Ultimate Guide to Wedding Day Transportation for Your Guests
If your guests aren’t local to your wedding city and your venue is at a different location from your hotel, you’ll need to plan for safe and efficient transportation for your friends and family. Especially if you have over 100 guests, you’ll need to make sure guest transportation is pre-determined and organized for a stress-free evening. Our ultimate guide to wedding day transportation will fill you in on all of the options you have for guest travel to and from the venue!
Encouraging Ride Share Transportation
One of the easiest methods of organizing guest transportation is to let them do it themselves via a ride sharing app like Lyft. This method removes stress for the couple and is a great option if travel time is minimal. I personally recommend this for rides at or under 20 minutes and would encourage guests to group together for a more cost-effective solution. Technically guests could drive themselves with a rental car, but I always encourage otherwise so there’s no risk of drinking and driving. Safety first!
Bridal Party Only Transportation
If travel time is minimal and you’re comfortable with most guests driving or ride sharing to the venue, you could opt to book a bus, limo, or trolley shuttle that only transports you, your spouse, and the bridal party. Most likely your bus only needs to seat 8-20 people, depending on your number of bridesmaids and groomsmen, so the cost of the transportation service would be more manageable than booking it for all wedding guests. Plus, you’ll have a fun ride with your bridal party to and from each venue! On the note of cost, pricing for group transportation vary widely based on the number of passengers and the amount of hours you book the vehicle(s) to cover the initial pickup/drop-off to the end of the evening pickup and drop-off. In general, expect to spend between $50-$150 per hour for each vehicle.
Booking Bus or Shuttle Transportation for All Guests
If travel time between venues is more than 30 minutes from the wedding hotel or your venue lacks adequate parking, I recommend hiring buses or shuttles to transport all of your guests to the venue. Especially if the drive is over 40 minutes, your friends and family will appreciate having transportation provided for them and they’ll love being able to mingle with everyone on the bus. Although you’ll need to foot the bill for pre-arranged transport, it’s a sensible line item on your budget that will be greatly appreciated by guests and ensures everybody is safe. Most transportation companies offer vehicles with anywhere from 8 to 55 seats. Reach out to a few companies at least 3-4 months before the wedding with your estimated guest count. Once you know your final count and have determined which company to move forward with, ask them what combination of vehicles will be most cost effective for you according to your guest count.
Hiring a Vintage Car
Obviously you wouldn’t hire dozens and dozens of vintage cars for your entire wedding crew, though you can book one for you and your spouse. Not only is a vintage car a very fun way to get from location to location, it’s also gorgeous in photos. It’s hard not to take an amazing image of a couple romantically posed around or within an elegant car!
Important Transportation Logistics
Whether you’re hiring a transportation service for your bridal party, all guests, or only you and your spouse, here are a few key logistics to be aware of before completing your booking:
Always estimate that travel time will take longer than Google maps might indicate. Padding your travel time is the best way to ensure you’re prepared for anything that could otherwise make you late.
Ensure the transportation company supplies the pickup and drop-off times to the driver, as well as the exact locations for each destination. Nothing’s worse than a late or lost driver!
Tipping the drivers of a private car service is a standard practice that you’ll want to budget for ahead of time.
Inform all of your guests of the pickup location and time. If you know you have chronically late friends or family members, it’s not a bad idea to pass along a pickup time that’s 10-15 minutes earlier than departure.
Cavin Elizabeth is a wedding film photographer based in San Diego, California. Her wedding work has taken her all over the United States and abroad. In addition to being a photographer, Cavin is an educator and an avid blogger of wedding planning tips for brides and grooms. She authored the book A Bride’s Guide to a Picture Perfect Wedding, which teaches couples how to make wedding plans that are best for photography.
