Transportation

skyhigh27

I am in the final planning stages of my September wedding and have been going back and forth over paying for a shuttle for our guests. We are getting married at a winery and have asked that no one under 21 attends, with a large percentage of our guests being our parents ages (50s-60s)... We have room blocks at three hotels, our wedding party is all staying at the same hotel which makes transportation for them a lot easier. However, we are debating paying for a shuttle service from the hotels to the venue for our guests so nobody has to worry about enjoying a few glasses of wine and then driving back to their hotel which will be ~10 minutes away (only about four guests are from the area—everyone else will be in a hotel and unfamiliar with the area). My fiancé thinks it's ridiculous to be spending $2,000+ on a shuttle for six hours. Any advice to sway one way or another would be much appreciated, trying to put this wedding planning stuff to bed for a while!

lyndausvi

I had an OOT wedding.  Our crowd (even with a lot of guests over 50) are drinkers.   We opted for transportation.  It cost about $1800 and I thought it was worth every penny.   Even though they are adults and would have a DD we didn't want someone to miss out on the party.

You certainly do not have to have one, but if it's in your budget I say go for it. I like being transported around when I'm OOT.

Inkdancer

Quick clarification: you mean you didn't invite anyone under 21?

I think this is something you should probably decide once you know how many people are staying at which hotel. If most of your guests are going to be all at the same hotel, talk to that hotel about doing a shuttle. If they're at a bunch of different places, it's impractical for the driver and expensive for you.

Most adults know how to get themselves to and from places safely. I would ask the bartenders to keep an eye out for anyone behaving inappropriately, but I would assume that guests your parents' age can assume that winery = wine being provided, and plan accordingly.

skyhigh27

Correct, no one under 21 was invited as we didn't want the hassle of having our bartenders card everyone.

I personally like the idea of knowing that our guests don't have to worry about getting from our venue back to the safety of their hotels after consuming a few drinks. My fiancé is thinking more along the lines of everyone is an adult and can take care of themselves... So, I am trying to be resourceful and have more reasons why it's money well spent. 2k isn't going to kill us in the grand scheme of things when it comes to safety.

lyndausvi

I personally felt that I should take care of my OOT guests as much as possible.   They spent their time and money coming to our wedding.  At least I could do is provide a DD so they can enjoy some cocktails without worry.    A place like a winery I would feel even more so.  

emmyg65

We skipped the shuttle. We didn't have the money for it, and it just seemed unnecessary. I'm of the same mind as your FH: they're adults and they can take care of themselves.

yellowdaisies84

At our wedding a lot of our guests were from out-of-town and we did pay for their ride from the hotel to our wedding and back. The reason that we decided to add this to our budget was because we felt like it was worth it to save our guests from having to figure out where they were going on the unfamiliar country roads (ours was a winery wedding, too) and to save everyone from having to choose designated drivers or potentially drinking and driving. We went with a charter bus that could hold 60 people and we had it make two trips. I've also been to three other weddings where they did this- one hired a few yellow school buses (which was really fun!) and one rented a double-decker bus in a big city.

Another friend of mine rented a vintage trolley for her wedding and even took some of their wedding portraits in front of it. You could also look into hiring a party bus- those are so fun.  If you do end up booking transportation for your guests, you can put a little surprise good-night treat on all of the seats on the way back to the hotel. My mother-in-law baked chocolate chip cookies and wrapped them up cute and we asked the driver to put one on each seat. 

As a guest, I would definitely NOT expect the bride and groom to provide shuttles for us, but I really did appreciate it at the weddings I went to where they did. Especially when we travelled out-of-town for the wedding. And I loved at our wedding how we didn't have to worry so much about guests getting lost or arriving late on their way to the wedding. It was easy to co-ordinate with the venue that we wouldn't need much in the way of parking spots or attendants and we had plenty for the guests who did drive themselves. Mostly it was just nice to know that everyone could have a good time and would all get home safe and sound. 

I think what it really comes down to is do you guys have the room in your budget? If you don't, then I would skip providing the shuttle. We wouldn't have done it if we didn't have enough to cover it. At my best friend's wedding she didn't provide transportation but she did post the number for taxis on her wedding website and she printed them nicely on cards near the exit of her venue. She also called a taxi company to have some cabs waiting at the end of the night (that the guests paid for.)

phira

So, we're actually dealing with a similar question right now, but coming from a completely opposite perspective. We have about 10 out of town guests (5 guests + significant others) out of 140 who would likely even be getting a hotel room. And we're having a Sunday wedding at a time selected to reduce the number of people who are drinking heavily. So we're not even sure we're going to have a hotel block at all, let alone a shuttle.

I think a shuttle would be a great idea for your wedding. Lots of out of town guests, hotel blocks, drinking at a winery ... yeah.

delujm0

i'll admit it: i'm the brat that gets kind of annoyed when i'm invited to a wedding where driving is involved and there are a lot of OOT guests, yet no shuttle is provided.  sure, we always come up with a carpool, and at our age the DD is typically whoever is pregnant at the time, but it still irks me.

 

I do understand that it can be expensive though, and that it is not required.

 

we're doing our ceremony/reception at a museum in the city - the venue, the two hotel room blocks, the rehearsal dinner location, and the sunday brunch location are all within a 4 block radius of each other.  and the condo where we presently live is also in that radius.  nothing easier for the guests than not having to drive OR deal with a shuttle.  The 10% of our guests coming from in town will have to find a DD or call a cab though. :-)

indianaalum

Do any of the hotels have "shuttles". I know our hotel had it free if we had so many rooms booked. It might be worth looking into a hotel that provides.

skyhigh27

Normally our main hotel has a shuttle, however Sunset Magazine has an event the same weekend and has called "dibs" on a lot of the hotel amenities. I thought a party bus or two could be fun, grandparents and stripper poles always make for a good story, right??

WildMagelet

skyhigh27 said:

Normally our main hotel has a shuttle, however Sunset Magazine has an event the same weekend and has called "dibs" on a lot of the hotel amenities. I thought a party bus or two could be fun, grandparents and stripper poles always make for a good story, right??

YES.  This totally makes me bummed my dad's mom isn't around anymore even more lol.  She was the goofy type that would have posted with the pole just for S&Gs.

melbelleup

I would talk to the hotels. Some hotels offer it complimentary or with a small fee. My reception place is right next to a Marriott courtyard, but on a busy main road. They offer the shuttle free of charge to and from the hotel. This works or great for us since all of FIs guest list is OOT by at least 2 1/2 hours. Our reception will also be over at 8 30 so people don't have to stay in hotels

melbelleup

skyhigh27 said:

Normally our main hotel has a shuttle, however Sunset Magazine has an event the same weekend and has called "dibs" on a lot of the hotel amenities. I thought a party bus or two could be fun, grandparents and stripper poles always make for a good story, right??

I'm assuming because of this you checked other hotels too. My suggestion is either a party bus, school bus or skip it if it's not in your budget. I'd make sure to give the bar tenders a list of taxis in the area in case someone asks

skyhigh27

We definitely have room for it in our budget, it's simply convincing the holder of the checkbook that it's a worthy expense. I started asking friends and family about it, in front of him of course, so hopefully he'll hear enough positive and think it's his own idea and book it himself. I think the biggest obstacle has been sticker shock, it's a high demand weekend and transportation vendors are charging more for their services.

MrsAitch

We are doing a shuttle through First Student. It's actually really affordable and we don't want our guests to have to worry about it.