Dogs in your ceremony

Hey Jess! I love my dog and my FH asked seriously if he could be best man. It depends on your venue, some actually do allow pets to walk the aisle. You could ask a friend or guest to run them home between the ceremony and reception. If you live a lengthy drive from the ceremony site though I'd recommend not having them participate.

I'm thinking about surprising FH with a cardboard cutout of our dog and "sitting" him in front of our sweetheart table. He also potentially is going to be our table numbers.

YES! I am so glad someone posted this! I really want to have my 2 dogs as the flower girl and ring bearer. I am thinking of "hiring" my MOH's little sister to dogsit them throughout the day and I will pay for her cheapo hotel room that allows pets.

Only thing is I have to double check with my venue to make sure that they allow dogs on site.

Just consider what happens if you have a guest who is allergic to/afraid of dogs, whether your dog(s) can handle crowds and what happens if they decide to go to the bathroom in the aisle.

A venue that didnt allow dogs on site was a deal breaker to me. We're getting married outside (I have seen a lot of churches allow dogs too) and my bridesmaids are walking my dogs down the aisle. Theyll stay for the ceremony, take pictures during cocktail hour and then someone will take them back to my hotel down the street. My reception is only about 5 hours so theyll be okay by themselves during that time.They wore bow ties for my engagement pictures. Theyll have tuxes for my wedding.

Kate, typically people who genuinely consider having their dogs in their wedding actually have controlled dogs that know not to pee inside or freak out infront of others.

@Heather your pups are adorable!!!!

I totally get your point.... I am dying to include my dog... As he is basically our child.. But I cant figure out how it would work at all.... Unfortunately, I think he will just stay home.

I am trying to convince FH to do engagement pictures after the wedding and dress up one more time for pics with our pup

We have a venue where there are cabins on site that the families are staying in, my pup is going to get to be chilling there, but come out and rock a bow tie for some pictures and hang out earlier in the day, but he will likely retire to the cabin for the ceremony and most of the evening. It's just too many people and too much noise to subject him to for any length of time, as he's kind of a little old man.

Thank you for the responses so far. My FH and I love our furbabies- but I am more of the one who REALLY wants to make this work. Our wedding venue does allow dogs, and both my dogs are good about not peeing indoors. But they do love people and they might get a little crazy. I definitely want them in my photos; either way I have to figure something out.

@Heather- your furbabies are adorable!

@Heather - cute pups! I totally hear what you're saying. I guess my counter to that is that most people also think that about their children and as we know children don't always behave either

i'm not saying in any way that you have bad dogs! or that anyone does! i'm just saying that they don't understand what's going on and if they have never been in a situation like that you just never know. know what i mean?

@Heather WHERE DID YOU GET THOSE BOW TIES? My Alfie needs one just to wear around when he's feeling fancy!

I married 2 dogs at a B&B that had just gone "pet-friendly." An in-home wedding had the couples dogs as MOH & BM. Another couple had their dog as ring bearer.

It can be done if: your dog is well-behaved in a crowd of people, not nervous in a crowd, if someone can take the dog home/away afterward.

We thought about it, but our baby will be at a doggie B & B for our wedding weekend. He's to excited and loves people. He wouldn't be the most well behaved - he'd make my wedding all about him, haha. If your dog is well behaved and your venue allows it - go for it.

Our dogs are going to serve as ring bearer and flower girl. We're getting married on a pet-friendly beach and booked a room for the weekend that allows dogs. I can't wait!

I am also wondering I want my Yorkie to be part of my wedding!

We REALLY want to have both of our dogs in the wedding and I found these bandanas on Etsy one says Dog of Honor and the other says Best Dog. My brother will be walking them down the isle and most likely driving them back home after the ceremony. Both the dogs LOVE my brother and I think he is the best one suited to handle them.

The above is all great advice. We've done lots of weddings with dogs. Some have gone off without a hitch--one or two have had (potentially funny or catastrophic--depending in your perspective) dog-chase scenes.

The trick is to know your dog and to have a really great doggie handler. If there is ANY doubt that your pooch isn't going to behave, it's probably best to skip it, or simply have the handler lead the dogs down the aisle (for the "awww" affect!) and then out the side to another location (in other words, they're not sitting through the whole ceremony).

I did a wedding once where the handler didn't bring the 2 basset hounds out until it was time to present the rings--which were attached to the dogs. Very fun. I got the rings, then the dogs were lead away.

I have an article that you might find helpful: http://lyssabeths.com/blog/tips-including-mans-friend-wedding-ceremony/

Also--check out Celia's site for tons of tips on this: http://vowwowwow.wordpress.com/.

Thank you, Maureen.

Does anyone know where I can find a trusting handler? I contemplated asking someone in my wedding party, but I want them to enjoy themselves. I would like to find someone I trust, but they will probably be invited as a guest. Any ideas?

@koch bride, I found them at home goods. But I have seen so many awesome ones on etsy lately and some arnt too expensive.

Jessica, as for handlers, try calling local doggie day cares (not one like petco) most doggie day care places have people who are really experienced with dogs and you might be able to hire someone to free lance for the day.

Thank you, Heather. We do have a place we take them, too. I will have to ask.