Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Transportation Tricks

Organizing your wedding or event transportation can be tricky and frustrating.  The details are important and knowing what to ask for is key.  This element can be costly, but necessary.  If you're not sure if buses are needed, here are some rules to help you decide:

You DO need transportation for your wedding guests if...
  • The host hotel(s) are not in walking distance to the ceremony and reception venues
  • Your wedding is a destination wedding, where more than 50% of the guests will be traveling and staying in hotels
  • The ceremony venue is not walking distance from the reception venue
  • Your friends are likely to try to drink and drive

You DO NOT need transportation for your wedding guests if...
  • The venues and hotels are all in walking distance from each other
  • All of your guests are local and will have their own cars
  • If only a few of your guests are from out of town you can consider a small option for transportation, like an executive van
Here's how wedding transportation companies work:
BUSES
There are two different types of buses, 55 passenger and 29 passenger.  Some companies may have a different seating arrangement and will have 52 and 27 or the like, but the gist is there are big ones and small ones.  Don't try to have a bus make multiple trips.  Guests will either get to the wedding way too early or just in time and the chances of them being late is too great.  Some bus companies charge a minimum of 3-5 hours for their wedding buses. Some will allow you to do what's called a "transfer" or a one-way trip.  Some companies will only offer transfers for daytime weddings.  Make sure you understand what can be done before you contract.  Some companies can offer you the option to pay gratuity in advance.  If they do, take the option.  Its one less thing to worry about on the wedding day.  Make sure to ask the company if they can put a sign on the bus or in the window that has your wedding name on it, like "Smith-Jones Wedding" or "Kim & Kanye".  If you're traveling from uptown New Orleans to the French Quarter, get a police escort that can take you through traffic lights.  You'll save an hour off of your trip. Finally, when you plan your bus pickup points, choose hotels that are host hotels or locations that are central to all of your hotels.  Full sized buses are NOT allowed in the French Quarter streets, so if you're a French Quarter wedding, choose locations on the perimeter of the Quarter, like Canal Street, Rampart Street, St. Peter, or Esplanade Ave.  Tell your guests where the pickup points are via your event website, the welcome gifts, and via email if possible. Then don't forget to let all of the hotels know the plan so that they can communicate to guests that have questions.

LIMOS
As with buses, there are companies that require a certain number of hours for weddings and there are companies that offer transfers. For a wedding limo, a transfer can often take the bride and her father from the get-ready location to the ceremony and then wait for the bride and groom to take them to the reception all in the same transfer.  For the bridal party, you can have one limo pickup the guys and bring them to the ceremony and then go back and pickup the girls to get them to the church, only if the trips fit within an hour or so time frame.  If you don't have a wedding planner, ask the limo company to help you figure this out.  I always like to have one or two 8-10 passenger limos for the bridal party and a separate, 6 passenger limo for parents.  Then the bride and her father can take one car or rolls that will later bring the bride and groom to the reception.

I DO NOT recommend that you use Louisiana Limousine aka Northshore Limousine aka New Orleans Charter.  They once made a huge mistake in my transportation order and then cursed me out saying "All you white b*itches are the same"  .....I know.  I couldn't believe it either!

That being said, here are some transportation companies in New Orleans that I can recommend:
For Limousines, buses, party buses and those cute little streetcar buses:

 logologo  Image result for Big Easy Limousine



For Rolls Royce and Small shuttle buses:

 Rolls Royce


To plan your wedding in New Orleans, visit www.allaboutevents.net

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