Shelburne Farms Wedding in Shelburne, VT

East Coast Soul was fortunate to be invited to join Mary & Daniel for their stunning Shelburne Farms Wedding in Shelburne, VT.

Preprations

Our groundwork for the wedding day began well ahead, with Mary & Daniel expressing a variety of musical and logistical preferences with us for the wedding day (we always leave an excess of time for preparation). Mary & Daniel were incredibly helpful during this advanced planning and super helpful throughout.

Once the wedding day arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Shelburne, VT and began our standard load in and sound check process for Shelburne Farms. 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 groundwork involves outlining exactly what portions of the wedding day East Coast Soul will be involved with.

For this wedding in particular, we learned that Mary & Daniel were also looking for East Coast Soul to provide ceremony music. In this case, Mary & Daniel 's ceremony took place at Shelburne Farms. Once East Coast Soul performed approximately 30 minutes of “prelude” music as guests arrived, the ceremony began. Specially, we provided a Soloist performance for the processional, bride’s entrance, recessional.

Cocktail Hour

As is common, 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 variety of relaxed music for guests to listend to. In this case, we provided a and featured music by artists such as Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, and more.

Reception

In a bulk of receptions, East Coast Soul is asked to handle MC services for the formal portions of the weddings. This Shelburne Farms Wedding was no different. With introductions taken care of, we transitioned into the groom and bride’s first dance. The first dance is consistently one of the most unforgettable parts of the wedding day. It's a chance for the couple to take a moment for themselves. With this portion of the evening complete, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After resting briefly, East Coast Soul's Stax ensemble returned.

In many weddings, we are also asked to perform the couple's parent dances. This is a chance for the bride and groom to spend a couple minutes on the dance floor with their father and mother. In this case, the bride and her father danced together. The groom and his mother shared a dance as well. Parent dances are a great way to start the performance portion of the evening. We generally ask for the attention of the guests to start. We then often ask them to join the couple and their parents on the dance floor, and then move directly in to the rest of the performance.

Our performances often start with older 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 Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Sam and Dave, The Temptations, Earth Wind & Fire, and more dominated the beginning of our set list. We then moved into performing music by artists like Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston. 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 Mary & Daniel for having us at their beautiful September wedding at Shelburne Farms! And thank you to Ashley Largesse for sharing these beautiful photos with us!