The Best Way to Organize a Wedding Carpool

Weddings are a pain to organize, and organizing carpools for your attendees is probably at the bottom of your never ending to-do list. Fair enough. That's how I felt when I got married in 2011. But I am from the environmentally-conscious and limited-parking San Francisco Bay Area, and to not even attempt to organize carpools was a moral no-no. I made some quick Facebook event and invited about 50% of the attendees that happened to be on Facebook and left it all up to them. The result? Maybe 3 cars of people carpooled, but there could've been more. Below are some tips that I wish I had known before attempting to organize carpools to my wedding:

First: Give people an incentive to carpool

People carpool for different reasons--think budgetary reasons, eco-friendly philosophies, meeting new people, convenience, stress reduction, limited parking, etc. However, sometimes the effort it takes to carpool inhibits people despite all these reasons. If you really want your wedding guests to carpool, try some of these incentives:

1. If your destination is far away, tell them you want them to save money driving
2. Encourage guests who have cars to help the other attendees who don't have cars
3. If you want to reduce your carbon footprint, tell them it's a gift ( but not necessarily the only gift ! )
4. If there is limited convenient parking, tell them it would save them time and stress
5. Tell them there's a prize for whoever carpools with the most people!

"When I told the guests that the biggest gift of all is if they could have the smallest carbon footprint, over half of them ended up carpooling!" -- Nick Burdick recently married and the founder of The Practice Habit.

Second: Whatever you decide, make sure you make carpooling mandatory

That's right, command your expectations. It's your day and the world will move for you. Carpooling is best done when organized from the top-down. You set the rules of your wedding, and the team players, which is most of your guests, will play by them. But if you don't command it, people will just ignore it. If I didn't ask people to carpool, some of my friends without cars would've rented one or may not have even attended. So how do you command it:

1. Make it clear in your invitation
2. Put it on your wedding website
3. Send reminders via email or Facebook, or any other method you use
4. Ask your wedding coordinator, families, and/or wedding party to spread the word

The more you want it, the more it'll happen. It's your day. Let them know.

Third: Use the right carpooling tool

When organizing carpools, there aren't many good options for private events like this. Many people just default to Google spreadsheets or chain-message event page (like Facebook), but those tools tend to be clunky and disorganized. People get confused, it's not clear what to do, and as a result people don't end up carpooling.

This is your wedding: nothing should be confusing. This is the exact reason why we created GroupCarpool. There are no log-ins, it's mobile and desktop browser friendly, and it makes sense. Just a simple way for guests to carpool to your wedding!

Conclusion

If you are organizing a green, eco-friendly wedding (by the way, definitely check out GreenBrideGuide before you get started; they have fantastic info there! ) or planning a group trip, make it easier on yourself and take a minute to set it up. It will go a very long way for your own organization and attendees.

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