Never book a wedding on grand final weekend. Everyone knows that. It just leads to unpleasantness.

Lilydale Division 1 pennant lawn bowler Josh Sanders and his fiancee Tamarra Sinkovich thought they’d avoided that when, two years ago, they slotted Friday, March 17 into their calendars as the day they would tie the knot.

Unfortunately, a change to the Bowls Victoria fixture coupled with Lilydale’s surprisingly deep run into the Division 1 season threatened a scheduling nightmare.

“Going back two years, Bowls Victoria used to hold Round 1 on the (AFL) grand final weekend (Sunday). This year they said, ‘no, we’ll put it back a week’,” Sanders said.

“So I was thinking, this is going to be interesting if we make the finals.”

An outstanding season pushed Josh and Tamarra ever closer to some calendar headaches.

“We finished third and thought ‘this is a good stepping stone for next year’,” Sanders said. “Then we beat Bundoora in the first final and started thinking ‘we can do this’.”

Another upset win over Whittlesea, which had lost just once all season, sent Lilydale into a semi-final against Ferntree Gully with a place in the Premier League at stake.

Sanders celebrated with his Lilydale teammates, temporarily oblivious to the scheduling snarl this was going to create the following weekend, not only for himself and his bride-to-be but 14 of the 16 players in the ’Dales pennant team who would be at a wedding reception on Friday night and out on the greens on Saturday afternoon.

“After we beat Whittlesea, Tam came up to me and said ‘I’m so happy for you guys but I’m also really upset’,” Sanders recalls. “How come?’ I said.”

But there was to be no bridezilla moment at his momentary lapse of memory, Tamarra had been a patient tower of strength all along.

“She’s been great,” Sanders said. “You couldn’t have asked for a better person.”

His teammates also came to the party, dialling it down a notch at the reception.

“In the speeches at about nine o’clock I to said to everyone, have a great night and to the guys I will be playing with tomorrow, enjoy yourself but please don’t get too blind,” Sanders said.

And, surprisingly refreshed — “living on adrenaline,” Sanders reckons — Lilydale demolished Ferntree Gully by 25 shots to earn promotion to the Premier League.

“I was playing against one of the Ferntree Gully guys I used to play with a few years back and he said, ‘What have you been doing? Did you have a late night or something?’,” Sanders laughed.

“Yeah I did have a late one, I got married.”Read more at:plus size prom dresses