Emily Vakos and Anthony Rizzo: From First Meeting to Marriage

Emily Vakos met Anthony Rizzo through work, before their relationship became a story followed by baseball fans. Their path led from spring training in Arizona to a surprise proposal on Lake Michigan and a Florida wedding in December 2018. Vakos brought her own education and career interests to the relationship, while Rizzo balanced life with her and the demands of professional baseball. Together, their public milestones trace a relationship that grew beyond the ballpark and later expanded into parenthood.

Quick Bio Table

Who Is Emily Vakos Beyond Her Marriage?

Emily Vakos is best known to sports fans as Anthony Rizzo’s wife, but her background includes nutrition studies, work experience, and real estate. A Dallas native, she attended college in Arizona before her relationship brought her wider attention in Chicago. These two parts of her story deserve equal weight: her connection to a well-known athlete explains the public interest, while her education and professional choices explain her own path. Her public profile offers a clearer view of her college and working years than her childhood.

Her Education at Arizona State University

Vakos graduated from Arizona State University in 2016 after studying nutrition and food management. Her public professional history also includes experience connected to school nutrition and food-bank work, giving her background a practical focus. Nutrition in those settings involves both understanding food and helping organize how people receive it. That context helps explain why a baseball team’s nutrition department was a relevant place for her internship. It also prevents a common misunderstanding about her story: she did not first enter the Cubs’ world simply as a player’s partner. She arrived through an opportunity connected to her own studies.

How Emily Vakos Met Anthony Rizzo

Emily Vakos and Anthony Rizzo first met during Chicago Cubs spring training in Arizona in 2016. She was completing a nutrition internship while he was an established player with the team. The setting explains both their introduction and the timing: their lives crossed through a shared workplace before a romantic relationship developed. For readers wondering whether they met at a party or through celebrity friends, the answer is more straightforward. Their connection began around the everyday routines of a baseball organization, with Vakos there to gain professional experience rather than seek a place in the sports spotlight.

Why Their Relationship Did Not Start Immediately

Their first meeting did not lead straight to dating. Accounts of their early relationship describe Vakos initially giving Rizzo a false phone number and being open to dating after her internship ended. The useful distinction is between meeting someone at work and choosing to begin a relationship later. Retelling that sequence carefully avoids turning hesitation into an instant romance or treating persistence as the whole story. What matters is that they eventually chose to see each other. The internship explains their introduction, while the relationship that followed belongs to a separate stage of their lives.

Building a Life Together in Chicago

By late 2017, the couple’s story included more than dates and baseball appearances. Contemporary coverage described them living together in Chicago’s River North neighborhood while planning a wedding for the following year. It also noted that Vakos had obtained her real estate license that year. Their relationship was becoming more settled as she developed another professional direction. Chicago was therefore more than the city where Rizzo played. It became a setting for shared daily life and for Vakos’s career interests during the period between their first meeting and marriage.

Anthony Rizzo’s Lake Michigan Proposal

Rizzo proposed on June 1, 2017, during a boat outing on Lake Michigan. He arranged fireworks, turning a Chicago evening into the setting for their engagement. The proposal had two memorable features: the waterfront backdrop and the effort to keep the plan a surprise. Rizzo later described being pleased that Vakos had not expected it, and their announcement quickly drew congratulations from teammates and fans. They became engaged roughly a year after meeting, with their marriage still about eighteen months away.

Clearing Up Confusion About a 2017 Wedding

A photo shared in December 2017 caused some fans to believe Vakos and Rizzo had already married. However, coverage at the time pointed out that they were attending another wedding and were still planning their own for 2018. That distinction matters because engagement photos, formal clothes, and wedding guest pictures can easily produce the wrong date when shared without context. Their actual wedding took place on December 29, 2018. Keeping the two events separate gives readers a cleaner chronology and avoids repeating an old misunderstanding that circulated during the months before their marriage.

Their December 2018 Wedding in Florida

Emily Vakos and Anthony Rizzo married in South Florida just before the end of 2018. Their celebration brought together family, friends, and familiar faces from Rizzo’s baseball life, including former Cubs teammates. Country singer Brett Eldredge performed for their first dance, adding a personal musical moment to the occasion. The wedding can be understood through both its private purpose and its public interest: it marked their commitment to each other, while the guest list made it a reunion that Cubs fans enjoyed following. Rizzo later shared his gratitude to the people who celebrated with them.

Emily Vakos’s Career in Nutrition and Real Estate

Vakos’s working life is often summarized with two labels: nutrition professional and real estate broker. Her university training supports the first, while her reported licensing and property-industry listings support the second. These are distinct fields, and neither should be reduced to a detail about her marriage. At the same time, a past listing does not establish her current employer, workload, or earnings. A careful profile can describe her documented career background without assigning a present-day job that has not been confirmed. Her husband’s baseball income also provides no reliable measure of her personal income or assets.

Running the 2023 New York City Marathon

In November 2023, Vakos completed the New York City Marathon while supporting the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation. Her preparation involved fitting training around travel and an unpredictable baseball schedule, making the achievement more substantial than a single race-day appearance. She also sought guidance from Samantha Bracksieck, Aaron Judge’s wife, about training and race-day details. The experience highlights both personal effort and practical support from a friend who knew the event. It offers a useful view of Vakos pursuing her own demanding goal, with Rizzo taking the supporting role as she prepared to cover 26.2 miles.

Their Connection to Cancer Support and Charity

The Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation connects the couple’s public life with work supporting children and families affected by cancer. Rizzo established it in 2012 after his own experience with Hodgkin lymphoma. Vakos’s marathon participation provided one way to contribute to that mission through sustained effort. The foundation’s wider partnerships also show what such fundraising can support: a 2023 marathon collaboration with the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore helped raise more than $164,000 for young patients and their families. That was a team result, rather than money raised by Vakos alone, and it helps explain the purpose behind running for a charity.

Parenthood and Anthony Rizzo’s Retirement

The couple announced in January 2025 that they were expecting their first child, and they welcomed a son that June. Later that year, Rizzo spoke about how time at home with his family helped make retirement feel right after playing opportunities did not materialize. His September return to Wrigley Field included a public thank-you to Emily and reflected a different stage of their relationship. The two major changes were connected in his own account: becoming a father gave him a new daily focus, while leaving the playing field opened more time to enjoy family life.

Final Thoughts

Emily Vakos and Anthony Rizzo’s relationship has a clear sequence: an introduction through a Cubs nutrition internship in 2016, an engagement in 2017, and marriage in December 2018. Their later milestones add depth through professional interests, marathon training, charity involvement, and parenthood. The most useful account keeps both people in view without claiming access to their private conversations or daily routines. Vakos has her own educational and working background, and their shared life extends well beyond baseball. From Arizona to Chicago and their Florida wedding, their story is best understood through the choices and milestones they have actually shared.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Who is Emily Vakos?

Emily Vakos is Anthony Rizzo’s wife and an Arizona State University graduate with a background in nutrition and real estate. She has also participated in charitable fundraising through marathon running.

2. How did Emily Vakos meet Anthony Rizzo?

They met during Chicago Cubs spring training in Arizona in 2016. Vakos was working as a nutrition intern while completing her university studies.

3. When did Anthony Rizzo propose to Emily Vakos?

Rizzo proposed on June 1, 2017, during a boat outing on Lake Michigan. He arranged fireworks and kept the proposal a surprise.

4. When did Emily Vakos and Anthony Rizzo get married?

They married on December 29, 2018, in South Florida. Photos from another wedding had caused confusion in 2017, but that was not their marriage date.

5. What did Emily Vakos study in college?

Vakos studied nutrition and food management at Arizona State University and graduated in 2016. Her education provides context for the Cubs nutrition internship through which she met Rizzo.

6. What does Emily Vakos do for a living?

Her documented background includes nutrition work and real estate, with reporting identifying her as a broker. Her current employment arrangements and personal earnings are not clearly established publicly.

7. Do Emily Vakos and Anthony Rizzo have children?

Yes, they welcomed a son in June 2025 after announcing the pregnancy that January. Rizzo later discussed how fatherhood and time with family helped shape his retirement decision.

8. Did Emily Vakos run the New York City Marathon?

Yes, Vakos completed the race in November 2023 in support of the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation. She trained around travel commitments and received guidance from fellow runner Samantha Bracksieck.

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