002ÉLYSÉE EVENTS GMBH · 2025
94%
LESS MANUAL WORK PER EVENT
Event management platform with guest management: 23 hours became 84 minutes per event
Élysée Events in Augsburg plans weddings and corporate events for 80 to 400 guests. Since 2025 the guest list, invitations, replies and seating plan have run on a customer portal built by Kuroko Labs. Manual work per event fell from 23 hours to 84 minutes.
94%
Time saved
23 h to 84 min
12×
RSVP handling
no manual step
97%
Open rate
email invitations
0
Errors
eight events running
2,400+
Guests
since launch
01 · THE CHALLENGE
One corporate event, 320 guests, 14 wrong menus
November 2024, a corporate event for 320 guests in Augsburg. Fourteen guests with food intolerances got the wrong menu. The information existed, in one of three Excel files, just not the one the caterer had read. Nobody was harmed. Aziza Furmoly, managing director of Élysée Events GmbH, still did not want to live through that evening twice.
Élysée Events organises weddings, corporate events and private celebrations for 80 to 400 guests. The creative work was never the problem. The problem was everything around it: guest lists in Excel, every invitation sent by hand, replies copied into spreadsheets, and a seating plan redrawn after every cancellation. “We spend 60 percent of our time on admin and 40 percent on what clients actually pay us for, the design,” she said in the first call.
Per event that came to 23 working hours on guest management alone, spread over six weeks. You can guess where the mistakes happen: not in hour one, in hour nineteen, late in the evening, on the third reconciliation.
23h
Manual work
per event, spread over six weeks
3+
Excel files
for a single guest list
∞
Single emails
each written by hand
!
Wrong menus
allergies and special requests
02 · THE SOLUTION
A customer portal instead of three Excel files
Instead of off-the-shelf event planning software, Élysée Events got four parts that share one database: a customer portal for the guest list, a mailer with reply links, a seating plan that understands cancellations, and the website that brings enquiries in. Each part runs on its own. Together they replace the spreadsheets.
The customer portal is where the guest list lives. Every event client gets a password-protected login and maintains their own guests there: name, menu choice, allergies, plus-one. Whatever they change shows up at once in the seating plan, the catering overview and the next email.
The mailer came second. Every invitation goes out as its own HTML email, with the guest’s name, a personal reply link and the language that fits the guest: German, English or French. The guest clicks, picks a menu, names an intolerance. Done. Nobody types that in any more.
03 · ARCHITECTURE
What it is built with, and why
01CUSTOMER PORTAL
Guest list in real time
One password-protected area per event. A change to the guest list appears in the same moment in the seating plan, the catering overview and the mailer.
100%
instant sync
02MAILER
Invitation with reply link
HTML emails with the guest’s name and a personal reply link, in German, English or French. One click for the RSVP, the menu and any allergy, plus a calendar file.
97%
open rate
03SEATING PLAN
Tables as a graph
Tables, seats and who should sit next to whom are stored as a graph. When a guest cancels, the system proposes the reshuffle and keeps the relationships intact.
0
errors since launch
04WEB DESIGN
Six pages, one presence
Home, weddings, corporate events, catering, venue and lunch canteen redesigned and wired to the portal.
6
pages
05SEO
Search engines and AI answers
Structured data (Schema.org), sitemap, hreflang, canonical URLs and clean HTML so Google and AI search read the pages correctly.
9
indexed pages
The stack is deliberately small: Node.js with Express on the backend, PostgreSQL as the database, plain JavaScript in the browser with no React, no Vue and no build step. A team the size of Élysée Events should still be able to maintain this in five years, with a different vendor if it comes to that.
Email runs on Nodemailer with templates that produce the HTML message and an .ics calendar invitation. 97 percent of invitations get opened. That has less to do with the technology than with the fact that people read an invitation to their own wedding.
The seating plan is the piece that saves the most time. Tables, seats, guests and their relationships sit in the database as a graph. When the bride’s brother cancels, nobody moves 40 place cards by hand any more. The system proposes who moves up and keeps the maid of honour next to the bride.
04 · RESULTS
How much time does an event platform save? Here, about 21 hours per event
94%
Less manual work
12×
Faster reply handling
6 wks
Concept to launch
2,400+
Guests managed
METRIKBEFOREAFTER
Working time per event23 hours84 minutes
Guest repliescopied from emails by handone click into the system
Special-request errorsregularnone since launch
Guest datathree Excel filesone database
The 23 hours of guest management per event have shrunk to 84 minutes, averaged over the events since launch. Replies need no hands: the guest clicks, the system records it, Aziza sees the number the next time she opens the portal.
On special requests there have been eight events since launch and zero documented errors. Not “almost zero”. Zero. For a wedding with 200 guests and three allergy sufferers, that is the number that matters.
Since launch the platform has managed more than 2,400 guests and sent more than 7,000 emails. It has not gone down.
“
For the first time, I didn’t dread the planning. Everything ran smoothly and without effort.AZIZA FURMOLY, CEO
05 · WEB DESIGN AND SEO
Website and SEO from the same team
Alongside the portal, Kuroko Labs rebuilt the Élysée Events website: home, weddings, corporate events, catering, venue and lunch canteen, six static pages that load fast and sit on the same server as the portal. See elysee-events.de.
For search engines and AI answers, every page carries structured data (Schema.org) for EventVenue, LocalBusiness, Organization and BreadcrumbList, an XML sitemap with images, Open Graph and Twitter Cards, hreflang, canonical URLs and a clean heading hierarchy. Someone in Augsburg asking for an event venue should land on the right page, on Google or in an AI search.
The pages run without a third-party framework, with their own scroll animations, a cursor that reacts to buttons, and layouts for every screen width. Add aria labels, role attributes, skip links and a visible keyboard focus. One server, one deployment, for website and portal.
TECH STACK
Node.js
Backend
Express
API Framework
PostgreSQL
Database
Vanilla JS
Frontend
Nodemailer
Email Engine
HTML/CSS
Web Design
Schema.org
Structured Data
Nginx
Reverse Proxy
Docker
Deployment
OUTLOOK
Next up is an area for returning guests. Anyone invited to Élysée events more than once records menu choice, allergies and seating wishes once, and not again for every event.
NEXT STEP
A Similar Project?
GET IN TOUCH ALL CASE STUDIESFrequently asked questions about the Élysée Events case study
How much time does an event platform save on organisation?+
At Élysée Events about 21 hours per event. Guest management fell from 23 hours to 84 minutes, measured across the events since the 2025 launch. The remaining time goes into things no software takes over: conversations with the couple, the venue, the running order.
What makes this event management platform different from standard software?+
It was built for Élysée Events and for nobody else. Guest list, invitations, replies and seating plan share one database, and the website is part of the same system. There are no modules nobody needs and no vendor raising the price every year.
How does guest management work in the customer portal?+
The event client gets a password-protected login and maintains the guests there. Every change, a new guest, a cancellation, an allergy, appears in the same moment in the seating plan, the catering overview and the mailer. Guests reply through a personal link with a menu choice. 97 percent of invitations get opened.
What technology is the event platform built on?+
Node.js with Express on the backend, PostgreSQL as the database, plain JavaScript in the browser, Nodemailer for email including an .ics calendar invitation. The seating plan is stored as a graph in the database. Deliberately no React, no Vue and no build step, so a small team can maintain the system itself.
How long did development take?+
Six weeks from concept to launch: one week of analysis at the table with the team, one week of concept, three weeks of development, one week of testing on a real wedding and moving the data over.
Would a customer portal like this work in other industries?+
Yes. The pattern, a portal for the client, automated sending with reply links and one database for everything, fits anywhere three Excel files and a mailbox carry the work today. The first call and the potential assessment are free of charge.
Technology used
The platform runs on PostgreSQL with a custom Node.js backend. Standard parts, so the work can be carried on by someone else.
The links lead to the documentation of each component.