Shuttling Guests After Ceremony

YourDogDontKnowSit

I'm not sure if this is etiquette related, per se, but you guys give great advice and I want the harshest critics possible to make sure I'm doing everything as respectfully as possible in regards to my guests.

My ceremony and reception site are both in a downtown of a city and they are about .8 miles apart - just far enough that it's not really walkable for guests in heels and fancy outfits. In addition my wedding is on a holiday weekend AND we share a weekend with a huge anime convention that takes over the city. The chapel has a dedicated parking lot, but the reception venue is street and garage parking. Luckily, street is free on weekends and garage is free after 7 so my guests don't have to pay for parking, but I worry we may be competing with everyone else for spots. There are two garages .3 miles from my reception venue for people to park in.

That said, I would like to offer a shuttle option so that my guests don't have to worry about finding parking, walking, or driving after drinking (our local PD is vigilant.) I can't really afford to shuttle guests from hotel to ceremony to reception and back to hotel. Would it be acceptable to ask guests to drive back to their hotel (1 mile from ceremony) to catch a shuttle? Of course, anyone who'd rather drive would be welcome to and cocktail hour would be ready when the first person arrived. Am I overlooking a better option? Should I make room in my budget to shuttle people to and from both venues? Would you take advantage of the shuttle option or drive yourself?

RebeccaFlower

Especially since it sounds like it's going to be a particularly busy weekend (by your choice), I think you need to find the money to provide a shuttle for the entirity. 

Cut favors. Wear shoes you already own. Don't get a pedicure, no one will notice anyway. Order simpler bouquets. Skip toasting glasses and cake servers. 

STARMOON44

I think you can skip all of this. There's parking at the hotel, the ceremony, and 2 lots available near the reception. That's plenty. People who are concerned can call a taxi. I don't see anyone wanting to fuss about with driving back and forth to get a shuttle.

YourDogDontKnowSit

RebeccaFlower said:

Especially since it sounds like it's going to be a particularly busy weekend (by your choice), I think you need to find the money to provide a shuttle for the entirity. 

Cut favors. Wear shoes you already own. Don't get a pedicure, no one will notice anyway. Order simpler bouquets. Skip toasting glasses and cake servers. 

We're forgoing favors already, my mom is paying for our mani pedi the day before, my flowers are a gift from a family friend and I have no intention of fancy glasses or silverware (I'm sure I'll toast with a Miller Lite.) My shoes will be new, but they're not expensive. Just trying to point out that my budget is not being blown on absurd things just for my enjoyment: we are spending money on catering, the bar, things that the guests will (hopefully) enjoy. I will just find a way to save a bit more if the 7 hours of shuttling is absolutely necessary, but the guests would have no issues parking at the chapel.

MegEn1

I'm in the same boat - our wedding is during a boat show on the bay. What's more, I'm worried that the hotel we're staying at may be too expensive, but I really wanted a nice hotel for my first night as Mrs. Originally I was going to have two shuttles going from two different locations, because our parking is so limited. Now I'm wondering if we should just go to the one hotel to provide cheaper rooms instead of doing a more costly hotel and a less costly hotel. Either way it would likely take two shuttles because of all the people, we really want to encourage use of the shuttle because of limited parking ...

Bah, but these are my problems. Suffice to say when I posted a discussion on these boards about my situation, the lack of parking (even with a shuttle) was apparently a wedding-ruiner for a lot of Knotties. Provide as many options as you can, it's all you can do.

southernbelle0915

I think a shuttle is a great idea. No, you don't have to provide one to the ceremony. Especially since they have a dedicated parking lot right next to the church. You can just do it for the reception and have it go back and forth between hotel and reception venue all night.

You may even want to mention this in your programs. Or, if not having programs, make a brief announcement at the ceremony that all guests can catch a shuttle at the hotel. 

RebeccaFlower

Okay, if you budget really doesn't allow for it, I guess I wouldn't bother doing any sort of shuttle. I wouldn't want to use a shuttle if it meant leaving my car and having to pick it up somewhere else the following day. 

YourDogDontKnowSit

RebeccaFlower said:

Okay, if you budget really doesn't allow for it, I guess I wouldn't bother doing any sort of shuttle. I wouldn't want to use a shuttle if it meant leaving my car and having to pick it up somewhere else the following day. 

No one would need to leave their car behind, my plan was to have them drive themselves to the ceremony, which has easy parking, then drive back to the hotel they're staying at (or not if they don't plan to stay the night) and shuttle them from there. Sorry, I'm not trying to be argumentative, just want to make sure I explained myself completely.

JaxInBlue

Is is possible for guests to remain parked at the chapel and for you to arrange for shuttle service from the chapel to the reception and then back, as well as from the reception to the hotel for those guests who may not want to drive after the reception?  Even if you have to pay a small fee to rent the chapel parking until 8 or 9 AM the next day, it might be cheaper than the extra shuttle hours.

If you can't, I agree that it's odd to have guests drive to the ceremony, return to the hotel, and then catch the shuttle for the reception. I'd be worried that in the face of these logistics, guests would opt out of the shuttle in the moment and you'd be paying for an unused service.

NYCMercedes

Not having a bus or shuttle is my biggest regret. So, if you there's any chance you'll regret it, I recommend doing it.

YourDogDontKnowSit

JaxInBlue said:

Is is possible for guests to remain parked at the chapel and for you to arrange for shuttle service from the chapel to the reception and then back, as well as from the reception to the hotel for those guests who may not want to drive after the reception?  Even if you have to pay a small fee to rent the chapel parking until 8 or 9 AM the next day, it might be cheaper than the extra shuttle hours.

If you can't, I agree that it's odd to have guests drive to the ceremony, return to the hotel, and then catch the shuttle for the reception. I'd be worried that in the face of these logistics, guests would opt out of the shuttle in the moment and you'd be paying for an unused service.

That is food for thought, then people wouldn't be forced to fend for themselves as far as city parking... the chapel would probably let us utilize the parking for free as they only do one wedding a day and likely wouldn't have a wedding the next day (Monday) anyway. Thanks!

lyndausvi

I'm always pro shuttle if your budget can allow for them. I do not see a problem with your plan. On one of your inserts you can say something like "due to limited parking around the reception area we will have a shuttle leaving [insert hotel name] at [insert time] to the reception." I had a shuttle and would absolutely do it again.

YourDogDontKnowSit

NYCMercedes said:

Not having a bus or shuttle is my biggest regret. So, if you there's any chance you'll regret it, I recommend doing it.

Do you think my plan of shuttling from the hotel is ok, or do you think I'll regret not shuttling the whole shebang? My in-laws don't drink much, but my family and my mom's friends are very much drinkers. I do think a shuttle would be the preferred (and safer) option for them.

ifeelgoodifeelgreatifeelwonderful

I choose a reception location that had a hotel so that we wouldn't have to worry about this situation, however, many people did not book until last minute and there were no more rooms available. Now, we have people also staying at a hotel about 10 minutes away. If we do offer a shuttle it will only be to the reception and back, so same as you are thinking they have to drive to the ceremony then to the hotel (which I think is fine, they can check in) then the shuttle will take them to the reception and back to the hotel. I don't think shuttles are mandatory and frankly I'm annoyed to even have to do one considering I picked my venue for the reason they had a hotel, but I do think it's nice and as a guest I would appreciate it. If you are in a downtown area though and it's really not in your budget people can take cabs, carpool, use uber even. People are adults, worst case scenario, they will figure it out.

RebeccaFlower

I'm not trying to be argumentative either I didn't realize you were going to have people drive back to the hotel. I feel like in that situation, H would just be like let's drive to the reception and your shuttle would go unused, but that's just us. 

sarahufl

We had a Catholic mass at a church, followed by a reception at a local museum.

The hotel was exactly mid-way between the church and the museum. We had guests drive to church and then provided shuttle service the hotel to the museum for the reception. The reason we chose not to shuttle from church is because the Saturday evening church traffic would be starting not long after our ceremony and we didn't want people stuck at church waiting for the trolley or the trolley having to fight church traffic.

The system worked just fine. People didn't HAVE to take the trolleys but tons did. They simply drove back to the hotel, left their cars, and boarded the trolley.

We had parking at our venue, just not a ton of it that was super close by. We provided the shuttles as a courtesy to our guests. Worked just fine for us.

Fran1985

JaxInBlue said:

Is is possible for guests to remain parked at the chapel and for you to arrange for shuttle service from the chapel to the reception and then back, as well as from the reception to the hotel for those guests who may not want to drive after the reception?  Even if you have to pay a small fee to rent the chapel parking until 8 or 9 AM the next day, it might be cheaper than the extra shuttle hours.

If you can't, I agree that it's odd to have guests drive to the ceremony, return to the hotel, and then catch the shuttle for the reception. I'd be worried that in the face of these logistics, guests would opt out of the shuttle in the moment and you'd be paying for an unused service.

SITB Almost every wedding Ive gone to that had a shuttle and a church different venue location did it this way. The shuttle is for guests who are drinking. They will make the extra effort to be on the shuttle. If you are not drinking, most people want to use their own cars anyway. 

photokitty

I'd want to know that is I moved my car and I was still going to have to walk .3 miles or more depending on where I find a spot. I'd probably opt to walk the .8 if I could leave my car at the church. If Iw as staying at the hotel I would happily drive back tot eh hotel and take the shuttle. 

I would assume I'd be able to find a spot closer than .3 miles tot he reception unless I was told in advance.

MrsAitch

What kind of a shuttle are you thinking of using? You could try contacting First Student for a school bus shuttle, they are pretty reasonably priced.

YourDogDontKnowSit

@photokitty‌ we would definitely inform our guests of all the logistics, its on our website.

MrsAitch said:

What kind of a shuttle are you thinking of using? You could try contacting First Student for a school bus shuttle, they are pretty reasonably priced.

My mom has actually spoken to the shuttle service, it's about 120 an hour. I'll look into that company though, thanks!

cafarrie

Most weddings I've been to that had shuttles only offered it from the hotel to the reception, and back. At those events, I never heard anyone complain about free transportation

syoun1nj

I've been to weddings where I drove to the hotel to take the shuttle...and I wasn't even staying at the hotel, and would be (well, husband would be) driving home after. In that case we had to go on a military base for the wedding and they really wanted us to shuttle to avoid the pain of getting on and around the base.

Will the hotel allow guests to come and go from the parking garage (to leave for the ceremony and return)? I know sometimes city hotels get weird about this. Is their garage reserved for hotel guests only (can non-hotel guests park to take the shuttle?) 

I wouldn't mind driving to the hotel to take the shuttle.

YourDogDontKnowSit

syoun1nj said:

I've been to weddings where I drove to the hotel to take the shuttle...and I wasn't even staying at the hotel, and would be (well, husband would be) driving home after. In that case we had to go on a military base for the wedding and they really wanted us to shuttle to avoid the pain of getting on and around the base.

Will the hotel allow guests to come and go from the parking garage (to leave for the ceremony and return)? I know sometimes city hotels get weird about this. Is their garage reserved for hotel guests only (can non-hotel guests park to take the shuttle?) 

I wouldn't mind driving to the hotel to take the shuttle.

Thanks for your opinion/experience! The hotel is just outside the city enough that it's a parking lot, not a garage, but you're right- I need to check with them to make sure the non hotel stayers could park there.

mimivac

YourDogDontKnowSit said:

The hotel is just outside the city enough that it's a parking lot, not a garage, but you're right- I need to check with them to make sure the non hotel stayers could park there.

Definitely check. Sometimes even if the hotel has an open parking lot, you have to have a tag to park there. It would be disasterous if your guests had their cars towed.

indianaalum

I did it the way you are proposing and it was fine.

Our church was about 20 minutes away from reception/hotel (which were about 5 minutes apart).

Guests drove to ceremony and then drove back to their hotel. Then the shuttle picked them up from hotel and dropped them back at hotel at end of the night. No big deal really.

There wasn't anyone I thought would take the shuttle who didn't because of it. all my "expected shuttlers" still shuttled. Not that big of a deal.

On a side note, did you make sure your hotel doesn't do any type of special shuttle service for hotel blocks? many do that. It might be worth asking. We got our shuttle for free because we had so many rooms reserved

Etiqutte wise, you don't have to do a shuttle at all. It's a nice thing and a "Safe" thing but nothing is wrong etiquette wise with NOT doing it, therefore I do not believe you should have to give up other assets of your wedding to do it. It's always a nice thing if in the budget but NOT required. I think people might be getting a little spoiled on having it these days, though 

ashleyep

My cousin did this, and I was going to do as well, but then it turned out that the bus I rented had an 8 hour minimum anyway, so it didn't matter.

At least for us, the shuttle was mostly for drinkers. If they miss some of the cocktail hour, it's not sweat.

I'd say go for it. Any shuttle is better than no shuttle.