We get asked about weddings a few times a season, and the conversation usually starts in the wrong place — with how many guests a cart can move.
So let's begin with the honest limit, then get to what a cart is genuinely good for on a wedding weekend.
What a cart is not
It is not guest transport. A cart seats six, with six seat belts, and six means six. If you have 80 guests to move between a ceremony and a reception, you need a shuttle company. We are not one, we don't provide drivers, and we have two carts in total.
Anyone telling you a golf cart solves guest logistics for a wedding is selling you something that won't work on the day.
What it's actually good for
Three things, and they're real.
The wedding party's own hops. The couple, the immediate party, the people running the day — moving between the accommodation, the hair-and-makeup location, the venue and back. Those are short beach-neighbourhood runs, repeated a lot, and they're exactly what a cart handles well.
Not needing to park. A beach venue in Pacific Beach, Mission Beach or La Jolla on a summer Saturday is a parking problem for every single trip. A cart mostly isn't.
The photographs. A cart at the kerb, decorated, with the couple in it, is a genuinely good shot — and it's a nicer exit than a rideshare pulling up.
The weekend, not the day. Most beach weddings run three days: rehearsal dinner, wedding, farewell brunch. A multi-day rental covers the whole thing, and our rate drops after the first day.
Decorating it: yes, within reason
You may decorate the cart. We'd rather you did — it looks great.
Two rules:
Light decoration only, and nothing that damages the cart. Ribbon, flowers, fabric, a "Just Married" sign — all fine, provided it comes off cleanly and leaves nothing behind.
No stickers. Anywhere. This is the firm one. Adhesive will destroy the paint finish, and that damage is neither cheap nor quick to fix. It's the single thing most likely to cost you part of your deposit, so please pass it on to whoever is decorating.
Also keep decoration clear of the lights, licence plate, mirrors and windscreen. Those are legal requirements on a street-legal cart, and obscuring them makes it non-compliant on a public road.
Everyone who drives, signs
You can add up to six additional drivers to the reservation, on top of whoever booked it. If the wedding party needs more than that, call us before the date — don't discover the cap on the morning.
Every one of them must:
- be added as an additional driver on the reservation,
- hold a valid driver's licence,
- verify their own ID, and
- sign the rental agreement themselves.
It's all done on a phone, ahead of time. Do it the week before, not on the morning — a wedding day is a bad time to discover the person holding the keys isn't on the paperwork. How It Works walks through it.
The alcohol section, which is not negotiable
Weddings involve drinking. This part is the law, not our preference.
California DUI law applies to a street-legal golf cart exactly as it applies to a car. A low-speed vehicle is a motor vehicle under the Vehicle Code, and §23152 makes it unlawful to drive a vehicle under the influence or at 0.08 percent or above. Same statute, same limit, same arrest — and the licence at risk is the ordinary one.
Drinking in the cart is separately illegal, for everyone in it. §23221 says a driver shall not drink while driving on a highway, and — in its own subdivision — that a passenger shall not either. §23223 does the same for merely possessing an opened container: driver and passenger, both prohibited.
And on a cart there is nowhere lawful to put it. §23225 requires an opened container to be kept in the trunk; a vehicle without a trunk must stow it "in some other area of the vehicle that is not normally occupied by the driver or passengers." A six-seat cart has no trunk and no space that isn't a seat. So it isn't only "don't drink in the cart" — an open bottle has no legal place aboard it at all.
The one exemption that could ever be relevant is instructive: §23229 lifts the passenger rules for "any bus, taxicab, or limousine for hire licensed to transport passengers." That's why a chartered limo is legal and a rental cart is not. You aren't a licensed passenger carrier.
So: the cart is for the sober legs. Getting to the venue, the photographs, the morning-after brunch run. Once the reception is going, it stays parked and everyone takes a rideshare. Build that into the plan rather than deciding it at 11pm.
Where it can legally go
A street-legal cart may be driven only on roads posted 35 mph or under. That covers most of the grid across Pacific Beach, Mission Beach and around Mission Bay, and much of La Jolla — but not everything, and not automatically.
If your venue and your accommodation are more than a short hop apart, check the posted limits on the route between them before you assume a cart connects them. The posted sign is the rule. Details in street-legal golf cart rules in San Diego.
Delivery and pickup across the beach communities is one flat $40 — free to Campland on the Bay — so the cart can simply start wherever it's most useful.
Booking for a wedding weekend
Book early. We have two carts, wedding dates are fixed, and there's no third cart to release if we're taken. A summer Saturday is exactly when both are most likely to be gone.
Rates are from $160 the first day and $130 each additional day, plus tax, with a refundable $200 deposit. Free cancellation up to 10 days before, so booking ahead on a fixed date costs you very little.
Legal points cite California Vehicle Code §23152, §23221, §23223, §23225, §23229 and §21260. General information about California law, not legal advice. Decoration and driver rules are ours and form part of the rental agreement.
