A Southall wedding can easily run to several hundred guests, spread across a gurdwara in the morning, a family home at lunchtime and a banqueting hall in the evening. Getting aunts, grandparents and cousins from one to the next on time is a job in itself. Minibus hire Southall families book is built around days like that, along with Heathrow runs for relatives arriving from India, Canada and East Africa, and coach-style day trips for community groups.
Southall sits on the western edge of Ealing borough, between Hanwell and Hayes, with the Broadway and King Street at its centre. From our base in SE1, it's about forty-five minutes to an hour outside the rush hour, out along the A4 or the A40.
Minibus hire Southall for wedding days
Many Sikh weddings here begin with the Anand Karaj at the gurdwara in the morning. The Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha on Havelock Road is one of the largest outside India, and there are several others across the town. Hindu, Muslim and Christian weddings follow their own timings, and many families hold a mehndi or sangeet night at home or in a hall in the days before.
The evening reception is usually at a banqueting hall, in Southall itself or out towards Hayes, Heston or the hotels near Heathrow. We'll plan a loop that collects guests from family homes, drops at the ceremony, takes them on to lunch and the reception, and brings them back at the end. For bigger weddings, we can put more than one vehicle on or run the loop several times. Many weddings end with the doli, the send-off at the bride's family home, and guests often need a lift back after that too.
Send us the addresses, the timings and a rough guest count, and we'll come back with a plan.
Heathrow fifteen minutes away
Heathrow is about fifteen to twenty-five minutes from Southall outside the rush hour, via the A312 and the A4 or the M4. It's one of the shortest airport runs we do. Families flying out to the Punjab, Delhi or Nairobi often travel with a lot of luggage, and a minibus with the seats and the space for it is easier than two or three cars.
Send us the flight number for arrivals and we'll follow it on the day. The driver will wait in the arrivals area with a name board if you want one. If relatives are landing on different flights, tell us and we'll work out whether one run or two makes more sense.
Vaisakhi and festival days
The Vaisakhi Nagar Kirtan, usually held in April, is one of the biggest days in Southall's year. Tens of thousands walk the procession route between the gurdwaras, and roads across the town centre close for much of the day. Diwali and Eid also bring crowds to the Broadway and the shops.
If you have a booking on Nagar Kirtan day, tell us early. We'll agree a pickup point outside the closed roads and allow for the slower traffic around them. Plenty of families from outside Southall come in for the day, and a minibus from a gurdwara or community centre elsewhere in London can drop them near the route and collect them later. For community groups travelling to processions and festivals elsewhere, we can collect from the gurdwara or a meeting point.
The Broadway, the canal and day trips
The Broadway and South Road are lined with sweet shops, jewellers, sari and suit shops and restaurants, and groups come from across the south of England for wedding shopping. The restaurants, from Punjabi dhabas to sweet centres, draw birthday and anniversary groups from all over London. Minibus hire Southall shoppers book for a wedding shopping day usually means a drop on a side road off the Broadway and a pickup a few hours later, with room in the back for the bags. The Grand Union Canal runs along the northern edge of the town, and the Hanwell flight of locks, a short drive east, makes a good walk for a group with a picnic.
Community and senior groups book us for day trips further afield, to the coast, to gurdwaras in other cities or to gardens and stately homes. Brighton and Southend are popular, as are visits to the large gurdwaras in Gravesend, Birmingham and Leicester. Tell us the destination and the numbers and we'll give you a quote.
The Broadway at busy times
The Broadway is part of the main Uxbridge Road, and it's busy almost all the time, with bus lanes, deliveries and shoppers crossing between the shops. On Saturdays and in the weeks before Diwali and the wedding season, the traffic through the centre can crawl. For a group pickup, we'll agree a point on a side road rather than on the Broadway itself, and for wedding days we'll build in time for the slower stretches.
For minibus hire in Southall, call 020 7183 0567.