Baseball Theme Weddings
"There are only two seasons — winter and Baseball."
— Bill Veeck
You've figured it out — you both want to play on the same team for life. But how to play to the cheering crowd when it comes to your wedding day?
Here are a few tips for a wedding Lou Gehrig would love ... and a whole lot of experience below from baseball-loving brides.
Note to Guests: You've Got Box Seats
Try eBay for helpful stationers who can whip up elegant, personalized baseball theme wedding invitations. Or be super-chic and send your guests custom event tickets that look just like the real thing.
Baseball Decor
Happily, finding a few fun touches that show off your sporty side isn't hard!A Rousing Reception
Try centerpieces featuring roses in your team colors. Chicago Cubs fan? Place bridesmaids' red and white bouquets in vases you've tied off with royal blue ribbon. Attach a handsome enameled team pin to the center of a bow, and you've got an elegant arrangement.Another fun idea: fill large clear vases with mini baseballs, and top with floral "baseballs" made of densely petaled flowers, like white carnations. Adorable!
Add table numbers made from elegant vintage baseball cards — or simply name your tables after leading lights from your favorite team.
Tastes of the Game
Got a sweet tooth? A candy buffet in your colors can be a bold and beckoning statement. Concession picks are perfect here — so are regional treats. Don't forget to fill a jar or two (or scatter the linens) with a few chocolate baseballs. Personalizing striped takeout or pillow boxes with a cute custom label is half the fun. Or, go upscale and yet still stay on theme with a gourmet popcorn bar — or, dress up nostalgic Cracker Jacks boxes with a ribbon or sticker.Ceremonial Touches
Don't forget the ceremony! A treasured mitt makes a wonderful ring pillow. And for fabulous photos, exit under a shower of pennants .... or ask your best men to line the chapel steps so you can duck beneath an "arch of bats" as husband and wife.Last but not least — hand your guests some Sharpies and have them sign a few baseballs or a handsome bat instead of the usual (yawn!) guest book.
A Moveable Feast
Create an unforgettable cocktail hour and bring the astroturf indoors by offering a few outdoor vending classics to your delighted guests — available at major rental stores: soft pretzels with mustard and cheese (or nachos & cheese), ballpark franks, movie-style popcorn, or salt water taffy in waxed paper bags with personalized labels. The carts make these fabulous.For the non-drinkers, serve up personalized bottled water ... and classic Coke with real sugar (no corn syrup!) in glass bottles. This will get guests cheering for days.
A fun addition to cocktail hour? Mock up some "sports news sections" to take to the printers, with headlines starring you and your honey:
Mark and Tori Named CCAC Couple of the Year
Baseball's Winningest Couple Returns To [Hometown]
Tori Selected To The NAIA True Love Team
Mark Earns Top Hitter, Matrimonial Distinction
Needless to say, happy stats and headlines like these are best served with fresh-cut cigars.
Baseball Favors
The baseball theme's a cinch to pull off when it comes to favors. Here are some fun ones:If your guest list's intimate, offer up baseball caps for your beloved Cubs or Red Sox on a table near the door. Or, old-fashioned Crackers Jacks in the boxes makes a head-turning treat.
Team-emblazoned cookies or individual cupcakes can really dress to impress when whipped up by talented pastry artists. Set up a baseball-themed candy buffet. Or, hand out bags of favorite hometown treats: Cubs branded peanuts, Boston Baked Beans.Attach a cute tag with a favor saying, such as You Made Our Wedding A Hit or Our Love Hit A Home Run.
HI
Just back from my honeymoon! We had a baseball wedding and everyone is talking about how much fun it was…I am going to try and post from photos when I get home today…
Hannah,
I think that you can have ribbon custom made to say STL or whatever you want and have it red, yellow, and white or whatever colors you want (http://www.ribbonprinters.com/)
this isn’t the best picture, but i couldn’t figure out how to convert my word created ticket into jpeg or gif – sorry. It’s basically is just a picture of Busch Stadium. It says Justin and Jess, a photo of the cardinal, infield field box – game 1 – 6:30pm ,
seat (7), section(26), and row(08) align up to be the wedding date (7-26-08). I have a barcode on the side just to make it look real. I also put at the bottom “On this day of joy, thank you for joining us in the celebration of our love and the beginning of our new life together.”
Hey Girls. I’m having a more formal wedding but am incorporating baseball for my husband to be – which will be a total surprise to him – since I’m not really a baseball fan. Ya’ll have alot of good ideas! I’ve taken alot of your ideas and ran with them. I’m having red and white for the colors in the wedding (which just happen to be the STL Cards colors!) Our ring bearer is carrying a plastic baseball with our rings in it in his little glove. For the reception I’m placing these little tickets on each setting as sort of a thank you note . Our linens for the tables are white with red napkins. We’re having a Groom’s cake, which will be a baseball… duh. On his cake table I’m having a “concession stand” with big league chew, crackerjacks, popcorn, cotton candy, licorice ropes, peanuts, those little ice cream sundae helmets filled with candy, and little baseball cookies – you get the idea. I have found that nationwide candy is about the cheapest, but I’m thinking that Sam’s Club will have about the same prices without shipping charges (if ya’ll have those around check them out). I’m going to decorate this (cake table) area with pennants and little pictures of the hubby when he played T-ball and little league. For my cake table I’m doing pictures of our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. at their weddings for a little more personal touch. For a guest book I’m making a book through Walgreens or Walmart that’s leather bound ($20) with the future hubby and I’s pics at the Cards games and people can sign on these pages – and it’ll make a beautiful keepsake. For some of the centerpieces, I’m using hurricane vases filled with little baseballs with red and white roses in it on top of a mirror with rose petals on the table. Nothing to do with baseball, just a little idea. I went to 7 weddings this past summer and everyone played 20 min. picture videos – cute…. but very BORING. I’m going to play a thank you video for my parents during my father daughter dance and playing a video of Justin and I during dinner. If ya’ll have any other ideas for me, PLEASE let me know. I check this all the time to make sure that I’m keeping up. THANKS!
Jen, Someone else on this site referred me to Nationwide Candy. They have 1 oz boxes of cracker jacks, which are small enough for my purposes.
http://nationwidecandy.com/snacks/items/SP990893.htm
Hannah,
Where did you find mini boxes of cracker jacks?
Thanks
Jen
My (sort-of) baseball-themed wedding is in 3 months, so I’m posting my ideas, along with requests for suggestions. (We met at a St. Louis Cardinals game.)
-We used an idea off of this site for our save-the-dates: our “baseball card” inserted into each save the date.
-We are planning on using a regulation home plate as our guest book, but am having trouble finding a good deal on one — any ideas?
-Our escort cards are being custom-made by our great invitation printer, and are modeled after a 1931 Cardinals-Athletics World Series ticket stub. (On the stub part will be the name of the guest and the name of the table.) Very vintage looking.
-We are naming our tables after our favorite St. Louis Cardinals, past and present. Each table card will have that player’s baseball card.)
-Our sweetheart table will be decorated with a custom-made Louisville Slugger with our names and wedding date….and the STL logo.
-Our favors will be mini-boxes of Cracker Jacks and mini-bags of peanuts, one each, tied up in a cellophane bag. I’d love to use STL Cardinals ribbon or baseball ribbon to tie them up with, but cannot find it. Does anyone have ideas?
Thanks!!
we did a baseball theme and for the programs we made “fans” and gave personalized water bottles out for the thanks you gifts. we got a ton of compliments too
We are using bowl shaped flower vases with baseballs in them and
round candles on top of the vases.
http://www.sportsunlimitedinc.com/cubshomedecor.html
If you go to the link above you will find flower vases with the Cubs logo. I did a baseball pilsner glass from galasource.com as our vase…you may be able to get that engraved if you want to Cubs logo.
Please help…I’m looking for baseball shaped flower vases, small in size, preferably ‘Cubs’. If not Cubs, then no team on them, just baseball shaped. I would like to use them as a bridal shower ‘favor’ with Cubs color flowers in them.
THANK YOU, Diane
Tammy, My daughter got married in April. The reception was at the Ballpark in Arlington where the Texas Rangers play. They had personalized bags of peanuts for favors (they were pink striped with their names and date on them. The peanuts are the ones in the shell just like they sell at games.) along with boxes of Cracker Jack, Big Chew gum and personalized baseball cards. Everyone loved it!!
The Yankee Theme wedding gave us SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many ideas!!!! My son and his future bride loved the site—especially since he played for the Yankees last year!!!! Can you all think of any other way to incorporate something othe than a beer mug for the favors?! ————-Tammy Carrara
Hi ladies, if you haven’t seen this NY Yankees theme “real wedding” at the Knot, you’re missing out!
This is probably the most formal baseball theme wedding I’ve seen … you know, these can get pretty informal with the bride in a jersey and baseball cap … but GREAT photos for somone who wants a little less casual in their baseball wedding.
NY Yankee Themed Wedding / The Knot
No problem Kim! Thanks for the compliment. I have tons of ideas and am really excited about others ideas. If you have any ideas to pass along I’m all ears.
Congrats on your wedding. That is so awesome you were engaged at the world series game! What a great proposal!
allie!
thanks so much for responding! sorry i had two comments consecutively, but i didn’t think the first one went through…i was at work and didn’t have much to do so i wanted to get the important things done! lol…anyway, thanks again..i just ordered them..i got the red sox shirts and had husband 20 and wife 08…our wedding date is 9/5/08…and i wanted to get the world series shirts but they didn’t have them in women’s—we were engaged at game 1 of the world series…that idea went out the window so i fell on plan b….thanks again! i really appreciate your creativity!!
I ordered them from mlbshop.com. I went to my favorite teams shop (Astros). You can order personalized jerseys that way. The mens are around $80ish for a replica (over $200 for an authentic). I get the youth extra large for 60ish. I like the youth ones because they are longer than the women’s. You can get any of your favorite players or you can put your new last names or the husband & wife, bride & groom, etc. It is definately worth every penny though as we will use them for our entire lives!
I told my future hubby i wanted to have them on our chairs at our 50th wedding anniversary and have everyone sign them. Then we can “retire” them.
Thanks so much for the comments!
hey allie…
love the idea of those shirts! where did you get them done?? i would love that to my baseball themed wedding….thanks!
hey alli!!
i love the idea of the jerseys!!! where did you get them from? did you order them online?? let me know your thoughts, please..:D
Hi All
These ideas are great and have been so helpful for our May 24th baseball themed wedding…I wanted to post what we are doing…Peanuts, cracker jacks and big league chew will be on the tables for Nationwidecandy.com, the centerpieces will be topiaries…a basebal bat will be the base and a baseball made of mums. We are havibng Mr. Met from the NY Mets come too…as favors we got M&Ms personalized in blue, orange and white with our name and date on them. They are going to be places in old fashioned candy jars. The labels were printed with our names around the outside of a baseball…The ring bearers pillow will have blue and orange ribbons hanging and my garter will have blue and orange ribbons and a NYMets pin on it…The grooms cake is being made by one of my friends to look like Shea Stadium….this theme has not been an easy one to put together…good luck everyone
Hi,
I went to a 1st birthday party and for a favor was given a bag of unshelled peanuts with the words of “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” attached to them. I loved this idea. They tell me it was bought on the internet. Do you know what site it could be?
Hey everyone. I wanted to update and give you an idea you may want to use. My fiance and I recently did our engagement pics (it just took us almost a year of engagement, lol). For the shoot, I got jersey’s made from our favorite team (Astros) and got them customized. On his, he had HUSBAND and the number 1 and on mine, I had WIFE and number 2. We thought of bride and groom, but we wanted to be able to use them in the future. We used them in the pics and will put them on our chairs at our reception. Just thought I would pass on the idea.
Thanks for all the great info – we are planning a baseball themed shower for a coworker (she & her fiancee are huge baseball fans) – and we were stuck for ideas – until we found your site.
Congrats to all the brides!!
Hey!!!Just came across your website—————we are lookin for an unusal way to give a baseball favor—and include a volleyball theme too. The bride is a college volleyball player and the groom played college ball and is a proffessional baseball player—-HELP!!!!!!
Hi,
I loved reading your suggestions and wanted to be sure you are aware of our company, Cooperstown Cookie, based in Cooperstown, New York, the home of baseball. We would be happy to hear from anyone needing help w/ baseball themed favors, etc.
Hi Stacey,
I’ve hand crafted “baseball ticket” place cards for several weddings. See below for my reply to Courtney. If you haven’t found anything yet and you’re interested, feel free to contact me at christina_walsh@verizon.net. In the meantime, good luck with your planning.
Christina
I would to have baseball ticket place cards. I was wondering if anyone knew how I could make that happen. Any help is much appreciated!
Don’t worry about what’s tasteful and what’s not. Just have fun with it! I still receive compliments about my baseball wedding. Ours was very casual, but I think that made it more fun and enjoyable for everyone. Including me! Check out our pictures. Maybe you’ll get some more ideas.
http://picasaweb.google.com/BetsyDeck/WorldSeriesWedding02
The best part was the house party holding up baseball bats “military style” for our exit.
I am also planning a baseball wedding for our big day on 08/08/08…these are some of the ideas that I am playing with. We used customsportscards.com to make our save the date cards…everyone really loved them! I found some baseball pilsner glasses at galasource.com that will be our vase for our centerpieces. We are using the espresso color to play off the color of the glove as our main color and the ivory to make it look more elegant. I will be naming each table after a baseball team and using mini pennants we found at Academy or almost any other sports store. I am still not sure on the favors because I want for them to look nice and tasteful, but if I figure it out, I will let you know. My fiance and I are having so much fun with planning this wedding…everyone just can’t believe we are having a baseball theme wedding, but they love the idea. We will also be touring several baseball parks for our honeymoon.
Courtney,
You can make these yourself way cheap. I made them for my reception. Each table was themed after a different ballpark so I had seats 1-8 for each table. They are going to be handed out to the guests as they arrive so they know which ballpark they are seated in. You can add whatever you want. I made mine in microsoft office publisher. If you want I cna upload a picture. I kept mine plain because I was makeing seats for 260 guests but you can add pictires of a stadium or the two of you. The only limit is how much time you want to put into it. I printed mine on glossy card stock and they are perfect!