For major leaguers, there’s the season, the postseason and wedding season

When Royals pitcher Alec Marsh proposed to his long-time girlfriend, Makenna Harper, in mid-November 2023, the clock began ticking—not for the wedding itself, but to secure a date.https://wordpress.com/

Harper met Marsh at Arizona State University, where she played softball and he was a member of the baseball team. Like all baseball significant others, she quickly learned the hard truth: there are only two months available for baseball weddings—November and December. Finding a date—one that works for both the venue and other engaged baseball couples—is almost a sport in itself.

By the time they began searching for a date, November 2024 was already booked. But luck was on their side when a San Diego County venue became available on December 7. However, just as they locked it down, Marsh’s teammate Bobby Witt Jr. proposed to his girlfriend, Maggie Black. The couple initially planned to marry on the same date.

“We’re competing for wedding dates,” said Harper. “It’s almost like you get engaged and immediately have to announce to the baseball world when you’re getting married.”

According to The Knot, a wedding planning website, only 11% of weddings occurred between December and February last year. Fall is the busiest season, with 42% of weddings taking place between September and November. Baseball weddings, however, follow a different rhythm, with players typically proposing during one offseason and rushing to plan the wedding the following year.

“Our offseason revolves around: What weddings are we going to, and when is Alec training?” Harper explained.

As Harper and Black, who became friends while in Kansas City, realized, timing was everything. They both wanted to attend each other’s weddings and didn’t want to put other teammates in the position of having to choose. Fortunately, Black was able to find another date just one week later, on December 14. So, Harper and Marsh postponed their honeymoon to attend the Witts’ wedding, which would be the third wedding in just four weeks for many Royals players, following the wedding of Michael Massey and Jane DeJarld in Mexico on November 23.

While some players do get married in January, most agree that this period is even more hectic. Pitchers are ramping up their training, and position players are busy with their offseason workouts. By late January, many players are already heading to their respective spring training camps.

For many baseball couples, the solution is to marry in November or early December, before spring training kicks in the following year. “Last year, we were the last people to get engaged,” said Karra McKinstry, whose husband, Zach, proposed in February. “Every day on Instagram, it felt like someone else was getting engaged.”

When Justin Verlander planned his wedding to model Kate Upton after the 2016 season, they chose a medieval church in Tuscany, Italy, despite Verlander being on the rebuilding Detroit Tigers. The couple set their date, November 4, 2017, but the World Series had other plans. “We decided only one thing could ruin our plans: Game 7 of the World Series,” Verlander joked. Sure enough, the Astros made it to Game 7, and Verlander had to miss his own wedding festivities to catch a flight to Italy, with some of their guests FaceTiming them to tease: “This venue is beautiful, if only you were here!”

Not every player is willing to gamble like Verlander.

Pitcher Sean Manaea, who got engaged to Talat Mirmalek on New Year’s Eve, decided the first weekend of November was off-limits for their wedding. It turned out to be a good decision, as the New York Mets clinched a playoff spot and made a deep run into October. The couple ended up getting married on November 16 in Indianapolis.

“The first weekend of November was out,” said Mirmalek. “It would have been the biggest jinx.” They used a wedding planner for their 200-person event, and many Mets wives, familiar with the busy postseason schedules, offered advice on how to plan a wedding during such a hectic time.

The couple’s pre-wedding stress stemmed from the possibility that the Mets might win the World Series. “We joked about how we’d seat everyone at the wedding if the whole team came,” Mirmalek laughed. Fortunately, the Mets didn’t make it that far, and she didn’t have to stress over seating arrangements.

When Jodi Fick Rizzo planned her 2019 wedding to Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, the team was struggling, and the World Series seemed like a far-off dream. But as the Nationals’ season unexpectedly turned around, Jodi carried a binder with wedding details on team flights. Fortunately, she had time to attend her bachelorette party in Las Vegas after the Nationals swept the Cardinals in the NL Championship Series. The Rizzos married on November 16, 2019, in Jamaica, just in time for the Nationals to win the World Series, march in a ticker-tape parade, and celebrate at the White House. “We had such a small window to get married,” Jodi recalled. “But it was the highest of highs.”

For baseball players and their families, weddings are often a whirlwind of logistics and tight scheduling, with many attending multiple weddings in a short period. For example, Sean Murphy attended both Manaea’s wedding and Michael Harris’s wedding on the same day, flying between locations to be present for both.

In the case of Marsh and Harper, all six of Marsh’s groomsmen are baseball players, with four currently in the big leagues. Torkelson, one of Marsh’s groomsmen, was part of the recent wave of Tigers players who got engaged in the offseason. While they hoped to work out a tight turnaround, Torkelson and his fiancée Makenna Mattei decided to wait until 2026 to marry.

Even with meticulous planning, scheduling conflicts are inevitable. Brewers teammates Tobias Meyers and Bryan Hudson both set their wedding dates for December 14. When Meyers proposed, he was still in the minors, and Hudson didn’t know about Meyers’s plans until well into the season. Despite this, there were no hard feelings. Meyers’s wedding was a small affair in Florida, while Hudson’s was a more family-focused event in Missouri.

“Every time I check my feed, someone’s getting married or engaged,” said Leah Angelillo, Meyers’s fiancée, laughing. “I guess we’ll all be celebrating the same anniversaries.”

For many baseball couples, eloping is becoming an increasingly attractive option. Karra and Zach McKinstry opted for a quiet courthouse ceremony during the All-Star break, with just his parents in attendance. They later hosted a celebration with around 60 guests on December 7 in Arizona, choosing a low-key event despite the stress of finding an available date. Of course, the date they chose coincided with another Tigers wedding—Dillon Dingler’s.

Planning a wedding in baseball’s offseason can be a logistical challenge, but for many couples, it’s all part of the game.