Diehard Riders fan has dream come true

A dream came true for diehard Saskatchewan Roughriders fan Connie Dobson last Saturday.

She married her fiancé, Luke Cummings, at Mosaic Stadium. 

“It’s always been something I wanted to do. I’m actually from Edmonton and I’ve come to Regina basically ever since I started driving to come to all the Rider games,” she said.

“I loved Taylor Field; it was my home away from home. When they announced we were getting a new stadium, I decided to come to all the games and never miss one.” 

Connie said she’d stay with family and friends in Regina in order to attend as many Rider games as she could.

It was back in 2016 when she met her now-husband and moved to Regina. 

“The Riders have) always been a huge part of my life and my world,” she said. “When we got engaged, I was like, ‘We should have (the wedding) at the stadium.’ ”

Connie said she reached out to the City of Regina not long after she and Luke got engaged to see if it was possible for her to have her wedding at Mosaic Stadium. 

Initially, the city told her no and said weddings are the last thing it normally allows at the stadium. 

While the city said it was unlikely, Connie stayed persistent and approached the Riders about having her big day at the place she calls her second home.

“Last year when they did the first fan of honour, I actually won that. For my prize, they wanted to give me an unforgettable experience and I said, ‘Well, I’m getting married and it would be amazing if I could have my wedding here,’ ” she explained. 

Connie had selected her wedding day to fall on July 23, which is when the Riders were set to host the Toronto Argonauts. 

She says she thought there was no way the Riders would allow her to get married on a game day, but they did. 

“The other fan of honour worked hard too to reach out to the Riders on my behalf to see if they could make it happen even if it could happen,” she said. “Sure enough, they were able to make it happen for me.”

The Riders told CJME/CKOM they don’t usually host weddings at Mosaic Stadium, but decided to make an exception for Connie because of her dedication to the team.

Unfortunately, because of the COVID-19 outbreak in the Riders’ locker room last week, the game had to be postponed by a day. 

While the wedding was still a go, the postponement caused some panic for Connie and her wedding party.

“One of the things they tell you when you get married is not everything is going to go right. I can 100 per cent tell you that nothing went right; there were so many things that went wrong on our wedding day,” she explained. “All these things had happened leading up to the wedding day. The DJ changed things up on us, but as soon as I’d seen they postponed the game I hit the floor.

“I took everything else in stride, but then I hit the floor. We were going to get the flowers and they announced that the game was postponed. I laid in my dining room and just cried on my floor because we had the plan of having the ceremony, get our pictures done and before we go to the reception, we’d go to the game.

“We thought that would be the coolest thing in the world to go to the game on our wedding day and then go and have a party after the first quarter for our reception.”

While their plans were unexpectedly altered, Connie says the postponement of the game actually turned out to be a blessing a disguise. 

“It was actually even better the game was postponed because we could actually go to the game the next day and kind of continue our wedding,” she said. 

“I wore my wedding dress to the game the next day and Luke wore his tie. We were able to do more at the stadium for our pictures and we really made the stadium the centre of our wedding day.”

Going to a @sskroughriders game in your wedding dress to keep the party going! Priceless pic.twitter.com/AhD2yM7ZAF

— Connie Dobson (@RiderChick15) July 25, 2022

Connie said she couldn’t thank the Riders enough for making her special day one she won’t soon forget.

“It was a dream come true,” she said. “I’ve always been a huge fan of the Riders. I want to thank the Riders for doing this for me because it’s something I will never forget.

“My little green heart grew 10 times.”