Scott and Sarah Latham were among the first to blend the elements of location, decor, custom design, and guest favors in order to offer an over-the-top baseball themed experience to their guests. In many respects, they raised the bar on what a baseball themed wedding could be and improved upon what had been done by developing a new approach that was clearly their own. By booking their wedding at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park, it really cemented this baseball themed wedding experience for all who attended. This is their story, as told by the bride herself …
“When Scott and I first became engaged we wanted a not so traditional wedding. We aren’t regular church goers so a traditional church wedding just didn’t feel like us. First we thought maybe a golf course wedding or maybe something in a park. When my husband first said, “Hey did you know you can rent out Great American Ball Park? We could get married there!” At first it was a joke because, pun intended, we thought the price would be out of the ballpark. Surprisingly enough, it was right in our price range and our joke soon turned into a reality.”
“The ballpark that the Cincinnati Reds call home was one of our first dates. It holds a special place in our hearts, so we were excited we had found the perfect place to get married! Thus began our challenge of planning this unusual wedding. If only Pinterest was around back then! But without it, Google was our friend for various ideas and vendors. Our main challenge was making our wedding baseball themed, yet still elegant. We came up will our slogan “Diamonds are forever.” It described everything we wanted our wedding to encompass.
Once we had our venue picked, we knew the first thing we needed was a photographer. We wanted a photographer who would capture every moment and never miss a beat or moment. 808 Studio’s was the only company who had everything we needed and more.”
Creating a truly unique invitation was the next hurdle to overcome. The bride and groom looked at several wedding invitations, but nothing they saw was exactly right for their theme. After an exhaustive search, they stumbled onto a company called Artifacture. Artifacture not only created their one-of-a-kind, laser cut, baseball themed wedding invitation, but they also assisted with creating table numbers and place cards for each of the guests at the reception.
The couple then began planning for the wedding reception …
“What would our center pieces look like? What were our wedding favors going to be? What would our wedding programs look like? All of this was a lot to do and it was hard to find ideas or items that were elegant and not too kiddish. So again we took to Google.”
“While Google offered many ideas, we found our own ideas most appealing. First we came up with the cake design. The company to create our vision was Ele Cake Co. Not only are their designs amazing, but their cake is to die for! We decided our cake would be multi-tiered with actual baseball bats. Each tier would look like a baseball and have actual baseballs on each layer. We found two baseballs that were hand painted to look like a groom’s tux and a bridal bouquet. To top off the cake, we got a groom pitching to the bride.”
The wedding reception table centerpieces were also designed and assembled by the innovative couple. The Artifacture table numbers shaped like Cincinnati Reds jerseys were used to mark the each table. Scott then came up with the idea to attach mini home plates to mini baseball bats in order to form the base of the actual table number. This assembly was then accented by one of two different floral designs. One was a shorter arrangement created to look like a baseball cut in half, while the other was a tall elegant vase housing custom baseballs and topped with various pink flowers. Custom printed M & M’s in red, white, and pink were embossed with the Cincinnati Reds logo, their wedding date, and the words Mr. & Mrs. These were placed at each place setting as a unique guest favor. A personalized Cincinnati Reds jersey, including the year they were married, served as the couple’s guestbook and helped round out the wedding reception decor.
The Bridal party featured some unique accents as well. BaseballRoses were incorporated into the bridal bouquets and they were also transformed into some very elegant boutonnieres for the groomsmen. Cuff links made from game used baseballs were the final accent before Scott made his way to the altar. Each set of cuff links included a card with information on the game the ball was used in.
The last remaining accent to be developed were the custom designed wedding programs created by SportsThemedWeddings.com. Let’s hear from the bride …
“Our programs and reception entrance were two of not only our favorites, but also our guest’s favorite parts of our wedding. Our programs were the icing on the cake for our “diamonds are forever” baseball themed wedding. I mean how could we not do baseball programs for our wedding programs! The amount of detail and care Sports Themed Weddings took to make our programs not just perfect for us and our theme, but as realistic as a regular baseball program was incomparable. From my sister-in-law and her husband being on the “DL” list (they were pregnant with twins!) to the in commemoration for my father on the back cover, we could not have found a better company then Sports Themed Weddings to create our programs.”
“For our grand entrance, we did not want the DJ just saying everyone’s name as they entered (some of our friends have unusual names we didn’t want them butchered). So we decided to have a company pre-record our entrance. But this pre-recorded entrance included cheers of a crowd as a grand slam saves the game and the crack of the bat between each couple walking out. The baseball elements they included in this recording are something we never could have gotten in a live introduction.”
Custom pyrotechnics also accented the couple’s day at the ball park…
“The smoke stacks at the Great American Ball Park are not only able to shoot fire, but also fireworks. So we thought, what a perfect opportunity it would be if we “sealed our kiss” with real fireworks! Just as we kissed the smoke stacks light up the sky with red fireworks. To top off our dream wedding, we also had to end with “after the game” fireworks. Our fireworks were coordinated by the same company used by the Cincinnati Red’s themselves, Rozzi Famous Fireworks.”
“Over all we would not change a thing about our decision to do a “diamonds are forever” baseball themed wedding. We made it our own and is something neither us nor our guest will ever forget! I mean seriously it’s been almost five years and we still get some of our guests say “I just loved your wedding! It was so fun and different.” If you are any kind of sports fan and looking for something fun, different, and memorable do a sports themed wedding. You won’t regret it!”
