LIVING LIFE: The Sports Wedding Calendar
I don’t think my love of sports – OK, obsession with sports– is any big secret to anyone that really knows me; however, here lately I’m beginning to believe that the rest of the world isn’t sharing in my passion.
One of my best buddies, Paulie, just got engaged. He and his fiancé decided to have to have their wedding next month.
In November.
During one of the best annual sports stretches of the year.
“I know, I know,” Paul said. “Don’t even start with me.”
“I just want to make sure that you realize that you will be getting married during a college football Saturday,” I responded.
“Yes,” he said, becoming more dejected. “I’m well aware of the situation.”
“Then you will be leaving on your honeymoon and missing the NFL on Sunday, Monday Night Football on Monday, and a whole week of NBA games during the week,” I added.
“Just tell me where to turn in my Man Card,” he said, now sulking.
Paul’s wedding will be just one more instance in what’s becoming a disturbing trend as of late. Within the past two years, I have missed a lot of March Madness basketball, tons of college football, almost missed Game 3 of the World Series featuring my favorite team, and the PGA Championship all because of weddings.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I did miss the PGA Championship because of my own wedding, but still… you get the point)
The problem isn’t that my friends are maliciously scheduling their nuptials during prime time sporting events on purpose, it’s just that we haven’t been better informed as to when all of the prime time sporting events are being played. So, that’s what I’m here to do.
You’re welcome, world.
At the most recent wedding that my wife and I attended that was scheduled during an important game, I started to get a little chirpy. I began to pontificate profusely about how if you do get married during a huge sporting event, then you should have to be required to take into consideration all the men that have no desire to even be there in the first place (I lost it during that eternity between the ceremony and the reception, when you have to wait for the wedding party to finish taking pictures. Gets me every time).
I added that it should be mandated to have televisions strategically placed throughout the reception area because there will always be some big game on somewhere throughout the year.
Not wanting to force brides into having to deal with installing extra television sets, my wife wanted to know when the best times of the year are to have a wedding based on the annual sports calendar to make everyone happy.
And to shut me up.
After careful consideration and extended research, I have come to the rescue and have compiled a very helpful calendar that everyone can now use to schedule their future weddings around major sports events.
Men, I would suggest printing this out immediately and keeping it in your wallet because information this revolutionary tends to “disappear” quickly.
DATES YOU CAN’T HAVE A WEDDING BECAUSE OF CONFLICT WITH SPORTS:
- January 1 (NHL Outdoor Winter Classic)
- The rest of January (NFL Playoffs)
- First weekend in February (Super Bowl)
- Second weekend in February (NBA All-Star Weekend)
- March (March Madness)
- The first weekend in April (the Final Four and MLB opening weekend)
- The second weekend in April (The Masters)
- The last weekend of April (NFL Draft)
- May (NBA playoffs)
- June (NBA Finals)
- September (College and NFL football return)
- October (MLB playoffs, NHL returns, football every weekend)
- November (NBA returns, glorious football)
- December (NBA, NFL, NHL in full swing, college football bowl season)
DATES YOU CAN HAVE A WEDDING THAT WON’T CONFLICT WITH SPORTS:
- Last two weekends of February
- July
- August
- The third weekend in April*
*July and August are always the safest because baseball is the only sport being played at the time and no one actively wants to get married at the end of February. Besides, even if you do dodge a bullet with scheduling your wedding on that open weekend of April this year, your subsequent anniversaries will inevitably come back to haunt you for the rest of your life.
No need to be a hero, pal. As you can clearly see, there are pleeeeenty of other acceptable dates.
Here’s my ultimate point: guys know that when we are in relationships, situations are going to come up where we are not going to get to watch every minute of every sporting event during the calendar year. But we just want women to understand that before you came along, this is all we did.
There’s no grand mystery to solve about us.
My answer to every one of my wife’s questions pertaining to my life before her is always some variation of, “I was at my buddy’s house watching the game.”
How about a compromise? For every regular season game that we miss because we were at the mall with you, can we just please stop scheduling our weddings during MAJOR sporting events like March Madness or the World Series or the PGA Championship? And not just for us, but for every man that will be forced against his will to come be a part of our special day.
Is that really too much to ask?
To read more of Josh’s stuff, click here.
Follow Josh on Twitter @Just_Being_Josh and follow @INDT_popculture for entertainment updates
I am rolling right now…this has got to be one of the funniest things I have ever heard. You are such an amazing writer. Eric will enjoy this too! But in a soon-to-be bride’s defense, girls like sports too. I don’t care about nearly as many, but planning my wedding for a college football Saturday is killing me already (and it’s still 1 year away). Great work on this article. Truly hilarious
You forgot the menstrual calendar.
NFL Draft falls on the 3rd week of April (22-24 this past year)… Wouldn’t want anyone to make accommodations only to be blindsided by this and have to miss 36 straight hours of Mel Kiper Jr.’s Hair
Haha. My anniversary is August 15th for this exact reason. Don’t let my wife know though, she thinks she chose the date all by herself.
In all fairness, the only safe day is the Monday before the MLB All – Star game. That was a tough pitch to the MRS
1) Don’t forget major UFC fights. I had to miss a trip to Vegas with the boys & a UFC event because I was in a wedding… Now they’re divorced. I’m not bitter at all.
2)Just don’t get married. Seriously. I’m 40, never married, no kids, and never happier. All, and I mean ALL of my married friends are unhappy, have told me in confidence that they regret it, and wouldn’t do it again. Guys, marriage isn’t what it was in the 1940′s and 1950′s. Just don’t do it. Why would you get married when you know whomever you marry is going to sleep with someone else? Save your money, and date younger women the rest of your life. When my female friends ask me why I’ll never get married I tell ‘em the truth, “Cus I like being happy”.
My hubbie forwarded this link to me as it brought back fond memories as this was a topic of our planning.
I got married in July & didn’t realize it at the time it was a great time to bite the bullet; how true this article is to all future bullet biters
I think this article is great, however, the part in may and june that outlines the nba playoffs as reason not to have a wedding the nhl hockey playoffs need to be added there. . . . the nhl playoffs are far more exciting than the nba playoffs
Now I’m not really an Auto Racing fan, but isn’t NASCAR a bigger sport in America than NHL anymore? Or Golf for that matter? Even for the most casual of race fans, the Daytona 500 and Indy 500 warrant a mention, don’t you think? If you want to do this as a Public Service you need to extend beyond your own (obviously expanded) sports horizons.
Also you skipped the MLB All Star Game & NFL Pro Bowl but put the NBA All-Star Game? And the BCS “Championship”.
And your wedding was your chance to start the “provide TVs” to not miss the PGA. I had a deal in place that if my team was in the MLB playoffs TVs would in the reception the whole time. However, being a Mariners fan, it was a pretty safe bet for my wife that never happened.
Guys, it is not even his wedding.