UPDATE: Getting Married? Here's How One Couple Are Paying for Their Wedding

Editor's note: The below story on how Bob Stalberger and his fiance are helping to pay for their wedding was featured Thursday on Patch. The piece quickly caught the attention of other Twin Cities media outlets. Click here to read a blog entry posted Friday morning by City Pages and click here to listen to a podcast of WCCO radio's Chad Hartman talking to Stalberger on Friday during the noon hour.

This isn't quite a story of baseball or the bride, but Bob Stalberger and Ann Hair can thank the Minnesota Twins—and more specifically, the new Target Field—for having the wedding they want.

Stalberger, who lives just north of Wayzata, is a service consultant at Lexus of Wayzata and also a full-season Twins ticket holder of four prime seats along the third base line, just four rows up from the field. Of the $20,000 the couple expects to spend on their May 7 wedding, in Ann’s hometown of International Falls, about $6,000 will come from profits made by selling Twins tickets. (Stalberger’s four seats in Section 125 cost $10,500 per season).

“You could say that the Twins have a big part in our upcoming wedding,” Ann said. “One of our first dates was to a Twin's game at the Metrodome. Bob bought me a foam finger souvenir.”

It was during a pre-season open house last year at Target Field that Stalberger proposed to his soon-to-be wife. He popped the question in the seats they now own—and sell.

“Both her dad and my dad were there, and they were in on it,” Stalberger said. “She’s a die-hard Twins fan. Her whole family and my whole family are the same way.”

Stalberger holds tickets for 81 home games but only made about 20 trips to Target Field last year. He sold tickets to the remaining games, as well as many for the current season, to help fund the wedding. Stalberger sells most of his tickets through Craigslist, along with Stubhub. Matchups against the Yankees and Red Sox were the first to go this year, and one fan has already bought up all but one set of Stalberger's tickets for Twins-White Sox games. Matchups against the Brewers and Blue Jays are also popular.

“Sales are easy,” Stalberger said. “The first part of last year I was selling them like hot cakes and was out two months in advance. It’s been the same so far this year.”

Stalberger’s ticket selling would have been illegal just a few short years ago, but in 2007 former Governor Tim Pawlenty repealed an early 20th century law prohibiting the sale of tickets for more than their face value.

When the Twins won the American League Central crown last year and earned a playoff berth, Stalberger’s status as a season ticket holder entitled him to tickets for all games at Target Field. Whether to keep or sell the tickets was, he said, a gut-wrenching decision. In the end, the premium prices they could get for attending the first postseason series at Target Field (against the Yankees) trumped the young couple’s instinct to be in the seats themselves. Much as they did for games during the regular season, Stalberger’s playoff tickets sold quickly.

“We decided that with the wedding coming up and everything, that we were going to sell them,” he said. “It killed us, too. In a way, I’m kind of glad they lost.”

“That was the hardest part,” Ann said. “I kept asking Bob, ‘are you sure we shouldn't go?’”

Both said they would have kept their tickets had the Twins advanced to the World Series.

Stalberger sold tickets during the team’s final year at the Metrodome as well, although most of the time at a loss. He estimates he lost about $1,500 during the 2009 season, but sales—and profits—picked up dramatically when the Twins moved outdoors.

“It’s been a completely different story at Target Field,” he said.

Bob and Ann are busy with wedding and post-wedding planning and activities and after attending the home opener last Friday say they may not attend another game until June. Plans for next year’s season tickets are still up in the air.

“Right now, we are enjoying the games that we can go to and allowing others the opportunity to buy the games we can’t attend,” Ann said.

Looking for some prime seats to see the Twins this season? Here is a list of some upcoming games Stalberger still has tickets available for. For a complete list,  Stalberger can be reached by phone at 612-202-5354 or via e-mail at bobstalberger@gmail.com

• WED 4/27 VS RAYS   7PM $40/SEAT—2 sold
• THUR 4/28 VS RAYS    NOON $40/SEAT
• TUES 5/10 VS TIGERS 7PM $50/SEAT
• WED 5/11 VS TIGERS NOON $50/SEAT
• SAT 5/14 VS BLUE JAYS $85/SEAT
• MON 5/23 VS MARINERS  7PM $60/SEAT
• WED 5/25 VS MARINERS   NOON $85/SEAT

• FRI 5/27 VS ANGELS 7PM $95/SEAT