Shady Lane Farm in New Gloucester, ME

East Coast Soul was blessed to be brought to join Abby & Joel in .

Preprations for Abby & Joel's Big Day

Our groundwork for the wedding began months in advance, with Abby & Joel expressing a variety of musical and logistical preferences with us for the wedding (preparation is a key part of our process). Abby & Joel were incredibly helpful during this advanced planning and incredibly helpful throughout.

Once the wedding arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to and carried out our normal load-in, set up, and sound check process for Shady Lane Farm weddings. Being prepared for load-in and set-up at any given venue is a critical part of our workflow. 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 groundwork involves outlining exactly what portions of the wedding East Coast Soul will be involved with. For this wedding in particular, Abby & Joel were also interested in East Coast Soul to help out for their ceremony. Abby & Joel '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 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 unwind after the heightened emotions of the ceremony. We contribute by performing a blend of relaxed music for guests to enjoy listening to. In this case, We provided a Playback and and featured music by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and more.

Reception

In a lion's share of weddings, East Coast Soul is asked to take care of MC services for the formal portions of the weddings. This Shady Lane Farm was no different. However, there were in fact no formal intros for this wedding.

The couple’s First Dance

With no introductions to take care of, we transitioned into the couple’s first dance.

The couple's first dance is invariably one of the most unforgettable 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 play the first dance song live, as opposed to playing it from a recording. With this portion of the evening complete, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After as short a break as possible, East Coast Soul's ensemble circled back to the stage.

Parent Dances

In a majority of weddings, we are also asked to perform the couple's parent dances. The parents dances were an opportunity for the to join Abby & Joel to spend a couple minutes in the center of the floor with their mother and father. For this particular performance, the bride and her father shared a dance. Joel 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 shows commonly kick off with vintage material. We've found this is a great way to get everyone relaxed and dancing with songs they're familiar with. Artists like Marvin Gaye, Sam and Dave, The Temptations, and more dominated the beginning of our set list. 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 Abby & Joel for having us at their beautiful July wedding at Shady Lane Farm! And thank you to Lensy Michelle Photo for sharing these beautiful photos with us!