Private Residence Wedding in Underhill Center, VT

East Coast Soul was grateful to be brought to join Hayley & Brad for their stunning Private Residence Wedding in Underhill Center, VT.

Preprations for Hayley & Brad's Big Day

Our planning for the wedding began well ahead, with Hayley & Brad offering a myriad of musical and logistical options with us for the wedding (preparation is a key part of our process). Hayley & Brad were incredibly helpful during this advanced planning and super helpful throughout.

Once the wedding arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Underhill Center, VT and carried out our normal load-in, set up, and sound check process for Private Residence weddings. Being prepared for load-in and set-up at any given venue is a critical part of our workflow. 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

Part of our planning involves outlining exactly what portions of the wedding East Coast Soul will be involved with. For this wedding in particular, Hayley & Brad were also interested in East Coast Soul to help out for their ceremony. Hayley & Brad 's ceremony . East Coast Soul prepared a a Solo Piano performance and Single Mic for speeches. Following East Coast Soul providing roughly 30 minutes of “prelude” music as guests found their seats, the ceremony took place.

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 blend of relaxed music for guests to listend to. In this case, We provided a Playback and and featured music by artists such as John Coltrane, Miles Davies, and more.

Reception

In a bulk of celebrations, East Coast Soul is asked to provide MC services for the formal portions of the celebrations. This Private Residence Wedding was no different. However, there were actually no formal intros for this wedding.

The groom and bride’s First Dance

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

The bride and groom's first dance is traditionally one of the most emotional parts of the wedding. It's a chance for the bride and groom to take a moment for themselves. For this specific wedding, we were requested to play the first dance number live, as opposed to performing it from a recording. With this portion of the evening finished, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After a super brief break, East Coast Soul's Soulsville ensemble circled back to the stage.

Parent Dances

In many weddings, East Coast Soul is often requested to play the couple's parent dances. This was a chance for the to join Hayley & Brad to spend a couple minutes on the dance floor with their mother and father. For this specific wedding, the bride and her father danced together. Brad and his mother danced together as well. Parent dances are a great way to kick off the performance portion of the evening. 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

our dance performances commonly kick off with vintage material. We've discovered this is an excellent approach to get guests relaxed and dancing with songs they're familiar with. Artists like Sam and Dave, The Temptations, Earth Wind & Fire, and more dominated the outset of our performance. 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 Hayley & Brad for having us at their beautiful July wedding at Private Residence! And thank you to Jenna Brisson for sharing these beautiful photos with us!