Busy Event at Mercury Hall

Mercury Hall is a lovely venue in south Austin that succeeds in offering seclusion in a busy part of town. Complete with 100+ year old church brought in from a small town, Mercury Hall has serene ambiance in a convenient location. It's a venue where we've worked multiple times and where our years of experience help us do our job as excellently as possible. I had planned on writing a venue overview of Mercury Hall complete with some excellent (eh, mediocre) cell phone photos, but the event proved to be one of our busiest of the season and so I've decided to write on that instead.

In short, we were told that there'd be around 100 guests attending the party, but we wound up parking around 120 cars. This meant that we had about half of the valets that would have been optimal for that amount of cars. We were kept busy utilizing all the space available to us to keep cars moving as our valets got them parked. The available parking at Mercury Hall filled up rapidly, a gravel lot nearby also filled up and we parked a lot of cars on nearby streets.

There wasn't too much room for relaxation, as guests started trickling out shortly  after all the cars were parked. Fortunately though, there was time enough to call in some extra valets to ensure that guests weren't left waiting too long for their cars. After that initial rush of visitors, some help was called in to ensure that everything would run as smoothly as possible when guests left.

We don't often have events where we receive far more cars than we expected, but in this case we handled the increased traffic as well as possible to ensure that guests and planners were happy with our service. If you'd like to use Uptown Valet for your next event, request a quote or contact us today.

Uptown Valet's Fourth of July

Uptown Valet worked this Fourth of July at the Austin Country Club. Fireworks were free to fly this year as the burn ban wasn't as strict as last year. Uptown Valet helped manage parking, as Austin Country club was expecting over 1,000 guests for their fireworks show. Our task was to maximize parking efficiency for the guests and to report when various sections were filled to capacity so that guests wouldn't go towards sections of parking which had been filled up. A lot of cars parked in the parking lots, but when a few started parking outside the parking lot on Long Champ drive without having checked into club parking first man soon followed and we were never quite filled to capacity. We filled up most of the lots though and what guests did show up late in hopes for a spot were happy when we could point them to the few spots still available. In addition, we drove shuttles for guests coming from Long Champ when that area proved to be busier than expected.

After the fireworks went off we also assisted in shuttling some guests and in managing cars exiting the lot. We kept the flow of cars going as best we could and created space for carts or cars getting out of a parallel spot when needed. The line of cars itself extended up Long Champ to a stop sign; after determining the length of the holdup, one of us was posted up top to wave them through the stop sign - this eased traffic considerably.

We have done valet work at Austin Country Club in the past on major holidays and have managed some shuttles at weddings there but helping in parking was something new. We believe we handled it well and were happy for the opportunity to help them on the holiday. Our valets enjoyed the fireworks as well:

Venue Highlight - Laguna Gloria

We have had a good amount of work at Laguna Gloria throughout the years and have decided to highlight it on our blog so readers can get some more insight into what we do. Laguna Gloria is a lovely waterside venue, art school and museum that has been an Austin event mainstay for years and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Driscoll Villa is the centerpiece of the venue but the ample gardens and amphitheater are where any wedding ceremonies, receptions, or larger gatherings will take place.

On our side of things, there are many parking places located but a short run away on the museum grounds as well as street parking and a grass lot below the venue. The lots on the grounds themselves can get a bit tight but we are able to keep cars within the property for the majority of our events. Most of our events at Laguna Gloria are weddings - since it's a versatile venue we might work with around 50 guests one weekend and then 200+ the next.

In addition to valet work, we've also managed shuttles, driven guests in golf carts, and picked up the bride and groom in limos at Laguna Gloria. Laguna Gloria is one of Austin's most popular wedding venues, and it's one we have years of experience and enjoyment working at. If you're planning a wedding at Laguna Gloria or any other event we hope you will contact us so we may help your event run smoothly.