Out of town guests are going to make up about 50% of our guest list, so Mr. C and I are brainstorming ways of getting them from their hotels to the reception site or vice versa. Though we’re having the ceremony and reception at the same venue, we want to provide our guests with a way to get there since many of them may not be that fluent in English and most family members will be preoccupied with wedding events so it’ll be difficult to coordinate rides. Plus, we know we’ve got a bunch of heavy party-ers among the crowd, so we want to make sure everyone gets home safe.
What’s an effective, yet fun way to transport our guests? I was inspired while strolling around Manhattan…
I would never pay for a tour on one of these any other day, but for my guests, it’d be a quintessential New York experience and for the cheese-phobes, they could just blame it on the bride and groom. Right now, I’m imagining our drunk friends from college hanging off the top railings… yikes!
My research led me to Gray Line Bus Tours (which Miss Peony recently mentioned here). Their site even has a section for weddings (which I’m always wary of because I think they’ll charge more). I called instead of emailing and got rates. It would cost about $800 per transfer, so roundtrip it would be about $1600. Whoa…
But the good part is that it can seat up to 82 people which would be great… except if it rains, it can only seat 29/standing 15 downstairs. And they can’t guarantee a secondary bus. So for the price Mr. C and I are going to have to really explore other options. They also have a trolley in the fleet, but that would seat only 28 people and cost about $600 per transfer. At that rate, I’d rather get the double decker and hope that it doesn’t rain!
We don’t want to resort to the standard coach bus, but for the sake of efficiency, we may have to.
How did you get your guests to your wedding?
Wow, that is about the cutest thing ever, I wonder if they’d drive all the way out to Illinois for a wedding? Haha. We’re still undecided about what we’re doing for guests. A shuttle of some sort, I think, because our venue is somewhat hard to get to, out in the country, and we’ve got a lot of drinkers in the group as well. We’re still working out the logistics of it though.
Free hotel shuttle with XX number in our room block. They offered up to three round trip transfers for free! 
Granted the hotel and ceremony/reception site were only 4 miles away from eachother.
Our public transit bus company (OC Transpo in Ottawa) offers busses for rent. They also have a line of vintage busses which are really cool. Cost is approx $650 there and back for the vintage and $450 for the regular city bus.
Have you checked out school buses? That’s what we are going to use to transport guests to and from the after party. It was the cheapest option and guests will probably get a little nostalgic when riding them. I think it gives the whole event a whimsical touch!
The hotel we’re using for the wedding block, is right around the corner from the reception. So we lucked out in that area.
Honestly, I think you’ll be fine with just a coach bus or hotel shuttle. The last time I was a BM, the bride rented a trolly for all the bridal party. The air conditioning didn’t work that well, and the bench seats were really uncomfortable. And we never even all posed for pictures in front of it. The coach buses are much more comfortable!
Be a little careful with the Grey Line double decker if it rains. I was on one during a storm and it rained inside the bus and everytime the bus braked there was a deluge inside the cabin. It might have just been that one bus … but I though it was worth a warning.
Mrs. Canary, New York
Age and Occupation: 24, Marketing
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Journalist/Editor
Engagement Date: February 16, 2007
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: October 19, 2007
Venue: Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers
About Me: I'm a born and raised New Yorker who loves all things crafty and artsy, food (cheese and dessert!), magazines, and shoes. I'm a power shopper always on the lookout for good deals or great quality-- sometimes I'm lucky and I find both! I love to dance and "shake what my momma gave me" but can also really enjoy a quiet night in with Mr. Canary and a good episode of Seinfeld or curl up with a good book.
We did make an attempt at hiring bike rickshaws for the long driveway, but the only company in the state didn’t return our messages!