THE NEWELLYWEDS No. 6: OUR GETAWAY CAR

Happy Wednesday! I took a break from Wedding Wednesday for a while. With the pandemic and so many cancelled weddings, it felt a little tone deaf to share so much wedding content. However, I thought today’s topic would be great to share as I’ve seen a bunch of drive by receptions and reception parades!

For our reception, I knew I wanted us to drive away in a getaway car but I wanted something sporty and vintage. I was surprised by how limited the options were for car rentals in Raleigh. Everything I found was chauffeured or not the style we wanted. I wanted more of a James Bond vibe and I thought it would be so fun and a great memory to have Michael drive us away! I would search day in and day out for the kind of car we wanted. One day, I stumbled on DriveShare.com. I heard of the site through commercials but never actually used them. I just searched for convertibles near Raleigh, NC. Boom! Tons of cars popped up and we found our dream getaway car, a baby blue vintage Corvette. I messaged the seller and set up a time to meet them so we could (1) make sure it wasn’t a scam lol and (2) have Michael test drive the car to make sure he was comfortable. We met up with the couple one Saturday and they were so nice and accommodating. The owner let Michael drive as much as he needed to and offered to bring the car to us on the day of the wedding. He also discounted the price. Drive Share rentals usually have two separate prices, one for driving and one just for photos. Since we needed the car for the getaway only, the owner agreed to only charge the photo rental rate. It was all good…

Then things went LEFT. The Tuesday before we got married (THE SAME WEEK, YA’LL), I was shopping for some last minute wedding things and my car died during a freaking thunderstorm. I was like what are the odds? Michael came to sit with me while we waited for a jump for my car. As we were sitting in his car, I get a call from the car owner. He left a voicemail saying he needed to talk to me about the car. I called the owner and he let me know that the car was acting strange and that he was going to have a mechanic come take a look and let him know by Wednesday if the car had a small issue or large issue that would prevent us from driving it. To make matters worse, the rain chances for our wedding that Sunday were steady increasing. One note about renting most of the vintage cars from Drive Share, many have a clause that will not allow you to use them if it rains. At that point I felt defeated. The car needed work and even if it could be fixed by that weekend, it was probably going to rain.

So Wednesday comes, Michael tells me to look through Drive Share again to see if there were any new cars posted. I remembered seeing a white vintage Corvette but I didn’t think it was a convertible, completely defeating the purpose! Michael convinced me to just reach out and see. I sent a frantic, yet professional 🥴letting the owner know about our dilemma. He immediately responded and was so nice and understanding. He lived in Durham (closer than the previous owner we were working with) and agreed to let Michael come test drive the car in a mall parking lot Thursday. It went smoothly, although Michael says he drove so horribly he was surprised the owner even agreed to let him drive it lol. We had a new car (here is the link to the one we rented) and you guys it was about a 10th of the price to rent compared to the vintage car rental companies that didn’t even have cars we liked! Ryan, the owner, delivered the car exactly on time. He assured us we could use the car even if it rained. He also let me sit on the top for a few photos!

I would highly recommend checking out Drive Share (this is not sponsored, btw) for your wedding or celebration. How cute would it be to rent one for an elopement? The owners we met were fantastic, the prices were insane and I’ve noticed the selection on there for our area is even better now than in October when we searched.

Good luck with planning and just remember, you may not have your wedding the way you imagined or a bit later than you hoped but you WILL get married and have the day you want!