can obviously talk about the transition, the weddings, but like where did all this love of entertaining and music and everything come from?
Yeah, it really was kind of an accident. To be completely honest I probably wouldn't know shooting nine, 10 years ago now, started going out to a country barn Olympia that's no longer there. And I went there and hung out and then I learned how to dance and, and really was kind of more in that realm than anything else. But I also happen to live close to it. And so my house sort of became the pregame spot and so everybody would kind of come over and we'd hang out and have a couple of drinks before we walked down to the bar. And, and so during that time is I was always having friends telling me, Hey man, you're like, you're always making great playlists. And they had several opportunities come open to where they were looking for, you know, like a filling DJ and that sort of thing.
And so I applied a couple of times and they finally gave me a chance and kind of taught me what I was doing. Cause that was sort of how I got into the bar scene. And I was there for, I worked there for probably six months or so before I moved on to another bar up in Kent, which is also no longer there. It's moved. And so it's a whole nother, it's a whole other episode privately. And then when that bar closed that's when I ended up at steel Creek in Tacoma. Where I'm currently at most Saturdays at this point when I don't have weddings or events going on. But yeah, that was kinda how I got into it. And then, you know, as far as the transition into weddings, that was really a surprise. In fact. When I first started deejaying my dad asked me, he, he's like, so are you gonna like get into weddings? And I was like, no, absolutely not. I don't have a clue what I'm doing. I have no interest in doing weddings whatsoever. And now I wouldn't try to for the world. It's my favorite thing to do. In fact, with my company, you know, we, I focus on weddings. I, you know, I will do other types of events, birthday parties, corporate events, you know, but I do maybe one or two of those a year. And then everything else that I do is his wedding. So
What is it about the weddings that you enjoy and what was it like? Cause I famously, I was someone that had nothing, no idea any of that stuff. And I showed up at my first, you know, you similar. So talk about a Wednesday about weddings you like, and then what is, what was that kind of entering this new world? Like? Yeah, I love a lot of things about weddings. From the DJ perspective, from the MC perspective, I like the structure. That's really good.
I think why I like weddings over other types of events. There's really sort of a clear path as far as what the goal and objective is. You know, we have a ceremony, you have a dinner and you're probably gonna have, you know, formalities like toasts, cake cutting first dances. You may have some other activities and things like that. And you know, we kind of moved towards the dancing portion of the evening, so there's a definite structure there. And with my couples that will rearrange that structure or add or eliminate things I always kind of try and, and create an event that really speaks to them, that's true to them. And so for a lot of couples, things like, you know, bouquet and Gardner kinda go out the window and that one's one that we hardly ever do anymore. You know, as far as formalities go, cake cutting is probably going to be the next one to go.
I see it sort of waning as it is, but for me, what I really like about weddings is, is the emotion of the day. I love when I can kind of elicit emotions from my clients or their family members and whether that's laughter or tears or remembering I love anything that I can do to help kind of create those moments. And sometimes that's things like including their vows with their first dance. Sometimes it's reaching out to that grandparent who wasn't going to be able to make the wedding because they lived in another part of the country and traveling just wasn't gonna happen. And being able to get a recorded message from them and play that at the wedding as a surprise to my couples. Or some sort of, you know, doing like a grand finale at the end of the night with some of the clips from their toast and doing those sort of things that really are a little extra that that can bring a lot of emotion into the day.
Those are the types of things that I like to do. And like I said before, you know, my favorite part of the wedding day is toasts, good toast. And I've had a lot of, a lot of times where, you know, the, the parents may have such a close relationship with their, with their son or daughter that's getting married that day and some of the stories that they tell for the couples that I've spent quite a bit of time working with and planning and preparation, you know, up to that day to learn a little bit more about them growing up and that sort of thing during the ptosis is I enjoy that. And sometimes, you know, that'll even bring a little tear to your eyes, your, as you're listening to some of those stories I've had, you know, fathers that I had one and one of my first weddings that I did the dad, the father of the bride when his daughter was little, he would always sing her a song when she was in the bathtub and he sang that song to her at the wedding.
Like, and that was just like one of those moments where like, Oh my God. I had just recently a a maid of honor that wrote, rewrote the lyrics to the frozen song and sang those to the capitalized part of her toast. And we, that was something that, because I reached out to her ahead of time, she then was comfortable, you know, saying, Hey, I've done this thing, can you bring the karaoke track for this so that I can, I have the music in the background. And so that was one of those things that a DJ, this is going to show up and play music isn't going to be prepared for. But by asking those questions and reaching out to those people, you know, it, I'm able to help create those moments that just make that day all that more unforgettable. Yeah. It seems like a lot of the we have all other ways
December where you have the DJ of anybody was kind of that referral vendor that, you know, one of the best man that have the DJ or whatever. And so they came back and, and it's, it's so great too. Especially like you said during the toaster. I kind of see that comradery of like, all right, bill, like it's get up here, you know, and, and you, you know, the DJ already kind of knows some of this or like you said, have done a lot of that reaching out. It does really, I think help make people feel comfortable cause it is really nerve wracking to like get up there and give a toast. But I think if like you feel like, you know, the DJ or they've, like you said, done a lot of that work that maybe you feel a little more comfortable getting up there and doing something.
Yeah, definitely. No. One of the things that I sort of make my couples do although it's, it's never really a challenge is to make sure that they talk to everyone that's going to be speaking and make sure that that person not only knows that they are giving a toast but is also comfortable with it. And then I have my couples do that before I even reach out to them. I do not want to be the person that delivers that. Oh, I'm giving a speech today. Okay. Like, or you know, next month or whatever. So I always, I always have my couples reach out to them in advance, you know, and if they say, yeah, we're not going to have my, the dads aren't going to speak is just going to be the best man on the Meda monitor, you know, I go, have you talked to your dad about that?
Like, is he gonna is he okay with that? Does he not want to speak? Or, you know, because sometimes dads will absolutely expect that they're going to be able to get a toast and if or get to give a toast. And if you've eliminated that from the timeline and they're not aware of it, then that could, that could be a bad surprise. And so those are, those are the questions that we want to talk about. The same thing goes for couples that choose not to do like a father daughter to answer a mother Sundance. And that happens. You know, sometimes they just don't have that relationship with with their parents or their parents just don't want to do the dance or whatever. But I always, you know, if we're gonna start eliminating things that affect other people, we always want to have that conversation about, you know, does that person know, are they okay with that? So that we don't have anybody that's got a surprise or is feeling left out on the day of,
Well, yeah, that like when we got married, you know, the anniversary dance is like a big thing. And you know, my father passed away long time ago, so it's not even really even a thing. But our DJ did ask, he's like, Hey, like, have you talked to your mom about that? No, I wouldn't have even thought about that. Right. And, and obviously like it was okay, but we talked, but I mean, I thought that that was a great point, like you said, of not wanting that surprise of like, Oh wait, okay, what's happening now? Like, okay, you know, just eliminating the awkwardness.
Yeah, exactly. I mean, you get, you only have one opportunity, hopefully to, to do this day. And so you got to get it right. And I think that sometimes couples may get too focused on, and that that can be easy to do when you're working with me because I'm, I'm spend a lot of time talking about the guest experience and doing things that are, you know, things that kind of keep things moving along or sometimes go a little quicker than, you know, maybe a based on some things. And for some things they're relaxed. Pace is good, but for some things it's better to move a little quicker. And so we spend a lot of time talking about what's going to be good for your guests overall. And it can be easy to kind of confuse that with, you know, eliminating things being a good idea. And so anytime that we're talking about, you know, getting rid of formalities or anything like that, like I said, that affect other people that might be expecting something that they know that that's happening. We definitely don't want a surprise mom or dad that they're not going to get to dance that their son or daughter or give a speech that they thought they were going to. So I think it's really important to make sure that they know.
Yeah. And also just being deliberate with who you're asking to do toast. I don't think that every single member of the 20 person Bravo party, you know, needs to give a toast. But we've certainly done them where most, if not all of everybody is given, you know, I think it's okay to like pair that down a little bit. Yeah, no,
For sure. My advice usually with my couples is to try to limit toasts to four people. You know, a lot of times that's going to be a best man or maid of honor and maybe the, you know, parents of the bride and the groom. Sometimes we'll go up to six when Matt have, you know, another, a maid of honor or, or I'm sorry, another bridesmaids and groomsmen that wants to give a speech. And that's okay. A lot of times if we're going to go in that direction, I kind of talk to them about, you know, maybe splitting the toast, the speeches up a little bit so that, you know, mom and dad made me do like a welcome speech instead of of giving a toast after dinner. Just so that, you know, again, kind of go to bat, to go back to that idea of getting from dinner to dancing as quick as part or as expeditiously, as quickly as possible is not having, you know, 45 minutes of speeches after dinner that people have to kind of sit there and just listen to people talk for 45 minutes.
Those, those speeches are awfully, or are often you know, more directed at the bride and the groom than they are at all of the guests. And so, you know, limiting those, limiting the amount of time that you spend on those, especially after dinner is important. And one of the pieces of advice that I give to my couples and give to everybody is, you know, if you have a lot of people that are in the wedding party that want to speak you know, think about maybe having them give a speech at the rehearsal dinner that a lot of times those speeches, because it's more geared toward the brighten the groom and maybe the people closest to them that that might be a better place for those people to have the opportunity to kind of express their, you know, their relationship with you in speech form with kind of that tight knit group where it's not effecting the whole day, that those speeches may not necessarily need to be given to all 300 people that are at your wedding or 150 people even or whatever. So that's usually my, my advice that I give to my couples. If you want, you know, a lot more people to speak.
Yeah. Cause [inaudible] that at that point it does almost become kind of like the friars club roast or something. But you know, but then you're, you are in to like an audience member versus someone that's, you know, that knows all that. Right. That we are, our friends got married this year and it was the same thing. And it was like, you know mom and dad, you know, both sides and then best, best man may have on there. But then like they had a couple of other, you know, this was my friend from this really specific game. They gave a really lengthy story about that specific thing. I'm like, we don't know, you know, then, and we're like really close friends and we have no connection to a lot of this. And you could see a lot of people, you know, then you are becoming more than just like an observer versus someone that's like, all I know, you know, I know the mom and dad or whatever and I'm connected to this sort of thing, you know? Yeah.
And I think that, you know, I go back to saying that, you know, good wedding speeches are one of my favorite things. I think that some people are fantastic public speakers and they can engage an audience and tell a story. And really, I, I've seen some amazing wedding speeches from, you know, best men or maids of honor or even bridesmaids and groomsmen and parents too that really engage the crowd. They're there telling a funny story. They got people laughing and you know, as a DJ, I'm sitting there and I'm sort of watching the clock cause I'm looking at the timeline, but you're almost like, wow, that was, that was 10 minutes or 15 minutes. You don't even really like, wow, I want to hear more. And you're just, you're on the edge of your seat waiting for the rest of the story or whatever. And that's great.
If you have those people in your wedding party or whatever, then you're going to give those types of speeches. Then you can spend a little bit more time on that. But if you're going to spend a ton of time and you have people that are not great public speakers or not really able to engage and, and quickly tell that story you know, it might be best to not have them speak or, or you know, at the wedding, maybe like I said, the rehearsal dinner and things like that. It really shows that are not entertaining and not engaging or going to, it could be five minutes and feel like forever. And you can have ones that are 15 or 20 minutes and you're paying attention and hanging on every word and it feels like it went by in a flash. So it really can go either way.
And it's hard sometimes to know what's going to happen ahead of time. You know, sometimes work as sort of surprised by somebody that comes out and does something like, wow, okay, we did not see that coming. But that's sort of where I try to give some tips to those people that are toasting ahead of time and, and some, and I've noticed since I've started doing that, a pretty big increase in the quality of the toast that are given in the biggest, the biggest piece of advice that I give them is, you know, prepare what you're going to say. Even if you're not going to write your, your speech word for word, don't wing it, don't wing your toast. I think it's way too important of a moment to kind of fly by the seat of your pants. And that's, that's the biggest piece of advice that I try to relay to those people that are going to be speaking at your wedding.
Not to kill this tangent, which I'm enjoying about toast too much, but what do you think about the bride and groom? You know, making sure that they say something to the guests cause I, you know, I see weddings both ways and I certainly have strong feelings.
Yeah. I think it's really important for the bride and the groom to speak on their wedding day at some point. In most cases, I try to encourage my couples to actually give a welcome speech rather than a toast or a thank you for toast after dinner. But I do encourage them to do one or the other. I prefer the welcome speech for me, I think it's a fantastic transition from that introductions that are gonna happen before dinner into dinner. If we go from that high energy moment of introductions the and the groom come in and we got music playing the wedding parties out on the dance floor with them or in front of the head table. They're kind of able to come out groove to the music, dance a little bit to it, and then grab that microphone and welcome everybody. I think it comes across much more personal than me welcoming everybody to their wedding at that point or just trimming in after we had that super high energy moment and come on.
All right folks, we got dinner coming up in just a few minutes. I think it's, it's a way better transition for the bride and the groom to kind of bring it from that high energy moment into that, okay folks, we're going to be coming around and invite everybody to the buffet sort of sort of announcement that happens. But if they don't want to do that, you know, before dinner sometimes the, the way formalities work out or we're going to have the parents do a welcome speech. Sometimes it does work better for them to, you know, give that quick little thank you after dinner. And sometimes it's, it's based on, you know, the venue and the logistics of it. For example you know, coming back to and I hate to kinda, I mean I don't hate to, but to, to speak to one specific venue quite a bit here.
Historic 16, 25 and Tacoma, you know, with, with things in two different rooms. Last wedding that I was there, we decided to have the couple do a thank you after toast because immediately after toast they were going to have their first dance in the other room. And so we needed to get all of the guests from the dinner room into the other room where dancing was going to happen. And we felt that it would be better to have them invite their guests to come join them for their first dance than for me to do that. And we would have more success with that, which we did. So that was a reason to have them do that. Thank you. And then say, all right everybody, we're gonna do our first dance. Come on and join us. We'd love to have you come over and do that.
And so sometimes it's, it's based on those logistics and that's something that comes from planning and visiting the venue beforehand with your couple and kind of talking out that, you know, talking through how that day is going to flow when you're in the room and in the space and being able to kind of work those details out. If I hadn't gone and visited the venue beforehand and I hadn't spent, you know, a few, several hours with my couple of working through all the details of the wedding, we wouldn't have known to do that and it wouldn't have been as successful.
Yeah. I think. And even if it's a, if it's a fear of, you know, public speaking or not wanting to, you know, make things about you, I don't know, whatever the rationale is, I just think I'm saying thank you to your guests. I think it's extremely important and we don't cause you know, Dorthy on and I, we don't, you know, attend weddings that much lately anymore. But you know, we will always remember like the ones that we go to where, you know, like I said, it's even just like a thank you. Or like we appreciate you being here. You know, we've, we've traveled, you know, across the United States and how that word, there's no acknowledgement really. And then you kind of, so I do think it's really important and I think that people do, whether or not they realize it at the time, I do think that you should at least just say thank you. And even if it doesn't need to be a big pomp and circumstance speech, just, you know, an acknowledgement of everyone taking the time to be at your wedding. I think it's nice.
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, when I, when I talked to my couples about either that welcome speech if they'll do before dinner or a thank you after, you know, I try to remind them, you know, basically there's four things that you, you want to talk about. One is to thank everybody for coming, a thank your wedding party for being your wedding party. You know, thank your parents, especially if they had a lot to do with footing the bill. And then to invite your guests to party and hang out all night with you and kind of set that set that plant emotion or build that foundation for the dance party. That's going to happen a little bit later tonight that Hey, we want to see you all on the dance floor after dinner. And it's, I always tell my couples, I say, you know, one of the things that is super important is everyone is there to see you.
And so wherever you are is where the party is going to be. So if you are going to be outside around the bonfire, that's where your guests are gonna go and hang out. If they don't want to do that, they're probably gonna take off. If you want your desk to be out on the dance floor, if you are out on the dance floor, your guests will be out on the dance floor. And so how the party goes after dinner is really 90% of it is up to you as far as you know, what you decide to do. And if you're not a dancer, that's okay. Even if you're not, I always encourage my couples get out on the dance floor for four or five songs, even if that's the only time that you're on the dance on the night. Get some of your guests out there to let your photographer get some good pictures of people partying, let your videographer get some video of that. And then if you want to go hang out around the bonfire, hanging out at the bar or whatever you want to do, and just kind of mingle with the, with everybody, then do that. And there's nothing wrong with that
Burns out. What, what kind of advice do you give people, you know, looking for a DJ or you know, things that you think they should look for or ask or do?
Yeah. So if I had one piece of advice to give, it would be to kind of ask a lot of questions. I think a lot of people don't realize the importance of the DJ and therefore don't put a ton of weight in the budget for the DJ. And that's okay to some degree. But I think that it's because of that misconception that the DJ is just the music. And I think it's important to, you know, ask the person that's going to be deejaying your wedding a lot of questions and find out exactly they're going to do for you. Every DJ is different. Even some of, you know, those of us that are kind of in the similar price ranges are up a little higher that aren't quote unquote budget friendly DJs. You know, we're, we're here to help. We, we enjoy helping people and creating these days for you.
We're not typically the high pressure people. We want to answer your questions. If anybody calls me up and has questions about their day, even if I'm not working with them, I'm happy to give them some advice, point them in the right direction or help them any way that I can. I'm not a high pressure guy. I don't, I, I'm not trying to work with everybody that comes my way. I am not the right fit for everybody. If somebody is looking for that DJ that's just going to show up and play some music and they kind of want to run things on their own or they just don't have the money in their budget. I understand that. I think that everybody still deserves to have a great party even if they can't afford some of the more expensive entertainment options. But please ask them questions, you know, find out what really you could have. Because I think a lot of people, you know, budget for their DJ based on what they think they can get, not what they don't know is even out there. And I think that for some people they would have, you know, if they have the opportunity to go back and make that decision again, if the, you know, visit or attend another wedding where they see something like, man, I wish we could have had that at our wedding. You could have maybe, but you gotta ask the questions and really learn about it.
Yeah. I think just also like you said, asking questions and figuring that, I mean I always tell people like, you know, we're happy to chat. You know, maybe we'll be out of the budget, maybe we'll know somebody that's in budget, maybe someone can customize something. But just I think when people post or whatever and they say like, Hey, so we just figured out we have $650 or whatever and what can they get? You are going to get a lot of the people that are willing to just work and just want the money versus someone that you know, maybe I, we could cut some things out or refer somebody or is it an off day? Is it this, is that, you know, trying to figure this stuff out or answer questions of what do you need and what don't you need? Versus like, just putting that monetary value on it of like, well, this is a change I had in my accounts. It's left over for this. What will that get me? Versus like, well, this is what I want, but this is what I have. How can we kind of meet in the middle? I think it's just approaching. They kind of had different way.
Yeah, absolutely. I think a lot of people enter into kind of the budget making process for their wedding without enough information. I think that, you know, every wedding vendor is going to tell you that they're the most important vendor of the day. Right. I may be. And to some degree I think they're all right. I think that every, every wedding vendor that you decide to have on your team, every different type of vendor is absolutely important. I think that which one's most important to you is a matter of priorities. If you know your wedding video is the most important part of your day than you need, hire a videographer that's going to deliver you exactly what you're looking for. If photos of your day are the most important part, then I think you need to spend your money on the photographer. If you think that the food at the wedding is the most important part, then you should spend it on the catering.
And if the entertainment is the most important part to you, then I think that you need to really drill down on, you know, how you're going to get that experience from the entertainment perspective and what's going to go into that. And remembering that it's not just the music necessarily. There really is a lot more that goes into it. And for me, I didn't, I didn't get into deejaying weddings to do the money. I mean, my shoot, my first wedding was $350 and they got exactly what they paid for. I think that, you know, now I'm definitely not $350, but I think that the value that I deliver is, is in line with what I charge. And my couples tend to agree with that, especially after the fact that they're like, we got way more than we paid for, you know. But it's about creating that experience and those emotions and doing those little extra things and spending that time in planning. You know, I really get to know my couples and that helps me to give them a better experience because I just know them better.
Yeah. I think also, like you said, we're where everyone does think that you know what they do is the most important. But I do think that vendors do also realize that people do have preferences, right? Like I know that there's some weddings that I'm at where we are a very high priority or we're not as much a priority. And I think that like we're professionals and we get that and like, I'm sure you get that, you know, I think we all do where it's like
We're here to do it, but obviously, you know, the other things are more important or this or that. And you know, we just have one Friday and you know, they just wanted the ceremony and some of the speeches and so, you know, I get that. And so I'm going to defer to the photographer a lot and what they wanted to do because you know, you kind of recognize where you are kind of in the scheme of things that day versus like, well this is my show and no matter what, I don't think a lot of the people that are doing this full time feel that way. I hope.
Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, for me, you know, the couples that I work with are ones that place a high value on the entertainment for the day, the flow of the day, the music, kind of everything that is related to the entertainment. Those are the couples that I attract. Those as a couples that I work with. Most of my business comes from referrals. You know, from either from, from other couples or from I, I get a lot from, in fact, I just booked a client the other day, a couple of the other day that the mother of the groom was at a wedding that I attended and I think that she was a big part of why that particular couple went with me because they place, they placed a high value on the entertainment and the MC side even more so, I think than the music, although that's important to them too. And so we're gonna deliver everything to them as far as, you know, creating that experience for their guests, plus having a great dance party at the end of the night.
Perfect. Well, I think this has been great. I really appreciate you coming in and I'm glad we could kind of connect in and get this set up. Yeah, absolutely. If people want to learn more about you and your services and, and check you out, where would you have them?
Yeah. you can visit my website. It's www.cueitupentertainment.com Or you can find me on Facebook or Instagram at Cue It Up Travis and I will be at the Seattle Wedding Show in January as well.
Well, perfect. We'll have to connect. There again will be one of them bumming around for sure. Thank you so much. This has been another episode of Get to Know Your Wedding Pro®. If you are like Travis and you are interested in coming on the podcast, you can go to www.bestmadevideos.com/podcastguest and that's a nice easy questionnaire they fill out to kind of get you in the system, hopefully. Yeah, definitely. Awesome. Thanks again and check back next week for another wedding vendor interview, thanks so much.