Category Archives: Unplugged Vocal Quartet – Dinner Music

Chicago Wedding Band, Chris Sarlas Orchestra, Unplugged Vocal Quartet - Dinner Music

Chicago Wedding Band Performed for Kate & Brett’s Rustic Farm Wedding

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August 26, 2017
Seymour, IL

The day that Kate & Brett got engaged in Washington, D.C., they prioritized their band and the location for their wedding celebration. Within two weeks, the decision was made to host the celebration at Kate’s family farm in Seymour, IL, and that Chris’ Chicago wedding band would be making the trip down to keep everyone dancing. The one sure thing they told us right away was this: “it’s not going to be a black tie affair, we can tell you that much!” “Think country chic, Chris.” We love it!

When our Chicago wedding band performed for Kate & Brett’s rustic farm wedding, their machine shed was repurposed into housing the best country-chic evening celebration you can possibly imagine. Of course, this also meant that we could drive our van right in and unload. This, my friends, was the easiest load-in of our 18 year career….so far. (Can you hear the sound crew applauding?) What a refreshing change from the congestion of the city. You feel peaceful just looking at these next two pictures, right?

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Andy sounded fantastic on All The Way/David Nail for Kate & Brett’s first dance. Their Goldendoodle, Lincoln, was the sweetest first dance bomber we’ve ever seen. This video makes us smile, every single time.

Guests enjoyed our unique “Unplugged” option for dinner service:

And then, we danced the night away!

Brett’s words on Wedding Wire mean the world:

We found Chris and Carol on WeddingWire and immediately found Chris’ responsiveness and attention to detail very comforting. He took the time to get to know us as a couple and what we wanted from our wedding band. They crushed it! Guests of all ages were dancing for hours. We also appreciated the band’s willingness to learn a new song for our first dance. Also – the acoustic dinner music was incredible and something we’d highly recommend to anyone else. We gave Chris and Carol five stars all around – we had a blast and our guests are raving about the music at our wedding. Thanks to Chris, Carol, and the band for everything!

Kate & Brett, your party was a blast, and we were thrilled to celebrate with you both!

Artistrings, Chicago Pop String Quartet, Chicago String Quartet, Chicago Wedding Band, Chris Sarlas Orchestra, Unplugged Vocal Quartet - Dinner Music

Chicago Wedding Band Performed for Molly & Angelo’s Wedding at Drake Chicago

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July 15, 2017
The Drake Hotel

Molly & Angelo met while working together at NBC in South Bend, IN, and they chose one of our very favorite ballrooms for their Chicago wedding day, the Gold Coast Room at the Drake.

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From our first conversation together, we knew that this party merging Irish, German, and Sicilian traditions was going to be off the charts! Our Chicago wedding band performed for Molly & Angelo’s wedding at the Drake Chicago, and there were so many special moments to remember: Artistrings pop string quartet kicked things off for cocktail hour, family friend and tenor Tony Milioto brought down the house with O Sole Mio and Nessun Dorma during dinner, dancing featured an extended tarantella for all guests to enjoy, and we learned Allentown/Billy Joel in honor of Angelo’s home town.

Check out Angelo and his dad singing a special Italian song together – one of the sweetest moments ever!

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Molly & Angelo wanted to celebrate with an East-Coast style (New York style) wedding, so once we entered the Gold Coast Room for dinner service, we got everyone up to dance for a few minutes. We love how a NY style wedding gets the energy of the wedding up from the minute the reception starts, it’s so much fun! Here’s an uncut video clip of part of this dance set, so you can see how we transition between tunes to keep everyone on the floor.

We featured this smaller 8 piece Chicago wedding band for dancing between courses, and then our Unplugged vocal quartet with acoustic guitar and cajon during dinner service. For dancing after dinner, we expanded to the full 11 piece band (with horn section) for all of their requested favorites including Michael Jackson, Earth, Wind and Fire, James Brown and Bruno Mars. One of the best moments of the night was watching the dancers tear up the dance floor with another special request: Mambo Italiano!

There’s more video coming up soon, and our most sincere thanks to Nicole Zenner and her team from LK Events for making everything so easy 🙂

Artistrings, Chicago Corporate Entertainment, Chicago String Quartet, Chicago Wedding Band, Chris Sarlas Orchestra, Unplugged Vocal Quartet - Dinner Music

Chicago Wedding Band Performed for Caidi & Steve’s New Year’s Eve Wedding at The Union League Club

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December 31, 2015
Union League Club of Chicago

Happy New Year, everyone!

We can’t imagine a better way to begin 2016, and all our thanks to smooth coordination from the team at Soirée Weddings & Events. Celebrating Caidi & Steve with friends, family, and lots of great music was an incredible honor for us. Music began at the club with our Artistrings violins welcoming guests up the stairs for cocktails. Dinner started with tons of energy from the 17 piece Chris Sarlas Orchestra. We danced, and then the bride and groom shared their first dance: the DMB version of In My Life.

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During dinner, we had fun creating a few different moods – our strolling violins on the dance floor serenaded with a set of holiday classics and standards. A little later, we featured our vocal quartet with cajon and acoustic guitar for a conversation friendly unplugged set.

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Some dancing highlights from this fabulous celebration:

Every once in a while, we like to post an uncut video to show how we transition from tune to tune and keep the dance floor packed. Here’s what we did in the minutes leading up to the countdown to the New Year. Enjoy!

Of course, we had a few minutes for selfie stick fun at the end of the night. Love this band!

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And….we’re blushing. Yes, we got a little misty reading this Wedding Wire review from Caidi’s parents. Can’t thank you enough, Marika & Evan!

OH WHAT A NIGHT! The Chris Sarlas Orchestra reached its consistent high level of achievement at our daughter’s New Year’s Eve wedding this December 31, 2015. They demonstrated their extraordinary dedication to insuring that this magical evening would be spectacular from the onset. True to form, guests danced the night away from the moment they entered the venue to well after midnight. No one wanted to leave and they kept chanting “One more song!” A true testament to their talent . . their energy . . and their interaction with the guests. From the strolling violins to the strong band performance, they were simply put . . . “incredible”.

Highly accomplished and multi-talented, their musicians with the leadership and perseverance for perfection by Chris and Carol Sarlas, made the evening of what dreams are made of and our guests have not stopped praising their performance. Job beyond well done!

Chicago Corporate Entertainment, Chicago Wedding Band, Chris Sarlas Orchestra, Unplugged Vocal Quartet - Dinner Music

Chicago Wedding Band Performed for Vicki & Jason’s Celebration at Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel

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Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel
November 7, 2015

Oh how we love Vicki & Jason! We’ve gotten to know Jason over the years, and it’s been such a pleasure to work with Vicki too and to get to know them together as a couple. This pair is so well-loved, it was clear from the first minute that everyone came from near and far to celebrate with them. And, it’s always such a blast to parter with with Tom Manikas of Manikas Designs.

Since they wanted to start the celebration with high energy and keep it going throughout the night, a New York style reception was perfect for them. We began the evening dancing…
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and then transitioned to conversation-friendly dinner music with our vocal quartet.

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Check out Vicki & Jason’s dinner music – Unplugged!

Interspersed throughout the evening, we danced:

Vicki & Jason, thank you for including us in this amazing celebration. WHAT A NIGHT!!