Wedding Blog
Sorry for the corny title, but I HAD to. I’m just like that! 
I would really love for Berkely (my dog/my parents’ dog) to be our ring bearer. I’d also love for him to be there while Mr. D’orsay and I are getting ready. There is just one itsy bitsy problem…
The venue doesn’t allow dogs in the house.
Berkley in a VERY shaggy state…
So, poor Berkely could come for the ceremony, which is outside, but then he’d have to head home right afterward.
Someone would have to leave during the cocktail hour to take him home (it’s 20ish minutes round trip). Our wedding will be in August in Maryland, so I don’t want him to overheat by being in a crate at the wedding (he’d also go CRAZY). He loves people and would hate to be kept apart from them.
So, do we attempt to find someone who can drop him off at home? Do we leave him out of the day altogether? If you are incorporating your pets in your ceremony, what are you doing with your pets during the reception?
Thanks guys!
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I can see why you want him there, he is darling. I’d worry about trying to coordinate all of the transportation and dog wrangling on the day of, it will already be so busy for you. If you had one designated “dog person” who was in charge of him in the church and getting him home, it could totally work.
Are any driving teenagers coming to your wedding? Cousins, maybe? You could offer to make one “special chauffeur” as an honor/task. I’d love to have my dog in the ceremony, I totally understand! You should try to get someone to drive him home, that’s what I would do. People are usually willing to help out when it comes to weddings. It would give your fave youngish cousin an excuse to get in some more driving time, at the very least! It’s all about how you pitch your idea 
He’d be great to have in some pictures, particularly ones outside. Maybe appoint a family or friend “dog wrangler” to take care of him, and then transport him home after the photo opps?
Our 3 lb. chihuahua was our ring bearer, and a total hit! We had our flower girl walk him down the aisle instead of having her carry flowers and the pair was perfect!
you can hire somebody to do it. a lot of dog walkers offer that service. we just got the OK from our venue to have our dog at the ceremony only, so we’re planning on having the dog boarder (with whom he will be staying while we’re gone on our honeymoon) to bring him to the venue and take him home for us. i assume that our guests would not want to miss the cocktail hour dealing with our pup, and most of them are from out of town, so don’t know the area very well.
I love dogs, and would love my Harley-monster to come be our dog of honor, but we are getting married on the opposite coast where we live, so that is not an option. However, I understand your plight. I think finding a teenage cousin or friend is a good idea Miss Rye, alternatively, if you know someone that is really a dog person, they might be willing to do it, because they understand how much it would mean.
I’m so bummed George won’t be there in Hawaii! I volunteer myself to chauffeur Berkeley around! 
Ahhh, I really want our Huckleberry to be at the wedding, but my mom and Mr. Peep said no. I even had a frind offer to take care of him. Be careful about asking a young family member- being the youngest, I always got asked to do these types of things and kinda resented it. But I am sure you’ll find someone to do it!
Oh, Berkely! 
I hardcore wish my dogs could be at the wedding, too. Unfortunately, Texas is too far to truck them up to Chicago! They will be sorely missed. I really bet you could hire a dogsitter to take him after the ceremony - maybe?
We wanted to have our little doggie in the ceremony too. But, our venue also doesn’t allow dogs, and we couldn’t figure a way to have someone wrangle him during the ceremony, and no one would want to leave to take him home, and he would whine himself to death if we left him outside. So we had to forget about it.
I would love my Sasha to be in our wedding, but since she’s a pit (one of the sweetest you’ll ever meet) I don’t think that would go over very well. Plus, she likes to run full speed down our long hallway, so I could just see her now come running full speed down the aisle to see Daddy, but stopping to say hi to everyone along the way. I would love it, but I know it can’t happen. So we’re having our cake topper made by the wonderful Nicole W Clark, http://www.nicolewclark.com, and she will be standing right in between us, so she’ll be there in spirit!!
Our venue gave carte blanche to Catch– the Bernese Mountain Dog to be there all weekend. Have you asked for a special exception? It that’s a no-go, I agree with hiring a young member of the wedding or a dog walker.
Why don’t you find a doggie daycare place that is willing to pick him up once the ceremony is over? Although my Lucy is going to be in our ceremony and staying afterwards, when we were looking at other venues this was our solution.
We’ll be including our great dane, Luca, in our ceremony. We’ll be having a friend or family member run her home during the cocktail hour. We live pretty close to our reception/ceremony site so it’ll be easy.
Yep! We’ll be including our great dane, Luca, in our ceremony. We’ll be having a friend or family member run her home during the cocktail hour. We live pretty close to our reception/ceremony site so it’ll be easy.
We have 3 doggies and I would love to include them into the ceremony some how. Besides the venue not allowing pets, they are not trained so we will have to board them for the day. Our female pit (Coffee) loves people and barks if no one pets her and our male pit (Lil Dude) doesn’t like to be around a lot of folks, he gets nervous and scared. Then there’s the lil puppy, (General), a 12lb Shih-Poo that jumps, bites and barks. However, after he has finished biting you he gives the sweetest kisses.
I plan on incorporating my “bad butts” into the reception by having their pics displayed with the table numbers.
Despite being part of the Chicago Park District, my venue doesn’t allow dogs anywhere on the property! Instead, we’re taking pictures of our dog at different Chicago landmarks and using them for our table numbers. Plus he’ll be in the pictures of me getting ready at home =-)
I would have liked our dog to be at the wedding - but it wasn’t possible at our venue at all.
Assuming that your cocktail hour will last an hour, I don’t think you’ll have a hard time getting someone to take out 20-30 mins to drop him off. Will there be relatives or friends at the wedding (ie, not your parents) who he’s familiar with? My one tip (which goes for all wedding-related plans) is that if it starts to feel like too much work to organize it, just leave him at home. But definitely try!
Have you asked the site if they would make an exception since you are paying a pretty penny for your wedding?
My parents have a small dog, and when my brother got married, they managed to get the hotel to let them bring the dog (she is a TRAVELER- she goes everyone and is so well behaved!). I think they had to pay a small cleaning fee, but the hotel allowed them to bring her after a few conversations (and perhaps a “well, if you don’t allow dogs, we understand… lets go look at the hotel across the way…”)
At my wedding, there are 2 pet-friendly rooms, but my parents really wanted to rent a house. So I called the reservations manager, explained the situation, and they called several of the owners of the homes that were available for rent, and personally asked them if my parents could bring the dog! The hotel was really reasonable about it, and they accommodated our request without much of a hassle!
Perhaps think of the best way to approach your venue– perhaps they would allow him to come in the house and stay in one particular place (I don’t remember the specifications of your venue, but if its a regular house, perhaps they’d let him stay in the laundry room or the bathroom or something? Maybe they would agree to that for a few hours, and then someone could take him home at the end of the night???
Or, worst case, do you have a 16 or 17 year old neighbor that would like to make a bit of money? You could ask them to come get the dog at a certain time.
Hmmm. Just testing something out. My previous post says my user name (beachbrideT) but has me as a guest. I’m trying to see if this post will show me as a member…
Our ceremony/reception is at a historic bed & breakfast…so no pets allowed (unless we crate her in the bathroom which she’d hate). So we are thinking of kenneling her 10 minutes away and picking her up for the fun day after shoot when there will be fewer people around to over excite her.
Oh…and Berkley is A.DOR.ABLE!
We have the same predicament. We were actually hoping we could ‘hide’ our 76lb Chocolate Lab in the bridal room. ;o) But our venue is forty minutes from our hotel. I really don’t want to inconvenience anyone by having them leave to drop her off back at the hotel. I don’t know what we will do! I am still perplexed! :o(
Is that a Parti-Cocker? Or a cockapoo? Just wondering …
@Jibi: What a great idea! We have to board our dog the day of the wedding because we just won’t have time to walk him 3 times and don’t want him to be alone all day. I’ll have to ask her if she’d be willing to do that. Thanks!
I am with beachbride T - I refused to use a venue that wouldnt allow our dog. So although the venue we are using says “no dogs” in policy, they made an exception once they had heard about how much it meant to us to have her there. I wouldn’t hesitate to ask, especially if you haven’t paid in full.
OMG- Berkely is adorably! Unfortunately I don’t have any advice b/c I’m having the exact same dilemna! I don’t know how the heck to get my little Freddie to our hotel for pictures, to the park for pictures in between the ceremony and reception, and then back to my parents house! My FI thinks I’m nuts, but I can’t imagine not including her since she is such a big part of my life.
P.S.- Is Berkely a Havanese by any chance? He looks just like my puppy!
My dog, Lucky, is our ring bearer. He is going to stay at the site for pictures after the wedding. My fiance’s house is only a few minutes away from the site, so my brother (aka Official Lucky Handler) is going to take him home quickly and then return for the ceremony. Our venue will let us have him outside for the ceremony but not inside for the reception. Have your worked at all on training your dog to walk down the aisle or anything? What will he wear?
Yeah! What kind of dog is Berkely? After getting married my next project is to work on my new husband and persuade him to get us a dog and he/she is gorgeous!
have someone drop him off at a doggy hotel where he can be picked up after the wedding. somewhere nice, like little rascals in DC. my boyfriend lives in olney, md so if you’re not creeped out we could take him for you.
@Miss Rye Bread: I am the youngest of the cousins…but > @MagPie518: My MOH volunteered her boyfriend, but I suppose I should check with him first…@Beth: @MrsMosses: @hanmay: @ Berkley is a Cockapoo, but I really adore havaneses! I found him on petfinder.com and he has been such a great addition to our family!
I should also mention when Berkley feels ignored he gets a bit spiteful and tends to pee on things; so on second thought it might be for the best they don’t let him inside…
@olelucky: We haven’t started training him yet because my parent’s aren’t willing to train him while I’m in england so I’ll probably have to start in June. Do you have any tips or links?
We’re lucky he comes wearing his own furry black and white “tuxedo” We might give him a bow tie, or I could make him something with feathers; unfortunately he really hates hats…
I had a friend who had a long history with my previous dog, and conveniently she lives only a couple of miles from our venue. So she because the “Sheltie Wrangler” for the weekend — kept our dog the night before and after (our hotel allowed dogs, but I didn’t want to mess with walks) and brought her to the ceremony, held her till it was her time to run up the aisle, then retrieved her and took her home.
But we had time a few hours between ceremony and reception, so I wasn’t asking anyone to miss wedding events. Given your situation, I’d agree with the people who say “hire someone.” It can’t cost much, and if you pick someone you trust it will be one less thing on your own mind that day.
You have to bring him but just hire a dog sitter to pick him up and bring him. That way you no one has to be gone during your wedding.
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Mrs. D'orsay, Baltimore/Lancaster UK
Age and Occupation: 24, Stay at home fiance (formerly in nonprofit communications)
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Web site developer and designer; co-owner of men's skincare shop
Engagement Date: August 10, 2008
Wedding Date: August, 2009
Venue: Oakland Manor
About Me: I'm a Maryland raised environmental policy wonk/activist/organizer and communications aficionado. In the past year I've lived in Baltimore, MD, Tucson, AZ, Miami, FL and Lancaster, England. In my not so spare time I enjoy planning trips with Mr. D' Orsay, visiting friends and family and crafting like a mo-fo. I also enjoy modern dance classes, rugby and soccer but have been banned by my mother, MOHs, and Mr. D' Orsay from playing till after the wedding. I have an unnatural addiction to cheese and shoes, but love Mr. D' Orsay more than either and can't wait to become Mrs. D' Orsay!
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