Wychmere Beach Club Wedding in Harwich Port, MA

East Coast Soul was grateful to be brought 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 wedding day began many weeks prior, with Marissa & Rick sharing their music and logistical preferences and vision with us for the wedding day (preparation is a key part of our process). Marissa & Rick were happy to be a key part of this advanced planning and incredibly helpful throughout.

Once the wedding 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. 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 asked to provide cocktail hour music. Cocktail hour is a great opportunity for the bride and groom to relax after the intense emotions of the ceremony. We do our part by performing a variety of relaxed music for guests to enjoy. In this case, We provided a Playback and and featured music by artists such as John Coltrane, Miles Davies, and more.

Reception

In a majority of wedding celebrations, the band is asked to handle MC services for the formal portions of the wedding celebrations. This Wychmere Beach Club Wedding was no different. However, there were in fact 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 groom and bride's first dance is invariably one of the most unforgettable parts of the wedding day. It's a chance for the bride and groom to take a moment for themselves. For this particular wedding, we were asked to play the first dance tune live, instead of performing it from a recording. With this part of the evening finished, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After a quick break, East Coast Soul's Soulsville ensemble returned to the stage.

Parent Dances

In a majority of weddings, East Coast Soul is often requested to perform 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 mother and father. For this particular wedding, the bride and her father shared a dance. Rick and his mother shared a dance as well. Parent dances are a great way to start 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

East Coast Soul shows often start with older material. We've found this is a great way to get guests relaxed and dancing with songs they're familiar with. Artists like Marvin Gaye, Sam and Dave, The Temptations, and more dominated the outset of our performance. We then moved into playing tunes 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!