Artists For Humanity Wedding in Boston, MA

East Coast Soul was blessed to be invited to join Sarah & Ben for their stunning Artists For Humanity Wedding in Boston, MA.

Preprations for Sarah & Ben's Big Day

Our preparations for the wedding day began many weeks prior, with Sarah & Ben sharing their music and logistical preferences and vision with us for the wedding day (preparation is a key part of our process). Sarah & Ben were heavily involved in this advanced planning and super helpful throughout.

Once the wedding day arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Boston, MA and took care of the normal load-in, set up, and sound check process for Artists For Humanity weddings. Our process for loading in and setting up at any given venue is a big part of our preparation process. 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 wedding day East Coast Soul will be involved with. For this wedding in particular, Sarah & Ben were also interested in East Coast Soul to help out for their ceremony. Sarah & Ben 's ceremony started at 6:00 pm on and took place Artists for Humanity at Artists For Humanity. 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. Sarah & Ben provided a beautiful collection of songs for us to perform for the ceremony:

• Processional: The Who – Love Reign O’er Me
• Recessional: Bill Withers – Lovely Day

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. In this case, cocktail hour took place Second floor of Artists for Humanity. We provided a Playback and and featured music by artists such as John Coltrane, Miles Davies, and more.

Reception

In a lion's share of receptions, we is asked to take care of MC services for the formal portions of the receptions. This Artists For Humanity Wedding was no different.

The couple’s First Dance

The groom and bride's first dance is traditionally one of the most unforgettable parts of the wedding day. It's an opportunity for the bride and groom to take a moment for themselves. For this specific wedding, we were requested to play the first dance tune live, as opposed to playing it from a recording. Sarah & Ben danced to The Horrah, 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 Stax 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 Sarah & Ben to share a brief moment in the center of the floor with their mother and father. For this specific wedding, the bride and her father shared a dance. Ben and his mother shared a dance to The Temptations - My Girl/Ain't Too Proud to Beg. 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

our dance performances often start with older material. We've discovered this is an excellent approach to get guests up on the dance floor with songs they're familiar with. Artists like Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, and more dominated the outset of our performance. We then transitioned into playing tunes 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 Sarah & Ben for having us at their beautiful November wedding at Artists For Humanity!