Wedding Date: May 28, 2022
It never crossed my mind to not include the dogs in our wedding. We spent years planning our wedding as it was delayed due to COVID-19 and not once did we try to find a place for them that day other than at the house where the wedding was. Several people asked, “where are the dogs going?”, I would give them a crazy look and say “Nowhere, why?”. The conversation usually ended there. Our close friends and family just knew they weren’t going anywhere. Our dogs would be part of our wedding.
We got married on May 28, 2022, two years after the first wedding date. We had it at our house in Brooklin, Ontario and it was so…much…fun! The dogs got ready for the wedding just like we did. We got them new threads. We found these really neat purple leashes with wooden handles and purple collars (purple was our wedding colour!). We also had special tags made for them with their names, my phone number and our address, just in case they wandered a bit too far. They also had baths a week before the wedding so they were soft and smelled good. We also go them each a big dinosaur bone to chew on if we needed them to stay busy!
Nyx with her special wedding bone to chew on.
Our photographer made the memories perfect. We asked Justin Greaves to be our photographer and he nailed it. We wanted candid moments and the dogs made the cut as much as the people did. Click here to see his Facebook page. Here are some of our favorites.
Here is are some things to consider if you are going to have your dogs at the wedding:
- Make sure everyone is OK with dogs! – We have some friends that are afraid of dogs. We had a chat with them prior and they are slowly getting use to our dogs so it was fine but make sure people know they will be there!
- Have a safe space for the dogs to go when they are tired -The tents and the preparation started the Wednesday before the wedding, Friday was the rehearsal and my birthday party (I got married on my birthday!) and Saturday was the wedding. The dogs were a bit displaced by everything changing so we created a safe place outside with a dog mat and a water bowl and another place inside. The inside area was gated so the kids would leave them alone.
- We had purchase two HUGE bones for them to chew on. The idea was they would munch on them during the ceremony. Nyx followed the cue perfectly but Maze was more interested in walking down the isle with me but bailed out halfway down.
- Be patient – we found just letting them wander around was the best course of action at the end of the day. Our dogs don’t wander far and usually don’t leave our front lawn no matter who walks past, so we were confident that they would stay close to home.
- Take them for a walk that morning! – It doesn’t have to be you but have someone do it. My husband and I took the dogs to the park and played ball with them for a while. It wasn’t because we thought they had energy (I think by Saturday they were very pooped) but we wanted to get all the bathroom business out of the way. We didn’t want anyone stepping in a present at the wedding!
- Make sure they eat a good breakfast – dinner may be forgotten! We did eventually feed them dinner but we did forget for a bit. Yes, we have labs but they don’t eat very well. That morning we made them their treat breakfast, cooked raw food. They ate the whole serving which is uncommon for them.
- Make sure you speak to your photographer about including your dogs. Hire Justin if you can! He was so much fun to have at our wedding. He captured so many amazing moments but was still part of the wedding, he ate and had drinks with us. It was a joy getting to know him and having him spend the day with us!
- Have fun! This is your day with your dogs! Enjoy!