A Little Red Truck and a Vermont Sunset: Leah & Adam at Basin Harbor Resort
How Leah and Adam brought an acoustic duo, a jazz trio, and a full live band – complete with two hand-sung parent dances – to one of Vermont’s most storied lakeside resorts.
Date: Saturday, June 20, 2026 | Venue: Basin Harbor Resort, Vergennes, VT
Some venues ask a band to fill a room. Basin Harbor asks a band to fill 700 acres. Leah and Adam’s wedding moved from an open-air ceremony lawn to a lakeside cocktail hour to a tented reception on the resort’s private airstrip, with The Barnstorm shifting formats each step of the way to match the setting.
Event at a Glance
- Date: Saturday, June 20, 2026
- Venue: Basin Harbor Resort, 4800 Basin Harbor Rd, Vergennes, VT
- Ceremony: Acoustic Duo, Lodge Lawn
- Cocktail Hour: Jazz Trio, Lodge Lawn
- Reception: Core Band, tented at the Airstrip
The Setting: A 700-Acre Family-Run Retreat on Lake Champlain
Basin Harbor has been welcoming guests to the shores of Lake Champlain since 1886, when Ardelia Beach first opened the property as a farmhouse taking in summer boarders from the city. More than a century later, the resort is still run by her descendants – now the fourth and fifth generations of the Beach family – and still sits on the same 700 acres between the lake and the Adirondacks. It’s a rare setting for a wedding: intimate enough to feel like a family farm, expansive enough to hold a ceremony lawn, a cocktail lawn, and a private grass airstrip without any of it feeling repeated.
That airstrip – a working 3,200-foot grass strip more commonly used by small planes flying in for lunch – became the reception site for Leah and Adam’s big top-style tent, set up with a raised stage and full production for the night.
The Ceremony: Acoustic Duo on the Lodge Lawn
Guests gathered on Basin Harbor’s Lodge Lawn as The Barnstorm Acoustic Duo opened the ceremony. Adam, his parents, and the bridal party processed to “To Build a Home” by The Cinematic Orchestra, before Leah walked down the aisle with her father to Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers.” The newlyweds made their exit to “Man I Need” by Olivia Dean – Leah’s self-described dream song, and a fitting way to kick off the celebration.
Cocktail Hour: Jazz Trio by the Lake
The celebration stayed on the Lodge Lawn for an extended cocktail hour, with The Barnstorm Jazz Trio setting a relaxed, sophisticated tone as guests mingled with Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks as a backdrop.
The Reception: Under the Tent at the Airstrip
From there, the party moved to Basin Harbor’s Airstrip location, where a 12×20 stage and full tent setup awaited under the open Vermont sky. In a fun, unexpected touch, Leah and Adam kicked off the night with the Boston Bruins Goal Song blasting them into the room, before settling into their first dance – “Forever” by Noah Kahan, sung live by Barnstorm vocalist JR.
The Core Band carried two extended dance sets through the evening, breaking only for dinner and speeches, with a set list built around the couple’s must-play list: Toto, Van Morrison, Zac Brown Band, Robin S., Stevie Wonder, and – per special request – “The Weight” by The Band, worked in for good measure.
The Parent Dances: A Personal Touch
What set this reception apart was the parent dance set. Rather than playing recorded tracks, two Barnstorm vocalists took on the songs live: Brooks sang R.E.M.’s “Man on the Moon” for the father-daughter dance, and JR sang Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying” for the mother-son dance – a personal, in-the-room moment that a playlist simply can’t replicate.
What Made This Night Work
Basin Harbor’s layout did a lot of the storytelling on its own – a ceremony lawn, a cocktail lawn, and a private airstrip reception each gave the day a distinct chapter. But it was the shift in musical formats, the surprise Bruins entrance, and the choice to sing the parent dances live, that turned a beautiful venue into a genuinely personal night. The party carried on afterward at the resort’s own Red Mill, a fitting Vermont nightcap to close out the weekend.
VENDOR TEAM:
📍: @basinharborweds
🎸: @thebarnstorm
💐: @diddleandzen
🎥: @stopgolove
💄: @mirrormirrorvt
✉️: @rhdesignhouse
⛺: @vermonttent
📸: @kelseyreganphoto
🎀: @nuagedesignsinc
Photos below courtesy of @jaharoni:
