The Hildene Wedding in Manchester, VT

East Coast Soul was fortunate to be brought to join Megan & Andrew for their stunning The Hildene Wedding in Manchester, VT.

Preprations for Megan & Andrew's Big Day

Our groundwork for the big day began many weeks prior, with Megan & Andrew offering a myriad of musical and logistical options with us for the big day (we always leave an excess of time for preparation). Megan & Andrew were happy to be a key part of this advanced planning and super helpful throughout.

Once the big day arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Manchester, VT and carried out our normal load-in, set up, and sound check process for The Hildene 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

In this case, East Coast Soul was not involved with couple's ceremony, with those arrangements having already been taken care of.

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 relax 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 Piano/Sax Duo and and featured music by artists such as Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, and more.

Reception

In a lion's share of weddings, we is asked to provide MC services for the formal portions of the celebrations. This The Hildene Wedding was no different. However, there were in fact no formal intros for this wedding.

The bride and groom’s First Dance

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

The groom and bride's first dance is traditionally one of the most emotional 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 requested to play the first dance number live, instead of playing it from a recording. Megan & Andrew danced to You Are The Best Thing by Ray LaMontagne, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. With this part of the evening complete, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After a quick break, East Coast Soul's King ensemble returned to the stage.

Parent Dances

The Parent Dance was combined, and they song chosen was Forever Young by Bob Dylan.

Dance Party

East Coast Soul performances commonly kick off with vintage material. We've discovered this is an excellent approach to get everyone up on the dance floor with songs they're familiar with. Artists like Marvin Gaye, Sam and Dave, The Temptations, 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 Megan & Andrew for having us at their beautiful July wedding at The Hildene! And thank you to Jenelle Kappe for sharing these beautiful photos with us!