From day one, Kristina & Kevin’s infectious energy was such a joy to us. We loved their choice of the new venue Rockwell on the River, and our Chicago wedding band couldn’t wait to fill those walls with music!

Beautiful weather allowed us an outdoor ceremony on the river, with the Artistrings quartet setting an elegant romantic mood. Expert coordination and many thanks to Dana from Clementine Custom Events. Here we are, set up and ready to go, before the guests arrived. See? Gorgeous.

The grandparents, parents, and bridesmaids made their entrance to The Swan/Saint-Saens, while Kristina & her dad floated down the aisle to Debussy’s Clair De Lune. Their music choices were a breath of fresh air on a lovely day. The end of the ceremony introduced the married couple to Higher & Higher/Jackie Wilson, which definitely set the tone for the rest of the night.

While everyone was enjoying cocktails in one segment of the room, the band was ready to go behind the curtain. Hi all!

And the tables? Gorgeous, again 🙂

Starting out, here’s some instrumental jazz to draw guests in from cocktails:

Kristina & Kevin chose to have a New York style reception, which means that they danced a bit between courses. When we opened for dinner, we started the evening off high energy with the full Carol Sarlas Orchestra, which was SO much fun! The bride & groom were introduced to Footloose, which is Kevin’s signature song, and everyone knew it! We all danced to a couple of tunes, and then everyone gathered around for their first dance, Hey Jude. We really can’t imagine a more perfect beginning to this celebration:

Once dinner service began, we played a lot of conversation-friendly music with different segments of the band. Our vocalists took turns singing ballads during dinner service. We love hearing Thair sing this one:

And, there’s a time and a place for groovy instrumental tunes too 🙂

Dancing later in the night was the absolute best.

Kristina & Kevin, your words on Wedding Wire mean the world to us. Hugs all around!

“Sarlas Music exceeded all expectations!
Working with Sarlas Music was one of my favorite experiences from the entire wedding planning process. From our very first meeting, we were confident we made the right decision. It was important for us to maintain a dance party from beginning to end, which is exactly what we had. Chris and Carol listened to all of our ideas and requests, and provided wonderful suggestions, too – proving that they’re truly experts at what they do. We received numerous compliments from our guests, and kept the dance floor packed all night long. Best. Band. Ever!”

Playing at Westmoreland Country Club in June has become quite a tradition over here! Caitlin & Pete chose the Carol Sarlas Orchestra as their Chicago wedding band, and we had such an amazing time with them.

We started with their rehearsal dinner the night before at Sheridan Shores Yacht Club at Wilmette Harbor. The Artistrings pop string quartet created a conversation-friendly (yet upbeat!) mood and took requests of favorite pop and rock tunes all night long. It was easy to see that the next night was going to be something really special 🙂

Wedding day brought the hottest temperatures we’ve seen in some time. We enjoyed a ceremony inside the club, with the men of the wedding party dressed in traditional kilts. Artistrings again performed for the group, this time leaning more on the elegant classical side of things. The ladies in the wedding party made their entrance to the Flower Duet from Lakme, and Caitlin was the picture-perfect bride walking in to the Prime Minister’s Love Theme from Love Actually. During the ceremony, we called upon film music again, going with an interlude of Mothersbaugh’s Canon. The end of the ceremony brought the traditional sound of bagpipes to lead everyone out of the club and outside for cocktails in the garden.

Cocktail music was old school jazzy, upbeat, and lively – think Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Ella, Sammy Davis Jr., and Billie Holiday. Love it! Once we transitioned over to the tent for a served dinner, the weather started to cool off and guests enjoyed the warm summer evening’s breezy atmosphere. We switched gears a bit and focused more on Van Morrison, U2, Springsteen, and Bob Marley during dinner.

Here’s a quick example of upbeat jazz from early in the night:

When it was time to dance, everyone came back into the club, where we had flipped the space and the Carol Sarlas Orchestra was ready to party!

We created these next two videos exactly in order of how things went that night, please join us on the journey of Caitlin & Pete! You’ll even see a few seconds of their lovely first dance, Falling Slowly.

We had a ton of special requests, and had a blast with this crowd playing them all.

Thank you for the Wedding Wire love, Caitlin!!!

“Hands down one of the BEST wedding bands out there! Not only did the band sound incredible and keep everyone dancing all night – Sarlas Music was SUCH a joy to work with! So accommodating, flexible, responsive and talented! Chris and Carol made this whole process and enjoyable. I was super stressed about our ceremony music and they met with me for a second time and walked my through everything. We used the Carol Sarlas band for our wedding reception, the Artstrings quartet for the ceremony and the Artstrings pop quartet for our rehearsal – all were AMAZING!”