September 1, 2013
Renaissance Chicago
Kassondra & Matt’s wedding reception began with the Artistrings string quartet playing an all-pop cocktail hour. Check out the view from the rooftop of the Renaissance!
The dance floor was rockin’ all night long. Here’s a sample:
August 24, 2013
Westin North Shore
August 10, 2013
Wyndham Grand Chicago Riverfront
The day began with Laura & Matt’s ceremony, set to music by Artistrings.
Toasts were entertaining for all:
The dance floor was hopping all night long!
Hora:
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!!!
August 3, 2013
Marriott Burr Ridge
Michelle, we’re blushing…
The Chris Sarlas Orchestra was, simply put, absolutely phenomenal. I truly cannot say enough about our experience with them. They were the highlight of the reception and we have yet to stop receiving compliments on how incredible the band was.
Chris himself is the perfect balance of light hearted, flexible and relaxed yet professional, confident and efficient. From day one of working with him we were blown away. Chris wanted to know what we wanted but he was also unbelievably helpful with offering great suggestions from his unmatched experience. We never felt as if Chris was a vendor we hired, rather someone who was genuinely interested in making our day just the way we wanted and a lot of fun! His enthusiasm, vision and organization allowed us to enjoy the reception without any concern at all.
The band members are extraordinarily talented and it’s obvious they were having a good time performing as well. They played a variety of music and Chris allowed for some on the spot suggestions as well. Everything was perfectly smooth and no detail was forgotten. Our wedding day was perfect in more ways than one and we have so many blessings to be thankful for. We consider Chris and his colleagues to certainly be one of those blessings.
July 27, 2013
InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile
Another great night in the Renaissance Room at the InterContinental! Barry is tearing it up:
The Chris Sarlas Orchestra is by far the premier wedding band in the Chicago area!
They had a huge playlist to choose from. Out of all the vendors involved in the wedding and reception, Chris was the most helpful, responsive and professional. The musicians and vocalists were top notch. We were actually surprised at the number of guests that got up and danced – the floor was crowded all night and Chris kept the party moving. We had several guests ask for Chris’ business card during the evening and many said this was the best wedding band they had ever heard. The Chris Sarlas Orchestra made the evening magical.
