Etiquette for hotel/transportation wording on insert and RSVP cards

hmg1985

Need some wording help with this...we have more than 50% of our guest list (240 people invited) that are at least a 4 hour drive away from Detroit. Many of those will be flying in for the weekend (they will be picked up from airport or will have rental cars arranged). We found a hall that we were in love with to have both our ceremony and reception, but it is 20 miles south of the city in a small rural town that doesn't have much to offer for our out of town guests who will be there for at least 2 nights. We love downtown Detroit and decided to reserve rooms at a great hotel in Greektown that is connected to one of the casinos and near all the bars and restaurants, as well as close to museums and other activities that our friends and family from out of town will be interested in. Because of the long distance from the hotel to the hall, we are going to be providing charter busses to take our guests from the hotel to the hall and back. I have no issue with friends or family that live in the area who may not be staying at that particular hotel, but would like to take advantage of us providing transportation. I just don't really know how to estimate how many will want to use it. The busses hold 56 people each so I am already planning on reserving at least 2, and having staggered times for the guests.

I need help figuring out how to condense all of this into cute wording on the rsvp cards. I would say that probably 2/3rds of the guests will not know the distance between the hotel and the hall, as well as that the area the hall is in is very rural and does not have much to offer. The hall is definitely a diamond in the rough.

I plan to include with the invitation a small map showing the distance between the two locations. I was thinking that below the menu choices on the RSVP card, I could also have a spot for RSVP'ing if you would like to take the transportation (regardless if staying at hotel) - alot of our guests live very close to where the hotel is at and I think would like to take advantage of the free transportation vs a $40 cab ride or DUI even if they are not staying there. Does this seem tacky? Has anyone seen anything like this before?

Maybe I am overthinking it and do not need an RSVP for transporation. Help! Thank you

sarawifenow

I would just say something like, "transportation from x hotel to the wedding will be provided via shuttle. Shuttle times are x,y,z".

lyndausvi

We had a shuttle.  We put an insert in the invitation that said something like "there will be a shuttle from the hotel to the wedding" please RSVP to email address if you would like to use the shuttle.   We had a special email address setup for just the wedding.   I would say about 80% said they would use the shuttle.  We made sure there was room for another 5-10% in case someone didn't RSVP for the shuttle.

I was at another wedding that did something similar.  They said there would be a shuttle and to basically RSVP so they had an idea of how many wanted to use it.