Enhancing Venue Search with Mapbox and Meilisearch
We used Mapbox + Meilisearch to give couples a smooth way to see venues on a map, improving engagement and giving existing featured listings even more visibility.
Overview
Choosing a wedding venue is an emotional and location-driven process. Here Comes the Guide (HCTG) already offered fast search results thanks to Meilisearch, yet visitors still had to picture each venue on their own.
We've added a map view, allowing couples to easily spot nearby options and filter for their desired results. The upgrade feels natural to users and lines up with HCTG’s brand promise: guidance without the guesswork.
From Flat List to Living Map
Picture the old way: scroll a long list, open ten tabs, try to eyeball distances. Exhausting.
Now visitors drop onto a live map dotted with color-coded pins. Zoom into Nashville and clusters peel apart to show every venue within easy reach. Hover over a pin and the venue’s name, location, photo, price, and guest count glide into view; no click, no clutter. It feels closer to Google Maps than a wedding directory, yet the look and voice stay unmistakably HCTG.
The simple act of dragging the map, watching new venues appear, and getting instant details turns venue hunting from guess-work into discovery and keeps couples exploring instead of bouncing.
“
Not only has Solspace provided exceptional development skill at every turn, but the team continues to bring expertise and forward thinking innovation to every project we undertake.
Lisa Shields, Chief Operating Officer
Here Comes The Guide
Filters That Think on Their Feet
Offers ❯ Outdoor Reception. Site type ❯ Barn. View ❯ Mountain.
Tap those three toggles and watch the map redraw itself in a heartbeat. Behind the scenes, Meilisearch fires off a lightning-fast query while Mapbox swaps pins without a page reload. No one notices the tech; they just see their dream venues materialize exactly where they want them.
That snap-fast feedback rewards curiosity: change one detail, see new options pop up instantly.
It also spotlights HCTG’s paid ‘featured’ pins, an upsell we rolled out during the earlier Meilisearch project, so premium venues stay in prime view.
Faster Path to “Yes”
A clear map means less back-and-forth and more confident bookings. Couples spend their energy dreaming, not digging.
Smooth Rollout, Instant Impact
Working side-by-side with the HCTG content team, we supplied the playbook for geo-tagging every listing. They ran with it and updated more than 1,000 venues on their own.
With clean coordinates in place, Solspace wired Mapbox into Craft CMS and tuned the front-end so pins load fast, stay in sync with Meilisearch filters, and look right at home in HCTG’s design system. We deployed the upgrade during a low-traffic window; the site never went offline, and search stayed quick throughout.
The moment the map appeared, couples began exploring by location instead of slogging through endless lists. Since paid ‘featured’ pins were already part of HCTG’s Meilisearch upgrade, the new map automatically places those premium venues in prime real estate from day one.
This project proves that a sharp, well-aimed upgrade can breathe new life into an established platform, delight users, and open future revenue paths, all without a ground-up rebuild.
Ready for a website that pulls its weight?
If your platform feels stuck at “good enough,” a targeted upgrade could unlock fresh growth. Let’s spot the quick wins together.