Who pays for transportation to engagement party?

Trishhyyyy50008

Sooo Im having a destination wedding set for next spring and because some family and friends will not be able to make the trip for the wedding ,my parents have decided to throw a fairly large engagement party at an upscale steakhouse in which we have invited everyone who we will invite to the wedding.  To make a long story short, I will be having friends and some family driving/ taking the train in for this engagement party and wanted to set up some type of mini bus to transport us all from my house to the engagement party and back out for drinks near me.  This bus will also drop everyone off at the train station at the end of the evening and back to my house.  My question is, who pays for this transportation?  It is not proper to ask my friends/family who would be taking the mini bus to pay a small fee per person?  I"m not sure how this works.. Any thoughts would be great!

crash2729

If you are going to host it, 
I think you should pay for it...

specialk84

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_who-pays-for-transportation-to-engagement-party?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:5a41b34a-4db4-41a3-b521-cb5ab3c6c00cPost:b639e174-2278-4cf7-ae0b-201a49e52250">Who pays for transportation to engagement party?</a>:
[QUOTE]Sooo Im having a destination wedding set for next spring and because some family and friends will not be able to make the trip for the wedding ,my parents have decided to throw a fairly large engagement party at an upscale steakhouse in which we have invited everyone who we will invite to the wedding.  To make a long story short, I will be having friends and some family driving/ taking the train in for this engagement party and wanted to set up some type of mini bus to transport us all from my house to the engagement party and back out for drinks near me.  This bus will also drop everyone off at the train station at the end of the evening and back to my house.  My question is, who pays for this transportation? <strong> It is not proper to ask my friends/family who would be taking the mini bus to pay a small fee per person?</strong>  I"m not sure how this works.. Any thoughts would be great!
Posted by Trishhyyyy50008[/QUOTE]<div>
</div><div>No, it's not proper. If you're hosting it, you need to pay for it.

</div>

Stackeye210

She's not hosting, her parents are hosting.  She's just trying to be thoughtful to make it easier on guests. 

I think coordinating splitting the cost of things like that is a hassle.  It's probably worth you just paying for the shuttle yourself.  I think it's a nice touch of convenience for your guests and very thoughtful of you to foot the bill. 

I just think having people come to the engagement party when you know that even though they'll be invited to the wedding that they'll probably not come, you should use this as your chance to make a good event for them being involved. 

That came out all jumbled, hopefully you get my point. 

Katelyn89

Since it was your idea to host this mini bus, you should pay for it. Call around and get some quotes. We are using school buses as our shuttle buses and it was a lot less expensive than I had I thought.

RailWayWife

You

Maggie0829

If you want to provide transportation then you should pay for it.  You shouldn't offer something to your guests and then turn around and ask them for payment.

pkontk

Either you provide the transportation and pay for it, or let your guests figure it out on their own.

If, say, Aunt Judy has a huge family and is traveling with Uncle Paul and his kids, you may be able to suggest to them transportation companies that can take them to the party, but only if they ask.

jemmini6

Yeah, this'll go over well.  Just tell them  "Hey, I know you are driving up, and will have your car here, but I think it'd be fun to take a mini bus.  BTW, you owe me $X for it, even though I really didn't even give you a choice."

Yeah...if you want to have transportation like that, you need to pay for it, or you need to ask people if they are interested/okay with pitching in before you book it.  You can't ever just book something and expect people to pay for it, WR or not.

RebeccaB88

Yep, it's your responsibility to pay for it.  Although, I think it would be okay for you to ask your guests ahead of time if they would be interested in using a shuttle if you provided it.  That way you aren't paying for something that ends up going unused.

wadingmoose

Definitely ask if people are even interested.

Is there a specific reason you wanted to do the group transportation?  Lack of parking where you're going?  In a location that's hard to get to?  I don't know.  It just seems a little too much for an engagement party to me.