Willowdale Estate Wedding in Ipswich, MA

East Coast Soul was blessed to be asked to join Julia & Noah for their stunning Willowdale Estate Wedding in Ipswich, MA.

Preprations

Our planning for the big day began months in advance, with Julia & Noah offering a myriad of musical and logistical options with us for the big day (we take our preparation process extremely seriously). Julia & Noah were happy to be a key part of this advanced planning and a huge asset throughout.

Once the big day arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Ipswich, MA and began our standard load in and sound check process for Willowdale Estate. 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

One aspect of our planning involves outlining exactly what portions of the big day East Coast Soul will be involved with.

For this wedding in particular, we learned that Julia & Noah were also looking for East Coast Soul to provide ceremony music. In this case, Julia & Noah 's ceremony was held at Willowdale Estate. Once East Coast Soul performed roughly 30 minutes of “prelude” music as guests found their seats, the ceremony began. Specially, we provided a Soloist performance for the processional, bride’s entrance, recessional.

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 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 and featured music by artists such as Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, and more.

Reception

In a bulk of receptions, the band is asked to take care of MC services for the formal portions of the receptions. This Willowdale Estate Wedding was no different. With introductions complete, we headed into into the couple’s first dance. The first dance is traditionally one of the most emotional parts of the big day. It's a chance for the couple to take a moment for themselves. With this portion of the evening complete, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After resting briefly, East Coast Soul's Soulsville ensemble returned.

In many weddings, we are also asked to perform the couple's parent dances. This is a chance for the bride and groom to spend a couple minutes on the dance floor with their father and mother. In this case, the bride and her father danced together. The groom and his mother shared a dance as well. Parent dances are a great way to start the performance portion of the evening. We generally ask for the attention of the guests to start. We then often ask them to join the couple and their parents on the dance floor, and then move directly in to the rest of the performance.

Our performances often start with older material. We've found this is a great way to get folks up on the dance floor with songs they're familiar with. Artists like Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Sam and Dave, The Temptations, Earth Wind & Fire, and more dominated the beginning of our set list. We then moved into performing music by artists like Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston. 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 Julia & Noah for having us at their beautiful July wedding at Willowdale Estate! And thank you to Zev Fisher Photography for sharing these beautiful photos with us!