Kelly Shaffer & Craig Breslow

Kelly and Craig met in Stamford, CT in December 2010 at his Strike 3 Foundation charity event. At the time, he was a pitcher for the Oakland Athletics and she was a Technology Executive at General Electric. “I, like most people, had a stereotype of what a professional athlete was like,” Kelly said, but in 10 minutes, Craig had dismissed every preconceived idea of an athlete that she might have had. 

Craig auctioned off his personal tickets to attend an Oakland A’s game at Fenway Park in Boston as his guest with proceeds benefitting the foundation. He was in the middle of a presentation about his charity and was nervous enough attempting to convert a room full of businessmen into loyalists and adding an attractive woman who arrived late did little to calm Craig’s nerves. Kelly was the victor of the auction so they exchanged pleasantries and she handed him her business card offering to volunteer for his foundation. Their love story with one another and the city of Boston was just beginning. 

In Dec 2011, Craig was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The first east coast road trip of the season was to New York on May 4, 2012. After the game, Craig came back to the hotel in Time Square to meet Kelly to celebrate her birthday. The first gift he gave her was of a sketch of a diamond ring. The second was a pair of Nikes with one sneaker monogrammed “2013” and the other with “KEB” which would be Kelly’s new initials if they were married. Craig then got down on one knee, reached into the sneaker to pull out the shoelaces and tied in one shoelace was an engagement ring that perfectly matched his sketch. 

In Dec 2011, Craig was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The first east coast road trip of the season was to New York on May 4, 2012. After the game, Craig came back to the hotel in Time Square to meet Kelly to celebrate her birthday. The first gift he gave her was of a sketch of a diamond ring. The second was a pair of Nikes with one sneaker monogrammed “2013” and the other with “KEB” which would be Kelly’s new initials if they were married. Craig then got down on one knee, reached into the sneaker to pull out the shoelaces and tied in one shoelace was an engagement ring that perfectly matched his sketch. 

Although the Red Sox were long shots to compete in the 2013 playoffs, the couple picked November 9, 2013 as their wedding date, exactly nine days from a World Series Game 7, in Saratoga Springs, NY. The Red Sox were on a mission to win and to help heal the city of Boston after the tragic Boston Marathon bombings. Kelly traveled with Craig as his team entered the post season run still making it to dress fittings. All wedding details were discussed on buses, in taxis and in airports. On October 30, 2013 the Boston Red Sox won the World Series in six games. 

On the wedding day, Craig was nervous as he wanted to be sure that the wedding day was everything that Kelly dreamt it would be. The ambiance of the wedding reception was stunningly romantic. Kelly and Craig wanted to include elements of baseball into their wedding, but done in a way that did not become the focus of the day. Craig was able to obtain vintage brown leather baseballs and Kelly visited antique shops throughout Boston to collect baseball artifacts all to create a vintage baseball escort card table in the cocktail tent. 

Cocktail hour included New England lobster pie, corn chowder sips, clams steamed in a potato cream broth with sausage, Boston baked beans and johnnycakes with savory maple butter. The dinner entrée selections were “Angry Lobster” and filet. 

The cake was a simple four tier white layered cake wrapped with black satin ribbon. The cake topper was a black silhouette that matched Kelly and Craig’s Save the Date picture from Fenway Park.

“2013 will likely be one of the greatest years of my life,” Craig said. He won the World Series and only 10 days later he married his soul mate. Just a couple of months later, he participated in a ceremony at Fenway Park and received his World Series Championship ring, but the most important ring in Craig’s life came months earlier.