Toad Hill Farm Wedding in Franconia, NH

East Coast Soul was fortunate to be invited to join Valerie & Austin for their stunning Toad Hill Farm Wedding in Franconia, NH.

Introductions and Preprations for Valerie & Austin's Big Day

Valerie & Austin initially got in touch with East Coast Soul in June of 2019. Valerie had mentioned seeing the Soulsville ensemble at a friend's wedding the weekend prior to reaching out to us -- always one of the best ways for people to get introduced to the band! Our preparations for the big day began well ahead, with Valerie & Austin sharing their music and logistical preferences and vision with us for the big day (we take our preparation process extremely seriously). Valerie & Austin were heavily involved in this advanced planning and incredibly helpful throughout.

Once the big day arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Franconia, NH and took care of the normal load-in, set up, and sound check process for Toad Hill Farm weddings. We get a lot of questions about the logistics of loading in to any given venue. 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

Part of our preparations involves outlining exactly what portions of the big day East Coast Soul will be involved with. For this wedding in particular, Valerie & Austin were also interested in East Coast Soul to help out for their ceremony. Valerie & Austin 's ceremony started at 4:00 pm on and . East Coast Soul prepared a a Solo Guitar performance and One Wireless Mic and One Lavalier Mic for speeches. Following East Coast Soul performing approximately 30 minutes of “prelude” music as guests found their seats, the ceremony took place. Valerie & Austin provided a beautiful collection of songs for us to perform for the ceremony:

Processional (including Bride): Christina Perri – A Thousand Years
Recessional: Hall & Oates – You Make My Dreams

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 unwind after the heightened emotions of the ceremony. We do our part by providing a blend of relaxed music for guests to enjoy listening to. In this case, We provided a Piano/Sax Duo and and featured music by artists such as John Coltrane, Miles Davies, and more.

Reception

In a majority of celebrations, East Coast Soul is asked to take care of MC services for the formal portions of the wedding celebrations. This Toad Hill Farm Wedding was no different. However, there were in fact no formal intros for this wedding. The guests of honor crushed it by dancing in to The Temptations - Get Ready with everyone cheering them on.

The couple’s First Dance

With no introductions to take care of, we transitioned into the couple’s first dance.

The newly married couple's first dance is traditionally one of the most unforgettable parts of the big day. It's an opportunity for the bride and groom to take a moment for themselves. For this particular performance, we were requested to perform the first dance tune live, instead of performing it from a recording. Valerie & Austin danced to Shining Star by Earth Wind & Fire, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. With this portion of the evening finished, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After a super brief break, East Coast Soul's Soulsville ensemble circled back to the stage.

Parent Dances

In a majority of wedding performances, we are also asked to play the couple's parent dances. The parents dances were an opportunity for the to join Valerie & Austin to spend a couple minutes on the dance floor with their parents. For this particular performance, Valerie and her father danced to My Little Girl by Tim McGraw. Austin and his mother shared a dance to My Wish by Rascal Flatts. Parent dances are a fantastic way to kick off the performance 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

As part of our preparation process, we like to get a sense of what the bride and groom are excited to hear. Valerie & Austin Were a huge help here, giving us a ton of great input. Proud Mary September Lady Gaga - Bad Romance The O’Jay’s - Love Train

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 Valerie & Austin for having us at their beautiful October wedding at Toad Hill Farm! And thank you to Jessie Casey for sharing these beautiful photos with us!