Aldrich Mansion Wedding in Warwick, RI

East Coast Soul was blessed to be asked to join Michaela & Kyle for their stunning Aldrich Mansion Wedding in Warwick, RI.

Preprations for Michaela & Kyle's Big Day

Our preparations for the big day began well ahead, with Michaela & Kyle sharing their music and logistical preferences and vision with us for the big day (we take our preparation process extremely seriously). Michaela & Kyle were heavily involved in this advanced planning and a huge asset throughout.

Once the big day arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Warwick, RI and carried out our normal load-in, set up, and sound check process for Aldrich Mansion weddings. We're often asked about our process for loading in and sound checking at various venues. 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, Michaela & Kyle were also interested in East Coast Soul to help out for their ceremony. Michaela & Kyle 's ceremony started at 4:00 pm on and . East Coast Soul prepared a a Solo Piano performance and Single Mic for speeches. Following East Coast Soul performing 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 contribute by providing a variety of relaxed music for guests to enjoy listening to. In this case, We provided a Guitar/Sax Duo and and featured music by artists such as John Coltrane, Miles Davies, and more.

Reception

In a majority of receptions, the band is asked to provide MC services for the formal portions of the wedding celebrations. This Aldrich Mansion Wedding was no different. However, there were in fact no formal intros for this wedding.

The bride and groom’s First Dance

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

The couple's first dance is invariably one of the most meaningful parts of the big day. It's a chance for the bride and groom to take a moment for themselves. For this particular performance, we were requested to play the first dance number live, instead of playing it from a recording. With this part of the wedding finished, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After as short a break as possible, East Coast Soul's Daptone 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 Michaela & Kyle to share a brief moment on the dance floor with their father and mother. For this particular performance, the bride and her father shared a dance. Kyle and his mother shared a dance as well. Parent dances are a great 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 shows 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 beginning of our set list. We then moved into performing music by artists like Whitney Houston, Prince, Michael Jackson 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 Michaela & Kyle for having us at their beautiful June wedding at Aldrich Mansion! And thank you to Yaritz Colon for sharing these beautiful photos with us!