The Hildene Wedding in Manchester, VT

East Coast Soul was blessed 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 wedding day began months in advance, with Megan & Andrew expressing a variety of musical and logistical preferences with us for the wedding day (preparation is a key part of our process). Megan & Andrew were incredibly helpful during this advanced planning and incredibly helpful throughout.

Once the wedding day arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Manchester, VT and began our standard load-in and sound check for The Hildene 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

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 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 Piano/Sax Duo and and featured music by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and more.

Reception

In a lion's share of celebrations, the band 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 transitioned into the bride and groom’s first dance.

The newly married couple's first dance is traditionally one of the most meaningful 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 play the first dance tune live, as opposed to 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 as short a break as possible, East Coast Soul's King ensemble circled back 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 dance performances often start with older material. We've found this is a great way to get guests relaxed and dancing with songs they're familiar with. Artists like Marvin Gaye, Sam and Dave, The Temptations, and more dominated the beginning of our set list. We then transitioned into performing music by artists like Whitney Houston, Prince, Michael Jackson 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!