Two weeks out, a running order
A controller walks through the day with you or your planner and fixes a time to every movement. The chauffeurs work from that sheet, not from a booking reference and a postcode.
WEDDINGS · OCCASIONS
Wedding chauffeurs, London
Cars for the ceremony, the photographs and the drive away, planned with a controller two weeks out so that nothing on the day is being decided for the first time.
A wedding is the one booking where nobody in the car should be thinking about the car. The bride has a dress to get in and out of, the father of the bride has a speech in his jacket pocket, and the best man has the rings. What we arrange is everything around them: which car collects whom, from where, at what minute, and what each one does while the vows are being said.
It starts with a walk-through of the timings a fortnight before the day. A controller goes through the running order with you or your planner (the house where the bride is dressing, the church or register office, the reception, the photographer's list of locations if the couple are stopping on the way) and writes each movement down with a time against it. Two weeks is deliberate. It is late enough that the venue and the order of service are settled, and early enough to change a car or add one without anybody being rushed.
Wedding cars are booked by the hour rather than by the journey, because on the day they rarely make a single journey. The car that takes the bride to the ceremony waits outside it, takes the couple on to the photographs and then to the reception, and a point-to-point fare would price a fraction of the time it actually spends with you. Hire by the hour keeps the chauffeur and the car yours between those legs, parked and ready rather than sent away and called back.
Matched cars are the usual request: two of the same model, one for the bride and one for the bridesmaids or the groom's party, so that they arrive looking like a pair. They can be ribboned or left plain. Say which when the booking is made, because the ribbon goes on before the car leaves for the first pick-up, not at the kerb outside a church.
The cars suit different parts of the day. The long-wheelbase S-Class is the usual bridal car: the long wheelbase leaves room behind the front seat for a train to be gathered in, and it is quiet enough inside for the last few minutes before the ceremony to be calm. The Range Rover is asked for when the reception is at a country house with a gravel sweep or an estate drive, and also by brides in long dresses: the air suspension lowers the body, so getting in is a step sideways rather than a crouch. The V-Class takes a party of bridesmaids together, with powered doors on both sides and room for the flowers.
Your chauffeur's name, photograph and registration reach you the evening before, as they would for any booking, and the chauffeur is outside the address early enough for the photographer to have the car in shot before anyone comes out. If the service overruns, the car waits; that is what an hourly hire is for.
Matched, ribboned or plain
Two cars of the same model for the bride and her party, dressed with ribbon or not, as you prefer. Ask when you book, so the dressing is done before the car sets out.
Held through the photographs
Booked by the hour, so the car stays at the ceremony and carries the couple on to the photographs and the reception rather than dropping and leaving.
- A fortnight before
The walk-through
You or your planner take the controller through the day, and every movement is written down with a time beside it.
- The evening before
Your chauffeur, named
Name, photograph and registration arrive, so the house knows who is coming to the door.
- Before the first pick-up
Ribbon, if you asked for it
A car booked dressed is dressed at the start, before it sets out.
- Arrival
Outside in good time
Parked early, so the photographer can frame the car before the bride appears.
- The ceremony
The car waits
It stays outside through the vows, and a service that runs long simply runs into more of the hire.
- Photographs, then reception
The couple carried on
The same chauffeur takes you to the photographer's locations and then on to the reception.
Mercedes S-Class, 3 HOURSMercedes S-Class, 3 hours: £165 ex VATEx VAT · VAT at 20% on top60 miles includedPrice these hours →
Each figure is the lowest the booking form quotes for that hire on an ordinary day, with 20 miles included for every hour booked. A night, a bank holiday or the congestion charge adds what it adds, and is shown before you confirm; VAT at 20% is added on top. Price your own journey and the figure you are shown is the figure you pay.
What every booking includes
- A fixed fare quoted on your actual route before you confirm, with the congestion charge already inside it
- An SIA-vetted chauffeur, named to you the evening before with his photograph and registration
- Flights tracked from take-off, with 60 minutes of complimentary waiting at the airport
- Meet and greet inside the terminal, at the arrivals name board
- Free cancellation up to four hours before the pick-up
How it works
I
Price the route
Put the two addresses into the booking form. The fare comes back on the measured distance, not off a table, and it is the fare you pay.
II
Confirm the car
Choose the vehicle and the booking type, give us the flight number if there is one, and pay or put it on the account.
III
Meet your chauffeur
His name, photograph and registration reach you the evening before. His live position reaches you on the morning.
IV
The name board in arrivals
On an airport pick-up he is inside the terminal at the barrier, not in a car park. Delays are absorbed by us, not billed to you.
As soon as the date and the venues are fixed, and in any case before the fortnight walk-through, which needs the cars already allocated. A summer Saturday is the date everybody else wants too; a weekday wedding in February can usually be arranged at shorter notice.
Yes, two of the same model, which is how most couples book it. The S-Class is the common pairing. If one car needs to carry more people than the other, the V-Class with a saloon is the practical combination, though it will not look like a matched pair.
Yes. The booking is by the hour, so the car and chauffeur stay with you for the whole of the hire, including the time spent at a park or a bridge for the photographer. If the day runs long, ring the control room and the hire is extended rather than the car leaving.
Not at all, and it is often where the Range Rover earns its place: a country house at the end of a long drive is an easier arrival in a raised car. Tell the controller the venue at the walk-through so the route and the drive are checked beforehand.
SALOON · W223 · LONG WHEELBASE
Mercedes S-Class
The standing choice for airport and executive work. Rear seats recline, the cabin is quiet at speed, and the partition glass is available on request.
3 PASSENGERS · 3 BAGS · FROM, EX VAT £55/HR
SALOON · W214 · BUSINESS
Mercedes E-Class
A shorter, faster car for city movements and single-passenger runs where the S-Class would be more than the journey needs.
3 PASSENGERS · 2 BAGS · FROM, EX VAT £45/HR
PEOPLE CARRIER · W447 · EXTRA LONG
Mercedes V-Class
Conference seating, a folding table and full standing luggage capacity. The car we send when a party travels together and wants to keep talking.
7 PASSENGERS · 7 BAGS · FROM, EX VAT £55/HR
SUV · L460 · LONG WHEELBASE
Range Rover
A raised, long-wheelbase SUV for country work and poor weather, with the rear cabin of a saloon. The car to send when the road at the far end is not a London street.
4 PASSENGERS · 4 BAGS · FROM, EX VAT £85/HR