So you just got engaged and now you’ve been Pinteresting wedding Inspo like it’s your job!
Okay fine, yes, your bridal board has actually been active long before you met Mr. Coach but now you’re Team Captain and you’re determined to get that W.
After sifting and sorting through pins for the umpteenth time, you finally decide that all of those dreamy and romantic Fall wedding images are it! You can picture it all: the light breeze whispering throughout the evening, the colorful leaves serving as a breathtaking backdrop for photos, and the sweet taste of the rich pastries the guests would enjoy on your special night.
And just as you’re in the height of experiencing true visualization nirvana, a yellow flag penalty is thrown and instantly brings you back to reality. A little yellow flag I like to call, Football Season.
As most little girls do, I always dreamed of who I would marry, what my dress would look like and of course, what kind of amazing party I would throw. So, If you would’ve told me in my single years that I would be planning my wedding around a football game, I would’ve laughed.
But that’s exactly what I did.
You see, where I live we get all of the seasons. This meant, my wedding would be any of the following: Winter and Wet, Spring and Sinus, Summer and Sweat or...Fall and Football.
October 6th, 2018 was the date our venue was available so we signed on the dotted line and handed over one of our many wedding deposits. Soon enough, however, comments started rolling in like “In football season? Well, good luck on planning it all” and “You better hope you have a BYE week”.
By then, I had been involved in a few seasons and knew what the whole Coach Wife Life would entail but I’ll be honest, at times, some of those comments hurt. It's true, my life at that point had heavily revolved around my fiancee's passion but that didn’t mean our lives together outside of football automatically became second string.
In case you’re wondering, our team did have a game that week which also happened to be out of town. We didn’t have a dinner rehearsal, well, because of Team Meal. And honeymoon? Yeah, we saved that until the following summer...because we got married during football season.
Our wedding ended up being an amazing night to remember. Couples told us for months just how much fun they had with so much love and friendship in the air. They appreciated all of the details of our heritage, culture, and daily lives we incorporated into the wedding, including a handful of the Varsity squad welcoming our guests as Valet and traffic directors.
Because I got married during football season, I know I’ll never get to celebrate my wedding anniversary with a spontaneous getaway or a romantic Friday night dinner. I know these are some of the compromises I’ve accepted in exchange for my Pinterest-inspired board.
But if I were given the opportunity to reselect a season for my wedding, I’d still choose "Fall and Football". I’d choose it because no matter how the current season is going, my Coach and I know that together, we’re undefeated.
So if you’re hesitant about getting married during football season, just know that there have been countless coach’s fiancees who’ve conquered the practices, the flowers, the games, the tastings, the clinics, the guest lists, the forgotten playbooks, and then some.
Who knows, you may actually luck out on a BYE week or better yet, end up receiving a huge chocolate shaped football wedding gift from the Varsity squad, too.