Meet Dayna, Jae, Andy, and Tim! We’re loving this option for conversation-friendly dinner music. It’s a fantastic way to showcase favorite tunes in a unique and unexpected setting.
Category Archives: Chicago Wedding Band
Chicago Wedding Band and Classical Strings Performed for Alexa & Aaron’s Wedding at Loews Chicago O’Hare Hotel
May 26, 2019
From the minute we met with Alexa and Aaron as they planned their Chicago Wedding, it was so evident that this Memorial Day Weekend Celebration was going to be EPIC! Loews Chicago O’Hare was the location of choice for their ceremony and reception, with 350 friends and family geared up for an incredible evening with our Chicago wedding band!
Mary Ann Kenmotsu from Loews is one of the most efficient and respected catering managers in the Chicagoland area. And believe us, it shows!
The stage was set with a beautiful huppah awaiting their ceremony arrival, accented by the Artistrings trio of violin, cello and keyboard performing their family’s favorite classical selections. Family members and wedding party made their entrance to the lilting waltz of Canon in F, while Alexa followed to the iconic Canon in D/Pachelbel. When the ceremony concluded with the traditional breaking of the glass, everyone clapped and cheered along with Simon Tov Mazel Tov, as the guests of honor made their way over to cocktails.
After a jubilant cocktail hour, the ballroom opened for their New York style reception, with the full Chris Sarlas Orchestra – and this party was READY TO DANCE! Guests flocked to the dance floor immediately, and it was clear that they were there to celebrate. The new Mr. and Mrs. soon made their entrance, with guests mobbing them for the next 20 minute dance set! (Want proof? Check out the video). Ending this opening set was their first dance, Perfect/Ed Sheeran + Beyonce. Perfect, it was 🙂
We love it when our couples choose songs that have special meaning for their mother/son and father/daughter dances. For example, there were two tables filled with Alexa and Aaron’s friends from summer camp. Apparently, one of the songs that campers sing together is House on Pooh Corner/Kenny Loggins. So, when they chose this song for dancing with parents, their friends stood at their tables, joined arms, swayed back and forth and sang along with us! It was an amazingly sweet moment.
Changing up the mood, our Unplugged vocal quartet with acoustic guitar and cajon added the perfect conversation-friendly texture they wanted during dinner service.
After dessert was served, it was time for an extended Hora as the families united at this incredible mitzvah! Here’s a super quick sample of the hora (and check out our Instagram if you want to see Alexa & Aaron up on chairs):
Added bonus: Alexa’s dad is a seasoned drummer in Chicago’s percussion community, and we were delighted that he and two of his band mates joined us for an impromptu jam session to further solidify the event’s epic status! We followed that up with a few more tunes with Andy singing. If you’ve been following us for a while, you’ll know that Andy reveals a bit of his goofball side as the party approaches late night, and we couldn’t love him more. Here’s a little taste:
Alexa and Aaron produced an absolutely incredible evening from start to finish with so many extra special personal touches through music! We were so happy to celebrate with them, and were thrilled to see this terrific Wedding Wire review:
The Sarlas Rockstars
“Chris and Carol Sarlas were an absolute delight to work with! From start to finish, they were detailed, organized, and passionate about making our wedding out of this world. They truly cared about ensuring we had every song we wanted and even let one of our dads play the drums with his band. It was a packed dance floor all night, a true testament to the band for keeping the party going. We are so thankful for them and would highly recommend to anyone looking for a Chicago-area wedding band!”
Chicago Wedding Band Performed for Kristina & Kevin’s Wedding at Rockwell on the River
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!”
Chicago Wedding Band Performed for Caitlin & Pete’s Westmoreland Country Club Celebration
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!”
Chicago Wedding Band and Pop String Quartet Performed for Colleen & Brendan’s Wedding at Galleria Marchetti
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.”