What a wedding car actually has to do on the day

The brief we get, and the brief we need

Most wedding enquiries arrive as a make and a colour. A white Rolls-Royce. A black Bentley. That is enough to check a date against a car, and it is nowhere near enough to plan a day around one. The three things that decide whether the car helps or gets in the way are the address of the ceremony, the address of the reception, and a mobile number for somebody who is neither of you.

The last one surprises people. On the morning, the two people the car exists for are the two people least able to answer a phone. A best man, a planner, a sister, anybody who will be dressed, reachable and not standing in a photograph — give us one of those and a question that would otherwise become a problem becomes a short call instead.

The car spends most of the day parked

A wedding car does very little driving. Ceremony, photographs, reception: the moving parts of a London wedding are short, and the gaps between them are long. Where the car waits during those gaps is most of the job, and it is the part nobody asks about when they book.

Central London is not generous about this. A church in Kensington, a register office in Chelsea, a hotel in Mayfair — a good many of them have nothing outside that a car may legally sit on for the length of a ceremony, and a red route will not hold one at all. The photographer would like the car in shot at the door. The council would like it moved. Both of those are solvable, but only in advance.

So the practical version is this. The car waits somewhere legal nearby and comes back when it is wanted, which on a red route means round the corner rather than outside the door. If your venue has a forecourt, a private drive or a relationship with the estate next door, tell us: permission asked in advance is granted far more often than permission asked while a bride is standing in a doorway.

The route gets driven before the day

Your chauffeur drives the route in advance, at the same time of day. It is the least glamorous line in anything we send a couple and it is the one that does the most work. Traffic at eleven on a Saturday in Marylebone is not traffic at four on a Tuesday, and the only way to know which one you are getting is to go and look at it.

The driver is also looking for the things a map does not hold. Which entrance the photographs will use. Which side of the square has room to open a door properly. Where the car can sit while the register is signed. On a multi-car booking, where the second car goes so it is not blocking the first one in.

Ribbons, and what does not go on the paintwork

Ribbons and bows are fitted before the car leaves us, in the colour you choose, and they go on at our end rather than in a car park with cold hands. A photograph of the bouquet is a far better brief than a colour name; there are a great many things called ivory and they are not all the same ivory.

Nothing goes on the paintwork that could mark it. That rules out a certain amount of the internet’s advice about tape and magnets, and it is not fussiness — it is a car that has to look the same in somebody else’s photographs next Saturday as it does in yours. Red-carpet touches are available where the venue permits them, which is a question for the venue rather than for us, and worth asking early because the answer is often about insurance rather than taste.

Getting in and out is a real consideration

This is the part couples underestimate. A dress with structure in it travels well in a wide, upright rear cabin and badly in a low, tapered one — which is most of why the traditional wedding shapes are the traditional wedding shapes. If the venue is up a gravel drive, or the month is February, a higher car with a proper seat height turns getting out into something dignified rather than an operation.

It is worth deciding this with your photographer rather than against them. The shot most people want is the door opening, so which door, which side and how much room there is beside it are all part of choosing the car. Any of the cars can be dressed in ribbons. Not all of them suit the dress.

Waiting, timings, and the day running long

A standard wedding hire covers the journey to the ceremony, the wait through it, and the journey on to the reception. Photographs at a second location, an evening departure, a car back at the end of the night, a second day — all ordinary requests, all quoted by the hour or the day, and all much better agreed when you book than improvised at four in the afternoon.

Weddings run late. Every one of them runs late. Build that into what you book rather than into what you hope. And when you send us timings, send the time you need to arrive at the ceremony rather than the time you would like to leave the house; we will work backwards from the first and tell you the second, having driven it.

When one car is not enough

Most larger weddings end up with more than one, and it is rarely the couple who need the second. It is the bridesmaids, both sets of parents, and the aunt nobody remembered was coming in from the Home Counties. Multi-car parties are coordinated from a single booking with one point of contact, so you have one conversation about all of it rather than four conversations that each half-know the timings.

The arrangement most big weddings arrive at is an S-Class for the couple with a pair of E-Classes or a V-Class behind it, which keeps the whole party in one visual style and stops the photographs looking like a car park. If you want the couple’s car to be something else entirely — a Phantom, a Bentley, a Range Rover for a country venue — that works too; it is the supporting cars that benefit from matching.

What to send us

Send the date, the venues and roughly how many cars, and you will see what each one costs for that day. Wedding hires are chauffeur-driven as standard, and it is the right default rather than an upsell: the parking is the difficult part of the day and nobody in a morning suit should be doing it.

The figure you are given is inclusive. VAT, mileage and comprehensive insurance sit inside it, there is no delivery charge anywhere in London, and nothing is added afterwards. The office is answered Monday to Saturday, 06:00 to 23:00, on 0207 046 0048, and Sunday is by appointment — worth knowing if you are planning a Sunday wedding.

Questions this raises