Wedding Planning Tips, Your Event Career
Becoming a Wedding Planner: How to Incorporate Pets into the Big Day
Weddings are amazing events filled with so much love. They bring friends and families together to formally create a new family. And, for pet owners, that includes their furry (or scaly) friends!
As a wedding planner, you might get clients who want to include their pets in their big day! Step one is to find out if your venue will allow pets! This step usually includes communicating any other details that you’re not 100% your vendors can accommodate. Step two is having a ton of fun!
So take a look at the many ways that you can incorporate pets into your next wedding!
In the ceremony
Doggie-bridesmaids or –groomsman are seriously adorable. Pets can also be ring bearers, walk down with the flower girl, or simply sit at the front with the officiant. However, this is quite ambitious depending on a pet’s personality. If their dog is very active or anxious, they may not be able to walk down the aisle or remain calm throughout the ceremony. Your clients need to be honest with themselves about their pet’s capabilities so that it doesn’t lead to disaster.
If your clients have a smaller pet, it might be able to stay on the lap of the parents of the bride or groom. But they’ll have to agree to this in advance! Don’t assume that everyone will be okay with a pet potentially ruining their outfit.
In the photos
This is one of our favorite ways to include pets in a wedding! By keeping pets away from the ceremony, they won’t have a chance to cause a scene. And guests with allergies won’t be sneezing up a storm, either! But their owners will get to take amazing family photos. Leave the pet with a sitter and only bring them out for a few photos. That way, the happy couple can have great memories and photos without worrying about their pet’s or guest’s safety throughout the ceremony.
This can also be a solution if your venue has a problem with animals. You can always go off-site for a short time to take some photos with their kitty, pig, rabbit, horse, or whatever other creature they love!
At the reception
Don’t think their pet will make it through a long ceremony? Why not bring them into the party! There are so many ways to have a pet become part of a wedding reception! Here are just a few:
- Have the couple ride them to the reception for a grand entrance (obviously this only works if their pet is a horse)
- Include their pet in the first dance by letting it onto the dance floor
- Have their pet roam free with a go-pro to get their view of the day (this depends highly on the guest list and venue)
As wedding cake toppers
Wedding cake toppers are great and subtle (or not so subtle depending on your choices) way to add some animal love into a wedding. Your clients may opt for a fondant creature made in their pet’s likeness, too. You’ll create a sweet moment for the couple while they cut their cake. Having a pet involved in the wedding doesn’t need to be a large spectacle. It can be a little touch of love depending on your clients’ tastes.
In the theme
And if your clients want their pets to be front and center, incorporate them into the theme! You can have cardboard cut-outs of their pet for a photo booth or use pet inspired wedding favors. And for your offbeat clients, the bride and groom may opt to wear photos of their pets using lockets/cufflinks, and so much more! You could go all the way and have the venue be an aquarium, or pull back and just have a photo of their pet on the welcome table.
The guests might think your clients have gone mad if they go too far into the pet theme but it can definitely be classy if done correctly!
At the preparation
Maybe your couple doesn’t want an animal to be part of the wedding but still want to see their beloved pet on the big day. Depending on where your client is getting ready for the day, they can see their pets beforehand. They can have some champagne, put their suit/dress on, and have some cuddles with their pal! It’ll be a nice, private moment they’ll have fond memories of before the crazy festivities begin.
In the invitations
Your clients’ pets don’t need to be present for the day-of to be included in the experience! Their inclusion can come in the form of using a photo of the couple with their pet on the save-the-date or formal wedding invitation. It’s a great way to show off their future family without having all the furry members present at the wedding. If they had professional engagement photos taken with their furry friend, they will be perfect for invitations!
Becoming a wedding planner is an extremely rewarding experience and a great place to use all your creativity. Incorporating a cat or a rabbit into a wedding might be your event planner feat today, but tomorrow, it will be something totally different! Testing your creativity in including pets in a wedding will allow you to be that much more prepared to handle the next challenge that comes your way.
Did we miss any ways to incorporate pets into a wedding? Let us know in a comment below!
