Capitol Ideas: Partyista ~ The Ultimate DC Wedding Venue & Rehearsal Dinner Search Site

A couple weeks ago I met up with Lauren at Tryst in Adams Morgan. We drank some awesome coffee (and I of course had to get a muffin) and Lauren told me all about how she recently quit her job to launch Partyista.

What started as a database full of wedding venues & rehearsal dinner spots in the Washington, DC metro area, turned into this awesome, resourceful website:

Here is a bit more about Partyista, from the creator, Lauren:

Last year one of my best friends got engaged. Peppered with the immediate question of “Do you know when and where you are going to get married?” She quickly started off on the search for a great wedding venue. Given all that the internet has to offer though she was shocked to find, well, basically nothing. She had to rely off of her mom to ask her friends who had recently had their kids get married in her hometown to figure out where it was even possible for her to have her wedding. Talking to mom is always good, but with the tools we are supposed to have on the internet these days – it just seems like there should be an option on the internet.

I started to talk to other friends who were planning weddings or who had recently had theirs. One mentioned to me that all she needed for a North Indian wedding was to be able to have a small open flame and Indian food, yet she had to call 150 venues to see what places even allowed that. After she had that info, she could narrow it down based off of guests, budget, etc. Another friend of mine planned her entire wedding using Yelp. She complained that traditional wedding websites were driven by promotions and advertisements so every time she searched for something she was not getting anywhere near the results she was looking for. “Why,” she exclaimed “does the internet make it so hardddd?”

Well, that’s when I really set off to stop this crazy. I don’t like to see my friends suffer. I’ve planned everything from my high school prom, to my friend’s bachelorette party, to a billion political fundraisers and events (obvs, it is DC). I know the ridiculousness of planning a big event and so I set off to create a searchable database of wedding venues and places to hold a rehearsal dinner in Washington DC. It’s called Partyista and you can do a basic search just by budget and number of guests or you can use the advanced search function where you can search by things like Indian food, handicap accessibility, parking and even venue type – hotel, mansion, museum, boat, etc. You can find five big photos of what the venue actually looks like and we are working on adding more information and more venues everyday.

So what do you think guys?! Do you find Partyista as awesome as I do? I already sent it to one of my couples and they LOVED the site! Lauren hopes to branch out in more cities too!

Lauren concludes:

I think Partyista turned out pretty cool but as the site grows, I want to make sure it is as awesome as possible. What are things that have been bugging you about the venue search? How can I make the site more fabulous? Check out Partyista, watch our video and email your thoughts and ideas to me atlauren@partyista.com anytime. Thanks friends!