Tight-Budget Weddings: Can You Make Do With One Car?

Planning a wedding takes some work, especially if you're on a tight budget. The logistics of getting all the bridal party to the church or wedding venue on time can be tricky, and you may not be sure how many wedding cars to hire. Ideally, you'd like to keep costs low and hire just one car. Is this feasible?

Will One Car Be Enough?

Wedding cars tend to be used to get the bride and her bridal party to the wedding. For example, this involves transporting bridesmaids, the bride's parents and the bride herself. Typically, you don't cram the whole bridal party in one car — wedding arrivals are usually staggered. So, the bride's mother and the bridesmaids arrive first; the bride and her father arrive later.

If you only have a short journey from home to the wedding venue, then one car may be enough. The car picks up the bride's mother and the bridesmaids and drops them off before returning for the bride and her father. If you have a longer journey or if traffic will be heavy, then two cars may be safer.

What About the Groom?

While it may be nice for the groom to arrive in a wedding car, this isn't essential. Grooms don't need to make a big entrance and could just arrive in a taxi. You could even squeeze an extra journey out of one wedding car by having it pick up and drop off the groom and his groomsmen first.

Traditionally the groom's party arrives before any of the bridal party, so the car could then go to pick up the bridesmaids. Alternatively, you can hire a separate car for the groom's party. This extra car may also come in useful after the ceremony.

How Will You Get to the Reception?

The bride and groom traditionally travel to the reception in the wedding car on their own. They usually leave first. Again, if you're only talking a short distance, then the wedding car could make repeat journeys to pick up other people; however, this may delay the arrival of key guests at the reception. You may need them there early for the photographs.

If you only hire one wedding car, then you may be able to solve this problem by getting other guests to give lifts to parents, bridesmaids and groomsmen. If this isn't feasible, then you may find it simpler to book more than one car for the day.

If you aren't sure, talk to your wedding hire company. They can advise whether one car will be enough or whether more would be better.