The Drake opened on New Year's Eve 1920 with a soiree for two thousand guests and has been throwing weddings ever since. Twenty-one thousand square feet of ballroom space, Hilton hotel operations underneath, and a Gold Coast Room that Hollywood magazines used to photograph. The job for a quartet here is to match the scale without crowding it.
Request a Quote All Chicago Venues
The Ballrooms
The Drake is a Historic Hotels of America property on East Walton Place, a block off the Magnificent Mile. The four wedding-scale rooms are all on site and stack cleanly for ceremony, cocktails, and reception without leaving the building. The Gold Coast Room is the showpiece: 6,838 square feet with lake views through tall windows, sized for up to 900 guests, which the hotel compares (accurately, for once) to Buckingham Palace's ballroom. Walt Disney and Bing Crosby were both Gold Coast Room regulars.
The Grand Ballroom is the traditional wedding room, seating north of 350 for ceremony or reception. The French Room (55 x 73 feet, ten-foot ceilings, up to 350 reception) is the quieter sibling for mid-sized events, and the Camellia Room tops out around 200 for intimate receptions.
Rooms that size mean the ensemble choice is driven by room, not by guest count. A duo gets lost in the Gold Coast Room even at forty guests, because the volume of air is the issue, not the number of ears.
Project String Quartet founder Rebecca Hamilton has led conservatory-trained ensembles at more than 200 Chicago-area weddings, and the repertoire covers everything from classical processionals to the Bridgerton-style pop arrangements couples have been requesting since 2021. The ensemble holds a 5.0 Google rating across all reviewed performances. If you are deciding between live music and a DJ, the string quartet vs. DJ guide lays out the tradeoffs for a room The Drake's scale.
Playing These Rooms
Where the quartet sits changes the whole evening here.
The tall east-facing windows hit direct sun on late-morning ceremonies, which is a problem for varnish and for tuning. We set up along the short interior wall opposite the windows. The ceiling height gives violins a long, flattering tail; we slow tempos on slow processionals so phrases do not smear against that reverb.
The Grand Ballroom's hotel banquet stage is fine for the reception band, but a ceremony here usually wants us off the stage and onto the floor near the aisle. Being closer to guest seating keeps the quartet feeling like part of the ceremony instead of a concert downstage.
Hilton runs The Drake with a tight back-of-house operation. Vendors load in through the Walton Street service entrance and ride the freight elevator to the ballroom level. We arrive ninety minutes ahead of prelude to tune in the actual room rather than the green room, because Chicago humidity and the Gold Coast Room do not agree on pitch. You can browse the full repertoire list or use the playlist builder to send us your ceremony song picks before the day.
Most Drake couples book twelve to eighteen months out. Tell us your date now and we will confirm availability within one business day.
Check Your DateEnsemble Fit
Violin + Cello
Fine for Palm Court lobby cocktail hour or a Camellia Room rehearsal dinner. We do not recommend the duo for any of the three main ballrooms, they are all too tall.
Request QuoteViolin, Violin + Cello
Works for the French Room and the Camellia Room at most headcounts. Under about 200 guests it is a sensible choice for the Grand Ballroom too.
Request Quote2 Violins + Viola + Cello
The right ensemble for the Gold Coast Room and the Grand Ballroom at full capacity. A 900-person room rewards the second violin because that top line has to cut through a lot of ambient reverb to reach the back of the floor.
Request QuoteAlso working Chicago:
Tell us about your event at The Drake Hotel and we'll send a personalized quote.
Send us your date and which of the four rooms the wedding is in. Gold Coast Room Saturdays book earliest, usually twelve to eighteen months ahead.
Check Your Date