Category Archives: Chicago Wedding Ceremony

Chicago Wedding Band Performed for Jamie & Ross’ Wedding at The Empire Room of The Palmer House Hilton

Palmer House Hilton
September 5, 2015

untitled-2

It’s always such an enormous honor when a family invites us back to perform for another celebration. We’ve had a blast playing for sisters Dana and Jamie’s weddings, one year apart. The Empire Room was filled to the brim with a crowd that was ready to dance from the beginning of dinner, and we sure did. After we danced a bit, we calmed things down with our conversation-friendly dinner music Unplugged set. Check out Tim on Grenade, with Dayna, Jae, and Barry on background harmonies. Gorgeous!

And when we danced? Another epic celebration for one of our favorite families:

Chicago Wedding Band Performed for Ashley & Joe’s Wedding at The Museum of Broadcast Communications

Museum of Broadcast Communications
August 22, 2015
untitled-2

When a family invites you back for a third wedding, it’s truly the ultimate honor. We were thrilled to celebrate with Ashley & Joe at a space that’s new to us, the Museum of Broadcast Communications.
untitled-3

What a great venue! With seamless coordination by the team of BCR Events, this was a celebration that made us smile all night long.

Ashley, a million thanks for the kind words on yelp! It’s always such a pleasure to play for your family 🙂

The Chris Sarlas Orchestra is THE BEST. Our priority for our wedding was a fun party with a packed dance floor, and the band absolutely delivered. The band kept our guests dancing all night long until closing, and we had numerous compliments during (and they’ve kept coming after) the wedding about how great the band was. The band played two of my sisters’ weddings as well, and we loved them so much we actually chose our wedding date around the band’s availability! And we are so happy we did. Chris is a pleasure to work with – he’s professional and accommodating to our requests and our wishes. We also had the band’s string quartet play our ceremony music. They did an amazing job too, and Carol was extremely helpful in recommending music to fit with our taste. I wouldn’t hire any other band!

Chicago Wedding Band Performed for Meredith & Clay’s Groove at Independence Grove!

Independence Grove
August 1, 2015

It was so amazing to get to know Meredith, Clay, and both of their families as we planned their wedding day. The celebration began at Hope Lutheran Church in Long Grove with the Artistrings Quartet for their ceremony, and then transitioned over to their reception at Independence Grove. Artistrings switched gears to 100% pop string quartet music for dinner entertainment, and then The Chris Sarlas Orchestra took over for dancing. WHAT A PARTY!!!

untitled-4

untitled-5

Check out this special surprise version of Uptown Funk, sung by Meredith and Clay’s friend. An amazing gift to them!

Clay’s mom left us these kind words on Wedding Wire:

The Chris Sarlas Orchestra was the highlight of my son’s wedding reception! Besides the amazing talent that we all enjoyed, they have the timing, and professionalism to create an amazing party. People danced all night! One week after the wedding, we are regularly being asked how we found them (word of mouth) and told how amazing they were. You can’t go wrong with this band! We also used the string quartet for the ceremony and dinner music and they were just as wonderful. They have a huge selection of music to choose form. Chris worked with the Bride & Groom in advance to choose music and discuss everything from the introduction of the wedding party to how to do toasts.

Thank you Tia! We had a blast celebrating with your families!

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

untitled-1

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

IMG_7931

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?
IMG_7941