Lauren Wolfe wants to make wedding planning easier for DC-area brides, grooms, and wedding planners. That's why she recently launched
Partyista, an online database of nearly 1,000 venues in the D.C. metro area. Potential knot-tiers can filter spaces by price, location, and number of people in the party, as well as specific cuisine, wheelchair accessibility, proximity to public transportation, and whether or not an open flame is permitted in the space.
"A lot of my friends are getting married," Wolfe explains. "No matter how much money someone has, people [at the venues] won't call you back. So we want to put as much information online as possible."
Gathering that information has involved lots of pavement pounding for Wolfe. "I've been going around to different sites and taking pictures. Our goal is to have as many original pictures as possible." Apparently, her legwork has paid off — she reports that Partyista's photos are coming in first on Google's image search results.
The site has been live since September 2012, and, according to Wolfe, is growing every day, especially after she demoed the product to a packed house at the DC Tech Meetup on January 8.
Now that the word is out, Wolfe is working on developing advertising partnerships with venues. "We're also working on adding booking capability to the site," she says. "That is a huge undertaking."
She also stresses that Partyista isn't just for wedding planning. Wolfe invites people to explore the site for birthday and holiday parties, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, graduation parties, political events, and the like.
Partyista is currently looking for a social media intern (unpaid) with Pinterest experience.