Most couples sort the car first. It's the fun part. You picture the arrival, the photos by the door, the drive away at the end of the day. The guests tend to come up a few months later, usually when someone asks where they're meant to park.
We've done plenty of weddings around Birmingham, and the ones that go well almost always booked two things early: the couple's car, and a way of moving the guests. They're different jobs that need different vehicles, and planning them side by side saves a lot of last-minute phone calls. Here's how we'd approach both.
The couple's car: what a chauffeur actually does on the day
A wedding car isn't really about the drive. The ceremony might be ten minutes from the house. What you're paying for is timing and calm on a day when very little else is calm. A good chauffeur arrives early rather than on time, with the car parked outside and dressed well before you're due to leave, ribbons on if you've chosen them. They'll know the route and the backup route, and they'll have checked where they can wait at the ceremony venue. If the photographer wants a couple of minutes of you getting into the car, they wait. If your dad needs a moment before you walk in, nobody rushes him.
On most wedding days the car does two or three journeys. The first is to the ceremony, often the bride with a parent, or both of you together if you're arriving as a couple. The second takes you from the ceremony to the reception, usually with a stop somewhere along the way for photos. Some couples add a third at the end of the night, back to the hotel. Tell your operator exactly which journeys you need and roughly how long the car should wait at each point, because that's what sets the length of the booking. It's also the question couples most often forget to answer, which is how a car ends up leaving just as the photographer finally gets round to you.
Our chauffeured luxury cars include the Mercedes S-Class, with Bentley and Rolls-Royce options depending on the date. If you've got a particular car in mind, ask early and make sure that exact car is confirmed on your booking, along with the colour. It's also worth getting the small things in writing: the ribbon colour, the pick-up time and address for every journey, how long the car will wait for photos, and what the chauffeur will be wearing if it matters for the pictures. None of it is complicated, but it's much easier to agree in March than to sort out on the morning.
Coach hire for wedding guests: getting everyone from the ceremony to the reception
Guests are a different problem. If the ceremony and reception are in different places, somebody has to move 60 or 80 people between them, often down country lanes and often with a glass or two of fizz already in them. Leave it to everyone's own cars and half your guests will be hunting for parking while the other half stand in an empty reception room waiting for the rest to turn up. A coach, or a couple of minibuses, fixes that. Everyone leaves together, arrives together, and nobody has to be the designated driver.
Start with the numbers, and work them out from your RSVPs rather than the guest list. Not everyone will use the coach. Guests driving home that night will probably want their own car at the venue, and older relatives often go ahead with family. Count the people who'll genuinely ride, then add a few spare seats. That's a lot easier than discovering at four in the afternoon that you're six seats short.
Next, check the venue can actually take a coach. This catches people out more than anything else. Some country-house and farm venues around Birmingham sit at the end of narrow lanes with tight gates and nowhere to turn a large vehicle. Ask the venue directly whether a full-size coach can get to the door and where it can wait. If the answer is "not really", two 16-seater minibuses or a 20-seater will often get in where a 49-seat coach can't, and they're easier to park for the rest of the day too.
Then think about the end of the night, because that's the journey guests remember. The afternoon run is the easy bit. The one people really thank you for is the late collection: a coach at midnight or 1am taking everyone back into the city or on to their hotels, so nobody's arguing about taxis in the car park or deciding they're probably fine to drive. If your guests are staying at different hotels, tell your operator in advance. Four hotel drops take a while, and planning the order means the last guest isn't sitting on the coach for an extra forty minutes.
Planning the booking, and when to get it done
It's tempting to book the coach from the first pick-up to the last drop and leave it sitting outside the venue all day. Sometimes that's the right answer, particularly if the ceremony and reception are a long way apart. Often it isn't. Coach and minibus drivers work under legal limits on how long they can drive and how long they can be on duty, so a booking that starts with a 1pm ceremony run and finishes with a 1am return is a very long day for one driver, and it has to be planned around. Very often the simpler arrangement is two separate runs: guests to the reception in the afternoon, then a fresh collection late at night. Ask how your operator would plan your day. The answer changes the price, and a good operator will tell you straight which option makes more sense.
Timing matters just as much. For a Saturday between May and September, start looking nine to twelve months out if you can. Those weekends are busy across the whole industry, and the couple's car is usually the hardest thing to find once the date gets close. Friday and Sunday weddings, and anything in the winter months, have more room. If you're still waiting on final numbers, don't let that hold you up. Book with your best estimate and adjust the guest transport once the RSVPs are in. What you don't want is the venue, the dress and the band all confirmed, only to find the car you had your heart set on went to another couple in the spring.
When you're ready for a price, the more you can tell us the more accurate the quote will be. The useful details are the date, the ceremony and reception addresses, which journeys you need the car for, roughly how many guests will use the coach, whether there's a late run, and any hotels on the way home. Send those through our quote form and we'll come back with options for the car and the guest transport together. If you already know you want a larger coach for your guests, our coach hire page lists the sizes we run, from 33 up to 70 seats.