DRS Music: Chicago Wedding band winners of National Award for Chicago Wedding Band performances.

You are unlike any other couple.

Even though we have a big fancy website, I never wanted to lose the humanness of what we do. Weddings are about people. I LOVE getting to know each of you personally. Tell me what YOU love, what makes YOU special.

These are some examples of special personal touches we've have done just as a way of showing how much I personally care for our clients. This year we sent Valentine's Day cards to each of our brides.

I look forward to creating something special for you!

Click on the images to see a larger view.

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  Samantha and Jeff - Sam worked for the Cubs so I purchased a 24x36 color poster of Wrigley Field. I had it mounted on foam core and asked all their 250 guests to sign it. We learned and played, "Go Cubs Go" and even bought them a Cubs Monopoly game. As a lifelong Cubs fan, that was fun for me too!

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  Alicia and Ryan - They both went to school at University of Iowa. We played 3 U of I fights songs while all their friends sang loud and proud along with them. I brought them his and her Iowa baseball caps and had their bridal party sign them. I even bought them a mini Iowa football. A few months, later I saw that the Iowa Hawkeyes were on the cover of Sports Illustrated. I mailed them a copy of the issue. They loved it!!

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  Sarah and Ray - Sarah was from Chicago and Ray was from Philadelphia. For their special gift I purchased a Cubs and a Phillies hat and had all their guests sign them. Since Ray was from the hometown of Rocky Balboa, we learned the theme song to Rocky as a special surprise. He ran to the middle of the dance floor and jumped around with his hands in the air. My friend in Philly got me a Rocky t-shirt. They loved it!

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  Mike and Katy said they were Huge Seinfeld fans. I found a store in Hollywood where all the studios drop off their scripts after filming. I purchased the original script to their favorite episode "Non-fat yogurt" and had it express mailed to me. I had it spiral bound and gave it to them as gift at the wedding. We even learned the Seinfeld theme song, which we played live at the reception!

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  Katie and Perry and their families were huge Beatles fans, so we learned 9 Beatles songs for their big day. I also bought them a Beatles anthology book, which all their guests signed. At the end of night everyone sang arm in arm, "We all live in Yellow Submarine." I found out that they met at Dirkin's bar so I went to the bar and bought them T-Shirts. They also said it was Perry's sister's birthday. So we played "Happy Birthday" and even gave her a birthday card.

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  Amber and Joel - Joel is a professional poker player, so "Luck be a Lady" had a special meaning. They said they favorite T.V. show was also one of mine, "The Family Guy." We learned the theme song, which we performed live at their wedding. We even gave them the lyrics. Boy were they surprised!!

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  Emily and Mark - Mark was from Brazil, so we gave them our Brazilian percussionist for free. He sang played all night. We learned and played 10 Brazilian songs, which he sang in Portuguese. Mark was also an aspiring guitarist, so as a gift our guitarist/arranger, Jeff Sanders, gave him a private lesson for free. Mark even played with the band at the wedding. Emily was just as excited to see him play as he was to get to play with us. He was the Guitar Hero that night!!

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  Sean and Brittney met while in school at Notre Dame. He was originally from a small town called Castle Martin in Ireland. We learned 15 Irish Gigs, 4 Notre Dame fight songs and even played the Irish National Anthem. I studied some Irish traditions and found out the Horseshoe is a sign of good luck. I happened to have a framed Horseshoe which I had since I was 9 years old. I gave it to them as a special gift. They were touched. I was David O'Rothstein that day!

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  Todd and Lauren - Todd is a professional singer/songwriter. He even sang one of his songs at the wedding. They said they were HUGE fans of Ray LaMontagne. Not only did we play 3 Ray LaMontagne songs, but I also purchased 2 tickets to see him in concert when he came to Chicago two months later. They couldn't believe it!!

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  Antonella and Brendan - Antonella's family was from Italy. She said 30 guests were coming to the wedding from Sicily, so I purchased a book titled, "Italian Americans." It had beautiful photos and stories about life in Italy during the turn of the century, Ellis Island, and what life was like for Italian Immigrants in New York. I had their guests from Italy sign the book in Italian and gave it to them as a gift. We also learned the North and South Tarantella. Congratulazioni!!

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  Amy and Paul - One of their favorites things to do together is watch "The Simpsons." They knew everything about the show. We learned and played the Simpsons theme song, which was VERY difficult. I also bought them a Simpson's trivia. What a FUN surprise!!Your browser may not support display of this image.

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  Ren and Jim - Jim said he played blues guitar and sang so we created the sheet music for 4 songs. He was great! When he sang and played the wedding guests went wild. They loved it. I even bought him a box set of Buddy Guy.

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  Nate and Lisa met at Marquette University, so we learned the Marquette Fight Song and played it when they were introduced. I even rode my bike downtown and bought them his and her MU baseball caps, which they put on while we played the fight song!!

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  Sara and Andrew - The bride's sister, Lisa said she played clarinet. I thought it would be great for her to play a song with our band as a special surprise gift for Sara. We created a special arrangement of a Benny Goodman song, "Begin the Beguine" for her to play with us. The bride was so surprised and thrilled!

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  Carl and Rebecca - Carl was from New Zealand so we learned "Land Down Under." We even used the flute to make it authentic! It was one of the highlights of the wedding! Also, since Rebecca was Jewish we added our Jewish ensemble for the Hora dancing to bring the even more excitement to the dance floor!