The Maine Boathouse Wedding in South Freeport, ME

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

Preprations for Cara & Matthew's Big Day

Our planning for the wedding day began well ahead, with Cara & Matthew expressing a variety of musical and logistical preferences with us for the wedding day (preparation is a key part of our process). Cara & Matthew were heavily involved in this advanced planning and incredibly helpful throughout.

Once the wedding day arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to South Freeport, ME and took care of the normal load-in, set up, and sound check process for The Maine Boathouse 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 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 providing approximately 30 minutes of “prelude” music as guests found their seats, the ceremony took place.

Cocktail Hour

As is common, East Coast Soul was requested to perform 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 variety of relaxed music for guests to enjoy. In this case, We provided a Guitar/Sax Duo and and featured music by artists such as John Coltrane, Miles Davies, and more.

Reception

In a bulk of weddings, East Coast Soul is asked to handle MC services for the formal portions of the celebrations. This The Maine Boathouse Wedding was no different. However, there were actually no formal intros for this wedding.

The bride and groom’s First Dance

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

The bride and groom's first dance is invariably one of the most emotional parts of the wedding day. It's a chance for the bride and groom to take a moment for themselves. For this specific wedding, we were asked to perform the first dance song live, instead of performing it from a recording. Cara & Matthew danced to More Than Anyone by Gavin Degraw, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. With this portion of the evening complete, 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 shows often start with older material. We've found this is a great way to get guests up on the dance floor with songs they know and love. Artists like Sam and Dave, The Temptations, Earth Wind & Fire, and more dominated the outset of our performance. 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!