How Ohio State Football Can Affect Your Wedding Day (even if you’re not a fan)

Fall weddings are VERY popular, and for good reason. The nice weather and the color makes is nice for both your guests and for your wedding pictures!

Fall is Central Ohio also brings Ohio State football. These games can affect your wedding even if you don’t care at all about football. Not only on game day, but also with the planning process, so its wise to try to plan for it in advance because it has wide range effects.

Here are our insights on how to reduce the impact on your wedding that Ohio State football can have on Central Ohio weddings in the fall.

So here are the variable for you to consider!

1) HOTEL ROOM BLOCKS:
This might be pretty basic, but the weekends with home games you are going to have more people in Columbus wanting hotel rooms.  This increased demand might make it a little bit harder to find hotel rooms, or it might increase the costs. It will probably do BOTH! Book your hotel room block as early as possible to lock in the price.

It goes without saying that you should probably avoid hotels in the immediate campus area. Downtown hotels often are typically busier than the suburban hotels too.

A key thing to help you here is to inform your guests (especially those from out of town who may not understand this effect) the importance of booking their rooms early. This last point can’t be stressed enough.

2) FOOTBALL TRAFFIC
So this has to do more with the kick off time than anything else. This is a problem because the kickoff time is often not determined until a few weeks before the game due to TV schedules. You might have a noon kickoff, 3:30, or if its earlier in the football season (September and October) you might even get an 8PM kickoff.

Traffic can be easy to get around, but if you or your guests get caught in the traffic, it can cause a lot of delays and hassles.

Your biggest concern will having your guests and wedding party to the ceremony and reception venues.  So figure out the route that they will most likely be taking. Once again the guests that are not used to OSU football traffic might need to be warned about.

Needless to say you want to stay away from 315 for 2-3 hours before and after the game. 

3) THE ACTUAL GAME
This is where a lot of debate takes place.... how do you let your guests watch the game without your reception turning into a football watch party. We have some pretty strong thoughts about this, and it usually involves NOT fighting it.

Here is why. Guests missing a game, no matter how big or small, are going to search for a way to keep up with the score.  This is much easier with people being able to watch the game on their cell phones. Every fall weekend we see lots of people sitting at their tables watching their favorite teams play on their phones. But honestly its not much different from when people check on their social media sites either.

It’s up to you to determine how important it is to save them from feeling compelled to stream the game during your reception.

Let your guests know in advance that they will be able to watch the game. There might be a bar at your venue that will be showing the game on their TVs. Or they will bring a TV set into the foyer area. But we want to warn you that this tends to draw the crowd out of your ballroom and away from the dance floor. 

A better idea would be in the venue has a fixed bar area that has a TV set. Sure you will have a lot of people gathering around it, but at least they will still be in your area.

Finally, the most radical idea. Some DJs can bring in large TV sets and set them by the dance floor and show the game on them. You can turn this into a positive if you have TVs are large (65 inches) and placed properly so that a large portion of your guests can watch the game while still staying on the dance floor. This can create a win-win scenario.

Taking some simple measures like this in advanced can greatly enhance the experience for your guests, and maybe limit the complaints from your football-fan friends.

4) THE UNEXPECTED DATES
So you’ve been planning your wedding around the football schedule because you don’t want the hassle. Good for you. BUT don’t forget that there are dates that aren’t listed on the schedule!

If Ohio State plays in the Big 10 Championship, that game usually takes place the evening on the first Saturday in December. Since OSU is quite good right now, there is a very good chance this can happen very often. This would also be a HUGE game so the interest in watching this game will also be very high. You also be almost positive that game will be in the evening.

You also have the college football playoffs. But most of these dates are being held in January, and will be out of town, so the impact on having OSU make these games are not that big for a local wedding reception.

We hope that these have helped you with your planning.

O H!

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