Andrew Kovar runs Black Tie Party Rentals in Daytona Beach, Florida, with his wife. The business started almost by accident. She had ordered a party cart and began renting it out occasionally. The response was strong enough to convince the couple to commit to the business full time. Today, they rent out tables, chairs, tents, dance floors, linens, and dishware, while Andrew’s wife handles the decor side of things, from balloon arrangements and florals to centerpieces and full tablescapes.
Their customers are split fairly evenly between two types of events. Corporate clients tend to order large quantities of tables, chairs, and tents, while wedding planners come to them for resin or Chiavari chairs, dance floors, and photo booths. What sets Black Tie apart is that combination: equipment rentals alongside full event design services, allowing a client to book the tent and the tablescape from the same business.
Before Booqable, Andrew managed everything through Wix. It worked, but automation was practically nonexistent, so every quote, rental agreement, and invoice had to be pieced together by hand. He now runs Black Tie’s back office and booking process through Booqable, keeping the event rental storefront on his existing website and using Booqable’s embeddable components to power it. Two features in particular made the switch worth it: Booqable’s translations, which let him build a wishlist-style booking flow, and payment links paired with invoices, which allow him to send everything a customer needs in a single email.
Transforming the online checkout into a wishlist submission form
For an event rental business like Black Tie, a lot of the initial contact from customers is really just someone asking how much something would cost. Andrew didn’t want every visitor who filled out a form to lock in a reservation before he’d had a chance to talk it through with them. What he needed was a way to collect requests without committing inventory to them.
Booqable allowed him to relabel the checkout flow so that it reads like a wishlist, instead of a shopping cart, through changing text such as “add to cart” to “add to wishlist,” and “confirm order” to “submit wishlist.” With availability disabled, each customer request enters Booqable as a draft order rather than a confirmed reservation. Turning off checkout payments also allows Andrew to review the request, put together a quote, and follow up with an invoice and payment link before collecting payment or reserving the equipment.
Andrew describes it simply: his website features a wishlist that gives customers estimates and gets a quote to them without a lot of back-and-forth. In practice, that setup does three things for him:
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Keeps his calendar and inventory clear of requests that were never going to turn into bookings
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Gives him room to have decor conversations with wedding clients before pricing is locked in
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Turns every submitted website request into a draft order that is already on file in Booqable
The pain point was simple: he didn’t want his website promising a booking before he’d confirmed it himself. Now, the wishlist setup handles that initial interaction for him, and every quote starts from an order that’s already sitting in Booqable.
Sending the rental agreement, invoice, and payment link in one email
Once a wishlist request turns into a real booking, Andrew still has a second challenge: getting the customer to pay. Doing this by hand meant putting together a rental agreement, an invoice, and a separate way to collect payment for every order.
From that same draft order, Andrew creates a Stripe payment link, generates the invoice, and prepares an email using a customized template, with the payment link and invoice included. The rental agreement goes out in the same email. What used to involve several separate steps now happens from one order.
Andrew’s own words sum up the impact: sending a rental agreement, payment link, and invoice in the same email saves him time, “which therefore saves me money.” He points to three specific changes:
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One email covers the agreement, invoice, and payment link instead of three separate messages
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Clients pay faster because everything they need is right there in front of them
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He no longer has to manually create calendar entries for each booking, which he says is “huge”
The original pain point—chasing separate documents for every event rental booking—is gone. Andrew now puts that saved time toward managing his crew and supporting the design side of the business.
Creating a turnkey event rental business
Black Tie Party Rentals is still a small operation: Andrew handles rentals, his wife handles design, and an on-call crew of five helps with labor. But the back office no longer looks small. Clients have told Andrew that the process is great, and he’s noticed the difference himself in how much time he gets back every week.
Asked where he sees the business going, Andrew put it plainly: he wants Black Tie to become “a fully turnkey operation” that runs well enough that he only has to check in occasionally “to make sure the house isn’t on fire.” With Booqable handling wishlist requests, invoices, and payment links, he has already built much of the infrastructure needed to get there.
