77%
They want the price first
Couples say pricing is the most important thing they check before contacting a vendor. A PDF behind a form is where a lot of them leave.
WeddingPro, From Hello to Hired
Wedding venue website design
Stop answering “Is June 14 open?” by email.
A custom site, a live availability calendar, tour booking, and an admin panel you can run from your phone. Most venues launch the core build in 4–6 weeks. You own it.
15 minutes. Based in Macomb, Illinois. Venues across the US.
Willow Creek Barn
DemoA real date from the sample calendar
Starting at
$6,200
Off-peak Saturday · sample venue fee
Open this date in the demo (opens in a new tab)What couples do instead
The inquiry dies before you see it.
2.2×
A slow reply loses the thread
A reply in under three hours makes couples 2.2× more likely to write back. “Let me check the date” is not that reply.
WeddingPro, From Hello to Hired
5
You are one of about five
Couples contact about five vendors in a category. The venue that shows the date and a price gets the tour.
WeddingPro, From Hello to Hired
Dates
Holds live in a spreadsheet
The “is this Saturday open?” thread, a soft hold in a sheet, and a wedding already promised to someone else. That is how double-bookings happen.
The problem the booking build is meant to close
$6–12k
Directory traffic you do not own
A venue marketing agency reports $6,000–$12,000 a year for higher-tier metro placement on The Knot, and $50–$150 a month in rural markets. That spend rents the lead. It does not put the inquiry on your site.
Fully Booked Venue, agency-reported listing costs. The Knot does not publish these prices.
41%
Planning happens on a phone
41% of wedding planning happens on a mobile device. A heavy gallery with no dates and no price is a brochure they cannot use in the car.
The Knot 2026 Real Weddings Study
How it works
What couples see, without waiting on your inbox.
01
They check the date
Open, held, or booked. No email required to find out.
02
They see the price
A starting-at range, or the rate for that date: peak, off-peak, or weekday.
03
They book the tour
A time on your calendar, a confirmation email, and the request in your admin.
How a build runs
01
15-minute call
You show the inquiry path. We say if a simpler tool is the better buy.
02
Fixed quote
Half to start. The ranges on this page are not the quote.
03
Design approval
You sign off on the pages. 25% is due here.
04
Build
Two to six weeks for the upgrades most venues start with.
05
Launch
The last 25%. Then Venue Care keeps the calendar current.
Live availability
Couples see open, held, and booked without writing you first.
Pricing in the open
Per-date rates or a starting-at range. You choose how specific to be.
Tour scheduler
They pick a time. Confirmation and reminder email go out when mail is configured.
Inquiry with context
Date, guests, budget, and style, sent to your inbox or the CRM you already use.
A hold, if you want one
Book-Online adds a Stripe deposit and a hold that expires.
Real-wedding galleries
Photos live in a CMS you can update, the same Payload approach as this site.
Admin on your phone
Dates, prices, and tours in one panel. No app store install.
Inquiry to booking
GA4 events for the path from visit to tour, when analytics is connected.
Live demo
Try the availability calendar.
Willow Creek Barn is fictional. The dates, prices, and tours stay in the demo. They are not written to the Stratos call calendar.
Open the full demo (opens in a new tab)Demo · Willow Creek Barn
Off-peak Saturday
Open
Starting at
$6,200
November 2026
Packages
Starting-at ranges. A fixed quote after the call.
These are recommended ranges, not a locked price. Couples spend $12,900 on the average venue, according to The Knot 2026. One extra wedding covers most of a Tour-Ready build.
Booking Upgrade
Starting at
$3,500–$5,000
2–3 weeks
Keeps the Squarespace, Showit, Wix, or WordPress site you already have.
- Embeddable availability calendar
- Tour scheduler and admin
- Confirmation and reminder email
- Inquiry form and GA4 events
Tour-Ready Site
CoreStarting at
$7,500–$10,000
4–6 weeks
The core build. A custom site plus the booking flow, in your brand.
- Everything in Booking Upgrade
- Custom Next.js site on Payload
- Spaces, packages, and starting-at pricing
- Galleries, FAQ, and local SEO setup
Book-Online
Starting at
$12,000–$18,000
6–10 weeks
Couples can price a date and place a deposit hold.
- Everything in Tour-Ready
- Date-based pricing and a quote builder
- Stripe deposit with hold expiry
- CRM handoff where the tool allows it
Venue Portal
Starting at
$20,000–$30,000+
10–14 weeks
For more than one space, or a couple’s planning portal after they book.
- Everything in Book-Online
- Timeline, documents, and vendor check-ins
- Staff roles
- Multi-location reporting
Venue Care
Starting at
$300–$400/mo
Required for booking builds
- Hosting and booking-flow monitoring
- Security updates and backups
- Up to 2 hours of edits a month
- Seasonal date and pricing updates
Venue Growth
Starting at
$900–$1,200/mo
Care, plus a monthly look at the funnel
- Two real-wedding pages a month
- Local SEO and one experiment a month
- Inquiries, tours, and bookings by source
- About 6 development hours
Add-on: a quarterly directory-versus-direct report, or a landing page for a slow date, starting at $250. Payment terms are 50% to start, 25% at design approval, 25% at launch.
Template sites
Often about $999
A vendor template and a contact form. Fine as a brochure. Weak when the question is whether a Saturday is open.
Calendar widgets
About $29–$375/mo
BookNox, HoneyBook, Perfect Venue, and Tripleseat publish plans in that span. Useful, and often worth keeping. The screen couples see is still theirs.
Listing retainers
Directory spend, plus fees
Marketing firms sell The Knot placement and follow-up. That can sit next to a site you own. It does not replace one.
This build
From $3,500
Your domain, your photos, open dates, a price, and a tour request. You own the site and the code. Connect the CRM you already pay for.
Related work
Real projects. No invented results.
There is no published US venue client yet. These are existing case studies and the booking flow on this site. None of them publish metrics, so this page does not add any.
On this site
Booking and availability
Stratos Tech calls
Open times, a server-side check so two people cannot take the same slot, and a confirmation email when mail is configured. This is our own call calendar. It is not a venue client, and it is not published as a case study.
See the call calendar
Case study
Figi
6 weeks · Figi Entertainments Ltd
An event platform: organizers create events, guests register, and the team runs it from one admin. The case study does not publish metrics.
Read the Figi case study
Case study
cwhatloveis
3 weeks · a couple’s wedding site
Event details and an RSVP for guests. It is a couple’s website, not a venue availability system. The case study does not publish metrics.
Read the wedding site case study
Case study
Manchi
2 months · restaurant ordering
A customer web app, a mobile app, and an admin for menus, orders, and reporting. Shown here as back-office software, not as a venue. The case study does not publish metrics.
Read the Manchi case study
Founding venues · 2 spots
30% off the build, in exchange for a case study.
The first two independent venues get 30% off the agreed price for Booking Upgrade, Tour-Ready, or Book-Online. In return: a case study, a testimonial, permission to share a few results, and a link to the live site.
Book a free callFAQ
Before you book the call.
Do I have to replace HoneyBook, Tripleseat, or Perfect Venue?
No. We can build the site couples see and hand the inquiry to the system you already use, where that tool offers an API or a Zapier connection. The Book-Online package includes that handoff. Many venues keep the CRM and replace the brochure in front of it.
How do you prevent double-booking, and can I place soft holds?
A live build checks the date on the server before a tour or a hold is saved, the same way the call calendar on this site refuses a time that was just taken. Soft holds with an expiry are part of Book-Online. The Willow Creek Barn demo shows open, held, and booked dates with sample data. It does not lock a real calendar, and it is not connected to Stratos Tech’s call bookings.
Can I show price ranges instead of exact prices?
Yes. Tour-Ready includes starting-at pricing for spaces and packages. Per-date prices, like the peak, off-peak, and weekday rates in the demo, are part of Book-Online. You choose what couples see.
Can I update dates from my phone?
Yes. The admin panel is a website that works on your phone. You can mark a date open, held, or booked without calling us. Venue Care also includes seasonal date and pricing updates if you would rather we make them.
Can you add booking to my Squarespace or Showit site?
Yes. Booking Upgrade keeps the site you have and adds an availability calendar, a tour scheduler, confirmation email, an inquiry form, and an admin panel. Venues that want a new site usually choose Tour-Ready.
Who handles deposits, contracts, and refunds?
You do. Book-Online can take a Stripe deposit to hold a date and send payment reminders. Your contract, house rules, and refund policy stay in your own documents. Stratos Tech does not draft venue contracts.
Will I lose my Google rankings if we switch sites?
A new site can keep important URLs or redirect the old ones. Tour-Ready includes local SEO setup and schema. Rankings can still move during a rebuild. We map redirects before launch. We do not promise that every current ranking stays where it is.
Who owns the site and the code?
You do. You own the design, the content, and the code we deliver for the site.
What do hosting and care cost after launch?
Booking builds use Venue Care, starting at $300–$400 a month: hosting management, monitoring, security updates, backups, email deliverability, up to two hours of edits, and seasonal date or pricing updates. Venue Growth starts at $900–$1,200 a month and adds gallery posts, local SEO, and a monthly report. A quarterly directory-versus-direct report, or a landing page for a slow date, is $250. These are recommended starting ranges. We confirm them on the call.
How long does it take, and can you start during peak season?
Booking Upgrade is about 2–3 weeks. Tour-Ready is 4–6 weeks. Book-Online is 6–10 weeks. Venue Portal is 10–14 weeks. If you are in peak season, we can add booking to the current site first and rebuild after the rush. The intro call is 15 minutes, on a weekday.
When is a $29 a month tool enough?
If you only need a date widget and you are comfortable sending couples into another company’s brand, a tool like BookNox can be enough. Work with us when you want open dates, pricing, and tour booking on a fast site you own.
Do you work with venues outside Illinois?
Yes. We are based in Macomb, Illinois and build for independent venues across the United States. In-person demos are easiest in western and central Illinois and the Quad Cities.
How do payments work?
Half to start, 25% when you approve the design, and 25% at launch. The first two founding venues receive 30% off the agreed build price in exchange for a case study, a testimonial, permission to share results, and a link to the live site.
Estimate
What one more wedding is worth.
Extra bookings in a year, times the average spent on the venue. Move the sliders. The result is labeled as an estimate.
The Knot 2026 range used here is $3,500 to $24,800.
Estimated venue revenue
$12,900
1 extra wedding × $12,900. This is an estimate, not a forecast.
The Knot 2026 Real Weddings Study reports average venue spend of $12,900 (n = 10,474 couples). One extra wedding at that average largely covers a Tour-Ready build. Change the inputs to use your own numbers. Nothing here is a promise of bookings.
Let couples book the tour while you set the tables.
A 15-minute call. Bring the link to your current site. We’ll tell you if this is the right build.
Based in Macomb, Illinois