By Mehmood Ali, Senior DriverPublished Updated 5 min read
Quick answer
Plan wedding taxis in Farnham around the guests who aren’t staying at the venue, group them by where they’re going, and stagger the late-night returns. A taxi carries up to eight passengers, so bigger groups travel in several cars timed together. Orbit Taxis Farnham runs guest shuttles on a single day rate.
Key facts
| Most passengers per taxi | Eight; our largest MPV seats seven |
|---|---|
| Groups of nine or more | Several Orbit cars timed to travel together |
| Guest shuttles | Quoted by Orbit as one day rate |
| Late-night returns | Staggered in waves, booked in advance |
| Best pickup plan | One named pickup point, shared with every guest |
| When to send numbers | As RSVPs arrive; confirm the week before |
Key takeaways
- Plan around the guests who aren’t staying at the venue. At most venues, that’s most of them.
- Break the day into moments when people need cars: arrivals, any move between venues, evening guests and the trip home.
- Pick one clear pickup point at the venue, tell every guest, and spread out the home times so nobody queues for one car.
- A taxi carries up to eight passengers, so plan big groups as several cars timed to travel together.
Start with the right headcount
Getting wedding taxis in Farnham right starts with one number: how many guests aren’t sleeping at the venue. It’s easy to plan around the whole guest list, but what really matters is how many people need a car at the start and end of the night.
At most venues, far more guests come for the evening than can stay over, so the trip home is usually the biggest job of the day. Where they’re going matters just as much. At Farnham Castle most guests make short hops back into town, while at country venues like Cain Manor nearly everyone has a longer drive home along narrow lanes.
Here’s a quick way to work out your own number:
- Start with your evening guest count.
- Take away the guests staying at the venue.
- Take away anyone who’s told you they’re driving.
- Group whoever is left by where they’re staying: a Farnham hotel, home, or the nearest station.
That last step makes the biggest difference. Ten guests heading to the same hotel is a very different job from ten guests heading to ten different villages. Our Farnham hotel transfers page lists the hotels wedding guests use most.
Map the day into transport moments
Most weddings don’t need cars all day. They need them at four or five particular moments. Jot them down with rough numbers:
- Arrivals before the ceremony. Guests coming from hotels or the station, usually all in the same hour.
- Between venues. Only if the ceremony and reception are in different places. It’s the tightest slot of the day, because everyone moves at once.
- Evening guests. A second, smaller wave of arrivals.
- The trip home. The biggest job of the day, and the most important. Plan this one first.
- The morning after. Runs to the station, or back to pick up cars left overnight. It’s often forgotten until the day itself.
Guest shuttle or individual taxis?
There are two ways to do it, and plenty of weddings use a bit of both.
A guest shuttle on a day rate
Cars run back and forth between set points, say the venue, one or two hotels and the station, on a timetable built around your ceremony and reception. It works best when most guests are staying in the same few places. We quote it as one day rate.
Individual pre-booked journeys
Each guest or group books their own car, to their own address, at their own time. It suits guests spread across the villages, or leaving at very different times.
Whichever you choose, spread out the home times. If 120 guests all want to leave at midnight, somebody is going to wait a long time. Give us rough numbers for, say, 22:30, 23:30 and the final carriages, and we’ll have cars arriving in waves instead of all at once.
Choose one clear pickup point
At the end of the night your guests are walking out of a dark venue onto lanes they don’t know. One named pickup point, which every guest has been told about, prevents most of the muddle. Some venues have quirks worth knowing:
- Farnham Castle: we collect from the castle entrance on Castle Hill rather than Castle Street below. The castle sits above a residential street, and a single collection point keeps a crowd of guests off the road.
- Cain Manor: the venue’s own directions say it can’t be reached via Red Lane or the private road at Land of Nod, yet some sat navs still send drivers that way. From Farnham, go through Churt, turn right at the crossroads into Churt Road, and the entrance is about two miles along on the left. If guests are booking their own taxis from outside the area, put this in your wedding information.
We keep notes like these for every venue we cover regularly, including Bury Court Barn, Millbridge Court, Froyle Park and Northbrook Park. The full list is on our wedding venues page.
Big groups: the nine-passenger rule
This one catches a lot of planners out. A licensed taxi or private hire car can carry no more than eight passengers. Under GOV.UK rules, any vehicle that can carry nine or more passengers for hire needs a PSV operator licence. That means a licensed minibus or coach company, not a taxi firm.
In practice, groups of up to seven travel together in one of our MPVs, and bigger parties go in several cars that we time to leave and arrive together, so the group still moves as one. It’s also more flexible than a single big vehicle: guests who want to leave early, or head somewhere different, aren’t tied to everyone else’s timetable.
A simple planning timeline
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| Once the venue is booked | Ask the venue where taxis should collect from, and whether there are any access rules. |
| When RSVPs come in | Add a line asking guests where they’re staying and whether they’re driving. |
| About a month before | Send your rough numbers and timings to your taxi firm, and agree on a shuttle, individual bookings or both. |
| The week before | Confirm final numbers, the home-time waves, and one contact person for the day: your planner, an usher or the venue coordinator. |
| On the day | Let that contact person deal with dispatch if anything changes, so the two of you never have to. |
Wedding planners and venue coordinators can book with us directly and be our contact on the day; just tell us when you get in touch. And if your guests are arranging their own lifts home, our guide to checking a licensed taxi in Farnham is well worth adding to your wedding information.
Frequently asked questions
How far ahead should we book wedding taxis in Farnham?
Send us rough numbers as soon as your RSVPs start arriving, then confirm the details the week before. Popular Saturdays fill up early, so the sooner the better.
Can one taxi firm handle transport for the whole day?
Yes. We can run a guest shuttle between the venue, hotels and the station on a day rate, and spread the home runs out in waves.
Can a taxi carry more than eight wedding guests?
No. Taxis carry up to eight passengers, because nine or more needs a PSV operator licence. For bigger groups we send several cars timed to travel together.
Do you cover venues that aren’t on your list?
Yes. We quote for any wedding venue in and around Farnham. Just call the dispatch line with the address.