Wedding Transport –  how are you “just getting to the church on time!”?

Now, the traditional route of course, is to have the bride and the father of the bride together in one car and then the bridesmaids, mother of the bride and similar in car two. However, it has to be said that this may prove to be an expensive way of doing things and therefore there are always other options around it.  Also, if you can reduce the cost on car  two you can consider splashing out a little more and getting the car of your dreams for you!

So one option is to utilise me. Let’s face it. I’m gonna be with you in the morning. I’m definitely getting to where you’re getting married. So as a result, you could feasibly ask the bridesmaids to jump in with me, maybe the mother of the bride or similar. On occasions I have even been privileged enough to be the chauffeur for the bride herself. That is always a humbling experience, especially when you see firsthand the nerves and excitement building on the bride’s face as you drive towards their church or venue. For me, the best bits are those glimpses of pure joy and elation that I get to see out the corner of my eyes on bends and junctions as I’m checking the road ahead is clear. These moments are priceless, and I’m blessed to be part of them.

Probably one of my favourite stories about a bridal morning heading to the church was with one of my very good friend’s Mrs Sully. We leave her Maid of Honour’s house in Wellingborough and we’re heading towards her home village of Harrold to the church so she can marry Mr Sully. We head out the front door and I’m thinking that she’s going to jump in the back and have chauffeur service. Nope, Jaks is coming in the front, having the passenger seat and singing along as we head to the church. At Jaks feet are my cameras and one of the first things she does being Jaks is grab the camera, push it out in front of her and do a selfie. Now you’ll see that picture below and this will always be one of my favourites because it shows perfectly the energy, the emotion and the happiness on her face.

Well, just to make it even better, as we were driving to the church, my dad decides to ring me to check in: hence my dad is on speakerphone. My dad and Jaks have met before at the Rugby: Dad and I are Northampton Saints supporters, Mr and Mrs Sully are Wasps supporters. I’m sat driving to the church and the bride and my dad nattered on the rest of the way there about what Jaks wedding day was going to bring, how much fun it’s going to be and so on. You don’t get that if you’re in just any old car!

The other option to consider is utilise Wedding Car Services. Obviously, there are a number of partners out there that have the likes of Rolls Royces and so on. And they will certainly bring an amount of elegance to your day and certainly have that little bit of class. Obviously, there is an expense to this. I can certainly say that all the car services I’ve had the pleasure of working with were fantastic and I think realistically after me they probably have the best job in the world taking couples to get married and seeing the joy afterwards.

It doesn’t have to be a car of course:  several of my couples have hired a London Routemaster bus for them and their guest.  It might be that your best friend picks you up from the church on his farm trailer.  You might find that the golf club next to the church is willing to lend you a cart for the day.  Or you might just find that the groom will simply carry his bride around the grounds!

This is where option three comes in. This is effectively a hybrid of the two above. Ultimately, I am just a photographer (although as you’ll know by now I want to be a close friend as well). It may well be that you would rather have your nearest and dearest riding to the church or venue with somebody that little bit closer. If that is the case, then why not elicit the surfaces of one of your bridal party to be designated driver? If you have suitable cars in the bridal party’s collection then of course utilise them. In a few cases, my couples have been really lucky in that a member of their family is a classic car collector: what could be better than that?

If not, then it’s always an option to look at Avis or Enterprise and potentially hire a Mercedes or BMW and Audi for the day and dress it up within your bridal party with ribbons and bows. It is also a significant mark of trust and responsibility for this particular person to be entrusted with that role and be such a key part of the day. Of course, you have to make this decision sensibly: you want the most reliable person of your bridal party for this purpose. Accordingly, I’ll let you make the judgement of whether that person should be male or female!

This is where option three comes in. This is effectively a hybrid of the two above. Ultimately, I am just a photographer (although as you’ll know by now I want to be a close friend as well). It may well be that you would rather have your nearest and dearest riding to the church or venue with somebody that little bit closer. If that is the case, then why not elicit the services of one of your bridal party to be designated driver? If you have suitable cars in the bridal party’s collection then of course utilise them. In a few cases, my couples have been really lucky in that a member of their family is a classic car collector: what could be better than that?

So there you go, a few ideas on getting to the venue or the church. I hope they’re useful. Ultimately, whatever you decide, there are options there and more to the point, ask the question. If I don’t know the answer I’ll know somebody that does.