The Maine Boathouse Wedding in South Freeport, ME

East Coast Soul was fortunate to be asked to join Cara & Matthew for their stunning The Maine Boathouse Wedding in South Freeport, ME.

Preprations for Cara & Matthew's Big Day

Our groundwork for the big day began many weeks prior, with Cara & Matthew offering a myriad of musical and logistical options with us for the big day (we always leave an excess of time for preparation). Cara & Matthew were incredibly helpful during this advanced planning and super helpful throughout.

Once the big day arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to South Freeport, ME and carried out our normal load-in, set up, and sound check process for The Maine Boathouse weddings. We get a lot of questions about the logistics of loading in to any given venue. 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 big day East Coast Soul will be involved with. For this wedding in particular, Cara & Matthew were also interested in East Coast Soul to help out for their ceremony. Cara & Matthew 's ceremony started at 4:00 pm on and . East Coast Soul prepared a a Guitar/Keyboard Duo performance and Single Mic for speeches. Following East Coast Soul performing roughly 30 minutes of “prelude” music as guests arrived, the ceremony took place.

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 unwind after the intense emotions of the ceremony. We do our part by providing a blend of relaxed music for guests to enjoy listening to. In this case, We provided a Guitar/Sax Duo and and featured music by artists such as Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, and more.

Reception

In a majority of celebrations, we is asked to take care of MC services for the formal portions of the weddings. This The Maine Boathouse 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 transitioned into the groom and bride’s first dance.

The groom and bride's first dance is invariably one of the most meaningful parts of the big day. It's an opportunity for the bride and groom to take a moment for themselves. For this wedding in particular, we were asked to play the first dance song live, as opposed to playing it from a recording. Cara & Matthew danced to More Than Anyone by Gavin Degraw, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. With this part of the evening finished, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After a super brief break, East Coast Soul's Daptone ensemble circled back to the stage.

Dance Party

our dance performances often start with older material. We've discovered this is an excellent approach 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 beginning of our set list. We then moved into performing music 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 Cara & Matthew for having us at their beautiful August wedding at The Maine Boathouse! And thank you to Leslie Swan for sharing these beautiful photos with us!