Incorporating Pets into your Wedding

We also put paws on the cake to have our dog Peanut remembered as he passed away June 4, 2015.

We incorporated the idea of the cake topper to have a dog with the couple as pet lovers. A shout out to your pets in your speech is a nice way to incorporate them.

We would have had our chihuahuas with us except the venue was pet free zone. Their pictures can be part of your engagement photos and sent to your family and friends part of the invite.

A lot of our family and friends are pet lovers, just like my fiancé and I we have two orange fluffy cats, and almost everyone we know hows either dogs or cats, so are planning to do a little doggy/treat bag for peoples to take home to their pets. On the bag I'm asking my cousin who's into art to draw up our cats to put on the bags and have it read something like "from our pets to yours" or " thank you for celebrating with our humans"

Aw that would be so special to have your pup join you for some pics! Love the portraits idea, too!

We're planning to name our signature cocktails after our pets and have a friend of ours sketch portraits of our cats and dog for a sign at the bar.

We're also starting to discuss a way to bring our dog to join us during cocktail hour when we sneak off for photos so we can get some with him.

That's an amazing idea!

Oh that's a great idea!

Aw I would love to see pictures after your wedding! My family dogs are rescues (with a serious history of abuse/trauma) so it would be too much stress on them to be involved in the wedding but I know they'll be giving me my pre-wedding blessings (aka lots of kisses!)

Oh I love those ideas, Hank! Even if we're not close by for the wedding (we live out in the country and still don't have our venue yet - grr!) we could still simulate those kinds of things!

One of my best friends owned a dog when he lived with his parents. When we did the getting ready part at his house, the dog had a bow tie on and the photographer took some pictures on him chilling on his doggy bed watching all of us. They also had wedding cake shaped doggy biscuits for him.

With your cat and horse, you can add a bow tie (groom colour if it's a male, bridesmaid colour if it's female) and take a photo with them while you're getting ready before you put your wedding dress on. If you're getting hair and makeup done, maybe you can get a photo of you brushing the horse's hair while you're in your robe etc.

I'm sure I could convince him, though I do see his perspective as they are my pets that I've grown up with, not pets we've adopted together. They're definitely a mama's boy/girl so he already has to share me on the daily

Haha maybe your fiancé will come around to the cake topper idea eventually. For what it's worth people loved ours and we got tons of compliments on it.

Aw I love your cake topper! I really like the idea of the laser cut ones with the animals included, though my fiancé is not as big a fan. I was thinking of seeing if I could order one like it, without the cake insert bit, and use it as a piece of décor?

Roxy, my cat, would certainly not be hanging around for a photographer haha! My horse, Keeper, is easier to pose with (we took some engagement photos with him ), though I have come to see the sense in not risking muddying my wedding dress beforehand so that will probably be a "week after the wedding" project.

We really wanted to get professional photos with our cat but she's very shy around new people. She ended up hiding under our bed the entire time our photographer was at our apartment so we took a selfie with her when we got home haha.

We did have a nod to her in our cake topper - we ordered it from a shop called CustomLaserStudio on Etsy.