This will be a perfect match whatever the football result
When England’s match-winning penalty hit the back of the net against the Colombians on Tuesday night, my phone buzzed with a text saying: “guess when the next England game is”. My stomach dropped. “The wedding.” Or, Wedfest, as my friends Sophie and Matt have dubbed their impending wedding-cum-festival matrimonial union.
The bride-to-be is highly organised and has planned her wedding in meticulous detail. The groom is a diehard Chelsea fan who has the name of his team tattooed on his arm.
She probably knew then and there that no matter how much blood, sweat and tears had gone into curating their special day on Saturday, things would be ripped up and plans changed “dramatically”.
And why shouldn’t they be? As Lysander says to Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “the course of true love never did run smooth”. It is a fact of life that compromise is a huge part of any relationship, and from time-to-time there will be exceptional circumstances that blindside even the best of us. The fact that England made it through to the quarter finals of the World Cup was one of those exceptional circumstances – for Matt, anyway, who wasted no time getting his football affairs in order, immediately obtaining an aerial satellite dish, projector screen, TV and all the necessary cables for the big day.
Aside from the bride giving her consent, is it socially acceptable to watch a football match at a wedding? I think so. It may not be the “traditional” form of entertainment one would expect to follow nuptials but then again, what is? Long gone are the stuffy traditions of conventional weddings, where guests would be frogmarched out of a service and sat down to a meal of leathery beef and overdone carrots while only the men in the room gave speeches.
These days weddings are more like festivals, with people dancing in fields to live bands. They are held on top of mountains, with DJS flown in from Ibiza. They are staged in quiet, enchanted forests with the night sky lit by a thousand twinkling fairy lights. Watching a bit of football is nothing.
Of course there are certain parameters. The soon to be Yeosons – Sophie and Matt are merging three family names – will ensure that guests heed the advice of the Rev Sandra Millar, head of “life events” for the Church of England, who told The Telegraph yesterday that wedding guests should turn off their phones to avoid the temptation of checking for updates during the match. After food and speeches, the game – which no one will have watched – will be streamed on a projector screen for all to enjoy later in the day.
Unfair to the bride on her big day? I don’t think so. After all, she did choose to become engaged to a man who had his football team permanently inked onto his body. She knew what she was getting into when she agreed to marry him – just as I knew I couldn’t stay with the boyfriend who had “Gunners” and the Arsenal logo tattooed across his chest.
“Obviously it wasn’t first on my wanted list for my wedding day, far from it,” Sophie said.
“But actually, football generates a great atmosphere and brings everyone together. That is exactly what our wedding day is about.” Whether England wins or loses, it will certainly be a wedding to remember.