The Hildene Wedding in Manchester, VT

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

Preprations for Megan & Andrew's Big Day

Our planning for the wedding day began months in advance, with Megan & Andrew sharing their music and logistical preferences and vision with us for the wedding day (we take our preparation process extremely seriously). Megan & Andrew were incredibly helpful during this advanced planning and super helpful throughout.

Once the wedding 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. We're often asked about our process for loading in and sound checking at various venues. 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 requested to perform cocktail hour music. Cocktail hour is a great opportunity for the bride and groom to relax after the heightened emotions of the ceremony. We do our part by providing a variety 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 John Coltrane, Miles Davies, and more.

Reception

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

The couple’s First Dance

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

The groom and bride'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 particular performance, we were asked 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 portion 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 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 Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Earth Wind & Fire, and more dominated the beginning of our set list. We then moved into playing tunes 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!