Wedding Invitations & Paper

Insert for Shuttle?

CarrieJo04CarrieJo04 member
5 Love Its First Comment Name Dropper First Anniversary
We are hosting a shuttle to take guests from the hotel to the reception, about 15 minutes away, and back. How do I convey this to guests and find out approximately how many guests will utilize the shuttle? The bus rental company has a few sizing options so I want to make sure that we reserve the correct size. 

I was considering an additional insert to the invite that says something along the lines of "Free shuttle running from XYZ Hotel to ABC Reception Location. If interested please email or call CJo at CJo@email.com or (123) 456-7891 by RSVP date." 

I do have the info on our website, but I've heard from a number of family members "Oh I never look at those." So I worry that many guests won't see it.

What are your thoughts?

ETA words

Re: Insert for Shuttle?

  • kaos16kaos16 member
    First Answer First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment


    We are hosting a shuttle to take guests from the hotel to the reception, about 15 minutes away, and back. How do I convey this to guests and find out approximately how many guests will utilize the shuttle? The bus rental company has a few sizing options so I want to make sure that we reserve the correct size. 

    I was considering an additional insert to the invite that says something along the lines of "Free shuttle running from XYZ Hotel to ABC Reception Location. If interested please email or call CJo at CJo@email.com or (123) 456-7891 by RSVP date." 

    I do have the info on our website, but I've heard from a number of family members "Oh I never look at those." So I worry that many guests won't see it.

    What are your thoughts?

    ETA words


    Are you doing a traditional RSVP card?  You could put a line under menu choices, something like "will utilize shuttle  Yes/No"
  • Oh, complicated.
    I think the etiquette is to not add an insert, and just have the website. 
    Perhaps you could send an email?  I went to a destination wedding recently where they offered busses to move us from the capital to the beach in Sri Lanka where the wedding was and that was all explained by email with other info. So that's an option.

    Why exactly are you offering the shuttle? If it's before any possible drinking and only 15 minutes away do you need it?
     
    If you're worried that people won't get the info then add the insert and maybe add a checkbox onto the RSVP return card.
  • I think you put the info for the shuttle on the website (if you're having one), or an insert might be OK, but this might be more of a word of mouth kind of thing. As for a ballpark, I would assume everyone staying at Hotel ABC is using the shuttle and plan accordingly
  • CMGragainCMGragain member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    edited June 2017




    We are hosting a shuttle to take guests from the hotel to the reception, about 15 minutes away, and back. How do I convey this to guests and find out approximately how many guests will utilize the shuttle? The bus rental company has a few sizing options so I want to make sure that we reserve the correct size. 

    I was considering an additional insert to the invite that says something along the lines of "Free shuttle running from XYZ Hotel to ABC Reception Location. If interested please email or call CJo at CJo@email.com or (123) 456-7891 by RSVP date." 

    I do have the info on our website, but I've heard from a number of family members "Oh I never look at those." So I worry that many guests won't see it.

    What are your thoughts?

    ETA words




    I am confused.  Are you having a ceremony?  Where will it be held?  How are the guests getting to that?  Please explain.

    PS.  I am from Iowa.  Where is your wedding?


    httpiimgurcomTCCjW0wjpg

  • @Australian_girl_in_Paris This will run before, during, and after drinking. It is to minimize the amount of drinking and driving. Which I know isn't our responsibility, but we have room in the budget and we have some guests that have a history of it. 

  • CMGragain said:







    We are hosting a shuttle to take guests from the hotel to the reception, about 15 minutes away, and back. How do I convey this to guests and find out approximately how many guests will utilize the shuttle? The bus rental company has a few sizing options so I want to make sure that we reserve the correct size. 

    I was considering an additional insert to the invite that says something along the lines of "Free shuttle running from XYZ Hotel to ABC Reception Location. If interested please email or call CJo at CJo@email.com or (123) 456-7891 by RSVP date." 

    I do have the info on our website, but I've heard from a number of family members "Oh I never look at those." So I worry that many guests won't see it.

    What are your thoughts?

    ETA words






    I am confused.  Are you having a ceremony?  Where will it be held?  How are the guests getting to that?  Please explain.

    PS.  I am from Iowa.  Where is your wedding?





    We are having a ceremony, I'm sorry I didn't add that. It is at the church which is pretty close to the hotel. We thought this way anyone who wanted to use the shuttle could drop their cars off at the hotel before the reception, but if someone wanted to drive they could straight from the church. Does that make sense? Am I going about this backwards? 

    Are you familiar with NW Iowa? Our wedding is in Sioux City and reception is in Hinton. 

  • Thank you all! I unfortunately printed RSVPs before we realized we had room to pay for the shuttle, but maybe I'll just eat the cost and redo them adding the shuttle info. 

    Also, good point @JediElizabeth about DDs deciding to drink... I will definitely make sure to over book, just in case! 

  • CJo04 said:

    Thank you all! I unfortunately printed RSVPs before we realized we had room to pay for the shuttle, but maybe I'll just eat the cost and redo them adding the shuttle info. 

    Also, good point @JediElizabeth about DDs deciding to drink... I will definitely make sure to over book, just in case! 


    The shuttle is not necessary...and probably not worth the trouble at this point. You don't want to offer it and then it's not big enough, people are depending on it and waiting for it, but it's too small so it's too slow, etc. 

    Personally, I'd use the extra cash to upgrade the bar, add a passed app, get a couples massage on my honeymoon, go buy the purse I've been wanting..
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  • CJo04 said:



    CMGragain said:










    We are hosting a shuttle to take guests from the hotel to the reception, about 15 minutes away, and back. How do I convey this to guests and find out approximately how many guests will utilize the shuttle? The bus rental company has a few sizing options so I want to make sure that we reserve the correct size. 

    I was considering an additional insert to the invite that says something along the lines of "Free shuttle running from XYZ Hotel to ABC Reception Location. If interested please email or call CJo at CJo@email.com or (123) 456-7891 by RSVP date." 

    I do have the info on our website, but I've heard from a number of family members "Oh I never look at those." So I worry that many guests won't see it.

    What are your thoughts?

    ETA words








    I am confused.  Are you having a ceremony?  Where will it be held?  How are the guests getting to that?  Please explain.

    PS.  I am from Iowa.  Where is your wedding?







    We are having a ceremony, I'm sorry I didn't add that. It is at the church which is pretty close to the hotel. We thought this way anyone who wanted to use the shuttle could drop their cars off at the hotel before the reception, but if someone wanted to drive they could straight from the church. Does that make sense? Am I going about this backwards? 

    Are you familiar with NW Iowa? Our wedding is in Sioux City and reception is in Hinton. 


    I see a problem.  How big is your wedding?  All of your hotel guests will want to use the shuttle at the same time to get to the reception following your ceremony.  If there are many guests, they will be waiting in line to get a seat on the shuttle.  I don't see how this will work.

    My grandmother lived in Cherokee and Rockwell City.  I lived all over the place, but finished high school in West Des Moines.  DH is from WDM, too.  Oh, those Okoboji summers!
    httpiimgurcomTCCjW0wjpg
  • Thank you all, I might just scrap this idea. Looks like I got ahead of myself before working out the details. I'll check into adding another type of beer and/or wine instead.  

    @CMGragain Small world! Okoboji is where my MOH is planning to take me for my bachelorette party. We love it up there! 
  • So you have many OOT guests? I'll make the case for a shuttle, I travel to pretty much every wedding and if I don't have to rent a car that's great. If you have a number of guests from out of town or if your town doesn't have great cabs/Lyft/Uber availability a shuttle is really useful. If it's continuously running and it's only 15 minutes, sure people might have to wait a bit but not everyone leaves a wedding at the same time. I think overbooking would work fine. 
  • We had a shuttle for DD's wedding. I have had so many people tell us they really appreciated it. Taxi's would've been difficult to get in the area where the reception was held. 60%+ of the guests were from OOT so they weren't familiar with the big city. Yes they could've called Uber but I don't know if the older guests would have been comfortable doing that. We let guests know about the shuttle through the website and word of mouth/email. I believe it (the shuttle) started at 9:00 and the last pickup was 11:30. We had two so that they were rotating through. We had about 150 guests at the wedding - of course not all of them used the shuttle, but I was glad to offer it. H and I took it back to the hotel along with all the stuff leftover from the reception to hand over to DD the next morning.
  • I don't really understand what all the confusion is about - maybe 90% of the weddings I've attended have had a shuttle (they're pretty standard in NY/NJ) and they work out great! It seems to me it would make more sense to have the shuttle leave from your ceremony and go to the reception and then from the reception back to the hotel.


  • So you have many OOT guests? I'll make the case for a shuttle, I travel to pretty much every wedding and if I don't have to rent a car that's great. If you have a number of guests from out of town or if your town doesn't have great cabs/Lyft/Uber availability a shuttle is really useful. If it's continuously running and it's only 15 minutes, sure people might have to wait a bit but not everyone leaves a wedding at the same time. I think overbooking would work fine. 

    We do have a lot of OOT guests. They will mostly drive in though and have their own cars, I only know of 2 couples that will fly in. The city the wedding is in has Uber, but the town the reception is in does not so I don't believe that's an option. You make good points though...


  • We had a shuttle for DD's wedding. I have had so many people tell us they really appreciated it. Taxi's would've been difficult to get in the area where the reception was held. 60%+ of the guests were from OOT so they weren't familiar with the big city. Yes they could've called Uber but I don't know if the older guests would have been comfortable doing that. We let guests know about the shuttle through the website and word of mouth/email. I believe it (the shuttle) started at 9:00 and the last pickup was 11:30. We had two so that they were rotating through. We had about 150 guests at the wedding - of course not all of them used the shuttle, but I was glad to offer it. H and I took it back to the hotel along with all the stuff leftover from the reception to hand over to DD the next morning.



    Taxi's in our area are a bit of a PITA so I understand that! We have a lot of guests coming from bigger cites to "the country." So similar in not being familiar with the area. Did your DD have a shuttle to the wedding as well? I'm not sure how it would work to just run the shuttle at night to take them to the hotel? 


  • I don't really understand what all the confusion is about - maybe 90% of the weddings I've attended have had a shuttle (they're pretty standard in NY/NJ) and they work out great! It seems to me it would make more sense to have the shuttle leave from your ceremony and go to the reception and then from the reception back to the hotel.

    Not many use shuttles in our area (rural Iowa). It is a perk I would really love to offer. On the logistics side- if it ran from the ceremony, wouldn't guests cars end up left at the Church? Would they just be responsible for picking the cars up in the morning? 

  • CJo04 said:





    I don't really understand what all the confusion is about - maybe 90% of the weddings I've attended have had a shuttle (they're pretty standard in NY/NJ) and they work out great! It seems to me it would make more sense to have the shuttle leave from your ceremony and go to the reception and then from the reception back to the hotel.


    Not many use shuttles in our area (rural Iowa). It is a perk I would really love to offer. On the logistics side- if it ran from the ceremony, wouldn't guests cars end up left at the Church? Would they just be responsible for picking the cars up in the morning? 



    Can you have the shuttle from the hotel to the ceremony, ceremony to reception, and then reception to hotel? The only thing I think is a bit of a kink is that you have 3 locations. The majority of weddings I attend have the ceremony and reception in the same place so I'm not sure if this will be possible. Especially if you have a lot of partier guests, this will be an appreciated perk I think!

  • CJo04 said:





    We had a shuttle for DD's wedding. I have had so many people tell us they really appreciated it. Taxi's would've been difficult to get in the area where the reception was held. 60%+ of the guests were from OOT so they weren't familiar with the big city. Yes they could've called Uber but I don't know if the older guests would have been comfortable doing that. We let guests know about the shuttle through the website and word of mouth/email. I believe it (the shuttle) started at 9:00 and the last pickup was 11:30. We had two so that they were rotating through. We had about 150 guests at the wedding - of course not all of them used the shuttle, but I was glad to offer it. H and I took it back to the hotel along with all the stuff leftover from the reception to hand over to DD the next morning.





    Taxi's in our area are a bit of a PITA so I understand that! We have a lot of guests coming from bigger cites to "the country." So similar in not being familiar with the area. Did your DD have a shuttle to the wedding as well? I'm not sure how it would work to just run the shuttle at night to take them to the hotel? 


    The hotel and the church were  walking distance from each other or a short cab ride (cabs/uber were readily available in the area of the hotel and church). Most people took cabs from the church to the reception then took the shuttle back to the hotels. In your case I would do a shuttle from the hotel to the ceremony then out to the reception. It would require a little more co-ordination to make sure people got from the church to the reception but worth it. My cousin did that for her wedding. Two shuttles picked up at the hotel at an appointed time and took guests to the ceremony. After the ceremony, guests were shuttled to the reception. Guests could also take shuttles back to the hotel but we ended up just grabbing a cab.  
  • I've never had a shuttle to multiple locations either. Most of the time they've been at weddings where there was a tiny gap, so the guests could drive to the ceremony location from the hotel (or walk), then go back to the hotel and pick up the shuttle for the reception. We've also ridden to the reception with someone else who planned to leave early, knowing we'd take the shuttle home.

    An alternative to having it continuously run would be to schedule it to make 3 trips at various times back to the hotel. Once just after dessert is served, once at the end (obvs), and once kind of splitting the difference between those two. You could put a little flier in the invites or in the welcome bags at the hotel if you're doing that. You could also just email the guests staying at the hotel or let them know via word of mouth.






  • Thank you all again. I really appreciate all the points that were brought up. FI and I talked it over last night and I think we are going to give the shuttle from the hotel to reception and back a try.

    His idea was to just print up a business card sized insert to put with the invites to let our guests know about the shuttle and then just book the largest to cover our guest list. We just won't worry about getting a head count and make sure there is room for everyone. 

    @ahoywedding I really like your idea of the shuttle leaving at certain times back to the hotel. We are thinking right after cake cutting (about 8ish) then 9:30, 10:30, and 11:30pm.





    If you do this, you should have the DJ make announcements at 15 and 5 minutes prior to departure (basically multiple warnings that "the shuttle is leaving"). Further, you could put a reminder on shuttle times in a picture frame at the bar. That way, the people drinking will be reminded that you're offering a shuttle and when it's leaving and then the DJ will remind them right before. 


    Great ideas!
  • You'll also want to work out with the shuttle driver how to handle if s/he gets too many people for the 9:00 departure, for example. Have it written in the contract that s/he will make multiple trips if needed.
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  • Late to the party.    I'm pro-shuttle if you can afford it.  We had it at our wedding and it worked great.  Multiple stops too!     Our guests like to drink and who really wants to be the DD anyway??


    We had an FYI card that mentioned the shuttle.  We asked everyone to email a special email address we made up just for the wedding.  That way emails didn't get lost in our regular email box.     The information was also on our website.  

    I would say 85% of our guests used the shuttle to the event.   Some used it to go home, then the picked up their cars the next day.






    What differentiates an average host and a great host is anticipating unexpressed needs and wants of their guests.  Just because the want/need is not expressed, doesn't mean it wouldn't be appreciated. 

  • scribe95 said:

    A few of our guests even paid the shuttle driver extra to take them to a bar!



    Ha, I've been at weddings where this happens! The last shuttle of the night always tends to be a party in and of itself
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