Fans renew vows at Safeco Field on 20th anniversary

Twenty years ago, when they married in the Kingdome during a Mariners batting practice, Emily Bishton and Conrad Uno said they "kind of tricked an usher" before they climbed out on the home dugout with three friends and a justice of the peace.

Sunday, with the Safeco Field scoreboard flashing "Congratulations Emily and Conrad" and a pregame party for 100 planned for the Lookout Landing upstairs, the couple renewed their vows and reflected on how love is a lot like baseball.

"It's not a movie you've ever seen before. You don't know what's going to happen. And along the way, it's a lot of fun," said Bishton.

For the renewal of their vows, the bride and groom looked a lot like they had for the first wedding — Mariners T-shirts, bluejeans and flowing, if somewhat grayer, hair. The bride carried blue irises and teal-tinted carnations in a baseball mitt — a change from the yellow roses in the initial wedding bouquet because the team colors have changed. About 20 friends and family members watched from the first two rows of the stadium.

By far the most dressed-up member of the wedding party was the officiant, Musa Suso, a longtime friend who wore a traditional Gambian wedding outfit. The wedding program listed Suso as batting leadoff and playing first base.

John Olufs and Terese Metz, batting cleanup and fifth, respectively, held baseballs for the couple, in the place of rings, to be presented at the penultimate moment in the ceremony.

Before the bridal party walked down Aisle 126, to the strains of "Chapel of Love," played on the Safeco Field public-address system, Olufs confided that the Uno he'd known back when the groom was single was not a baseball nut.

"This happened to them together," he said. "They weren't like this before."

Twenty years ago, Jim Lefebvre was the Mariners manager and Ken Griffey Jr. a rookie outfielder. Bishton and Uno had been together five years when they decided to get married. She was 32, he 38, old enough to know themselves and to appreciate each other, they said. And that might be a key to their continued happiness. In separate conversations before the ceremony, Bishton and Uno both expressed what they love about each other.

"She's amazing. She can do anything," Uno said of his wife.

She in turn credits her husband with "eternal optimism." During 20 years of life and Mariners season tickets, he's taught her to enjoy the time they spend together at games, win or lose.

The couple organized their anniversary ceremony around highlights of the past two decades for themselves and the Mariners. As they recounted memories, they placed some things symbolizing past times into Bishton's mitt:

• Outfield dirt from their first spring training, in 1991.

• Infield dirt from the jubilant Kingdome celebration in 1995 when the M's came from 13 games back to win the American League West division title, the same year Uno produced a hit album for the band The Presidents of the United States.

• Dirt from the Safeco Field groundbreaking in 1999, the same year Bishton earned a degree in landscape design and began teaching children about the environment and the natural world.

• Kingdome rubble from when the old stadium was demolished in 1999.

• And for 2009, dirt from their home garden to symbolize the renewal of their love and the renewed spirit of the Mariners under manager Don Wakamatsu.

Suso closed the ceremony by asking Bishton and Uno if they promised to remain true to each other and to be good teammates, for all of the seasons of their lives to come.

Both shouted as if a fly ball had just cleared the outfield wall. Then they rubbed the baseballs in the commemorative dirt in the mitt and tossed them to the crowd.

And then came something they couldn't have planned. Mariner outfielder Ichiro trotted out to right field to warm up. The wedding party started up a chant, "I-chi-ro! I-chi-ro!" The star right fielder tipped his cap.

On the PA system, Frank Sinatra sang "Love and Marriage."

The bride and groom kissed passionately. With a big grin on his face, Uno said he didn't know why more people didn't get married at Safeco Field.

Lynn Thompson: 206-464-8305 or lthompson@seattletimes.com