Morris Minor Owners Club

This website offers you an opportunity to make some money from your Morris by using it occasionally for Weddings.

(Website link removed as it is trade advertising - LouiseM)

Wedding hire is a specialist field. You need to have insurance for hiring (your normal insurance will be void if the vehicle is being used for hire or reward) and you need to ensure that you can offer a second car if the first fails. It' can be great fun, but it is a very heavy responsibility to help make a couple's big day.

The club insurance - Footman James quoted me £15 per wedding so not that expensive,

I did a few weddings in my beetle and camper and they were great fun .

What sort of money did you charge?

It really depends on who you are doing the wedding for. For friends usually a small charge of £30 to cover petrol. If you want to provide them with champagne/glasses etc then more to include this. We hired a white convertible for our Daughter's wedding and the charge was £250 - but it had to travel up from Hertfordshire to us.

If you are thinking of doing weddings you will need to make sure the interior of the car is in very good condition - no rips in the upholstery for the bride's dress to catch on. It will show in the photographs. Clean door locks (no oil), and preferably a fold down passenger seat which makes the entry to the rear easier and provides storage for a dress with a large train!

Would plg422d like to say whether he has any connection with the business he is promoting?

I think he should also be more open about the snags to "doing weddings". OK, Footman James will cover them on a per-occasion basis, as will RH, but a number of classic insurers won't, as I found out when I tried to beat RH's price for a newly acquired wedding car last year.

It is, as simmitc says, one hell of a responsibility, and that means you need to be highly professional in every aspect of it - from how you show the couples your car, to where you talk to them about their day (not standing next to the car in a cold carport, or in the kitchen while the kids watch the telly); how you send them a quote; and how you make sure it's clear what you're providing, when they've got to pay, and what happens if things go wrong (a proper contract, in other words). Then nearer the day, you need to make sure you know exactly where you're picking the bride up from - not just the address, but whether you can find the house, where you'll park, which way you'll want the car to be facing (no three-point turns with the bride in the back), and the same sort of detail about the church and reception venues. Then on the day, you need to be smartly dressed - more than just some fairly clean jeans - punctual, polite, and prepared to rush round opening doors and calming nervous dads.

And after all that, you never know whether there's an HMRC inspector at the wedding, so you'll have to complete some rudimentary accounts and declare your income - and promptly lose at least 20% in tax.

I do it, and I enjoy it, but it's not for everyone, no matter how interesting your car.

And does the owner of this business really expect people to send money to a stranger with no obvious name or address, and, from checking a few areas, no wedding car providers signed up yet?

Kevin

Yes I started this website, but I wouldn't call it a business as I don't expect it will make any money with the set up and promotion needed.

Yes it is early days and I am looking to sign up the first owners - but facebook and twitter had to start somewhere! (Not that I would expect the numbers to be as high for this....)

Kevin makes some very valid points and I can see a page of tips for both brides and owners being a useful addition. Certainly getting insurance and being legal and honest I would fully endorse. The annual charge is to help to cover costs and to ensure owners are serious about making themselves and their vehicle available.

Point taken about contact details on the website I'll amend.
Mike