Wedding Blog
… is that there’s a UGA football game on the same day. When Mr. Lab and I picked out our date—before we even got engaged—it was originally a bye weekend. Mr. Lab and I are HUGE college football fans, so I didn’t want my dream of an autumn wedding to conflict with a UGA game. But since picking the date, the university added another game to the schedule.
What’s worse is that it’s a home game in Athens, where a handful of our guests (and we) are living now. I’m hoping people will be okay with missing this game. I’m guessing it’ll be a 12:30 PM kickoff with an easy win (at least on paper), so Dawg fans on our guest list will be able to watch the entire game—if aired on a network in Savannah—before the wedding even begins. I’m looking into getting a TV in the reception area somewhere so people (including me!) can stay up-to-date with other big games that day. I have to find out if they already have cable hookups to do this. I feel like I’ll be like the guys in those Verizon V-Cast commercials who are checking score updates during a wedding and honeymoon. I know Mr. Lab and I both will ask for updates at least a couple times during the reception from people with iPhones!
Are any big events (sporting, or otherwise) clashing with your wedding date?
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Share this post: The One Bad Thing About Our Fall Wedding…
My friends scheduled their wedding during pro football playoffs this year. I saw several people streaming the game during and after the ceremony. It was kind of funny and kind of sad…
BIL Bruschetta’s a big Eagles fan, and he and Sister Bruschetta set their date before the new schedule was out — only to have a football game fall on their wedding day!
After the reception, a bunch of friends and bridal party members headed over to a nearby Dave and Buster’s to watch the game and hang out…and the day before, Swoop (the Eagles mascot) made an appearance at their rehearsal dinner!
ahahahaha. Miss Lab.
Too funny! If anything it will make for some great photo ops. 
I mentioned it to the FI and he said oh no worries, it’s just preseason. Ha! We’ll see about that!
We sheduled our wedding around the Longhorn football schedule. (I especially wanted to avoid a scheduling conflict with the OU game, any home game, & ACL Fest… traffic is horrible during home games).
Oh no!! I wasn’t allowed to schedule our wedding during football season for this exact reason - which is why we are getting married in AUGUST in FLORIDA!
I’m so glad you posted this, I completely understand.
My little dilemma is that I plan on hosting a Sunday brunch for my weekend wedding. I am a huge Green Bay Packers fan (as in, I watch every game, know all of the players, and balled my eyes out in front of a boss when I heard about our QB going to another team). Most games are at 1 pm ET, or 10 am PT for me, on the West Coast. Unless there is a change, I’m seriously planning on just paying to listen over internet radio during the brunch. At least football is the kind of game you can still talk.
The schedule isn’t out yet, so I’m praying to the pig skin gods that we have a bye or a night match.
Ours could POSSIBLY conflict with baseball playoffs/world series. Funny, we are HUGE red sox fans and the thought of our wedding conflicting with a big game did not even occur to us when scheduling our wedding!
I have been to weddings where I have snuck out to the bar area to check a score…as long as people don’t completely bail on our party, I’m fine with it.
oh man! no matter how hard you try, right? Our honeymoon fell right during the time of the bcs game this year — gators vs. oklahoma!! luckily, we ran into (small world!) a couple who were gator alum on their honeymoon too so we listened to the game podcast on their laptop!
May 16 wedding date = no conflicts with College Football. Coincidence, I think not 
We didn’t get married in the fall for this very reason! I attended a wedding last year during the FL-GA game and it did kind of cause trouble. I know as soon as the ceremony was over, someone found a tv and brought it into the reception. I think 90% of the men and about 50% of the women were in front of the tv…including the groom. The bride and her sisters danced by themselves. Of course, that is a huge game, so it is a lot different than if FL was playing Citadel, for example. I think you’re safe if it is a crappy game.
As a side note, May 16 = several conflicts with High School graduations, and many of our guests can’t make our wedding. We didn’t even realize it was graduation time when we set the date! Can’t win them all I guess…
My friend just sent out her save the dates and its on the same day LSU/ Florida (huge game!). The wedding is at the exact same time as the game. At least your game will be earlier. Also, games happen every year, your wedding is a once in a lifetime event. I’m sure your guests will be there supporting you and sharing in your happiness (no matter what the outcome of the game is)
@ nada122…we were on our honeymoon during the BCS game this year, too! And here we had scheduled the wedding around football season! Luckily the cruise ship dedicated a whole club/bar to the game and we got to watch it with about 300 other people.
Hm. nada122 you just reminded me. We’ll most likely be on honeymoon and miss probably 1 or 2 home games. oh well. Can’t win everything. =P
We will likely schedule around a Hokie by week OR plan to a group viewing arranged into our wedding weekend! The man’s friends are seriously into Hokie football!
I’m assuming you’re talking about the Vandy game?! Just turn the whole pre-wedding into a tailgate! I’m a big Dawg fan too & thought that if I ever had to have a fall wedding that is what I’d do. Just make sure there is beer, a big screen that gets LF/JP/CSS and everyone will still be happy!
Awh! We’re big Texas Longhorns fans. When we got engaged, the one thing FI said was that he didn’t want the wedding to be during UT’s football season!
We are huge UGA football fans too, and got married in the middle of bowl season. Fortunately, GA didn’t end up in a bowl game the day of our wedding, but it made me super nervous up until the line up was announced.
As it was, GA’s bowl game fell during our honeymoon, so we spent a full evening in beautiful Jamaica inside watching football. I didn’t mind at all, but I regularly remind my husband that I let him watch football on our honeymoon, so he owes me one for the rest of our lives!
After reading your post I thought I’d better check… sure enough the Ducks play Washington that day. It’s an away game, but still. I just expressed my concern to a co-worker who let me know right away she wouldn’t be able to attend the wedding due to the game. I wonder if she’s joking…
We thought about a fall wedding for about 30 minutes. That was the amount of time it took us to realize that between Auburn & Texas games there were no “good” weekends.
I have friends who married the weekend of the AU/UGA game, it was horrible. We were all glued to the TV in the hotel bar…and I think it hurt the bride’s feelings quite a bit (she’s not a sports fan)
We purposely avoided the fall just for football! Honestly, we would have been married back in October if it weren’t for football. I just didn’t want to have to grapple with the SEC!
There was a football game the afternoon of our wedding. As it happened, we had a 2.5 hour break between the end of the ceremony and the reception. I was very worried about it to begin with (but there was nothing to be done), but it ended up that everyone went back to the hotel to watch the game in the lounge and drink beer! They were very happy.
My husband and I were more upset that we had to plan our weekend on the same weekend as one of our favorite dance weekend events! I can’t wait to go again to celebrate our first anniversary at it this year.
My wedding was the same day as the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics! I had a few friends that didn’t make it to our wedding because they had Olympic tickets (which I don’t blame them for). BIL gave up his tix to attend the wedding
BTW I went to UGA too! Go Dawgs!!
I am in Texas and our wedding day is the “Red River Rivalry” …. the big game between The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Oklahoma in Norman….
My Fiance went to Texas A&M and I went to Texas Tech so we could care less, lol!
We may have some guests that are obsessed with UT but we won’t have a TV available. (we hate UT)
Wreck ‘em Tech 
haha I am getting Married in athens and moved my date back so it didn’t conflict with Game Day. I love Athens it’s the best city.
We’re having a mid-week wedding, and it’s going to cause both of us to miss a few days of classes. Obviously missing class to attend one’s OWN WEDDING shouldn’t be a big deal, but it’s kind of a pain in the butt! Who wants to do makeup assignments the weekend after their wedding?!
We got SO lucky. Our date was a home USC game (we’re season ticket holders) and they changed the schedule and it is now a BYE! The football gods have given their stamp of approval to our wedding.
Our wedding coincided with Game 3 of the 2008 World Series. And the Penn State/Ohio State game.
We heart the Phillies. And my husband and many of our guests are rabid Penn State alumni.
More than one joke was made that we should have rented out Chickie and Pete’s for our reception instead of PAFA.
We announced Penn State’s victory to a crowded dance floor which prompted much cheering. The inclement weather caused a rain delay for the Phillies. Since the game started at 10 PM we were able to catch the final few innings at a nearby bar. The Phillies won! It was an incredible ending to an already amazing day.
My advice (for what it’s worth) is to accept and embrace what you cannot change. And make sure your guests don’t wait until the last minute to book their hotel rooms.
I wouldn’t have changed a thing about the day. There were moments in the weeks leading up to the wedding when I freaked out that everyone was going to sneak out of the reception, but by the 25th I was so incredibly happy to be getting married that I no longer worried about it. Plus, we ended up some great stories about the day.
While we are getting married in Memphis, the FI and I are huge Tennessee fans (with season tickets and all) so our choices for the fall were really small, but luckily there is a bye week in October and it worked out perfectly. I even checked the other teams in the SEC to make sure that things were clear and luckily nothing major is happing.
Since the game is early and a non-SEC opponent, I think you are fine. I wouldn’t bring in the TV. The iPhones and Blackberries should be enough.
There’s a home game against Bama on our wedding day - and Alabama fans travel…so I’m trying to encourage the many, many out of town guests to book early…
I went to Ohio State & it is an unwritten rule that you NEVER schedule your wedding on a game day! Boo to them for adding that game in there!
My fiancee and I are HUGE VT Hokie fans! We met and fell in love at Virginia Tech and the majority of our wedding party are also Hokie’s!
We picked our October wedding date with fingers crossed it would be a bye week.
It’s not, but it is at least an away game.
We’re now getting married on a Sunday (our original venue is closing) so rented out the top floor of our favorite sports bar and are inviting guests to join us for appetizers and drinks before the rehearsal dinner that night.
Definitely not traditional, but neither are we and we love our football!
once we started talking about when to get married we immediately crossed out everything from September through Jan 1… for us nothing comes before Hokie football!
The first date that came up as the only one that worked for everyone was actually the first game of the year… but it wasn’t the first home game so it was okay. Now we’ve bumped our wedding up a week anyway so we can catch the game on our way back from the honeymoon : )
We scheduled our Austin wedding around the Longhorn football schedule, too. We picked the only weekend in October when UT wasn’t playing. Unfortunately, the Austin City Limits Music Festival, which is always in September, saw the open weekend as an opportunity to have the Fest in October this year - on our wedding date! I think having the wedding during the ACL Fest is going to be worse than if it had been a game-day, but we’re trying to make the most of it.
A wedding I was in a couple of years ago was in October in our hometown of Auburn, AL and they specifically planned it for the bye week where Auburn didn’t have a game.
The local university changed their homecoming weekend to the same weekend as our wedding. It was originally the weekend before our wedding, so we felt safe in picking our date. I just found out a month ago that they changed it. Ugh!
We got married in March during March Madness. My husband and I both are huge Jayhawk basketball fans, as are a lot of our guests. Needless to say on selection Sunday I was glued to the TV praying that the NCAA gods would take pity on me and give KU Friday/Sunday games for the first round (our wedding weekend). Luckily they did any the games didn’t interfere with the wedding at all! I would have been really upset if they had been at the same time!
Wow, I never thought much about this. We’re planning a fall wedding in Berkeley. The town gets crazy when the CAL games are in town so this is definitely something to consider. He’s a Raiders fan, I’m a Vikings fan, but I think we’d both be okay as long as we could get frequent updates.
There’s a RedSox game starting 10 minutes after my ceremony…good thing there are more than 160 games in a baseball season! Fiance and I did STRONGLY consider a honeymoon following the Sox out in California though…
I never knew that this could be sooooo complicated! Mr Static is not a sports man, and although I ride horses, I am not worried about missing a trail ride to get married… Whew!
Aargh this same thing happened to me! We’re from Austin and are huge Texas Longhorn fans, but we’re getting married in September in San Diego. When I picked our wedding date, the Horns were playing a non-BCS school that they are sure to demolish. Then they went and changed the Texas vs. Texas Tech game to our date… a rematch of a game last year that cost us a trip to the BCS national championship in. the. last. second.
Needless to say, I hope the Texas Tech fan and Longhorn hater above is VERY disappointed on my wedding day, and that my FH and I have another reason to toast! Hook em’!
I wonder if you can contact the UGA Sports Information office and see if you can get some kind of “on-air” shout out? Tell ‘em you tried to schedule around but they added a game. If you can’t be there you might as well see if you can get some kinda fun out of it! Its worth a shot!
Ahh… planning around football I was once told I have a 5 week window to get married in: Spring Break and the month of July. The rest is fall practice, football season, recruiting, fundraising, spring football, and more fundraising.
That’s an easy “out” from the clinking glasses thing: just tell them you’ll only kiss when UGA scores!
Girl I hear you! We stayed away from Fall mainly because of football (and that we didn’t want a super long or super short engagement). However, a friend or two have already gripped that we’re getting married during the *peak* of March Madness. I could care less about college basketball and I’m hoping most of our guests are in the same boat as me.
@ PointLomaBride: i hope you have a beautiful wedding… that’s ok if you beat tech…just don’t let OU win
I just remembered that I think the game is in the afternoon so I won’t have half of my wedding at the bar in the hotel
I am freely admit that I bullied Mr. Spin into early August so we could avoid having a Husker game on our wedding day. If you’ve been to Nebraska, I think you know what I mean when I say these people are nuts for Husker football. ^_^ And I’ve been to weddings and parties that devolve into football-parties when the game is on. No thank you. I want people up and dancing and having a good time. ^_^
Haha, glad I’m not alone in this! There’s a Clemson game on my wedding day but thankfully, it will be in Maryland so I won’t have to worry about my groom and brother (a groomsman) missing in action! The FI has requested a radio at the reception though. And he’s joked around about how he’ll have an earpiece at the altar during the ceremony. He said he’ll be like “SCORE!” while raising both of his hands then remember he’s at his own wedding and say “I mean, I do!” Sigh.
I had a college professor marry in halloween cause that was the ONLY time LSU (their team) wasn’t playing!
I had always wanted a fall wedding but I was happy to change it to June when I got engaged to a football coach! So no football watching/conflicts at my wedding! haha!
BUT I did find out the Sox and Cubs are playing the weekend of the wedding and I (and quite a few of my friends) are hug Cubs fans so we will be hitting up the hotel bar to catch some of the games!
hopefully not! the last time i attended weddings that fell on a game day, michigan lost. not willing to take that risk, especially with the way they’ve been playing lately. lol.
and i have been that person checking for scores during a wedding reception.
My birthday is always on the season opener {August 30th} and we thought Bama had a day game this year, so my husband planned me a huge 30th birthday party, only to have them make it a night game. Of course, the restaurant we were going to has no tv and the one next door that does was closed for vacation. ACK!
My mom and stepdad and aunt and uncle both got married in March to avoid football and the aunt who was married in Sept. did it on a bye week. As I’m writing this out, I’m realizing SEC fans are nuts. Well, it doesn’t help I also just wrote a check for our half of our box/fancy seats at Bryant Denny. Ouch.
Super Bowl Sunday fell the weekend of my wedding this year, but luckily we were married on Friday, so everyone was rested and ready to watch. My hubby and I had just arrived to our honeymoon, so we ordered some room service and watched from there.
our date was supposed to be the OTHER bye weekend!! and they changed it too…so we’re on homecoming weekend now. but like you said….it should be a 12:30 kickoff, so guests, and this bride of course!, can catch the game beforehand.
i also checked ALL the other SEC schools when i first thought our week was bye, and nobody that my friends cheer for (bama, auburn, and UT) is playing anyone important either…or at least no conference games =)
the sad part is, at first the venue’s groom’s quarters had a tv, which the coordinator told us was for football, and i couldn’t help but think…that’s no fair!!
We had two teams to work around and finally found a weekend that is an away game for one team and a bye weekend for the other. People would actually skip our wedding if their was a home game. I have season tickets, so I might have too!
Ohhh yes!! We have quite the schedule on our day. I went to Syracuse (former cheerleader woot!) and the FI went to Ohio State. Our wedding is in the Syracuse area. Several of the GM were Penn State players and the other half Ohio State players. That day, Penn State plays Syracuse and Ohio State plays USC…we will be having some TVs in the bar area of the reception for everyone-including me!
Ha ha, I went to Duke and Mr T to UNC … and we got married during March Madness! I had to draw a strict line that there would be NO television broadcasting basketball during the reception….
We went to a wedding on Ohio State - Michigan day…but they thoughtfully set up big screen tvs during the reception for the guests. Everyone loved it.
Oh no, Miss Lab! Even though we love the fall, we decided we had to avoid it because we’d be miserable missing a Michigan football game. Not to mention, by getting married during football season ON CAMPUS would have been a logistical nightmare!
How funny about you and your friends checking score updates. I had a friend who got married while the Tigers were in the ALCS a couple of years ago, and we were all doing that!
We live in NE and Husker football is THE THING on most Saturday afternoons. We’re not big fans, but a lot of our family/friends are. We’re having a later ceremony, so hopefully it won’t be an evening game so people aren’t wearing Husker red at my wedding!
We are getting married on a game weekend, but the game is part of the wedding! Funny enough, it is the Razorback v. Georgia game weekend on Sept. 19. We are renting tailgate pavillions in the Gardens and having our wedding “party” the day before and a small ceremony at this awesome chapel on Sunday afternoon with dinner at Hog Haus! My fiance is THE biggest Razorback fan, so it is just a reflection of us. I added two razorbacks to our wedding day coat of arms and we are having huge hog shaped cakes, razorback cookies, AR state shaped cookies, and chocolate hogs at the tailgate. We are mixing up the “traditional” wedding schedule. The tail gate is super casual Beer/ BBQ/ Brats/ Ribs with all of our friends. The actual wedding day is just our immediate family sharing a special moment with us on Sunday!
We actually scheduled our wedding around sports season schedules, especially avoiding football season. After we picked our date and went to book hotel rooms, we found out that hotel rates were through the roof due to a Nascar event the same weekend as our wedding. If it’s on a weekend, there will be sports, so there’s not much you can do about it - except be ok with those guests that check scores on their phones every 5 minutes –at least they care about you enough to attend the wedding instead of staying home to watch the game!
I am in a wedding this fall that was purposely scheduled to coincide with the NEbraska vs Kansas football game (groom = Nebraska, bride = Kansas). They are so excited about it and subtely incorporating it into their wedding!
Don’t worry, Savannah will definitely have the game on the air, as there are a ton of UGA fans here!
@Miss Bruschetta: If we had the wedding in Athens, I’d definitely have our mascot Hairy Dawg come by! Especially since I know him!
@Gerbera: I’m really not too terribly worried about it since it is a non-BCS game. But yeah, we’ll definitely have to tell our photog not to miss the score updates! lol
@bree72: A wedding on GA/FL weekend?!? NO. WAY.
@Heather12457: I know, right?!
@ugakerri: It’s actually not the Vandy game. Over the past few years I’ve realized that Vandy is becoming a force not to be overlooked, so I wouldn’t schedule my wedding on a game with a potential “sleeper”.
@Brittany: Haha, Mr. Lab knows that I couldn’t pull that on him. He’d be like, “you know you enjoyed watching the game just as much as me”. lol
@TheDivineMissE: Aw, I really hope she’s joking, too!
@Miss Crab Cake: I would have bypassed fall if it weren’t for 1.) Dreaming of a fall wedding since I was a kid 2.) Fall weather is amazing in Georgia and 3.) Everything costs less since it’s an off-season for weddings.
@ipodgirl: Sic ‘Em!
@eva: If it weren’t Savannah it would definitely be Athens. I love this place!
@Miss Mary Jane: I hear ya! We’re both students and will be making up school work after we get back from our “mini-moon”. Not fun!
@ready2bmrsd: I feel like the pigskin gods went back on a promise with us after adding that game! What did I ever do to them?!? haha
@rokrok: I’m hoping they’ll be some huge upsets so we can announce them during the reception and have those types of reactions. I know a lot of people are freaking out about having our wedding during the football season, but like you say, I think we’ll have a blast with it since EVERYONE on the guest list are sports fans!
@Lindz1701: Non-BCS and non-SEC, so yeah, we should be fine. We’ve already done preliminary checks with people and no one seems to worry about it so far!
@Miss Quiche: We have that same rule. I just never knew they would add a game so late. ARGH!
@Emilydll: That is SO cool how you’re working with it. I would probably do the same if our wedding were in Athens.
@IronMaiden: That would have been really funny if you did do that!
@PointLomaBride: I really felt for you guys last year. I don’t know what I’d do if I were in your position. That’s like moving the GA/FL game to my weekend!
@CHK: Haha, I do have my connections with the SID….
@Sarah: I’m really hoping that wasn’t a dig at GA. Are you an undercover gator? 
@leenmachine: Haha, your FI sounds funny. I don’t think I’d even be mad if Mr. Lab pulled a stunt like that. It would be one of those classic reactions that end up on youtube or something!
@LittleBear: I think that’s the only thing that would get me out of a fall wedding-marrying a coach! Or if I had an all-expenses paid wedding. lol
@KateMW: SEC are nuts for their football! Wouldn’t want it any other way. Btw, my birthday is almost always on the season opener for the Dawgs!
@Hayley: I would be like “We’re switching rooms! NOW.” lol What, do they think the bride’s don’t watch sports? How stereotypical!
@KellyV: That’s cool that you have so many athletes in your wedding party. I was a cheerleader for 8 years and did UCA Staff as well. Everyone always asks why I didn’t tryout for UGA’s squad and I have to tell them that I didn’t feel like putting up with high school politics again.
@Kathy: I think our guests would bow down to us if we did that!
@Mindy: I love that you’re incorporating the game! Btw, one half of Mr. Lab’s family are all AR fans, but mostly because of the b-ball.
@missteaberry: There’s always something ready to conflict with the wedding, isn’t there?! Geez!
@winterwed: That’s actually really cute. Hopefully it works out and people don’t get mad that they scheduled it that way.
@Jenn C: *WHEW* Good to hear that!
We are having a Fall wedding in Athens also. He is a GT alum and I am a UGA alum. So we definitely printed up the football schedule and I knew we would either have to have it on a Sunday (if it is a ftball weekend) or a Saturday during an away game. We opted for Sunday. Most of the people headed to my wedding are big football fans anyway, so why not let them enjoy the game (myself included) on Saturday and then have a chance to party again on Sunday?!! The best of both worlds.
My wedding is also on the day of the Red River Showdown (UT vs OU) and my wedding colors just happen to be burn orange and cranberry. (I know OU is “crimson and creme… close enough) Luckily we’ll be far enough away from Fair Park (aprox 60 miles) so it shouldn’t be a problem, although hotel rooms might get booked. Good thing we have blocks of rooms at several different hotels.
Funny story though- one of my attendants goes to OU and I’m making him wear burnt orange. At first he wasn’t too thrilled about it, but I think he has come to terms with it.
Haha! This post is awesome! So great to see so many college football fans on weddingbee (and hooray for the SEC! Holla!). We did the same thing… before we were even engaged, I was stalking Tennessee’s fall ‘09 football schedule to try to schedule a date on an off-week. We got one, but several of our guests are fans of other teams including UGA, Vandy, Clemson, South Carolina, and Georgia Tech. I’m already hearing grumbling about having a wedding during football season from those fans. It was such a tough decision because we love football, but we’ve both always wanted a fall wedding!
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Mrs. Labrador Retriever, Athens/Savannah
Age and Occupation: 24, Student/Sports Reporter
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Physical Therapy Assistant Student/Future Dr. of PT
Engagement Date: December 31, 2008
Wedding Date: November 2009
Venue: Whitfield Square/Savannah Station
About Me: I'm working on my second degree from UGA (Go Dawgs!). I'm a self-proclaimed attention-w****. If it involves a camera, I'm in front of it! You'll never meet a girlier tomboy than me. I can go toe to toe with any guy on the subject of college football, and lift more than any girl in my gym, all without chipping a nail. I hope to someday be the only person you want delivering your sports news. My FI and I are the loving parents of three Labrador Retrievers (one of each color) and are planning a "Southern Romantic Charm" wedding in the beautiful, historic city of Savannah. I'm not extreme in anything except moderation... and wedding planning.
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