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Are you looking for running theme wedding ideas? If so you are in the right place! My husband,Ryan, and I met at the 2010 Tulsa Run as we were awaiting the race results. We decided to run the 2011 Tulsa Run and then get married later that afternoon! We then decided to run (no pun intended-ha!) with the running theme throughout our whole wedding.
When we started wedding planning we had a few things in mind: we wanted to share the special occasion with all of our loved ones, we wanted to stay within our financial means, and we wanted the event to represent us well. If you are looking to plan a running themed wedding while keeping those important factors in mind scroll down to take a peek at some of the things we incorporated! (Oh and did I mention Ryan proposed 7 weeks before the race? That means we planned our whole wedding in under 7 weeks!)
We started the day at the race. Our photographers came out to take some pictures of us. I wore a bride to be button
After Ryan finished the race (He is much faster than I am!) he ran back with a veil and bowtie so we could cross the finish line together.
Registration signs directed people to the guest book to remind them to sign in for our special event!
Cones were used to direct traffic as there were many different doors in the area we were having the ceremony and reception.
Ryan’s Grandpa hooked us up with a start and finish banner! The start banner was where the guests came in.
We decided our Newton running shoes had to be a part of the ceremony. We had the shoes on the opposite side of the unity candle.
We had running quotes and mile markers for our aisle decorations. We bought craft paper for half off, printed quotes out we found online, then used painters tape to attach to the pews. Very inexpensive.
Our “flower girl” tossed cut outs of shoes instead of flowers. I drew the shoe out, made a template then cut and traced a ton. My mom helped too! I am sure you could find a template online that you could use.
In the ceremony we even had scripture and phrases about running. We were lucky to have Ryan’s Uncle Don marry us. He was very helpful with setting up the details of the ceremony. So just talk to who is marrying you if you would like to incorporate those details!
Then, before we exited we put on our running shoes as we went out to the Rocky Theme song 🙂
My garters and our toasting glasses had running shoe charms
In the reception hall we had bib numbers and tulle around the room to decorate the walls. I copied the bib numbers so we would not have to worry if they got ripped or damaged. (I saw a lot of ideas saying to use bib numbers as table numbers if you have assigned seating)
To reserve tables for our immediate family we put little signs that said:
Reserved
for Elite Runner
(Place Name Here)
and Their Support Crew
On the tables for our center pieces we had emergency blankets
A shoe box was used for our card box!
Pineapple Gu for the grooms cake. And yes it was pineapple cake! You could do any kind of nutrition that you use or even a running shoe. We couldn’t find a cake topper we liked, but you could add that to the big wedding cake if you found one.
What kind of food to have was a big question. We decided to go with things that we typically eat around race time. Our buffet style food consisted of pizza, chicken salad, chips with salsa and guacamole, cheese and crackers and fruit. We replaced the nuts and mints with almonds and cranberries. Then, we added the sign that said “Food Tent…. Without the Tent” for a little humor.
Our special punch recipe that we experimented to make was served in a Gatorade jug along with Gatorade cups. We also had ice buckets full of bottled water and chocolate milk. It was our own little water stop! Something to keep in mind for the punch:you want a no pulp punch so that it comes out of the spout correctly. We couldn’t find many recipes that was no pulp and/or no ice so we had to experiment and make our own. It was fun!
We even toasted to chocolate milk! For those of you who don’t know chocolate milk is a great recovery drink to balance everything out. And it actually is good even though you don’t think you would want to drink it after a hard workout or race. Chocolate milk is delish!
The finish line banner was in the reception hall where our guests walked in and got a finish line picture taken. We put a sign outside the door that told them to pose for their finish line picture so they would know.
A few other things we would have liked to have done now that we are looking back on it:
Bib numbers for invitations (or program if your wedding is big enough).
A wall of race results. Basically it would be a scrapbook page for each big races or races we did together. You could include a story, pictures and results from the race. Our idea was to have this on the wall so our guests could read them as they waited to get cake. Then, after the wedding we would keep them to create our own scrapbook.
The most important thing is to remember to have fun while you’re planning your running theme wedding! Don’t forget to find little ways to make the special day your own! This occasion only happens once! We hope that you received some ideas that would help you during your wedding planning. Feel free to take and modify these ideas to make your ceremony just for you! Have a happy running theme wedding!
Our running themed wedding was featured on Offbeat Bride! There are a ton of more pictures there you can see!
You can check out a few pictures from our running themed wedding shower too!
Until Next Time- Truly Love,
Cassie
I dugg some of you post as I thought they were very useful extremely helpful
This was great! Here from Blogging Collective and got sucked in…
Thank you Shelly! We had a blast planning our wedding to represent us. Even though we only had 7 weeks to do it, it was a great experience!
Love this!
Thank you, Shelah! We wanted to make our wedding day a special one and unique to us. I think we accomplished it!
Thank you so much.. We were looking for a unique theme, and being marathoners, this is perfect. I love all the touches that you added, the quotes, the starting and fish line, the shoes, the gatorade, wearing your running shoes, etc.. Well done and thank you so much sharing.. now to pick the perfect race.. !!!
Linda I am so glad you enjoyed all the ideas! The great thing about it is that it was totally us, but was really easy to stay in budget! We had family that drank Gatorade so that was reused, shoe box for cards was reused, no need to rent a fancy punch bowl because we borrowed a big igloo container, our shoes provided decorations on stage so no extra flowers there, handmade quote cards for isles again no flowers. We loved making it unique to us! It was a bonus on all the things we could save on!
we’re getting married this December… your blog was very helpful and gave us a lot of new ideas for our running theme wedding 🙂 Thank you so much and God bless your marriage… Run oN…
Glad that you found us! I hope you have a fabulous wedding that is unique to your relationship! We actually raced that same race that we met at and got married at yesterday. We will be celebrating our 3rd anniversary on Wednesday. Congrats on the wedding coming up!
I love the running shoe wine charms! I cannot believe you pulled it off in 7 weeks.. .How does your dress fit so perfectly when you only had less than 2 months to find it and get alterations!? The whole running theme is fabulous! I love it!!
Thank you, Pam! It was an awesome day! Well it actually made some things easier because there way no changing your mind a few weeks down the road. But I also was never the girl who had a dream wedding in mind so I was pretty open. Honestly, with the dress I went to one store and told them I needed it in 6 weeks. I tried on a slew of dresses and fell in love with that one. I had to buy it off the rack and get it altered down a size. Rather if we had more time they would have ordered my size with less alterations. But it all worked out perfectly and I still love my dress! We even had Miss M take some newborn pictures in it!
Love it! What a great story! . . . Not only about the wedding itself, but about how you met and developed your relationship.
Thanks for sharing ! (And nice to meet you this weekend.)
Glad you enjoyed our story, John! It was great to meet you as well!
This was so fun to read. I got some great ideas from reading this. My fiance and I are both marathon runners and we’re thinking how we could incorporate running into the theme. You did a great job!
Congratulations, Sandy! That is exciting that you will be getting married soon! I am glad you found the post helpful. My husband does lots of running and triathlons. When I am not pregnant I do running. After you have your wedding we would love for you to share some pictures with us or feature your running themed wedding! Just email us at trueagapeonline@gmail.com if you are interested!