Ultimate fans celebrate love for Bobcat football, each other w/ blue & gold wedding

by Denise Hoepfner, MSU News Service
There was no shortage of “something blue” when Chelsey Stallings married Scotty Rucker in Helena last month. Die-hard fans of the Montana State University Bobcats, the couple’s wedding theme brought together their favorite “Caturday” events – tailgating and Bobcat football – with enough blue-and-gold décor to rival the MSU bookstore.
“Because I’ve been a Bobcat fanatic for life, I have always dreamed of a blue-and-gold wedding,” said the new Mrs. Rucker, who earned her degree in social sciences from MSU in 2013. “When Scotty finally proposed, there was no doubt it was going to be ‘Cats themed.”
The long-awaited proposal “finally” happened during the 2017 season, which was three years after the two began dating and about the time Chelsey said she was giving up hope.
“He had made a comment that our wedding would be ‘magical’ and I rolled my eyes and sighed at him and he changed the subject,” she said. “Then he says to me, ‘Are you excited for Bobcat football this year? It’s going to be magical.’”
Chelsey took Scotty’s comments as a hint that a proposal was imminent, but as the season drew to a close with the annual Cat-Griz game known as the Brawl of the Wild, and still no proposal, she said she was “over” the waiting.
                 “I shared the ‘magical’ story with everyone at our tailgate that day and Scotty just laughed, and we went into the game,” she said, adding that along with a friend of theirs, with the couple that day were Scotty’s father, Wylie Rucker, and Scotty’s uncle, Randy Rucker, a professor in MSU’s Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics.
After the ‘Cats scored their first touchdown, Chelsey took a restroom break and when she returned to their 50-yard-line seats, Scotty was waiting for her with a blue princess-cut diamond set on a gold and diamond band.
“He asked if I would be his Bobcat football date forever,” she said. “And then, the Cats beat the Griz at home. It really was the most perfect, magical day, and I love that we shared it with our Caturday family, all of our friends and thousands of other ‘Cats fans.”
Scotty said the proposal had been planned long before the big game.
“I figured what better time or place than Bobcat Stadium during Cat-Griz weekend,” he said. “The hardest part was not letting Chelsey think anything was going to happen. The whole season she was expecting it, and then on the day of the proposal I shut down the idea before we went into the game, and I could tell she was kind of upset. So, when I did propose, she was totally caught off guard and that’s what made it so special to me. I will never forget the look on her face at that moment.”
The couple’s engagement photos were taken at Bobcat Stadium and Chelsey originally dreamed of also having her wedding there – something she “rambled on about” to MSU head football coach Jeff Choate’s wife, Janet, at a Grid Iron Girls event without knowing to whom she was speaking. But, they decided to get married in Helena where they, and most of their family, live.
“We found the perfect venue for our football/tailgate-themed wedding and reception, and all of the details started falling into place,” Chelsey said. “Let it be known, that no blue-and-gold, football, bow or glitter detail went undone at our wedding; it was the perfect combination of all our (mostly my) favorite things.”
The bride wore a champagne-colored dress personalized with a big blue bow on the back. The bridesmaids wore tea-length dresses with sparkly gold tops and Bobcat-blue skirts that coordinated with the groomsmen’s tuxedos. The best man, who is also Scotty’s brother, wasn’t thrilled with the color choices.
“Scotty’s brother is a Griz fan,” Chelsey said.
“I think the hardest part, though, was my brother seeing their daughter as a flower girl in the blue-and-gold colors and their son, Owen, the ring bearer, in a little Bobcats jersey. He loved the jersey, too,” Scotty said with a laugh. “To be honest, everyone who was a Griz fan was a good sport about the whole thing. They knew it was very special and important to Chelsey and me, so they did their best to keep a smile on their face.”
The couple’s cake was a two-layer blue-and-gold confection decorated with bows and edible gold glitter. Matching cupcakes topped with mini football helmets and spectators lined a grandstand for the groom’s cake.
The newly married couple was showered with blue paper confetti before they left for a honeymoon in Paradise Valley. Then, it was back to work for Scotty, who works at the family’s three-generation furniture store and coaches freshman football at Capital High School, and Chesley, who works as a membership assistant for the Montana Chamber of Commerce and as a barista, “the perfect combination of customer service and making the world a better place,” she said.
Chelsey said her “obsession” with MSU started in 2000 when she moved back to Montana, and it grew when she became an MSU student in 2008.
“My mom would take my little brothers and I to every home game, and it quickly became some of my favorite memories we shared as a family,” she said. “Then, when I started at MSU, I was an overwhelmed, lost freshman but one thing remained – my love for ‘Cats games. Through my years at MSU, I met some of my best friends at the games and was able to share the blue-and-gold magic with my little brothers.”
When she met Scotty and found out he, too, was a big fan of the Bobcats, she knew she had found Mr. Right.
“It felt like all my dreams were coming true. Then we started going to games together,” Chelsey said. “I can’t even tell you the amount of family memories we have made going to the games these past four seasons and I can’t wait to walk back into that stadium and feel pure happiness again.”
“The season can’t start soon enough,” Scotty added.