Tables and chairs will already be setup in our standard layout.

Here's how booking works:

1. Send us a request
   Pick your date, time, and any add-ons and send it over. This part is just an inquiry — it doesn't hold the date yet.
2. We'll check the calendar
   If we approve your request, we'll put together your Event Summary and send your booking packet: the rental agreement, the venue rules, and your invoice.
3. Complete your booking within 48 hours
   Once we approve your request and send the booking packet, we place a 48-hour hold on your date while you sign the agreement and pay the $100 Reservation and Damage Deposit. The hold is not a confirmed booking. After your part is complete, we'll countersign and send written confirmation. If the packet isn't completed within 48 hours, the hold expires and the date will reopen.
4. Final payment
   The rest is due 15 days before your event, by 11:59 p.m. Booking inside that window? Then it's all due up front. We'll send an invoice and a reminder so you don't have to keep track.

We offer three standard rental windows:

• Morning: 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
• Evening: 4:00 – 10:00 p.m.
• Full day: 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Your rental window includes setup, your event, cleanup, and load-out. Monday through Thursday use weekday rates, and Friday through Sunday use weekend rates. Choose the session that fits your event, then use the booking calendar to request an available date. A calendar opening is not a confirmed booking.

No. The Inkwell is an indoor venue, and the building occupies nearly all of our property. There is a small area behind the building, but it is not offered as event space or as an extension of your rental. Please plan for your gathering, setup, and activities to remain inside the venue.

We don’t currently offer in person tours. You can view photos and videos on our website and social media pages as you plan. If you have a question about the layout or a specific setup, include it on the lead form or, if you’re already booked, send us a HoneyBook project message.

We keep it simple: one Standard Gathering Package that seats up to 64 — eight round tables with eight chairs at each table, plus three long rectangular tables. Pick a half day or a full day and add whatever you need.

Bigger crowd? Add the $125 Large Gathering Upgrade to a full day rental and we'll bring in two more round tables and extra chairs, seating up to 100. It's a cozier layout at that size, but it works beautifully.

You'll also see a maximum occupancy posted in the building. That's a fire code number for the room itself, not a promise of tables and chairs for that many.

While we are unable to accommodate every request, The Inkwell does support select fundraisers and accept donation requests throughout the year. If you would like to be considered, please fill out our contact form and we will send you the donation request form to complete.

We get it—plans change! If you need to move your date, we'll do our best to help.

Here's how it works:

• Send us a written request by your final payment deadline and we'll see what's open
• If we can make it work, everything you've paid moves with you — deposit included — and you won't be taxed on it twice
• You'll have 30 days from our okay to pick the new date
• If the new date costs a little more, you'll just pay the difference; if it's less, that becomes credit
• Requests after your deadline get harder — we may have to treat it as a cancellation, though we'll always take a look

Reach out as early as you can and we'll figure it out together.

Tablecloths are not included unless they’re listed in your Event Summary or an accepted change order. If available, a $55 flat fee covers every table in your booked layout, in ivory or black; the fee does not change with the Large Gathering Upgrade. Request tablecloths on the lead form or, if you’re already booked, send us a HoneyBook project message. We’ll confirm the color and add-on in writing.

You may use the public facing front bar counter for serving or display. The area behind the bar is private and off limits, including the supplies, equipment, utensils, beverages, and inventory there. Keep all signs, planters, and other boundary markers in place. If anyone in your group enters the marked area without authorization or moves or bypasses a boundary marker, the full $100 Reservation and Damage Deposit is forfeited under your Agreement.

Alcohol isn’t included in a standard rental and requires advance written approval.

If alcohol may be consumed at your event, select Alcohol requested on the lead form. Approval also requires a separately signed Alcohol Addendum and a licensed caterer with an active Indiana ATC supplemental permit who handles every drink. A request is not approval, so do not plan for alcohol until we confirm it in writing.

BYOB, guest-supplied alcohol, complimentary drinks, and unlicensed bartending aren’t permitted. If your plans change after submitting the lead form, send us a HoneyBook project message.

We do not require event liability insurance for every ordinary rental. Your Event Summary records whether coverage is required, voluntary, or not provided. If coverage is required, the event may not proceed until we accept the written proof. Alcohol has separate approval and insurance requirements under the Alcohol Addendum.

If you need to cancel, just send it to us in writing. What comes back to you depends on timing:

• By your 15-day deadline: we keep the $100 deposit and refund what you've paid toward rent, less a 3% service fee, plus the tax on it. You won't owe the rest of the balance.
• After your deadline: rent you've already paid isn't refundable, but your $100 deposit comes back to you along with the tax.

We'll never keep both your rent and your deposit just because a cancellation came in late. Refunds start within 5 business days of hearing from you.

Usually, yes. The $100 deposit comes back to you as long as the space comes through your event in good shape.

We take a look within a couple of business days afterward. The only things that come out of it are real, documented costs — cleaning well beyond the usual, something that needs repairing or replacing, or time and access that wasn't part of your rental. Ordinary wear is never charged.

One important exception: if anyone in your group goes behind the marked bar area without authorization or moves or bypasses a boundary marker, the full $100 deposit is forfeited under your Agreement.

Within 5 business days you'll either have your full deposit on the way or an itemized note explaining anything we held back, with photos or receipts, and the rest refunded.

We don't offer payment plans — your balance is due in full 15 days before your event, by 11:59 p.m. If anything about your invoice or due date is unclear, just reach out and we'll sort it out.

Setup, deliveries, the event itself, cleanup, and load out must all happen within the start and end times in your Event Summary. Extra time is not guaranteed and must be approved by us in writing before you use it.

Before you leave, clear tables, counters, prep surfaces, and the front bar countertop. Remove your decor, equipment, packing materials, food, beverages, helium tanks, and anything your event created, and clean up spills. Place ordinary event trash that fits safely in The Inkwell marked trash cans at the back of the building; take food waste, recycling, helium tanks, bulky packaging, and anything unsuitable with you. We handle standard cleaning after that.

Yes! Tables and chairs come with every rental. The standard setup is eight 60-inch round tables with eight chairs at each table, plus three 8-foot rectangular tables — seating for 64. Add the $125 Large Gathering Upgrade to a full day rental and we'll bring in two more rounds and extra chairs for seating up to 100.

There's a Back Prep Area — most folks call it the kitchen. You, your caterer, and your vendors are welcome to use it for staging, prep, plating, bussing, storage, and keeping things cold or warm, with the sink, fridge, freezer, stove, microwave, and warming appliances all there.

Think of it as a prep space rather than a working restaurant kitchen. We don't stock pots, pans, dishes, or utensils, and we don't provide catering staff, so plan to bring what you need. Food handling and safety sit with you and your caterer.

Just leave it as you found it and clear out the fridge and freezer before you go — anything left behind gets tossed after your rental. Kids are welcome back there with an adult along, and if you'd like to bring in an extra appliance, check with us first.

Yes! Make the space yours. A few guidelines so the building stays lovely for the next celebration:

• Freestanding decor is perfect. Move tables and chairs around as you like — just lift rather than slide. Leave the artwork and other furnishings to us.
• On the walls, low-tack painter's tape or removable putty only. Adhesive hooks, nails, and screws leave marks we can't undo.
• Nothing hung from the ceilings, please, and no dragging heavy pieces across the floor.
• Glitter, sequins, metallic confetti, rice, birdseed, and flower petals we have to say no to; they live in the floorboards forever.
• No open flames or candles. Chafing dishes and food warmers are welcome for serving, with an adult keeping an eye on them and set somewhere stable and clear of anything flammable.
• Pads under anything heavy, waterproof containers for liquids and ice, spills wiped as they happen, and exits kept clear.

The complete venue rules come with your agreement — this covers the big ones.

Yes. The Inkwell has accessible ADA entrances and an ADA compliant restroom. If you or a guest has a specific access need, include it on the lead form. We'll share any building details that can help you plan.

The Inkwell does not have a private parking lot. After booking, use the recommended parking map we send, follow posted signs, and do not block driveways, alleys, private lots, building entrances, or emergency access. Parking conditions can change during downtown events and festivals, so please allow extra time.

We're a smoke free and vape free building, and that includes within 8 feet of any public entrance. There's no designated smoking area, so if folks step out, we'd just ask them to keep the doorways and the neighbors' access clear.

Firearms and weapons aren't permitted inside during your rental. The exceptions are law enforcement on duty, or professional security we've approved in writing ahead of time.

If something does come up, please don't try to handle it yourselves — nobody in your group should be searching, confronting, or removing anyone on our behalf. For anything urgent, call 911 first and let us know when it's safe.

Of course — kids are welcome! We just ask that an adult is keeping an eye on them: someone 18 or older who knows where they are and can get to them quickly. There's no set ratio, so bring enough hands.

The Back Prep Area is fine with an adult along. Behind the bar, the office, and the basement are off limits. We don't provide childcare or supervision, so the little ones stay in your group's care.

Service animals are welcome anywhere you are. Pets we have to say no to.

If it isn't obvious what your service animal does, we may ask just two things: whether a disability requires the animal, and what it's trained to do. We'll never ask for paperwork, ID, a vest, or a demonstration. We just ask that the animal stays with you and under control, is housebroken, and that you handle its care. There's no extra fee or deposit — ever.

Emotional support, comfort, and therapy animals aren't service animals under public accommodation rules unless they've been individually trained for disability-related work.

DJs, live music, and anything at high volume wrap up by 10:00 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday. After that, background music can keep going for the rest of your rental. Worth passing along to whoever's running sound.

Yes — there's a private residence on the second floor with its own separate entrance, and someone may well be home during your event.

That part of the building isn't included in your rental, so the entrance, stairs, and access route are off limits, and we'd ask your group to keep them clear. If anything comes up, bring it to us rather than knocking on their door and we'll take care of it.

A little everyday sound from upstairs is part of sharing an old building. If something genuinely disruptive happens, tell us and we'll do what we reasonably can.

These answers cover the highlights. The complete venue rules come with your rental agreement — that's the real list, and it's what we go by if anything here is unclear.

One honest note: we're not staffed as an on site event team. Someone may pop in to check on the building or restock, but nobody is stationed here to run your event or keep an eye on the rules, so it helps to share these with your group ahead of time.