For sports couples across America, the love of the game doesn’t stop at the stadium — it’s infused into every moment of their lives, including their wedding.
Here’s a look at the couples who nailed the perfect sports-themed wedding ceremony, dizzying getaways, and tips on how to make your “I do” a hole-in-one
Ddiving eep
Things are looking up for Kim Terrell-Miller and Arthur Miller. Last month, they became the first documented African-American couple to marry while diving.
“We are members of the National Black SCUBA Diving Association and the oldest black scuba diving club in the world [the Underwater Adventure Seekers],” said Terrell-Miller, an aerospace project and program manager who is based in the D.C. area, where her new boyfriend, Miller, works in grant management. “We have researched. We interviewed everyone and said ‘Hey, I think we might be the first to do this.’ Then they did their research. No one could find another example. We even used AI.”
The couple met two decades ago through Underwater Adventure Seekers, which was formed in 1959 to train black divers. At the time Miller was married (his first wife died in 2007) and Terrell-Miller eventually left the club to focus on a career as an entrepreneur. Then, in 2018, the pair reconnected via social media.
“We hadn’t been in touch since 2010, apart from the occasional Christmas party for the club,” Terrell-Miller said. “Arthur has been all over the world diving, but I was trying to start a company so I hadn’t done much diving. Our wedding was really our first time diving together.”
Long before their wedding, Terrell-Miller said 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 get married at the recently opened Grand Mal Underwater Wedding Chapel in Grenada.
“He was wearing a tuxedo and I was wearing a white and pink suit with a custom-made wedding dress over it,” she said. “I had my hair in bantu knots under a turban with a veil attached to it. I asked my bridesmaids to wear black and pink and my snorkel, fins and mask were black and pink. The groomsmen were dressed in blue and black.”
18 experienced divers, as well as snorkelers and free divers, joined them for a ceremony that featured laminated pledges and lots of “OK” signs. “When the officer pronounced us husband and wife, we took the regulators out of our mouths and kissed.”
If you’re looking for a home dive, head to Key Largo, where motorcyclist, diver, notary and colorful Internet pastor Captain Slate has married approximately 80 couples underwater since 1978.
Its $500 ceremonies allow couples to marry against a backdrop of coral, reef fish and even sharks.
“We’re the diving capital of the world down here,” said Slate, who does his best Captain Stubing impression when he comes ashore. “We have a reef where we feed sharks, nurse sharks who are very good and they swim up when we have 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 photographers and videographers.
Protector of devils
Looking to add some slapstick 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 nuptials.
“One day I met Michael coming home from work. We just went out 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 bumping into each other and the third time he said, ‘Why don’t we have a cup of coffee’. The rest is history.”
The luck didn’t stop there. “We were New Jersey Devils fans. I ran into him in Penn Station because it was right after a Devils game and he said, “Oh, you’re a Devils fan? I’m a Devil’s fan. It was one of the first things we bonded over and one of our first dates was at a Devil’s game. We’re really hard on the team.”
As they began to plan their wedding, Mrs. Careswell discovered that her team’s mascot appeared at the event and made an inquiry with the team.
“We didn’t tell anyone and we had a lot of Devils fans at our wedding,” she said, adding that she had white Devils jerseys (their away game color) made for the big day with their last name printed on the back side. . “When the Devil showed up, we put on our jerseys and had the DJ play the Devil’s ‘power play’ song. He dropped confetti, threw t-shirts and danced with all my guests. He even signed our jerseys.”
According to Careswell’s wedding planner Alyssa Pettinato, owner of NYC-based Alinato Events, inviting a cast member or mascot to your wedding is the surest way to marry your love for an action-packed game of your less action game. wedding
“You can’t hit a baseball at a ceremony,” she said. “It cannot be violent.”
Ride around
Can’t separate a horse girl from her passion for ponies. This is why horse elopements make good horse sense.
One of the top places in the world for a wedding on horseback is the private island resort of Nihi Sumba, a seaplane ride from Bali in Indonesia. Beloved by American celebrities (it’s owned by billionaire Chris Burch) for its equine therapy program led by whisperers, the island lets you marry your love of horses into your ceremony like no other.
“The bride will arrive in full regalia on horseback — and sometimes, the bride and groom arrive on horseback. Our horses are involved in our weddings in one shape or form,” said Robert McBride, CEO of Nihi Hotels, the stunning herd of sandalwood ponies galloping along its crystal shores. “They go down to the beach where their friends and family are waiting. We even had a couple stand on horseback during the ceremony.”
At the 36-room resort, weddings of up to 70 adults are hosted by village priests who encourage couples to take part in local culture – from betel nut chewing and fire dancing to a ceremonial march with their horses.
If Indonesia is a bit far for your affair, or if you have a beloved pony in your stable, farm-themed weddings are a perfect alternative.
Hole marriage
By far, the most common sports venue for a wedding is a golf club or venue. But before you scream “away,” there’s a lot to consider.
“Most golf courses won’t let you get married on the green,” said Cameron Forbes of NY and Hamptons-based Forbes Functions. “But you can often pitch a tent on the 18th hole.”
Even then, timing is critical for a golf wedding, she said: “The Fourth of July weekend, most golf courses won’t let you set up a tent for a wedding. But October or November, when the main golf season is over and they are less concerned about the greens and the quality of the view, then I see most weddings happening.”
“Most golf courses won’t let you get married on the green, but you can often pitch a tent on the 18th hole.”
Cameron Forbes of Forbes Functions
While you won’t be able to kiss and drive, Cameron recommends incorporating a golf outing into your wedding weekend program or adding to cocktail hour.
“It’s an amazing way to integrate sports and nature into your wedding, and it’s really popular in the Hamptons and in Florida.”
Pettinato has planned a number of golf course weddings, and she cautions that while you can have fun with decor and other touches (perhaps a slogan like “let’s get married?”): “You have to think about how to incorporate them into a so that it also doesn’t detract from his day.”
“You don’t want it to look like a theme party,” she said. “It should still feel like a marriage — even if it’s what we enjoy doing together.”
She also gives red cards when the bride or groom lets their personal love of a sport dominate the wedding — or vice versa.
“I had a bride who wasn’t in a golf ball situation,” she said, referring to an accompanying wall of golf balls created for a recent engagement wedding. “But I said, ‘Look, this is kind of picturesque, and it really represents that, and most 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 both people to feel like they’re represented.”
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