· 2 min read
Booking a wedding car in Ontario: the timeline that actually works
Wedding transport is a timetable with emotions attached. When to book, what to book, and the three things that go wrong most often.
Ontario wedding season runs from May to October, and within it the good vehicles go early. Not because operators are being difficult — because there is a finite number of stretch limousines and executive coaches in the province, and every Saturday in September wants them all at once.
The timeline
- Nine to twelve months out: book the vehicles if you are marrying on a summer Saturday and need anything larger than a sedan.
- Six months out: confirm the guest shuttle, if you are running one. This is the piece couples most often leave too late.
- Two months out: walk the timeline with your planner or with us. Ceremony, photographs, reception, and the gap between each.
- Two weeks out: confirm final passenger counts and any changes of address.
- The week before: we drive any venue route we have not driven before.
What to book
Most Ontario weddings need three separate things, and it helps to think of them separately. The couple’s car, which is about the arrival and the photographs. The wedding party’s vehicle, which is about getting six to ten people to the same place at the same time without anyone driving. And the guest shuttle, which is about nobody driving home from the reception.
The third one is the one that gets cut for budget and then regretted. A shuttle loop between the hotel and the venue is not a luxury; it is the reason the evening ends well.
The three things that go wrong
Underestimating the photograph stop. Photographers almost always want longer than the schedule allows. Build in the extra half hour when you plan the day, not when you are standing in a park watching the light go.
Rural venues at night. A laneway that is obvious at two in the afternoon is not obvious at eleven at night in the rain. We drive unfamiliar venue routes in advance for exactly this reason.
Counting passengers, not people with dresses. A vehicle rated for ten passengers seats ten people in ordinary clothes. Formal wear, and particularly a wedding dress, changes that arithmetic. Tell us what people will be wearing and we will size the car properly.
A note on the weather
Ontario in May and October can do anything. Have a wet-weather version of the photograph plan, and tell us about it, because it usually changes where the cars need to be and when.
