California Weds

Friday, Apr. 18, 2008

Transportation: Arriving in Style

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The transportation arrangements you make for your wedding should reflect both style and careful planning. Because it is your day and you will want to be the center of attention, plan to arrive at and depart from your wedding in the most elegant way possible. In addition, to ensure that all goes smoothly, give careful consideration to the transportation needs of others in the wedding party as well as those of your out-of-town guests.

Plan ahead

Wedding transportation is not a low-priority item. You should begin planning several months before your wedding date. Advance care shown in transportation preparations will allow you to enjoy your wedding day, avoiding last-minute problems and the stress that goes with them.

Sophisticated style

The classic mode of travel for the bride to the wedding site is by limousine or luxury car, which also will provide an intimate ride for you and your husband from the marriage ceremony to the reception. Quality limousine and luxury automobile services can be found throughout the area, but do check with these services well before your wedding to ensure you will be able to reserve the car you want, especially if your wedding is during the busy months of May, June or December.

Fantasy focus

Anything you choose will be romantic, but for the perfect fairy-tale wedding, many brides and grooms have fantasized about a horse-drawn carriage their fi rst ride together as husband and wife. Other ideas are hot-air balloons and festively decorated gondolas or dune buggies for couples who get married by a lake or on the beach. Whatever your fantasy, now is the time to live it.

On the practical side

When choosing your transportation service, look at the vehicles the company off ers. Be certain the service you choose has the style of car or carriage you want and that it will be available when you need it. Find out if you will be charged hourly or if all services will be included in one set price. Ask what the driver will wear and about the tipping policy. Professional transportation services will be happy to work with you to ensure that you arrive and depart promptly and elegantly.

A little help from your friends

If your budget allows, you can provide special transportation for the entire wedding entourage and out-of-town guests. Party boats, while great fun, are best saved for partying. But a trolley or a double-decker bus is a wonderful mode of travel. And you also can call on dependable (and punctual) friends to play chauffeurs. Each friend who provides transportation for guests should allow enough time to arrive at the wedding site 30 minutes before the ceremony. Give your drivers money for gas and a car wash, and be sure they know the addresses (with directions) and phone numbers of everyone they are to pick up. Don’t tip your friends, but a small thank-you gift is always appropriate and appreciated.