11 Ways to Incorporate Your Dog into Your Wedding

Wedding Season is upon us! I actually have two weddings coming up within the next two weeks, along with planning my own wedding.

As a pet blogger, I was determined to bring animals into my wedding as much as tastefully possible.

Now, one disclaimer that I always want to add is that a wedding is with two people. If you are an animal lover, but your significant other is not, then you may need to compromise on how much dog stuff is allowed in the wedding.

One example I like to use is my fiancé. He loves our cats, a lot! And while he loves them to death, animals are not a passion of his. So we are planning on incorporating a few animal-related things into our wedding, but mostly having the focus be about the two of us and the things we both enjoy.

How Do I Incorporate My Dog Into A Wedding?

However, if you are both animal lovers, then you two have the option to go as animal-crazed in your wedding as you would like! It’s YOUR day!

I’m going to talk about 11 ways in which you can incorporate puppies into your wedding. Now, these are not the ONLY 11 ways in which you can do so, these are just some of the most popular ways I’ve seen in my research.

Also, if you know of another way in which you incorporated puppies into your wedding, always feel free to reach out to me. I love hearing new ideas! But I digress.

Ring Bearer

First, is probably the most famous and well-known way that people will put their dogs in their wedding.

They will make them a ring-bearer, or groomsmen.

Some people will even get signs that they put on the puppy for a great camera shot. Others will have them in little tuxedos, but really the possibilities are endless.

This is great because your dog can be there with you on your special day, be part of it like any member of the family, and look absolutely adorable while doing it. It is important, however, that you do so only depending on your dog’s personality.

If you have a very friendly dog who is well trained on a leash, then walking down the aisle to you should be no problems.

If you have a nervous, scared, untrained puppy, walking down the aisle with a lot of strangers may cause them to act out and misbehave.

As much as you want your puppy to be part of your day, you also want to make it an enjoyable day for everyone.

If you have a dog who doesn’t do well with a lot of people, then a puppy ring bearer may not be the best idea. But fear not! There are still plenty of additional ways you can incorporate dogs into your special day.

Puppy Bouquets

Alright, stick with me on this one.

I know it sounds pretty silly. But one trend that is attempting to catch on is puppy ‘bouquets’ instead of flowers. First off, what is cuter than a puppy?

Pretty much nothing. And it saves money on flowers, right?

Well, there is actually another reason why this is attempting to become a trend. One couple actually connected with a shelter to use their puppies in their wedding.

All these puppies were adoptable and were announced to the guests as they arrived. These puppies were able to be around people and socialized, while also showcasing their cuteness for adoption.

This is kind of like a free adoption fair for the puppies, while also providing a unique level of cuteness to the wedding.

If this sounds like something you would be extremely interested in, I urge you to do your research before just jumping into it.

Again, you want to make sure these puppies are well behaved and won’t be barking or running away during the ceremony. That won’t do any good for you, or the people thinking about adopting the puppies.

You also will want to have a plan for what you will do with the puppies after the ceremony.

Will puppies be invited to the reception?

Where will they go after the reception?

These are all things that will need to be figured out prior to bringing them into your wedding. You want to keep the day as stress-free for yourself as possible.

Cake Topper

Now this one is just ah-dorable.

If you want to include your puppies in your wedding without actually having them be IN your wedding, then you can do something like a cake topper.

There are tons of different cake topper options. From things like *couples silhouettes with dogs on the side* to dogs as the “people” on top of the cake.

One thing that I really like about this cake topper as well as how it can be a very subtle way of including your dogs in the wedding and adding a touch of animals, without going overboard. This is actually one of the things I am most likely going to do with my wedding cake.

It allows me to showcase my love of animals, without taking away from the celebration being about the two of us.

You just want to make sure you have the right size, design, and look cake topper to go with the theme of your wedding.

Table Names

Table Names.

This was one that I was actually just recently told about and thought it was a GENIUS idea.

These two were both huge dog lovers, and their families were big animal lovers. In fact, pretty much everyone in their family had a least one dog.

So, what they did was actually have dog family members be the “table names”. So they would have a picture of one of the dogs with a sign on them, and that would be the corresponding tables name. For example, my friend has a dog named ‘Milo’. So they took a picture of Milo holding a number (let’s just say 11 for an example).

When people came in, there was a chart that said they were at the Milo Table, or table 11.

How cute is that?!

It is such a unique way to bring animals into a wedding, without having them be in the wedding.

This idea then got me thinking. What if you don’t have a large family? Or there are not a lot of dogs in the family but you still want to showcase dogs as table names?

There are a lot of options!

You can do different breeds as table names, or famous dogs, or even  “dog memes”. You could make your tables as uniquely dog related as you want!

Invitations

One very simple and easy way to incorporate dogs into your wedding is to have them be part of the invitations.

You can have anywhere from a picture with you and your puppy, or a puppy picture on the invitation.

If you are getting a lot of push-back from your significant other about bringing your dog into the wedding, this is usually a good one that will help with a compromise.

It is small enough to not upset your significant other, but still, allow the puppy to be part of your day.

And even better for your significant other, it is sent out prior to the wedding, so it will not be seen on the actual wedding day.

Guest Book

This is one I had never thought of until I got engaged. But a very fun thing you can do is add your dog to your guest book theme.

It can be anywhere from a sign with your puppy on it, or even a puppy-shaped guestbook, there are so many ways to incorporate dogs into a guest book.

This is an awesome option because, as some of the others, it is fairly small. But, it is hopefully something that everyone will see, and something you will be able to keep long after your wedding day is gone.

This is also something that is usually small enough that a significant other, who isn’t huge on animals, would be willing to let into the wedding day event.

Props for Photo Booth

This one is a simple as it sounds.

If you are having a photo booth at your wedding, then you can add something personalized for your prop.

Whether it be a cut-out of you and your puppy, or even just a giant printout of your puppy.

I believe this can be done at a fairly decent price, especially if you decide to do this yourself. All you would need is a company that does large printouts, and a cute picture of your puppy.

And this is something guests will likely get a big kick out of, without possibly taking away from the original wedding theme.

Doggie Cookies

If you are wanting to do something a little different from the typical bride and groom, you can add a little something special to your treats.

There are some weddings that instead of cakes they will do cookies or other form of dessert. In fact, there was one wedding who had a cookie only table.

And one of the cookies on the table was actually a cartoon version of their puppy. How cute right?!  This is a great option if you are not wanting to do a traditional cake and bring your personalities to life.

The thing to take into consideration when getting a customized cookie spread is the price.

I would imagine a cartoon version of your puppy would cost a little more than a simple chocolate chip cookie, but you have a baker who is willing to do that in your price range, even better!

The Cake

The cake can be seen familiar similarly to the cookies.

Because like the cookies, if you don’t want to have just a traditional cake, you can add cute little things to make your cake elegant, yet animal themed.

There some people I have seen couples who will have little dog paws walking up and down their cake, while others will have a little fondant dog peeking out of the cake.

This takes a very uniform cake and adds a personal touch without going completely overboard. In fact, for my wedding, I want my cake to look like a completely traditional wedding cake on the front.

But on the back, I want a few fondant animals “sleeping” on the cake and having taking bites out of it.

I think that is just so unique! It allows for a still beautiful cake in the front, with a very fun spin on the back.

Dog Jewelry

If your significant other is very against dogs being in your wedding AT ALL, there are still ways in which you can “sneak” them in.

And no, I don’t mean physically sneaking your puppy into the wedding.

(Although, if that’s what you want to do, go for it).

No, I mean you can have pieces that are important to you that remind you of your dog, that may not even be known to the other guests. Like Dog Themed Jewelry.

I have seen a few people who will have little dog earrings on their wedding day, or a locket with a picture of their dog around their neck. With animals growing in popularity, jewelry stores are beginning to make more and more dog-related jewelry.

This is so unique because it is something that can be special only to you if you want.

I always liked the locket idea because it keeps the thing you love close to your heart, physically. So, if you can’t have your puppy there with you on your big day, they can at least be close to your heart.

Thank You Notes

Finally, like invitations, you can always incorporate puppies into your Thank You notes.

There are so many cute Thank You notes that exist, finding your perfect puppy version should be a walk in the park. (See what I did there).

And like invitations, these are things that you can incorporate into your wedding without taking away from your big day.

‘Thank You’ notes are usually more relaxed than the other events for a wedding, so you can a humorous spin on the tradition notes.

You can add a picture of your puppy, or even just a funny dog to these ‘Thank You’ notes.

What Do You Do With Your Dog At A Wedding?

There are so many ways in which you can incorporate dogs into your special day.

Even more than those listed above.

The biggest thing to take into consideration when bringing your puppy into your wedding is to do your research before.

Make sure you talk to your significant other and even family members to see what they expect from the day so you can plan for that.

And even if there is a lot of pushback on bringing animals into your wedding, there are still a large number of ways that you can slide them into the wedding without taking away from anyone else’s experience.

Dogs are so amazing, bringing them into your wedding one way or another, should only increase the amazing-ness of your day.

“‘Readers! Did you incorporate your dog into your wedding?! Did you do any of the ways above, or something else?! Let me know below!”

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