We are both life-long Cardinals fans, met at a Cardinals game, and got engaged at Busch. So of course we had a Cardinals-themed wedding! Having a baseball-themed wedding was so fun and took wedding planning to a whole new level! I did all this pre-Pinterest so now that I’m a Pinterester I thought I’d share all my ideas so many more brides can make their baseball-themed wedding come true.

CEREMONY

We had the ceremony at FCNB Field, the High School baseball field, in Rolla – the town Scott’s from and where we both went to college. We would have loved to have it at Busch Stadium, but we were poor college students and on a budget 😉 Maybe we’ll renew our vows there some day…

Riding in on a Convertible

It was quite appropriate to arrive in a convertible. Unfortunately we couldn’t drive onto the field, but this made it convenient to get ready offsite since there weren’t any goods spots onsite.

Vows at Home Plate

We wrote our own vows – how sappy 🙂 Home plate was such a memorable place for us to recite them to one another. We both were tearing up – or maybe that was just sweat 😉 The groomsmen stood along the first base line and the bridesmaids on the third base line.

Ballboy

My nephew Ethan was the cutest ballboy ever! He brought us the ball for the “First Pitch”.

The First Pitch

I was pretty nervous about throwing out the “First Pitch” to Scott in a wedding dress! We practiced at the rehearsal but that was in a short dress…We had contemplated having Scott throw to me, but he’s got a bit of a wild streak. It ended up being a strike, and I didn’t step on my dress and fall. I did however lose my engagement ring, which I’d put on my throwing hand. I almost got down on my knees to start searching for it, but remembered I was in a dress 🙂 We ended up finding it afterwards so it turned out to be a really funny story.

Running the Bases

We ran the bases together, and he carried me the last stretch to home plate.

Umpires as Ushers

My brothers looked quite dashing in their powder blue umpire uniforms. One waved us home at third base and the other called us “safe” at home plate.

The Organist and Trumpeter

We had an amazing organist (thanks Allison) who played ballpark tunes throughout the ceremony. We loved having “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” played at our wedding! My brother is a fabulous trumpeter (now a band director) and played some traditional wedding music like “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”.

Family in the Dugout

The bride’s family sat in the third base dugout, and the groom’s family sat in the first base dugout.

Fans in the Stands

All the fans (wedding guests) sat in the stands. There wasn’t a bad seat in the house 🙂 Scott’s Dad appears to have been able to sit in the stands and the dugout…

Flowers and Colors

You’re probably wondering why the blue dresses and vests. No we are not Cubs fans – Scott and my favorite color is blue. We also wanted our red vests and flowers to contrast and stand out. The Cardinals often accent red with blue. We really like the ’80s powder blue uniforms (usher umpire shirt color), but they don’t make standard dresses and vests in that color 😉 It turned out to be the hottest day of the year. In hindsight, I wish we had gone with more casual “uniforms”. I’m shocked Scott didn’t pass out in his tux!

The flowers consisted of red carnations (bride and groom only), white carnations, lilies and baby’s breath. We chose carnations in honor of Scott’s late mother, Sandy, who loved carnations.

Cups in the Fence

What’s a baseball game – I mean wedding – without cups in the outfield fence. Our names and the famous Jack Buck quote “That’s a Winner!” are how we feel about our match-up :).

Program Fans

Since it was the hottest day of the year, fans were really handy. We put a goofy picture of us at a Cards game on the front with our wedding date. On the back were the ceremony details. We punched holes through the bottom and inserted a red ribbon to dress them up a bit and keep them in a fan shape.

Tossing Sunflower Seeds

Sunflower seeds are a ballpark food and require no cleanup. This was the perfect choice for tossing at the bride and groom after the ceremony!

PICTURES

We did the majority of our pictures as “batting practice” before the wedding.

Batting Practice

We had so much fun with batting practice for our pictures. We took turns hitting and fielding.

Gazebo

There was a gorgeous gazebo that overlooked the field so we took lots of wonderful shots here. It was shaded which was a nice relief from the heat.

Family

We did family portraits on the field after the wedding.

RECEPTION

The reception was at the Oak Meadow Country Club in Rolla and was also Cardinals-themed. We had an announcer who introduced everyone as position players.

1. Batting first, catcher, Ginger Thomas
2. Hitting second and playing second base, Corey Dunn
3. Batting third, third baseman, Casey Wilson
4. At cleanup, designated hitter Frank Sauer
5. Batting fifth, the right fielder, Aubrey Tuk
6. Hitting sixth, the shortstop, Daniel Perdue
7. Hitting seventh and playing centerfield, Rachel Madden
8. Batting eight, first baseman, Sheldon “Mr. Shells” Stieg
9. Batting ninth, the beautiful left fielder, Sarah Perdue!
10. And at pitcher, fireballer Scott Perdue!

The Cake & Punch

In hindsight, it was probably a bad idea for me to make my own wedding cake…but I just couldn’t trust anybody else to do it for me. Plus, I knew exactly what I wanted and was able to bake the cake and build the frame several weeks in advance.

I cut four mini Cardinals baseball bats into three sections. Using thin board, I made round circles and put a thin blue ribbon border around the edges. I then screwed the bats into the rounds. To ensure the bats didn’t sink into the cake, I put 8″ plastic separator plates underneath the fondant on the bottom three tiers and plenty of dowel rods inside the cake. I was really nervous about it toppling, but I guess my engineering skills passed the test 🙂

I did some cake baking trials and finally decided on a white chocolate cake with strawberry filling covered with white chocolate fondant. This fondant or modeling chocolate tastes amazing and is the easiest and only recipe I use to-date for fondant.

I added a simple red ribbon with white stitches on the edges to border each cake. I then added red baseball stitches across each round cake.

The finishing touch was our Cardinals topper! We ordered this from Jayne Williams Wedding Cake Tops for $50. We were able to customize the team and a lot of other features like the bride and groom hair and skin colors.

I happened to have a glass table the exact size of the table at the reception site so I put pictures and baseball cards under the glass. This made for a really neat display around the cake. We also had red and white punch flowing in the fountains in the backdrop which gave a very magical effect. We had a champaign flutes and server set engraved with our name and wedding date.

The Guest “Bat”

Why use a guest book when you can have guests sign a bat! We used an unfinished bat which we had our names and wedding date engraved on the end. My wonderful father-in-law made us a nice bat holder, which we now have on display in our Cardinals-themed basement.

Floating “Baseball” Candle Bubble Bowl Centerpieces

This seemed like the perfect choice. Everything was round like a baseball – so fitting! We painted the baseball stitches on the floating white candles. The round mirrors underneath gave an extra glow.

Peanut Favors

Peanuts were an easy and cost-effective favor. We made a cute little pennant as the thank you tag.

Baseballs Sawed in Half as Table Card Stands

Table card stands are flippin’ expensive so we struck genius when we utilized the same technique Scott used for holding my engagement ring. Scott proposed using a baseball sawed in half so that’s what we did for these stands. We drilled small holes on the round side and inserted cheap plastic flower card holders.

All-Star Table

Of course the wedding party sat at the “All-Star” table. It just so happened that the Cardinals hosted the All-Star Game in 2009 so we borrowed the logo and made some nice table cards and place cards.

Player and Game-Themed Guest Tables

We had a perfect record for the Cardinals games we’d been to together leading up to the day we got married. Thus, eight of the tables were given a Game number as the theme. Pictures, memories and poems from these games were dispersed on these tables.

The remaining guest tables had Player themes for our favorite Redbirds. We dispersed pictures/baseball cards of the player along with quotes about them.

Card Cage with Lovebirds

This was a nice subtle touch – Cardinal lovebirds in a cage together. It was so perfect that bird cages are used for collecting Cards – pun intended – from guests.

Our Cardinals Display

There was a nice shelf that we were able to use to set-up some of our memorabilia. My brother and sister-in-law created the cute little baseballs with faces and hearts 🙂

Baseball Topiaries

Baseball topiaries were a bit tricky, but added a nice touch. With a flower pot, red and white tissue paper, round styrofoam balls, dowel rods and paper clips, you can also make these. Wish I’d had time to paint the pot red…The topiaries also convert well into a ball and chain for the getaway car 🙂

Cardinals Garter

I was able to buy a set of two Cardinals/STL garters so I was able to keep one and “toss” the other.

INVITATIONS

All our invitations also had baseball themes.

Save the Date

We used a baseball card as our Save the Date! This was the first thing we designed that really got us rolling with our baseball-themed wedding.

  

Ticket Invitations

What better way to RSVP than to return the ticket stub from a ticket invitation! These were so fun to design!

Batting Practice and Ballpark Food Rehearsal Dinner

The school let us use the concession stand next to the field, and we served ballpark food (hot dogs, burgers, nachos, cracker jacks, etc.).

PRE-GAME

Bridesmaid and Groomsmen Gifts

Engraved mini Cardinals baseball bats were a much cherished keepsake for our wedding party. To our friends and family that helped with the wedding, we gave baseballs with our wedding date, autographs and a special thank you note.

Bachelor Party at Cardinals Game

Of course the bachelor had his party at a Cards game with All-Inclusive seats. Ballpark Village wasn’t around when we got married, but would definitely be a good afterparty or main party option 🙂

The Proposal

Scott planned a full day of Cardinals activities on the three year anniversary of the day we met. Our first encounter was on the awesome down ramps of Busch II after a game we attended with the Missouri S&T Christian Campus Fellowship. According to Scott, it was love at first sight 🙂 He had been watching me throughout the entire game and was just getting up enough courage to introduce himself.

The date he selected was the first hint to me that something was going on 😉 I suggested going to dinner with some of my sisters, and he said he had reservations for two at some restaurant. I think that was when I was sure that he was going to pop the question.

First, we went to Pujols 5 for lunch at 1 pm and then rushed to Busch Stadium for a tour at 2 pm. After viewing the special clubs and press box, we visited the field and dugout. Scott and I set up a sly scheme to steal some stadium gravel – I bent down to pose by the small Cardinal figurine and snatched a handful, which I subsequently poured into his cargo shorts.

Following the tour, we went on a shopping spree at Kohl’s where he spent over $100 on stuff for me! But upon leaving Kohl’s we realized the car keys were still in the car. Scott called 911 but all they said was they couldn’t help him if there wasn’t a child or animal trapped in the car. Fortunately for Scott, he had his AAA card, and they were able to come and unlock the car. The mood had gone a little sour so we sweetened up with smoothies from Smoothie King.

Next, we headed back downtown to our dinner location, which was a surprise to me. We parked right by the Bowling Hall of Fame and got out. I looked around for restaurants and the first placed I spotted was Mike Shannon’s Steakhouse, which turned out to be where we headed. After an enchanting dinner of halibut, steak, and a little wine in the Stan Musial room, Scott forked out over $100 to cover the meal. Scott doesn’t normally blow money like he did today so I was sure something was up.

After dinner Scott insisted we walk off the wine by taking a stroll around the stadium. Scott stopped by his car to pick up his camera and ended up grabbing his entire camera bag which made me pretty suspicious. We then began the walk which ended at his family’s brick near the Stan Musial statue. He said he wanted to take a picture of the brick and I was confused because he already had pictures. I was admiring the brick while he rummaged in his bag.

When I looked up he was standing in front of me with a piece of paper in his hands. When he began reading I knew for sure what he was doing. As Scott described later, he would never forget the smile I had on my face. The poem he read was similar to a poem I had written for him a couple of years ago. He had changed a lot of it to be in his perspective and then added a few stanzas. The last stanza went like this: “It’s been three years to the day since first we met; And a million kissies later, you’re not mine yet; But here I am, ready to give you my life; So I ask, Sarah, will you be my wife?”

As Scott read the last two lines, he whipped out a baseball that he had sawed in half and placed the ring inside. My immediate response was yes and he placed the ring on my finger. We were kissing and hugging in shear excitement, when we were interrupted by a security guard. He congratulated us and told us he saw us on the security footage. We laughed and got his number in hopes that we could get a copy of the video.

After he left, we did what Scoot and I do best – be silly. We took all sorts of pictures and enjoyed the new feeling of being engaged. Sadly, we had to cut the night short for we had to head to bed early because the next day I had to compete in a triathlon.

It was a dream come true – to be asked by the man I love, at the very location we not only have many fond memories at, but the place we first met exactly three years ago.