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Welcome to 'IDOIQ' your backstage pass to the world of weddings and events. Join us as we unravel the secrets of seamless celebrations, from the 'I do' to the unforgettable reception. Whether you're a couple dreaming of your special day, a wedding vendor seeking industry insights, or anyone captivated by the magic of love and festivities, we've got you covered. 'IDOIQ' explores everything from choosing enchanting venues to creating stunning designs and culinary delights. We bring you expert advice, inspiring stories, and interviews with top-notch vendors who make dreams come true. Let's dive into the art of celebration together. This is 'IDOIQ'—where every episode is a step closer to your perfect 'I do.'
Welcome back to the I-D-U-I-Q podcast, Brock here with Brock Entertainment, and I have two very special guests today. Ladies, tell us where you're from. I'll let you introduce yourself. Yeah. I'm Alyssa Traxon. I am the Director of Marketing and Rentals for the Peel Compton Foundation, and I'm here today with Sarah.
Yes, I'm Sarah Bridges. I am the rental manager for the Peel Compton Foundation, and I've been in northwest Arkansas for about 14 years now. Oh, wow. So how long have you two been a part of? The foundation. Yeah. So I'm going on about three years now. So been here for just a little while. Yeah. I've been here for about three and a half years and loving every minute of it.
Right. Yeah. So we got a chance to hang out a few weeks ago. At an open house for the Compton. Mm-hmm. And you guys completely redid that place. Let's start there. Tell us about that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So Compton Gardens is the original home of Dr. Neil Compton. He was a doctor here in Bentonville, but he's noted for all of his work he did to save the Buffalo River here in Arkansas.
And you say save the Buffalo River. What'd he do? Yeah. So the Corps of Engineers wanted to dam the river, and that would've essentially ruined the landscape and Oh, yeah. Ruined all the beauty. And Dr. Compton was just like, I cannot let that happen. Like no matter what, like I can't let it happen. And so we have a whole exhibit dedicated to him, and this is where he lived.
This was his house, and he really preserved it and kept it beautiful in the way it is, and it is beautiful. You would never know if you go back to the Compton. That that was in town. Yeah. The way it feels kind of tucked away. Mm-hmm. It's awesome. Yeah. And you guys completely redid it. What was that renovation like?
Yeah, it worked out perfect timing. It, we started a little bit early. It was right after the big tornado a few years ago, and then it was about a year long renovation. So really the whole thing. We kept the structure on the outside expanded just a little bit, so whenever you walk in, there's this beautiful glass, almost like an atrium that you can walk into now.
But for the most part, we kept the integrity of the home, but then just really wanted to elevate it. So making it a little bit more of like a mid-century modern look. Just making it a little more clean and then just more welcoming and easier for our guests to be. Oh, yeah. And it's, it's beautiful.
When you go, yeah, technically we're an arboretum as well, so we have all these different types of trees, Uhhuh, and so the view is really these beautiful native trees and it's right downtown, basically. Yeah. So at the event while my guys were meeting the brides, I went and got us coffee. Because it's a five minute walk to Onyx right there.
Yeah. So it's perfect. It's a perfect location. Yeah. It's on the other end of the, the new promenade. Yeah. So you can walk to Lawrence Plaza and go ice skating and then you can, you know, go in 21 Z and have a drink and you go to the square and then you can go all the way to the Compton on the other side.
So it's a really beautiful location and it's all coming together. Yeah. The Compton, we got the new Compton Hotel. Yeah, we got your Compton Uhhuh. A lot of brides are booking up. The Compton for their weddings this next year. Yeah. Which is amazing. That's what you want. Yeah, absolutely. We almost have all of our Saturdays for 2026 are almost all the way taken.
Wow. For brides. You know why I like it so much is it's three minutes from my house here. Yeah. So you just drive right up there. Bam. Bam. It makes it so easy for me. Yeah, absolutely. So, so not only do you have the Compton, but you also have Pill Mansion as well, right. We do a lot of weddings there. Tell us about Peel.
Yeah, so Peel was the first property that the Peel Compton Foundation ever acquired. So it's really like our og yeah. Venue location. And of course it's right outside of store 100. Mm-hmm. So everybody knows that Walmart, if you're listening and don't know what that is, store one and right across the street from the old home office and all that.
So Yeah. Which is when you see it, you're like, what is this place? Mm-hmm. Because it. It looks out of place because of how beautiful it is and all the stuff that's grown around it. Yeah. Yeah. It was the home of Samuel West Peel, Uhhuh, and he was the first congressman of Arkansas. Oh, interesting. It was a 300 acre apple farm.
To begin with. So that's like originally, you know, there was nothing around it. It was really the first big huge house, like in town or in the area. And then they're like, you know what would make this more beautiful if we put a super center right behind it? Yeah. And a big old parking lot. Well, the, in like the insider story is that Sam wanted to put the store there and then Helen.
Of course said if you wanna put a store there, then you're gonna have to save this house. Oh, that's, thank you, Helen. Yeah, thank you so much. So we really owe it to her. Yeah. Yeah. So we. Do you got her phone number? We could call her. Oh wait, she has passed. Yeah. No, a phone number to heaven. So you have weddings there?
You can have outdoor weddings. You can have indoor, yeah, it's a little bit smaller venue. On the inside. But we've done a ton of events there and it's been great. Yeah, the peels were actually known for like having dinner parties and things Uhhuh when we lived there in the 18 hundreds. So I love to like make the joke that people have been having parties there for 150 years.
They have literally, and you're like, I ran out of whatever, Walmart right there. So you just Exactly. You just go get it. So a lot of people probably don't know. That the foundation, you have more than two properties. Mm-hmm. So you have a total of what? Four or five? Four. About to have five. Okay. So what are the other properties?
Yeah, so we have Kohler Mountain Bike Preserve, Uhhuh, everybody knows that. Which is awesome. We do have the occasional wedding there. People like to go down by the homestead, so over by Airship coffee. So that's a really pretty place. How do they get there quickly? You don't yeah, you have to trek over there, don't you?
Yeah. It, it definitely is a very certain type of person that wants to have their wedding at the homestead, but that's okay. Mm-hmm. We've got all kind of, you could just bike there. A lot of bike riders have your wedding and then you do a bike. Yeah, right. Okay. You just have to be willing to work a little harder.
Yeah. Yeah. And do the brines wear wedding dresses? We have had them wear wedding dresses. I mean, it is beautiful over there. Oh yeah. It's a nice place also, if you wanna elope. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You wanna prep like a five person thing? Just walk out there. We've done that a couple times. That's cool.
Yeah. Yeah. No receptions though. No. We have a, we have a few pending right now, so there people, how do you get the stuff out there? Working really hard with our awesome crew that works out at Kohler. Yeah. And use some of the vehicles to help get the stuff back. Yeah. 'cause it's like right in the middle there is a service road.
It's more for emergencies, but this is pretty important. A wedding is an emergency. Yeah. We'll share the road for them. Yeah. Okay. So you have the Kohler Preserve, where else? We also have Osage Park. So that one. Mm-hmm. We've had a few weddings over there, not as many. Um mm-hmm. Sarah can tell you a little bit more about a really interesting day we had over at Osage Park.
And then at Osage Park we also have the quiver. So sometimes we've had a few people go over there for like bachelor, bachelorette parties. What's the quiver? It's an archery range, so it's a fully staffed, I've not been there. Oh, you should totally go. Mm-hmm. Dressed in my Robin Hood costume. And if you want, most people don't, but you could if you wanted.
I did take archery in, in college and it was half archery, half bowling. Okay. Odd pair, but the teacher, even though you make an a anyway, just for showing up, he said if you wear a Robinhood costume, you automatically get an A. Nice, what did I do? I showed up in the old school cartoon version, like Peter Panish.
Oh, with the the hat and everything. Oh, I'm gonna use, I wore it. And they're like, really? I'm like, do I get an a? He's like, yeah, you don't have to come to class anymore. I'm like, well, I want to because this is fun, but yes, I did it. Yeah. And that's cool. I didn't know we had that. Yeah, so it's over there and it's a really great spot.
We have all the equipment, so you don't have to bring any of your own. You can just. To come in, you get some instruction and then do some archery. Mm-hmm. And then we are soon, we just took it over. It's about to go over a big renovation, so it'll be a year, year and a half uhhuh before it's done. But the property on 6 0 6 Central, the big White House that used to be Bud Walton's house has recently been acquired by the Peel Compton Foundation.
So that'll be another venue to add to our list here soon. And that's the one with the land? Mm-hmm too, right? Yeah, it's one of the most beautiful. Places. Yeah, we are really, and since I was little, you drive past that and you're like, oh, that's so awesome. Just got that timeless look to it, so that's gonna be cool.
Yeah, we're really big into preservation. That's one of our biggest things that we do for the Peel Compton Foundation. And so we're really excited to get to preserve all that land. And we don't want it to be taken over by all kinds of new buildings and everything, so we're just gonna renovate what's there and then really enhance the gardens and make it a really nice community space for everyone.
That'd be great. And Osage Park. If you're into pickleball, you could get married and then have a pickleball. Turn it with all your friends and family. Totally. How about that? Totally, yeah. And archery too. I mean, if you're in archery. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. We have a, a huge wide range of like experiences that we can provide to people, uhhuh, between all those properties.
So like we just meet all kinds of different, like. People in brides and some PMs. People want like a small, intimate setting and like sometimes people wanna like a little bit colder. Yeah. And then like go hit the trails after. Well I love Osage Park area because it's so beautiful. We got our wedding pictures on our wedding day taken there.
Oh, nice. On the little bridges and then, 'cause it feels like you're not in town, first of all. Yeah. But yeah, turned out amazing. That's really cool. Yeah. And I, I know a lot of people get. Bachelor, not bachelor their engagement photos and stuff done there. 'cause it's just, it's amazing. So yeah, if you, if anyone's always welcome to like, take pictures at any of our properties.
Mm-hmm. And then of course if you wanna tag us and then we'll share 'em on social media. 'cause we want people out there to enjoy them. Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, most people don't know is that. Since you're a foundation, you can help with budget and all the money goes to the foundation, correct? Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Everything that we get from like a wedding or a rental really goes towards preserving and maintaining all these properties. And then of course, they're usually, well, all of 'em are free for the community to enjoy. Yeah. So it really just gives back to us and then it keeps 'em going.
Okay. I had some questions. Good so far, ladies. Okay. Killing it. I feel like we have a lot to like talk about. I'm like, oh, I remember this thing now. Yeah.
So anybody thinking of, of getting married in northwest Arkansas and are looking at the pill and the Compton mm-hmm. What would you, you know, positives for both. Like, if you want this wedding, you should go here. If you want this wedding, you should go here. Well, the Compton is, the Compton garden is of course the, I mean, the location's incredible.
The finishes are brand new and the views are great. Our price well views are amazing. Well, yeah. Yeah. We have a full gardening team that maintains the gardens like year round, so that also kind of sets us apart a little bit, uhhuh, and then we have like tables, chairs, like everything's included. We've really tried hard to make it like.
Easy and accessible. What size wedding for the Compton? It can go up to one 20. Okay. Which is a really nice compliment to the Cooper Chapel Uhhuh. We have a lot of couples that will do their reception with us and then they'll do their ceremony there and the architecture like is very similar. Yeah. So it's just a really nice experience for guest.
Yeah, it is. And it's only like 10 minutes between the two, so Yeah. Yeah, that's perfect. Mm-hmm. What about Peel? Peel is a lot of indoor outdoor space, and then we are a botanical garden as well, so we have like a lot of different types of flowers around the grounds and the price point is just able to be a lot lower there.
So it's really great for anyone just kind of like looking to spend as little as possible on their wedding. Yeah. But it still includes like all the tables and chairs, things like that, and it still isn't a great like centralized location. I, in all the weddings we've done out there, usually it would be the ceremony outside, and then depending on the size of the wedding, you have that, what's it called?
The back lawn. The back lawn? Mm-hmm. You can also use the front lawn too, if you want Uhhuh. They're just like nice open spaces if you wanna be outside a lot. Right. What's the, what's the building called? That's on the side, the reception area. So we have the carriage house. Carriage house, yeah. And then the conservatory.
Okay. And whenever you book a wedding on a weekend, you get all of those spaces. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So you can kind of mix and mash it however you want. Yeah. So what is it? A lot of times the cocktail hours in the conservatory. Mm-hmm. The pretty black and white tile Yeah. And the white walls. It's really pretty and very classic looking in there.
Oh yeah. Yeah. It's, it's great if you haven't been there just to see it. Yeah. Whether you're getting married or not. You gotta go. It's a piece of history, and then you can go through the house and stuff. It's really cool. Yeah. It's also great for like history lovers, people who are really interested in that because the tour is free also.
Yeah. The historical part. And then you can go in Walmart and do your grocery run for the day. Yeah. So, so I, I moved it back into the 21st century whenever you're done. Right. I noticed you all have an open catering policy mostly, which mm-hmm. Is amazing because some places don't, and you have to get the food from them.
Do you think that's a massive advantage for you guys? Or what do you think? Yeah, I think it definitely is because a lot of places will have like really specific requirements and I think that's great, but also it can get a little overwhelming for brides. Yeah. So we're just able to be like a little bit more flexible.
And I think that does help them a lot. Does that help with, yeah, not help, but does that also include bartending? Yeah, so our policy is you can do beer, wine, champagne, self-serve. You know, we just ask that you be responsible and, you know, don't be, you know, hanging on the no shot, shot, shot, shot, shot, none of that.
Okay. When you get liquor involved, then we require licensed bartender. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you can bring it if you have a licensed bartender. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. All right. Mm-hmm. I hope all these bartenders out there are licensed. Most of them are. Yeah. So, walk us through Golden Hour at Pill Mansion.
So, if you're a photographer and you're listening, what is the best spot that you cannot miss taking a photo at Sunset? What's the best spot? I mean, it is a botanical garden so you can just kind of point and shoot and you're gonna find a spot. It's true. So depending on the time of year, particularly the spring and summer.
Mm-hmm. And we have a rose garden, so it's a beautiful trellis that has the roses on it and we absolutely love that. It's a great spot for photos. And then toward the front of the house that faces Walton we have our butterfly garden. And so that is just full of beautiful wild flowers. There's all the butterflies, so it's a very pretty.
Just flowery, springy kind of vibe and it's a wonderful backdrop. And then you also can't see the Walmart sign from there. So, it's a great, well, unless you want the Walmart sign, if you want it all, yours, but not, not everybody wants that in the back, the pictures. But little, a secret spot. And then there's the little apple orchard, which is like an ode to the land, how it was originally.
It's really pretty. I love that. Yeah. We have been to, you guys used to host, I, I think it was at the film Mansion. Yeah. The what is it, the Whiskey Fest or something like that? Yeah, we're having it again. Oh, that was fun. I dropped my wife off there and her friend one time, and then we had to pick 'em up and they really enjoyed it.
That's good. That's good. Yeah. I'm glad you were the designated driver. They really enjoyed it. Highly recommended having one. I had to work or do another event and they, we had a couple tickets that I gave them. Yeah, they were huge fans of all the whiskey, so yeah, they were really fun to work with. I think they've been here, they've been doing the event for five years in a row, so it's a, it's a good event.
They're fun. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And they, they make that apple whiskey here. What is that called? Yeah, apple brandy. Yeah. But what's that company called? I think there's Carson and Macon. Yes, yes, yes. So good. We had an event we hosted with them in the fall last year. It was super fun. They did like a little class with us and our museum manager, and so you got to have like a little sampling of the apple brandy.
Then you got to learn about the apple orchard. So that was a popular class we had last year. So Good. I got some downstairs. Is it, is it too early or, it depends on what time you're listening, I guess. So in the spirit of the show here. Help our couple couples get smarter. What is a red flag or a common oversight couples that have during their tour that causes headaches on their wedding day?
Hmm. Maybe something they don't think about, or Definitely not giving yourself enough time to set up in the morning before you have to like get going and you have to put your dress on and get ready and all that. You wanna make sure you have enough time to set everything up. So you don't wanna be rushed on that day?
No. You know, it's your special day. You wanna take your time and enjoy it, and it just stresses like mom and dad and like all the guests out to you. So I would just say give yourself enough time to make sure you're ready to go before your ceremony. Right? Is like the number one thing that helps the day go.
Easier for everyone. Do you all offer Day of planners at all with your properties? However they wanna do it. Mm-hmm. So we don't necessarily offer any day of planning. We do have, we always will have an attendant there. Okay. So they'll help you if you need to find something, if you have a question about something.
But it's really just kinda on Be on site. Just be on site. Yeah. They're here to make sure nothing crazy happens. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Smart. But it, that's another bonus for a lot of people is that they can plan it however they want. So that one's nice. And then we do mostly 12 hour rentals. But I highly encourage if you are wanting to do like an elaborate setup, whatever you thought you needed to set up, please add an extra hour to whatever that timing was.
De just so you're not stressed out and rushed. Yeah. So you do a lot of open houses. What do you think is the value of seeing the venue dressed up versus just walking through on a random day? I think it just, it just helps people visualize it more, you know, sometimes like you can kind of talk about it and everything, but it just, it just helps to see it.
Oh, yeah. What it would, what it could potentially look like on your wedding day. Right. Yeah. With actual vendors in there. Yeah. And guests. Yeah, and guests. Sometimes that's helpful because True. Some people, like at Compton, it's about 120 people that we can have in there. And some people are like, well, I bet I can do 130.
You probably can't. And it's good to see when you have all those brides and their plus ones and then all the vendors in one space, it'll help make it more realistic so you can kind of understand if this is the place for you or not. And then maybe how you need to set up your guest list if this is where you wanna be.
Yeah. I also think it's like an association thing. I think if people like leave and think like, oh, that was beautiful, I had a great time. And their head, they're already thinking, my wedding's gonna be beautiful, I'm gonna have a great time. That's true, that's true. So you want them to be able to picture that and then also leave already having like a good experience.
Yeah. Yeah. So if they can't come to an open house. So if they can't come to an open house, what is a good way to set up a tour and visit the properties? How do they do that? Yeah, so you can call the Peel Compton Foundation. I'm, I'm actually the person that answers the phone for, so let's do it. I'm ring, ring, ring.
Hello. Thank you for calling the Peel Compton Foundation. How can I help you? What's your name, lady? You got a great voice. I'm Sarah Burges. I'm the rental manager for the Peel Compton Foundation. I don't even need to see the property. You sound like a nice lady. I would love to book your property.
That's how it works. Every time. That would be great. Every time, and I will pay whatever you want me to pay. That'll be a million dollars. Fight with me. So they just hit you up. It's that easy. Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. And then we can set you up on an in-person tour. We can also do virtual tours. I can point you to the virtual toys on our website.
Yeah, kind of. If you're from out of town, we, we actually do that a lot. Alright, so out of all the properties, and you said you both have been here, what, three or four years? Mm-hmm. What is the most unique wedding or event you've seen at one of your properties? Oh man. Well, there's gotta be some, right? I think it was the tornado day.
Yeah, it was when the tornado came through. It took out, they were supposed to have their wedding over at Peel that day. Yeah. There was no power. There were trees down. Mm-hmm. That was not happening. It was a mess happening. It was a mess. Yeah. There was no chance we were gonna have a great experience for them.
So Sarah worked really hard in our attendance and they figured out how to get them moved over to Osage Park, to the pavilion. Oh, beautiful. Mm-hmm. So it worked out. We were determined to help them have their special day. So that's something we always want, is to make sure that Yeah. Hospitality first.
So what are we gonna do? Their whole family was in town. We're having a wedding, right? Yeah. So moving it over to Osage, they have like the headlamps in the bathroom, so there's. Bases to get ready to, like we made ready rooms. But they ended up, they were so kind afterward and like gave us all their pictures and they're some of my most favorite pictures of Osage Park.
Oh yeah. That's cool. So they had a great 'cause Yeah. Was a mess in the area that day. And luckily Osage Park remained mostly untouched, just yeah. Mm-hmm. But. We didn't have power, but they were, they were so nice, so chill. All their family was in town and they were just like, we just need a place to go.
Like we wanna still get married today. Yeah. And we were like, okay. Like let's just make it happen for these people. 'cause they were being like the nicest you could ever be. And can you imagine that, how it being happening on your wedding day? Right? Like, well that's the kind of couple you want is the one that, Hey, we just love each other.
We wanna get married. The other stuff is, it doesn't matter. Yeah. Really. Yeah. We just want to have a, a good time. Mm-hmm. Yeah. We had, we were supposed to DJ I think that next week at the Momentary. Yeah. But that maybe blew out some windows or something happened and they had to move it to Crystal Bridges.
Well, there was already a wedding at Crystal Bridges, so one wedding though was at 11, and then the wedding I did was at the Great Hall, and they had to split the two weddings, which worked out. Thank God we could do that. But yeah, that was a mess of a week for sure. Yeah, it was. It was really crazy. Compton in particular was really bad.
Oh yeah. With all the trees around there. Yeah. Like hundreds of trees fell down because of that. So it was like perfectly in the path. Oh yeah. Yeah. My house we're about seven trees down because of that. Yeah. And it's been almost two years. Can you believe that? That's crazy. It feels just the other day.
Yeah. Yeah. Ugh. Some people are just now getting. Getting done clearing the trees or renovations because of the storm? Yeah, I mean Kohler I think was our craziest to have to, well, just walking anywhere through these trails and seeing all those trees split in two and yeah, just the landscape of it all.
It's like what are they gonna do? Yeah. What did they end up doing? Just tearing down the trees or a lot of, a lot of that. Unfortunately, we have to, could they replant? Trees or We have a lot. We work with a program called Foresting The Future. Yeah. And just right before Christmas break, it was about 250 trees that we planted all along the All American Trail over at Compton.
Okay. So that's been a part of it. That's awesome. And then we also twice a year do, it's called the Dr. Compton Native Tree and Plant Sale that we have. And any. Of our plants and trees that don't get used or bought at that fundraiser we plant back at our properties. And so we've been really fortunate to have plenty of trees and donations too.
Kind of re just like build our arboretum one and then two help over at Kohler with when that many trees fall down, some of the trails kind of start getting a little funky because of all the erosion, right? Because the roots that were once holding them in place. Mm-hmm. So our teams worked really hard to fix that and then really get a bunch of trees.
Yeah. That's a lot of work. A lot of work. And the community even so helpful too. Like we had so many volunteers help and people didn't really care about that, so that was very fortunate. I think what's really cool about the Compton this year, you have. One of the, was it the granddaughter? The great-granddaughter getting married.
Oh yeah. So she got married at the Compton Hotel. Okay. And then but that has been a lot of fun. Yeah. Not as much, but a little bit. We get to partner with them on a lot of things. Yeah. So that, to make it clearer for everyone, we are neighbors and we do honor the same man. But there's the Compton, which is the hotel, and then there's Compton Gardens and Arboretum, which is the arboretum piece of it.
Mm-hmm. And then. We get to do all kinds of fun stuff with them. Cool. If there's programming with them, because we do have a whole programs team that helps with. All kinds of educational things. Mm-hmm. And helping host and then really just, they came to the open house too, so Yeah. If you wanna have your ceremony with us and the reception with them, sometimes that might be a little bit easier.
Mm-hmm. Because they do have the catering and whatnot you can do there. You wanna get a block of hotel rooms there for your guests that are in town. Yeah. And then take the promenade over for the ceremony or like. Even It's a great space for like your rehearsal dinner too. Yeah. Things like that. It's a really, it's a really nice experience for people who are visiting town that way.
That's cool. Yeah. Why did they decide to name their, their place the same as you? You're like, Hey, we got this name already. Think of something different. That's a great question. I don't know if I'll ever be able to answer it, but I think we, people in this area just really appreciate Dr. Compton and all he's done for the area.
And then a certain generation of people, if you meet them OGs from Bentonville, they will all tell you that Dr. Compton was their doctor. And it's just, I think a lot of people just have that connection to him. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, I'm changing my name of the house or the, the house and the podcast is gonna be, I do, I keep Compton and then this house is called but just change the name of the town.
Can't be the Compton house, it's gotta be the Compton. These, this is the Compton studio right here. Oh, perfect. There we go. I like it. Is that another Compton to the mix? Everything Compton? Yeah. You know it's Compton V now, not Ville anymore. Yeah. So, anything else you wanna share about either property before we get into our rapid fire questions here?
I don't think so. I mean, I'm at Compton Gardens every day and people can always just walk through the exhibit and like learn about him. So you wanna just like stop by and say hi? We're always there. Always there. All right. Let's talk weddings. 50 rapid fire questions. There's no right or wrong answer.
Okay. All right. Here we go. All right. First look or traditional aisle reveal. What do you think? I'd say first look. First look. Because then you can take your pictures before and then you don't have your guests waiting for long. Exactly, exactly. Kids invited or adults only depends on the vibe. I've got so many kids in my family.
You have to invite 'em kids to be there. Yeah. About you. I say, I'd say kids, you don't want your guests to have to find babysitters. Like, just let 'em come. They're fun on the dance floor. Oh, no, they're not. No, no, no, no. They ruin the dance floor. How is that? Kids, so under a certain age, no. If you have a baby, don't bring 'em to a wedding.
Makes sense. I mean, just, you're like, well, I just, I wanna be like, just don't, it's not a good experience for you. Not a good experience. When the baby starts crying in the middle of the ceremony and you're like. Just stand outside if you bring your baby. It does happen like lot work's. Good point. I think if there's a baby there, it just happens.
Just know why, like one of my buddies who also DJs for me was gonna go to our friend's wedding. I was getting married and he is like, yeah, me and my wife and son. Well, his son's like one. I'm like, no, no, no, no. You know better than that. He is like, what? I go, you don't take a baby, a toddler to a wedding.
Like, you're a dj, you know this well, we can't find a sitter. I go, then somebody's gotta sit this one out. And lucky for him, thank God I told him, because on the, the, the invite, it said adults only. Oh wow. But he didn't get an invite. Because it was, he's a part of the team, so he just got told he could go and yeah, thank God he didn't take his kid like's, say a fun fact makes we are pretty, pretty close to the U of a campus and there are a lot of really good babysitters over there.
Yes. So there's never an excuse. That's good, good point. Even though they do charge an arm and a leg. So we're, you know how babysitters cost these days? A lot. That's another topic. Get back to wedding. Just make a cage, put your kid in it, it'll be fine. The garter toss fun or totally cringe. Yeah. There is a right or wrong answer for this.
I kind of mind it. Cringey now. Very cringey. Yeah. Starting to get cringey. No guy likes to get out there and catch something that's been on his friend's wife's leg. Yeah. First of all. And they don't wanna be out there being like, Hey, I'm the single dude. Right. You know? Yeah. But, okay. Toss you can get away with.
Still don't love it. Those traditions need to go away, but mm-hmm. It is what it is. All right. The bar, open bar or cash bar. I mean, I think open bar, open bars if can afford it. Yeah. Yeah. You can afford it. Go at the open bar. Yeah. Understandable. If you can't, but you invited all these people there. Right?
This is true. You're throwing the party for them. Yeah. Right. And it's cheaper if you do beer and wine. Absolutely. Yeah. There you go. Seating charts assigned or open. Definitely a seating chart. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Okay. I, I think if you invite it, you know, you want people to feel welcome and have like a specific place for them.
Okay. And you can put them at a table that you know that they're gonna have fun at. Okay. What about buffet or individual? I think plated is always nicer. Yeah. But there a buffet is totally fine. It's a lot easier. So much easier. Yeah. And then you get what you want and you don't have to worry about it.
What's your favorite wedding food? Hmm. I mean, I love a good wedding cake. Okay. Yeah. Where's your favorite place to get wedding cake? What do you love? Definitely Rick's. You like Rick's? We did my wedding cake Uhhuh and we were at the open house and like every time it's always good no matter what flavor you get.
It's just like what I look forward to at weddings. You had like 10 pieces at the open house, didn't you? Yeah, maybe. Maybe 50. She was over there just like, ah, there might have been a few pieces left over that we kept and took home. Didn't they have somebody was handing out s'more. Cake or something. Oh, yeah.
We had, it was JOK weddings. It was, oh, it was amisu cake. A amisu. Oh, Terra Mao. But, but it looked like, oh, it was so good. S'mores. Yeah, that's right. Because I kept saying smores and they're like, no, it's Amisu. I'm like, it looked beautiful. Yeah. They were amazing at the open house. And then they also, they had a big room set up and it looked more like a, almost like a rehearsal dinner.
Yeah. In our, typically a conference room, but did not look like a conference room that day. It didn't look, it was beautiful. And then I really liked the chairman at the end. Yeah. So. If you're at a wedding, what's the number one wedding song you want to hear while on the dance floor? Ooh, that's like a hard question.
There's so many, like, you can pick two, you can pick three. What do you want to hear? You? You hear it and you're like, I gotta get to that dance floor. I, well, I grew up like in the nineties, right? So. Like the song that's like L is for the Way you look at Me. Me. Oh, by Nat King Cole. Yes. Yeah. And it's always like the opening scene to the parent trap.
Oh. So whenever I, that song, okay, so you wanna hear that song? I'm like, I'm at, you know, it's like, it's a good song for me. I usually play that during like dinner cocktail hour. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good one. I think it What about like party song? I don't know if I have like a specific one pretty much anything that like gets like a typical nineties kid going Yeah.
Like I'm all for. Mm-hmm. I think the thing that comes to me faster is what I don't wanna hear at a wedding. Oh, I don't think I can handle one more. Y-M-C-A-I. I agree. I don't think I can do it. And then I'm like on the fence about like electric slide. Oh, I don't know if I can do that one again. It's kind of.
To me it's worn out. Mm-hmm. But anything that like a typical nineties kid would like or just a growing up in the two thousands. Mm-hmm. I'm in, I'll be out first one on the dance floor, I'm ready to go. Mm-hmm. You hear Usher. Yeah. And in, and you're just like, let's go middle school music, peace up a town.
And I like remember every word I'm going. I mean, I noticed though that that is like what gets people out on the dance floor still. Yeah. It's none of the new stuff. No. So yeah, from a DJ's perspective, and I mean this is just. From observation, the old school stuff and even I was watching 16 candles with my daughter and it showed them dancing at the dance.
She's like, oh my gosh, they're such bad dancers. I go hip hop and stuff. This was 83 or 84. That wasn't a thing. So you weren't dancing and grinding on each other like we do now. It was a completely different style. So it was, you know. I'm doing it right here. Like people can see me. But you can like move your arms around.
Yeah. You're like dancing those shoulders, going, you love a good shoulder dance. Yeah. That was a, a thing. That's why disco era was so good, because there was, it was a a, a better form of dance, like you could actually do moves to it and stuff. Mm-hmm. But the newer stuff is, the beats not great. It's not real hype.
Yeah. It's just hard to dance to. It's mostly, it's like slower mid tempo. You're like. Okay. Okay. It doesn't get you super excited, you know what I mean? Yeah, totally. But that the nineties stuff when we hit into the hip hop and stuff of the nineties, that's where, give me all that, everybody, all of that, no matter what age, you're like, oh, even country people.
Country people love country. And then you hit that nineties hip hop and they're, they go nuts. They go nuts. Yeah. It's just a better. Better dance. But my goal at every event is to not play a line dance. Oh, that's a good goal. Not play a line dance. Like if I don't need a line dance. 'cause line dances are just used if people aren't dancing to get 'em back on the dance floor.
So if I don't have to play a line dance, I've succeeded. Yeah. So no Chacha slide. No. Keep your shovel unless the bride wants it and then we'll play it. But yeah, that makes sense. Alright, back to the questions. Let's see here. Cocktail hour past appetizers or charcuterie charcuterie station. I'm a sucker for a charcuterie station.
Mm-hmm. What do you like most on a charcuterie station? Any cheese. Cheese available cheese lady. Just in, I'm just, whatever that is. I'm good. All right. What about you? I agree. I love a good charcuterie, charcuterie board, and they're pretty. And that's just like, that's just fun too. Yeah. People really get into their charcuterie board.
Yeah. It's almost like a piece of art now. Yeah. Yeah. It's like an adult Lunchable. It is very much like an elevated Lunchable. Yeah, I did, oh, I've done several events in the last month where charcuterie only stations, but just so much charcuterie. I'm trying to think what I love the most. They usually have hummus and mm-hmm.
Stuff like that. I don't eat cheese, so, oh no, that's not good. Or meats all the cheese and you can have the other, Ooh, just the crackers and the olives and the, yeah, I'm boring. Coffee bar or ice cream bar. Ooh. If you're a, if there are no kids, I for sure say you go with the coffee bar mm-hmm. From Onyx.
Have you ever been to an event with an Onyx coffee bar? Yeah, that is the best. It hits the spot. That is the freaking best. And they were just what? Nominated for a a, what is that? Beard Award. Oh yeah. James Beard Award. James Beard Award. Yeah. Which has never been given to a coffee shop, which would be incredible if that happened.
Hey, even the nomination is awesome. Yeah. If they win, that's really cool. They deserve it. They deserve it. Yeah. Live band or dj. Your venues, it, it would be hard to have a live band. Yeah, I think like a big live band, if we're thinking our venues for sure. Yeah. Dj. It's just easier. We already have a sound system, so it's easy to come and plug in.
Right. So that probably makes your life a little bit easier too. Sometimes. Sometimes, yeah. Hopefully ours make your life easier. I've seen a couple people do like one instrument for the ceremony. Like a violin player Oh, yeah. For the ceremony. And then have a DJ for the reception. Yep. And I think that's a really nice combination.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. All right. Rehearsal, dinner, fancy restaurant, or backyard barbecue. Hmm. There's a lot of backyard barbecue. 'cause it's pretty easy. Yeah. Yeah. If you're a Kohler bride, I'd probably recommend the backyard barbecue. Yeah. That probably makes it a little bit easier. Mm-hmm. If over at Compton Gardens, probably a rehearsal dinner.
Mm-hmm. We have some cool spaces and it's easy to, you can make. That part. Like you can go to the conference room. We have this beautiful big long table. You can decorate it all. Nice. You can make it not look like a conference room. Right. And then have your dinner and then just go into the other room and you can either start setting up or mm-hmm.
You can just do a nice fun little practice run and it's all right there. You can walk the gardens where you're like outdoor activity. Oh, it's really nice. It is nice. Yeah. A little family walk around. Enjoy the artwork there. Unit at, did you, were you talking about Compton or Peel? Compton. Compton or Peel.
Really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You can walk either of 'em. Yeah. With Compton you can walk the trails and, mm-hmm. Oh, that's beautiful. Let's see here. Ceremony music classical string quartet or acoustic pop songs. Hmm. I think that depends on the couple, like what your, what your fit is. I feel like it's getting, so, you know that it's very, that's very personal.
So yeah. I think whatever like fits her personality better. It's just what you should do. Yeah. Yeah. I think I probably 10 years ago would've said an acoustic song, but I think now I'm a little bit more into the strings. Strings. Yeah. Yeah. I like the strings too. Mm-hmm. Karaoke at a wedding, yes or no? I secretly, maybe not so secretly.
'cause I feel like all my coworkers now know this. I love karaoke. What's your karaoke go-to song? I have so many. I have a whole set list. We don't have to go down the set list right now. I just want one song on that set list. Oh, no. So number one. Yeah. Really? Any nineties rap, I can pull that out and like surprise people with it.
All right. Who, who, what do you rap? I wanna hear. Oh, I'm not gonna rap right now. That's too embarrassing. You find me at karaoke some other day, but I don't think I would do it at a wedding. I have one time at a wedding, but it was 'cause the bride requested it, but I wouldn't have it at my wedding.
All right. Stop. Collaborate and listen. There we go. There we go. There she is. I had to think for a second. I was like, oh. There she is. Last song of the night. Slow and emotional or high energy banger. High Energy banger. Yeah. I wanna go out on a high note. Leave on a high note. Yeah. And then you can do the private last dance with just a couple if you want.
Yeah. But get everybody else outside ready for the, the send off. Yeah. Photo booth must have at a wedding or maybe not. I wouldn't say it's a must have. Yeah. But I appreciate a good photo booth. Yeah. Do you, do you wanna print your pictures or do you want just the digital? I think the digital, yeah, because the text, what do you do with your, your, yeah, I don't need them.
I don't need, I mean, I have a bunch of printed ones. I just put 'em in a box. Yeah. I, and the digital ones you can post I like. Exactly. And that's all that really matters these days is whenever our coworkers got married back in October and I have a 10-year-old and this girl. My Zoe probably took a thousand pictures on the photo booth.
I felt so bad. So luckily for her it was digital, so she didn't have to have a thousand uhhuh print off photos of my daughter being, yeah, my daughter did the same thing at an event. Over Christmas. I get all these messages. I'm like, what is this? Just her pictures that she had sent to me. Yeah. Like, okay.
All right. Well, okay. Yeah. Uhhuh, glad you're having a good time. Right. All right. Flowers, real or fake silk. Real. You like the real I like the reel. Yeah. They're just so much, they're just so pretty. They're just classic. What's your go-to flower shop in the area? Well, pigment just opened on 14th Street.
They did in Bentonville. Yeah. And they were at the open house too, Uhhuh, and it was incredible. It was beautiful. They do great work. Yeah. And they were super easy to work with. Yep. Flowers to me, beautiful. Expensive for the, as little as you get to see them, you know? Yeah. It's kind of sad. I wish it could last forever.
It's sad, but it's the one day that you can do it. Splurge on just flowers. Yeah. And then you. And as the husband, you look at your now wife and say, no more flowers. Yeah. For the rest of our lives. That was, I got you so many. Yeah. That was your supply of flowers. That was the last of it time supply for my wedding.
I got married in 2019. And Where'd you get married at? I got married at Sassa. Fra. Yeah. Yeah. It was great. It was beautiful. I loved it. My flowers, the people that were getting married the day after us, uhhuh, they cannot afford flowers. So you gave them to 'em? We left them there for them to use. Oh, that's awesome.
And I mean, what you gonna do with them? Follow each other? Yeah. And they were like, oh, we didn't think we were gonna have flowers at our wedding. And like, we got to and it was because of you guys. So that's like a fun little flower story that I have. That's really cool. How did you know they weren't gonna have flowers?
The coordinator at Sassafras told us. That they weren't gonna have flowers, Uhhuh, and if we wanted to leave them okay, we could. Or if, you know, if we wanted to take them. But we were like, you know what, let's leave them and let them use 'em and enjoy them. Look at you. Just give them back. Yeah, just give them back.
And then they gave them to the next wedding, which was the next weekend. But they were, yeah, they're still there. Well preserved and lucky for them, it was a haunted wedding, so the flowers were dead, but they still worked. All right. The dress, big ball gown or sleek and fitted. I'm more of a sleek and fitted girl, but if you wanna be a pretty pretty princess on your wedding day, I am in Do it.
Mm-hmm. And do it. What was yours? What was your wedding dress? Mine was kind of in between, it was like a trumpet style. Okay. A lot of glitter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know, yeah. I'm just like, whatever you wanna do on that day, whatever it makes you feel. Beautiful. Yeah. It's all you. I think you should do that.
It's all you. Yeah. Decor, vibe. Neutral white or bold and colorful. Ooh. I think it's depends. I think for a long time I was neutral white, but then this open house, and we did one at Peel the year prior and we had the coolest flower arrangements that were bigger and bold and like the prettier colors.
And I'm kind of in, I kinda like it. I think bold is coming back. It was neutral and you know, white. Greens. Yeah. And I think the bold colors are back, baby. I love it. Mm-hmm. I'm a bold guy. I like the bold colors. It makes me feel good. Like it just feels brighter and more fun. Yeah. It feels happy.
Especially if it's a dreary day. Yeah. You want happy? Yeah. Yeah, you do. All right, a few more questions. Let's see here. Write your own vows or just do the traditional ones. Hmm. I think that nothing traditional's nice. Yeah. Yeah. There's. I probably would now write my own, but I see nothing wrong with traditional.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. You know, you're gonna get it right. I'd use AI to help me write my own. I feel a lot of feelings for my fiance soon to be wife. Put those into words. Let's see here. Timeline, sunset ceremony, or afternoon ceremony. Ooh. I love a sunset ceremony. I think it's beautiful. It is beautiful. Yeah.
I like to go right to the dinner afterward. Yeah, yeah. Maybe a little cocktail hour, but yeah, right to it. Bridal party, massive group or small circle. I'm a small circle person. Right. What about you? What was your wedding? How many did you have? I had way too many. I had nine. Okay. Yeah, that's, which was a lot.
But you know, they were all, they're all still my friends, so I don't like Are you close to all of them? Some more than others. Okay. All right. You know, but I'm still friends with all of them, so I don't like regret it, but Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think you're the exception to the rule. Yeah. I mean, I've been noticing people are doing smaller, so I, which I think is nice.
My, yeah. My, philosophy is have the people that you're the closest to and that are actually in your life as your people that stand next to you. So yeah, I've been married twice. The first wedding we had a to-do type of thing. Mm-hmm. With bridesmaids and all that. And there were several people where she was like, I want this person, this person, this person.
I'm like, I have four people. Yeah. My two brothers and my two best friends. I have a lot of friends, but these guys I talk to every day. These other guys, great friends, you know, they're close. I'm close to 'em, but not close enough. And we went through every person. I'm like, all right, why them? I don't even know this person.
And we've been together for three years. Well, when we were kids, I'm like, Nope, that doesn't count. Well, you told her when you were a kid, you didn't keep in contact. Like you're not that close anymore. Who are the people that you're the closest to that you share your life with? That's my philosophy, but I think when you're younger, it's more like.
Who have I ever thought of as a best friend at any point, right? At any point in my roster. And they're gonna get their feelings hurt if I don't. And then when you get a little bit older, you're like, I, that's too much effort. Yeah. I don't wanna do all of that. If you're not in my life day to day, then you probably don't need to be up there.
So this funny story, no one's feelings get hurt. Mm-hmm. I was watching the college years saved by the Bella College years the other day, and it's the last episode before the finale, which was Zach and Kelly's wedding. Right. So they get engaged and. They're freshmen in college. The two roommates that are Kelly's roommates, the two girls all come to Zach and like, Hey, we wanna be Kelly's maid of honor.
He is like, okay. Okay. So he told both of 'em. Why are you going to Zach, first of all, and why do you think you would be her maid of honor? You have known each other for less than six months. Like really, girls, really? You can be attendance. You're not gonna be. A maid of honor or even bridesmaids, like you don't really know.
You just met. Yeah, no, I like to preface the every person I had, I've known them for like more than five years. Yeah, that's good. That's good. Yeah, and they we're, they still would like make the cut. So I think my criteria would be if I think that I would. I could hang that picture up on my wall of my whole bridal authority.
There we go. And then if in 10 years I would still want them on my wall, then that's how they can make the cut. There we go. I like that. That's how you can be issa's bride to me. There you go. I'm alright. That's, that's, that's also my philosophy with tattoos. If I could have this tattoo as a painting on my wall and look at it and be like, I like that.
Then I could probably put it on my body. Yeah. I have one tattoo and I drew it and I kept it on my wall and I got like little temporary fake ones made outta it. Yeah. And it took me 10 years to actually get it put on. See, look at that. So I think 10 years maybe. So you saw stylist like, I like that. But the big photo of the dragon eating the baby's head with the, I don't know about that.
Just leave that on your wall. That one belongs on the wall. Or maybe the trash can. No trash can. All right. And. Finally the budget, spend more on food or entertainment. Hmm.
I mean, I know she would spend more on cake, but Yeah, of course. Sarah get the cake. What do you think? I want people to have a good time. I would spend more on entertainment, but I bet my mom would want me to say food. Right, but what do you remember most about a wedding? I truly can't remember what people, what I ate at people's weddings.
No, at this point. Maybe the cake at the time. You're like, that was really good food. I enjoyed that. But I remember the cake and I remember the charcuterie board. There you go. Funny all that cheese must have on a charcuterie board. Remember the time that I had, I think is, yeah. You leave the vibe. You know, if you leave early, you remember the food because you didn't stick around.
Yeah. But if you stuck around, you remember the vibe, how much fun you had. Yeah. I remember a really good dance party. Yeah. I'm like, man, this people work fun, love dance party at a wedding. Yeah. We tell brides when you leave, we want people to say, that was the most fun wedding they've ever been to. Yeah.
Even if they only danced one song, you're like, well, I, I've been to 10 other weddings and I didn't dance any songs, so. The goal. Yeah, for sure. And you can do that at the Compton. You can do that at Peel Mansion. You can do that in the Walmart parking lot. You can at all. These amazing venues here have wherever you wanna go on your mountain bike at Kohler.
Yes. So how do we reach out? How do we get ahold of you one more time? Yeah. Call the Peel Compton Foundation or you can email us at rentals. Yep. rentals@peelcompton.org or just go to our website, peel compton.org. Peel compton.org. I'm doing it. You got all the good stuff on there. Go by, even if you're not getting married, just to see the venues, just to see the beauty that you all have created.
Yeah, the foundation has created, and I can't wait to see what in 2027. The new place. What's it called again? Yes, we're, we're still debating the name. Okay. But right now we're going with 6 0 6 Central 'cause that's the address. 6 0 6 Central. Mm-hmm. And then Pitbull's gonna write a song about it. There we go.
Mr. 3 0 5. Mrs. 6 0 6. That would be incredible. Secretly, Arvon really loves pit bull. He is coming to the area. He's coming to the Anth of Summer maybe. Are you gonna go? I don't know. I told my wife that was what I got her for her birthday and she's like, why I. I'm okay. Okay. Well, you have to go. I mean, I'll go, but I'm not a huge fan.
I go No, I'm just, I'm just messing with I got you Backstage passes. She's like, why I, I mean, I'd go meet Mr. Worldwide. He is short like me, so. I'd love to go with C Eye, I with like a group of people. Yeah. Where they all dress up like him. Oh. Have you seen this trend? Uhuh. Oh, you haven't? No. Oh my gosh. Okay.
You need to look it up. There's a new trend going around where people go to his shows and they dress like him and wear like a suit And do they go bald? Yeah. Oh, I love it. And the girls, they all wear like bald caps and they all wear sunglasses and they just go and like have a great time. I love that.
That's, I was doing a, a grand opening for a Walmart close to Miami, Florida. And the store manager was like, Hey, this was 10 years ago. He goes, Hey, a few years ago pit Bull used to come perform because he's from that area. Before he got big, he'd perform at those, the functions they had and stuff. I'm like, that's cool because a lot of times you never think those guys are gonna really do anything.
And now he's Mr. Worldwide. Yeah. There we go. Ladies, thank you so much. Now let's do some karaoke. Oh, I'm in.