Migis Lodge Wedding in South Casco, ME

East Coast Soul was grateful to be asked to join Avery & Jack for their stunning Migis Lodge Wedding in South Casco, ME.

Preprations for Avery & Jack's Big Day

Our preparations for the wedding day began well ahead, with Avery & Jack sharing their music and logistical preferences and vision with us for the wedding day (we always leave an excess of time for preparation). Avery & Jack were happy to be a key part of this advanced planning and super helpful throughout.

Once the wedding day arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to South Casco, ME and carried out our normal load-in, set up, and sound check process for Migis Lodge 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 wedding day East Coast Soul will be involved with. For this wedding in particular, Avery & Jack were also looking for East Coast Soul to help out for their ceremony. Avery & Jack 's ceremony . 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.

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 heightened emotions of the ceremony. We contribute by providing a blend of relaxed music for guests to enjoy. In this case, We provided a Playback and and featured music by artists such as Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, and more.

Reception

In a lion's share of receptions, the band is asked to handle MC services for the formal portions of the receptions. This Migis Lodge 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 transitioned into the bride and groom’s first dance.

The bride and groom's first dance is invariably one of the most emotional parts of the wedding day. It's a chance for the bride and groom to take a moment for themselves. For this specific wedding, we were requested to play the first dance song live, instead of performing it from a recording. With this portion of the evening finished, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After as short a break as possible, East Coast Soul's Soulsville ensemble circled back to the stage.

Parent Dances

In a majority of wedding performances, East Coast Soul is often requested to perform the couple's parent dances. This was a chance for the to join Avery & Jack to spend a couple minutes in the center of the floor with their parents. For this specific wedding, the bride and her father danced together. Jack and his mother danced together as well. 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

East Coast Soul performances commonly kick off with vintage material. We've found this is a great way to get folks up on the dance floor with songs they're familiar with. 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 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 Avery & Jack for having us at their beautiful May wedding at Migis Lodge! And thank you to Natalya Desena for sharing these beautiful photos with us!