How to Include Your Pets in Your Wedding
When it comes to your wedding, most of us want our family and our closest friends there to celebrate with. It’s a new start with the love of your life creating your own family together amid all the love and support of those closest to you. But what about your four-legged family? How do you incorporate your canine or feline family members into your wedding which isn’t necessarily an easy to have our pet family around.
Many of the Kate Holt Photography Couples I work with have fur babies that sometimes have been with the bride or groom even longer than they’ve been with their fiancee! So it seems a shame not to have them involved in some way on such an important day!
In this blog I’ve put together a few tips about how to include your pets in your wedding day, so check these out and if you end up using any of them on your wedding, send me a photo of your cute fur baby! It would make my day!
Tip #1
Assign a “pet wrangler” who will be responsible for the transportation and care of your pet on your wedding day.
On your wedding day you will be pretty busy. Even if you have a wedding coordinator who is taking care of the logistics of the day, you will still be the center of attention and will have a LOT of people talking to you or asking you questions. You will also have a lot of things to do, such as getting into your dress, putting on jewelry, getting to the photo locations, being in about a thousand photos, being in the ceremony, signing the marriage license, doing a grand entrance, starting the plated meal or buffet line, dancing, listening to toasts, greeting guests etc! It’s a busy day! So, let’s take the care and transport of your beloved fur baby out of the mix!
When asking someone to be your “pet wrangler” make sure they are familiar with your pet so that your fur baby is comfortable around this person. Also try to choose someone who isn’t also in the wedding party and isn’t a parent. These people will be in almost all of the activities you are involved in on your wedding day, so adding this important task to their wedding schedule can be a bit much.
If your pet has a pet carrier, leash, special wedding collar, treats, food or water bowl, make sure to give these items to your wrangler the night before the ceremony or early on in the morning on the day-of. Make sure they know when to feed your pet if they are on a timed food regiment and ensure this person has access to their own transportation and can come and go between your getting ready area, venue and reception locations as they need.
Having someone to care for your pet on your wedding day is the #1 thing that will make having your pet involved a joyful experience rather than a stressful one.
Tip #2
Plan to do your portraits with your pets as the first portraits of the day!
There are two main timelines for a wedding day when it comes to photography. One includes a “First Look” between the bride and groom prior to the ceremony so that the majority of photos can be taken pre-ceremony and the couple can join their guests for a portion of cocktail hour. The second timeline is more traditional where the Bride and Groom do not see each other before the ceremony and all of their portraits that they take together are done post-ceremony and pre-reception during the cocktail hour. (For more information on First Looks and to see which wedding timeline might fit you better, check out my blog on First Looks here)
Having your fur baby involved in your wedding means that you actually get to take an amazing wedding photo with him or her! The best time to do these photos is at the beginning of the portraits you will take together as a couple.
If you are planning a First Look, right after your First Look moment and before rolling into Wedding Party Photos, have your pet handler bring your fur baby in for a few portraits with him or her. Then, after these photos are done, your pet can be taken back to a comfortable space to relax, rest, eat food, get a treat and drink some water before the ceremony.
If you are keeping your wedding traditional, then directly following the ceremony and before you sign your marriage license or do any other family portraits, have your wrangler bring your pet over for a few photos. While you take these photos with your fur baby, your officiant will have time to gather the license paperwork and get your witnesses together so that immediately following these pet portraits you can transition over to the license signing and then to the rest of your portraits while your wrangler can take your pet home.
Most reception areas don’t allow animals, and truthfully you won’t have a lot of time to give your fur baby the attention he or she probably wants during a reception, so once the ceremony and portraits with them are complete, it’s best that they are taken to a separate comfortable place to relax while you enjoy the rest of your wedding.
Doing these portraits with your pet first gives your pet wrangler time to move your pet to a nearby house to relax and still allows for your pet wrangler the time to return for the reception, dinner and dancing so that they too can enjoy your wedding!
For this reason, especially if you are planning a traditional wedding with no First Look, ensure your pet wrangler is NOT a family member that you would want in further family portraits. Otherwise they will be gone handling your pets during your formal family portrait time!
Tip #3
Bring treats or a favorite toy for the photographer or pet wrangler to use to get great portraits of you and your fur baby!
I’m sure you’ve attempted to take great photos of your adorable pet right? Have you found it super easy or rather difficult? It’s kinda tricky sometimes huh? The same challenges you face when trying to get a good snap of your fur baby will be faced by your photographer, only this time it will be even more difficult as usually your pet loves you so much that all they want to do is look at and interact with you! When you think of the “perfect” wedding portrait with a pet however, you probably think of an image where you are standing just behind your pet, or sitting with your pet in your lap and everyone, including your pet are looking at the camera.
Your pet dosen’t know your photographer and might not be interested in looking at the camera at all, so a little treat or toy incentive goes a long way in getting and holding your pet’s attention.
Most pet owners use treats to reward their pets for good behavior or for preforming tricks like sitting and staying. Getting a great portrait of you and your pet on your wedding day will definitely involve the pet performing these types of actions, so having some treats to incentivize or reward them is something they will probably be expecting!
Tip #4
Do you have a Venue that doesn’t allow animals? Honor your fur baby by accessorizing parts of your wedding with reminders of them!
Many couples who have pets end up falling in love with venues that just simply don’t allow animals on their premesis. Or, maybe you are planning a destination wedding and traveling with your four-legged friend is not the best thing for them. Or maybe you love your pet but feel having them physically at the wedding isn’t the right choice for you.
If any of the above is the case for you, you can still have reminders of your fur baby at your wedding in really cute and classy ways!
One Kate Holt Couple had two cats that they absolutely adored. But, they were indoor cats and they were planning a coastal wedding and feared that with people going in and out of the beach house, the risk of their cats running out an open door and getting lost in a new area was too high a risk to run. So instead of their feline friends being actually present at their wedding, they had a friend custom order tiny porcelain cat figurines from a local artist and then dressed the cats up in wedding attire. They put these figurines on their cupcake table and it was just the cutest thing!!
I also had a couple have a custom wooden cake topper made that showed the couple standing with their dogs curled up at their feet.
Another time a groom once as a gift to his bride give her a “cat-mama” pendant as her wedding-day gift! She absolutely loved it!
You can get super creative with little things to honor your pet on your big day, so don’t let a no-animals policy get in the way of making your fur baby a part of your wedding celebrations!
Tip #5
Have your Fur Baby bring your rings down the aisle to you during your ceremony!
Do you have a pup that comes when you call? Then he or she can actually be your ring bearer!
Before your ceremony, tie a secure box which holds the wedding rings to your dog’s collar. Have your “pet wrangler” sit towards the back of the ceremony space, close to the aisle with your pup. Then, when it is time for the rings, have your groom or your groom’s best man call your dog forward and retrieve the rings from the box! Your pet wrangler can then take him back after the rings are delivered or if you have a more chill dog, he can sit or lay down at the feet of the groomsmen for the last part of your ceremony!
You can also have someone who isn’t necessarily in your wedding party but who you would like to have involved in your ceremony walk your pup up the aisle, and if you have a ring bearer who is old enough, they can even walk with your dog to deliver the rings!
I haven’t seen this done yet, but if your fur baby is a cat and he or she is super chill, you can also have an older ring bearer carry your cat who has the rings on it’s collar down the aisle toward you to deliver the rings as well. Just make sure whoever is carrying your feline friend has a good hold on his or her collar to deter them from trying to jump from your ring bearer’s arms!
Whenever choosing to have your pet actively participate in your ceremony, I would highly suggest doing a few practice run throughs during your rehearsal the night before as well, just to make sure everything will go smoothly!
Bonus Tip!
Do you have more than one fur baby? Or perhaps your fur babies are a little rambunctious and you wouldn’t trust them not to jump up on your gorgeous wedding dress pre-ceremony? Incorporate your pets into the first part of your engagement shoot for your Save the Dates instead of putting them into your Wedding-Day plans!
When having your pets be a part of your engagement shoot, you also will want to bring along a pet wrangler who has separate transportation. The reason for this is while having a few photos with your pups is awesome for your engagement session, you probably don’t want them in EVERY photo. If you bring along someone who can help with treats and handling for the first part of the shoot, you can get all those cute pet photos done first, and then your pet wrangler can take your fur baby back to your house and you and your fiancee can enjoy the rest of the shoot with just each other.
Often times dogs especially want to be right next to you anytime you are around them, so if you don’t have someone who can take them when you want photos of just the two of you, you’ll have to tie them up at a distance from you which might be stressful for them and lead to whining and barking which isn’t the most romantic or relaxing sound while trying to have your photos taken.
I remember during the first engagement session I ever shot the couple brought along their cat which was super cute! However, I hadn’t suggested they bring along a wrangler for the cat while we were just doing photos of the two of them and while I was taking portraits of them the cat snuck out of it’s cat carrier and darted off into the forrest! Luckily the groom was an expert at catching their fur baby and was able to scoop him up in no time, but that is an experience which makes my heart race as I would never want something bad to happen to your pets while we were doing a photo session! So, bringing someone with you whose whole job can just be to care for and handle your pet is definitely the best way to go!
I hope this blog helped you with ways you can include your fur babies in your wedding!
I love animals, so I’m quite serious when I say if you get a cute snap of your pet I’d love to see it, send it over!
If you are interested in booking an engagement session with me where your pet it featured, drop me a note! I can’t wait to meet you and your fur baby!
Hi! I’m Kate, an award-winning natural light photographer.
Interested in talking to me about your wedding or engagement photography? Let’s schedule a chat! I’d love to meet you!
