We can look back on another successful year of playing our part with our London Taxi wedding car and helping couples on their special day.

As ever, we’ve had a great variety, with many new venues, and obviously, different people  on each occasion. Our role has varied too, from the traditional one of taking the Bride to her wedding, and then the married couple on to their reception, to sometimes just taking either a Bride or Groom to their wedding, or sometimes even just the Bridesmaids and then leaving. And sometimes Betty has made up to three journeys to the venue to get the whole of the Bridal party there.

In 2018 we were involved in 46 weddings, which for a small company in just its third year of operation, and with just the one vehicle, we’re more than happy with! It’s not as if we get repeat business in the wedding industry, so every booking had to be generated from scratch!

Betty, our London Taxi, isn’t shy about travelling and we covered quite a wide area last year, broken down by County here:

• Nottinghamshire – 18 weddings
• Derbyshire – 16 weddings
• Leicestershire – 4 weddings
• Warwickshire – 4 weddings
• Lincolnshire – 3 weddings
• Staffordshire – 1 wedding

These are the Counties where the wedding ceremony took place, and if we include the address from where the Bride started the journey to her wedding, we can add Yorkshire too!

Of those 46 weddings this year, the average time period from booking date to the wedding date was 37 weeks, with the longest period between booking and the wedding being 23 months, while the shortest was just 22 days.

Our most popular wedding venues were the fabulous Hazel Gap Barn, and Derby Register Office with three weddings each, which highlights the many different places we got to visit for the other 40.

We do love a Church wedding though, and of the 46 in total, 17 were Church or Cathedral weddings, many of which had the bells rung, which adds so much to the occasion. In October we had two consecutive weddings at the same Church, in Darley Abbey, Derby, which was a first!

Being British, we can’t not talk about the weather and we had a truly wonderful few months in the summer, with consistent sunshine and high temperatures. Betty has air conditioning, but there were a couple of  occasions, when there were five in the rear cabin that windows had to be opened a little for comfort, it was so hot.

The one day which sticks out during this period was for the wedding of the lovely Samantha & John, at Arnot Hill Park, Nottingham. We had a full cab with the Bride, her Bridesmaids and flower girl. We got to the venue only to find that there’d been a fire alarm, and although it turned out to be a false alarm, the Fire Brigade were still there and we had to wait for around 45 minutes before the Bride could get inside.

We managed to find a shady spot and everyone got out for fresh air and to kill the time. It’s just as well that we always carry lots of chilled water on board! Eventually, order was restored and the ceremony went ahead!

In contrast, we’ve had some very cold and wet days too! The coldest was probably on the day of the lovely Beth & Sam’s wedding in April at Shottle Hall, Belper. We were hired to take the Bridesmaids to the venue and then the Bride and her Mother, and then wait until after the ceremony so the couple could have photos with Betty.

This was our first visit to Shottle Hall and it looks a lovely place, and no doubt it would be fabulous on a better day, but it’s on a hill and on this day it was windy and bleak and Betty looked so forlorn just waiting there in the wretched cold,

Everyone did come outside for photos but they couldn’t hack it for long and we were eventually told we could leave as they scuttled back into the warmth!

Among our “emergency kit”, we have a couple of nice ivory coloured umbrellas, and in our first two years, they were hardly used at all, apart from a couple of occasions when it drizzled a bit, but last year they definitely earned their keep. During Autumn and Winter we had a some very wet wedding days, which is always unfortunate, but it never seems to spoil the day as people just work around it.

 

The lovely Allison & Simon were the first to test the equipment in the Spring and then more did later in the year.

This year, Betty’s built in wheelchair access came into use, firstly for the lovely Bride Shanna-Leigh herself when she married Simon, and on another occasion for the Mother of the Bride. With grab handles all around the rear cab and a step and swing out seat, in addition to the wheelchair ramp, most disabilities are catered for.

We’ve said many times that although in principle, we do the same thing, each wedding is totally different which makes each one a pleasure. Once again we’ve met some lovely couples and shared some happy and memorable times with them.

We’re very fortunate that the majority of our couples give us wonderful reviews and currently we’re 100% on 5 stars, which is just great and very much appreciated!

It’s now early 2019 and we’re gearing up for the early Wedding Fairs and our Spring weddings, before the true wedding season kicks off once more, and we’re so looking forward to it!

The lovely Laura & Daniel

For more information about us and our services, please visit our website here