Transportation for Guests?

I’m not providing transportation our venue is 10 minutes away

The only caveat I see with Ubers and transportation is what happens when the guests decide to drive to the venue and then Uber/carpool back? Their car is left overnight and may not be there in the morning.


Transportation out of your pocket is nice but not necessary.

Not necessary. I wouldn't even consider it unless there way a large distance between the venue and accommodation or there was a large distance between the ceremony and reception venues.

I never expect transportation.

Not necessary but nice. I’m providing transportation for those staying at the hotel which is only about 50 people. I also will need transportation so it worked out!

I would never expect transportation unless it was some remote location that was impossible to drive to in a normal car. I have never even heard of it until here.
I’ve traveled for weddings and lots of times people will carpool from the hotel if they are with family or friends.
As far as drinking - I personally would not incite anyone I suspected of being so irresponsible with drinking that I couldn’t trust them not to drive. However, I’m an old lady my circle is well past the go out and get drunk phase of life. One person’s wife drinks too much at dinner parties and slurs her words it’s it’s one of those situations where he’s expected to babysit her.

Our venue and hotel are roughly about 5 miles apart and we are going to do shuttles to and from. I didn’t want people to not enjoy themselves and have to worry about driving and I absolutely did not want to be responsible for anyone drinking and driving. It wasn’t as expensive as I thought it would be and it gives me peace of mind and one less thing to worry about

Since they are so close together, I wouldn't think you'd need to provide transportation. If they were a lot further apart then I would recommend it. Guests should be able to safely figure out their own transportation.

I’ve never expected transportation to be provided at the weddings I’ve attended and if it was, it was usually for out of town guests at the hotel with the room block. Might be a know your crowd situation, like FH and I know our local guests either don’t drink (or drink very little) or already plan on taking an Uber to the venue so they don’t have to worry about their car afterwards.

We aren't doing it. We considered it very briefly, but we decided to take that off our plate as people can figure out how to get from point A to point B.

Not expected or required, but a nice courtesy if it's in the budget. Otherwise, it is perfectly reasonable to expect guests to be grown adults who can handle themselves.

I never expect transportation at weddings. We're thinking of paying for Uber coupon codes to encourage our guests to use Uber instead of driving, but a shuttle was just way too expensive and the coordination was a lot to handle since we have two hotel blocks.

I’ve only ever been to 1 wedding where transportation was provided. It was only about 15 minutes away but we took a school bus and we were able to drink on the bus and it was a blasssttt. We decided to do the same for our wedding event though it’s 10 minutes away so that way we don’t have to worry about any drinking and driving.

Not for 2 miles.

I agree this is kind of a know your crowd/area thing. Is it common in your social circle? I'm from So Cal, and everything here is SO spread out that I had NEVER heard of the B&G providing transportation. People in So Cal drive everywhere anyway, so a wedding isn't any different. However, we have extended family on the East Coast (suburban NJ mostly), and they ALWAYS have transportation from the hotel where most guests are staying to and from the reception venue -- they are Catholic, so there is always a huge gap. People drive themselves to and from the ceremony, but then there is a shuttle available from the hotel to the reception.... (We still drive our own rental car because H doesn't want to be tied to others' schedules.)

If you're up in the air, I'd consider the following issues. Are most people local? Will people from out of the area likely just be coming in for the wedding or will they be staying for a longer period? Will guests be driving to the ceremony anyway? Are they all staying in the same hotel? Are roads/traffic/parking particularly difficult? I think providing transportation makes the most sense when a large percentage of the guests are all staying at the same property, like a hotel, and can easily be expected to likely be on the same time table. If everyone is already driving themselves to the ceremony from different starting points, I'd expect they can drive themselves another 2 miles to the reception and then home again. Good luck!

I don’t plan on providing transportation. I just think of it like a bbq, people come from a couple states away and spend the day with you then drive home. I was worried about this but recent wedding I've been to didn’t have transportation even when the ceremony and reception are at different places.

I don't think it's expected but IMO it's a super nice touch. It's usually not for all guests though, just those staying at a nearby hotel. Do you expect all 250 guests to stay at the hotel? Also in many places ubers and lyfts are super limited....our wedding is in a fairly small town area and there are almost no ubers available when I check, so I'm sure it would be a disaster if 100 people all tried to request an uber at the end of the reception. A shuttle just simplifies things, and makes it so hotel guests don't have to worry about drinking and driving or car rentals during the wedding.

I say it all depends on your venue and location to the hotel. I wouldn't do it for two miles. When I was considering venues there was one I liked up in the mountains, but once I started breaking down the cost I felt I HAD to provide transportation. I didn't want people to have to drive down the hill in the pitch black dark after drinking all night.

The venue we selected is not in the mountains but it's not close to the metro area near the hotels and we are still not providing transportation. The logistics of providing transportation was too much and I didn't want to get that involved with people coordinating to's and from's.

I have seen there are Uber/Lyft options for a Bride & Groom to provide a code to guests to use when getting a ride, which if they use you will pay for their ride.

For two miles I really think you are fine to not provide transportation. Most people know and understand how easy an Uber/Lyft is to get.

In your case, it definitely isn't necessary. We didn't provide transportation for our wedding since there was ample parking at the venue. There are some venues that don't allow guests to park there and they have to take a shuttle from a nearby Park & Ride area. In that case, you should pay for the shuttle service for your guests. But assuming they're allowed to park at the venue, you don't have to provide transportation. And obviously everyone's social circle is different, but for mine most people would prefer to drive themselves anyway.