320 – Let’s talk about weddings

Let's talk about weddings on The Adelaide Show Podcast

In this week’s episode of The Adelaide Show, we are going to the chapel and we’re gonna get married, or rather, we’re going to Woodburn Homestead to talk about weddings.

In the Musical Pilgrimage, we have a perfect song by Ben Roberts from Ukulele Death Squad to give us the Fairytale ending for our chat about weddings.

To kick things off, in the SA Drink Of The Week, we return to Poonawatta.

You can navigate episodes using chapter markers in your podcast app. Not a fan of wine? You can click next to jump to the next chapter in the show. We’re here to serve!

And please consider becoming part of our podcast by joining our Inner Circle. It’s an email list. Join it and you might get an email on a Sunday or Monday seeking questicon ideas, guest ideas and requests for other bits of feedback about YOUR podcast, The Adelaide Show. Email us directly and we’ll add you to the list: [email protected]

If you enjoy the show, please leave us a 5-star review in iTunes or other podcast sites, or buy some great merch from our Red Bubble store – The Adelaide Show Shop. We’d greatly appreciate it.

And please talk about us and share our episodes on social media, it really helps build our community. Oh, and here’s our index of all episode in one concise page

Running Sheet: Let’s talk about weddings

00:00:00 Intro

Introduction to the show.

00:01:44 SA Drink Of The Week

The SA Drink Of The Week is a Four Corners Of Eden Valley Shiraz from Poonawatta. We taste it with winemaker, Andrew Holt.

00:10:38 Cindy Westphalen

“I want to come up a big long driveway and arrive at a surprise”. They are the words of one of South Australia’s most awarded wedding planners and caterers, Cindy Westphalen, in relation to Woodburn Homestead, a pioneering property in Langhorne Creek that she fell in love with and bought many years ago to become her base of operations. In many ways, the pathway of courtship, proposal, wedding planning, and then the wedding day is also like a big long driveway that arrives at a surprise. Of course, after that surprise, there is hopefully a long road ahead, complete with bumps, twists, turns, and sometimes dead ends. To help us understand how to navigate wedding planning, and maybe even our relationships, Cindy joins us on The Adelaide Show.
I bet you weren’t expecting to be asked for life and love advice today?

Cindy, you’ve been a caterer and wedding planner for many years, you’ve won countless awards at the Australian Bridal Industry Association, including becoming entered into the Hall Of Fame. If we look back into your history, what was your wedding to John like? Was it up to the gold standard or was it a big learning curve that’s informed your career?

Before we get swept into the fantasy world of dream weddings, can we name the elephant in the room when it comes to weddings? Cost. We got married in a cinema because I sensed that the moment I mentioned wedding when trying to book a venue, the price doubled or tripled. Was that delusional on my part, or does it happen, and if so, why?

How important is fantasy in wedding planning? And why?

How can you create fantasy – can it be lots of little things?

Is it fair to say that men become props during most fantasy weddings – and is this why you’re developing a Groom’s Concierge?

I bought a hat recently and in our discussion with the Adelaide Hatters people, they noted it will feel funny at first because it’s right next to your eyes and face which is where everybody looks when they look at you. A wedding puts your whole body on show. How do you coach people to deal with body insecurities so they don’t undermine the fantasy?

What are some of the combinations of catering and staging you’ve seen?

Your staff often get rave reviews. How do you choose them? I recall being cheeky once.

One of your features – that looks amazing – is the open air barn area. Having just shivered through Into The Woods at the Botanic Garden, I was wondering how well does nature play its role? Is it reliable? Does climate change mean you need different planning and contingencies?

Through CIndy’s Classic Gourmet, you start the process with a personal consultation. What sort of questions do you ask?

Has the uprising of more food allergies made life harder?

Have the various cooking shows changes people’s expectations?

You’ve catered for the state government and prime minister. What sort of fare was requested? And who’s fussier – brides or political aides?

There are many articles about how to handle politics at Christmas gatherings – have you any tips for dealing with wedding family politics, given there are now many extended and broken family groups?

And what is wedding tourism?

Has any movie ever gotten the role of wedding planner right?

00:58:27 Musical Pilgrimage

In the musical pilgrimage, we have a song, Fairytale by BS Roberts of Ukulele Death Squad fame.

This song is from the official pilot of the featre length documentary, Adapting. It is also track 1 of 6 from the upcoming EP Live on the Heysen Trail.

Here’s this week’s preview videos.

SFX: Throughout the podcast we use free SFX from freesfx.co.uk for the harp, the visa stamp, the silent movie music, the stylus, the radio signal SFX, the wine pouring and cork pulling SFX, and the swooshes around Siri.