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Chicago Wedding Band Performed for Mary & Johnny’s Celebration at Michigan Shores Country Club

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June 27, 2015

Another absolutely amazing weekend. More video coming up shortly, but in the meantime, this iPhone video from Tim needs to go up right away. Love it!

Update, 7/2/15
…and this is what it looked like from Carol’s perspective. Hilarious!

So, the evening started with the traditional father/daughter dance. While Mary chose a Neil Young tune for the dance with her father, he had made other plans. 🙂 Mary’s dad planned a surprise for the bride, which was a recording of her singing “Where Is Love” from Oliver in the 8th grade. Check out her priceless reaction here:

And then, we had a party. A really big party. What an amazing crowd. Some of our favorite moments are here:

Mary, a million thanks for leaving these words for us on yelp!!

The Chris Sarlas Orchestra is AMAZING. The main thing my husband and I were looking for while planning our wedding was a good band. I remembered how great the band was at my cousin’s wedding so I asked my aunt for the band info and she gave me the name Chris Sarlas. Well let’s just say my memory did not disappoint.. they were awesome. The number one thing we’ve heard in the last few weeks while rehashing the wedding is about how great the band was. My family and friends love to dance and the Chris Sarlas and his band kept us dancing all night long. The dance floor was always packed and asome family members (a brother-in-law, a cousin, some of my uncles) who don’t usually never make it out on the dance floor almost never left it the night of our wedding. Chris helped my dad pull off the most special surprise I could ever imagine for the Dad/daughter dance. They got a voice recording from my 8th grade play when I was Oliver and sang a solo “Where is love.” When the song came on (I was expecting Neil Young) I burst into tears. It was such a special moment. Chris also helped with the planning of the nights events and worked as the MC. We initially met him in his house to go over what we were looking for and what kind of music we like/don’t like and they stuck to that. They play a very wide selection of music and his band members are SO talented and have such good voices. They played some lighter music (norah jones) during dinner that was beautiful and easy to listen to and the guests loved it. The band seemed to be having so much fun themselves. It was the best night we could have imagined and a big part of that was because of Chris Sarlas and his band. I would highly recommend them and have already had several people from the wedding ask for the name of the band to recommend to their family/friends.

Looking forward to your next family celebration 🙂

Chicago Wedding Band Performed for Kate & Nick’s Wedding at The Chicago Cultural Center’s Preston Bradley Hall

June 13, 2015
Chicago Cultural Center – Preston Bradley Hall

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Blackhawks game 5? Kate & Nick’s wedding? Only one thing to do…let’s dance!!

We were thrilled to be included on Saturday night for this fantastic celebration, with a great mix of new tunes and classic hits. Loved getting this note from Kate this morning:

Online reviews to come, but a side note to you guys….AMAZING!!! All I’ve been hearing is about how great the band was! But want to tell you right now how WONDERFUL you were 🙂

We think you’re pretty wonderful too — hope to see you dancing at an event soon!

Chicago Wedding Band Performed for Kara & Taylor’s Wedding at The University Club’s Cathedral Hall

May 30, 2015

The University Club of Chicago

Kara & Taylor, welcome to your wedding!
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Now. Who wants to see Tim rap?

With flawless coordination by Lindsay Green, and the sweetest bride & groom ever, we enjoyed every second of Kara & Taylor’s wedding in Cathedral Hall. These words from Kara a few days after the wedding mean so much:

Just about every band you google will be relatively good–especially if you’re celebrating your big day in the wonderful city of Chicago. The difference between every other band and this one is Chris. He is hands on, easy to talk to, intuitive and simply THE BEST guy to work with. He provides hundreds of songs on his song lists, has a great team behind him and is who you should choose for any party–but especially your wedding. Do yourself a favor and book the Chris Sarlas Orchestra now. You will not regret it 🙂

-An extremely happy couple 🙂

Chicago Wedding Band Performed for Natalie & Chris’s Celebration at Chicago History Museum

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untitled-3Chicago History Museum
April 25, 2015

Natalie & Chris, you guys threw one hell of a party last week, and we were thrilled to celebrate with you! Artistrings quartet began their wedding ceremony with elegant classical music. For cocktails, we went with 1920s speakeasy jazz. After everyone enjoyed a feast by Jewell Catering, we danced the night away!

We’re loving this new tune from Meghan Trainor:

Some more highlights from the evening – what a night!

Natalie, many thanks for sharing your thoughts on yelp:

The Chris Sarlas Orchestra was FANTASTIC for our wedding and I highly recommend this group to anyone looking for a wedding or event band!!

We used both the string quartet and full band for ALL of the music for our entire day. The ceremony music was incredibly beautiful and the band got everyone up and on the dance floor and kept them there all night. We had many many many guests provide us with incredibly positive feedback – “I felt like I was at a concert for a super awesome band!” – My favorite comment 🙂

Working with Chris and Carol was as easy as it gets. They are priced VERY reasonably and accommodating for meetings. They take care of every singe detail from band set-up to mics and volume (important for ceremony especially) to MC’ing for the entire evening.

I interviewed several bands before deciding upon the Chris Sarlas Orchestra. Chris and Carol are super nice, down-to-earth folks and I felt 100% sure that my MC for the night wouldn’t make it about him or the band but about US. I did NOT get this sentiment from the other bands I interviewed (who also charge about $1000-$2000 more).

Long review short: BOOK THEM NOW FOR YOUR EVENT OR WEDDING!!!! Such a fantastic band!!!

Chicago Wedding Band Performed for Michele & Adam’s Bash at JW Marriott

October 25, 2014
JW Marriott

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When a professional DJ chooses your band to play for his wedding, it’s an honor. What can we say about Michele & Adam….planning was a riot, and we miss you guys already!

We love learning new songs for our clients. How’s this for an awesome mother/son dance? The Curly Shuffle came out when Adam was a toddler, and it was played on the radio a lot. Whenever the song came on, Adam and his mom would dance around together, stoogeisms and all. Love it!

This crowd was here to dance, and they sure did. Tim says it best: “I’m so glad we got this gig!” Check out some footage here:

When Michele’s dad asked us to play some Santana, we said “sure thing.” Our percussionist Joe brought a surprise guest who sat in with us for a couple of tunes. The surprise guest was Raul Rekow, conguero for Carlos Santana’s band from 1976-2013. Yes, you read that correctly. PHENOMENAL.

Michele’s dad is a huge music fan and, along with the Artistrings String Quartet + Trumpet, played for their ceremony, but we also got him up to sing a little something towards the end of the night. Fortunately, he’s not shy 🙂

A couple more requests….Barry sounds amazing on Chicago’s 25 or 6 to 4 and Vehicle. And, this is the only time we’ll ever say “more cowbell” and it’s not a joke.

The party was still going strong, so they asked us to stay and play a little longer, with the request that Raul join us for an encore of Oye Como Va. Check out the horn section (Mark, Brian, and Henry) taking solos here:

Congratulations to Adam & Michele!!

P.S. What do you think of our new look?
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