How Annie and Dave made the Delaware coast the backdrop for one of the most joyfully musical weddings of the spring.
Date: May 9, 2026 | Venue: Rehoboth Beach Country Club, Rehoboth Beach, DE
Delaware’s coastline has a way of making a wedding feel inevitable – like the place itself was waiting for the moment. Rehoboth Beach Country Club offers couples a year-round coastal setting perfect for romantic beachside celebrations, with panoramic sunset views and serene surroundings. On May 9th, Annie and Dave took full advantage of every one of those sunsets – and brought a full Barnstorm ensemble, three additional horn players, a violin, and a musical program that ran from Taylor Swift at the ceremony to Zac Brown on the dance floor.
Event at a Glance
- Date: Saturday, May 9, 2026
- Venue: Rehoboth Beach Country Club, 221 West Side Dr, Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971
- Planner: Dana Ferreri, Happy Hour Events
- Ceremony: Solo Piano + Vocal
- Cocktail Hour: Barnstorm Jazz Trio
- Reception: Core Band + 3 Horns + Violin
The Setting: Rehoboth Bay at Sunset
Renovated in 2020, the ballroom at Rehoboth Beach Country Club offers a taste of modern elegance with natural light shining through from all angles. The venue sits directly on Rehoboth Bay, and on a May evening the sunset painted the water gold behind every toast and every dance move. With more than 40,000 square feet and both indoor and outdoor settings, every moment has a different quality of light and air.
For a couple whose wedding playlist spanned Taylor Swift and the Grateful Dead, Luke Combs and Bruce Springsteen, the coastal backdrop was a perfect fit – unhurried, warm, and a little bit wild.
The Ceremony: A Taylor Swift Piano Medley Walks the Aisle
Few wedding ceremonies are as deliberately curated as Annie and Dave’s. From the first note, the ceremony was built around a full Taylor Swift piano medley – moving through songs like “Enchanted,” “Cruel Summer,” “Love Story,” and “Crazier” as each member of the wedding party made their way down the aisle, with different songs timed to different moments in the procession.
As Annie was escorted by her parents Cliff and Tammy to “Love Story,” Barnstorm vocalist Stephanie stepped to the microphone for a live performance of “L’Chi Lach,” a Hebrew wedding song sung for the tradition of the parents meeting in the middle. It was a deeply personal, deeply musical moment that set the tone for the entire evening.
Cocktail Hour: The Jazz Trio on the Bay
With the ceremony behind them, guests moved to cocktail hour – a Barnstorm Jazz Trio set that let the coastal air and the bay views do much of the atmospheric work. Light, warm, and conversational, the trio gave guests an hour to breathe before the full band took over.
The Reception: Full Band + Horns + Violin
Annie and Dave were introduced as a married couple and moved straight into their first dance – a Barnstorm arrangement of “Sweet Annie” by Zac Brown Band, built for a dance floor rather than a Spotify stream.
Parent dances followed: Dave and his mother Lisa shared a moment to “Ripple” by the Grateful Dead. Annie and her father Cliff took the floor to “When You Need Me” by Bruce Springsteen – a combination that drew exactly the kind of surprised, delighted crowd reaction that makes live music at weddings irreplaceable.
With the full band augmented by three horn players and a violin, the reception set spanned decades and genres. The must-play list included everything from “American Girl” and “Born to Run” to “Dancing Queen,” “Mr. Brightside,” and “Sweet Caroline” – with “Beer Never Broke My Heart” by Luke Combs landing among the night’s biggest crowd moments.
The Special Songs
- Ceremony: Taylor Swift Piano Medley + “L’Chi Lach” (live vocal)
- First Dance: “Sweet Annie” – Zac Brown Band
- Mother/Son: “Ripple” – Grateful Dead
- Father/Daughter: “When You Need Me” – Bruce Springsteen
- Special: “Beer Never Broke My Heart” – Luke Combs
What Made This Night Work
This was a wedding where the musical program was thoughtfully constructed from the very first note of the ceremony to the last song of the night. Running a full Taylor Swift piano medley through the processional – with different songs for different members of the wedding party – turned a standard ceremony into an experience. Pairing that with a full-band-plus-horns-plus-violin reception gave the evening a sweep and scale that matched the waterfront setting perfectly.
VENDOR TEAM:
📍: @rehobothbeachcountryclub
🗒️: @happyhourevents
🎸: @thebarnstorm
📸: @beccaneufeldphoto
💐: @styledde
🎥: @NewPaceWeddings
🍰: @karassugarkitchen
Photos below courtesy of @jaharoni.
