Wedding Day Transportation

butterflyjumper1

so, my fiance has been really helpful with wedding plans, and enjoys giving his input on ideas that I have, but he is REALLY not good at taking initiative and doing things on his own, and he is really bad at phone calls and emails. The one task I gave to him two weeks ago was to book our wedding day transportation for the bridal party - and he still hasn't even started to work on this!

Anyway, my question is: What are you guys doing to transport the bridal party the day of the wedding? limos, shuttle, party bus, etc.? We still have no idea what we are planning to do and I wondered what everyone else was doing.... 

Also, how are you (logistically) transporting the bridal party pre-wedding ceremony? Fiance and I will be getting ready at our hotel in separate suites with our BMs and GM, but will need to be transported out of the hotel separately to go and do one hour of pictures on the way to the church for all the girls, and one hour of pictures on the way to the church for all the boys. I am not sure the best way to book transportation for us, especially since we will all want to be able to ride together after the ceremony to go take joint photos and then head back to the hotel.....

I have been a HUGE PW the past few days - so sorry!!!

ceglare4

My sister SOOO wanted me to book a limo, so that would be my suggestion just because it'd be the most fun. We don't really need to do any of this though. All the girls are getting our hair done and then all traveling out to the venue together to get our makeup done and get dressed. I think my mom might rent an SUV or something for the week of the wedding. If so, we'd just use that. But since our ceremony and reception are in the same spot, and we (me and FI) have separate quarters to get ready during the day, we won't need any transportation from the time we arrive there until we leave the reception. Having everything all in one spot makes all that a lot easier.

MeaganR12

I think we're just going to take the hotel shuttle. 

Unfortunately we had to cut some things out because our budget was out of control. I just couldn't justify paying so much for a limo when we would only be in it for 10 minutes from the hotel to the wedding and 10 minutes from the wedding to the hotel.

LADY324

we each have our own limos to take us to our venue.  We are getting married at the same place our reception is at in the gardens.  So 1 limo will pick up FI and GM's take them to the hotel to check in and get dressed.  Then the limo will bring them to our venue. 

I also have a limo picking up me and my girls and my parents at my mom's house.  We are going straight to our venue then we are getting dressed in the bridal suite where the videographer and photographer will film us. 

For our guests who are staying at the hotel we are providing a shuttle to take them from the hotel to the venue and then from the venue to the hotel.

bridetobe71412

We're skipping the separate limos and instead we got one Infiniti limi bus that holds 20 people. I'm getting ready with all of the BMs in a suite at one of our hotels (hair and makeup will come to us), and my fiance is getting ready with his GM at the same hotel, so the limo bus will 1) come to the hotel, 2) pick boys up first and drop them off at the church (5 min away), then 3) come back to pick girls up, then drop us off at the church. After it drops us off, it's going to wait outside until after the ceremony.

The limo bus will then take the entire bridal party (all 18 of us) to the reception venue. My mom and fiance's parents, our grandparents, and my godparents will be in a separate limo from church to reception.

We are providing bus transportation for guests from hotels to reception venue, then reception venue back to hotels. Since nearly everyone is OOT, and the reception is about 20 miles from the church, it made the most sense. Fiance and I are paying for that ourselves because my mom refused to pay for it.

Still undecided how me and fiance are going to get home. Fiance wants to do a special limo for the two of us and he said he'd "take care of it" but I doubt he's actually looking into it. We'll probably just get on the buses with the guests and have a dance party

Edited for clarity.

penny12986

We will already be at the hotel for the wedding the night before.

When I was in my brother's wedding, my SIL had a limo for the BMs and her to get to the church pre-ceremony.  Then after the wedding it was for the bride and groom to take to the reception location.

The GMs and groom drove themselves to the church and everyone in the BP drove themselves to the reception.

colleenm18

I am getting ready at my parents house with my BM and FI is getting ready at his parents house with his GM- Both are about 2 minutes from the church.

So our plan is have the shuttle (we wanted a limo bus but the shuttle was half the price!) is going to pick up FI first and drop them at the church and then come get me and the ladies to take to the church.  After the ceremony we will all get into the shuttle and head to our venue

bridetobe71412

Butterfly, I realized that my situation won't work for you because you want to do photos separately prior to the ceremony. You're right; logistically it's very difficult for you guys!

Could you maybe do photos just somewhere close to the hotel at which you'll be getting ready? Otherwise, you're going to have to hire two separate vehicles and they oftentimes have minimums, and one of them will basically just be for pre-ceremony. . .

littlemoments324

We don't need transportation...everything is being held in the same location...and unfortunately, we would have ended up cutting it anyways because our budget was also out of control.

butterflyjumper1

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_july-2012-weddings_wedding-day-transportation?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Club BoardsForum:066005ef-215f-48b1-8655-328b41e07c52Discussion:ce85f674-0dd6-4368-afb8-fdc703152989Post:c575125d-dc1e-4585-9109-ea73cb0f76e3">Re: Wedding Day Transportation</a>:
[QUOTE]Butterfly, I realized that my situation won't work for you because you want to do photos separately prior to the ceremony. You're right; logistically it's very difficult for you guys! Could you maybe do photos just somewhere close to the hotel at which you'll be getting ready? Otherwise, you're going to have to hire two separate vehicles and they oftentimes have minimums, and one of them will basically just be for pre-ceremony. . .
Posted by bridetobe71412[/QUOTE]

yes, it is a logistics nightmare!!! It might work for one group of us (either BMs or GMs) to just do photos near the hotel....our two photographers are willing to split up so we could do girl shots and boy shots all at the same time, so I think that idea actually might be really successful!! Our hotel is near a gorgeous park, our downtown canal, and three different museums, so there are lots of potential locations for fun boy pictures....
I think we will probably end up booking a limo which will pick up me and my girls at the hotel, drive us around for downtown photo ops, and then take us to the church...boys will go out and do their pics while we are out doing ours...then limo will drive back to hotel and pick up boys and get them to the church while girls are already their finishing getting ready....then we will need something bigger to drive everyone over to the reception after...

so complicated!! this is why I wanted fiance to do it ;)

BmoreBride311

Butterfly, I think I'm in the same situation as you AND I asked my FI to take the initiative on this, but of course he hasn't. I'm going to ask his parent's to help us organize it all, b/c there are just too many other things I'm trying to take care of.

I think we'll prob have buses hired for the whole afternoon/night to take our guests from the hotels to the church, and then from the church to the reception, and back to the hotels/after party. The wedding party is going to be so big, we'd basically be a whole bus anyway. We have been thinking about one of those historic looking trolley car / buses, but who knows.

bridetobe71412

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_july-2012-weddings_wedding-day-transportation?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Club BoardsForum:066005ef-215f-48b1-8655-328b41e07c52Discussion:ce85f674-0dd6-4368-afb8-fdc703152989Post:343f81a2-93e2-4eb0-9f77-834d242b44a7">Re: Wedding Day Transportation</a>:
[QUOTE]Butterfly, I think I'm in the same situation as you AND I asked my FI to take the initiative on this, but of course he hasn't. I'm going to ask his parent's to help us organize it all, b/c there are just too many other things I'm trying to take care of. I think we'll prob have buses hired for the whole afternoon/night to take our guests from the hotels to the church, and then from the church to the reception, and back to the hotels/after party. The wedding party is going to be so big, we'd basically be a whole bus anyway. <strong>We have been thinking about one of those historic looking trolley car / buses, but who knows.
</strong>Posted by BmoreBride311[/QUOTE]

I priced one of those out in Philly - they wanted $1500 (not including gratuity) for 4.5 hours.

bells24412

We ended up getting a "party bus" Limo. We have a big bridal party and my FI also wanted a limo that we could stand up in instead of clouching and being super uncomfortable.

BmoreBride311

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_july-2012-weddings_wedding-day-transportation?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:066005ef-215f-48b1-8655-328b41e07c52Discussion:ce85f674-0dd6-4368-afb8-fdc703152989Post:b52679f1-9809-49cd-8241-ef7d53133479">Re: Wedding Day Transportation</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Wedding Day Transportation : I priced one of those out in Philly - they wanted $1500 (not including gratuity) for 4.5 hours.
Posted by bridetobe71412[/QUOTE]

<div>Is that significantly more than a bus in that area for the same amount of time? We are guestimating it'll be about $1,000 for a bus, but haven't gotten detailed quotes from any place yet, just going by what we've seen in their published rates.</div>

Nati05

Our ceremony and reception is at the same venue so we only need to figure out how to get there and how to go home haha. Honestly I don't think we'll be doing anything fancy. It's a 20-30 minute drive but we really can't be splurging on stuff anymore. We'll only be renting a shuttle bus for OOTGs. For us, we're okay with the regular stuff. Seriously FI said he'll probably drive himself lol, or more likely one of the GMs will drive FI in our car. I'm sure FI's aunt will take me since they have a big SUV. I had dreamed of limos when I was younger but at this point, I'm realizing there are other things that take priority in our budget. So I'm ok with that.

Completely different situation and totally unhelpful haha

bridetobe71412

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_july-2012-weddings_wedding-day-transportation?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Club BoardsForum:066005ef-215f-48b1-8655-328b41e07c52Discussion:ce85f674-0dd6-4368-afb8-fdc703152989Post:42428f80-f97d-4d62-9e73-d2303881580b">Re: Wedding Day Transportation</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Wedding Day Transportation : Is that significantly more than a bus in that area for the same amount of time? We are guestimating it'll be about $1,000 for a bus, but haven't gotten detailed quotes from any place yet, just going by what we've seen in their published rates.
Posted by BmoreBride311[/QUOTE]

Our Infiniti limo bus is a little more than $1000 for 3 hours. The 55-person charter buses were $1085.00 each for the entire night (5pm until 1am), making multiple trips to venue/hotels.

BmoreBride311

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_july-2012-weddings_wedding-day-transportation?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:066005ef-215f-48b1-8655-328b41e07c52Discussion:ce85f674-0dd6-4368-afb8-fdc703152989Post:a682b9a9-f5b5-457d-b46a-d8884b2b16fd">Re: Wedding Day Transportation</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Wedding Day Transportation : Our Infiniti limo bus is a little more than $1000 for 3 hours. The 55-person charter buses were $1085.00 each for the entire night (5pm until 1am), making multiple trips to venue/hotels.
Posted by bridetobe71412[/QUOTE]

<div>Okay, thanks for the info. Sounds pretty similar to the published rates in Baltimore we've seen. We just have to figure out how many buses to do, b/c the costs add up so quickly, but we also don't want ppl waiting around long times.</div>

TChiumi

We will only need transportation to and from the venue since everything is in the same location... The BM  is going to get us a limo for about an hour after the reception for FI and me to get to the hotel we will be staying in.  I have no idea how we're getting to the venue but I fell like I should probably start thinking about this.

mekiakoo

We are doing a trolley!! SO excited!!

shelby8020

I had already payed for one ten person limo since at first I thought my FI and I were not going to do the first look and were not allowed at the venue more than an hour beforehand.....now that we ARE doing the first look and going to venue 2.5 hours early...plans changed! I was going to have the guys picked up first, go to venue, then come back and get girls.... But the guys would be there so early that no one would be at the venue to let them in!!! To get a whole other limo for a 35 minute ride would cost us $650....so I feel terrible but FI and guys are going to ride with my sisters and parents to the venue so that everyone can arrive at the same time and no one has to wait outside in the heat to be let in! He's so layed back he doesn't even care. Then we got a shuttle for the end of the night for the bridal party and us