How to place a hold on an event Date

TLDR: The first client to email me with a completed proposal questionnaire on the 1st of their wedding month*, 1 year in advance, will get a hold on the date. So, for example, to hold August 20th, 2021, be the first to email in on August 1st 2020 for that date.

The Why behind our booking process

Many venues do a first come first serve basis for their event holds, based on who pays their deposit first. That has never been how I want to run our venue, in large part because I want to give us enough time to do a great job on your wedding proposal and schedule at least one consultation call before you book. I also do not want any of our clients making the decision to have their wedding here under the duress of potentially losing the date and regretting it after. So, my policy has always been that once a client submits their proposal questionnaire, I put a 14-day hold on the date while we work on the proposal and have our call(s).

That part is simple enough, but in 2019 our venue really grew in popularity and we have been getting a lot of requests for the same date. While that is a good problem to have, it has required me to re-evaluate when and how I put the 14-day hold on a date. And because we do not take bookings more than a year in advance, what has started happening is that when we are about a year out from a popular month, I get tons of inquiries asking me to how to best hold a date.

We do not book any Full Venue Rentals on back to back days for a number of reasons, to allow for ample setup time, cleanup time, and staff off-time and to make sure that any weddings we book can have the option of a rehearsal the day before. So when you book a date, let's say June 4th, for your event, you are actually booking June 3-5th from our calendar. This makes date holds tricky and I have gone back and forth on what the best way to handle the "line" for hold requests is and we have decided to take bookings a year in advance starting on the first of the month for that entire month. So, for example, all of the available August 2020 dates will come available for holds on August 1st of 2019. Holds will be placed in the order emails (with completed questionnaires) are received starting at midnight, Hawaii time, on the first of the month. Emails should be sent to me, Kate, at Kate@sunshowercoffee.com.

How the New Venue Space affects the booking process

Until and unless we receive our special use permit for the new venue, we will not be taking any event bookings.

But even though we are not accepting bookings for the new venue, we will be holding dates for if/when we do start accepting bookings. If you would like to hold a 2021 date for if/when we get our permit for the new venue, we will still be following our usual booking process. Date holds will be made first come first served and will have a $200 refundable date retainer (pending permit approval). They will not require a proposal questionnaire as that portion of the booking process will happen after we have our permits.

If/when we receive our special use permit, all clients who have held a date for the new venue will then transition into our regular booking process, with a proposal questionnaire, draft event proposal, consultation call and event retainer.

If you have any questions about this process, please feel free to email me!