Fairmount Park Horticulture Center Wedding in Philadelphia, PA

East Coast Soul was grateful to be asked to join Alison & Ruben for their stunning Fairmount Park Horticulture Center Wedding in Philadelphia, PA.

Preprations for Alison & Ruben's Big Day

Our preparations for the big day began many weeks prior, with Alison & Ruben expressing a variety of musical and logistical preferences with us for the big day (preparation is a key part of our process). Alison & Ruben were incredibly helpful during this advanced planning and a huge asset throughout.

Once the big day arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Philadelphia, PA and carried out our normal load-in, set up, and sound check process for Fairmount Park Horticulture Center weddings. Being prepared for load-in and set-up at any given venue is a critical part of our workflow. This is a part of the day that we take seriously, spending extra time to avoid rushing, and ensuring our gear is properly tuned for the room.

Ceremony

One aspect of our preparations involves outlining exactly what portions of the big day East Coast Soul will be involved with. For this wedding in particular, Alison & Ruben were also interested in East Coast Soul to help out for their ceremony. Alison & Ruben 's ceremony . East Coast Soul prepared a a Solo Piano performance and Single Mic for speeches. Following East Coast Soul providing approximately 30 minutes of “prelude” music as guests found their seats, the ceremony took place.

Cocktail Hour

As is often the case, East Coast Soul was asked to provide cocktail hour music. Cocktail hour is a great opportunity for the bride and groom to relax after the intense emotions of the ceremony. We do our part by performing a variety of relaxed music for guests to listend to. In this case, We provided a Playback and and featured music by artists such as Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, and more.

Reception

In a majority of wedding celebrations, the band is asked to take care of MC services for the formal portions of the wedding celebrations. This Fairmount Park Horticulture Center Wedding was no different. However, there were actually no formal intros for this wedding.

The groom and bride’s First Dance

With no introductions to take care of, we moved into into the groom and bride’s first dance.

The couple's first dance is invariably one of the most meaningful parts of the big day. It's an opportunity for the bride and groom to take a moment for themselves. For this wedding in particular, we were requested to play the first dance number live, as opposed to performing it from a recording. With this part of the wedding complete, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After a quick break, East Coast Soul's Philadelphia International ensemble circled back to the stage.

Parent Dances

In many weddings, East Coast Soul is often requested to perform the couple's parent dances. The parents dances were an opportunity for the to join Alison & Ruben to share a brief moment on the dance floor with their father and mother. For this wedding in particular, the bride and her father shared a dance. Ruben and his mother shared a dance as well. Parent dances are an amazing way to start the dance party portion of the evening. We often ask guests to join the couple and their parents on the dance floor, and then move directly in to the rest of the performance.

Dance Party

East Coast Soul dance performances often start with older material. We've discovered this is an excellent approach to get everyone relaxed and dancing with songs they're familiar with. Artists like Sam and Dave, The Temptations, Earth Wind & Fire, and more dominated the outset of our performance. We then transitioned into playing tunes by artists like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Prince and more. Finally, we ended the night performing contemporary material that everyone could sing along with.

Guests danced non-stop from beginning to end, and we limited our breaks to ensure people had as much time to dance as possible.

Thanks so much to Alison & Ruben for having us at their beautiful September wedding at Fairmount Park Horticulture Center!