George Kittle had an eventful 2019 which included leading the 49ers back to the playoffs and getting married to his wife Claire (formerly Till) Kittle. The couple was already engaged but opted to elope prior to their scheduled date, per Inside Weddings.
Claire even clarified on Instagram that she was not pregnant in case fans were wondering about the couple tying the knot prior to their wedding date. The newest member of the Kittle family detailed their decision to elope on a recent blog post, noting that a traditional wedding did not feel quite right.
In all honesty we just wanted to be married. plain as that. We had been going to wedding after wedding recently and as fun and beautiful and amazing as they all were, a traditional wedding just didn’t feel right for us. We knew we wanted a quaint, small, intimate ceremony with only our immediate family because that’s the sacred part of it all.
While George and Claire eloped, their immediate family was still invited to the ceremony and helped the couple call an audible to make their dream a reality. The couple originally met in college at Iowa after George noticed Claire’s pink helmet as ESPN detailed.
Kittle and Claire met in 2012 as freshmen at Iowa. Claire was on the basketball team and one day was getting ready to hop on her moped to head across campus. She had just pulled on her bright pink helmet when Kittle walked up and said, “Nice helmet.”
The 49ers Tight End Calls Claire His “Best Friend”
George announced the news on Instagram on April 12, 2019 just a few months before training camp would begin. The Niners tight end posted a photo from their impromptu ceremony calling Claire his “best friend.”
“SURPRISE! I married my best friend. Dibs forever. I love you wifey,” George explained on Instagram.
It sounds like the couple is still going to have a more formal ceremony in 2020. Last summer, George posted on Instagram that the couple planned to “double dip” on their wedding vows.
“1 year till we double dip with I Do’s ?,” George said on Twitter.
George Kittle Got a Tattoo of Heath Ledger’s Joker Character the Day Before Their Wedding
George Kittle got this tattoo of The Joker the night before he got married.
“My wife was not happy,” Kittle said. “She’s OK now.”
The day before the wedding George got a tattoo of Heath Ledger as The Joker on his arm. Claire was not too pleased with the Niners’ tight end’s decision to get the tattoo, but the couple appears to have worked things out. The tattoo took seven hours and ESPN detailed why George decided to get the ink on the day before his wedding.
Kittle had been wanting to get a tattoo of his alter ego — the Heath Ledger version of the Joker — and he wanted to do it at Neon Dragon Tattoo in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, his preferred purveyor of ink. With scheduling conflicts both ways, the day before the biggest day of his life was the only option.
Once Claire realized the meaning behind the move she came around to George’s new tattoo.
“He’s so goofy,” Claire told ESPN. “At first, I thought he was joking — he has a lot of ideas that are out there and he doesn’t actually go through with them. So at first, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s the worst idea you’ve ever had. I hate that.’ But then after he had explained to me all of the meaning behind it and then seeing it in person, it’s actually really cool. So I do really like it now. That’s just George.”