Blog - Cut-a-rug

17 Sep 2016 Events, News 0

Colour and Coconuts

mel

DJs are not typically morning people – late night events and early mornings don’t mix. On this occasion, however, the event started bright and early at 8am with a sweat class. The event was the fabulous Colour and Coconuts Wellness Festival at Lightspace in Fortitude Valley.

Providing a live DJ set for Elle (Elle Fit) and Dana (Active with D) and their group of fitness enthusiasts was only the beginning. The day progressed with some amazing and inspiring entrepreneurial speakers from the wellness industry including – Lisa Messenger (Collective Hub), Melissa Ambrosini (Mastering your Mean Girl), Jacqueline Alwell (The Brown Paper Bag), Sarah Holloway (Matcha Maiden) and Julie Stevanja (Stylerunner).

Between speakers, Aaron mixed a wicked set of tunes (heavy on the 90’s hip hop and RnB) to the gorgeous kombucha sipping, superfood eating attendees.

It was a special day on so many levels. We left feeling inspired, rejuvenated and privileged to be there (and with the best goodie bag ever!).

Special mention goes to the über talented girls at White + White Weddings and Events for organising and styling the whole day. You did an amazing job!

Check out the pics below from Ella Molnar.

17 Aug 2016 information, Weddings 0

What do wedding DJs and sandwiches have in common?

mel

We get a lot of people asking us for our prices (nothing wrong with that – everyone has a budget to work with).

But there’s a lot more to booking the right wedding DJ than just knowing how much they cost.

Since most people have never booked a DJ before and might not know what questions to ask, we’re going to go with an example that you’ll be more familiar with (buckle up – here comes the sandwich analogy).

Imagine this:

You call up a sandwich shop to order a sandwich but all you ask is:

‘How much for a sandwich?’

They tell you ‘$20’. This sounds pretty expensive, after all, you just want a sandwich, so you call up another place and they tell you their sandwiches are $2.

Great price for a sandwich, right?

You go and pick up your $2 sandwich and you find out it’s a cheese sandwich. You didn’t want a cheesy sandwich! You wanted an amazing, gourmet sandwich! This wasn’t for just any kind of lunch – it was an important, once in a lifetime lunch. And it’s too late to change your mind.

Oh the disappointment!

If only you’d chatted with the first guy, you would have found out he was a master sandwich maker and was going to make you the best damn sandwich you’ve ever experienced, the kind of sandwich you’ll be talking about in ten years time – for only $20! In fact, if you’d taken the time to meet the guy, you would have realised it was Gordon Ramsay making your sandwich! Suddenly $20 doesn’t seem so expensive after all.

You probably know where we’re going with this…but in case you don’t, go back and replace the word ‘sandwich’ with ‘DJ’ and the word ‘lunch’ with ‘wedding reception’ (you can leave the word cheesy as it is).

Now, believe it or not, there’s a few ways that DJs are not like sandwiches. You can’t just walk into a DJ shop, have a look at their DJs and say “That one looks delicious” (ok maybe the sandwich analogy isn’t working any more…).

To figure out which DJ will tick all your boxes, do your research. Look at their website.

Does it include pics from actual weddings or is it full of stock photos?
Is there a picture of the DJ on there, or is it a mystery who this person actually is?
How do they present themselves?
What do they dress like?
Do they actually mix?
Have they won any awards?
Can you listen to examples of them performing at actual weddings?
Can you see videos of them at actual weddings?
Do they interact with guests in a fun way, or do they sit in the corner waiting to just press ‘play’?
Do they have ideas and experience in creating a timeline that keeps things moving in a fun and interesting way?
Do they invest in ongoing training and education?
Do they invest in high quality equipment, and have backups should something fail?
Do they have public liability insurance?
Do they purchase their music legally or use crappy sounding YouTube audio rips?
Do they roll out the same old tragic party ‘favourites’ at every single wedding, or do they truly customise a playlist to suit the people in attendance?
Can you meet them, or at least talk to them, before booking?
Do they come highly recommended by your venue/photographer/celebrant etc.

When you’re checking out DJs for your wedding, don’t just ask how much they charge. Find out what goes into their service. What are they actually bringing to your wedding? Talk to them, meet them and make sure that you’re not going to end up with a cheesy sandwich (unless of course you really love cheesy sandwiches, in which case go for it).

Once you’ve found the perfect person to manage your wedding entertainment, you’ll know how much to budget for your DJ – exactly what they charge.

Give us a call or lets meet so we can find out if we’re the right sandwich for you.

And on that note we’re going off to make ourselves a crispy pancetta, caramelised walnuts, baby celery and mayonnaise sandwich on organic, gluten-free sourdough ciabatta. Bon appetit!

13 Aug 2015 byron bay weddings, Weddings 1

Alyce and Shaun @ Byron Bay’s Belle Helena

mel

everything about shaun & alyce’s byron bay wedding was super unique and incredibly beautiful. belle helena, formally known as byron bay manor, played host to this immaculately styled wedding celebration, planned and coordinated by jane magnus @ byron bay luxury weddings. it was truly an honour to be a part of these guys wedding all-star team, headed by none other than photographer jonas peterson and second shooter, cassie sullivan (incase you can’t tell by the pics, they’re kind of a big deal). everything about this wedding was truly top shelf, from the setting, the food, the playlist (everything from bag raiders to biggie, spencer davis to snoop), to absolutely everyone in attendance – none more so than the bride and groom themselves.
the rain stopped just in time for everyone to make their way to the outdoor dance floor where i threw down a wicked set (did i mention biggie?) and the guests just tore that rain soaked dance floor up.
in a nutshell – so. much. amazing.
fun fact – alyce happens to be one half of wedding photographer dynamic duo, alyce & colette. we recently dj’ed at colette’s own wedding – watch this space for the blog coming soon.

Video by Roost Film Co.

Wedding expertly planned by Jane Magnus @Byron Bay Luxury Weddings.

Aaron and Mel,
We honestly can’t thank you enough for your amazing radness. Aaron we were SO lucky to have you with us on the day. We knew it was instant music bffs fo lyfe after we met up via Skype and had pretty much identical musical tastes. You definitely were pickin’ up what we were puttin’ down, and at the wedding the music from start to finish was just incredible. We didn’t leave the dance floor all night. The music was so varied and fun, the mixes took so many twists and turns and consistently had the crowd losing their minds! It rained a bit on our outdoor dancefloor and nobody could stop dancing. Even Shaun’s 80-something year old Nan was up and dancing in the rain! You guys absolutely rocked it and everybody has been raving about how great the music was. You guys are totally flying in the face of the traditional, pretty boring, slightly sad wedding DJ stereotype and it was a total delight to watch as people went from ‘oh, a DJ’ to ‘THIS GUY IS AMAZING!’.

We are sad it’s over because we just wanna be music nerd friends with you guys forever, haha! I’ll be sending all of my brides and grooms your way guys, Colette and I would love to shoot more weddings with you!! xx

Alyce and Shaun, Bride and Groom

3 Nov 2014 brisbane weddings, Feature on Homepage, Weddings Weddings

Sharleen & Tom’s Mirra wedding

mel

i had the great pleasure of djing sharleen & tom’s wedding reception at this rad little venue in brisbane called mirra. these guys are style, class and good taste personified – their wedding was just amazing.
you know what else was amazing? their taste in music (crunked up), their hilarious video presentation (you had to be there, seriously) and their photographer (anthony hoang). just a whole lot of amazing going on.
get the picture? check out the photos from the day.

Aaron was amazing and we are so happy to hear that he also had a blast. We had guests come up to us to say they loved the music. The music played during the dinner was very us and I’m so glad it wasn’t the typical commercial radio top 40 hits.

Aaron had his finger on the pulse of the crowd the whole time and knew exactly what to play to get them going. The fact that he got the crowd to dance to the very last song speaks volumes about his awesomeness and talents.

So thank you thank you thank you! Even with the rainy weather, everything including the little hiccups and awkwardness (which was very us) came together all in the end and we had one of the BEST NIGHTS EVER!

It was such a fun wedding and we had lots of guests also mention that was one of the best, most fun weddings they’ve ever attended.

Thanks for being part of our big day and making it as special as it was 🙂

Aaron, you are a master of your craft and we are so glad we chose to go with Cut a Rug!

Sharleen and Tom, Bride and Groom

30 Mar 2014 brisbane weddings, Feature on Homepage, Weddings Weddings

Matt & Khela at Brisbane Powerhouse

mel

matt & khela are dream clients of the highest order. beautiful, stylish, lovely – people who really know how to have fun! these guys introduced me to some awesome music that i’d never heard of and even went as far as to send me a sealed debut Gary Clarke double LP (we’re talking vinyl) as a thank you.
they had their reception at the über cool brisbane powerhouse. these guys, their friends, and family looked a million bucks and partied like rock stars as you’ll see in the ahh-mazing photos below by Stewart Ross.