As a bride who got married just last weekend, I can tell from personal experience exactly how hard it is to plan a wedding around certain events throughout the school year. But planning around football games is an entirely different ball game.
Although, it helped knowing others who came and succeeded before me, like Molly Coleman, who married on September 28, 2013, the day of the Alabama vs. Ole Miss game.
Robert Coleman proposed to then Molly Sherman in February 2013. She knew right away that she wanted a wedding in September or early October. To her it that is the most beautiful season in Oxford and the town would not yet be decorated for Halloween. With many Ole Miss fans in the family, she considered it best to choose a wedding date during an away game early in the season. There were four away-game weekends to choose from, so she called her home church, St. John’s Catholic Church of Oxford, to see which weekend would be best and if the sanctuary was available. She chose the Alabama-game weekend.
In preparation, Coleman sent her ‘save-the-dates’ early to notify those guests wanting to buy Alabama/Ole Miss tickets. Some of her family still asked about the game and whether or not she would have a TV at her reception.
Like most brides, Coleman was most concerned with making her big day perfect. She wanted to be sure her guests enjoyed the atmosphere, the food, the drinks, and especially, one of Coleman’s favorite parts, the band, instead of worrying about the game.
“I was rooting for Ole Miss, even though I graduated from Mississippi State, but it was my wedding day,” Coleman said. “I didn’t want guests to not dance because they were watching the game instead. That was really why I didn’t want a TV. So they actually went behind my back and got the TV without me knowing until the week of my wedding.”
One of Coleman’s cousins talked to her about having the TV at the reception and she was worried it would change the scene and ambiance of the entire wedding.
“He was like, ‘They will leave to walk to the Square and watch the game,’ and I just didn’t think about it that way but realized ‘Oh my gosh, he’s right!’” Coleman said.
Being a cooperative bride, Coleman conceded to have at TV at her reception, behind the bar. Despite the craziness of football season, though, Coleman said that using local vendors, such as My Michelle’s catering, caused her less stress than having the game shown at the reception.
Brides spend months planning and idolizing this event and milestone in a couple’s life together, but sharing the big day with friends and entire families is what ultimately makes it special.
“You put so much time and effort into planning a wedding, and it’s only like four hours. I really thought there had to be a part two or something,” Coleman remarked. “In the end, the football game really wasn’t as big of a deal as it seemed at the time.”
As for myself, I planned a wedding in a different town, away from Oxford, and past the mid-semester hump of midterms in order to accommodate my friends from school and myself, but I sure am glad there isn’t a part two.
— Kristen Stephens is a journalism student at Meek School of Journalism and New Media
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