A live hire platform that sells dates, not just a brochure site

Rec Ur Day hires a limited stock of vintage camcorder kits for weddings and parties across the UK. That sounds simple until you map the real constraints: only one kit can be out at a time, each booking has to block postage days either side of the event, checkout needs add-ons like The Edit, and payment webhooks have to stay reliable without exposing Stripe secrets in the browser. Off-the-shelf ecommerce assumes infinite inventory and same-day shipping — neither fits a postage-timed hire business.

We designed the product around the hire calendar, not a generic cart. Couples pick their wedding or party date; the platform holds two days before and four after so outbound and return postage are covered, then takes payment through Stripe. The public site runs on Next.js. Cloudflare Workers sit in front of billing: they proxy Stripe Checkout, verify webhooks at the edge, and keep secret keys off the client. Once paid, the hire is locked, fulfilment instructions are clear, and the digitisation promise — every clip back within 48 hours of the box returning — is part of the same operational story the site sells.