The Hildene Wedding in Manchester, VT

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

Preprations for Megan & Andrew's Big Day

Our preparations for the wedding began many weeks prior, with Megan & Andrew offering a myriad of musical and logistical options with us for the wedding (preparation is a key part of our process). Megan & Andrew were happy to be a key part of this advanced planning and incredibly helpful throughout.

Once the wedding arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Manchester, VT and took care of the normal load-in, set up, and sound check process 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 often the case, East Coast Soul was requested to perform cocktail hour music. Cocktail hour is a great opportunity for the bride and groom to unwind after the intense emotions of the ceremony. We do our part by performing 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 celebrations, the band is asked to handle MC services for the formal portions of the wedding celebrations. This The Hildene 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 changed gears to into the bride and groom’s first dance.

The groom and bride's first dance is traditionally one of the most meaningful parts of the wedding. It's a chance for the bride and groom to take a moment for themselves. For this particular wedding, we were asked to perform the first dance song live, instead of performing it from a recording. Megan & Andrew danced to You Are The Best Thing by Ray LaMontagne, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. With this portion of the evening finished, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After a quick break, 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

our shows often start with older material. We've discovered this is an excellent approach to get everyone relaxed and dancing with songs they're familiar with. Artists like Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, and more dominated the beginning of our set list. We then transitioned 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!