Wedding day blues: Duke, Carolina fans getting married this weekend face incredible predicament – Yahoo Sports

The first time she glanced at an NCAA men's tournament bracket earlier this month, Kelly Sullivan realized she overlooked one detail when choosing a wedding date.

Hey, she warned fianc Zach Boehmer, the Final Four is on the same day as our wedding.

College basketball has been a lifelong passion for Sullivan and Boehmer, but the Des Moines couple doesnt support the same team.

Sullivan fell in love with Duke in second grade watching J.J. Redick bombing threes in a cutoff T-shirt. Ever since, she has been the type of diehard fan who makes certain shes in front of a TV whenever Duke plays, who lies awake the night before big Duke games and who buys Duke jerseys for her college roommates to sway them to root for her team.

Boehmer is as fiercely devoted to North Carolinabasketball as his fiance is to Duke. While his twin cousins introduced him to rooting for the Tar Heels as a young boy, it was watching the Ty Lawson-Danny Green-Tyler Hansbrough teams mow through college basketball en route to the 2009 national title that made his blood run Carolina blue for life.

Zach Boehmer and Kelly Sullivan are getting married Saturday, when Duke faces Carolina in the Final Four. Things could get awkward for the couple during the wedding reception. (Special to Yahoo Sports)

When Boehmer took Sullivan to dinner for their first date in 2018, the conversation between the recent University of Northern Iowa grads soon shifted to basketball. Boehmer gritted his teeth and stayed quiet when Sullivan revealed that she was a big Duke fan because he wanted the date to go well. Then he pulled out a Tar Heels-themed wallet to pay for dinner, and Sullivans face went pale.

I really never thought Id end up with a Carolina fan, Sullivan said. Like ever. It was a worst-case scenario for me, but I liked him and I liked that he knew about sports. Plus, I thought that Id eventually convert him

Thats never going to happen, Boehmer countered.

Im still working on it, Sullivan replied.

At first, Sullivans realization that they were getting married on Final Four Saturday seemed like it could affect only her favorite team. Whereas talent-laden Duke beat Gonzaga and Kentucky in non-league play and won the outright ACC regular-season title, North Carolina required a late-season surge just to make the NCAA tournament.

Story continues

Then the Tar Heels annihilated Marquette in the first round of the NCAA tournament. And upset reigning national champion Baylor two days later. And surged late to defeat UCLA in the Sweet 16. Pretty soon Duke and North Carolina were on the precipice of their first NCAA tournament clash, an epic Final Four matchup with rivalry bragging rights, Mike Krzyzewskis coaching future and a spot in the national title game all hanging in the balance.

Every game we were like, Uh-oh, Boehmer said. Theres a chance that this is going to happen.

Saturdays looming showdown between Duke and North Carolina might be the most anticipated Final Four game in years, but for many couples getting married on Saturday night, its also a major headache. Overtaxed brides and grooms in the Raleigh-Durham area and beyond are having to figure out how to allow guests to watch the game without detracting from a day thats supposed to be all about them.

Emily Izakowitz is a Durham-based event planner hired months ago to organize a wedding for Saturday evening. Since the bride, groom and members of both families are North Carolina alums and avid Tar Heels fans, Izakowitz is still sorting through how to handle the game coinciding with the wedding reception.

I expect it will make things more interesting than normal, Izakowitz said. Basically, it's really not ideal!

Its also difficult for 40-year-old Matthew Horsnell, who has literally rooted for North Carolina since he was in diapers. His dad watched the 1982 national championship game between North Carolina and Georgetown with Horsnell on his lap.

Theres a brick outside the Dean Smith Center bearing the name of Horsnell, his brother and their father. The trio also have matching Tar Heels tattoos on each of their ankles. Horsnell sheepishly admits he cried when the Jerry Stackhouse-Rasheed Wallace Tar Heels lost to Arkansas in the 1995 Final Four and again when the Vince Carter-Antawn Jamison team fell to underdog Utah in 1998.

When Horsnell told his dad over the phone last year that he was getting married outside Nashville on April 2, he remembers hearing the clicking of keyboard keys in the background. When the noise stopped, Horsnells dad told him, You know thats Final Four weekend, right?

At the time, Horsnell dismissed the possibility that North Carolina could make it that far with a thin roster and Hubert Davis in his first year as head coach. A year later, being wrong has left him in the stressful position of trying to figure out how to follow the biggest Duke-North Carolina game in history without taking away from his wedding day.

In the end, Horsnell has chosen starting his marriage off happily over the thrill of watching North Carolina try to send Krzyzewski into retirement with a heartbreaking loss.

Its arguably the biggest game in the history of the rivalry, but its also the biggest day of my life, Horsnell said. While I would love to be watching the game and Im not going to lie, Ill probably be keeping track of the score Im not going to bring a tablet or phone into the reception. Im going to sit and enjoy that moment with my friends and family and the love of my life.

While Horsnell has given his dad and a groomsman whos a diehard Duke fan a pass to leave a little bit early, he has assigned one member of his wedding party to stay until the end.

Thats my brother, Horsnell said. Hes going to be whispering score updates in my ear.

Whereas Horsnells bride-to-be doesnt share his love for basketball, Trent Brown isnt in quite so difficult a predicament. Brown and his fiance, Grace Smith, are both North Carolina alums whose relationship blossomed because of their mutual love of the Tar Heels.

Brown and Smith met in August 2015 as North Carolina freshmen living on the seventh floor of Hinton James residence hall. Nearly two years later, they began dating during the 2017 NCAA tournament and stormed Franklin Street together after the Tar Heels captured the national title.

Over the past five years, theyve sat side-by-side at North Carolina games together. Brown asked Smith to be his girlfriend while walking across North Carolinas soccer field and proposed overlooking that very same spot just over three years later.

Its a really cheesy UNC story, Brown said with a chuckle.

North Carolina's matchup against rival Duke will be on at the wedding reception of Grace Smith (right) and Trent Brown this weekend. "By the time it starts, the ceremony, speeches and toasts will be over. After that, man, were going to be drinking beer, dancing and hopefully watching us win, Brown said.

When North Carolina rallied to beat UCLA in the Sweet 16 last Friday night, Smith recognized that the possibility of the Tar Heels facing Duke during their wedding was no longer far-fetched.

Do we need to start figuring this out? she asked Brown.

Fearful of jinxing North Carolina ahead of its Elite Eight matchup with Saint Peters, Brown responded, Were going to figure this out on Sunday at 7 p.m.

Their salvation it turns out will be a friends projector and Browns mobile hotspot. Their venue in downtown Raleigh doesnt have WiFi, so Brown and Smith are hopeful that setup will work.

We care so much that it wasnt even a question, Brown said. It was obvious we were going to be watching the game. By the time it starts, the ceremony, speeches and toasts will be over. After that, man, were going to be drinking beer, dancing and hopefully watching us win.

Thats the solution that Zach Boehmer and Kelly Sullivan also chose, even if the game inevitably will leave one of them dejected on their wedding night. Theyve acquired a projector and intend to watch the game alongside their friends and family during their reception.

Weve promised each other well be civil, Sullivan said. It will definitely be our first test as husband and wife.

Since Sunday afternoon, Boehmers and Sullivans phones have been buzzing nonstop with friends and family razzing them about the game, asking if theyre nervous or if theyre still on speaking terms. Boehmer laughs right along with them, admitting it almost seems like destiny that North Carolina and Duke would meet for the first time in the NCAA tournament on their wedding day.

As a North Carolina fan of more than 15 years, Boehmer wants to see his Tar Heels win, but he admits that this week hes more torn than usual.

There would be nothing greater than Coach K losing his last game to North Carolina, Boehmer said. But at the same time, its our wedding day, I want my wife to have the best day and to not end the day upset.

View original post here:

Wedding day blues: Duke, Carolina fans getting married this weekend face incredible predicament - Yahoo Sports