[Taltos]

Blatter please review our charter.
A mod has just posted a warning to other posters in this thread so we were surprised to see your comment here.

Our Charter states among other things:
There is zero tolerance for muppetry here, and trolls etc. will not be treated lightly.

Taltos

[farmchoice]

i don't know, they would remember that too!!

[Taltos]

Farmchoice - a Yellow card was just issued for that post, same advice applies - review our charter before posting here again to ensure that you don't fall foul of the rules we have in place to protect the OPs.

As you have ignored the previous mod warning on this we are issuing a red card for your off topic post.

Taltos

[santana75]

Originally Posted by irishbird

because the big dirty secret is, that no-one else cares about the wedding and the big day except for the bride and groom.

Everyone else at the wedding will be complaining about the time of the wedding, the distance they have to travel, the cost, the food, the band, the speeches, the dress, the table of people they have been stuck with.

This is true.

Originally Posted by Big Bag of Chips

Silly, I'm going to make another massive sweeping statement, with some assumption thrown in for good measure!

here's the sweeping statement bit.. most males (that I know anyway) could take or leave a wedding! But, if the chance was there to meet all the friends and relatives AND watch Ireland in the Euros surrounded by loads of friends and relatives, then I think a wedding becomes much more attractive to the humble man!

Also true. Every guy I know(most of them married)honestly could take or leave weddings(including their own). Im not saying they're not happy to be married to their wives, they are, but the actual ceremony and all the nonsense around it, blokes would take a registry office job if they could.
Would like to hear from the OP, be interesting to see if its a male or female poster.

[iguana]

Originally Posted by Raging!

We've booked a classy place, intentionally avoiding a Saturday wedding as that would mean the regular saturation soccer coverage would split the guests.

Right first off nobody you say this to will believe you. As Irishbird pointed out, you booked your wedding in June, the club soccer season ends in May. If booking your wedding on a day there would not be a soccer match on was honestly a genuine consideration you would have taken the 45 seconds it takes to google the football season and you'd have known that it is over on that date. You would also have found out fairly rapidly that on even numbered years we have either the World Cup or the European Championships and you'd have steered clear of any date that that could clash with a major tournament, as during that time every day will have a number of big matches. If anything I suspect that a Thursday/Monday wedding was cheaper or the only available date in your chosen venue and somewhere at the back of your mind you thought; great there'll be no soccer.

So you need to stop acting like the world's biggest unfortunate and telling yourself that your carefully sown plans have been cruelly and unusually destroyed despite all your forethought. Because there is no way that's what happened. You overlooked the glaringly obvious and have had a bit of bad luck with the timing. So you now have the following options.

Change the date. If having a football match which will be important to your guests take place on your wedding day will ruin it as much as you imply then you'll find a way to change the day. And this time spend a few minutes researching big events that might clash with the date.

Go ahead as you are and have a foul time. A huge amount of your guests, maybe the majority of them, will want to watch this match, a lot. For a good number of the guests it is very likely that the match will matter more than the wedding. You won't be able to stop them watching it. They will watch it in the lobby, in their hotel rooms or if you try to have the meal at the same time as the match on their phones and tablets at the table. You can't stop them from watching it.

Or lastly you can just roll with it. Accept that the two events clash and arrange a large screen tv to watch the match on. Many of your guests will look forward to your wedding more than they otherwise would have and (if we win) will remember your wedding more than their own in a lot of cases. I know you hate the game, but the world is full of crap we don't like, even on our wedding days. If it helps I totally understand why you don't like what the game has become. I was a huge football fan but over the last decade I've grown more and more wearied by it. It's ultimately all about the money and the heart of the game is missing. But this isn't really true of international football, which is full of the same old fashioned spirit and community following that the professional leagues have lost. So everything you profess to hate about the game won't really apply here. So just suck it up and you might even enjoy it.

[Neyite]

Unless its a wedding involving a close family member, all the little details that are obsessed over are forgotton within a day or two by nearly all the guests that attended.

The vast majority of guests dont remember the colour of the dresses, or the flowers, or what the favours were, or whatever. They remember the food, how good the music was (if they were up most of the night dancing) and how late the bar served mostly, and in this case, a huge amount of the guests will remember it as "the day they missed Ireland play".

I'd say change your dates.

[floorpie]

I don't even like football very much. But i remember where i was, how i felt, who i was with, what i talked about, i even remember smells and things, for every single match Ireland were in during major tournaments, since i was 3 years old pretty much. Again, i don't like football, but for some reason, the celebration of it all, the electric vibe in the air, has solidified those memories in my mind.

I effectively remember nothing from any of the 20+ weddings i've been to; they've all mixed together into one big boring ceremony in my head.

If you embrace this, have a big screen TV, arrange the dinner and whatever else around the hour or two, this could be the most epic wedding day imaginable for most of your guests, truly. If it's a good match, none of your guests will ever forget the wedding. It wont detract from anything else you've arranged. I'd almost wish i could go (depending on your dinner menu )

[WhyGoBald]

Originally Posted by floorpie

I don't even like football very much. But i remember where i was, how i felt, who i was with, what i talked about, i even remember smells and things, for every single match Ireland were in during major tournaments, since i was 3 years old pretty much. Again, i don't like football, but for some reason, the celebration of it all, the electric vibe in the air, has solidified those memories in my mind.

I effectively remember nothing from any of the 20+ weddings i've been to; they've all mixed together into one big boring ceremony in my head.

If you embrace this, have a big screen TV, arrange the dinner and whatever else around the hour or two, this could be the most epic wedding day imaginable for most of your guests, truly. If it's a good match, none of your guests will ever forget the wedding. It wont detract from anything else you've arranged. I'd almost wish i could go (depending on your dinner menu )

This is true. I don't watch soccer during the year at all, but the reason I remember a wedding I went to in 1994 so clearly was that they set up a screen and chairs and we all watched Ireland beat Italy. It was epic.

Championships like this really aren't about the football - it's just a national carnival. Either play along and give your guests a good time, or cancel the venue and choose another date (but do your research this time). Don't play Scrooge and stop your guests from watching the game because you don't want to.

[GavMan]

Screen it in the ball room. Simples.

Takes 90mins out of your day and keeps your guests together.

As some posted, try organise some novelty or spot bets on first/last score, scorecast, etc

Roll with the punches. You can be sure the guests will just bugger off to watch it if you try keep them away from it

[watna]

I'm also planning a wedding next summer. I've been thinking what I would do in your shoes. First of all, I know you're raging but as has been pointed out you didn't do your due diligence on this one. We actually changed the date of our wedding due to the Olympics in London, our provisional date was a few weeks after what we've booked but we have a lot of guests coming from New Zealand who will all need to fly through London. We changed the date to avoid the extra expense with the flights.

If it were me, I would be seriously pissed off for a day or so (I hate football and so does my fiance. Having lived in New Zealand for the rugby world cup
I know that I'm never going to get people's obsession with sport, ever) but then I'd imbrace it and do what other posters have suggested, make some entertainment out of it, e.g. give everyone a wedding favour with a result/score on it and whoever has that favour at the end of the game gets a round of drinks and things like that. Give people little Ïrish flags etc You can get the game put on a screen in the bar next to the function room or something and time your meal around the game. I reckon it would create an atmosphere of great fun. That's what I want at my wedding, everyone getting together and having a laugh. Any event I've been to that has been built up in advance as "classy" has generally just been really boring.

It could be really good fun, lots of weddings blend in to one. You have the opportunity to do something really unique. Why not go with it?

Otherwise, you're only other option is to move the date. You can't stop people watching the game.

[Ickle Magoo]

OP has been given plenty of advice to consider but as they haven't been back to this thread since posting the OP a week ago, I'm locking the thread.

Post or let one of the moderators know if you have anything further to add, OP.