Equally Wed’s editor answers how to plan a wedding around college football season.
Dear Kirsten,
I’ve always dreamed of a glorious fall wedding with rich autumn colors. But every Saturday I suggest to my fiancée seems to land on an important football game day. I should add that I live in the South, where college football rules the land—more so than religion, at times. Not only does she care about missing a game, it seems that half our guests would choose their beloved pastime over our wedding as well. What’s a girl to do with this?
Dear Southern Belle,
I completely understand your conundrum. Having grown up in the South myself, I know all too well how a college football schedule can dictate one’s own personal social calendar, especially as a lesbian. As cliché as that might sound, the shoe usually fits. Here’s my suggestion: Have your wedding on a Friday night or on a Sunday. You’ll get a much better deal with the venue, and perhaps other vendors as well, and your friends and fiancée will really appreciate you sparing them the heartache from choosing between you and the sport that rules their world.
If you simply must abide by the Saturday tradition, go for a weekend that your fiancée’s team is off. It’s highly possible that some of your friends will still have teams playing that weekend, but hopefully, you’ll mean more to them than just one game.
And if you’re really die-hard (or your fiancée is), you could have a TV with a cable connection set up in a separate room at your reception, but you will certainly lose your audience for cake cutting, first dance, etc., if you go that route.
Another option is having a well-informed bartender or DJ who gets paid extra to keep up with the scores of several games and dole out the information to guests over the bar or the mic a few times throughout the affair.
(Readers, have you been in a smiliar situation? Is your fiancée a die-hard football fantatic? What did you do, or what would your advice be for this reader? Leave your suggestions in the comments.)