A beautiful wedding at the Beauport Hotel in Gloucester where East Coast Soul's King ensemble had the guests screaming for an encore!
East Coast Soul was blessed to be brought to join Sarah & Matt for their stunning Beauport Hotel Wedding in Gloucester.
Introductions and Preprations for Sarah & Matt's Big Day
Sarah & Matt initially got in touch with East Coast Soul in June of 2021. Our planning for the wedding began many weeks prior, with Sarah & Matt expressing a variety of musical and logistical preferences with us for the wedding (preparation is a key part of our process). Sarah & Matt were happy to be a key part of this advanced planning and super helpful throughout.
Once the wedding arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Gloucester and carried out our normal load-in, set up, and sound check process for Beauport Hotel 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
One aspect of our planning involves outlining exactly what portions of the wedding East Coast Soul will be involved with. For this wedding in particular, Sarah & Matt were also interested in East Coast Soul to help out for their ceremony. Sarah & Matt 's ceremony . East Coast Soul prepared a a Solo Piano performance and Single Mic for speeches. Following East Coast Soul providing roughly 30 minutes of “prelude” music as guests arrived, the ceremony took place.
Cocktail Hour
As is common, 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 intense emotions of the ceremony. We do our part by performing a variety of relaxed music for guests to listend to. In this case, We provided a Playback and and featured music by artists such as Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, 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 Beauport Hotel Wedding was no different. However, there were actually no formal intros for this wedding.
The couple’s First Dance
With no introductions to take care of, we headed into into the couple’s first dance.
The groom and bride's first dance is traditionally one of the most emotional parts of the wedding. It's an opportunity for the bride and groom to take a moment for themselves. For this particular performance, we were asked to perform the first dance number live, instead of performing it from a recording. With this portion of the evening complete, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After a super brief break, East Coast Soul's King ensemble returned to the stage.
Parent Dances
In many weddings, East Coast Soul is often requested to perform the couple's parent dances. This was a chance for the to join Sarah & Matt to share a brief moment in the center of the floor with their parents. For this particular performance, the bride and her father shared a dance. Matt and his mother shared a dance as well. Parent dances are a fantastic way to kick off the main dance performance. 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 shows commonly kick off with vintage material. We've found this is a great way to get guests up on the dance floor with songs they're familiar with. Artists like Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Sam and Dave, and more dominated the outset of our performance. We then transitioned 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 Sarah & Matt for having us at their beautiful May wedding at Beauport Hotel!
Ready to Learn More?
Planning a Wedding? Maybe at Beauport Hotel, perhaps in Gloucester? Either way, feel free to learn more, and let's connect!