Jill and Dave Flanigan of Riverview have hockey in their blood. Dave plays hockey with a local beer can league and Jill’s son and granddaughter both play hockey. The Flanigans are huge fans of the Tampa Bay Lightning as well.
“Blue is my favorite color,” Jill said. “When I was a kid, I always wanted a chocolate cake with blue icing for my birthday.”
The couple has been together for 10 years and married for three. Hockey has always been a part of their relationship.
“We are huge Lightning fans,” Jill said. “When we got married in 2018, we originally didn’t plan on having a Tampa Bay Lightning-themed wedding. It just kind of happened to work out that way.”
Since blue is Jill’s favorite color and it’s also the color of the Lightning, having a Lightning-themed was meant to be when she found her blue wedding dress.
“I’m glad the Lightning’s color is blue because I couldn’t imagine walking down the aisle in some other team’s color,” Jill said. “When I found my dress, I was like, why don’t we have all our colors be blue?”
Blue definitely was the perfect color for the Flanigans’ wedding. Their wedding guests and friends are also Lightning fans, so everyone who attended their wedding was dressed in blue with a hint of Lightning swag.
On the day of their wedding back in 2018, the Lightning had a playoff game and the couple had arranged for the game to be playing on the TVs at their wedding reception. “When I thought they were cheering for me or him, it was actually that the Lightning scored. But that was fun,” Jill said.
If you are wondering if the Tampa Bay Lightning knows about the Flanigans’ Lightning-themed wedding, they don’t, but the local Fox News affiliate, Fox 13 Tampa Bay, did, and the couple was recently featured on its nightly news broadcast.
“My sister follows Fox 13’s Jen Epstein on social media and she was asking for Lightning season ticket holders to talk about their thoughts on not being able to attend the games,” Jill said. “My sister tagged me in the post and she also mentioned in the post that I wore a blue dress to my wedding, and I responded to the post that I did wear a blue dress for my wedding, and it kind of blew up from there. Next thing we knew, we were being interviewed for a news segment that aired on Fox 13.”
The Flanigans were thrilled that the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup this year and the win makes them even happier about their decision to show their love for their favorite hockey team at their wedding.
