Continuing on with our Artistrings-from-home quarantine series, we decided to dive into this Led Zeppelin tune for fun. Our Chicago pop string quartet loves a challenge! As soon as we recorded it, we got three different requests from our clients to add this to their cocktail selections list. We love personalizing the wedding music for our couples. Can’t wait to play it live this weekend!
Katherine Hughes, violin
Carol Kalvonjian, violin
Benton Wedge, viola & arrangement
Matthew Agnew, cello
One of our wonderful couples asked us for this rock tune, and our Chicago string quartet just couldn’t resist! (Great idea, Michelle & Eric!) Including Michelle/Beatles for her walk down the aisle was also the best idea ever. That’s a story for another day though. Continuing on with our quarantine video series from Artistrings, here is David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold The World. We love it for prelude music as your guests are arriving, or for cocktail receptions. If rock string quartet tunes are your thing, stay tuned for the next several weeks. We’ve got some fun ideas coming your way!
Carol Kalvonjian – violin
Katherine Hughes, violin
Benton Wedge, viola & arrangement
Matthew Agnew – cello
So, the Artistrings Chicago string quartet has been busy recording a series of quarantine videos. It was a super challenging and very fun project to record these string quartet covers of rock and alternative tunes. We can’t wait for the day when it’s super safe to play together up close and in person again. For now, this will have to do. Here’s our tribute to The Smashing Pumpkins. Go Chicago!
Colleen and Brendan were engaged in early September, and booked their three most important vendor priorities within a few weeks – church, venue, and band. They wanted a Chicago wedding band that would appeal to all of their guests, so that everyone would celebrate together and keep their party on the dance floor. We were thrilled that they chose us 🙂
The day began with Colleen and Brendan’s ceremony at Old St. Pat’s. When their guests arrived at the reception, cocktails were hosted in Galleria Marchetti’s Pergola (complete with retractable roof!).The Artistrings pop string quartet kicked things off with a wide range of requests: Flashing Lights/Kanye West, Sweet Child O’ Mine/Guns N’ Roses, music from Game Of Thrones, Star Wars,…and let’s not forget those guilty pleasures like: Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe, Katy Perry’s Firework, and Edward Sharpe’s Home. SO much fun!
Guests then moved to the tent, with the full Chris Sarlas Orchestra setting the stage for a serious celebration! After introductions, Colleen and Brendan danced to our performance of the acoustic version of Starley’s Call On Me. This foreshadowed our Unplugged vocal quartet with acoustic guitar and cajon adding the perfect mood they wanted during dinner service.
Rather than serve a plated dessert to their guests, a dessert bar awaited everyone after we danced with parents. Their first request to kick things up for everyone was Timber/Ke$ha + Pitbull. You can see from the video highlights that there was no shortage of favorite party tunes!
Planning the best Chicago wedding starts at the top, and both Colleen and Brendan were 100% committed as a team to make sure their party was setting the bar high for all spring and summer weddings this year!
All our congratulations to Colleen & Brendan, and our most sincere thanks for this terrific Wedding Wire review:
“Chris did an amazing job performing at our wedding. I don’t recall a time when the dance floor wasn’t packed! All night our guests kept asking where we found this band and giving us compliment on what an amazing job the band was doing.
Prior to the wedding Chris took the time to make sure that he could deliver exactly what my wife and I wanted for our wedding day. Chris made the experience very personal, taking the time to learn about us as a couple. Other bands that my wife and I contacted made us feel like we were just another client to them but we never got that impression from Chris.
I would recommend Chris to anyone who is looking to book a live performance for their event. You will not be disappointed.”
Grand Geneva
October 6, 2018
Lake Geneva, WI is one of our very favorite getaway performance spots for this Chicago wedding band. With gorgeous autumn foliage it’s perfect for escaping the hustle of the big city and enjoying the crisp clean air. Katie and Tyler chose have their reception at the very popular Grand Geneva Resort, so that Katie’s family from Chicago could converge with Tyler’s family from Minnesota for a fabulous Lake Geneva wedding weekend!
When we first met with Katie & Tyler to talk about music for their wedding day, they said that they were focusing on finding the right band, because a fun dance party was at the top of their wedding day wish list. That’s our kind of couple! Why did they choose us? Well, as they were vetting wedding bands, they noticed that many other bands featured singers performing songs that weren’t a good fit for their voices. They loved that our vocalists sound natural singing the styles and songs they’re featured on, and that was the ballgame for them.
Again, our kind of couple 🙂 Needless to say, we were all super excited to head up to Lake Geneva to perform for Katie, Tyler, & their guests!
They kicked off their cocktail hour with the Artistrings pop string quartet completely flooring their guests with their incredible arrangements. Tunes included Everlong/Foo Fighters, Tom Sawyer/Rush, All You Need Is Love/Beatles, You Make My Dreams Come True/Hall & Oates, Chandelier/Sia…and SO many others that had guests singing along and tapping their toes.
The ballroom opened with the impact of the Chris Sarlas Orchestra and a New York Style flow: all guests flooded the dance floor and got the party started in the best way possible! We ended the set with You and Me/Dave Matthews for Katie & Tyler’s first dance. After the salad course, we invited Katie & her dad up for their special song together (You’re My Best Friend/Queen), and then Tyler & his mom shared their moment with Days Like This/Van Morrison. From there, we transitioned into a short dance set for everyone as Alex and her Grand Geneva Staff reset place settings for entree service. The flow was absolutely perfect for this dancing crowd!
Jenna Thayer from Graceful Events kept the party on point all night long – ensuring that guests were eating, drinking, and dancing at all the right times. Jenna is absolutely amazing at what she does, and we can’t wait for the next event we have together!
Our Unplugged vocal quartet with acoustic guitar and cajon added the perfect vibe they wanted during dinner service, and then we were back into a full tilt dance party! Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars, Whitney Houston, Paul Simon, Stevie, Beyonce, Ke$ha, Pitbull…you name it, we played it!
Katie planned two surprises with us: a dedication of Louis Armstrong’s ‘What A Wonderful World’ in honor of her grandmother, Peggy. The other was a tune that she promised would bring the house down: S.O.B/Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats. Boy, was she right!
‘Sweet Home Alabama’/Lynyrd Skynyrd was another must, as Tyler went to school in AL.
Katie and Tyler’s wedding celebration in Lake Geneva was a night to be remembered! All our love to you guys, and our most sincere thanks for this wonderful Wedding Wire review:
Book them now! Amazing orchestra!
If you don’t book them, you simply will not have THEE best band! Chris and Carol are phenomenal people and extremely talented. They were a pleasure to work with and made the entire process fun and easy! They have a ton of experience and I so appreciated their input and expertise throughout the process. They read the room and played one great song after the next (all genres!). The only down side was that our dance floor was too small!! EVERYONE was out on the dance floor and sweaty when we were saying our goodbyes… 🙂
Our idea of a great party!
