Spring House Hotel Wedding: Block Island, RI

An unreal wedding at the Spring House Hotel in Block Island, RI where East Coast Soul's Soulsville ensemble left everything out on the dance floor!

Testimonial

"ECS was amazing!!! They were everything we hoped for in a wedding band. Our dance floor was jam packed all night long with all generations of guests! To start with, they are great to work with. Very quick to respond, very professional, and very reasonably priced! We got married on Block Island it was their first time playing out there. We took the chance because we were really into their style. So happy we did it. They were great! They did a great job with the announcements, which is always challenging when you are announcing 26 people. They got all of the names right! The music was awesome! Additionally, we had some friends who are in a band and they wanted to play a song that night. This was a surprise and was not pre-arranged at all. The band was so accommodating and let all the guys get on stage and play their song. The horn players from ECS joined them in an LCD Soundsystem cover. Pretty awesome to have the band able to switch gears like that at the drop of a hat. It was amazing! The guys are my husband’s best friends so having them up there was so special for us. ECS could have easily said no, as this was a disruption to their show and set-up but they were AWESOME!!! I recommend ECS 100%!!!"

Danielle (Bride)

Block Island, RI

September 13, 2014

Gallery

Check out some images from this Spring House Hotel wedding!

East Coast Soul was fortunate to be asked to join Danielle & Evan for their stunning Spring House Hotel Wedding in Block Island, RI.

Preprations

Our planning for the wedding day began well ahead, with Danielle & Evan sharing their music and logistical preferences and vision with us for the wedding day (preparation is a key part of our process). Danielle & Evan were heavily involved in this advanced planning and super helpful throughout.

Once the wedding day arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Block Island, RI and began our standard load in and sound check process for Spring House Hotel. 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 planning involves outlining exactly what portions of the wedding day East Coast Soul will be involved with.

For this wedding in particular, we learned that Danielle & Evan were also looking for East Coast Soul to provide ceremony music. In this case, Danielle & Evan 's ceremony took place at Spring House Hotel. Once East Coast Soul provided roughly 30 minutes of “prelude” music as guests found their seats, the ceremony began. Specially, we provided a Soloist performance for the processional, bride’s entrance, recessional.

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 contribute by performing 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 lion's share of celebrations, the band is asked to take care of MC services for the formal portions of the receptions. This Spring House Hotel Wedding was no different. With introductions wrapped up, we headed into into the groom and bride’s first dance. The first dance is consistently one of the most emotional 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 Soulsville 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 Danielle & Evan for having us at their beautiful September wedding at Spring House Hotel!