For sporty couples all over America, the love of the game doesn’t stay in the stadium — it’s infused into every moment of their lives, including their nuptials.
Here’s a look at couples that scored the perfect sports-themed wedding ceremony, giddy-up getaways and advice on how to make your “I do” a hole-in-one
Deep dives
Things are going swimmingly for Kim Terrell-Miller and Arthur Miller. Last month, they became the first documented African-American couple to wed while SCUBA-diving.
“We’re members of the National Association of Black SCUBA Divers and the oldest black diving club in the world [the Underwater Adventure Seekers],” said Terrell-Miller, 58, an aerospace project manager who is based in D.C., where her new hubby, Miller, 63, works in grants management. “We researched. We interviewed everybody and said ‘Hey, I think we might be the first to do this.’ Then they did their own research. Nobody could find another example. We even used AI.”
The couple met two-decades ago via the Underwater Adventure Seekers, which was established in 1959 to train black divers. At the time Miller was married (his first wife passed away in 2007) and Terrell-Miller eventually left the club to focus on a career as an entrepreneur. Then, in 2018, the pair reconnected over social media.
“We hadn’t been in touch since 2010 other than the occasional Christmas party for the club,” said Terrell-Miller. “Arthur has been all over the world diving, but I was trying to start a company, so I hadn’t got much diving in. Our wedding was really our first time diving together.”
Long before their wedding Terrell-Miller said that she had wanted to incorporate her love of diving into her wedding ceremony.
So she jumped at the chance to be the first couple to marry in the recently opened Grand Mal Underwater Wedding Chapel in Grenada.
“He wore a tuxedo wetsuit and I had on a white and pink wetsuit with a custom-made wedding dress over it,” she said. “I had my hair in bantu knots under a turban with a veil pinned to it. I asked my bridesmaids to wear black and pink and my snorkel, fins and mask were black and pink. The groomsmen wore blue and black.”
A dozen seasoned divers joined them for a ceremony that featured laminated vows and lots of “OK” signs. “When the officiant pronounced us man and wife, we pulled the regulators out of our mouths and kissed.”
Other couples looking to make a splash with their ceremony should head to Key Largo, where the colorful biker, diver, notary and internet pastor Captain Slate has married roughly 80 couples underwater since 1978.
His $500 ceremonies allow couples to wed against a backdrop of coral, reef fish and even sharks.
“We’re the dive capital of the world down here,” said Slate, who does his best Captain Stubing impression when ashore. “We have a reef where we feed sharks, nurse sharks that are very benign, and they swim up when we do a wedding.”
Don’t worry about getting your galeophobia photographer certified. The captain captures the action with his trained team of dive assistants and underwater photo and videographers.
Devils advocates
Looking to add a slap shot to an otherwise traditional black-tie ceremony at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan, hockey lovers Nicole and Michael Careswell invited the devil himself to their 2022 wedding.
“I met Michael just walking home from work one day. We just met on the street,” said Mrs. Careswell, who works as a product development manager for a beauty company; Mr. Careswell is a police officer. “We kept running into each other and the third time he was like, ‘Why don’t we get a cup of coffee.’ The rest is history.”
The kismet didn’t stop there. “We were New Jersey Devils fans. I ran into him in Penn Station, because it was right after a Devil’s game and he’s like, “Oh you’re a Devil’s fan? I’m a Devil’s fan. It was one of the very first things that we bonded over, and one of our first dates was to a Devil’s game. We are really diehard for the team.”
As they began to plan their wedding, Mrs.Careswell discovered that her team’s mascot made event appearances and put in an inquiry with the team.
“We didn’t tell anybody and we had a lot of Devil’s fans at our wedding,” she said, adding that she had custom white Devil’s jerseys (their away game color) made for the big day with their last name printed on the back. “When the Devil showed up we put on our jerseys and had the DJ play the Devil’s “power play” song. He shot off confetti, threw t-shirts and danced with all of my guests. He even signed our jerseys.”
According to the Careswell’s wedding planner Alyssa Pettinato, owner of NYC-based Alinato Events, inviting a member of a team or a mascot to your wedding is the safest way to marry your love of an action-packed game with your less-action-packed wedding.
“You can’t hit a baseball at a ceremony,” she said. “It can’t be violent.”
Horsing around
There’s no separating a horse-girl from her passion for ponies. That’s why equestrian elopements make good horse sense.
One of the world’s premier venues for a horseback wedding is the private island resort Nihi Sumba, a seaplane skip from Bali in Indonesia. Beloved by in-the-know Americans (it’s owned by billionaire Chris Burch) for its horse-whisperer-led horse-therapy program, the isle allows you to marry your love of horses into your ceremony like no other.
“The bride will arrive in full regalia on horseback — and at times, both the bride and the groom arrive on horseback. Our horses are involved in our weddings in some shape or form,” said Robert McBride, the CEO of Nihi Hotels, of the island’s stunning herd of Sandalwood ponies that gallop along its crystal shores. “They ride down to the beach where their friends and family are waiting. We’ve even had a couple stay on horseback through the ceremony.”
At the 36-room resort, weddings of up to 70 adults are officiated by village priests who encourage couples to participate in the local culture — from chewing Betel nut and fire dancing to a ceremonial march with their horses.
If Indonesia is a little far-flung for your affair, or if you have a beloved pony in your own stable, ranch-themed weddings are a perfect alternative.
Hole-y matrimony
By far the most common sports venue for a wedding is a golf or country club. But before you shout “fore,” there’s lots to consider.
“Most golf courses won’t allow you to get married on the green,” said Cameron Forbes of NY and Hamptons-based Forbes Functions. “But you can often put up a tent at the 18th hole.”
Even then, timing is critical for a golf wedding, she said: “July 4th weekend most golf courses aren’t letting you put up a tent for a wedding. But October or November, when prime golf season is over and they’re less concerned about the greens and the quality of the sodding, that’s when I see most weddings happen.”
“Most golf courses won’t allow you to get married on the green, but you can often put up a tent at the 18th hole.”
Cameron Forbes of Forbes Functions
While you won’t be able to kiss and drive, Cameron does recommend incorporating a golf outing into your wedding weekend program or adding putting to the cocktail hour.
“It’s an amazing way to integrate sports and the outdoors into your wedding, and it’s really popular in the Hamptons and in Florida.”
Pettinato has planned a number of weddings at golf courses and she cautions that while you can have fun with the decor and other tie ins (maybe a slogan like “let’s par-tee?”): “you need to think about how to incorporate them in a way that also doesn’t detract from the day.”
“You don’t want it to feel like a theme-party,” she said. “It has to still feel like it’s a wedding — even if this is what we enjoy doing together.”
She also hands out red-cards when either the bride or the groom is allowing their personal love of a sport to dominate the wedding — or vice verse.
“I had a bride that was not into a golf ball situation,” she said, referring to an escort wall of golf balls created for a recent wedding on the links. “But I was like, ‘Look, this is kind of picturesque, and it really represents him, and the majority of the wedding screams ‘you.’ You want to incorporate something that represents the groom, because it can very easily become a very girly situation.’ You want to have both people feel like they’re represented.”