When Should You Book Your Wedding Transportation?
When there are between four and six months to go, it's time to think about your transportation…aka when you've long settled on your date, ceremony and reception sites and wedding party size. If you're marrying in April, May or June—prom and graduation season—high-class vehicles will be in high demand, so you'll need to book your transportation even earlier. Pro tip: Make the final reservation in person so you can inspect the vehicles and ask which one(s) you'll be getting.
Who Should You Transport?
Your first step is to take a headcount for immediate family and VIPs. For many weddings, that means the couple, their wedding party, both sets of parents, siblings not in the wedding party and grandparents. Some couples also provide wedding transportation services for close relatives, out-of-towners or all guests. So where do you draw the line? The decision will probably come down to budget, but you should also consider the following:
Distance: If your ceremony and reception venues are only a short distance away from each other, you're in the clear. But there's a cutoff—if they're more than 30 minutes apart, you should definitely consider providing transportation for all wedding guests so you don't inconvenience them with Uber charges and long, tedious drives. Keep other distances, like the miles between your wedding venue(s) and the hotel where you've booked room blocks, in mind too.
Location: If you have lots of people coming in from out of town (who might not have cars with them) and/or have a hard-to-get-to or hard-to-find location, you should also consider booking transportation for guests.
Special needs: Think about anyone who might otherwise struggle to transport themselves and organize a travel plan for them—for example, asking your brother to pick up your 90-year-old grandma who isn't comfortable behind the wheel.
Even if you decide not to book transportation for certain guests, you can still throw them a bone. In your invitation suite or on your wedding website, do provide information about public transportation. This can include where to catch a cab, phone numbers of (reputable!) local services, and estimates of how much each option will cost (that way, no one will have to worry whether they have enough cash on them). Another thoughtful option is providing discount codes for rental cars.
Also, check with the hotels you've reserved rooms at to see whether they provide any sort of airport shuttle service; if they do, definitely clue in your guests, then cross another task off your list!
How Should Everybody Get To and Fro?
There are actually three routes to consider besides your walk down the aisle: the trip to the ceremony, the ride between the ceremony and the reception (if they're not in the same place) and the getaway. You'll need to figure out who needs transport where before you actually book anything.
Transportation for the wedding party and other VIPs:
The ride to the ceremony: Brides and grooms often travel separately to the ceremony with their respective attendants in tow, though you may opt for a ride with your parents, or to rent a trolley or shuttle for the wedding party to ride in together. The average stretch limo seats around 10 people, limos seat about 6, and most town cars hold 4, including the driver. (A full-sized coach bus, on the other hand, has room for around 50 passengers!) Try to save a seat for the photographer too: Candid, wide-angle or paparazzi-style shots are a surprising favorite.
The ride to the reception: After the vows, it's traditional to duck into a dream ride for the jaunt to the reception, either à deux or with the honor attendants. Meanwhile, your parents, wedding party, and anyone else who hitched a ride with you earlier in the day will also need a lift. If your budget allows, parents and attendants can ride to the reception in the same vehicles that brought them to the ceremony, while the couple takes a private car. The whole group (or select members) can also pile into a guest shuttle, if there is one. Otherwise, parents and attendants can ride to the reception with relatives or friends. Just make carpooling plans well in advance, and communicate with everyone involved.
The postwedding getaway: Like every other aspect of your wedding, your getaway mobile should complement and match your sense of style as a couple (not to mention that this is how your guests will remember you and your honey—pardon the cliché—riding off into the sunset). Do you see yourself waving goodbye in a horse-drawn carriage or convertible red Mustang? Departing in a classy Rolls-Royce or rock-star stretch limo? Though the options are many, choose something that fits your budget as well as your personality.
Transportation for wedding guests:
Do you have to provide transportation for wedding guests? No. Is it an awesome perk? Yes. If you do decide on providing transportation for wedding guests, see if your venue or hotel offers shuttle services. Alternatively, you can rent vans (which usually hold anywhere from 8 to 20 people) or go with something more festive, like a streetcar.
It's thoughtful to accommodate guests on their way to and from the ceremony and reception. While you're not responsible for every individual guest making it home safely at the end of the night, if your guests are imbibing, it's courteous to furnish them with options. That doesn't necessarily mean booking them something; again, you can always provide a cab number or encourage everybody to download a ridesharing app.
What About Parking?
Granted, some guests will be shuttling themselves around, so keep parking in mind. Talk to the reception site manager and find out what your options are, plus who handles the arrangements and staff. In the event that you may have to hire an independent service, tailor it to your needs. You can choose a full-service valet team, which will park your guests' cars and retrieve them at the end of the night, or opt for parking attendants that merely direct traffic, hold signs, and guide drivers to empty spaces. Either way, expect to pay an hourly rate per person, plus a 15-20 percent tip (usually tacked on to your total bill). Figure five valets (or 3-4 parking attendants) for every 100 guests.
Helpful hint: A massive guest list, meager to non-existent parking facilities, and a complicated location will require more help and add to the cost. Before getting a price quote, make sure the parking service manager scouts out the location to see how many attendants you'll need.
How Else Can You Prepare for the Big Day?
Create a call sheet with the names of guests and all pickup and drop-off addresses and times, and call to confirm these arrangements with the car company the day before or morning of the wedding. Drivers should have all this information in advance, including detailed directions to the ceremony and reception sites. It's also a good idea to give passengers a copy of the directions with an emergency contact number in case the driver gets lost. And we recommend choosing a transportation point person (be it your wedding planner or a close friend or family member) to oversee logistics on the day of and handle any issues.
Don't fret over transportation! Devour the details of a smooth ride with these tips from The Knot!
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