This couple tied the knot in Red Sox shirts before heading to Fenway for Opening Day
“She goes, ‘We’re going to postpone the wedding for a few minutes — we’re going to run down the road and get some Red Sox shirts.’”
When Chris Doggett and his fiancee Katarzyna filed for their marriage license at Boston City Hall on Monday, they mentioned to city staff that they planned to get married Thursday morning before heading to Fenway for Opening Day. It would be the bride and her 5-year-old son’s first baseball game, they explained. City registrar Patty McMahon told Boston.com that after the couple left the building her staff came to her with a request — could they wear Red Sox shirts on Thursday to support the couple when they got married?McMahon, who said she’s been working as registrar for about six years, said it was the first wedding ceremony she’s presided over on Opening Day where the bride and groom wore Red Sox shirts for the occasion.“I’ve heard about people getting married at the game — you know, they’ll get somebody who is a Justice of the Peace or something like that,” she said. “But these people planned ahead and got their tickets and then they planned that they were going to have their wedding [Thursday].”
Katarzyna Doggett got married to her husband, Chris, Thursday with her 5-year-old son, Alexander, and friend, Silvia, as witnesses.
Dressing in Red Sox gear also brought the celebration of the team’s first home game to City Hall, McMahon said.
“We’re here working and taking care of our customers, so it gave us a little opportunity to share in Opening Day ourselves too,” she said. “It was great for the staff, and they were very happy for the couple. Everybody was very excited for them.”
Doggett, who just moved back to the area after living in London for the last 15 years, said he already had tickets to Opening Day when he asked his fiancee of two years if she would come with him to Boston from the U.K.
“I said, ‘I’m going to Boston, would you like to come?’ We went there on Monday to register, got married on Thursday, and it was kind of coincidence that everything fell into place at the exact same time,” the 42-year-old said.
On Thursday morning, when he’d suggested to his bride that they wear Red Sox shirts for the wedding, she declined.
But then, he said, they arrived at City Hall and everyone was in Red Sox attire.
“She goes, ‘We’re going to postpone the wedding for a few minutes — we’re going to run down the road and get some Red Sox shirts,’” Doggett said.
After a quick lunch, the newlyweds, their son, and a friend headed to Fenway for the game. From seats in the bleachers, they danced and jumped and cheered with the rest of the fans and drank hot chocolate to warm up during the unseasonably cold afternoon.
“It was her first experience ever to go to a game and [Alexander’s] first experience, and they absolutely loved it,” Doggett said. “They said, ‘Oh, can we get season tickets?’”
When Katarzyna Doggett, 32, and her son move from London to Boston in the coming months, a return to Fenway will be in order, he said.
“It was a great, great family atmosphere, and she absolutely loved it,” Doggett said.
Chris and Katarzyna Doggett.
