There are many factors involved in a wedding, but with smart planning, you can fit them all together. Transportation to and from your wedding venue is a step that should be considered carefully for a safe and seamless event. Here’s a closer look at what to do—and what to avoid—as you arrange transportation for yourself and your guests.

Do:

Consider a single venue.

Getting everyone from the ceremony to a separate location for the reception can be logistically challenging for you and guests, throwing off your timing to add more stress to the day. Find a wedding venue that can host both the ceremony and the reception. You’ll only need to worry about transportation at the beginning and the end of the big day.

Offer shuttles for guests.

Offering transportation for all your guests is considerate, especially if you have family and friends from out of town. For these guests, arrange for a room block at a local hotel and provide a shuttle from the hotel to the ceremony and back after the reception. This also ensures everyone will get home safely if they’ll be drinking alcohol at the event.

Don’t:

Wait until the last minute to book.

Wedding transportation services book up quickly, so waiting until the last minute could leave you scrambling to find a service that’s still available. Reserve your transportation as soon as you’ve chosen your wedding venue. You can provide a guest number estimate to reserve the date and finalize the number once you’ve received all your RSVPs from guests.

Forget a buffer in your timing.

Plan to get all the guests to the wedding venue at least 15 minutes before the ceremony starts, including a buffer of 10 to 20 minutes of actual travel time for assorted delays. If you’re offering shuttles to get everyone home, schedule a few shuttle times toward the end of the night to account for stragglers.

Makoy Center makes coordinating all those moving parts of your day easy. This beautiful, full-service wedding venue in Hilliard, OH, offers over 30,000 square feet of space that can accommodate up to 400 guests, and the team is proud to have been voted Best of Weddings on The Knot® seven years in a row. Packages include free parking, on-site catering, and easy transportation coordination. Browse their event space options on their website and call (614) 777-1211 to schedule a personal tour with a coordinator.