Fairmount Park Horticulture Center Wedding in Philadelphia, PA

East Coast Soul was blessed to be invited to join Alison & Ruben for their stunning Fairmount Park Horticulture Center Wedding in Philadelphia, PA.

Preprations for Alison & Ruben's Big Day

Our groundwork for the big day began well ahead, with Alison & Ruben expressing a variety of musical and logistical preferences with us for the big day (we take our preparation process extremely seriously). Alison & Ruben were heavily involved in this advanced planning and a huge asset throughout.

Once the big day arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Philadelphia, PA and began our standard load-in and sound check for Fairmount Park Horticulture Center 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 groundwork involves outlining exactly what portions of the big day East Coast Soul will be involved with. For this wedding in particular, Alison & Ruben were also looking for East Coast Soul to help out for their ceremony. Alison & Ruben 's ceremony . 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 great opportunity for the bride and groom to unwind after the heightened emotions of the ceremony. We do our part by providing a blend 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 bulk of celebrations, the band is asked to take care of MC services for the formal portions of the wedding celebrations. This Fairmount Park Horticulture Center 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 headed into into the bride and groom’s first dance.

The newly married couple's first dance is consistently 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 wedding in particular, we were asked to perform the first dance song live, instead of performing it from a recording. With this portion of the wedding finished, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After as short a break as possible, East Coast Soul's Philadelphia International ensemble circled back to the stage.

Parent Dances

In a majority of weddings, East Coast Soul is often requested to play the couple's parent dances. This was a chance for the to join Alison & Ruben to spend a couple minutes in the center of the floor with their father and mother. For this wedding in particular, the bride and her father shared a dance. Ruben 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

East Coast Soul performances commonly kick off with vintage material. We've found this is a great way 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 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 Alison & Ruben for having us at their beautiful September wedding at Fairmount Park Horticulture Center!