Toad Hill Farm Wedding in Franconia, NH

East Coast Soul was fortunate to be asked to join Valerie & Austin for their stunning Toad Hill Farm Wedding in Franconia, NH.

Introductions and Preprations for Valerie & Austin's Big Day

Valerie & Austin first reached out to East Coast Soul in June of 2019. Valerie had mentioned seeing the Soulsville ensemble at a friend's wedding the weekend prior to reaching out to us -- always one of the best ways for people to get introduced to the band! Our preparations for the big day began well ahead, with Valerie & Austin expressing a variety of musical and logistical preferences with us for the big day (we always leave an excess of time for preparation). Valerie & Austin were happy to be a key part of this advanced planning and a huge asset throughout.

Once the big day arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Franconia, NH and began our standard load-in and sound check for Toad Hill Farm 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

One aspect of our preparations involves outlining exactly what portions of the big day East Coast Soul will be involved with. For this wedding in particular, Valerie & Austin were also looking for East Coast Soul to help out for their ceremony. Valerie & Austin 's ceremony started at 4:00 pm on and . East Coast Soul prepared a a Solo Guitar performance and One Wireless Mic and One Lavalier Mic for speeches. Following East Coast Soul providing approximately 30 minutes of “prelude” music as guests arrived, the ceremony took place. Valerie & Austin provided a beautiful collection of songs for us to perform for the ceremony:

Processional (including Bride): Christina Perri – A Thousand Years
Recessional: Hall & Oates – You Make My Dreams

Cocktail Hour

As is common, 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 providing a blend of relaxed music for guests to listend to. In this case, We provided a Piano/Sax Duo and and featured music by artists such as Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, and more.

Reception

In a bulk of receptions, we is asked to provide MC services for the formal portions of the celebrations. This Toad Hill Farm Wedding was no different. However, there were in fact no formal intros for this wedding. The bridal party danced in to the sounds of The Temptations - Get Ready with the wedding guests cheering them in.

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 bride and groom's first dance is consistently one of the most unforgettable parts of the big day. It's a chance for the bride and groom to take a moment for themselves. For this particular performance, we were requested to play the first dance song live, instead of performing it from a recording. Valerie & Austin danced to Shining Star by Earth Wind & Fire, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. With this part of the wedding complete, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After as short a break as possible, East Coast Soul's Soulsville ensemble circled back to the stage.

Parent Dances

In a majority of wedding performances, we are also asked to perform the couple's parent dances. The parents dances were an opportunity for the to join Valerie & Austin to share a brief moment on the dance floor with their father and mother. For this particular performance, Valerie and her father danced to My Little Girl by Tim McGraw. Austin and his mother shared a dance to My Wish by Rascal Flatts. Parent dances are a fantastic way to kick off the main dance performance. 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

As part of our preparation process, we like to get a sense of what the bride and groom are excited to hear. Valerie & Austin Were a huge help here, giving us a ton of great input. Proud Mary September Lady Gaga - Bad Romance The O’Jay’s - Love Train

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 Valerie & Austin for having us at their beautiful October wedding at Toad Hill Farm! And thank you to Jessie Casey for sharing these beautiful photos with us!