Airport transfers, wedding shuttles, pickup groups and the instructions every guest needs, from the first arrival to the final trip home.
Build the plan around each guest's arrival, accommodation and departure, not one generic shuttle schedule. Collect travel details early, group guests by route and time, confirm vehicle access at every location and send each guest only the instructions that apply to them.
Getting people from airports to beds, between events and safely home is the most complicated part of a destination wedding. It becomes manageable when you treat it as six systems rather than one booking.
Which airports or stations will guests use and when?
Where is each person staying and how far is it?
Who needs a ride from the airport or station?
Which events need transport between locations?
How does each guest get back to the airport?
How does each guest get their own pickup time and any change?
Start with the Complete Destination Wedding Logistics Checklist. It covers everything guests need to book, pay, submit and understand beyond transport alone.
Transport is easier to plan when you stop treating it as one booking and map it as a series of separate journeys.
Guests arrive on different days, through different airports, in parties of different sizes. Decide per route whether you provide a transfer, recommend a trusted service, or ask guests to arrange it.
Do not assume guests can walk because two points look close on a map. Account for hills, heat, darkness, formal shoes, unfamiliar roads, older guests, children and accessibility needs.
If alcohol is served, give guests a clear alternative to driving and verify the transport and safety requirements that apply locally.
Collect departure details separately from arrival details and confirm them again in the final week. A guest's original itinerary may no longer be current.
You do not have to provide every ride. You do have to make the boundary unmistakable. Pick one approach per route.
Once guests are making travel decisions, "transport information coming soon" is not an answer.
Your plan is only as accurate as the information behind it.
The number tells you the terminal and lets you see a delay before the guest does. And send the request as its own short message rather than burying it in a planning email. The wedding text message templates include wording for collecting details and chasing whoever has not replied.
Do not start with vehicle size. Start with the journeys guests actually need, then compare them with the vehicles available locally.
Airport, station, hotel or villa
Accommodation, venue or event location
Guests who can reasonably travel together
Couples and families who should stay together
Accessibility, child seats, luggage or language support
A vehicle's maximum passenger count rarely reflects what it holds once guests bring suitcases, strollers or mobility equipment. Leave room for luggage and for last-minute changes.
A vehicle can have enough seats and still be wrong for the road. Confirm all of this before the transport agreement is signed.
Wherever possible, have the venue and the transport company verify the route together and ask for written confirmation that the booked vehicle can reach the exact spot where guests will board.
Work back from the time guests must be somewhere and leave room for all of this.
If details may still move, tell guests when their personal instructions will arrive.
"Shuttles begin at 4:00" is not an instruction. Tell each guest which shuttle is theirs.
Tap the highlighted parts to fill in your details, then copy. Each one says when to send it and whether it goes to everyone or to one guest.
Tap the highlighted parts to add your details, then copy.
Tap the highlighted parts to add your details, then copy.
Tap the highlighted parts to add your details, then copy.
Tap the highlighted parts to add your details, then copy.
Tap the highlighted parts to add your details, then copy.
Tap the highlighted parts to add your details, then copy.
These cover transport. For everything from the RSVP to the thank-you, see the 33 wedding text message templates.
Give every channel one job.
Permanent travel guidance, addresses, maps and the general plan.
Longer booking instructions, attachments and early explanations.
Missing-information requests, personal pickup details, reminders and last-minute changes.
A guest should never have to search a website to work out which of four shuttles is theirs.
For the full timeline of what to send and when, read How to Communicate With Destination Wedding Guests.
Every one of these will happen to somebody. Decide now who has authority to change the plan and who tells the guests.
For our three-day wedding in Tuscany, 75 guests travelled from several countries and stayed across a number of properties. We planned a group day trip and arranged transport for everyone. Then access restrictions meant our full-size coach could not reach the pickup point. It had to become two smaller shuttles.
That one change altered guest groupings, departure times and individual pickup instructions. Booking the transport was never the hard part. The plan also has to be easy to reorganise and communicate when reality changes, because a route that only exists in your head is not a plan the guests can follow.
One row per route, with the columns that keep a shuttle plan honest.
Print it, share it with your planner and your transport company and keep it open through the final week. It has a column for whether the guests have actually been told, because a confirmed vehicle nobody announced is not a finished job.
Once guests reply, each has a different arrival time, accommodation, transport need and departure. Then flights move, deadlines slip and shuttle assignments change.
Guests get one place to ask. You and your planner keep the plan moving.
Not for every part of the trip. What matters is saying clearly which journeys you are covering and which guests arrange themselves. Transport between hosted events, or away from a remote venue after alcohol has been served, deserves particular attention, because guests may have few safe alternatives.
Start researching once the venues, event schedule and accommodation approach are known and book once you understand the routes and local access restrictions. Availability varies by destination and season, so confirm timing with local providers rather than relying on one universal deadline.
Arrival and departure dates, the airport or station, the airline and flight or train number, scheduled times, accommodation, how many are travelling together and whether they need a transfer. Ask about accessibility, child seats, luggage and mobility equipment at the same time.
The date, the departure time, the time to be waiting, the exact pickup point, a map link, which shuttle is theirs, the destination, a contact number and what to do if they miss it. Send it personally whenever different groups have different schedules.
The website holds permanent reference information, email carries longer early instructions and text delivers personal pickup assignments, reminders and last-minute changes. The right channel depends on whether the information is permanent, detailed, time-sensitive or specific to one guest.
There is no single rule. Couples may host all transport, cover only travel between wedding events, or provide trusted options guests book themselves. Whichever you choose, say so before guests make non-refundable plans.
AskVino gives guests one wedding number for questions, updates and personal instructions. We built it while managing travel, accommodation and transport for our own destination wedding.
See how AskVino works