Pets in your wedding
Do you have non-human family members who are going to be part of your special day?
Many of the couples getting wed in or around the Gunks lately have pets in their lives. Cats and dogs especially were part of the pandemic experience, and became part of our lives.
Those pets are part of your household, and you might be thinking about including them in the ceremony. That might not be very easy if your special friend is a freshwater fish, but there’s a lot of air-breathing pets who could possibly be included. You know your pet better than anyone.
Some pets have been part of a shared household with the humans getting married for all their lives. Others are family members of one or the other, and setting up housekeeping includes figuring out how to weave in those routines. If your pet is getting used to a change in the household, that might be enough to process without adding in a wedding. Again, you know your pet better than anyone.
Dogs of all sizes can be ring-bearers, and while cats who are comfortable with crowds seem to be less common, they can too. Whether your ring-bearer is a cat, a dog, a juvenile human, or a mynah bird, you are going to need at least a ring-bearer wrangler, or else a ring-bearer bearer. Whoever bears the rings, they will do better if they are used to larger numbers of humans. If you don’t know your chosen ring-bearer well enough, ask their caregivers about their temperament in groups of strangers.
Not every animal can be assigned to carry jewelry or check invitations at the door, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they can’t be in attendance if their behavior won’t be disruptive. You get to decide what behavior counts as “disruptive,” though: for one couple who only brought friends to witness, leaving their dog at home wasn’t a consideration. It should be clear from this picture they sent that not much was going to disrupt their day! For others, maybe that would have been too much.
Non-human wedding guests can be every bit as important as the human ones, but it’s certainly worth balancing the desire for pets to be present and any allergies, fears, worries, and sensibilities of the others invited. How best to weigh those issues will vary based on the couple yourselves, and the guests you’re inviting. If nothing else, this officiant is not allergic to any animals.