Artists For Humanity Wedding in Boston, MA

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

Preprations for Sarah & Ben's Big Day

Our planning for the big day began well ahead, with Sarah & Ben offering a myriad of musical and logistical options with us for the big day (we take our preparation process extremely seriously). Sarah & Ben were heavily involved in this advanced planning and a huge asset throughout.

Once the big day arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Boston, MA and began our standard load-in and sound check for Artists For Humanity 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

Part of our planning involves outlining exactly what portions of the big day East Coast Soul will be involved with. For this wedding in particular, Sarah & Ben were also looking for East Coast Soul to help out for their ceremony. Sarah & Ben 's ceremony started at 6:00 pm on and was held 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 performing roughly 30 minutes of “prelude” music as guests found their seats, 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 asked to provide cocktail hour music. Cocktail hour is a wonderful chance for the bride and groom to relax after the intense emotions of the ceremony. We do our part by providing a blend of relaxed music for guests to listend to. 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 bulk of weddings, the band is asked to handle MC services for the formal portions of the receptions. This Artists For Humanity Wedding was no different.

The bride and groom’s First Dance

The groom and bride'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 perform the first dance song live, as opposed to playing it from a recording. Sarah & Ben danced to The Horrah, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. With this part of the evening finished, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After a quick break, East Coast Soul's Stax ensemble circled back to the stage.

Parent Dances

In many weddings, we are also asked to perform 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 parents. For this wedding in particular, 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 a fantastic way to kick off 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 performances commonly kick off with vintage 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 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 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!