We’re having a busy winter here at Georgia Trolley Services. Not only are we busy doing charters, we’re also busy readying our trolleys for the 2012 season.

Annabel has recently had the outside wood redone. The color now makes the real wood look like real wood again. We were very pleased with the outcome. We hope to have her repainted sometime this year.

Kylee Anne is currently undergoing a major renovation. We are replacing the old wood roof which had suffered under it’s previous owner. We got an update on her today when we stopped by to take a look. The new wood is going down nicely and she should be back on our yard in about a week or so. We’ll have a few more things to do once shes back.

Mary Anne was our latest purchase and is Atlanta’s only white wedding trolley with a rear politicians platform on it. We had the trolley painted white once we got her. We’re slowly working on the interior wood.

Because trolleys are a specialty vehicle upkeep of them can be different than standard buses. We take pride in our fleet and are always looking for ways to improve them to keep our vehicles the best looking in Atlanta. Your always welcome to stop by and look at our vehicles before renting from us.

As 2011 nears an end we would like to thank everyone for their business this year.

We have now set our 2012 prices and will begin taking reservations starting on January 1st.  However if you are using a wedding planner/ coordinator we can take your reservation starting December 1st, 2011.

Why are we doing it this way?  Simple.  When we work with wedding planners our services run much smoother from the planning process to the actual day of service.  Wedding planners are your safety net on your big day.  Sure you can use your second cousin and save some money or you can do it yourself and be a nervous wreck and not enjoy yourself.

We prefer working with a wedding planner because if anything goes wrong we have a point of contact to let that person know whats going on.  What if the  groom and his party are running late, which means the trolley will be running late to get the bride and bridesmaids?  Should a guest need to go back to the hotel early, do you want to come outside to find us or search for a cell phone to call us?  Do you want your guests asking you when the next trolley will be here?  Reception running longer than expected and you need to know if we can stay later?  Will you be able to answer the phone if we call you while your getting your hair or makeup done?  These are all things a wedding professional can do for you, when working with us and your other vendors.

We still want your business even if you don’t use a wedding professional, we’ve just found through experience that your evening and ours will be more enjoyable when you do use one.

We’ve added a 4th trolley to our fleet. This trolley seats 26. It is air conditioned and is currently undergoing some renovations.

We’re in the process of having it painted white (it was originally yellow and red). Why white? Well for weddings. This trolley has the highly desired rear politicians platform on it. Stand and wave from the rear deck as you leave your wedding or reception. Then come inside and enjoy your friends company. This trolley will make for some memorable photographs.

Reservations are now being taken for dates after June 1, 2011. If you have last minute transportation needs, give us a call.

A quick story. A person pulls into a automobile repair shop and says my battery light is on I want you to put in a new battery. The mechanic installs a new battery and a few days later the customer comes back and says my battery light is on again, I thought you put a new battery in? I did and the old battery was still good so I used it in another car. The customer asks well why didn’t you tell me? The mechanic replies well you told me the battery light was on and you wanted a new battery and I sold you one. If you had told me the battery light was on and you wanted me to find out what the problem was I would have told you, you had a bad alternator. The morale of the story is don’t be afraid to ask questions when planning your wedding.

We recently had a request from a MOB (Mother of Bride). She wanted 3 trolleys, then 4 when she found out how many seats were on each trolley. She never told us how many guests they were expecting. My best guess was over 100. Well it ends up the MOB used another service whom we happen to know. She used 4 of their buses and out of the 4 (about 150 seats) only about 60 people rode, meaning that there was no real need for two of the buses.

This is where wedding planners come in. Good Wedding Planners know the ins and outs of what makes a wedding work and if they don’t they know how to ask the questions that will get them their answers. We know plenty of wedding planners and almost always when we work with one the event runs smoothly. Even if your on a fixed budget many wedding planners can still work with you.

OK so you don’t want to work with a planner. Then come ready with a list of questions. Don’t worry if you think the question might be trivial your vendor should be happy to answer the question for you. If they don’t you might want to look at other vendors. The better your information, the better your vendor can serve you. Unless you’ve planned dozens of weddings it’s best to approach your vendor with a what do you think attitude.

At Georgia Trolley Services we’re happy to talk to you on the phone, but generally we’ll ask you to send us an e-mail describing what it is your looking for. Why? Because when you write down what it is your looking for it gives you a chance to really look at your request. More often than not your first e-mail will be a starting point. We can give you an estimate and proceed from there with the finer points.

So get your questions ready and give us a call or send us an e-mail so you don’t end up spending money on a battery when you needed an alternator.

Join us at Honest Alley across the street from the Lawrenceville Visitors Center before the ride

ForFree Marshmallow roasting

Warm Tea or Apple Cider at Aristeacrats before or after the ride

Wine Tasting at Niko’s for the Adults
Indoor Farmers Market

FRIDAY DECEMBER 3

SATURDAY DECEMBER 4

FRIDAY DECEMBER 10

SATURDAY DECEMBER 11

FRIDAY DECEMBER 17

SATURDAY DECEMBER 18

THURSDAY DECEMBER 23

DECEMBER 26 – 30, 2010 NIGHTLY

Trolley departs hourly from 6 – 10 PM Last trip 9 PM
No lines to wait in at the fairgrounds.
You can get off the trolley at the Santa Village and take the next trolley back to Honest Alley

Trolley is available all other times for private group tours.

$10 per person
Children under 4 free when they sit in parents lap
Bring a receipt dated in December from any business in Downtown Lawrenceville or from a LTTA member
Or donate 4 cans of food or a unwrapped toy and receive $3 off
One receipt per person

Tickets Sold at Aristeacrats
QUESTIONS/ GROUP SALES
770-652-3453

We haven’t blogged in a while.  It’s been extremely busy around here and for that we are thankful.  We try to make each charter we do special for our customers.  Sometimes the charter itself makes us feel special.

That happened recently when we had the opportunity to serve Usher and his Board of Directors for the New Look Foundation.  We even had CNN on the trolley to do an interview with him.  A nice entertainer doing nice things for the community in return.

So your having a special event.  A wedding, a concert, a trip to the local sporting venue.  You and your guests may be drinking while your there.  Will you drive home after drinking or have a designated driver or hire us?  Think your safe to drive after a few drinks??????

The following story is true, although we’ve left out a few details so as not to identify the police department or venue.

First let me say I have little sympathy for those who drink and drive.  Driving home from a wedding reception is one of the most common ways to get a DUI.  Guests are in a celebratory mood, don’t think they’ve had to much to drink and thus get behind the wheel of a vehicle.  We provide our services to venues in both large and small cities and every local police officer knows when an event, game or concert is happening at these venues.

We were hired to provide service for an event were there was drinking at the venue.  Smart choice.  However as we were leaving to take guests back to their destination a call came into one of the guests.  Another guest had been stopped just down the road.  The officer claimed he saw the driver swerve and suspected a DUI.  We stopped at the scene since the driver had passengers in the same vehicle who had also been drinking.  I watched as the driver was administered a field sobriety test.  He seemed to do well.  The officer then asked to do a alco-sensor test.  The driver refused to do so and thus was placed under arrest and placed in the back seat of a car.  Was he guilty?  Did he do the right thing by refusing the test?  Did the police car have a dash camera to record the tests that they did?  How much will bail be?  How much will an attorney cost to represent me?   I’m not an attorney, but do know a few and it is my general opinion that you could put 10 attorneys in a room and get 10 different opinions as to what you should or should not do if you are stopped for a suspected DUI.  And thats my point.

Would you know what to do and what not to do if you are stopped?  Look at this link at the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety and then look at the number of laws pertaining to DUI.  Remember you’ve been drinking.  Is your attorney on your speed dial?  Will they answer and tell you what to do before the officer reaches your car?  Your an out of town guest who doesn’t know the area very well.  You looked at your GPS to make sure you were headed in the right direction, you swerved when you looked and now you’ve been stopped.

A lot to think about.   With our services a lot less to worry about.  To the officers credit they allowed me to move the car to a secure place, until someone could retrieve it the next day.  They could have towed the vehicle and that would have been additional money you would have to spend.

Generally in my line of work I only meet the Bride and Groom the day of the wedding.  Sure we talk via e-mail or on the phone, but rarely do we meet until the day of the wedding.

Last week I had a phone call from a young man who wanted to do something different with the trolley.  Cameron wanted to propose to his girlfriend Nicole.  He wanted to meet her as she left work and then take a short ride on the trolley to have a few photos taken and then off to dinner.

We worked out the logistics and heres what happened.  Cameron went to Huff’s Flowers and bought rose petals and some roses.  He and I spread them on the sidewalk just outside Sparkle where Nicole works.  A nice gesture, however some people wanted to pick up the roses as if they were there for them.

Finally Nicole and her friend (who was in on the surprise) walked out and slowly walked up the sidewalk.  Cameron could not see her reaction since he was sitting in the stairwell with the doors closed.  As Nicole approached the trolley their favorite song began to play over speakers and I opened the door to let Cameron out.  He got down on one knee (nice to see thats still done) bearing the ring and asked the question.  She said YES, but could barely let him get up because she was wrapped around his neck.  Finally the ring was placed on her finger and another couple is engaged.

We then took a short ride around the square here in Lawrenceville  (I think to let Nicole calm down a bit) .  This was a first for me in my line of work and I give Cameron credit for being creative.

Congratulations Nicole and Cameron

We’ve already had a busy wedding season to date and it continues through the end of June.  We have some availability on Saturday dates during this time.

we’ve already taken some bookings for weddings for the September – December period.  Please get your inquires in soon as this period of the year is filled with weddings, parades and fall festivals and football games.

We look forward to working with you soon.

We are hearing unconfirmed reports that one of our competitors has gone out of business.  Unfortunately some parties have reserved dates and made deposits with this company for service.

If you made your deposit via credit card, you should start by asking your credit card company for a refund.  You generally have 60 days in which to make a written request for the reversal of charges.

At the moment we have some limited availability (April – June) to accommodate your event.  Please contact us via e-mail and we will see what we can do to help.  If we are unable to help, we will certainly try to guide you to someone who can.