Category Archives: Chicago String Quartet

Laura & Matt

August 10, 2013
Wyndham Grand Chicago Riverfront

The day began with Laura & Matt’s ceremony, set to music by Artistrings.
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Toasts were entertaining for all:
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The dance floor was hopping all night long!

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Hora:
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From Laura, our beautiful bride:

My now-husband and I agreed: the band we chose would make or break our wedding reception. Lucky for us, we hired the Chris Sarlas Orchestra! From our first meeting with Chris until the last dance of our wedding night, it was a pleasure to work with CSO. After a fun and informative first meeting (which included live videos of the band — not studio recordings), Chris presented us with a variety of packages and ideas. We spent a lot of time researching and conducting meetings with other bands, but we felt most comfortable with and were most impressed by CSO. Throughout the wedding planning process, Chris was always responsive, accommodating, and friendly.

We chose the dinner and dancing format with the full 10-piece band, and CSO absolutely nailed the execution — the energy in the room was amazing. Chris gave us an awesome mix of songs and music styles, which meant we had a packed dance floor the entire night. I can’t count the number of wedding guests who raved, “this is the best wedding band I have ever heard!” We had so much fun at our wedding reception, and we were blown away by the talent of the singers, musicians, and Chris.

To summarize, we can’t say enough good things about the Chris Sarlas Orchestra, and we are eager to recommend them to anyone needing a live band for any type of event.

And, we had an absolutely amazing time working with Emily from Michelle Durpetti Events. Can’t wait to do it again Emily! She was incredibly kind to leave these words for us on yelp:

Chris Sarlas is a total professional!

I recently had the pleasure of working with the Chris Sarlas Orchestra over the past weekend for a client’s wedding. As a wedding and event planner here in Chicago, I work with a variety of different bands on a bi-weekly basis, but this was my first experience working with Chris and his team – and WOW was I impressed.

From my initial outreach through the duration of the client’s wedding, I was consistently grateful for Chris. He was not only super flexible and easy to get in touch with, but his approach to planning was very organized. He always asked the right questions leading up to the event and worked to accommodate our timeline and needs (sometimes band leaders like to take control, and Chris was super accommodating to what the bride and groom wanted in terms of flow and what we recommended).

On-site Chris and his team were phenomenal. Everyone arrived on time. They brought all the necessary equipment and everything was set-up and ready to go in a timely manner. The band looked and sounded fantastic and they had everyone up out of their seats and dancing all night long!

We can’t wait to recommend Chris and the Chris Sarlas Orchestra to any of our future clients looking to hire a band! Chris was as good as it gets!!!

Carolyn & Eddie

July 20, 2013
Adler Planetarium
LK Events

This was a seriously amazing celebration. Even 30,000 Phish fans at Northerly Island didn’t keep us and all of Carolyn & Eddie’s guests away from celebrating a glorious occasion.

Their dance floor was packed all night long, including a hora that rocked the Museum Campus:
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Pam & Kevin

December 1, 2012

Hilton Rosemont
Pam & Kevin

Pam and Kevin meticulously planned their ceremony and reception at the Hilton Rosemont — truly great music fans, they had many diverse requests! One of the many highlights included a custom arrangement of Beyonce’s “Halo” prepared and performed by Artistrings. First dance was our performance of Dave Matthews Band’s “You and Me” — dancing between courses of dinner service, the hora looked like a ridiculously busy scene from a movie, and comfy flip flops were worn by many! Pam’s Sister and Maid of Honor, left this great 5-star review of the evening on Yelp — many thanks Debbie!

“I am still recovering from one of the best nights of my life thanks to the Chris Sarlas Orchestra. This past weekend was my sister’s wedding and Yelp doesn’t give me the option to add more stars to this phenomenal band and orchestra. If you are looking for top quality musicians, this is where you should turn to in the Chicagoland area. Chris and Carol are an absolute pleasure to work with. Whatever requests my sister and her husband had, big or small, Chris and Carol were able to meet that request.  I have never seen so many people dancing at any event. I wish I could watch all of the musicians perform every weekend because the show was spectacular! Thank you for making their wedding the success that it truly was. You are the talk of the town!”

First song of dancing between courses with a reduced band. Note that it didn’t result in reduced dancing…SING DAYNA!!

Kristy & Justin

October 6, 2012

Galleria Marchetti
Kristy & Justin

This party ROCKED. Justin had one song that was a MUST PLAY. So we learned it just for him:

Also, we discovered that Dayna can RAP. Pretty darn cool.

Kristy’s dad was incredibly kind to leave us this 5 star review:

“could not have been more impressed with band. chris sarlas ran the wedding from introduction of bride to final dance. as father of bride I just sat back and enjoyed the party. He ran it beautifully and my daughter and wife were thrilled. never ending parade of guests all night kept telling me what a wonderful band. dance floor was filled from first dance until last dance. Chris communicated with my daughter prior to the wedding and everything was ready to go. The man is a gentleman and was great with our guests. Great experience.

From the first night we met Chris til the final dance it was an amazing adventure. the man is wonderful to work with and his band is the best you’ll ever hear.  kept party going without stop.  dance floor was filled all night til final dance.
you don’t need co-ordinator when you have chris sarlas band.  they played for the ceremony and from introductions til final dance he ran the entire evening.  As father of bride I just enjoyed the whole evening while chris ran the show.”

Lindsay & Will

August 11, 2012

Palmer House Hilton
Lindsay & Will

Linsday and Will chose the absolutely wonderful Empire Room at the Palmer House for their ceremony and reception — There’s something about that room…maybe it’s coming from the stunning lobby with anticipation as you ascend the staircase and open the doors to a room that has so much Chicago music history! If you’re thinking about where to have your party – definitely call Jane Himmel at the Palmer House. And to coordinate all aspects of your day, do what Lindsay and Will did — get Claudia Antony Zompa from As You Wish Events — her events are always flawless. What a pleasure to work with both Jane & Claudia together!!

Here is Lindsay & Will fantastic 5-star review:

“We hired Chris Sarlas and his band for our August 2012 wedding and couldn’t have been happier. They were spectacular from beginning to end. We had the string quartet for our seating music and processional, and the main band for the entire reception. They were perfect! Chris’ introductions and announcements were totally seamless, the band and vocalists were amazing, and all of our guests were dancing until the very end. I cannot count how many people complimented us on the band choice, and people continue to ask me for their info. Everyone was blown away by the variety of songs and the talent of these vocalists.

Go to their website to hear audio and see video of this talented group. That is how we first decided to sit down and talk with Chris. Professional, pleasant, experienced, wonderful! Thanks, Chris and crew for an amazing night!”

Some great moments:

Here’s a new tune that we love: