We’re lifelong Cardinals fans—met at a game, got engaged at Busch Stadium, and naturally had a Cardinals-themed wedding! Planning a baseball-inspired wedding was an absolute blast and brought a whole new level of fun to the process. I pulled it all off pre-Pinterest (imagine that!), but now that I’m fully immersed in the world of pinning, I wanted to share all my ideas so other baseball-loving brides can knock their wedding out of the park.

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 at the field.

Vows at Home Plate

We wrote our own vows—cue the sap! 🥹 Reciting them at home plate made for such a special (and unforgettable) moment. There may have been a few tears… or maybe it was just the sweat—we’ll never tell 😉. The groomsmen lined up along the first base line, the bridesmaids along third, making it feel like our own little Field of Dreams.

Ballboy

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

The First Pitch

I was definitely nervous about throwing the “First Pitch” to Scott in a wedding dress! We practiced at the rehearsal—but that was in a short dress, not yards of tulle. We debated having Scott throw to me, but he’s got a bit of a wild arm, so I took the mound. Miraculously, it was a strike—and I didn’t trip over my dress! I did, however, lose my engagement ring mid-pitch (note to self: don’t wear it on your throwing hand). I nearly dropped to my knees to search, then remembered—oh right, wedding gown. We found it later, and now it’s one of our favorite “only-at-our-wedding” stories.

Running the Bases

We ran the bases together, and he carried me the last stretch to home plate. Fun fact: it turned out to be the hottest day of the year. In hindsight, maybe “formal tux” wasn’t the move—I’m still amazed Scott didn’t pass out.

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 about the blue dresses and vests—don’t worry, we’re definitely not Cubs fans! Blue just happens to be both mine and Scott’s favorite color, and we loved how it made the red accents pop. The Cardinals often pair red with blue, and we’re big fans of those iconic powder blue ’80s uniforms (you know, the usher/umpire shirt vibe)—but sadly, they don’t make bridesmaid dresses or vests in that shade!

As for the flowers, we kept it classic: white carnations, lilies, and baby’s breath, with red carnations reserved for just the bride and groom. We chose carnations to honor Scott’s late mother, Sandy, who adored them.

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, making my own wedding cake might’ve been a slightly crazy idea—but I just couldn’t imagine trusting anyone else with it. I knew exactly what I wanted, and being a bit of a perfectionist, I figured… why not? I baked the cake layers and even built the frame weeks in advance, so by the time the big day arrived, it was all ready to go (with only mild stress involved).

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.