Wedding Travel 101
The past two weekends I've traveled to Princeton, N.J., and Charleston, S.C., for fabulous family weddings; this time last year I was two down, four to go by September. For 2004-2005, it was somewhere in the ballpark of eight weddings throughout the year, and myriad bridesmaid duties so put the count up to 13 wedding events that involved leaving Washington, and mostly via air.
Sunday was the first time travel plans went awry. After the post-wedding brunch and a carriage ride around Historic Charleston, we headed to our early-evening flight back to BWI via Atlanta. Our first flight was delayed, and we knew we'd miss the connection.
While others lined up at the AirTran counter, we hit the cellphone and the Web site and arranged to be put on the next flight from Atlanta to BWI. We were lucky -- upgraded to business class on a fluke at no charge, and we made the new connection and landed back at BWI only three hours after the planned arrival. At least two people in the same perdicament didn't seem to get rebooked and so ended up in airport limbo late on a Sunday night.
Anyway, here are a few of the things I've learned while doing all of this wedding travel:
1. Yes, it's a wedding, but bring your laptop. Hopefully your hotel and/or the airports you're flying through have wireless. (In Charleston, our Mills House Inn had free wireless throughout; the airport's cost $3.95 for 15 minutes, or $6.95 for eight hours). If your hotel doesn't have wireless, chances are there's a coffeeshop in the near vicinity that will have it, and fees will be considerably lower than using hotel business centers. You may not want to be in email contact while you're away, but it's invaluable for:
-- checking in online for your return flight up to 24 hours before you take off and scoping out alternative flights should inclement weather or something you've overheard gives you an inkling you may be hanging around the airport longer than you'd planned--and with a post celebratory hangover to boot.
-- seeing what's on in the celebration city while you're there. Unless you're a superplanner, chances are you've put more thought into your wedding attire than to how you'll spend downtime between events.
2. With liquid rules these days, you'll probably be checking at least one bag while traveling, and 9 times out of 10 your wedding clothes will be in that bag. (Not if you're the bride--never check that dress!) Especially if you have a connecting flight, which increases (at least in my paranoid mind) the chances that your luggage will mysteriously go missing en route, if at all possible, pack an alternative outfit in your carryon so that if your luggage is missing or delayed, you can show up to the rehearsal dinner being presentable.
If you have a dress-up/dress-down jersey dress or a lightweight blazer you could throw over khakis, consider wearing them on the plane (with the right footwear in your carryon), just as a backup plan. You'll always be able to find a quick drycleaners to freshen them up, but may not find something in your size at your destination. Picture time is not the time to show up to in ill-fitting shorts and a "Dad went fishing in Key Largo and all I got was this lousy T-shirt" T-shirt from the hotel gift shop.
3. Don't bring the present to the wedding; mail it. The couple probably had to travel at least a little bit, and won't want to transport it; you won't really want to pack or carry it, or risk breaking it; and you have a year anyway, why add stress to your travels right now?
4. Carry extra cash on you for incidentals to and from the airport. We got home so late on Sunday that waiting around for a creditcard-friendly Super Shuttle just wasn't going to happen. Then we ran into heavy congestion on 95 South while the meter ticked away, and if we hadn't have had extra cash on hand that would have been one more thing to worry about when landing at 1:45 a.m.
5. Look into transportation options connecting the airport to the wedding/hotel site. Calculate shuttle fees both ways, time spent waiting, and meaure it against going in on a rental with other guests flying in around the same time (this is where getting in touch with the wedding party is helpful; they may know when certain people are flying in). More than once I've flown somewhere only to be picked up by a mutual friend who lived close enough to drive to the wedding. Chipping in for gas was far more enjoyable than hanging around waiting for the shuttle, which then of course has to drop everyone else off before you.
6. I'm going to stop now. What do YOU think should be kept in mind while traveling for a wedding? Do tell!
By Anne McDonough |
June 19, 2007; 11:05 AM ET
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Wedding Travel
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Posted by: Historian | June 19, 2007 11:34 AM
Pack a small "emergencies" kit - clear nail polish for stocking runs, band-aids small safety pins or straight pins for hems/bra straps, some form of headache relief, sewing kit (with hem tape).
Depending upon where you're staying, you may not be able to find this stuff if you are on a delayed schedule from the airport to the hotel to the venue. A quick fix in the hotel is easier when you have the tools.
Posted by: Chasmosaur | June 19, 2007 4:42 PM
Just say NO to weddings that are farther than one day's driving distance.
Posted by: Mister LasVegas | June 19, 2007 5:36 PM
Oh, you can't say no to *all* weddings that are more than one day's driving distance.
My oldest and best friend got married in Monterey, CA when I was living in DC. Not because it was an arbitrary destination wedding, but because that's where he and the bride's family lived.
I would have been miserable if I didn't go to that wedding, despite how much the plane tickets cost. Sometimes the ties that bind (which aren't necessarily blood ties) mean you make those trips.
So say "no" to the distant weddings where you feel you're invited merely because you're on someone's checklist. But when your friend calls you within 12 hours to tell you they're engaged and then they make sure the wedding date is good for you because they really want/need you there? Say "yes" to those weddings. Those are the GREAT weddings (at least in my experience).
Posted by: Chasmosaur | June 20, 2007 10:08 AM
I have a few wedding travel tips:
1. Unless it's a real and separate vacation for you and your significant other, go solo!
2. Be independent. Rent a car or take cabs. Don't depend on the bride, groom and other wedding party participants to drive and entertain you during the weekend.
3. Never take the last flight to the wedding destination. You'll always miss it or it will be canceled or delayed. Remember Murphy's Law.
4. Never take the first flight out the morning after the wedding. Too much champagne + no 5am wake-up call = Trouble.
5. CAREFULLY consider attending weddings that take place on 3-day holiday weekends. Airfare is WAY more expensive, hotels are WAY more expensive, rental cars are sold out. I'd spend more money on a nice gift for the couple rather than pay holiday surcharges that airlines/hotels "bake" into their prices...OR go to the wedding and DON'T complain that it's taking place over an expensive holiday weekend.
Posted by: No Holiday Weddings | June 20, 2007 3:44 PM
My fiance and I have attended 9 weddings since May '06 (we regretted a few others) and we still have 6 this summer. Only two were in DC, so we spent a fortune on the others.
We try to take each weekend as a mini-vacation and enjoy it as much as possible. I usually hit tripadvisor and come up with offbeat things to see or do at each (world's biggest ball of twine! type junk). We usually stay in a B&B and just enjoy the time together and away from the DC heat.
In a couple of years, everyone will be married and we won't have to do this anymore, so why not have fun with it now?
(we're 28/29 now, which seems to be the prime wedding age)
Posted by: 3 down, 6 to go this summer | June 20, 2007 4:43 PM
Historian, the bag you're referring to is a Skyroll. We have one, and it is fantastic. Rolled clothes wrinkle way less than folded clothes in a suitcase. A skyroll costs around $100, but is worth every penny.
Posted by: Skyroll | June 20, 2007 6:23 PM
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Tuxedo shops (and possibly other stores) carry speciality bags designed to roll up and classify as carry-ons that hold two to three suits or dresses along with shoes and ditty kits. The hanging-bag part wraps around the center tube. They have a shoulder strap for hand-free carrying. I forget what they are called.
When we went to Las Vegas last March for my daughter's wedding, my son and husband put their suits et al for the wedding in one of these, leaving the other's carry-on to hold other things that they wanted on the plane. My dress, shoes, purse and jewelry for the wedding when in my carry-on along with my medicine and change of clothes. My dress was on a hanger and folded with the plastic bag. The wrinkles came out while hanging in the closet in the hotel room. My daughter and fiance used another one for their wedding attire, etc.
Of course, with all this foresight, our bags arrived with us on our plane.