Birthday, Anniversary and Special Occasion Limos

Celebration bookings are the most flexible thing we do and the easiest to get wrong. The vehicle is not the event; it is the thing that stops the evening fragmenting into six separate cab rides and one person who volunteered to stay sober.

Whether it is a fortieth, a fiftieth, a golden anniversary or a surprise proposal, the shape is usually the same: collect everyone, hold the vehicle through dinner and whatever follows, and take each person home at the end.

Formats that consistently work

Dinner and two venues. Five hours covers a restaurant, a bar with a table reserved, and individual drop-offs. The most-booked shape we run.

The surprise pickup. The vehicle collects the guest of honour last, with everyone already on board. It needs coordination and it always lands.

A Niagara winery day for a landmark birthday — eight to ten hours, three or four estates, lunch at a vineyard. See wine tours.

An engagement or proposal. A Rolls-Royce or luxury sedan, a route past somewhere that matters, and a chauffeur briefed on exactly when to stop and when to wait.

Sizing it

Eight to ten guests: a stretch limousine. Fourteen to twenty: a stretch SUV or Hummer limo. Twenty or more: a party bus, which by then is also the cheapest option per head.

Round up rather than down. A vehicle at exactly its licensed capacity is full; two spare seats is comfortable, and comfort is most of what you are paying for.

Details that make it easy

• Book restaurant tables first, then build the hours around the reservation times
• Nominate one organiser as the chauffeur's contact for the evening
• Put the drop-offs inside the booked hours — the end of the night is when the car matters most
• Tell us about a cake, decorations or a surprise stop when booking, not on the night
• Weekday evenings cost considerably less than Saturdays, if the date can move