Preventing Vandalism at a Wedding

In reply to Trans_Maro:

I get that. My buddy has a honda accord. his windows got covered in soap and toilet papered. No big deal.

However, when people wanted to start bending his antenna and other E36 M3, that is where I stopped the mob.

Ya gotta know where the limits are.

If you are that serious about not wanting your car touched in any way, DON'T take it with you.

Take pictures with the car just before or after ceremony. Have groomsman drive car away and bring back decoy or rental car. Only tell this plan to trusted groomsman.

Matt B wrote: Does shaving cream hurt paint? I never knew these shenanigans actually caused any damage. I missing something? Edit - just saw apex's post. That is well beyond what I imagined. Ouch.

Shaving creme is pretty much just a nuisance, but the extremes some people go to be degenerate sacks of E36 M3 are evidenced with Apex's experience.

I rented a Lincoln for my wedding with Mrs. BDT. (Drive to airport, drop car and fly away on Honeymoon).

There were shenanigans involving the Lincoln - confined to the night before the wedding. These shenanigans involved my groomsmen, myself, dirt roads, excessive speed, J-turns, etc. Not confessing anything here but there may have been alcohol consumed. There may have also been a stripper. The works of Hunter S. Thompson were evoked.

I may be the only person who woke up early on the day of his wedding in order to wash a rental car.

I highly recommend the rental car. Strippers and booze optional.

I can be bribed to be security. I don't take kindly to people berkeleying with other peoples cars. I know roughly where you're at even. And I like tacos!

Don't have an open bar? People that don't usually drink fire water will when it's free.

I used my Miata with top down as the car for leaving the church while my wife threw a bouquet out the open top.
Subsequently, a few years after that I lent the Miata to my wife's niece to use in the same fashion. No damage in either case.

As a side story, at my wedding was a work related fiend. He was older than I and had been married a number a years with 2 or 3 kids. He was completely jealous that I had thought to use the Miata as part of the wedding. His comment was that it was pure genius. You see, he had a near mint last gen RX-7 when he got married and since the wedding, his wife had been nagging him to sell it.

His revelation of genius was that since it was "part of the wedding", your wife will never expect you to sell it much like that dress that she never plans to wear again or those dishes you get as a wedding present but you are never allowed to use.

Any substance other than detailing stuff can damage a car's finish.

I think Apexcarver and I are going to have an offline discussion of likely locations to stash said Mustang.

I was involved with shaving cream and crickets (it was cold, the crickets got drowsy, when the heater got the car warm the crickets started jumping! ) and discovered that the shave cream had discolored the paint. He wasn't mad but I never did that to anyone else's car. I did, however, help put two cinder blocks under an MGB axle so the tires just barely cleared the asphalt...

914Driver wrote: Don't have an open bar? People that don't usually drink fire water will when it's free.

I had a cash bar. It kept a lot of people behaved and everyone had a good time. The money saved was put into a DJ that my wife wanted who did a great job.

I used my 1969 Delta 88 Convertible for my wedding:

My friends and family all knew better. And the ones who might have been stupid enough were reminded by the smarter ones that I am not only a car guy, but I'm also a creative and vengeful car guy.

Go ahead and ditch the one idiot who won't respect your wishes. If you were closer I'd volunteer for guard duty in exchange for future automotive favors.

We didnt have any trouble at our wedding but we also got targets, explosives and gun parts as wedding presents (I am totally serious about that next to the normal wedding type presents there were those items included). No body touched our car.

Never mind your wedding; these people need to be uninvited from the rest of your life. I don't care if it's your brother who you love.

If it makes you feel any better my bride ruined what I had been looking forward to by telling me we had to drive her uncle's slushbox mustang. I was also lectured on how to operate the vehicle, and threated with sanctions if I deviated from the plan. The result was being mocked by a number of family and friends for driving like a bob costas.

wow.. this is a thing that people get worked up over these days? so your car might get dirty or get a little scratch: that can happen every time you drive it down the highway..

novaderrik wrote: wow.. this is a thing that people get worked up over these days? so your car might get dirty or get a little scratch: that can happen every time you drive it down the highway..

I take very good care of my automobiles, and I don't like vandals. See Apexcarver's post above. If that was done to your car, I'm sure you'd be upset, too.

Apexcarver wrote: Offer still stands. Even if you dont ask, we are still going to do our best to be sure nothing happens. Call it us wanting vengeance for my poor miata at my wedding, would love to confront ANYONE attempting that kind of stuff. As far as how I can attest... Take one STS miata. do the following: 10lbs of bird seed over the top of the car and INSIDE THE CAR (my mom stole my keys, whole 'nother story). It got in all the drain channels, filled the "shelves" in the engine bay through the hood gaps. Window chalk, not a big deal, but they put it on my tires and despite me scrubbing them in the bathtub with cleansers and brushes, still on there. Only thing touching it is STEEL WOOL. Streamers on the car (no real biggie there) Filled it with balloons (not a huge deal, bride hates balloons (popping) though.) Deer Piss in the center console (one of the groomsmen was a hunter)(thank god for enzyme cleaners) Silly string on the car. IT BONDED TO THE TOP. IT WAS PINK. It postponed us leaving for our honeymoon by a day. 4 people, 4 hours of cleaning. Much of it scrubbing the bajesus out of the top. (finally settled on a product meant for getting pine sap off of horses.) Center console and seats had to be removed. Had to unbolt the front fenders and get plants out of them a few weeks later (birdseed sprouted), still getting seed out of the rain rail area. The two groomsmen who might see this on here I hold pretty much blameless. They were really only part of the harmless stuff. (in fact the mother-in-law saw one walk away disgusted while the others were doing it). I dont pamper my miata 1/10th as much as i know Sky does his Mustang. I see someone approaching your car with intent, well...

OK--that's messed up. There's anger behind that. Deer piss?! That's not in good fun, it's malicious.

A member here (Sonic) screwed with my car with a couple others at my wedding, but it was reversible and innocent. He put an awful shift knob on it and dropped the VTEC crossover (on the VTEC controller) on the car as low as it would go so the car ran like E36 M3. Some other little stuff, but nothing remotely bad--I'm guessing because he knew I'd rape him if he did anything to harm the car that I pamper to this day (99 Civic Si)

The deer piss would have gotten somebody hurt. That stuff is nasty.

Seriously Apex, I'm not sure I would have been as cool about that if someone did all that to my miata. Small claims court comes to mind as the politest thing to get the car properly cleaned and repaired.

Shaving cream definitely can permanently damage the paint - a little sun to bake it on is all it takes.

As for rice - you dump enough of that in a car and you'll never get it all out. One time I came across my brother's old car in a junkyard, maybe 20 years after his wedding. I looked inside it and there was still some rice stuck in the carpeting.

I hid our car before my wedding and then still had to take time out of my wedding reception to move the car a second time and to settle down disputes between my drunk friends over where I had hid it and who knew.

IMHO, this is one wedding tradition that cannot die quickly enough.

Wedding: $20,000. A new LT1: $11,000. Bits to make it go into a g-body: 9,000. Enjoyment of the event: looked at through rose-coloured glasses. Enjoyment of car: infinite. (That's just my opinion)

I agree that it sounds like your "friend" is being malicious. I'm guessing he gets his way a lot? The type of guy who says "God, can't you take a joke?" when he steps WAY out of line?

Sounds like he needs to go. You should try one last time to reason with him not to touch your car. If he still says he's going to, tell him to kick rocks. If he's willing to do this against your wishes, what else will he be willing to do in the future?

I bought my car the week of my wedding because I had one of those CHANGE ALL THE THINGS!!! moments going on. No one even thought of touching it. It's a big part of the "Guy Code": you NEVER mess with a man's car. Even non-car guys understand that.

Tell your friend to slow his role, or he'll be kicked out of the wedding. It's one thing to prank the groom, but another thing entirely to take it to the point of breaking a friendship. If this guy can't grasp that concept, give him the boot.

I bought a Malibu the week before my wedding. People just assumed it was someone's rental and left it alone.

I don't get all the "Vandalism" stuff. I was kinda bummed nobody "decorated" my car.

I don't see the big deal over some white shoe polish on the windows and some cans & twine. I thought that was "tradition," not "vandalism." Then again, I don't know anyone dumb enough to berkeley with the paint or break stuff.