Groom dropped off at wedding in ultimate Green Machine
Canberra Raiders tragic Dan Hewitt couldn’t have had a better weekend. Friday night he watched his team storm into the grand final and Saturday he was dropped off at his wedding in the ultimate green machine
Canberra Star
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Dan Hewitt enjoyed an entrance to his wedding on Saturday that most grooms could only ever dream about.
The die-hard Canberra Raiders fan and his groomsmen were dropped off at the chapel entrance in the ultimate Green Machine, a Hyundai sports car completely covered in Raiders colours and images of former captains including legend Mal Meninga.
As the car’s loudspeaker blasted the Raiders theme song, wedding guests broke into the Viking clap right before Mr Hewitt walked the love-of-his life Jacqui down the aisle at The Chapel at Gold Creek in Canberra’s north.
The celebrant even asked Jacqui whether she was willing to take Mr Hewitt as her lawfully wedded husband “even if that means putting up with his terrible dad jokes and fanatical Raiders antics”.
Mr Hewitt even managed to weave a Raiders story into his wedding speech about how Jacqui, while working as a bar supervisor at Canberra Stadium, “won him over” when the Raiders played the Roosters at the venue in 2017.
“I went to say G’day and she gave me a free hot dog and a beer and I thought: ‘I’m going to ask this girl out’,” Mr Hewitt said.
“She is a Bulldogs supporter but her parents were pretty mad Raiders supporters so they’ve always been like her second team and she’s coming back into the fold — I’m slowly turning her green.”
The night before his big day, Mr Hewitt enjoyed the ultimate buck’s night at Canberra Stadium watching the team’s thrilling preliminary final victory against South Sydney.
He has bought Raiders paraphernalia to take on their honeymoon near Phuket, Thailand, where he will watch the grand final, one way or another.
“Even if I have to watch it on my phone, I don’t care if I have a thousand dollar phone bill,” he said.
The Green Machine, which has the hashtag #theraiderscar, is owned by Raiders super-fan Sue Washington.
Ms Washington is known around Canberra for lending her car to various causes from surprise school pick-ups to birthday parties and dropped Mr Hewitt and his groomsmen at the wedding.
“It was the first wedding I’ve ever done, I was really stoked and honoured,” she said.
“It’s not really my car, it belongs to the whole community.”
She just loves blasting the Raiders theme song when rival fans pull up alongside her in traffic.
“They wind their windows up; they can’t compete with that,” she said.
She has been a fan since the Raiders first began however has never attended a grand final as she didn’t think she could face the heartache if the boys lost.
But she got “talked into” driving the Green Machine to Sunday’s clash against the Roosters after watching the team win on Friday night.
“It just exploded; people were crying and hugging, you could just grab hold of everybody, it was really, really special,” she said.
“I’m a heart and soul type supporter, I get very emotional and I’d do anything for any of them and I’m a real believer that we have a Raiders family.”