How it works: 5 steps, and the one everyone skips

1. Send us the date and the venue

Those 2 details decide almost everything else. The date tells us whether the booking falls inside Fire Danger Season and whether an operator is already committed elsewhere that night. The venue tells us what is realistic to fire indoors before anyone reads a single clause. This step takes a couple of minutes on the check availability page and there is nothing to prepare in advance.

2. We check your venue's actual policy

Not what a venue's Instagram implies, and not what a friend's wedding suggested last year. The published hire conditions, the terms PDF where one exists, and where those are silent, a direct question to the coordinator in writing. This is the same method behind what your venue allows.

3. You get a real number, not a range

Inc GST, itemised by moment (entrance, first dance, cake, send-off), with add-ons priced separately so you can see what each extra thing costs before saying yes to it. See packages and pricing for the verified market ranges this is built from.

4. Venue approval is handled in writing

This is the centrepiece of the whole process, and the step that most often gets skipped because it does not feel urgent until it suddenly is. A certificate of currency, a risk assessment written for each specific effect, and a method statement naming who fires what, from where and when, all go to the venue before the day. Not emailed the morning of, not handed to a duty manager who has never seen it. Before the day, in writing, while there is still time for the venue to ask a question and get an answer.

Skipped, this is exactly how an approved effect gets pulled at the last minute: a coordinator who said yes verbally has moved on, and there is nothing in writing to point to. Handled properly, the paperwork is the thing a nervous duty manager can show their own manager. Full detail is on the safety and insurance page.

5. An operator runs it on the night

Set up before guests arrive, fired on cue, packed down after. Every operator handed a job is checked against the relevant South Australian register at the point that job comes in, not once at the start of a relationship and then assumed forever. That check happens per booking, which matters more than it sounds: it means the verification is current on the night your effect fires, not current as at some earlier date.