VENT Wasted So Much Money For A Limo....

That bites... this happened to us with my sons prom... the kids rented a party bus but when they were staying too late at the prom the driver called to let them know he had to leave so they either needed to leave the prom or arrange another ride. It was horrible.. the girl who booked the bus never looked into that assuming that it was driving time only... I'm sorry that happened to you!!

That sucks. I'd be pissed too. I think we're just going to skip the whole limo thing and take our cars. I just don't feel like wasting money on something that no one's gonna really pay attention to anyway.

If it's just for you and your gals prior to the wedding and then just you and DH after the cermeony, have you looked in to how much it costs for a car hired for the day?

We spent no money on limo. We used my parents Chrysler Aspen. It seated all of us plus a very nice volunteer driver/hopefully future SIL. Is borrowing someones nice car/truck/suv an option?

Yeah limos are expensive and I think they are a waste of money (personally) unless you book them just to leave your wedding in, in style. You can't blame them though, typically they can't do other things while they're waiting to pick you up again. If they leave you to go give others a ride and something happens and they dont make it back to you in time, it's just a big mess.

See we were so excited about everything at the time and we both thought it included driving time, so when i spoke to FH the other day about it he also thought it was driving time as well, but i was like let me call and find out or else we'll be looking for transportion as well as our guest. i'm so glad i did call and find out early so we can figure out what to do while we still have time or else we would have been out of luck. i wish people would explain this to you,but then if they were honest they would have no business

I'm thinking I'll just schedule one limo for 2hours to get us there and then to the reception, then say they're done, then hire a second one to just pick us up (from ad ifferent company, so they don't get wise ;D)

But that does suck if youve already paid and cant back out D:

I'm actually going without a limo. I'm getting dressed at the venue so my mom or sister will drive us from the hotel to the venue. We are taking pictures on site. FH will drive himself or someone will drive him to the venue. Then we'll either ride in our car or someone will drop us off at the hotel. We have a few people staying at the hotel with us, so we'll all meet up and hang out afterwards.

It sucks that the company didn't make that clear to you. I'd ask for a refund and arrange other transportation.

That is standard practice. I'm also suprised they let you only book 3 hours. Most companies I know of require a minimum of 4 hours. That's the only way it's worth their while to do it at all...

I have heard of brides doing ride sharing... Like if you use an all inclusive venue with multiple rooms- they work with the other brides getting married that day and share a limo. They vary the ceremony/reception times, etc so it all works out that they get the limo. Since they are charged hourly instead of by the mile, etc- the make that driver work for their money! They rent it for the whole day and split the cost amongst them...

What i'm going to do is talk to FH about what he wants to do. what we had planned was that the first trip would pick him up and ten people he chooses and drop him at the ceremony site and then it would come and pick me and my people up and drop us off at the site, then when it was done just drive us to the recepition. but now since the time is different i might just have him pick people up and drop them off so we don't waste so much money. in NY the have a taxi limo service so we may just take them for a ride back to the hotel or we'll figure something out.

Yeah, we questioned that when we won a free 2 hr limo... but we figure we might just get rides with family and take the limo home!

My dad actually used to drive limo... they can't leave to take another call because then they could get held up getting back to you... and just because they're sitting doesn't mean you can't use them, you just are choosing not to use them... it's a sneaky system, but they have some points on why they can't leave.

Yeah i get the point on why they can't leave and really love that fact, but i just thought that the 3hrs included driving. like the clock would start when he was driving then it would stop when he had to wait then start again when he was driving us. i have to wait to talk to FH cause he's at work, the company we are working with is pretty much paid off so since this is the case i'll make sure that i put him to work. since our wedding party has to be there first for pics i'll send him back to the hotel to pick up guest and bring them to the ceremony and when it's over he'll take us first to the recepition and then i'll send him back so that he can get people and bring them back to the recepition, i'm not about to let him just sit there for my money he gonna work

We got our limos for four hrs. I have decided to get dress closer to the church and make sure our ceremony is under an hour. Pictures and reception.

Latasha I had the same problem! I had to find a limo that will do one hour in the morning to drop us off and 3 hours in the evening. I had to call and ask for split times is what its called. Some limo services will offer you split time if you are willing to pay hourly and potenitally use two separate vehicles. We ended up getting it for 619.00 which was CHEAP! compared to retarded prices they was quoting. Try the phone book. I say that to all the brides because thats where you get your small private business that offer better deals because they appreciate customer business more. It took me 3 months to realize picking up the phone book was the best decision lol I ever made. geeze google I guess isn't for me!

We'll have a limo ... it'll be for us girls to get to the church(2 hours) and then the whole bridal party to bring us to Millenium Park for pictures (1 hour) and bring us back to the hotel (1 hour) for the reception I don't get why people ask their BMs and GM to find other ways back to the reception after the ceremony ... it's one thing if both ceremony and reception are at the same place, but another if traveling time is required.

However, if you can't afford the limo, then I'd cancel and rent a car and "hire" someone to drive it ...

I'm so happy we never tried to have a limo. We just used our minivan, and had my son drive us from our accommodations to the synagogue, from the synagogue to the restaurant where the luncheon was held, then back to our accommodations. Plus, we got some big smiles from people who saw our minivan with two brides in it.

That is standard. We're doing that and then taking a cab back. Sucks but what can you do.

Yeah that is pretty standard. I remember the prom thing because I had a friend who loaned us his limo for free, but we had to pay the driver. Even in 96 it was $25/hr for a driver. But we had the limo for 8 hours so it wasn't a bad deal.

For your wedding, have you looked into a party bus for transportation of the bridal party?

For our wedding, we didn't want to have to deal with the whole limo dillema, so we were just going to rent a caddy or something, but USAA had a great deal with Avis so we ended up renting a Corvette for less than $200 for the whole day and with 250 free miles. Luck of the draw, the corvette was white. Maybe that's an option?

Leighton

@LDPhotograpy i didn't even think of renting the car i told FH about it and he said that we'll just ride with the rest of the guest back to the hotel since that is where we'll be staying too or just call a limo cab. since the wedding is in NY they actually have those, so since we paid for it we're going to use it as much as we can. we only have 40 people for the ceremony, so we'll make him pick up the people for the ceremony and have him take everyone to the recepition, i'm going to get my money out of him one way or the other

I would go the route of the limo cab. to give you guys some privacy. I dont know about everyone else, even though nothing "really" changed after we were married, we felt different, unified. We enjoyed the little moments that day by ourselves.

It's your dime, make the call. I think everything will work out!

Leighton