Bonnie and Clyde were immortalized as “Romeo and Juliet in a getaway car” by noted writer Joseph Geringer. Your wedding day getaway doesn’t have to be nearly as notorious, but you can still peel off with just as much fun.

Sure, you can leave the wedding in a nice stretch limo with a bottle of champagne in the back seat or leave the reception in your own “decorated” car (yawn!), but where’s the originality in that?

Make your great getaway in a trolley, a stretch Hummer, a helicopter, a horse and carriage or even a firetruck. Other brides have found more creative and memorable ways to make their grand exit.

Kate Knerr was married at River Road Baptist Church on June 2. Her mother is the wedding coordinator there and suggested to her daughter that the trolley was a cute and different way to leave the
wedding. Knerr loved the idea. “It was great for picture taking after the wedding, and when we were ready to leave, the trolley just took off,” Knerr says. “We had six bridesmaids on one side of the trolley and six groomsmen on the other, and I stood up because of my big dress and cathedral-length veil. We left the windows open, so my veil was flying.”

The trolley proceeded to the reception at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. “This way, we got there before our guests and just lined up on the side and didn’t have to hunt everybody down,” Knerr says.
For a new spin on a traditional idea, Down Under Limousines offers one-of-a-kind rides from wedding to reception. Their stretch Hummer H2s and “limbusines” are big enough to handle just about any wedding party size. 

“The Hummer can hold 18 to 22 people depending on their size,” says owner Jack Joyce. “It was custom built and has disco lights, strobe lights and laser lights. It has fiber optic stars in the ceiling that change colors and [it has] room for 30 drinks.”

The limbusine, a souped-up tour bus that seats 25 to 32 people, features a virtual fireplace in the bathroom on a 32-inch flat screen television. Of course, you can also change the channel to watch the big game on satellite TV.

For those who want to really go over the top (literally), HeloAir gives helicopter rides for $875 an hour. “Brides call us and ask tongue-in-cheek if we provide transportation to wedding receptions and we say, ‘Sure!’ ” says Rob Roberts, HeloAir’s chief pilot.

One thing to keep in mind, of course, is that air travel is dependent upon the weather. “One bride and groom got married in a church in Hanover County and wanted to fly around and just enjoy some alone time and get an air tour of the area,” Roberts says. “But the weather was so nasty, we had to fly them straight to the reception.”

For a romantic and old-fashioned getaway vehicle, Triple R Horse & Carriage offers jaunts aboard their white four-passenger carriages. The driver sits up high and the two passenger seats face each other. “It’s also known as the Cinderella carriage,” says owner Roger Poteat.

Poteat says one of his most memorable weddings was for Angelo Maker, one of Virginia’s own Lost Boys of Sudan, more than 20,000 boys who were displaced and/or orphaned during the second Sudanese civil war. He and wife Stephanie were married May 26.

“I can’t believe I ever rode in a horse and carriage at all,” Stephanie says. “I felt like Cinderella. It was a magical feeling.”

The wedding was held at Chester Baptist Church, and the reception was about 100 yards away at Chester United Methodist. “We took about 30 minutes to get to the reception by just driving around the community,” Angelo says. “One of the things that amazed me is that when we came to a stoplight, all of the cars stopped to let us go through and everyone was waving and beeping horns. It was really great.”
Because Angelo was just beginning to make a living in Virginia, a number of local vendors stepped in to make the couple’s wedding a day to remember, including Triple R. “What they have done for me is something I can never pay back,” he says.

Wedding planner Colleen Cook has seen it all. She has helped brides arrange to leave their celebrations via rickshaw, 1954 Chevy Bel Air, helicopter and even firetruck.

“The couple who left their wedding on a firetruck met through the dispatcher’s office for Hanover County Emergency Medical Services and they volunteer together, so it’s appropriate for them to leave on a firetruck.
In fact, Rodney Gentry and Michelle Sherman, who married Nov. 10, met through the 911 center. Gentry is the systems administrator for Hanover County’s 911 center; Sherman works for Hanover County Animal Control. The wedding and reception were at the Bolling Haxall House in downtown Richmond. Their very appropriate send-off was on board a shiny red firetruck.

“This was the main firetruck for the station, so it went right back to the firehouse afterwards, but they had a backup [in case of an emergency],” Gentry says. “Also, I got permission from the Hanover County Fire Chief, so I felt pretty sure that we could pull this off.”