to share our love for VWs,

which resulted in a love for each other.

(upbeat music)

- My name is Dawn Kerr, and this is my husband Tom.

- Hello.

- And we're newlyweds.

I have the red VW Bug.

It's a '63 red top sunroof Bug.

I bought it when I was 16 years old.

The car's name is Hugo.

I went through school and college and my career commuting.

- Thirty years ago she came down the driveway

with a car with a blown up engine.

That started off as a rebuild.

Then while the car was here,

she's kind of a motorhead, so she asked,

"Hey, can we make this thing go a little faster?"

Here's what she wanted.

She wanted the car to go faster,

be more reliable, and get better gas mileage,

all the offset combinations you can have.

But anyway, we did it.

- Now, I've met so many friends

and relationships that I've had for decades,

all through this little car,

and ultimately my life partner.

- Betty here - all our vehicles have names -

is a '59 transporter, known as a single cab.

Found out through some research

that it was owned by a father-son team

that did a marine service.

- When he relocated here,

he drove his single cab with his belongings

cross country all the way from Florida to California

and looked up the local VW club here to meet new people.

When I found out, "You drove that truck across country

"and had your Toyota Corolla shipped?"

Oh my gosh.

When I met him, that was the first impression.

Then I had at the time, which isn't here now,

but I had a bus that I was restoring,

and needed some help.

- She had a 21-window micro bus,

and we were doing what's called a "rustoration."

She didn't want to do the whole full boat,

and so we were just taking some more critical

parts of the vehicle that needed repairs.

I invited Dawn over here to help

strip out the interior of the vehicle to save on labor.

- My understanding is that Dawn put it out on Facebook,

if there was anybody interested in helping her

do the repairs.

- [Robert] Thomas replied and said

he'd be willing to help her out.

- We made all these pilgrimages.

His shop is an hour and a half away.

- [Marlo] The first time they came to the shop

they drove separately.

The second time they came to the shop

they drove together.

- [Robert] Think a love connection happened right there.

That was pretty cool.

(upbeat music)

Eventually I heard they were like,

"We're getting married."

I was like, "Holy mackerel!

"This is really cool."

I'm honored that it happened at the shop.

Then Dawn said, "Hey, would you might be

"interested in marrying us?"

I was like, "How am I going to do that?"

- When we got engaged the first thing I said is,

"Okay, only if we can go to Reno

"and go to the drive-through in Hugo."

Because that would be my perfect wedding.

- Why not?

- He was actually for it.

But his family wanted to be there.

Then your friends are all like,

"Oh, but then we won't be there."

So we decided to have a wedding,

but I wanted it to be simple,

and I didn't want to do a lot of planning,

and I had a lot of nerves.

We had friends, wonderful friends,

that said they would set everything up for us.

I said, "I'm going to the races."

- [Tom] Dawn is a very safe driver.

She drives a big rig for a living,

so she can't have any tickets.

It's real simple.

She drives her car like she should,

and every once in a while she takes it out to the drags,

and legally races it.

That's the best of both worlds.

- I was a little worried about winning,

because it's bracket racing,

and it's a set of eliminations.

If I kept winning, I was going to be late for my wedding.

- Right.

That ... would have been an issue.

- Yeah.

I went up against a girl named Gloria

in one of the semi-final, and Gloria beat me.

I didn't let her beat me.

They all thought - No.

- maybe I let her beat me so I could make my wedding.

But I was like -

Everybody who knew me said, "Oh, no.

"Dawn would not have.

"She would have been late for her wedding."

- [Robert] The presentation basically was us

all getting in the top of the bed of Tom's truck

and actually standing in the bed.

That was our platform, our deck,

to marry them in front of the crowd.

- [Dawn] The bus and the Bug were flanking it.

- [Tom] They were kind of groomsman and bridesmaId,

I guess you might say.

- Our dog was the ring bearer.

- Right. That's right.

- I came to the wedding, changed clothes,

literally got up on the single cab and had a ceremony.

Then, of course, there was a party afterwards,

and everybody finally leaves late, late at night.

That's when it dawned on me that I had

the racetrack wristband on my wrist the whole ceremony.

It's in all of our wedding pictures.

We realized that that was the something blue, maybe,

and nobody pointed it out,

because they thought I had a reason to have it.

But I didn't even know I had it on.

- [Robert] You know, with the passion of both of them

liking Volkswagens and just the whole,

overall spectrum of the whole situation,

and how it all fell into play,

it was pretty cool how it all went down.

- [Dawn] We have always,

and this is what bonded me to Tom,

when I met him and he had brought his VW

to California from Florida, and drove it

instead of the Toyota Corolla,

that just stole my heart, because I've always,

the biggest joy I get is driving my car,

because when I first got it,

it was my daily driver.

I never want to be that person, personally,

who polishes it up and tows it to a show

and tows it home, and actually never

enjoys being behind the wheel,

and using it for the purpose it was built,

and that's rolling down the road

and watching the scenery go by.

They are an organic experience,

compared to the new cars today.

You're in a bubble.

You can feel the road.

You can smell the smells.

They have no air conditioning.

The windows are open.

He shares that.

(upbeat music)

(light music)