Wychmere Beach Club Wedding in Harwich Port, MA

East Coast Soul was blessed to be asked to join Marissa & Rick for their stunning Wychmere Beach Club Wedding in Harwich Port, MA.

Preprations for Marissa & Rick's Big Day

Our planning for the big day began well ahead, with Marissa & Rick expressing a variety of musical and logistical preferences with us for the big day (we take our preparation process extremely seriously). Marissa & Rick 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 Harwich Port, MA and moved swiftly through our standard load-in, set up, and sound check process for Wychmere Beach Club 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

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 great opportunity for the bride and groom to unwind after the intense emotions of the ceremony. We contribute by performing a variety of relaxed music for guests to enjoy listening to. In this case, We provided a Playback and and featured music by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and more.

Reception

In a lion's share of celebrations, East Coast Soul is asked to provide MC services for the formal portions of the celebrations. This Wychmere Beach Club 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 transitioned into the groom and bride’s first dance.

The groom and bride's first dance is traditionally one of the most meaningful parts of the big day. It's an opportunity for the bride and groom to take a moment for themselves. For this particular wedding, we were asked to play the first dance song live, instead of playing it from a recording. 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 Soulsville ensemble circled back to the stage.

Parent Dances

In a majority of wedding performances, we are also asked to play the couple's parent dances. The parents dances were an opportunity for the to join Marissa & Rick to spend a couple minutes in the center of the floor with their parents. For this particular wedding, the bride and her father danced together. Rick and his mother danced together as well. Parent dances are an amazing way to start the dance party 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

East Coast Soul dance performances often start with older material. We've discovered this is an excellent approach to get everyone up on the dance floor with songs they're familiar with. Artists like Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Earth Wind & Fire, 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 Marissa & Rick for having us at their beautiful August wedding at Wychmere Beach Club!