Falling leaves, pumpkin patches and cool weather make autumn a pleasant atmosphere for a wedding. In the South, however, couples need to address another key factor: college football.
The Washington Post analyzed the number of fall weddings that took place in different regions of the country in 2024. It revealed a surprising difference in fall wedding frequency between the South and other parts of the United States.
“In the markets of the current SEC teams, 83% of idle Saturdays saw a higher frequency of weddings than the nationwide mark for that day, ” Washington Post sports writer Emily Giambalvo reported.
Moreover, the researchers found that within each SEC team’s local market, weddings on home game weekends were less common than other weekends.
“For 13 of 16 SEC teams, the average wedding frequency in their markets was higher on the Saturdays they played away or neutral-site games than on the dates of home matchups,” Giambalvo wrote.
The Jefferson is a special events venue in Oxford that serves as a popular wedding space for Ole Miss graduates, Oxonians and Southern devotees alike. In an interview with The Daily Mississippian, The Jefferson’s venue manager, Amanda Victory, discussed how the venue manages fall weddings during football season.
“If you’re not from here or didn’t go to school here, people don’t necessarily understand how much this town revolves around the football season in the fall,” Victory said. “We definitely have couples we’ve worked with that didn’t go to school here and don’t understand just how deep the SEC runs with that loyalty for football.”
Victory brought up one specific example of a game day wedding. The bride, Victory said, was a diehard football fan and ensured that her wedding incorporated her passion.
“She said to her bridal party, ‘I know you’re not Ole Miss fans, but we are having TVs during the wedding,’” Victory said. “And she did. She had a TV in the cocktail room and in the reception space playing the game.”
A substantial factor in planning weddings on home football weekends is the logistics of working around the increased number of people in Oxford.
“(There) are not as many weddings on home game weekends, just because of the challenges in town with hotels and just being able to get people here,” Victory said.
While some may think planning a wedding around football is a silly idea, for Ole Miss fans, it is the norm.
“Especially if they (couples) have met at Ole Miss, that’s so important to their story,” Victory said. “I think you see a lot of small touches of it (Ole Miss fandom), and you probably notice it more if you went to school here, and you understand traditions from here.”
For Victory and The Jefferson, football affects their business, but they are still ample opportunities for weddings.
“We probably do not necessarily (have) fewer weddings because, if it’s an away game weekend, sometimes there’s the opportunity for a wedding on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” Victory said.
Elizabeth Landers is the events coordinator at Plein Air, and a big part of her job is planning weddings.
“We also have cottage rentals, and so on football weekends they get booked, but the (wedding) venue doesn’t really get booked unless it’s like a Friday night event,” Landers said. “But on away games, we have something every weekend.”
Even when games are away, die-hard football fans still find a way to tune it to their favorite teams from the venue.
“We have a TV upstairs in the venue. We had a wedding, it was Oct. 4 and they had football on,” Landers said. “And so, if it’s an away game we will have multiple events.”
Victory recalled one year when Georgia was playing a New Year’s Six bowl and, after the ceremony, attendees had to watch the game.
“We moved this TV into the ceremony space, and the ball games played the rest of the night,” Victory said. “And so you would see guests be out here on the dance floor, and then you just kind of see (them) trickling in and out of the ceremony space, watching the ball game.”
Some Rebel fans bundle together their romances with their love for football. During the Ole Miss game against The Citadel on Nov. 8, nursing student Madison Barnette served as a placeholder for her boyfriend, the former Ole Miss pole vaulter Drew O’Connor, who looked to be attempting a field goal.
Instead of nailing the kick, O’Connor tapped Barnette on the shoulder, then knelt and proposed to her.
After the proposal, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin ran out onto the field to sneak into the picture of the two newly engaged fans. O’Connor spent more than three months planning the surprise proposal, but in an interview with The Daily Mississippian, Barnette said that this photobomb was a surprise.
“It absolutely was amazing, and at first I didn’t realize. I was in shock,” Barnette said. “I was expecting to go onto the football field and for us to just hustle back to our seats, but then I felt someone hugging us from behind and, with all the adrenaline, I wasn’t really paying attention. But then I turned around and see him (Kiffin) walking away and was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that was Lane Kiffin.’”
If the couple decides on a fall wedding, it will have to be on a bye week or during an away game.
“If we have a wedding in the fall, we’re definitely going to have some projectors of some fall football going on,” Barnette said.
After Kiffin’s impromptu appearance at their engagement, the couple extended a wedding-related offer to the Rebel head coach.
“Madison and I are both open to Lane Kiffin getting ordained for the wedding and officiating it,” O’Connor said.
