Pulling the latest…
Yes, and it costs nothing. Book a call and Roman sets your first event up with you, menu, colors, the QR, the barista screen, while you watch, on your own account. Most carts are running in under half an hour. You never have to work it out alone, and there is no upsell at the end of it.
A couple of minutes once you’ve done it once. The first event is the longest, that’s where you pick templates, add your menu, upload the cart photo. After that, save an event as a named template and start the next booking from it.
Their own phones. They scan the double-sided tent on their table or the sign at the bar, the microsite loads, they pick a drink. Nothing to download, works in any modern browser. We text them once when the drink is ready.
Yes, from this site. The demo bar at /demo-event is the real ordering page over a sample wedding: pick a drink, ask the barista, place it under your first name and watch the line move to the ready screen. Nothing is printed or sent. Once you have an event of your own, Controls has a walk-through as a guest that goes all the way to the end without placing anything.
Yes, book a 20-minute walkthrough with Roman. He’ll spin up a sample event, run a few orders through the queue, and show you the recap. No slides.
Square is a register, payments and receipts. We’re the event layer above it. Guests order from their phones, the cart isn’t a checkout line, the couple shapes the bar beforehand, and there’s a keepsake after. Most operators keep Square for the rare paid-drink event; the two don’t overlap.
Paper works. We replace it with three things you can’t do on paper: (1) the guest gets an SMS the moment their drink is ready, no name-yelling at the bar; (2) walk-ups + QR orders share one queue with cup-label tracking so nothing falls through; (3) the host gets a magazine-style recap of the event. If those don’t matter for your gigs, paper is genuinely fine.
Those are restaurant systems: hardware you lease, a merchant account you open with them, inventory tied to SKUs, and a base fee whether or not you trade that month. Alongside is the software for the cart that shows up at a wedding. Where you do want to take money, it runs through a Square account you already own and lands there, we don’t sell you a reader or sit between you and it.
Yes, and if that POS is Square you can connect it. Put prices on a menu and guests pay as they order; the charge lands in your own Square with the drinks itemised in your reporting, so your books stay in one place. Leave it unconnected and nothing changes, your Square sales stay your Square sales and your event clients stay in your Alongside client list.
Three things the QR-only tools don’t ship. First, the host’s bar, a customizable page with their palette, monogram, welcome note, and signature drinks they name themselves. Second, the keepsake, a magazine-style recap they share the next morning, with a cover they choose, the guest notes they star leading the page, and a share pack of Instagram-ready cards in story, post, and square sizes. Third, the operator-side rig that makes the day-of calm: a line that holds itself when the bar is behind, last call, batches of the same drink, a per-drink ready station, walk-up POS with TCPA-safe consent, a priority code for VIPs, cross-iPad sync, a day-of card for a hired barista, client roster, analytics, print-ready signage, and a native iOS cart app. Plus the quiet safeguards that keep the day calm: spam protection, safe test events, a guardrail on every text. Price: first event free, $40 per event after, or $79/month. No per-cup fees. No contract.
Yes. Corporate gatherings and private parties each have their own event type, and the whole surface adapts, a guest-of-honor or company name instead of a couple, an occasion picker, tailored language on every guest screen, themed palettes, and a scheduled toast prompt that nudges guests to leave a note partway through the night. Corporate and private event types come with Studio.
100 sends on the free first event, 1000 on paid events. That covers ~500 orders. If you have a bigger event coming, email us and we’ll raise it.
No, never. Alongside doesn’t touch payment for drinks, operators charge guests their own way (free for the couple, drink tickets, tabbed bar). We just run the ordering and the keepsake. The $40 is the platform, not a per-cup share.
No. Barista mode shows the queue on the iPad and the barista writes the order number on each cup with a Sharpie, fast, foolproof, no extra hardware. If you want printed labels, the support hub has the five-minute setup guide and the exact label printer we run, every order prints itself from there.
Yes, colors, typography, monogram, background effects, the welcome note, and the drinks themselves. They can drop in a photo of the invitation and get a palette proposed from it. The couple names their own signature drinks (we offer a quick questionnaire if they want help shaping them), and a kids menu switch adds steamed milk, hot chocolate and a babyccino. They get an edit link before the event and can tweak anything without you in the loop. The page they shape is the page their guests scan into.
A guest taps “Ask the barista” on the menu and chats in plain language, “something sweet and iced, not too strong?”, and it recommends from your live menu and drops the drink straight into their cart, built the way they asked (iced, oat, caramel). It knows your real options per drink, honest caffeine numbers, allergens the operator flagged, the live wait, and what’s been popular tonight. It only ever suggests real menu drinks, and always points guests to confirm allergens at the cart. It can even answer “can I book this cart for my own party?” with your booking link.
If you run a compatible La Marzocco Home machine, you can link it from Settings. The barista screen then watches your shot times and says when the grind is drifting (“running about 4s slow, check the grind”), and the couple’s keepsake can show real, machine-read numbers, shots pulled, the busiest fifteen minutes, a shot-consistency score. It is optional, opt-in and unofficial, La Marzocco publishes no API, so it is best effort and can change if their app does. We never store your password, and changing it disconnects the machine at once.
Yes. A guest checks an explicit opt-in on the order form before any text fires, and every message identifies the sender, names the reason, and carries STOP / HELP. Most guests get two, an order confirmation and a ready alert that names the pickup spot. If they enter the giveaway and win, you can send them their prize as well; you read that one first and send it by hand. A guest who replies STOP hears from you again never.
Turn on the giveaway. While a guest waits for their drink, their order screen shows what’s on offer, a gift card you bought, presented as a real card they can tilt in their hand, and the three small things that enter them: a number, a note for the couple, and a review. At the end of the night you draw from everyone who did all three, and the winner opens their card on their own phone. Any brand, any amount, you type in the card you bought. The notes and photos reach the couple’s keepsake either way.
Your data is yours alone. No other operator can read your client list, your menu, or your guest contacts. Guest phone numbers are deleted about a week after the event. We never sell, mine, or share them. Full details in our privacy policy.
The line holds itself. Set a number of cups and, once the queue reaches it, phone orders pause on their own and open again once the bar has caught up. Walk-ups keep coming, and the register keeps selling through any pause. Matching drinks in a row can be made and marked ready as one batch. Last call closes phone ordering in ten minutes when the night is winding down. Orders sitting more than 15 / 30 minutes glow louder on the queue so nothing slips.
Yes. Print the day-of card: one sheet with the guest QR, how to pause or hold the line, whether texts go out, and your number if something comes up. Send them the staff link and they see the live queue for that event only, no account. Everything else stays yours.
Toggle Solo mode in the barista header. Solo collapses everything into one screen for a single barista. Pair mode splits across two iPads when you have help.
Four events a month included (extra events are $20), plus the analytics and client roster that turn Alongside into the booking system itself. Leads carry a follow-up date and turn into a quote with one tap, contracts start from your own templates, and your clients get one portal link with their quote, contract, invoice and page. Instagram messages can land on the leads board too, in beta while it opens to every account. You see booked revenue YTD, what’s outstanding, repeat-client rates, and a pipeline view of every event from inquiry to wrapped, the same numbers you’ve been keeping in a spreadsheet.
Yes. Every event and every lead has a client portal: one private link with the quote, the contract to sign, the invoice, the couple’s own page, and the recap once it is published. Nothing for them to sign up for.
Operators booking two or more events a month. At that volume the per-event charges match the subscription, and you’re keeping a separate spreadsheet anyway. Studio replaces the spreadsheet and pays for itself from the second event.
Yes. Filter every number by date range, event type, or client, and save a filtered view for one-click recall. The report builder groups your events by type, client, month, or single event, or switches to a by-drink report, lets you pick the columns, and exports any of it to CSV for your accountant or a corporate client.
A single date + venue. A weekend with a Saturday wedding and a Sunday brunch is two events. Your first event is always free; after that it’s $40 each, or Studio includes four a month, then $20 each.
None. We don’t see drink prices and we don’t take a cut. The $40 (or your Studio subscription) covers the platform: ordering, barista mode, SMS to guests, the recap microsite, all of it.
You only pay when an event actually runs. Drafted-but-cancelled events cost nothing, and you can keep the work in case the host reschedules.
Want Roman to walk you through it? Twenty minutes, no slides, schedule a demo →
Or email support@alongsidecoffee.com.