Backthird closes; your event goes on. Here’s how.

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In mid-October, Backthird Entertainment is closing for good. If you’ve booked an event with us on or before October 10, 2020, this doesn’t affect you. We’ll be at your party, just as planned. We’re looking forward to it. If you’ve booked an event with us after October 10, 2020, we’re still taking care of you – but not as Backthird Entertainment. We’ll be transferring your contract. In most cases, we’ll transfer it to one of the DJs or musicians who already work for us. Here’s what you can expect. […]

Make your wedding safer by moving the afterparty online

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In June, we launched Huge Little Wedding – an entirely new approach to online wedding celebrations. The events our couples throw aren’t Zooms or livestreams, which broadcast the “real” event to online guests. Our online celebrations ARE the real event. Guests talk and toast and interact, just like they would at your reception. Because this IS your reception. It’s just all online. We went this route because we knew, increasingly, that wedding couples would have friends and family who wanted to truly take part, but who could not be present because of coronavirus. We wanted a way to let online guests feel like guests, not viewers. We wanted to let them all participate. And now that Illinois has entered Phase 4 of its reopening plan, we’re more convinced than ever that this option matters. Why? Because Phase 4 events get weird and awkward as the night goes on. In a pandemic, you can make your wedding fun or safe. But probably not both. And that’s not good enough. That’s why we’re letting every Backthird client “pivot” to a safer celebration with Huge Little Wedding – at no extra charge. We’re recommending this anyone with a wedding planned before March 2021. No one knows when we’ll have a vaccine widely available, but that seems a reasonable guess for now. If you’re a Backthird client, here is what you need to know. […]

The one question wedding vendors need to ask before they work in a pandemic

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There’s a pandemic on – and weddings and events are on again as well. That means we’re getting asked most every day to make confusing, risky ethical decisions about where and how to practice our profession. In this video, I explain the one question we keep coming back to in the Backthird office as we navigate this storm. How should we work a wedding now? What can’t we do? Asking this single question every day is helping us decide. […]

Today, we make big changes to our wedding pricing. This is why.

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I’m tired of complicating life for brides and grooms. Have you noticed how every engaged person really is two people? There’s the joyful person – fully present, savoring each moment of this rare brief phase of life. But there’s the anxious person, too – stressed out, confused and overwhelmed. It costs how much? We have to pick by when? You want to invite who? Engagement is a beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime span of months capped off by an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime wedding day. Engagement is a big pain in the ass as well. A bride or groom can savor every instant. Or – they can be overwhelmed. And if they’re overwhelmed, they miss it. They can miss the joy. The fun and the adventure and the crazy self-expression can just slip right by while they’re bamboozled by the budgets and details, by trying to navigate this strange expensive world of wedding planning. They can live their wedding year – or it can vanish in a whirlwind. Most do some of both, of course. Like in that parable with two wolves, most engaged folks have both animals inside them, Joy and Overwhelm together, each one vying for the victory. And God help us, wedding vendors. We’ve been feeding the wrong wolf. […]

Why do wedding vendors insist on meeting you before they’ll share their rates?

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Real talk: There’s a prevailing wisdom in the wedding industry that vendors should NOT share pricing with a couple until after they’ve met with us. More real talk: Couples hate this.  So what should we do instead? […]

Planning a wedding is overwhelming. Here’s how to make it fun again.

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Planning your wedding is fantastic – and it’s awful, too. And I’ve got the data to prove it. Well – perhaps not prove, exactly. Every year, I survey a cross-section of our wedding clients to ask about their experience planning a wedding in Chicago. We don’t serve enough couples for this info to be statistically significant (no single vendor does). But we do get some great feedback. And we see trends that match up anecdotally with what we’ve already learned ourselves about the world of wedding planning. I was not surprised to learn again this year that wedding planning could feel overwhelming. But I was surprised to see our survey hinted at a way that you can make it easier. Here are our suggestions, based on client feedback, for how you can make your wedding fun again. […]

Yes, we charge more for weddings. Don’t trust anyone who doesn’t.

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They call it the Wedding Markup – or, if they’re feeling dramatic, the Wedding Tax. Every year or two, a reporter somewhere finds out that most wedding companies charge less when they provide services for non-wedding events. They’ll do an story where they call a caterer or DJ asking for a quote for different services – one wedding event, one anniversary or corporate party. When the wedding quote is higher, the reporter “breaks” the news like it’s a scandal. Bad spin? Yes. But fake news? No, not really. Here’s why our DJ company bills more for weddings than for non-wedding events – and why an engaged couple should look twice at any company who doesn’t.  […]

That’s your wedding DJ’s problem. Even if it’s not his fault.

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Did you hire a DJ to run sound at your outdoor wedding ceremony? Here are three things that can go wrong with that: Your DJ forgot to change the batteries in your officiant’s wireless microphone. It’s dead. No one can hear your wedding now. Your officiant turned her wireless microphone off after soundcheck. When your ceremony started, she forgot to turn it back on. No one can hear your wedding now. Your officiant’s wireless microphone worked great at soundcheck 30 minutes ago – and nothing has changed since. So why is the microphone behaving in a totally different unexpected way now that your wedding ceremony’s started? Could be radio interference, or gremlins, or the 200 guests with cell phones in their pockets that just showed up. We honestly can’t say for sure. This one’s a mystery. All we know is that – you guessed it! – no one can hear your wedding now. The first problem above is your DJ’s fault. The second one is NOT your DJ’s fault. The third one? Hard to say. But either way, you’ve got one problem now: Your guests can’t hear your wedding.   […]

What should you do if your DJ has an emergency on your wedding day? (Answer: Nothing.)

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When the unthinkable first happened, it was early on a Saturday and I’d just woken up. “Benjie, it’s Nate,” the voice on my cell phone said. Nate and I were working an important wedding in about 8 hours. It was his last wedding with us for a while; we’d left a big hole in his work schedule this year because his wife was due to have a baby in 6 weeks. So I already knew exactly what Nate meant when he said what he said next: “The unthinkable has happened.” […]

Why we’re proud to work at same-sex weddings

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Because you love each other. Because you’ve found the person you want to spend every day with, and that’s so worth celebrating. Because if I’m not gay, then someone I love is.  […]