The Barn at Gibbet Hill Wedding in Groton, MA

East Coast Soul was blessed to be invited to join Lindsay & Jared for their stunning The Barn at Gibbet Hill Wedding in .

Preprations for Lindsay & Jared's Big Day

Our planning for the wedding began many weeks prior, with Lindsay & Jared expressing a variety of musical and logistical preferences with us for the wedding (we take our preparation process extremely seriously). Lindsay & Jared were incredibly helpful during this advanced planning and super helpful throughout.

Once the wedding arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to and began our standard load-in and sound check for The Barn at Gibbet Hill weddings. Our process for loading in and setting up at any given venue is a big part of our preparation process. 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 planning involves outlining exactly what portions of the wedding East Coast Soul will be involved with. For this wedding in particular, Lindsay & Jared were also looking for East Coast Soul to help out for their ceremony. Lindsay & Jared '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 great opportunity 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 majority of weddings, the band is asked to provide MC services for the formal portions of the wedding celebrations. This The Barn at Gibbet Hill Wedding was no different. However, there were actually no formal intros for this wedding.

The groom and bride’s First Dance

With no introductions to take care of, we headed into into the groom and bride’s first dance.

The bride and groom's first dance is almost always one of the most meaningful parts of the wedding. It's a chance for the bride and groom to take a moment for themselves. For this wedding in particular, we were requested to play the first dance tune live, instead of performing it from a recording. With this part of the wedding complete, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After a quick break, East Coast Soul's Atlantic ensemble circled back to the stage.

Parent Dances

In many weddings, East Coast Soul is often requested to play the couple's parent dances. The parents dances were an opportunity for the to join Lindsay & Jared to spend a couple minutes on the dance floor with their father and mother. For this wedding in particular, the bride and her father shared a dance. Jared and his mother shared a dance as well. Parent dances are a fantastic 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

our dance performances often start with older material. We've discovered this is an excellent approach to get guests relaxed and dancing with songs they know and love. Artists like Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Earth Wind & Fire, and more dominated the outset of our performance. 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 Lindsay & Jared for having us at their beautiful June wedding at The Barn at Gibbet Hill! And thank you to Lacey Gabrielle for sharing these beautiful photos with us!