Topnotch Resort Wedding in Stowe, VT

East Coast Soul was blessed to be asked to join Ellen & Peter for their stunning Topnotch Resort Wedding in Stowe, VT.

Preprations for Ellen & Peter's Big Day

Our planning for the wedding day began months in advance, with Ellen & Peter sharing their music and logistical preferences and vision with us for the wedding day (preparation is a key part of our process). Ellen & Peter were heavily involved in this advanced planning and super helpful throughout.

Once the wedding day arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Stowe, VT and carried out our normal load-in, set up, and sound check process for Topnotch Resort 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 planning involves outlining exactly what portions of the wedding day East Coast Soul will be involved with. For this wedding in particular, Ellen & Peter were also interested in East Coast Soul to help out for their ceremony. Ellen & Peter '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 arrived, the ceremony took place.

Cocktail Hour

As is often the case, East Coast Soul was requested to perform cocktail hour music. Cocktail hour is a wonderful chance for the bride and groom to unwind after the intense emotions of the ceremony. We do our part by performing a variety of relaxed music for guests to enjoy listening to. In this case, We provided a Playback and and featured music by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and more.

Reception

In a bulk of wedding celebrations, we is asked to handle MC services for the formal portions of the weddings. This Topnotch Resort 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 groom and bride's first dance is consistently one of the most unforgettable parts of the wedding day. It's a chance for the bride and groom to take a moment for themselves. For this specific wedding, we were requested to play the first dance song live, as opposed to playing it from a recording. With this part of the evening complete, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After as short a break as possible, East Coast Soul's King ensemble returned to the stage.

Parent Dances

In a majority of weddings, we are also asked to play the couple's parent dances. This was a chance for the to join Ellen & Peter to spend a couple minutes in the center of the floor with their parents. For this specific wedding, the bride and her father shared a dance. Peter and his mother shared a dance as well. Parent dances are a great way to start 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

our dance performances often start with older material. We've discovered this is an excellent approach to get everyone up on the dance floor with songs they know and love. Artists like Marvin Gaye, Sam and Dave, The Temptations, and more dominated the beginning of our set list. We then moved 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 Ellen & Peter for having us at their beautiful September wedding at Topnotch Resort! And thank you to Kelsey Regan for sharing these beautiful photos with us!