The Sports Fans Wedding

Your wedding is the perfect place to showcase your unique personality as well as your passions in life. More couples are shying away from traditional fancy weddings and choosing to incorporate elements that showcase their passions. 


Engaged sports enthusiasts might be looking for ways to show their love and pride for a particular team during their wedding ceremony and reception. 


While an all-out sports themed wedding might end up on the tacky side of the wedding spectrum, the truth of the matter is that incorporating sports-themed elements doesn’t have to compromise romance or elegance.


Pre-Game

Sending out ‘save the dates’ is a great way to set the tone for your sports themed wedding celebration. Take some engagement photos while wearing your favorite team’s jersey or posing with some sports equipment. 


Choose a wedding invitation or ‘save the date’ card design that resembles game day tickets or go with magnets that look like antique baseball cards.


Team Colors

When it comes to choosing wedding colors, keep your favorite team in mind. Using your team’s colors is a subtle and classy way to show your love without going overboard. If you’re a Lakers fan, dress the bridesmaids in purple dresses and groomsmen in purple vests and choose bouquets and boutonnieres that are prominently gold/yellow. Or maybe you’re more of a Dallas Cowboys fanatic, in which case navy colored dresses and vests with silver accents are a great option.


Grandstand Seating

Instead of using table numbers for your seating chart, name each table after a player (former or current) from your favorite team or after stadiums your favorite sport is played in. Create menus that look like game tickets or wedding programs that look like scoreboards, each tied with a ribbon in your team’s main color.


Equipment & Accessories

Maybe you’d rather keep things even less obvious than some of the ideas mentioned above. If that’s more your style, look for a team garter to wear. Give the groomsmen some cufflinks that display your team’s mascot, colors, or some sports equipment.


The Main Event

More and more couples are choosing to forgo the traditional guest book and are turning to more unique options instead. Instead, provide sports balls or other equipment and sharpies for guests to sign. Then you’ll have something memorable to display in your new home as a married couple. Use a special baseball mitt or other piece of cherished paraphernalia in place of a ring pillow during the ceremony.


Team Photos

When it’s time to take wedding photos, don’t be afraid to get a little crazy and let your sports fanatic side show. Have the groom and groomsmen wear jerseys beneath their dress shirts, and have them pretend to rip their shirts off to expose the jersey underneath. Foam fingers, sports equipment, and silly sports-related poses should definitely be a part of your wedding photography album.


Concessions

While the obvious food choices for a sports themed wedding might include chips, hot wings, cheap beer, and other tailgating foods, most people don’t want to have that style of cuisine at their wedding. Instead, pay homage to your favorite team with a dish or drink that their home town or state is known for. So if you’re a Chicago Bears fan, you might serve Italian beef as an entrée with some cheesecake instead of (or in addition to) cake.


Spirits

Show your team pride with spirits that showcase your team’s colors. Add various fruits, herbs, and other colored additions to create unique drinks. And don’t forget to give your tasty new concoction a fitting team-inspired name.


After-Game Dancing

Chances are your favorite sport or team has a theme song of some sort. Or maybe there’s a particular song that’s played at every game (other than the ‘Star Spangled Banner’, of course). Add it to you mix of music for dancing the night away.


Sports Favors

Give guests a forever reminder of the great memories made at your wedding with tasteful sports themed favors. Scented candles or soaps shaped like sports balls or hockey pucks personalized with your photo, names, and wedding date are perfect favor ideas.


As you can see, integrating a sports theme into your wedding doesn’t have to be tacky. You don’t have to make every aspect of your wedding sports related. Instead, choose a few subtle ways to incorporate your favorite team or sport while still maintaining a classy and elegant wedding celebration. 

Olivia Nicholas has been writing about and helping to plan weddings for over 10 years.  She is a writer for Storkie where she loves to share all that she has learned with other brides.


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